A/N: I have no idea why this update took so long. It was like these two just went on and on. LOL I was trying to post three updates in a row...and it just went on forever. I decided to just let it go as is...can't dwell on stuff forever right?
Thank you to all the readers and comments...love to hear from you all.
I may do a discussion thread on this one...some things to think about for sure.
myhourglass.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=authorsficchat&thread=2776&page=12#83507I am sure this thing is typo ridden as per usual. Excuse them all please.
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Chapter 6 part 6“So we could just text Brady back, tell him to come and get us,” said Sonny breaking the silence that had settled in the empty file room, where they sat on the floor, shoulder to shoulder, backs against the locked wooden door.
“Do we really want to explain this to him right now?” asked Melanie.
“Yeah, not really up for a lecture. Let’s move him to the back of the list. We could just call Kate, let her know the plan has gone awry.”
Melanie wanted to stay off of Kate’s hit list for as long as possible. The fact that she had managed to remain in relatively good favor with the woman for this long was a miracle.
“I was hoping to impress her. Let her know I was capable of pulling this off without botching the job.”
“Impressing the mother-in-law, I can understand that. We may need to call her though if worse comes to worse.”
“Fine,” she agreed. “We will keep her as an option.”
“Chad!” Sonny blurted out excitedly.
“What about Chad?”
“I could call him, tell him to come scoop us.”
“He has a key to the office?”
“No, but maybe he can bring a few of his frat brothers, burst through the door.”
She rolled her eyes in annoyance. “Next please.”
“Hairpin and a stick of gum?” offered Sonny.
She shook her head at his silliness. “Don’t think so.”
“It always works on TV,” mumbled Sonny.
“We could just do 911.” Maybe they could come up with a plausible reason for being inside.
Sonny held his phone up to his ear and pretended to make a call. “Hello Salem PD? Yeah put Bo Brady on the line, tell him his cousin accidentally got himself locked inside an office he broke into.” He dropped his phone and looked at her. “You do realize that what we are doing here is a crime?”
“I guess I’ll have to call Kate,” she sighed scrolling through her phone to locate the number.
“No wait,” said Sonny taking the phone from her hand. “Let’s just take a moment and regroup. Maybe something will come to us.”
“Okay sounds good.” They sat quietly for a beat. “Anything come to you yet?” asked Melanie.
“Nope. Let’s watch Felicity,” suggested Sonny. “We have almost all of season four left. I’ll just pull up Netflix.” He searched for the site on his phone.
“I do want to see what happens when Ben finds out about Felicity and Noel.”
“Ben’s going to kick Noel’s ass. Guaranteed.”
“Hello! Spoiler alert!” she exclaimed.
“You don’t need a spoiler to see that coming. His girlfriend cheated with her ex. Punches will be thrown.”
“God that show hits so close to home.” Melanie spread out on the floor on her stomach, placing Sonny’s parka under head as a makeshift pillow.
“Wait until we see the rest of season four, you’re going to think the writers were spying on your life.” Sonny joined her in the reclined position, sharing the parka with her, his phone in front of both their faces like a mini television.
“Sounds like it will be depressing. Let’s watch something happy.”
“Should we head to the Creek?” he asked.
“Perfect.”
“Which ep?”
“Do you even have to ask?”
“True Love” they both said in unison.
“Can we skip to the Jack and Ethan kiss first?” asked Sonny. “It’s hard to sit though the whole episode knowing that is coming.”
“Do it. The end is the best part. Don’t you wish your life could be just like that episode?” she asked with a wistful sigh.
Sonny gave her a perplexed look. “Curled up in a ball on the kitchen floor, crying to my dad about how the first guy I ever kissed went back to his ex?”
“No,” she giggled. “I meant sailing off into the sunset with your true love.”
“Oh Pacey and Joey. Should’ve known.” He rolled his eyes and resumed fast forwarding through the episode.
Melanie rolled over on her back, staring up at the white ceiling tiles. “It was just so romantic how she finally just dropped everything and ran to him and declared her love.”
He sat up and leaned back against the door. “In my experience sailing off is overrated. When you get back to shore inevitably disaster strikes, hearts broken. It never ends pretty. Safer bet to just love on dry land.”
“Problems seem easier to face while at sea.”
“More like easier to forget,” he looked down at her on the floor. “But you got to come home sometime.”
