"Sonny, that had to be one of the best meals I have ever had in my entire life! Where did you learn to cook like that?" exclaimed Carly T.

"Years of practice, Carly, and the blessings of a wonderful mother," answered Sonny. He smiled at Carly C. and she returned the smile, happy to see that he could bring up the topic of Adele without going into that dark place of Deke and the abuse he inflicted. "Would you care for dessert-maybe a little gelato, biscotti?"

"I don't think I could possibly eat another bite. I'll just finish my wine and relax a little over there by the fire," Carly T. said, pointing to the ottoman. She picked up her glass and walked over to take a seat. Sonny and Carly C. followed, with Sonny sitting down on the couch and Carly lying with her head on Sonny's lap. He brushed the hair off her forehead and kissed her there. "Tell me, Carly Tenney," he said, "what do you do for work?"

"Well, I was a fashion designer, for a while, a couple of times. I had my own line in Hong Kong and then last year, I had one called Second Chances, but that all fell apart. Actually, that's why I was in New York City. An acquaintance of mine in the fashion business put me in contact with this guy, who was looking for a new designer to create another line for his business, and I went to see him about it, but it didn't pan out. So, I was going back to Oakdale to be with my son and figure out where to go next, when I got stuck in Port Charles because of the weather. And Carly told you the rest of the story!"

"Fashion, huh? Carly's in the cosmetics business herself. She and Laura Spencer own a company called Deception."

"Well, now there's something Carly didn't tell me about! But, I'm not surprised that she's in that business, because she looks great, and dresses great, and just has this put-together look about her," Carly T. said matter-of-factly.

Carly C. smiled at her friend and responded with, "Coming from a fashion queen, that's saying a lot! Thanks!"

"All right, there's just a little too much praise going on in the room right now," Sonny said jokingly. "How about…" He was interrupted by a loud knock on the door. "Yeah, Johnny," he shouted, but his voice was met with no response. "Johnny? Johnny…"

"Maybe he went across the hall to check everything at Alexis's place, Sonny," suggested Carly C.

"Yeah, maybe. I'll be right there," Sonny stated as the knocking continued. When he got to the door and opened it, he saw Jack standing in front of him.

"Jack," Carly T. whispered loudly as she and Jack locked eyes with each other.

"Jack Snyder, Oakdale P.D. I'm here to return something that belongs to Carly Tenney," he said, holding up the scarf.

"Oh, all right, come on in, if you want. I'm Sonny, Corinthos, and that's my wife, Carly," he stated, pointing to Carly C. She nodded and waved, then said, "Uh, honey, why don't we go upstairs and say goodnight to Michael, kiss him, and if we hurry we might just have enough time to read to him; you know, that story he likes about the boats?"

"OK," he replied, walking over to Carly C. and grabbing her outstretched hand. They made it to the third step, where Sonny paused for a moment and whispered, "What, no listening in, keeping your ear to the ground?"

Carly C. scowled at him and said, "Not since I learned what it means to have true love. Come on, our son is waiting." They continued up the stairs and disappeared, while Carly T. grabbed her scarf from Jack and looked directly at him. "Jack, what are you doing here? Are you following me now?"

"Carly, I swear, I didn't even know you were here! I got a call from one of my contacts, who said he saw one of Montgomery's people here in Port Charles, and I came to meet up with that person. I mean, my contact has pictures of everyone I could find that Montgomery has ties to, including you, because like it or not, you are a part of his circle, and he must have seen you somewhere in town and called me on it. But he certainly didn't tell me who it was-I only found that out when I went to the Port Charles Grill and I saw your scarf lying on the bar. I remembered you wearing it a few weeks ago and the bartender was kind enough to tell me how to find the Corinthos residence."

"Well, not that it is any of your business, but I was in New York City doing something for Parker. I went to see someone about a design job, but it didn't work out, and as I was trying to get to Oakdale I got stuck here because of the weather. How were you able to leave, Jack? Last I heard nobody was getting in or out."

"Blind luck, I guess. Anyway, what are you doing in this place? Do you have any idea who you are spending time with? I checked out Sonny Corinthos's background on the way over here, and my God, Carly, he's Port Charles's version of Al Capone!"

"How dare you come in to the man's home and say things like that!" Carly screamed at Jack. "Sonny and Carly have been nothing but super nice to me and I can't believe you are being like this towards them. So what if Sonny is a little beyond the law? You have no right to tell me who I can and can't be friends with. You made it perfectly clear that we have nothing left between us, so why don't you just go back to Oakdale and chase after Craig, and leave me out of it?"

"Carly…," Jack said, "I can't…I can't…." He rushed over to Carly, grabbed her face in his hands, and kissed her. She responded, but quickly broke away. Carly searched for an answer in Jack's eyes and it didn't take long for her to realize what it was…they started kissing again and made their way rapidly to the couch. Jack laid Carly down and got on top of her; Carly pulled him towards her as soon as she could so they didn't have to be apart one more second than necessary. He kissed her neck and she put her hands underneath his sweater, tracing her fingertips along his spine. Jack sat up a little bit and began to unbutton Carly's shirt, but before he could get past the second button, Carly put her hands on his and whispered, "Wait, Jack."

"Carly," Jack replied breathlessly, "what's the matter?"

"This…this is Sonny and Carly's home…and they have a young son who, could come down the stairs at any minute, and see us like this…I don't want to violate their trust."

"So what are we supposed to do, Carly?"

"We'll go to, to the Port Charles Hotel. It's quiet, and private, and we can let Sonny and Carly have peace in their own house. Let me go upstairs and tell them we're leaving." Carly stood up and buttoned her shirt. Jack also got up and straightened his clothes. "All right," he said, "but don't be gone too long. We have…."

"I know," she replied, stroking the side of Jack's face. Carly walked over to the stairs and was about to go up when she noticed Sonny and Carly C. coming down. "Oh, I was just going to Michael's room to tell you Jack and I are leaving. We, uh, have to take care of some stuff, and then we're going to try getting home."

Carly C. caught Carly T.'s eye and she could definitely tell that things had changed between Jack and Carly. "Oh, OK," she said with a smile, "you just make sure you stay in touch and tell me how that Parker is."

"I will, I promise," Carly T. replied, hugging Carly C. "Thank you for everything; you too, Sonny, it's more than I could have ever asked for." She scribbled her phone number on a piece of paper that was sitting on Sonny's desk and handed it to Carly C. She then got her coat and bag, put them both on, and followed Jack out the door. "Bye," Carly T. said.

"Bye, Carly, Jack," said Carly C.

"See ya," Sonny replied, and with that he shut the door. Jack pulled Carly to him for another kiss and they stood there a minute, unaware of anything else that was going on around them. Carly finally pulled away and said, "OK, G-man, we better get out of here before we both do something we can't take back." Jack nodded and they headed for the elevator, and whatever the Port Charles Hotel would mean…