Risk

Chapter XXIII

Carly waits on the rise above the launch. As soon as Sonny jumps out of the boat to secure it to the docks she starts running toward him. She throws her arms around him practically knocking him off the dock. "Sonny!"

Sonny hugs her close. "Carly! Thank God you're okay." He brushes a trembling hand over her sunlightened hair. "You are okay? I can't believe Jason left you with that madman."

"Things were fine." Carly protests. "It wasn't Jason's fault."

"Where is Michael?"

"He's up at the house. I didn't know for sure who was coming in so I had him stay put. He's missed you so much."

Sonny kisses her firmly. "I missed him too. And you."

"Oh hell is freezing over somewhere." Carly laughs. She strings a hand thru Sonny's arm and starts walking toward the house.

"Come on. Let's go get Michael and get out of here." Sonny suggests.

"You go ahead. I know Michael's been missing his Uncle Sonny." Carly reaches over and gives Sonny a kiss on the cheek. "I've missed you."

"I missed you too. I've been such a fool. How could I think I could ever let you go?"

"Go see Michael. I'll be right there." Carly gives his hand a squeeze. Sonny nods and starts toward the plantation house. Carly waits until he is out of hearing distance to turn to Johnny. "Leave."

"Excuse me."

"Get back on the boat and leave. Go back to the Casino."

"Carly..."

"Sonny is staying."

"The Boss didn't say anything about that."

"Leave."

"Carly...."

"Go back to the casino. Call Jason for further instructions."

The realization hits Johnny of what Carly is up to. "You know what you're doing? The Boss is gonna freak."

"You should have thought of that before you and Benny started plotting to overthrow him." Carly says coldly. "Don't think that you will be able to do that with Jason. You cross Jason and he'll kill you."

"Carly, you don't know what it was like..." Johnny starts trying to plead his case. "Nobody could pull him out of the funk. Stuff started going down."

"Stuff is always going down." Carly brushes away Johnny's pleadings. "I forgot that for awhile. You should have been able to handle it. You and Benny both."

"We were handling it!" Johnny finally gets angry. "Francis covered a meeting for Sonny down in the city. A meeting Sonny should have been at. He got shot for his trouble. Sonny still hasn't noticed that he's gone. There are things that The Boss has to handle and he wasn't. Francis knew he was screwed going in. He wasn't high enough up the chain for the people down there... and if he had made it back to PC alive Sonny would have had him killed for overstepping but he had to try. Sonny won't let anyone help him. That's the difference between him and Jason."

"Well I'm handling it now." Carly claims. "Go. Go back to the Casino. Consider it a vacation. The same kind that Sonny is on... open ended. Sonny is safe here, and you have the boss you want back in Port Charles. There won't be another boat here for three weeks when the workers return. It'll be Jason's choice then if Sonny gets on the boat with the workers or not."

Johnny gets back on the boat. Carly unties the lines and tosses them up on the deck. "What about you?"

"I'll be fine. It takes awhile but I always land on my feet."

"Uncle Sonny! Uncle Sonny!" Michael who had been waiting on the porch comes running toward Sonny. Sonny catches him in mid air and swings him around.

"Hey Mr Man! How you doin'?"

"Mama said you'd come!" Sonny sets Michael back on his feet. Michael takes his hand and tugs him toward the house. "Come see."

"We should get your stuff and head back to the boat."

"Why?" Michael whines. "Mama said we'd be on vacation. That you'd show me how you make rum and what dis'illing is and what real sugar looks like."

"Your mom said you were on vacation?" Sonny says slowly.

"Yeah, and I'd get to visit with you before I have to go back to my tutor."

"Your tutor?" Sonny starts getting a really confused feeling. One that he hadn't had since last he lived with Carly.

