POSSESSION :: CHAPTER NINE

Sonny kept knocking on the door waiting for answer. "Open this damn door!" He yelled loudly. He had just walked into his home and seen his wife and her son happily embracing the man he knew that had both loved. He had seen Michael recognizing Jason after so much time and he had seen the happiness it had brought Carly. Had he been fooling himself along? Had she ever loved him, or had it always been Jason? That wasn't a question Sonny Corinthos wanted to answer.

The door swung open. "What the hell is going on?" Alexis let out a noise of shock when she saw Sonny standing there and her hand immediately flew up to her robe to close the flaps. "Sonny?"

Sonny closed his eyes. "I've been there whenever you needed someone to talk to Alexis. Now I need someone to talk to. Please let me in." His eyes were full of hurt and confusion.

"Come in." Alexis said moving to allow him entrance. She eyed him as he dropped himself onto the couch. She walked over and sat next to him. "What did she do?"

Sonny looked at his hands and shook his head. "She didn't do anything. I just feel like I'm losing my life. Little by little. Day by day."

Alexis raised an eyebrow. "I don't understand."

"Before Carly and I got together, she had spent years loving Jason. I mocked it, I denied it, I didn't understand it, but I knew he loved her too. And I never got that. I didn't understand how Jason could be so devoted to someone who screwed up his life. But he was, completely."

"Are you saying you think that Jason is still in love with her?" Alexis asked cautiously.

Sonny ran a hand through his hair. "I don't know. You see Carly has a way of getting under your skin. She storms into your life and turns everything upside down. At first you hate it. You fight it. But then you wake up one day and you realize you couldn't imagine your life without it."

Alexis shook her head. She didn't understand for a moment what Sonny or Jason could possibly see in Carly. But whatever it was -- it had them hooked. "Are you talking about yourself? Or Jason?"

"I'm talking about Carly." He said quietly. "If I found her with another man and she moved on with him, I don't think I could ever get over that."

"So you think she and Jason are having an affair?" Alexis wouldn't put it past Carly but she would never believe that Jason would betray Sonny that way.

Sonny laughed humorlessly. "No I'm smarter than that. I'm just saying that if she ever left me, if we even ended it, I don't think I could ever really get her out of my system."

"Like Jason has?"

Sonny looked up at her for the first time. "Has he?" He questioned softly.

Jason and Carly were sitting on the couch together. He had his arm wrapped around her and she was resting her body against his. Michael was sleeping peacefully in their laps. Carly rested her head on Jason's shoulder and smiled as she felt his hand reach up and start stroking her hair.

Jason was staring down at Michael. "He's so beautiful." His voice was full of emotion. He couldn't understand how Michael had recognized him. How he had remembered him as his father after all this time. After AJ. After Sonny. Surely this was all a dream that he would wake up alone to.

Carly smiled proudly. "He's the most beautiful thing in the world." She reached down and gently touched his red hair. She felt so content in that moment, sitting there in Jason's arms with their son sleeping happily. She knew the moment wouldn't last, but she was content to have this dream if only for a few hours. To pretend that her plan had worked and she had brought Michael home to Jason and they were the family they had always wanted to be.

"He's the second most beautiful thing in the world." Jason said quietly. "After his mother."

Carly lifted her head in shock and looked at him. He was still watching Michael as if he didn't believe that any of this was actually happening. Now she was starting to wonder if she had dreamed this. When Jason kept staring down she turned her eyes back to Michael. "He's the only thing I've ever done that I can say I'm truly proud of."

Jason reached down and grabbed her hand which was resting in Michael's hair. He looked at their joined fingers thoughtfully. "He's the best of you Carly. The part of you that you don't ever see or believe in."

Carly felt tears of happiness start to brim in her eyes again. She had held off on telling Jason about the custody papers but she realized that she wanted to make him as happy as she was. "Jason, there's something I want to talk to you about."

He pulled his eyes off of Michael and looked at her. This was about Sonny. About how she loved him and wanted to pull herself away from him again. He leaned in and pressed his lips against her cheek. "Not now, Carly. I don't want to do anything that takes away from this miracle." He looked down at Michael again. "I just want to be here with you and Michael."

Carly nodded. She wasn't going to ruin this for Jason. She could wait to tell him. They had the rest of their lives didn't they?

They were quiet for a long time. "I just can't get over how he recognized me after such a long time. He was so small the last time I saw him."

