Chapter 42

Her whole body trembled as the coffee cup shattered unnoticed on the floor;
excitement battled with fear, Brenda Corinthos, that was a name she hadn’t
heard in a long time.  It was something that she had wanted for so long, a
name that only lasted for two idealic days in her entire life, after that had
come name after name after name, and no matter how hard she wished and hoped
she could live in that world again she knew she couldn’t, she was no longer
the same person, but there was something else she needs to ask herself, could
she keep on lying?  She looked over at Jake who hadn’t taken his eyes off her,
forced a smile, and gave it a shot.

B - "Jake what are you talking about?"
Jake - "Can the act Brie, or should I call you Brenda.".
B - She was quiet once again mulling over the fact that something that had
meant so much to her now sounded so foreign, so phony; kinda like her.  She
sighed and gave up.  "How did you find out?"
Jake - "I was worried about you, I thought someone was after you, so I got
your prints."
B - "The glass." She whispers as the obvious dawns on her.
Jake - "What?"
B - "The glass from the kitchen."
Jake - "Yeah, I pulled your prints from it and wired them to a few friends
overseas, then got a friend to run them here."
B - "I’m sorry Jake, sorry for worrying you, sorry for lying.  I’m sorry for
everything." She finishes quietly.
Jake - "Your SORRY for lying to ME?  What about your husband Brie, Brenda," he
corrects himself "you’ve lied to him and your lying to your ch…"
B - "I LIED to HIM?" she says bitterly after she interrupts, anger sparks in
her eyes and her voice steadily rises.  "One week, for one week I have lied to
him.  One week doesn’t begin to equal the five years I have lost of my life.
I left everything for him, everything, my home, my career, my friends, and
what little family I had, then when I couldn’t be the wife he wanted he left
me, or are you forgetting that small detail!  He left me!  So if you think for
one moment I am going to feel bad or guilty about lying to him for five measly
day, then your sadly mistaken." She finishes with a glare.
Luke - "Uh, is everything okay in here?" he asks sticking his head around the
corner after her raised voice roused him from his office.
B - "Fine!" she snaps back not taking her eyes from Jake’s stunned face.
Luke - He hesitates looking back and forth between the two.  "You guys need
anything before I leave?" neither answer him.  "Okay see ya later, just flip
the lights off before you leave." Still neither respond so he shakes his head
and walks out the back door muttering to himself.
B - "Well I’m outta here, I’ve got some packing to do." She tells him standing
up and straightening her wrinkled dress.
Jake - "Packing?" he says numbly still trying to come to terms with her
outburst.
B - "Yeah, I told you before I can’t stay in this town."
Jake - "Your leaving?"
B - "Yep." She says bending down to pick up her shoes.
Jake - "You can’t!"
B - "Watch me." She tells him before walking towards the stairs.
Jake - "Brie you still love him, I know you do." His last statement stops her
in her tracks  "You told me yourself." He says softly.
B - "Don’t you ever, EVER, use what I told you that night against me - ever!"
she says angrily.  "Sonny Corinthos will always hold a piece of my heart -
maybe my whole heart, but I will never, ever, forgive him for walking out on
me." She says softly, calmly, with tears shining in her eyes before she turns
back to the stairs but Jake’s next comment stops her once again.
Jake - "He thinks your dead."

Chapter 43

B - "He what?" she asks sitting down hard on the steps.
Jake - "He thinks your dead." He repeats.
B - "No, no he doesn’t." she says slowly shaking her head in denial.
Jake - "Yes he does." He tells her gently trying to convince her of the truth.
B - "That’s impossible." She says looking up at him her eyes wide with shock.
Jake - "Would I lie to you?  Your my friend, my sister," he tells her with a
gentle smile, "plus I know Sonny and he wouldn’t lie about that."
B - Her shoulders straighten and she stands up stiffly, "Yeah, well I KNEW
Sonny too and look what it got me." She shot back gesturing to herself.
Jake - "Brie…"
B - "End of discussion, I’m outta here." She says swinging around and rushing
up the stairs towards the apartment.  She flew by a startled Gage who was
still on the phone and into her room where she slammed the door.  Gage looked
towards the door as he heard more footsteps and saw Jake standing in the
doorway looking both confused and frustrated.
G - "What’s going on."
Jake - "Nothing." He snapped while he stomped past him towards her room.

