When she spotted Carly in the waiting room she went on the attack. "And tell me, Carly." Brenda spat. "Just where were you when your child was running into the street unsupervised."
"I was in the bushes with your husband." Carly smirked, having no intention of explaining that it was entirely innocent.
Brenda slapped her so hard she knocked her to the floor. "And now my husband is in surgery fighting for his life." She added. "You have no business having a child. I would never leave my child unattended for one second." She added nastily. "It would have been better if your child had died than having you for a mother."
Carly jumped up off the floor and lunged at Brenda. Two orderlies had to rush over and physically pull them apart. "That shouldn't be my husband in there." Brenda screeched as she was pulled away from Carly. "That should be you."
Brenda pulled herself free of the orderlie's grip and headed into the chapel to pray. She walked up to the altar and looked up at the crucifix. "This isn't the way it's supposed to be."
"I never made you any promises, Brenda." Stone suddenly appeared behind Brenda. "I only promised that you could go back to the day you and Sonny were supposed to marry to find out what would have happened if you two had married."
"I would have never agreed to it if I knew Sonny would get hurt." Brenda snapped at Stone.
"I only promised you could go back." Stone explained. "This is the road not taken, and on this road each choice you and Sonny make has consequences to it and leads to different places."
"And what about Sonny's attraction to that slut." Brenda wanted to know. "This is supposed to be about Sonny and me, not Sonny and her."
"Brenda." Stone sighed in an exasperated manner. "You and Sonny are married, but no marriage is perfect. Happily ever after only happens in fairytales. If you and Sonny had married, you would have experienced problems. You brought Jax into your relationship with Sonny, and now he has an attraction to Carly. If you hadn't let Jax get between you and Sonny, maybe Sonny wouldn't have developed this attraction and maybe he still would have. There's no guarantees in life. Each turn of the road you choose to go down leads to some place different then you were before."
"So in other words." Brenda snapped. "I'm flying without a safety net."
"Exactly." Stone smiled at her.
"What about Sonny?" Brenda wanted to know. "Will he be all right?"
"I don't know." Stone answered.
"What if Sonny dies in this world?" Brenda asked anxiously. "Will he still be alive in the real world?"
"Brenda, this is the real world." He told her. "You're not playing let's pretend on a stage, everything that happens here is real. And for as long as the two of you are in this world, that other world doesn't exist for either of you."
"You didn't answer my question." She reminded him. "If Sonny dies, will he really be dead?"
"I can't tell you that." Stone began to vanish before her eyes. "You just have to wait and see."
"Stone!" She shrieked at the suddenly empty room.
SONNY AWOKE IN a place he didn't recognize. He didn't think it was heaver or hell, but somewhere in between. The last thing he remembered was running into the street to push Michael out of the way of an oncoming car, then feeling it smashing into his body. He didn't think he was dead, but he must have been seriously injured, Sonny surmised.
"You just can't play by the rules, can you, Sonny." Stone said in an exasperated voice as he appeared before him. "Just how many rules have you broken so far." He began to tick them off on his hand. "You told Jason not to help Carly when she showed up on his doorstep pregnant, because you knew what would happen if he did. And now you're trying to pursue a relationship with with Michael, when you have no business even having anything to do with him."
"He's my son." Sonny retorted. "I can't just forget that. I raised that child since he was just a baby." He added. "You're just ticked off that I helped Jason and Robin get together."
"You're forgetting why you're here." Stone reprimanded him. "You're here to find out what would have happened if you had married Brenda. Not to help Jason and Robin get together or continue an attachment to a child you have no business being attached to."
"I'm not sorry I went to that park." Sonny declared stubbornly. "If I hadn't been there, Michael might have been killed."
"He's not Michael." Stone corrected him. "He's Jamie. And did it ever occur to you that if you hadn't been in the park and distracted Carly, Jamie would have never run out into the road."
"You don't know that." Sonny argued. "And I'm not sorry I was there to save him at the right moment."
"What if you saved him at the cost of your own life?" Stone threw back at him. "What if you can't go back to your own life and you're dead because you saved him."
"Then I consider it a sacrifice worth making." Sonny answered.
"This is not working, Sonny." Stone told him. "Brenda isn't having the same problem going along with the gameplan the way you are."
"Brenda?" Sonny repeated in shock. "What are you talking about?"
"You weren't the only one who wondered what might have happened if you two had married." Stone revealed. "Brenda wanted to know the same thing, so I sent both of you back to the day you were supposed to marry."
"Are you telling me the Brenda I'm with." Sonny felt something akin to horror. "Is the Brenda of 2003?"
"Yes." Stone admitted. "And she remembers everything that really happened between the two of you just as you do."
"Are you telling me that's the Brenda I left standing at the altar." He grew even more horrified with each new realization that hit him right between the eyes. "The Brenda who lived with Alcazar for years and who returned to Port Charles?" Stone nodded with a smile. "That everything I've been doing with this Brenda I've been doing with the real Brenda?"
"What's the matter, Sonny." Stone laughed. "Was it easier doing the things you've done with this Brenda thinking she wasn't real." He added. "She's as real as you are. Not that you'll remember it when you wake up."
"What is that supposed to mean?" Sonny didn't like the sound of that.
"Your knowledge of your real life." Stone explained. "Is stopping you from learning what you need to learn. So until this ends, you'll have no memory of your previous life. The only memory you will have when you awake in the hospital is of this life. It'll be the only life you will remember living."
"But what happens when this ends." Sonny was filled with panic. "Will the only existence I know just be ripped away from me?"
"No." Stone assured him. "When I come to you to take you back to your real life, you will remember everything. I'm only doing this now because your knowledge of your real life is stopping your from doing what you're supposed to do here and inteferring with you finding out what would have happened if you had married Brenda." Stone began to evaporate before Sonny's eyes. "Stone, wait!" He called to him. "I don't want you to make me forget." For some reason the idea of not remembering his real life and for him to believe this life with Brenda was real, filled him with terror. If he didn't remember his own life, he wouldn't be able to protect himself for when the time it came to an end.
But it was too late. Sonny could feel his memories of his real life being taken from them, even as he fought to hang on to them. And soon all that was left in his mind were memories of marrying Brenda and them going on the run together. His memory of leaving Brenda at the altar and everything that followed had been wiped away like it was nothing more than a bad dream.