Carly smiled. "He didn't recognize you Jason. I mean not your face." She paused and waited until he looked back up at her. "He didn't know who you were until' you spoke to him." She could tell by the look in Jason's eyes that he still didn't understand. "Think of it like this. You were there when I was pregnant with Michael. He heard your voice when he was inside of me. He heard your voice when he was in the hospital. He heard your voice everyday for the first year and a half of his life. He didn't know your face but he remembered the sound of your voice. The voice that used to explain things to him, read to him, talk to him all the time. He remembered the voice of the man who was the only father he has ever known."

Jason closed his eyes, trying to come up with something to say to her that could communicate properly what he was feeling. But he knew there was nothing he could say. No words could ever come close to expressing the happiness he was feeling. The peace from being with her and his son. "Thank you." He said simply.

Carly leaned in and rested her nose against his neck. She could see all the things he wasn't saying in his eyes. "Would you like to help me put him to bed?" She murmured against his neck. His scent was so intoxicating she hoped he agreed quickly before she started having thoughts that she shouldn't in front of Michael.

"Here," Alexis held out a mug of coffee to Sonny who was still sitting on her couch. "You can't refuse it. I used your beans." She said with a smile.

Sonny took the mug from her. "Thanks." He murmured as he took a drink. "Do you think I'm crazy? You know, being jealous of Jason?"

Alexis sat back down next to him and took a sip from her own mug. "No. I think you're being human. I think you're a man who loves his wife very much and is having a had time accepting her evident attachment to another man."

"But it's wrong, isn't it? Carly loved Jason for years before she ever met me. She raised her son with him in a way she was never let me do." Sonny felt guilty about doubting Jason and Carly's loyalty to him, but it was something he couldn't control. Not when he had seen them before, and not when he saw them now.

"You think Carly loved Jason more than she loves you now? That's what this all boils down to doesn't it?" Alexis curled her legs up under her. She could see the conflict in Sonny's face. The pain in his eyes.

Sonny was quiet. He knew that was what had been eating at him. "Carly loves me, I don't doubt that for a minute."

"But....?" Alexis prodded gently.

He looked up at her. "She's never looked at me the way she looked at Jason." There he said it. He had never seen the fire in Carly's eyes that was there every time she spoke of Jason. Every time she looked at him. It was as if her eyes had transformed into windows to her soul, a soul that didn't belong to him.

She reached over and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Maybe it's because she loved Jason differently than she loves you?" She wanted to take his pain away, to reassure him somehow.

"Maybe. My head keeps telling me that's what it is, but my heart is saying something different. There's this part of me - this tiny little voice - that's telling me it's because she loved him more."

Carly stood at the door of Michael's bedroom watching silently. Jason had carried him up the stairs and to his room without ever waking him. She watched as he placed their son gently into his crib, a feeling of completeness washing over her.

Jason stood there watching him for a moment. He bent over and kissed Michael's cheek softly. "Daddy loves you, Michael." His voice was strained by the emotions that were pulling at his heart. "Up to the sky and around the world." He whispered softly in his son's ear.

He heard Carly choke back a sob and looked at her. She was so beautiful, she took his breath away. He saw her brown eyes filling with tears and he walked over to her and took her hand into his. He lead her into the hallway and shut Michael's door softly. "Do you want me to tuck you in too?" He asked with a mischievous glint in his eye.

She smiled and wrapped her arms around his waist. "Only if you're tucking yourself in with me."

"Tempting offer..." He dipped his head and kissed her neck. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer to him. He moved his lips up her neck and began kissing his way up.

Carly's eyes shut and she moaned as she felt his hot breath against her skin. "Jason..." She said trying to find the words. The only thing that could make this evening more perfect was taking Jason to her bed and making love to him, but she knew she couldn't. Not when Sonny could arrive home any minute. "...we can't." She wanted him to take her anyway. To tell her he didn't give a damn about Sonny and to carry her to her room and pleasure her the way that only he could.

But he didn't. Jason pulled away from her abruptly. "Whatever you want, Carly." His voice was on the verge of anger. He wanted to lash out at her for turning him away. But he didn't want what had happened before to be ruined by this. "Good night Carly." He said softly then turned and walked to his room.

Carly fought the urge to follow him. But she knew she couldn't. "Whatever I want, Jason?" She said softly as she hesitated at her bedroom door. "I want you."

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