Later that night there was a knock on the front door.

G - "Jason?"
J - "Hi, I’m looking for Jake, is he here?"
G - He points towards the back of the apartment "Go on back."  Jason gives him
a strange look but proceeds towards the bedrooms.  In the hallway he looks
right then left, Jake was sitting on the floor leaning against a door, his
head back and eyes closed.
Jake - "What are you doing here?" he asks not even opening his eyes.
J - "How’d you know it was me?"
Jake - "I heard Gage answer the door." He says finally opening his eyes and
tilting his head back to look at him.  "Have a seat." He says waving at the
opposite wall.
J - He gives him a quizzical look but slides down the wall and sits across
from him, they sit silently for a few minutes before Jason decides break it,
"Wanna let me in on what’s going on?"  Jake doesn’t answer.  "Last time I
talked to you, she was missing in action, then a few hours later I get a call
from Luke who tells me you two were fighting in the club, now your camped out
on her doorstep." He finishes but still Jake refuses to answer "Jake come on,
I’m your friend, let me help."
Jake - "You can’t, she’s my friend." he tells him quietly.  "Can you
understand that, and let it go for now, please."
J - He thought for a moment "Does this have something to do with who she
really is?"  Jake looks back at him but remains silent, "It does doesn’t it."
The door swings inward catching Jake unaware and causing him to fall back and
into the room, but he catches himself just in time.
B - "Did I miss the tea party?" she asks them both sarcastically. 
J - He looked beyond her into the neat room, two duffel bags sat on the bed
and the closet doors stood open revealing a row of empty hangers.  "Going
somewhere?" He asks lifting himself up and off the floor, she ignores him and
looks down at Jake who is still seated at her feet.
B - "Get out of my way."
Jake - He gets up slowly and turns to face her "Running Brie?"
B - She straitened her shoulders and looked into his eyes, "It’s kept me alive
hasn’t it?"
Jake - "But how alive is that?" he whispers so only she could hear.
B - "Get out." She repeats.
J - "What is going on here?"
B - She looks over at Jake waiting for him to give away her secret but he just
stands there watching her so she answers Jason.  "I’m leaving."
J & Jake - "No your not!"  they both answer, she ignores them and walks back
into her room to grab her bags from the bed.
Jake - He turns to Jason "Jason you have to let me handle this."  Jason looks
at him, then Brie, before finally nodding his head, Jake doesn’t let him say
anything else before he steps into the room and closes the door behind him,
leaving Jason alone in the hallway where he just stands and looks at the door
for a few seconds then turns and walks down the hall pausing briefly to look
back over his shoulder before continuing on.
B - She stiffened at the side of the bed when she heard the door close behind
her, then turned around slowly.  "Jake I don’t want to fight with you
anymore."
Jake - "Then don’t."
B - "Please leave."
Jake - "No until we talk."
B - "I don’t want to talk anymore, I just need to leave."  She says in a
defeated voice.
Jake - "Okay, I’ll leave, if you promise me something."
B - "What?" she asks eyeing him suspiciously.
Jake - "Give me a day, one day, you don’t even have to work, hell you don’t
even have to leave this house."
B - "One day?  Then I can just leave."
Jake - "I’ll clear it with Derek."
B - "One condition," She says firmly "you don’t tell anyone about me."
Jake - He thinks for a moment then slowly nods his head "All right."
B - "Fine, I’ll see you tomorrow night."
Jake - "Promise?"
B - "I promise."  He watched her for a moment then slowly walked out of the
room, she sank down on the bed, shaking and wondered what the hell she was
going to do now.

