</center>Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters from General Hospital or Higher Ground ... so please don't sue.
Rating: Teen ... maybe a little Mature
Author Note's: In order to tell this story I had to alter the timeline to both of them.
CHAPTER ONE
Sonny walked downstairs to find Carly pulling her and Michael’s coat out of the closet. “Where do you think you are going?” he asked.
Carly jumped at the sound of Sonny’s voice and turned to face him. “You scared me,” she said as she laid Michael’s coat on the sofa and put hers on.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you,” Sonny said wrapping his arms around her waist. “Now tell me where you are going,” he whispered in her ear.
“That’s better,” Carly said giving him a little kiss. “I am going over to Bobbie’s house. She is getting a new tenant in a couple of weeks, so she needs me to come and get a few boxes I left over there.”
“You shouldn’t be lifting boxes. Let Max go get them.”
“Well, Max is coming with me. He will be doing the lifting and I will be visiting with Bobbie. I haven’t really spent anytime with her lately and I just want to see her. So I figured this was a good of time as any.”
Sonny narrowed his eyes at her. “Alright, but be safe. I don’t want you anywhere near Rick.”
“I know. Now, I have to get going. I am already late. I told Bobbie I would be there five minutes ago,” Carly said as she turned her attention to the staircase. “Michael let’s go!”
“Woah,” Sonny said covering his ears and squinting him eyes. “Geez, did you have to do that in my ear?”
Carly kissed his ear. “Awe, I’m sorry honey,” she whispered in his ear and planted a soft sweet kiss on Sonny’s lips that soon began to deepen.
“Yuk. Do you two ever stop kissing?” Michael asked as he grabbed his coat off the sofa and put it on.
“No,” Carly said has she planted another kiss on Sonny’s lips.
“Stop!” Michael said as he step between them and pushed them apart.
Carly laughed, “Lets go Mr. Man. We are already late.” She opened the door and playful pushed Michael out of it.
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Sophie walked out on to the deck to find Peter watching over the Cliffhangers. They were sitting at a picnic table in the middle of the courtyard.
“What are you thinking about?” she asked as she went and stood next to him.
Peter glanced at her from the corner of his eye and smiled. “I was just thinking about how nice it is to have Shelby back. You know where we can watch her and make sure that she is safe. I really hated having to send her back to that house.”
“You really do love that little girl don’t you,” Sophie stated more than asked.
“Yeah, I do. I have feel connected to her. I mean from the moment I saw her I felt drawn to her. I have never wanted to keep a student protected and save as much as her. I don’t know what it is about her.”
“It sounds to me that you see her as your own,” Sophie exclaimed.
“It’s true,” Peter admitted. “I would be lying if I said I didn’t care for Shelby as if she was my own daughter. But there is more. She reminds me of this girl I dated the summer before I went to college. I thought I was really falling in love with her. Her name was Carly Benson. And I see a lot of Carly in Shelby.”
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The Cliffhangers sat at the table talking about general things, and Shelby was not feeling the conversation. So she leaned over and whispered into Scott’s ear. “Hey do you want to go for a walk?”
“Sure,” Scott said getting up from the table. “Hey guys we will catch you guys later. We are going for a walk.”
“Alright, Meat. Talk to you guys later.”
Shelby and Scott walked holding hands in silence until they reached a quiet spot in the woods by the lake about a fourth of a mile away from Horizon. When they reached the spot Scott sat down against a tree and Shelby moved to sit in between his legs and leaned against his chest.
“So do you want to tell me what’s up?” Scott asked.
Shelby just sat there for a moment without saying anything. Scott knew not to push, he just wanted for her to response. Then after a few moments Shelby sighed and pulled a picture out of her coat pocket.
“I have just been thinking about my father lately. The anniversary of his death is in two days,” She said as she handed Scott the picture in her hand. It was of her and her father when she was seven years old. “That was taken about a week before he died.”
Scott looked at the picture and smiled. Shelby was so little and innocence in the picture. She also looked very happy and from the way that her father was looking at her you could tell that she was the sparkle in his eyes. “You guys looked close.”
