Written in 56 minutes. I knew I wouldn’t get to a better stopping point in 4 minutes, and I didn’t wanna go ever.

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Rose Lawn: Visitor’s Lounge

Jason shifted in his seat and fought the urge to get up and pace the length of the small room tucked in the corner of the private mental health clinic Sonny had checked himself into a few days earlier.

He sat up straight at the sound of a doorknob twisting, and then Sonny was coming through the doorway.

His coal-black hair was hanging in curls over his forehead, his eyes were rimmed with red, and his expression was creased with fatigue, but there was a lucidity that Jason hadn’t seen in days. Maybe weeks.

Jason exhaled slowly, rose to his feet. “Hey. Uh, how—how are you feeling?”

Sonny smiled faintly, but there was no humor or real warmth in his eyes. Just exhaustion. He came forward, not with his usual swagger but an almost hesitant step. He stopped when he reached the table, put his hand on the back of the chair, but didn’t sit down.

“Like I’ve been run over by a few of our trucks. Thanks. For coming.”

“Yeah. The doctor—I mean they said you asked for me.” Jason sat down, keeping his eyes on Sonny, the pressure on his chest easing when Sonny followed suit, sliding into the chair across from him.

“Yeah. Uh. They…they gave me something. I don’t really know. It’s all—” Sonny squinted. “Everything is moving slowly, you know? Like I’m trying to walk through water. But—” He cleared his throat. “But I can think. The doctor—they said I won’t—it’s going to time before I feel normal. Or anything close to it.”

“Do…do they know what—” Jason didn’t know how to ask the question. Was Sonny still crazy? Was it just a psychotic break or something else? What were they dealing with?

And did Jason really care? Was he obligated to care? Sonny had put Carly and Elizabeth in the hospital, jeopardized the life of two unborn children—and he’d refused until the bitter end to do anything to help himself. What did Jason owe to him? Friendship? Was there any of that left?

“They don’t know if it’s — they got theories, I mean. But there’s tests. And tests. And more. But I’m—I’m staying,” Sonny offered. He looked down at his clasped hands. “To find out. To know for sure. And maybe just…just to rest.” He looked away, out the window that overlooked the lawn and drive leading to the highway. “I don’t remember a lot about those last few weeks. It’s all in flashes. But I don’t like what I can remember. I don’t know how much of it was real. Or what was my mind lying to me.”

Sonny looked back at Jason, and now his dark eyes were damp. “I remember you. Coming to see me. Because Carly—she was scared. She left me. Had to go, didn’t she?”

“Yeah.” Jason met Sonny’s troubled eyes, keeping his gaze steady. “Do you remember why?”

“I—I hurt her. Shook her.” Sonny pressed his lips together. “A-and there’s—did I hurt Elizabeth?”

“I don’t know, Sonny. What do you remember?” Jason asked. He leaned forward. “Do you remember Elizabeth?”

“I—the courtyard. That’s what you want to know.” Sonny closed his eyes. “Because Carly and Elizabeth were shot. The doctor told me. Someone shot them.”

“Someone?” Jason echoed. “So you don’t—”

“I—there are—” Sonny gestured at his temple. “There are flashes. I-I was there. And there was—” He spread his hands in front of him, palms up. “There’s blood. But I don’t think that’s real. I think maybe I just—I just think I see blood.” He squinted back at Jason. “I went to Kelly’s. Looking for you, for Carly, hell, maybe Elizabeth,” he muttered. “I don’t know. I was just looking. And I saw him, walking towards my wife, and I just—he was going to hurt her.” Sonny closed his eyes. “But that was me. I did that.”

“Yeah.”

“And Elizabeth.”

“Yeah.”

“I don’t—I don’t know how that happened. I don’t know what made me—” Sonny dragged a hand down his mouth. “I don’t know why any of it happened. Or why you’d even come to see me. Yeah, I asked, but you came. After I did that.”

Jason clasped his hands loosely in front of him. “Did you aim the gun at Carly’s head and pull the trigger?”

“No!” Sonny’s eyes widened, his nostrils flared. “No!”

“Did you try to hurt Elizabeth because of who she is to me? Because Courtney told you I left her?”

“Christ. Jesus. No. No. I wouldn’t—” Sonny closed his eyes. “But I did that. Not the why. But the fact of it. I hurt them both. I can’t—how do—” He shook his head. “How do I live with that?”

“I don’t know. And I don’t know what it looks like when you leave here,” Jason told him. He hesitated. “How much of what’s been going on do you know?”

“The doctor’s been telling me what I need to know. Or maybe what I can handle. You got arrested for what I did. Fucking Baldwin,” Sonny muttered, sounding for just a moment like his old self. “They said Elizabeth was okay. That’d she be okay. And Carly. She woke up.”

“Yeah. Elizabeth is home,” Jason told him. Waited a beat. “She can’t move her hand, Sonny. And Tony won’t make any promises about getting that back.”

Some of the color leeched from Sonny’s face. “Her—” He looked down at his palm. “Not her—God, not the hand that she—”

“Yeah. I’m not telling you that to make you feel worse,” Jason said, and Sonny looked back at him. “I’m telling you because you need to stay here. You need to stay until the doctors say you’re okay. I can’t—I can’t help you anymore. I should have done this a long time ago, Sonny, but I didn’t. I’m sorry for that. For letting this happen. But I can’t do it again. Carly and Michael, they can’t go through it again.”

“The baby?” Sonny asked, almost on a rasp.

“He’s okay. They didn’t have to deliver. Carly will be able to carry to term.” Jason paused again. “And Elizabeth didn’t miscarry, though the risk is still there.”

“Elizabeth—” Sonny closed his eyes. “She’s pregnant.”