Chapter 44

She couldn’t sleep.  Rolling over she checked the glowing red lights of the
alarm clock, 3:43 seventeen minutes since the last time she’d looked, this
night was never going to end.  All she wanted to do was to get out of this
town but she had promised a friend, maybe her only friend, that she wouldn’t.
She just hoped she’d made the right decision.  Rolling back over she punched
her pillow then reached to grab another, hugging it tightly against her chest,
she was asleep before the clock dial rolled to 3:44.

Sonny slept in his bed, the huge skylights carved into the high vaulted
ceiling casting moonlight on his dark features, he was not sleeping
peacefully, he was caught up in a dream - or a nightmare.

He bolted upright in bed, jolted from the dream, or more accurately from the
past.  His past.  His ears rang with foreign words, Italian, repeating over
and over and over again… "I’m sorry Mr. Corinthos your wife didn’t make it …
I’m sorry … Your wife …. Corinthos … didn’t make it … didn’t make it ….
Corinthos your wife didn’t make it."  He shook his head and tried to clear the
voice but it continued to ring behind his eyes, in his head, in his mind.  He
quietly go up from bed and made his way downstairs passing a clock as he went
3:44, great he thought and gave up on sleep for the night.  

He entered the kitchen and headed straight for the coffee pot which he flicked
on and listened to it sputter and gurgle until it was done before pouring
himself a cup and sitting down on a stool his head in his hands.  The voice
still rang in his head, it refused to go away, it was like that sometimes,
making him relive that night over and over again, reminding him of what he’d
lost.  He snorted at the thought, right like he needed reminding of that, he
felt the absence in his heart, his soul, his life every single day.  Lately he
thought that some of the pain was finally fading and that he was starting to
feel again, but now the dream and the voice were back.

J - "Sonny?"  he said surprised as he padded in his bare feet into the kitchen
wearing nothing but a pair of faded blue jeans, looking rumpled and half
asleep.
S - He looked up and over his shoulder lifting his cup in greeting.  "Want
some?"
J - "Sure." He replied and made his way over to the pot, Sonny took a sip of
his and choked on it, it was cold.  He looked over at the clock, it was 4:30,
he had been sitting there in the dark for almost an hour.  He rose and walked
to the sink pouring the dark liquid down it. 
S - "Why are you up so early?"
J - "Couldn’t sleep."
S - "Hmm, why not?"
J - "I don’t know."
S - "Does it have anything to do with why your disappeared act yesterday?"
J - "Partly." He answers vaguely.
S - "Where’d you go?"
J - "Luke’s."
S - He raises his eyebrows "It was closed yesterday."
J - "He called.  Jake and Brie were fighting so I went to see what was going
on."
S - "Fighting?"
J - "Yea."
S - "Serious?"
J - "Luke said Brie was yelling at Jake."  He paused  "She was really angry."
S - "What about?"
J - "I don’t know they both clamed up when I got there, but she was packing."
S - "She leaving?"
J - "I left Jake to iron it out, he said he’d handle it."
S - "Hmm." He says sitting back down and nursing his coffee, both of them fell
silent, both thinking about Brie and Jake.
J - A few minutes later he broke the silence.  "You having those dreams
again?"  Sonny nods  "Wanna tell me about it?"  Sonny is quiet for a moment
then sets down his mug and begins talking.
S - "It’s about Brenda."  He tells him with a sigh.
J - "I figured as much."  He says watching him intently.  Ever since Sonny had
come back to Port Charles these dreams had been a part of his life, but never
before had he wanted to talk about them.
S - "It’s about when she died."  Jason remains silent and allows him to
continue.  "It, the dream, just plays over and over like a tape looping in my
mind.  I hear her scream and someone is holding me back, they won’t let me go,
I can’t get to her.  Then the doctor comes out with the whole I am sorry Mr.
Corinthos spiel and tells me she’s dead.  It just rings in my ears, over and
over, then I see her lying so still, pale and motionless, on that white sheet
littered with blood, and the doctors words keep repeating in my mind."
Silence fills the kitchen as his low voice trails off, the image of her still
hovering in his mind.
J - "Sonny?" he says his voice breaking through the heavy silence and into
Sonny’s thoughts.  Sonny looks at him, "Tell me what the doctor said,
exactly."
S - He looks at him strangely but repeats the words he hears so often in his
dreams.  "‘I am sorry Mr. Corinthos your wife didn’t make it’, after that
everything is kind of a blur."
J - "Are you sure?"
S - "Yes Jason, I’m sure." He answers simply but painfully.
J - "How did he know your name was Corinthos?"
S - "What?"
J - "How did he know your name, think about it, you and Brenda were using
aliases so how did he know your name was Corinthos?"
S - "Oh god," He says sitting up straighter "we were using Carruthers, it’s so
close I didn’t even notice the difference." He looks over at Jason with
haunted eyes.  "Jason someone killed her, someone killed my wife."