"Yeah, he's fun but hard. I go to school for four hours every day even Saturday! But that's okay cause we study interesting stuff. Even on vacation and the tutor always goes with us. He's big." Michael holds his hands wide. "Like Max. But the tutor isn't here now cause Mama wanted it to just be us." Michael starts tugging on Sonny's arm toward the house. "Come see the book I made. It's all about the Dead Sea. Momma, me and Stavros were there. It's real salty. That's why it's dead. Stavros said I should make a book for Uncle Jason since he likes travel books. And we went to Masada, that's a big fortress. And me and Stavros went digging for artifacts but we left everything there for someone else to find too and just took pictures. Mama gave me a digital camera so I could put the pictures on the 'puter. And I got to steer the boat in Istanbul. We went all up and down the river. But it wasn't a fast boat like yours. It was a sail boat. I can swim now! Stavros taught me."

"It sounds like you like Stavros."

"Well yeah." Michael looks at Sonny kind of blankly. "He's fun. He lives on an island too. But it has beaches where you can make sandcastles and swim and go sailing."

"When were you doing all this?"

"In the morning when Mama is sleeping. We'd have breakfast together every day. He says I have to have manners." Michael bounces from one subject to another.

"Manners are good."

"That's why you always stand when a lady comes in the room. And you help them with their chair. And you always say please, thank you and May I. 'Cause Stavros says you can do lots of things that's about 'bility... may I mean per'mission. Like leaving the table and stuff. And you have to dress up for dinner cause it shows respect. He likes food too, like you. But he doesn't make it. His cook does that. She's really nice. Nicer than Graciella. She lets me help sometimes and I'm her favorite tester!" Michael puffs up a little in pride. "We made a special super sour sauce for shrimp just for me and Uncle Jason. Mama says it's too sour for her. So we made a sauce just for Mama too but Stavros likes that one too."

"What's your mama doing while you're doing all this?"

"Mama helps Stavros when I'm with the tutor. He doesn't know anything about 'puters. So she's teaching him. And they are figuring out who pur-loined stuff from Stavros. That means stealing. It's wrong to steal. Stavros is really mad about that." Michael looks up to Sonny for confirmation.

"Yes, it's wrong to steal." Sonny tells him automatically. What in the hell is going on. "Michael, what happened to your mama's hand?"

"She cut it on a piece of glass. It was really sharp. Mama says I should let adults clean up glass and not touch. Cook was really mean to her." Michael makes a stern face. "Told her if she did that again that she'd need stitches. Mama broke a lamp in Stavros study. And she broke a vase in her room. She didn't cut herself then. But you have to be very careful cause her hand still hurts."

"Were you there when your mama broke the lamp?" Sonny eases around his fears not wanting to scare Michael.

"Nope, it was just her and Stavros. Same thing with the vase. Stavros was kinda mad about the vase... cause it was Ming. That means it was really old. Mama says it was ugly. She's gonna buy him a pretty vase instead." Michael goes over to the coffee table in the living room of the house and picks up a slim leather bound book. "This is the book I made for Uncle Jason. You want to see?"

"Sure." Sonny sits down on the couch next to Michael. Michael hands him the book.

"See. These are all the pictures we took while we were at the Dead Sea. And I wrote all about what I saw. My tutor checked my spelling and stuff. We did it all on the computer and then when we were done printed it all out and Stavros took it to a bookmaker on the island. See..." Michael runs his fingers over the book where the title had been worked into the leather and then specially dyed. "...Michael's Adventures at the Dead Sea. You think Uncle Jason will like it?"

"Yeah. I think he will." Sonny flips through the pages. There are pictures of all of them: Stavros, Carly and Michael. At the Dead Sea, at Masada, in the caves where the dead sea scrolls were found. There are pictures of the scrolls. There is even a copy of the translated texts... something that Michael wouldn't have even been able to understand. The history of Masada as written by Michael. There is even a picture of Carly sound asleep with the covers half over her head captured in mid snore. "Where was this?"

Michael looks at the picture and giggles. "We were at Masada. Stavros had a big tent put up. It's called a yurt." Michael spreads his hands wide. "It was big. And you could put curtains down to make rooms inside the tent." Michael flips back a few pages so that there is a picture of the yurt being put up. "See Mama wanted me to be in the picture so everyone could tell how big it was. She made all kinds of faces about going camping but Stavros wanted to be right there at the mountain." Michael flips the page. "This is my tutor." Sonny can tell by the look of the guy and his eyes that this wasn't just a tutor but a bodyguard.