“When Philip and I were trapped in the car, we thought of that time like we were drifting at sea on our own little life raft. It was so perfect, Sonny. Even though it was scary and he was hurt, we were together and we just held onto each other and talked. I’ve never felt that close to anyone before. It might have been one of the best nights of my life. How sick is that? The best night with Philip was the night I almost killed him.” She looked up at him sadly, tears filling her eyes.
“I don’t think that’s sick.” He reached down and stroked her hair lightly. “You were forced to shut out the world and just be alone together. Helps you see what’s important. Easier to let your real emotions show.”
“There was so much I should’ve said.” Melanie closed her eyes as the pain of that night hit her again. No matter how much time had passed it never got any easier.
“I want to show you something.” She crawled over to where Sonny sat against the door, settling next to him. “So you know how I transferred here from Austin last fall?”
“You said you wanted to learn from the great Victor Kiriakis.”
“Right and that’s true. But I sort of came for another reason. See I had a baseball scholarship back in Texas. I was a pitcher.”
“You never told me that.”
“Trying not to dwell on it really. I hurt my shoulder end of sophomore year and it didn’t heal right and couldn’t pitch the same, so I lost my scholarship.”
“Sonny, I’m so sorry.” She leaned in closer to him, squeezing his arm.
“It was hard being at school, around my former teammates knowing I could never play again. Got depressing you know?” He kept his eyes focused on his phone’s screen, the pain filling his voice.
“I can imagine.”
“I was sort of drowning I guess. Didn’t want to go to class, didn’t want to hang out. Anyway, one night out of the blue I got a call. It was Philip. Him calling was a pretty rare occurrence. We usually only talked when I visited Salem or a random email here and there.”
“What made him call?” asked Melanie.
“I think my dad might have told him about my situation with the team.”
“So what did he say?”
“Actually nothing really.” He laughed lightly. “We talked about sports, a bit about Titan, school, just catching up. But before he hung up he said something that got to me. He told me to stop focusing on the things I couldn’t do, and focus on the things I could.”
“Good advice.”
“Made me stop moping. Here he was a former Marine, injured in the line of duty, and he wasn’t letting it hold him back. I had one stupid torn labrum and I was acting like my life was over.”
“So you packed it in and moved to Salem?”
“Something like that. Just really disappointed that I didn’t make it here before the accident. I wanted to thank him.” Sonny leaned his head back against the door and closed his eyes.
“I’m sure he knows,” said Melanie reassuringly.
“I hope so.” He leaned his head against hers. “Philip has always been my favorite cousin. Even though he was older than me, I still could relate to him. We both were the youngest in our families, both loved sports. The Kiriakis’ are not big athletes. Really just Philip and I were the only ones. Did you know I spent almost every summer with my Uncle Victor growing up?”
“Really? I can’t imagine that stuffy old house being much fun for a kid.”
“It was fun for me. I remember one summer I was about ten and Philip would have been about seventeen, he had his cool car and his girlfriend.”
“Chloe?”
Melanie tried to squash the negative feelings she was starting to have as she imagined perfect teen couple, Philip and Chloe. It was pointless to be jealous of his past, yet more and more she was starting to be.
“Yep. He was busy being Mr. Popular, but he still managed to find time to hang out with me. We used to shoot hoops a lot. He even took me out in his boat a few times.”
She smiled at him. “Sounds like you have some good memories.”
“I wanted to show you this.” He pulled up a photo on his phone and turned the screen toward Melanie. It was an old picture of a little brown haired boy and Philip as a teen.
“Look at little Sonny, with all that hair.” She grinned taking the phone out of his hand to get a closer look.
“I wouldn’t let my mom cut it.”
“I can tell. It is a curly mop. Philip is so young there. Now I see why Parker’s hair is so blond.” Melanie handed Sonny back his phone. She ran her fingers through the front of her hair before she began. “I found a photo in Chloe’s room at the hospital, it was of Philip around this time. He was in a tux.”
“Probably prom.”
“Chloe had it just out in the middle of the bed. She must’ve been reminiscing.”
“Mel, I thought we settled all of this before. They were high school sweethearts, you know that.”
“I kept the picture. I got so angry that she would have it, like she was somehow violating our marriage.” Sonny shot her a look. “Don’t look at me like that. I know I’m being crazy. I just hate that she had the chance to know him for so many years and I may only get this. He could be gone Sonny.” She buried her face in her hands, willing herself not to cry.