Chapter 45

Brie stretched, surprised she’d actual fallen asleep, then rolled over and
cracked an eye to look at her alarm clock, 12:01!  She jerked upright and
checked her wristwatch, yep it was just after noon, she hadn’t slept this late
in a very long time.  She swung her feet off the bed then quickly jerked them
back as they hit the cold floor, then dug through the covers searching for the
socks that were buried somewhere.  Finally locating them she yanked them on
and crawled out of bed, padding into the kitchen in search of coffee.

An hour later she still stood around in her night clothes, wondering what she
was going to do until Jake showed up tonight and in effect freed her from Port
Charles.  She walked to the TV and flipped in on then off, next was the stereo
but her hand hesitated on the dial not wanting to turn in on only to be
swamped with memories of happier times, times when listening to music here
meant listening to something that she was very much a part of.  She shook her
head and dropped her hand trying to shake off the memories and pull herself
together.  She walked to the windows and stood looking out across the city,
this wasn’t exactly the best part of town but it had come a long way since
they’d first lived here, from when Luke’s was the Paradise, most of the
buildings on the block had undergone a face lift and the neighborhood was
becoming rather eclectic.  Luke’s fit right in.  She heard the door behind her
open but didn’t turn around to see who entered.

B - "Your early Jake."
S - "It’s not Jake."  She sung around sloshing cold coffee over the rim of the
mug and onto her T-shirt.
B - "Ever heard of knocking?" she replied tersely.
S - "Sorry." He shrugged and walked further into the room.  "I heard a rumor
you were leaving."
B - "Well you know what they saw about rumors."
S - "No what?"
B - "Sooner or later they come true."
S - "That’s a pity."
B - "What are you doing here?" She asked icily.
S - "I guess the same thing you are, looking for Jake."
B - "He’s not here."  
S - "I can see that." He told her walking around the couch.  "Nice outfit." He
says referring to the white men’s T-shirt with a deep V at the neck that was
only long enough to barely cover the tops of her thighs and the socks that had
fallen and were bunched down around her ankles.
B - "Well I wasn’t expecting company." She replied coolly.
S - "Sorry."  He said not sounding sorry at all.
B - "You already said that."
S - "So I did."
B - "Well as I said Jake isn’t here and I don’t expect him until later."
S - "Maybe I’ll wait." He says giving her a smile, turning around to sit down
on the couch, his back to her.
B - "He won’t be here for a LONG time."  She told him through gritted teeth.
S - "Okay." He smiled then crossed his ankle over his knee and settled in.
B - "Listen…"
S - "Yes?"  he says looking back over his shoulder giving her a grin that
showed off his dimples.
B - Her sentence trailed off and she hesitated one second before taking a step
closer to the couch her eyes glued to his face.  God he was beautiful, even
after ten yeas he was as handsome, as gorgeous, as he was the first time she’d
seen him in the Paradise Lounge (yes this is the first time she ever saw him).
She took another step closer and remembered the first time she ever spoken to
him, even running around with his thugs looking for Jagger she had found him
attractive and dangerous, there had been no denying, even then, that she had
