NOTE: I wrote this months ago, before Sonny fired Alexis. I guess that makes it AU now? It's a scene I wish had been onscreen, but obviously it wasn't. That's what fanfiction is for though!

She sits in a small café sipping from her cuba libre. The room smells of coconut and the patrons are clad in tropical colors. Dress code is from an MGM musical and includes big bold skirts, off the shoulder peasant blouses on the women; men in white linen shirts and khaki colored pants. The room is cool but everyone is sweating and there is a beat that thumps from the band up through the table where she has rested her drink. Her back is ramrod straight, eyes wide and alert as she takes in the room.

There is a transition in the rhythm from celebratory to lusty. He is here and every step he takes towards her table accelerates the melting of her bones. When the hand touches her elbow she is completely pliable. She is guided to her feet, unable to control her actions as she is slowly turned. She is confronted with eyes of melted chocolate and as she stares at them, she begins to deteriorate into a pool of liquid that he absorbs through his skin. She is gone and he takes the now empty seat at her table.

Alexis wakes up with a start. It is the same dream she has had every night for a month. She touches her abdomen gently, offering a maternal hug to the child that resides there. She turns on her side and falls back into a fitful sleep.

20+ Years Later

The newspaper on her doorstep catches her attention with the headline "Who Killed AJ Quartermaine?" The photo selected of AJ is a handsome one, taken in the prime of his career. It looks like the one they had shoved into the binders of investor meetings back when AJ was running ELQ so many years ago. The portrait itself clues her into the fact that the piece will most likely portray the victim as a bright light cruelly extinguished. While she can't argue with the horrific nature of AJ's end, she can certainly contest the overall characterization.

Alexis looks back at the question posited on the front page and mumbles an answer to herself: "Carlos Rivera." She winces for a moment at the memory of her ex's affinity for scandalous Quartermaine coverage. Moving into the kitchen, she puts a pot of coffee on deciding to read Julian's latest journalistic effort. She hasn't seen him in weeks, and his paper is the only connection she has to him.

She is grabbing her reading glasses when the phone rings. The caller is her biggest client, and the early hour drives her to answer it, if only to still the fear that something has happened to their daughter.

-"Alexis—it's me, Sonny."

-"Is it Kristina? Is she OK?"

-"Good morning to you, too. She's fine." He is silent for a few beats. "I've been arrested."

-"On what charge?"

-"Can you just come down? I'll explain it when you get here."

-"I'm not handling your criminal work anymore, Sonny. Can I call someone else? Diane maybe?"

-"No. I need the best." There is a long pause before Sonny breaks the silence. "Please, I need you. We're family."

Alexis agrees to head to the station as she hangs up the phone. She looks back at the headline and guesses why Sonny is at the station. And then she dismisses the slight pit building in her stomach because she knows Sonny is innocent.

As she walks into the PCPD and asks to see her client she is momentarily shocked when Det. West is the arresting officer; the feeling of déjà vu has prepared her for Taggert. Alexis shakes off the decades old memory and is escorted to the interrogation room.

She walks in on Anna Devane instead of Mac Scorpio. Again: weird. She reminds the Commissioner of a handful of amendments and settled case law before Anna exits offended, and she sits across from her client, Michael Corinthos Jr. It's just the two of them.

-"Well, this is certainly bringing back some memories."

Sonny gives her his most charming smile. "You looked like you were getting soft with all that contract work. I thought you needed a good criminal case to keep your skills sharp."

Alexis grins and pulls the newspaper out of her tote. "OK. So I haven't had a chance to read this yet. But it's a little too coincidental that you're here and this was on my doorstep. Care to enlighten me as to what's going on?"

Sonny's eyes grow dark as he sees the headline. "I see your boyfriend has been busy."

-"He's not my boyfriend, Sonny. And you're under arrest and I charge by the hour. So unless you're willing to blow all that coffee money on my billable hours, I suggest we cut to the chase, OK?"

-"Sure, Alexis. Sorry. Didn't mean to bring up a sore subject."

He seems genuinely apologetic. It has been a while since Alexis has heard him use that tone. She warms a little, remembering who they used to be.

-"Alright! So, Mr. Corinthos, why have you been arrested?"

-"They think I killed AJ."

This is not unexpected. "Well, you know you didn't and I know you didn't. So why do the police think you did?"

Sonny shifts a little uncomfortably. "They say they have evidence that puts me at Ava's at the time of the shooting." He is looking at her dead in the eyes to gauge her reaction.

-"So they say they have evidence. What is it? Where did it come from?"

-"It came from Ava."