He rubbed her shoulders. “We found the will. It’s all good now.”
“Give me your lighter,” said Melanie standing up abruptly.
“You know I quit smoking. All I have is my phone, a few tic tacs, and this bottle of Powerade.”
“Just hand it over.” Melanie extended her hand expectantly. “I know you have it on you.”
“I just told you…”
“Sonny,” she said cutting him off. “You never leave the house without two cigarettes and a lighter in your pocket, just in case you decide to start smoking again.”
“You’ve got a memory like an elephant I swear.” He dug the silver lighter out of the pocket of his jeans and handed it to her. “What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to destroy the will.”
He looked up at her in surprise. “In here? I don’t think setting a fire in an enclosed space is such a good idea.”
“A little singe here and there to make it illegible,” she said as she lit the end of the paper. A small flame began to darken the edges. “Look we’ve got an empty trashcan.” Melanie grabbed the can and brought it closer to where Sonny still sat. She threw the burning paper down into it. “See there? Easy.”
“Sort of smells like barbeque, which reminds me I’m hungry.” Melanie shook her head and smiled. Everything made Sonny hungry.
“Let me put it out before your stomach starts growling.” She grabbed his bottle of Powerade that was on the floor beside him.
“Mel wait!” Sonny yelled as Melanie poured the red liquid over the burning paper in the trashcan. Flames shot up out of the can, causing Melanie to jump back in alarm.
“Oh my god, I thought water put out fires. Isn’t Powerade just colored water?” She tried to fan the flames down with her hands. Sonny rushed to her side and waved his hands over the can as well.
“It is, but mine was mixed with Everclear.”
“Sonny!”
“I said ‘Mel wait!’ You just didn’t,”
“You should’ve said Mel, it’s not Powerade. You know I don’t listen when someone tells me to wait.”
“Suffocation!” yelled Sonny.
“Huh?”
“We’ve got to snuff it out. Take off your coat, and throw it over the can, so no air can get in and the fire will go out.”
“Good idea.” She placed her black trench over the top of the can. They stood and watched, alarmed when thick puffs of smoke started escaping from the covered can. “Why is there so much smoke?” asked Melanie.
“It’s just the fire dying.”
“Are you sure? Because it’s starting to get thick.” A steady buzz permeated the room. It sounded like a really loud alarm clock.
“Oh no, the fire alarm,” groaned Sonny anxiously rubbing his temples.
“Does it call directly to the fire department?”
“I think so, after a few minutes if it isn’t disengaged.”
“How do we shut it off?” asked Melanie frantically trying to fan the smoke away from the ceiling.
“On the panel out by the reception desk.”
“Lovely. Any other ideas?”
“Now would be a great time to call Kate.”
“Fine.” Melanie pulled out her phone and began typing a message.
“Tell her to bring towels.”
“Towels?”
“Yes because if we don’t get the alarm off soon the sprinkler system will come on. We’re going to get wet.” Melanie’s stomach dropped at that bit of information.
“Oh look. It stopped smoking.” She removed her coat to reveal the charred remnants of the will in the trashcan.
“One less thing to worry about right?” He plopped down in the middle of the floor dejectedly.
Melanie sat down next to him. “Tell me why you had spiked Powerade in your pocket?”
“I was at the house with Chad.”
“Again with the Gammas.”
“They’re not bad guys and they always have food. Today they had special punch. So I got some for later.”
“Drinking and driving Sonny,” she said in a scolding tone.
“I said it was for later. I had planned to put it in the fridge when I got home. Stephanie and I were thinking about using it to make jello shots.”
“Right. What else would you do with a sorority sister as a roommate?”
“Stephanie has long graduated and is completely legal to partake in any shots of her choice in the comfort of her home. As am I. You on the other hand…”
“Why do you have to remind me I am younger than you every chance you get?”
“I need something to lord over you. Bad enough you graduated two years early, makes me look bad.”
“I went to school in Europe,” she stated.
“I went to school in Europe,” he mimicked. “That doesn’t give you the right to show me up. You know my mom actually asked why I couldn’t be more like you and apply myself. She said Melanie graduated early and has a job and still has time for postgraduate work. Blah blah blah.”
“Is she still on you about grad school?”
“Yes and having you around is not helping.”