been drawn to him.  It was an attraction that had never faded she realized as
she moved her hand towards his face and drew her index finger from the corner
of one of his dark eyebrows to the corner of his mouth then slowly across his
bottom lip.  
S - When her hand had first touched his face he drew in a startled breath, how
could a strangers touch effect him so deeply, so powerfully?  His heartbeat
quickened and his blood flowed faster and thicker through his veins as her
finger brushes across his lip, softly, gently as if she were touching a dream.
She repeated the motion and he lifted his eyes up to meet hers, fire met fire,
and her finger stopped and settled, he reached up and captured her hand
turning it over to press a kiss to her wrist - right on the pulse point.  He
felt her pulse leap under his lips and lifted his hand to pull her forward
until she was standing as close as she could with the back of the couch still
separating them.  He gently pulled her head down, her lips moving closer and
closer to his until they brushed together.  ‘Oh god’ they both thought to
themselves as the kiss deepened, Brenda because it was like revisiting the
past and getting swept away in a tide of need, passion and love.  Sonny
because he was startled, stunned after all these years to find himself feeling
need and hunger for a woman, a woman he had met less than a week ago.  They
drew back, their eyes fluttering open, one sad, one startled.  "Why did you
stop?"
B - "No." she said slowly backing away.
S - "What’s wrong?"
B - "Everything." She says taking another step back.
S - "Brianna?"
B - "No Sonny.  Please leave."
S - "But.."
B - "No." she says a little more firmly and turned her back to him.  He
doesn’t move, doesn’t get up, doesn’t do anything.  She felt his eyes boring
into her back and she started to panic, she had to get him to go, he had to
leave before she fell apart.  She stood stiffly, her back to him and an idea
formed in her mind.  "Sonny?" she asks quietly turning towards him.
S - "Yes?" he answers rising from the couch.
B - She took a deep breath and hoped for an answer she could accept.  "What
happened to your wife?"
S - "My wife?" he asks her stunned.
B - "Yes, the model?"  she answered watching him intently.
S - His shoulders slumped, his body tensed, and his head bowed forward; pain,
anger, regret, and guilt assaulted him all at once, but somehow he found a way
to answer.  "She died." He whispered unable to look at her and maintain his
composure at the same time.
B - She had braced herself for an answer, any answer, but obviously not
enough, his words cut through her like a knife stabbing her in the heart.  He
was lying he couldn’t even look her in the eye.  He’d lied.  Her anger built
rapidly but she held it back, then her shoulders drooped and she was suddenly
too tired to be angry.  She moved slowly towards the front door, walking as if
she had aged another ten years in the last ten minutes, she opened it leaning
slightly against the frame.  "Good bye Sonny."
S - He looked at her, then at the door and slowly walked towards it then
through it into the hallway.  The door quietly shut behind him and he heard
her final words, so softly, so final, yet funny because she spoke with no
accent.

Chapter 46

Later that night.

Brie sat at the window seat looking out into the night, then came a knock on
the door, she glanced at her watch and knew it was time, time for her to
leave.

