This story begins right after Sonny & Alexis return from Puerto Rico.
Janine never told Courtney that Mike was dead. Mike left them just as he had done with Adella and Sonny.

Chapter 1

"It's a shame we have to go back," Alexis said, half-joking, sitting next to Sonny on the plane. Sonny smiled and looked at her. "I'm glad you had a good time." Alexis nodded her head, "I did. Very much. But now, it's back to reality I guess." Sonny's smile faded, "yeah." Alexis knew he was thinking of Carly. She couldn't understand why Sonny still felt so connected to his soon to be ex-wife, but she admired him for it, despite the fact that he made her so hot she could hardly breathe at times. "Uh, I've asked Asher Wilder to set up a meeting so we could hash out all the details of the adoption and divorce." "You can handle that for me, right?" Sonny asked. "Don't...don't you want to be involved?" "I trust you. Besides, I have other things to deal with." He was thinking about the phone call he'd received that morning, from Zander Smith.

Earlier...

"Corinthos."

"Sonny, it's Zander."

"What's wrong?"

"Well, I'm not really sure. But something's going on with your father, AJ, and Carly."

"Like what?"

"I don't know. I heard Mike say something to Carly about a problem he was having with AJ. And, Sonny, he doesn't want you to know about it, whatever it is."

"I'll be back in a few hours," Sonny replied and hung up. He didn't like the sound of that at all.

Back in Port Charles, Carly sat on the couch in her house with Mike. He'd spent the night, after they stayed up late talking. Now, they started the conversation all over again. "Did you sleep at all?" she asked. Mike shook his head; he looked like he hadn't slept in weeks. "I haven't had a good night's sleep since Janine showed up in town. Oh God Carly, what am I going to do?" "OK, let's think about this Mike. I know AJ. If he had anything real on you, he would have used it. Heck, he probably would have gone straight to Sonny with it. So I'm pretty sure he doesn't know about Courtney, he's just blowing smoke." "But why is Sonny involved? Why did he snatch Janine and take her somewhere?" "I don't know. Maybe it has nothing to do with you. Maybe it's about something else." "So what do I do?" Mike asked anxiously. "Take your cue from Sonny," Carly confidently replied. "If he's not acting upset with you, then he doesn't know. And hopefully, it'll stay that way."

When Sonny and Alexis returned to Harborview Towers, they said goodbye and went into their perspective apartments. Sonny had to admit to himself that he'd had a really good time with Alexis, but he knew he was in no shape to pursue anything more than friendship with her at this point. He thought it was really sweet how she seemed to have developed a crush on him, but he also knew that Alexis could more than handle it. Besides, like he told her on the plane, he had other things to deal with now, namely, figuring up what his father and Carly were up to. "Max," Sonny greeted his guard who was waiting at the door for the boss' return. "Sir, we need to talk." Sonny opened the door to penthouse 4, and they went inside, with Max picking up his bag and carrying it in. Sonny immediately went to pour himself a drink, and unbottoned the top two buttons of his shirt. "So, talk." "I located that Janine woman," Max began. "Good." "I took her the Regency Hotel in Buffalo." "Fine," Sonny replied; Buffalo was his territory too. "She agreed to wait there until you spoke with her." "She give you any trouble?" Sonny asked. "No sir; just needed a little coaxing. But she was well aware of who you are." Sonny turned to look at him, "what does that mean?" Max shifted his stance, "uh, it means she said she's heard of you...down in Atlantic City." "Oh, right." Sonny was wondering if Janine played into whatever was going on between AJ and Mike. Somehow, he thought she did. "I'm just going to take a shower and change, and then we'll go see her," Sonny told Max. "Right," Max replied and headed for the door to wait in the hallway.

Across the hall, Kristina was grilling Alexis about her trip. "Sounds lovely. So, are you telling me nothing happened?" "I told you what happened Kristina. We gambled, we danced, we ate. It was very nice. Sonny was a perfect gentleman." Kristina wasn't buying it. "Uh huh. And that's all?" Alexis sighed in resignation, "oh boy. I'm in serious trouble Kristina."

Go to Chapter 2