“Yikes. I know your mom can be relentless.”
“She can be downright scary.”
“I guess she had to be raising all of you boys.”
“We never could get away with anything as kids. I remember I used to climb up on a chair in the kitchen to get to the cookies on the top shelf and my mom would yell out ‘I see you, Jackson Steven’ she always used my full when she was serious. I’d jump down thinking she was right behind me. Nope, nothing. She would be down the hall on the couch the whole time. Spooky.”
“I still want to know how she managed to card me at the Cheating Heart when she wasn’t even there.”
“Well that one is easy. You never should’ve tried using your fake ID in there again after she let you slide that first time.”
Melanie shrugged. “I figured different bartender, what would be the harm?”
“I’m sure my mom alerted every staff member about you. Probably had a most wanted poster behind the bar.”
“As opposed to what she has now? My fake ID mounted behind the bar on the wall of shame. So embarrassing to see my face up there every time I come in.”
“At least you’ve got me to hook you up.”
“You are the best for buying drinks and passing them to me.” She hugged him around his shoulders, squeezing him playfully.
“Because I am twenty-one,” he teased sticking his tongue out at her.
She nudged him with her shoulder. “Shut up.”
He nudged her back. “Soon to be twenty-two and when will you be turning twenty-one, Mrs. Kiriakis?”
“In November.”
“All the way in November. That’s such a long, long time.”
“It is a long time. However will I make it through the start of grad school at the tender age of twenty this September? My classmates will mock me because I can’t join them at the bar. I might have to continue to rely on my older, but still in undergrad friend, to sneak me drinks.”
“Cute,” he smirked. “Real cute.”
“I thought so.”
“So you’re seriously going back to school?”
“Got accepted. My dad really wants me to go.”
“What dad doesn’t?” Sonny grabbed Melanie’s arm. “Shh do you hear that? Someone’s out there.”
“Do you think it’s the fire department?”
“I don’t know,” said Sonny rising to his feet. He ran to the door.
“We’re in here!” He yelled banging loudly on the door.
Melanie jumped up when the door suddenly opened and a dark haired man appeared. She recognized the man immediately. He was Chloe’s attorney.
Drew glanced them over, surprised to find them there. “Hi Sonny and Melanie right?”
“We sort of got locked in,” explained Sonny with a small smile.
“Does your dad know you’re here? When I came in the fire alarm was going off.”
“Well about that…” Sonny hesitated, looking down at his feet, nervously.
“Sonny we might as well just tell him,” said Melanie trying to cover for his uneasiness.
“We should?” asked Sonny clearly confused.
“We can’t keep it from him. You’re working with Justin now right?” Melanie asked turning her attention to Drew.
“Yes, part time.” Drew replied.
“I guess we should just come clean,” said Melanie hoping Sonny would catch on and follow her lead.
“Right…” he said drawing out his words. “So what had happened was…”
Melanie jumped in. “I lit a match. Well a lighter actually. I wanted to prove to Sonny that we couldn’t use this room to hide the cake.”
“The cake?” asked Drew crossing his arms.
“Yes a cake. It was going to be a surprise.” Sonny explained.
“Sonny’s parents are getting remarried again,” added Melanie.
“And we wanted to get them a cake with candles you know throw a little party.”
“Here? In the office?” Drew looked back and forth between them, clearly skeptical.
“Yeah because surprise!” Sonny said quickly with mock enthusiasm. “Who would ever think of a wedding party in a law office?”
“And Sonny had the idea to hide in here and then jump out with a cake. So we came in to test the idea. Good thing we did.” Melanie laughed nervously. “Smoke alarm.”
“Then we accidentally locked ourselves in here and woo hoo you saved us,” he said grinning at Drew.
“Woo hoo!” chimed in Melanie.
“Good thing I stopped by tonight to find you and your friend,” said Drew.
“She’s my cousin actually.”
“We’re not really cousins.”
“What?” Sonny turned to look at her, a hurt expression on his face. “That really hurts Mel.”
“I mean were cousins by marriage, not blood.”
“And that counts,” said Sonny.
“Absolutely it does.”
“I think of you as family.” He leaned over and hugged her.
“Me too Sonny,” said Melanie hugging him tighter, before stepping away.
“Are you two done here? I’ve got to get down to the police station,” said Drew moving out of the doorway.
