The Courtroom --

Ric noticed that Zander and Emily were both missing from the courtroom still and leaned in to Alexis to ask if she had known where they had gone to. He became concerned about his brother and Emily as he was asked if he had anymore witnesses.

"If I may beg the court's indulgence, and ask for a short recess, my next witness has not arrived yet and I'm waiting to hear when that will be." Ric asked the judge for some extra time.

The judge looked down at his watch and noticed it was almost lunchtime. "We'll take a brief recess for lunch. Court will resume at 2pm." he ordered and struck his gavel down to close the morning session of the trial.

After the judge had left the courtroom, Alexis turned to Ric and asked who this witness was he was waiting for, she had read his witness list and she didn't see any witnesses that weren't in the courtroom that morning.

"I'm waiting for a phone call from one of my staff, he's suppose to be getting another witness here for me, but I'm not sure how it's going to turn out. If I can get the witness here, Sonny's for sure going to prison." he was being very cryptic with her.

"Care to tell me who this person is? You know surprise witnesses will call for an objection from Sonny's attorney." she reminded him of the legalities of it all.

"If it works out the way I hope it will .... the witness will be .. my mother." he replied and saw her eyes widen.

"You mean your's and Zander's mother?" she questioned shocked to hear that Zander's mother was alive. "I thought she had passed away a long time ago, Ric?"

"That's the catch, she's been in protective custody for the last 15 years, and I don't know if I have the clearance to get her in the courtroom to testify just yet." Ric replied and a shocked Alexis thought about what this was going to do to Zander.

"You know Zander has been told she died, have you even thought about your brother's reaction to this and that you knew about it and didn't tell him?!"

Ric hadn't realized what it would do to Zander to see his mother again, his focus had been all about this case against Sonny. He knew he had to find Zander and tell him about their mother, he deserved the truth, and it was time to tell his brother that their mother was alive.

Judge Cooper had accepted Ric's request of a private meeting in his chambers and asked Ric to meet 30 minutes before reconvening court. Ric still had to tell Zander about their mother, but he still hadn't had the phone call he had been waiting for, so he wanted to ask Judge Cooper for a continuance of at least 48 hours.

At the hospital --

Ric had an hour before his meeting with Judge Cooper and had found Zander at the hospital getting his hand tended to by Bobbie. Zander saw Ric standing just beyond the curtain waiting for him and he noticed his brother looking worried about something, Zander had hoped it was nothing concerning the case. Bobbie finished up the last of the bandage on Zander's hand and left him get up off the gurney as she put away the supplies she used.

"You should clean that tomorrow and re-bandage it, I'll give Emily the supplies to take home." Bobbie explained and Zander nodded in acknowledgment before leaving the cubical to see his brother.

As he emerged from behind the curtain, Ric stepped forward and guided him the chairs to talk. Ric didn't know the best way to tell his brother about their mother, and he knew Zander would be furious with him for not telling him sooner.

"There is something you need to know, Zander." Ric said as he led him to the couch and sat him down.

"Okay, what's that?" an unexpecting Zander replied.

"There's something I need to tell you about our mother." Ric began.

"What's there to know, Ric? She died quite a few years ago .. end of story." Zander replied as he got up from his seat and Ric stopped him from going.

"No, Zander she didn't."