Alexis takes a minute to look back down at the paper wishing she'd had the time to read the article before she made her way over. Her schedule is light on meetings today, but she has a lot of work to do. And she has recognized Sonny's mood: defensive yet martyred. Which means he is incapable of giving her a nice concise summary. This back and forth will be like pulling teeth.

-"Look Sonny. We've got two choices. I can either read this article and use it as the basis for our little discussion OR you can actually tell me what happened. I personally think the latter is the way to go. The sooner I know what the evidence is, the sooner I can get the charges dropped and we can all go home."

Sonny looks at Alexis for a bit before rubbing his forehead with each of his hands. Alexis recognizes the tell from the many hours she's spent with him: he's about to deliver news she doesn't want to hear. She sighs as she forces a lightness to her voice, "OK, Corinthos. Spill."

-"Ava has a tape."

-"A tape."

-"A recording."

-"Well that clarifies…nothing. A recording of what, Sonny?"

-"A recording of me shooting AJ."

Alexis looks at Sonny, puzzled. "How did she get a recording of that? Did she doctor one? If so, we can probably send it to Spinelli. He can verify the authenticity."

Sonny smiles bitterly, "Spinelli's already worked on the tape."

The realization is slow to dawn on Alexis. When it finds the pit in her stomach she had so quickly dismissed earlier, it blossoms into a panic that seizes her. She knows what he's about to say, and she wants to be anywhere but in this room. She starts to get up but sits back down. "What did you do, Sonny? What is on the recording?"

-"It's a recording of me shooting AJ Quartermaine."

She's been in this room so many times she instinctively knows the location of the garbage pail; she barely reaches it before she fills it with the contents of the coffee she had for breakfast.

Sonny is silent while she collects herself. She senses him looking at her, but it's more than that. He's reading her in a way she hasn't felt in years. He's trying to anticipate her mood. She's used to his subtle or maybe not-so-subtle manipulations: getting her to work for him again, spying on Julian. But this is different. She has to go back to when he hid kidnapping Xander from her for a comparable feeling.

And then she's not sure who has changed in the room: the real Sonny or how she perceives Sonny.

He is graciously accommodating. "Do you need a tissue, water or anything?"

Alexis shoots him a look. "Are you going to get the waiter, Sonny? You're cuffed to a desk in an interrogation room. Maybe what you can do for me is recognize that fact. That would be a helpful start."

Her tone has changed. She's sarcastic and unyielding. She sees it in his eyes—the recognition that she has no urge to indulge him.

-"I know I'm locked up Alexis. I'm pretty aware of my situation. Your job is to help me get out of it."

-"Well then let's start with this: what's on the recording, exactly? Have you heard it? Have you heard what the police have?"

-"I've heard a copy of it. I haven't heard their copy."

-"God, Sonny. There's more than one copy?" She shakes her head before focusing on him. "Wait here." She catches herself and briefly sighs as she realizes her mistake.

He takes the opportunity to try and win her back by forcing a smiling intimacy between them. "Like I have a choice, right?"

Det. West is helpfully at the desk outside the interrogation room, filling out paperwork. Alexis masks her fear and anxiety with her imperious tone. "Det. West, my client informs me you have a recording that is the basis of the arrest?"

-"We do."

-"We'd like to hear it."

-"I have to clear that with the Commissioner."

-"Please do."

The recorder sits in the middle of the table. Accused and his attorney on one side, the Commissioner and lead detective on the other. Anna plays the recording and the first sound is Sonny's voice. Sonny immediately protests over the tape "This isn't how it starts. This is edited. This isn't what happened." Alexis gently grabs his arm.

-"Sonny, let's just hear what they have?"

She can tell by his eyes that he's in agreement, and she nods to the Commissioner. Anna rewinds and starts again from the beginning.

When the recording is over, Alexis looks over at the other side. "I'd like a moment alone with my client."

The door is barely closed when Alexis walks to the corner of the room, her back to Sonny. For minutes it is quiet. Sonny finally decides to break the silence and he's adopted the tone of the persecuted. For a second he sounds like his brother. "Alexis, this isn't the whole tape. Ava edited it."

Alexis turns to him "Sonny, that tape." She takes a deep breath, more to steady herself for the answer than to actually ask her next question. "I heard you shoot AJ Quartermaine on that tape. After he begged you, Sonny. Is that the part of the tape that's doctored?"

Sonny looks down at his hands, and a wave of rage rolls over Alexis. She takes three violent steps to the table before slamming her fist down to get his attention. "Answer me."

-"I don't know if that part is doctored or not. I don't know what she did with it."