“To report us?” Sonny blurted out in alarm. Melanie looked over at him widening her eyes. He was about to blow it.
“No. For Chloe. She’s been taken into custody. But you know all about that right Mrs. Kiriakis?” asked Drew looking at Melanie suspiciously.
“Sorry, I’m not on top of all Chloe’s legal woes. Too busy taking care of the baby she abandoned.” Sonny nudged Melanie with his hip, probably to get her to stop talking. But she ignored him. Chloe’s lawyer was deliberately trying to call her out for some reason.
“It wouldn’t hurt you to show some compassion. She’s been through a lot. She’s pretty much alone in this.”
“Looks like she has a fan club to me,” said Melanie almost under her breath.
“I’m sure your husband would expect you to be considerate of his good friend’s feelings. Wasn’t he president of her fan club at one point?” Drew asked with a smug smile playing on his lips.
“Excuse me? You didn’t just go there. You don’t know anything about my husband.”
“Oh look at the time,” interrupted Sonny.
“I know more about him than you think,” retorted Drew.
“We better get going,” said Sonny tugging on Melanie’s sleeve to guide her toward the door. “Chloe’s waiting right? And Melanie we have to go eat.”
Melanie pulled away from Sonny stepping closer to Drew. “You have the audacity to tell me what my husband would want? He is in a coma.”
“I know and I truly am sorry,” said Drew.
“You don’t think my husband would have a problem with his old friend after what she did to his son?”
“I think you may be projecting your own feelings of jealousy and hurt onto him. I’m pretty sure a good man like Philip would stand by someone that he’s been close to since high school. No matter what.” Melanie could feel her agitation rising with his every word.
“Who the hell do you think you are? My husband is protective of his family and he won’t let anyone, not even Chloe put his child at risk. When he finds out what she did, he’s going to cut her out of his life completely.” Angry tears spilled over her cheeks.
“You’re deluding yourself if you think he doesn’t care about Chloe. You better prepare yourself to deal with that fact if he ever wakes up. You think siccing Victor on her is going to change that?”
“Okay, enough,” said Sonny stepping between them. “Drew I thank you for helping us out. I appreciate it. And I hope I can trust you to keep our surprise hidden from my father.”
“Not a problem,” said Drew bowing his head.
“Good. One last thing,” Sonny stepped closer to the man, straightening his posture and taking a more serious tone. “If you ever speak to my cousin’s wife like that again I will personally see to it that my father kicks you out on your ass. Harassing an innocent woman is unacceptable.”
“Just saying what she needed to hear.”
“There’s nothing she needs to hear from you. Go see about your client. I’ll lock up here.”
“Think about what I said, Mrs. Kiriakis.”
“Good night, Mr. Donovan.” Sonny turned to Melanie who was trembling beside him, tears streaming down her face. “Hey, no tears. You can’t let him get to you.”
“What if he’s right Sonny?”
“Two minutes ago you were about to rip him a new one, now you are crying. What is up?”
“What if I made all the wrong choices and Philip wakes up and sides with Chloe? He could hate me, Sonny.”
“Listen. What you told Drew was right. We Kiriakis’ are protective of our families. Philip is going to do right by his son, even if that means dealing harshly with Chloe. He would understand that everything you are doing is to protect Parker.”
She looked over at him, uncertainly. “You really think so?”
“I most definitely do.” He wrapped his arm around her shoulders, and walked with her toward the door. “Pick up your bag and let’s go. First we go grab some grub, then we go see Philip. Okay?”
“Okay. Thanks for everything Sonny.”
“That’s what cousins are for.” Melanie laughed as she pushed her bag up on her shoulder. “I can’t believe you said I wasn’t really your cousin.”
“I got nervous. I tend to ramble.”
“Miss Professional got nervous. First you leave the lock picking kit on the wrong side of the door, then you almost burn the place down, almost lost it with Drew.” Sonny turned off the lights and checked the alarm panel before joining Melanie by the front door.
“I was having an off night,” said Melanie.
“Ya think?” Sonny grabbed her playfully around the neck as they went out the main doors of the office and onto the street. “You’re so lucky I love you.”
Melanie smiled as she let Sonny drag her down the street to his car.
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Next update - A visit between father and sonreferences -
Jack & Ethan - Dawson's Creek (the kiss & the kitchen scene)
Pacey & Joey - True Love episode
Also the TV show Felicity.