“Yes. Six—seven,” Jason corrected, almost softly. “Seven weeks. We just found out.”

“We.” Sonny rubbed his mouth, absorbed that, then nodded. “That’s—that’s good. That she’s okay. That you’re—that you’ve got that. I know there’s—I know there’s all the rest of it. But you—you deserve this. A good life. A good woman. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”

“I know you are.” Jason pushed away from the table. “And I’ll come back to see you. But you have to promise me, Sonny, you’re staying here until someone who knows what they’re talking about say it’s okay.”

“Yeah. Yeah. I’m not going anywhere.”

General Hospital: Carly’s Room

“I won’t take much of your time,” Mac said, taking a seat at Carly’s side. “Bobbie says you’re still getting tired easily.”

“Getting…shot…in the…head will do that,” Carly said. She leaned back against the pillow, its case nearly the same shade as her skin. “Can’t…tell you much. Don’t remember.”

“Mac won’t press for details. Not yet,” Bobbie said, flashing Mac a warning glare. “And you don’t need them.”

“No. No, I just need you to tell me what you can. My first priority is you,” Mac said. “You were in the courtyard that night. Did Ric show up before or after you?”

“After. I was…leaving.”

Mac scribbled something. “You came to talk to Elizabeth before closing?”

“Yes. Courtney—she—with Ric. Do…you…did you…talk…to her?”

“Ah, yes. Was she there?”

Carly’s forehead crinkled, her eyes squinting. “N-No. No. Just—just me. Elizabeth…Ric. We…wanted…him…to go. He…wouldn’t.”

Bobbie muttered something, folded her arms. Carly frowned, but kept going. “It’s….it…gets foggy. I don’t…know. There…was yelling…and I think…maybe…I heard Sonny. Was—Mama…Sonny, he was there? Where…is…he?”

“He’s getting help,” Bobbie told her, coming to the bed and taking her hand. “Jason got him into Rose Lawn. But you remember him that night?”

“Did….was he there? I hear…his voice. Screaming…and then…nothing.” Carly closed her eyes. “All…swirling…together. Ric. Sonny. Lorenzo.”

Mac’s eyes sharpened. “Alcazar?”

“Must…have thought…Venezuela…mixed up.” And then she’d drifted into sleep, her breathing slowing to an even pace.

Mac grimaced, and got to his feet. Bobbie followed him into the hallway, snagging his elbow. “Bobbie—”

“Her story matches Elizabeth’s—”

“Except for Sonny and Alcazar. Elizabeth doesn’t remember them, and she wasn’t hurt as badly,” Mac reminded her. “Carly might be confusing things with Venezuela. I know Sonny confessed to Jason, so that makes sense. We have no reason to believe Lorenzo was there that night—”

“Except Ric is gone and Courtney’s dead. And now there’s a chance Alcazar was at Kelly’s—”‘

“Bobbie—”

“No! No! I don’t want to hear you dismissing my daughter because of what happened. She remembers—” Bobbie stabbed a finger at Mac, poking him in the chest. “You ignored her kidnapping—”

“It was never reported to us, and no one would have cooperated even if we’d—”

“Stop that. Stop!” Bobbie’s eyes shimmered and Mac closed his mouth. “You had that report from Elizabeth. You knew what she saw. What she begged you to know. You had Michael’s statement. You knew what that scum did to my baby, and you didn’t deal with it. And now—”

“Don’t blame this on me—” Mac gestured back to Carly’s room. “I didn’t tell your daughter to stay with a mentally unstable lunatic or walk around without guards when she’d already been kidnapped—”

“How dare—”

“No, how about you give me a goddamn break, Bobbie,” Mac retorted and she scowled. “I had witnesses putting Jason as the shooter, and I held Baldwin off as long as I could before making that arrest. I kept investigating, okay? But your daughter just came out of a coma, and even she’s not sure what she saw that night. I don’t doubt Lorenzo Alcazar is mixed up in all of this, but so far I don’t have a lot to work with!”

“You—”

“Lorenzo Alcazar drops off the face of the planet almost a year ago. Just up and leaves his university post in the middle of the term, and goes no contact to everyone, including Luis’s sixteen-year-old daughter, who by the way, is still off at some ritzy boarding school. Then this guy shows up here in Port Charles, does nothing to show his hand until he snatches Carly out of the panic room before we can get to her? He does all of that, drags her back to Venezuela, then just lets her go? None of this adds up to anything I can charge—”

“Wait—wait—” Bobbie held up her hands. “What do you mean Lorenzo Alcazar dropped off the face of the planet? What does that mean?”

“Last November. Just before his brother took a flying—” Mac stopped, stared at her. “Before his brother took a flying leap off the balcony.”

“Lorenzo Alcazar, who everyone keeps telling me, was a mild-mannered university professor until three months ago? He left his life, and now he’s back, in his brother’s business? Holding Carly hostage on his brother’s property?”

“You have to be—” Mac whipped out his phone. “Please. Please don’t tell me that Lorenzo Alcazar is the one who went over the balcony—yeah, Scott? We might have a problem.”

Kelly’s: Courtyard

Elizabeth hesitated at the edge of the courtyard. None of the tables had been set up — they could probably still get another few weeks before the weather really turned, but it had already been closed down for the winter.

Even with the pale sunlight shining down, it didn’t take Elizabeth much to bring her back to that night. To the pain, the screaming, the confusing—

She closed her eyes, tried to finish the scene. Standing with Carly, arguing about who should stand behind who. Wishing Jason would hurry up and arrive, and then—screaming. Loud bangs. Pain exploding—

But the screaming? What was that? Who was that—

She jolted when fingers brushed her shoulder and her eyes flew open. She stumbled, turned, breathing a sigh of a relief until she saw who was standing there.

Mike.

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