B - "Come in Jake." She called out not bothering to get up.
Jake - "How’d you know it was me?"
B - "I’m physic." She replies sarcastically.
Jake - "Wouldn’t surprise me." he said with a grin that she failed to notice.
"Brie?"
B - "Hmm?"
Jake - "Can we talk?"
B - "Isn’t that what we’re doing."  She said flippantly.
Jake - "Come on Brie."  He told her flopping down on the couch with a
frustrated sigh.
B - She got up and walked around to sit in the chair next to him.  "What?"
Jake - "I talked to Derek today." She didn’t respond just waited patiently for
him to go on.  "I told him you wanted off this job."
B - "You didn’t tell him why did you?" She asked quickly.
Jake - "No, I promised."
B - "Thank you."  She whispered.
Jake - "He said okay and that he would get a replacement for you."
B - "Good then I’m outta here."  She said slapping her hands down on the arms
of the chair to get up.
Jake - "There’s a catch."  She dropped back down.  "He can’t get someone here
until Thursday night or Friday morning."
B - "What?  But Jake that’s three days away."
Jake - "I know."
B - "I can’t stay here," she exclaimed and narrowed her eyes "did you put him
up to this?"
Jake - "No."  He answered levelly but she still looked suspicious.  "I swear."
Her features begin to relax slightly.  "Brie listen to me, normally I would
say fine and that Gage and I could handle it, but something came up this
morning and Jason took off for Europe.  Now I won’t have time to tie my shoes
let alone do all his work, mine, and pick up the slack."
B - "Why did Jase go to Europe?  Is it about me?"
Jake - "I don’t know why he went, he took off without talking to anyone but
Sonny."
B - She was quiet for a moment.  "What do you want me to do?"
Jake - "I was hoping you’d say that, here’s the deal, you stay until Friday
and train some of the new guys and you don’t have to have any contact with
anyone else.  All the training will be done in one of our warehouses on the
docks, I’ll show you around tomorrow and you can put them through their paces
Wednesday and Thursday.  I’ll warn you now that it won’t be easy, but knowing
you and seeing the way you have handled yourself lately, I think your the
right person to do it.  You’ll definitely teach them never to underestimate a
woman in that situation ever again."  He paused and took a deep breath "So
what do you think?"
B - She sat there for a few minutes then looked at him with a grin.  "You know
it may actually be fun," Jake smiled in return "but I have conditions."
Jake - "What else is new." He laughs  "Okay shoot."
B - "Number one - what I say goes.  I’ll prove myself to those testosterone
laden jer..guys," she amends, "but after that what I say is law."  He nods his
head in agreement.  "Next - I set up the program, if I want them to do
jazzersize their gonna do it."  Jake smirks and bites the inside of his cheek
to stop the laughter before it formed because he knew she was deadly serious.
These guys had better watch it because if they ticked her off too much they
would be doing Richard Simmons till they dropped.  "I also want Renaldo and
Johnny there - both days." He looked at her surprised "As I’ve said before,
they are getting sloppy and if they expect to continue to guard Jason and
Sonny and to stay alive they need to get with the program, literally."
Jake - "Okay I’ll work it out.  Anything else?"
B - "One more thing." She says her voice solemn.
Jake - "What?"
B - "I don’t want to have any contact with Sonny."  He begins to object but
she doesn’t let him.  "None Jake."
Jake - He watches her carefully debating what to do, he had just heard her say
she wanted to help his bodyguards become better so that they could protect
him, yet she didn’t even want to be in the same room as him - women, he just
didn’t get them.  "Okay Brie, I’ll handle it."
B - She finally gets up and smiles at him.  "Thanks Jake, I’ll see you
tomorrow."  Then walks towards her bedroom, "Six sharp." She says over her
shoulder, Jake slumps against the back of the couch and groans out load, Brie
bites her lip and holds back a laugh as she rounded the corner.

On the street below two men sit in a beat up car backed into an ally watching
a light flicker off in an upstairs bedroom.  Seconds later one of them picks
up the phone and begins talking in a heavy Portuguese accent.

C - "Boss it’s Carlos, we are sure it is her."
M - "Positive?  You know what I’ll do to you if you’re wrong."
C - He stutters and looks over at his companion who is carefully watching him
"We’re sure boss, we have been watching her like you asked.  What do you want
us to do next?"
M - "Continue, I will decide what to do with her shortly."
C - "Just watch her?"
M - "Yes, her rooms are not ready yet.  By next week she will be mine."
C - "Uh, boss?"
M - "What is it?"
C - He hesitates "Um she’s in with some heavy hitters here."
M - "That does not worry me."
C - "Boss their two of the biggest bosses on the East Coast."
M - "That will not be a problem, I’m sure she doesn’t mean anything to them."
C - "I think…"
M - "I don’t pay you to think now do I."  He states and disconnects the call.
C - "Boss?  Boss?" he says but all he gets is a dial tone.
M - "Pretty soon she will be all mine." He begins to repeat to himself.



Continued












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