“Yeah. Unlike, my mother I felt that he loved me. There were times when my mother was not the nicest person to me and my father would have a fit. I can remember him telling me right before he died that he always wanted me and that he knew I was his from the moment that he saw me.”
“How did he die?” Scott asked handing her back the picture.
“He had cancer in his lungs.”
Scott didn’t know what to say so he just wrapped his arms around her. He could tell she was feeling vulnerable and he wanted to make her feel safe.
Shelby welcomed the security that Scott was offering and allowed him to embrace her. “But you know what? As close as we were there was always something missing from our relationship. Don’t get me wrong. I loved him, but it was similar to the love that I had for his brother. I loved him like I loved my Uncle Max.” She laughed at the thought of her uncle.
“What’s so funny?” Scott inquired.
“Nothing major. Thinking about my Uncle Max just now, reminded me of happy times. He was a really cool guy. He always knew how to make me laugh,” Shelby explained. She was silence for a moment before continuing. “I wonder how he is doing.”
“When was the last time you saw or spoke to him?”
“Umm, about two years after my father died mom started to date Walt. Well, Uncle Max couldn’t stand him and one night the two of them got into a fight. Mom kicked Uncle Max out and told him that unless he can respect her husband to be then he is not welcomed in her house.”
“So you haven’t see him since then?”
“No, the last time I saw him was two years after that. He came by to see me and Jess but Walt didn’t want him near us. I think he felt threaten by him, because he probably knew that he wasn’t going to be able to get away with certain things if Uncle Max was around. So he started this whole song and dance about how it wasn’t safe for me and Jess to be around him because he was involved with a dangerous crowd. Mom agreed with him, because she went along with anything that Walt said. It was at that moment that she forbid Uncle Max to ever see us again. She said that if he came near us she would press charges.”
“Wow, that’s harsh.”
“Yeah, and the irony of it all is that Uncle Max turned out not to be the one Mom had to protect us from. It was Walt.”
“I’m sorry that you ever had to experience the pain you did because of him,” Scott said as he held her a little tighter.
Shelby turned slightly so that she could face Scott and gave him a little smile. “I know, but that time in my life is over. I am happy now and part of that is because of you,” she said as she gave Scott a tender kiss.
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“Geez, I didn’t realize how much stuff I left over here,” Carly said as Max carried the last of six large boxes out side to the limo.
“Yeah, it should be fun going through all of them,” Bobbie commented.
“Umm, I think I am just going to put them into storage. I am not too anxious to go through them. Beside could you just imagine the mess that they would make? Sonny would have a fit,” Carly laughed.
“Oh you know that if you decided to go through them Sonny would let you do whatever you wanted,” Bobbie replied.
“This is true,” Carly said giving her mother a hug. “Well, we better get going before Sonny sends out a search party. He called about an hour ago wondering when Michael and I are coming home.”
“Alright honey,” she said as the phone rang. “I better get that. Call me when you get home.” Bobbie said walking into the living room and picking up the phone.
“Michael we’re leaving!” Carly yelled up stairs as she put on her coat.
“Ok Mom. I’m coming,” Michael said rushing down the stairs with a box in his hand. “Look what I found under the dresser in your room.”
Carly raised an eyebrow at her son. “What were you doing under the dresser?”
Michael gave is mother an innocent look. “I was playing with Jamie’s marbles and some of them fell and rolled in your room under the dresser.”
“Right. Give me the box and put on your jacket so we go. Daddy is making dinner and you know how he gets when we are late for dinner.” She said handing him his jacket.
“Ok Mommy,” he said handing her the box and taking his jacket.
When Michael handed Carly the box she was able to get a good look at it, and the sight of it caused her to feel a little faint and color drain from her face.
“Mom, are you ok?” Michael asked noticing the change in her.
“Oh, I’m ok baby. Let’s go. Bye Mom. Tell Jamie I said hey,” She said as they were walking out the door.
“Alright dear,” Bobbie said coming to the door and closing it behind them.
Carly and Michael walked down the stairs to the Brownstone and got into the limo. Both of them strapped themselves with their seat beats and Michael started playing with his Gameboy. Carly just sat there silently examining the box. It was a medium size hand-held box with a teddy bear pattern on it, and written across the front in black letters was the word Shelby.