I Knew

"What are you doing here?" Alexis asked, trying to keep the fear out of her eyes and her voice.

"I'm here to talk about the Mother of my child." He told her.

"God, that woman must have a piece of rotting driftwood in the place where her heart is supposed to be." Sonny ran a hand over his mouth to keep from grinning.

"Who's that?" He asked, already knowing what her response would be.

"Carly." She told him, anger evident in her voice.

"You know I'd thought after this long time apart maybe you would have started making a little more sense." He told her.

"And I would of thought you would've stopped hurting people for a living . . ."

"Are you going to keep me in the hall?"

"Do you just want to leave all together?" She shot at him.

"No, I want you to get my child as far away as Ric Lansing as possible."

"You have no right to say anything about . . ."

"Mommy . . .down. . .pwease," Kristina said, stuffing the rest of the oreo she was eating into her mouth. She sat her daughter down and eyed Corinthos,

"Get in." He shut the door and watched as Kristina went over to her toy box.

"Don't look at her." She said assuming he was sizing up his next prize. "Viola," she called, "Keep Kristina company, will you?" She pulled Sonny into her study where she would still be able to see her daughter through the faux window, yet she wouldn't here them.

"Kris, Kristina has a-a Leticia?"

"No, Kristina has a babysitter, not a surrogate Mother." She said, matter-of-factly.

"Touché."

"I told her I didn't want her growing up around thugs that guard her every move. I don't want her hurt. I want her to grow up safe and happy. I don't want her to be scared, like . . .like" She had been yelling, but her voice softened.

"Like you, right Lex? You don't want her be frightened of everything like you were living with the Cassadines and like you have been in fear every day of your life since then?"

"Don't you even. . ." She began, fire in her gaze but water in her eyes.

"You can't hide it from me, Alexis. You never could. You suppress it, you cover it up with your stiff suits and your mask of confidence, but you are scared to death. . .you're afraid and you don't want her to feel that do you? Do you?" She had turned away, but her shoulders were shaking, with sobs. He walked toward her and she turned back to him.

"Get out! You don't know me anymore. You never did."

"Hush." He said, pulling her towards him. She fought against him, pushing and hitting, but finally he caught her arms and pulled her tight against his chest. "Shhhh. . . .it's okay, baby. It's alright, you're not alone. You never were. She's safe. Nothing will change that." Alexis gathered her emotions back into place and stepped back wiping away her any remaining tears, taking a deep breath.

"You learned to breathe."

"Yeah, when I was in labor in the freezing snow. . .when I was in the NICU watching Kristina fight for her life, when I was on trial for protecting her from someone you failed to keep away. I will not let you take her and put her in that deathtrap of a penthouse with that. . .that. . .Do you call her a woman? "

"Alexis." He said calmly.

"What?" She replied in frustration. "Don't defend her to me. I sent you back to her and she couldn't even get that right!"

"Sam is having my baby. Ric has her in custody."

"You wanted a lawyer?" She asked. "How dare you!" And then she realized what she had done. "Why aren't you throwing things?" He laughed.

"Carly didn't tell me Kristina was OUR daughter."
"Then how?"

"I knew." He said, quietly, looking down and then back up at her. "Thank you for saving her from my life." She wiped away a stray tear and he fought back his own. He had put himself aside for the love of someone else, for both of them?

"How long have you known?"

"I heard you." He told her in a whisper. She took a step closer.

"Heard me?"

"I heard you talking to her, you know when she was in your tummy. Carly had fallen asleep on the couch and I came to check on you. I thought you were sick with the flu or something. The door was unlocked. I barely opened it and I heard you tell her that I would love her and spoil her, but that my life was too dangerous and I knew you were right. I closed the door."

"So Carly?"

"She's part of my life isn't she? I know the hell Helena put you through, Lex. She didn't know that I knew and that. . .that was the safest way . . ."

"I represented her for noth . . .I hurt you. . ."

"I knew you were tough enough to face her, but Kristina . . .well, Carly can teach the boys not to take crap off of anyone, but I wanted Kristina to see what it was to be a real woman . . a gentle, caring, smart . . ."
"Stop," she said to him.

"I knew you didn't sleep with Ned, you couldn't do that to your sister . . .Alexis, you did the right thing." She sat down in the swiveling chair next to her desk, he bent down next to her, his hands on her legs.

"I'm sorry you went through all that you did, but I had to play along," he told her.

"No, you could've helped me. You let me lose her." She said to him.

"I had to trust that you would get her back, Lex. I was stubborn. I wanted to be with her. I wanted to be with you, while she was fighting for her life, so tiny. I was breaking inside."

"I named her after your mother," she said randomly. He didn't hide the tears from her.

"She looks a lot like her." He stood up and walked toward the doorway, he put his finger to the bridge of his nose, stopping the sting. "Lex, do you still hate me?"

"Sonny, look at me. Look in my eyes. I don't . . .I didn't . . .No, I was hurt. I can't hate you, you gave me an angel."

He nodded, looking back at her. "I can't believe I went this long without. . .

"My best friend." She finished.

Alexis walked over to him, he looked like a little boy, vulnerability on his face. She wrapped her arms around him. Putting a hand on his face as it rested on her shoulder.

"Thank you," she whispered in his ear.

"I love you," he said, reveling in her scent.

"I love you too." She said, kissing his cheek. They drew back as Alexis felt someone tugging on her leg.

"Mommy . . .up, up." Alexis picked her up,

"Daddy," she said, as Sonny brought a gentle hand to her face.

"How?" He asked Alexis as she smiled at him, dimples glowing.

"She has a picture of you by her bed."

"That's why you didn't want her to come up to me," he gathered.

She nodded.

"Can I hold her?"

"Yes. Kris . . .go to daddy." She told her daughter who was truly meeting her father for the first time.

"Daddy . . .kiss," Sonny's met his baby girl's puckered lips with his own.

He hugged her to him, much like Alexis had held him earlier.

"It's been too long, Mi pequeño Gardenia."