-"OK, smart ass. How about this: did you shoot AJ Quartermaine? Is that part of the tape accurate?" She continued, "When you hire technical experts at thousands of dollars an hour, will the first one be able to tell you it's doctored or will you need to find one who is more amenable to suggestion?"

-"You're my attorney, right?"

-"Right now, yes. Anything you say is covered under attorney client privilege."

-"What do you mean, 'right now'?"

Alexis would later pinpoint that as the exact moment that she knew. The tape had been damning, but it was the evasion after that left her with no doubt of the tape's authenticity.

-"I mean that until I give you notice of my resignation, I am your attorney and this conversation is protected."

-"Are you saying you're quitting?"

-"I'm not answering another question Sonny until you answer the one on the table. Did you kill AJ Quartermaine?"

Sonny sighs. His face changes, his features relaxing as though the mask he has been wearing throughout their time together has fallen away. The end result is a face she hasn't seen in decades: one that she saw everyday when she lived across the hall from him, defending him from the police, from his enemies, from his lovers and wives. Her indignation and hurt begin to melt away and for a moment, she is that woman in his penthouse, ready to hear what he has to say so she can set about the task of saving him from himself.

-"I went to Ava's. She'd been feeding us information on Julian's organization and I wanted to make sure she was for real." He continues his tale as Alexis sits rapt, hanging on every word. As he gets deeper into the story, she realizes she is looking for a way to make this OK. To excuse him from the murder he is confessing to.

Yet as he continues, his tone is less objective. It's defiant. The facts are clearly not on his side so he needs to position them in a way that makes him the victim—that exonerates him from the crime.

When he finishes he looks up at her, his eyes injured. The tale and the ordeal of the arrest have taken a lot out of him. He looks so defenseless. She realizes that he has misinterpreted the pooling in her eyes as sympathy.

-"So you killed him?"

-"Yes, Alexis. But he was threatening Ava, I couldn't let him hurt a woman like that."

-"But on the tape he had let go of Ava."

-"He did, but I was overcome. All I could think of was Deke beating on my mother."

She cocks her head to the side and looks at him in admiration. She always knew he'd be a great attorney, and he has been planning this defense for weeks.

Alexis rubs her hands over her eyes to wipe away the stress and any trace of the tears that had been pooling there. She begins to pack her bag. "I'm sorry, Sonny. But I can't be your lawyer on this one."

-"You can't quit, Alexis. I just confessed to you."

-"And that is covered under attorney/client privilege."

-"But you can't leave me like this, Alexis. I'm Kristina's father. We share a daughter together. We're family."

Alexis stops packing and looks at him hard. "How did that happen exactly?"

Sonny's face is blank for a minute. "I mean, you know how it happened Alexis. We had sex."

-"And why did we have sex, Sonny? Why did you seduce me on that night?" The silence goads her into being nastier than she'd like, "C'mon Sonny. How did I end up pregnant with Kristina?"

-"Alexis you know the story as well as I do."

-"Right." She shakes her head slightly. "You know Sonny. You were my world back then. And I was so in love with you." She looks up at him hoping to see a sign of something—of what she isn't sure. But the gesture is wasted energy. His face is impassive. "You knew that, though. And I told you then that I couldn't abide by murder. That it was a dealbreaker for me Sonny."

-"Oh, and Julian hasn't killed anyone? Jerry Jacks?"

-"I'm not talking about them. I'm talking about us. Whether you realize it or not, Sonny. AJ Quartermaine is the reason we have Kristina. He ties us together almost as much as she does."

-"How can that lowlife be as important to us as our daughter? You're being ridiculous, Alexis"

She stills her anger as she moves along. "Of course, we're tied through our love of Kristina. But the relationship between you and me, the trust between you and me—that was cemented the night you didn't kill AJ. That you let it go. That you weren't a murderer."

-"Well, newsflash, Alexis." He speaks quietly, a little sadly—as though breaking the death of a beloved pet to a child. "I was always a murderer. You knew I'd killed people before. This doesn't change anything."

-"It does for me. It changes everything for me, Sonny. I can't represent you. Hell, I can't even work for you anymore."

He is indignant now. Adapting new tactics to react to her tone. He wants to win her back. He is going the guilt route. "You can't just quit, Alexis. I mean, I confessed to you."

-"Right, and as I said before, that's covered under attorney/client privilege. You're safe."

Sonny pulls his go-to card. The one she's heard once already today and multiple times across the decades to entwine her with him against her better judgment. "But we're family, Alexis."

-"No we're not, Sonny. The only reason we ever spent any time together was because we were raising our daughter. She's grown. I work for you now only because you blackmailed me into doing it."

