Chapter Twelve

SONNY ROLLED OVER in bed reaching for Brenda only for his hand to bang painfully against the railing of the hospital bed he was laying in. He looked around the room in confusion having no idea how he got there. The last thing he remembered he and Brenda were drinking wine in bed, then he'd started feeling sleepy and he'd fallen asleep.

A doctor entered the room and smiled at him. "Well." He took Sonny's hand in his hand and took his pulse. "It's good to see you're finally awake. We were beginning to worry about you. You've been out of it since you arrived." He added. "By the way, I'm Dr. Cummings, and you are...There was no I.D. on you when you were brought in, so we've been calling you John Doe #10. Do you have any family you'd like us to contact?"

"My name is Sonny Corinthos." Sonny told him. "How did I get here? And just where is here? What's wrong with me." He looked frantically around the room. "Where's Brenda?" Then another thought occurred to him. "Where's Alcazar?"

"You kept mentioning their names." The doctor told him. "Just who are they, anyway. You've been out of it for days going on and on about someone named Brenda. Is she you're wife? Would you like us to call her? As for what happened to you, you were in a car accident. You smashed your car up pretty badly. But you're doing fine now. We should even be able to release you later today."

"A car accident?" Sonny repeated, as he brought his hand up to his head and felt a square bandage covering one corner of his temple. "That's impossible. I have no memory being in a car. Where am I, anyway?"

"You're at Mercy Hospital." The doctor answered. "And considering how hard you banged your head, I'm not surprised you don't remember. Or for that matter were having all those crazy dreams that you were having."

"Mercy Hospital?" Sonny repeated. "The Mercy Hospital in Port Charles?"

"One and the same." The doctor replied.

"That's impossible." Sonny declared. "I was kidnapped and taken out of the country. How can I suddenly be back in Port Charles." He added. "Just when was I admitted."

The doctor named a date. It was the same date he had been kidnapped. Sonny grabbed the chart out of the doctor's hand and it had him being admitted the same day the doctor claimed he'd been admitted. It said he'd been rescued from his car by paramedics and admitted to Mercy Hospial with a severe head injury.

For each day he'd been in the hospital, their were notes on the wild dreams the patient was having. Patient dreaming he's being held prisoner in a dungeon by someone name Alcazar. Patient dreaming someone named Brenda, whom he thought was dead, is alive. Patient having erotic dreams about himself and this woman named Brenda. The words began to swim before Sonny's eyes in bold capital letters. PATIENT DREAMING...PATIENT DREAMING...PATIENT DREAMING...

"No." Sonny shook his head in denail. "It couldn't have all been a dream. I know it was real. Brenda's alive. I know she is. I was with her. It couldn't have all been a dream."

"Mr. Corinthos." The doctor said in a patronizing tone. "You had a very serious head injury. I can assure you you've been in this hospital since the paramedics cut you out of your car. You weren't kidnapped by some villain named Alcazar, and I'm sorry, but this woman you dreamed about isn't alive. It was all just a dream."

"How could it be?" Sonny laid back in the bed not knowing what was real and what wasn't. "It seemed so real. It had to be real. It couldn't be a dream."

"Mr. Corinthos." Dr. Cummings patted his shoulder in comfort. "Sometimes our dreams can seem more real to us than reality, especially if we want them to be real. This woman named Brenda? You loved her very much and she died?"

"Yes." Sonny's voice cracked. "I did." He added. "It was my fault she died. If I hadn't left her and taken her with me she'd still be alive."

"Ahhhhh." He replied, as if that explained it all. "Your mind was giving you the thing you wanted most. For your Brenda to be alive and back with you."

"It was really all just a dream?" Sonny looked up at the doctor for assurance. "Brenda is really dead?"

"I'm afraid so." The doctor sighed sadly, and walked out the door.

When he got to the Nurse's Desk, he picked up the phone and made a long distance call. "It's Dr. Cummings, Mr. Santiago." He said when Alcazar answered the phone.

"So," Alcazar asked. "How did it go? Did Corinthos believe he dreamed the whole thing?"

"I'm not sure." The doctor replied. "The chart I doctored up to convince him he'd been in the hospital for the last week went a long way to convincing him. Before that he absolutely refused to believe it. Still, I'm not totally convinced he believes it's true."

"Don't worry, doctor." Alcazar replied. "With all the other evidence I planted in no time at all Mr. Corinthos will believe it was all just a dream."

He hung up the phone and smiled. All was going well. As soon as Corinthos saw the falsified paramedic and police report, not to mention the wreckage of his car that sat in the impound lot at the Port Charles Police Department, we would have no doubt that it had all been a dream. Then when he accepted it was just a dream and had put it all behind him, he and Brenda would show up and his true nightmare would begin.