"Were is your mother?" Sonny looks up from the book. The sooner he got Carly and Michael out of here and away from Stavros the better.

"Right here." Carly says from the doorway. "Are you showing Uncle Sonny your book?" She comes over and kneels on the other side of the coffee table.

"Yeah, he thinks Uncle Jason will like it."

"Of course he will; it's beautiful, Mr Man." Carly nods. "You did a wonderful job putting the pictures with the words. Anyone who sees that book will want to go."

"Carly, we should get going." Sonny suggests.

"No." Carly takes the book and turns a page showing it to Michael. "It's safe here. We're staying. Nobody knows we're here. I sent Johnny away."

Sonny stiffens. "Michael, would you go get me a glass of water." Michael looks from one to the other. His final glance is to Carly who nods. Michael gets up and goes into the kitchen. "What did you do, Carly?"

"I sent Johnny away. Why didn't you sign the papers?" Carly changes the subject. "It was what you wanted. What you said you wanted."

"I'm not going to get into this with you when Michael is just in the next room." Sonny dodges.

"And I'm not going anywhere with you until I get some answers. And I probably won't go with you then. You wanna settle this. Then it's gonna get settled here."

"Why did you call me then?!" Sonny demands.

Carly's phone rings. Picking it up she switches it on. "Stavros Cassadine's line." Carly gets up from the floor and walks out onto the porch.

Michael comes back with Sonny's water. "Where's Mama?"

"The phone rang."

Michael winces. "Probably the lawyers. They always try to spoil our fun. Stavros gets impatient with them and Mama has to talk to them." Michael sighs figuring what is going to happen next. Sure enough there is a sound of a helicopter nearing. "Dang."

"What's going on?" Sonny wonders.

Carly walks back into the house. "Sorry Mr Man." She goes over and gives Michael a kiss on the top of the head. "It's a good thing you got to have a visit with Uncle Sonny."

"Do I have to go too?" Michael protests. "We just got here."

"You want to stay here with Uncle Sonny?"

"Yeah!!" Michael cheers.

"Okay. This shouldn't take long I should be back in time for breakfast. You guys have fun."

Sonny stands up to follow Carly back outside. "What the hell? What's going on?"

"It's business, Baby. I'll be back." Carly gives Sonny a big hug. "Everything is stocked up. See you in the morning." Carly gives him a smooch and then runs off toward the helicoptor sliding Sonny's cell phone into her purse along with her own.

"Are you mad?" Michael asks as he watches Sonny kicks out at one of the supports on the porch as Carly gets on the helicopter.

"I'm wondering what the he...ck is going on!" Sonny turns back toward Michael.

"I told you. It's probably the damn attorneys." Michael answers. "Mama always has to have meetings with them."

"Don't swear." Sonny says absently. He reaches for his cell phone to call Johnny to come pick him up. "Where is my phone?"

"I don't know." Michael adds helpfully. "You want me to help you look for it?" Michael rubs his stomach. "Uncle Sonny?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm hungry. Will you fix me spagetti?"

"Your timing sucks." Carly says into the headset to the pilot.

"The Prince is ready for the next phase." The tutor replies.

"Yeah, well this had better be good cause I'm going to have even more explaining to do when I get back to the island. Where are you going to set us down?"

"The Prince has moved the yacht within reach of the island. I will have a launch waiting at a the moorage to go out to the yacht. All you have to do is get Mr Jacks to the launch. I will drop you off at the nearest town to where Mr Jacks is lodged. How will you gain Mr Jack's cooperation?"

"Have you ever heard the story of the tarbaby? Uncle Remus? Briar Rabbit? They aren't too politically correct but..." The tutor looks over at Carly blankly. Carly sighs. "You gotta get out more. I'll loan you Michael's book."