He balks at the characterization. "That's not true."

-"It is true, Sonny. The one thing I've had to hold on to is that one day at one time, you were a good person. You could have killed a man and you didn't because I asked you not to. Because deep down there was a decent man in there who could emerge and make you a great man. I'm not going to lie, at the time I was also happy and flattered you chose me over murder. But through the years, not killing AJ showed me everything you could be. And every time you did something nefarious or violent or mean I could excuse it because I had seen you, Sonny. But now I know that was all just an illusion. It was an aberration." She speaks mournfully and quietly. "Or maybe it was true. Maybe you could have been a good man. But not any more. That piece of you has probably been dead for a very long time. I just didn't realize it until about 20 minutes ago."

Sonny is quiet. She can see the wheels moving in his head. He is staking out a new position. He hasn't realized the war is lost—or maybe he has and is making one last charge.

-"Fine. You don't like me. The law doesn't have an out for dropping a client you don't like Alexis. I could sue you."

His volley piques her interest. The tactic amuses her. "Can you? Because from where I'm sitting there's a clear conflict of interest on my part."

-"How so?"

-"Well, turns out that you're being 'framed' by my boyfriend's sister. I don't know that I can represent you. Especially since he was an early suspect. I don't think it's in your best legal interests to have me as an attorney. I think I could probably get a judge to see it that way."

-"You just told me you broke up with Julian."

-"Oh, did I? You must have misunderstood. We're together. See, I have a text from him here. Oh, wow. I've had four from him this morning. Looks like he wants to meet me tonight to discuss something important."

-"Alexis…" His voice takes on a resigned tone. He knows he has been beaten.

-"Maybe it's a proposal!" She gushes exaggeratedly.

-"I get the picture."

-"Do you? Because I'm resigning as your lawyer Sonny." Her tone has a finality to it that is irrelevant; he is done fighting.

Sonny looks at her and gives her a last flash of his dimples, "It was worth a shot." He says it simply, without any regret or hurt.

Alexis finishes packing her tote and stands. She nods her head as a goodbye. Her hand is on the door when he makes one last request. "Alexis? Can you call Diane for me before you leave?"

She sits in The Floating Rib nursing her third martini. The voicemail she's left Kristina has yet to be returned, and she decides her daughter will need to wait until tomorrow for a fuller explanation. Freed from the prospect of a long conversation with an excitable child, she slams back the rest of her drink and orders another. She has put off Julian until tomorrow night. This is a funeral followed by a celebration he hasn't earned the right to attend: he does not know the deceased.

The funeral. She is burying whatever illusions she still held about Sonny. He is not a good man. Her value to him never existed beyond what she could do for him at a given moment. Indeed, were it not for the daughter they shared, they may never have interacted after she quit following Carly's resurrection. Whatever feelings once tied her to him are now dead.

The celebration. She is toasting her freedom. To escaping the Sonny Corinthos thrall that has kept her encumbered for so many years. And Jax and Ned—they would gleefully share a drink with her tonight. But the former is in Paris and it s too late to call; Ned is somewhere starting a new chapter with Olivia. So Alexis is resolved to celebrate with them in spirit. She orders a fifth and final martini. She sees Patrick enter the bar, and she toys with the idea of asking him to join her. But Alexis prefers to drink alone. This is her victory.

She sits in a small café sipping from a cuba libre. The room smells of coconut and the patrons are clad in tropical colors. Dress code is from an MGM musical and includes big bold skirts, off the shoulder peasant blouses on the women; men in white linen shirts and khaki colored pants. The room is cool but everyone is jumping and twisting and thrusting to the beat that thumps from the band up through the table where she has rested her drink. The party has taken over the room and she wants to join the dancing.

She starts to take off her heels; they will only inhibit the abandon she intends to show on the dance floor. As she sets the pair under the table for easy retrieval later, she feels a hand on her elbow. She stands and turns to face the owner. His eyes are black, like those of a shark. As she stares into them the owner begins to settle into himself before melting into a pool of blood that settles on the floor in front of her. She signals to one of the staff that there is a mess that needs attention; someone may slip and fall. Then she walks around the puddle and makes her way to the dance floor.

Alexis wakes up from her dream refreshed. It's 9 am and somehow she has slept through the cacophony that signals morning in her daughter's penthouse. The martinis she guzzled last night have left no mark. As she looks around the room, she places it in its proper context: it's a room where her sister used to sleep in a penthouse Alexis had rented from her boss. She reaches over to her phone and opens her real estate app. Time to find a house and make a clean start.