a fanfic by SonnyandAlexisGal
Chapter Sixteen
But Alexis is – and she will continue to worry until she can once again look into the sensitive brown eyes that she knows so well.
This is the third time that she has found herself standing in that same spot, having been chased away two times before by hospital personnel. But she can’t help herself. She has to be near Sonny – just in case he should need her.
Alexis looks to her right and then to her left, making sure that no one is heading in her direction. Then she takes first one step and then another into the room and over to Sonny’s bed.
She quietly pulls a chair over to the side of the bed and sits – never taking her eyes off him.
She hates seeing Sonny this way – quiet and vulnerable. This isn’t the Sonny Corinthos that she knows. This isn’t the Sonny Corinthos who is the thorn in Mac Scorpio’s and Detective Taggart’s respective sides. This isn’t the man who went from being a little boy locked in a closet to being one of the most powerful businessmen on the eastern seaboard. This isn’t the man who arrogantly sat himself down at her table and introduced himself.
This isn’t the man who quietly and completely – over a period of years - stripped away all of her defenses until she found herself loving him more than she ever thought she could.
Alexis sits in that chair and stares at the Sonny that she sees before her.
“This is getting to be a really bad habit with you – this almost dying thing that you seem to do every couple of years or so…” she quietly comments. “Why are you always so stubborn? Mike says that you wouldn’t protect yourself. Yes – Mike – who happens to be your father, remember? He’s worried about you. Carly’s worried about you. My God, even Kristina stayed here with me for hours, waiting for you to come out of surgery. As a matter of fact, I was only able to get her to go home to get some rest after Mike promised to look after me while she was gone…Is this what you wanted – for me to sit here, worrying myself to death about you? Is this your way of getting back at me for moving out of the penthouse? Why didn’t you simply say ‘don’t move out, Alexis’? This was a little over the top, don’t you think? I mean this anxiety has to be much worse for our baby than the caffeine that you and Kristina wouldn’t let me drink all these months…”
She stares at the handsome face with the dark stubble. She notices that his dark hair is a little mussed. She looks up at the intravenous drip that is connected to Sonny’s arm and sees it dripping at a regular interval. She hears the beeps and stares at the heart monitor that reports his pulse at a rate that alternates between 68 and 72 beats per minute.
But he is so horribly still.
“You know,” Alexis begins, “you’re really going to have to open your eyes, Sonny. I can’t sit here having this conversation with you if you’re not going to contribute your customarily condescending and arrogant commentary…”
She stares at him for a moment.
“Open your eyes, Sonny!” she suddenly demands. “You have to open your eyes…”
Alexis feels the sob coming and quickly puts her hand over her mouth and squeezes her eyes shut to try to hold it off. She manages to take a deep breath and exhales as she settles herself.
“I’m sorry…” she whispers as she wipes her eyes. “I know how much you hate seeing women cry…”
She feels a hand on her shoulder that startles her.
“Alexis,” Bobbie says quietly, “you really shouldn’t be here…”
“Oh, hi Bobbie,” Alexis manages. “I know. I just…I…need to be here with him – when he wakes up. I won’t disturb anything or get in the way or anything. I promise. Can I please…” She feels herself about to break down again. “Can I please stay with him? Please?”
Bobbie gently rubs her shoulder until she can calm down.
“Please, Bobbie…” she manages.
“Alright,” Bobbie says. “You can stay, Alexis.”
“Thank you,” Alexis says. “Thank you…”
Alexis watches intently as Bobbie checks Sonny’s pulse and then writes something on the chart that hangs off the end of his bed. She watches as Bobbie checks the intravenous drip and then makes another notation on Sonny’s chart. Then she watches as Bobbie takes the digital thermometer, briefly sticks the tip into Sonny’s ear and then, when it beeps, takes it back out, reads whatever it says, and then makes another notation on Sonny’s chart.
“How is he?” Alexis asks.
“Vital signs are good,” Bobbie answers as she scribbles. “No sign of infection…”
“That’s good, right?”
“It’s good,” Bobbie answers. “He’s stable.”
“He’s stable,” Alexis repeats absently. “Good…”
Bobbie returns his chart to the foot of his bed and moves onto another patient in the recovery room as Alexis concentrates on Sonny.
She watches the gradual up and down of his bandaged chest as he breathes in and out and in and out. She looks up again and again, hoping to see some sign of him coming around, hoping to see some sign of those dimples flashing.
But there are no signs – not yet.
“I’m right here, Sonny,” Alexis whispers as she touches his hand. “And I’m not going anywhere…”
Mike stands at the door, silently watching from a safe distance. He’s glad that Alexis is at Sonny’s side. He knows how much having her there means to him.
You made it, Michael, Mike’s mind tells Sonny. You’ve come this far. You have to come the rest of the way now…
A movement to his right catches his eye and he turns to see Carly standing next to him.
There are tears in her eyes as she looks in at Sonny looking so helpless and Alexis seated next to his bed.
She starts into the room but Mike grabs her arm.
“Let go of me, Mike,” Carly insists. “I have to be with him…”
“Alexis is with him, Carly.”
“But she doesn’t belong there! She’s the one who put him here. She’s the one who almost took Michael’s father away. She almost got him killed…”
“Carly,” Mike begins as calmly as possible, “like it or not…Alexis is the person that Sonny would want to see when he wakes up. Not you and not me…He loves her, Carly. Now you’re going to have to accept that – once and for all…”
Carly looks at Mike, hearing his words play in her head again and again – ‘he loves her’...
She turns to look at Sonny, the sight of him in that bed breaking her heart.
“I love him, Mike…”
“I know, honey,” he says. “But you’re going to have to let him go…”
A tear makes its way onto her cheek as she watches Alexis doing everything that she herself would be doing if only Sonny wanted her to.
“You’ll…call me when he wakes up, right?” Carly manages.
Mike lets go of her arm.
“I’ll call you,” he says quietly.
Carly quickly turns away and walks down the hall. As she makes it around the corner, on her way to the staircase, even more tears escape.
But Mike is right and she knows it.
He loves her, he’d said.
It hurts as nothing else ever has – especially after everything that has happened.
But Carly knows that she has to do it – she has to let go of Sonny.
Once and for all