Chapter 1
Alexis worried about the fog. Would the plane even be able to take off? It had to. Everything was already in motion. There was no turning back now.
She heard a noise and jumped. Her nerves were raw. They had been for months. She felt like she should be used to it by now. It was exhausting. She had to rest, she couldn't take anymore.
Jason had thrown Brenda over his shoulder when he heard the footsteps. They were now hiding on the other side of a chain link fence behind a row of barrels. He kept his hand over Brenda's mouth. "Shhhh."
She finally managed to manipulate her teeth around one of his fingers so she bit down, HARD.
"Ouch." He whispered.
Brenda narrowed her eyes at him, "You deserved it! Why are we hiding? It's just Alexis. Maybe she's looking for us. Why am I whispering?"
He put his finger to his lips signaling for her to stay quiet, for all the good it would do. "She's an officer of the court. We'd just get her into trouble."
"So what! She dumped us. You think she's here to tell us to our faces, cause I'd like to give her a piece of my..."
Jason covered her mouth again and she began to stomp and make little squealing noises until she realized why he had done it. Someone else was approaching.
"Are you ready to leave?"
Alexis tried to make the woman out. She hadn't seen her in over a decade. Of all the people for Stefan to send. "Xenia?"
"Yes."
"What are you doing here?"
"You told your brother you needed to leave the country. I'm here to help."
"Why didn't he come?"
Silence.
Alexis sighed, "He's still angry with me...about Kristina."
Again she was met with silence.
"He can't be as angry with me as I am with myself. I know it is my fault she died..."
"I cannot help your sister. I came to help you and your daughter." Xenia's tone was completely unsympathetic.
Why did Stefan have to send Xenia? He didn't even like Xenia! Victor's only daughter was not the easiest woman to get along with. Alexis supposed a long plane ride with the woman was yet another way to punish her for Kristina's death.
He hadn't even called when his niece was born. She'd had to leave a message on his voice mail begging for help. He'd never even returned her call. She was certain he had abandoned her completely until that morning when she saw the envelope on the floor just inside her front door. A heavy linen envelope sealed with the Cassadine crest telling her to be at the airstrip that night. All the arrangements had been made for Kristina.
"Where is my daughter?"
Xenia looked around. She shivered a little, unused to the cold damp air. What a horrible place to live. Why would anyone choose to live in this miserable little town? "She is on the plane. The doctor's say she is fine."
"You....you didn't give me much time."
Xenia shrugged, "You made the matter seem quite urgent. I thought we should act quickly. I mean we are stealing a man's child. The further away we are when he learns that, the better."
Alexis glared at her, "The child's father won't be after us."
"You made it sound like he was ready to snatch her from your arms."
"No, that would be Ned. Kristina's FATHER doesn't know she's his."
Jason's heart nearly stopped. He actually let his hand drop from Brenda's mouth. He started to step out of the shadows but Brenda grabbed his arm.
"What are you DOING?" She hissed.
"She is about to leave the country with SONNY'S daughter!"
"And we are about to flee the country on a murder rap!"
"I can't let her leave."
Brenda rolled her eyes, "What are you going to do?"
"Stop her!"
"How? Shoot her?"
"No, I'll..I'll talk to her."
"Ya right cause you're her favorite person. She's really going to listen to you!"
"I can't let her just leave."
"And you can't shoot her! She's scared Jason. Look at her, she's terrified."
"So I should just let her take Sonny's kid?"
"We need to tell Sonny."
"There is no time." He started to move again and froze when he saw it.
Xenia pulled the gun out of her coat pocket.
Alexis clenched her fist. "What do you need that for?"
"The father is Sonny Corrinthos, correct?"
"How do you know that?"
"We keep an eye on things. Nikolas is here so we need to know what is going on."
"We?"
"Your brother... myself. Nikolas's safety is important to the family and when it became apparent you were associating too closely with dangerous people.."
Alexis shook her head. "Yes, I know, I screwed up. I get that. In case you haven't noticed I am paying for that now. My sister is dead. My career is over after today. All I have left is Kristina."
"You realize you cannot come back here. You are leaving your clients to hang. Even if Mr. Corinthos doesn't know he's the father, he won't forgive you for this."
Alexis nodded, "I know that. Just put away the gun, you aren't going to need it. I told Sonny I was taking Kristina to John Hopkins just as you instructed."
"The flight plan is filed for Baltimore."
Alexis grabbed her bag and started to follow Xenia toward the plane, "So where are we really going?"
"Home."
Alexis swallowed hard. "The island?"
Xenia smiled, "Best place for me to protect you. No one can touch you there."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Great Brenda, now their leaving!" Jason threw his arms up.
"Quick, where's your gun? Maybe you can shoot the plane down." Brenda rolled her eyes.
"This isn't funny."
"Forgive my hysterical laughter." Brenda smirked.
"She's got the kid and we don't know where they are going." Jason started to pace.
"Sure we do. You heard her, they're going to the island."
Jason stopped pacing long enough to stare at her and grit his teeth. "Okay, what island?"
Brenda shrugged, "THE island?"
"DAMNIT Brenda why did you stop me? This is stupid she was right here..."
"And you were just going to what? Tackle her and force her to hand over the baby who is probably in an incubator..."
"....now we have no idea where they are going..." Jason yelled at her.
".....and the poor little thing is sick and this cold damp air can't be good for her, I mean it's making my hair frizz...."
"...she could be anywhere...."
"We need to tell Sonny." Brenda put her hands on her hips.
"And Carly." He added.
"Oh no. I'm not telling Carly. YOU tell Carly. She's just looking for an excuse to claw my eyes out."
"You aren't telling anybody ANYTHING."
"Say's who?"
"Say's me. You're getting on that plane and going to Lisbon and staying with Jax."
"No I'm not."
"Yes, you are." Jason froze. "Why am I arguing with you?"
"Cause it's what we do."
"How long does it take to get a divorce in Lisbon?"
"I don't know."
"Because it might be worth the trip to find out!"
"Hey, I want out of this just as bad as you do!"
"Not possible."
"What...your new little chickie the impatient type?"
"Shut up Brenda. You don't know what you're talking about."
"Riiiight. Cause she would have to have LOADS of patience to put up with you!"
"Unlike you."
"Ha! So you admit she is some passive little girl." Brenda nodded. "I can just see her now in an apron serving you martinis..."
"I don't drink martinis."
"..beer and making you chicken pot pie..."
Jason blanched and Brenda froze. Her hands flew to her mouth and she started laughing. "Oh NO!!!! She has ACTUALLY made you chicken pot pie! Was it frozen?"
"SOME women know how to cook, unlike you."
"I have more important skills."
"Like running your mouth about things that don't concern you."
"Don't concern me? You're my HUSBAND! I have every right to know what woman you're sleeping with...."
Jason looked away.
Brenda nodded, "So you are actually having SEX with her? Boy it MUST be serious. You never get laid."
"Will you shut up and get on the plane!"
"No, let's go see Sonny and get this over with."
"Get on the plane."
"Are you driving or should I call a cab?"
"JESUS, what do I have to do to get rid of you?"
"I don't think he is going to help you. I really doubt you are on his good side with the whole 'life of crime' and 'killing' thing."
"I've never done anything bad enough to deserve YOU!"
"I'm sure there are plenty of bodies floating in the bottom of the river that would disagree."
~*~*~*~**~*~*~*
Xenia made a sour face as she looked down at the squirming infant in the incubator. Sure was a homely little thing, but then again she was a lousy judge. Babies always disgusted her. The noise, the smell, the constant NEED. She hated needy people, little or not.
Alexis cooed and awed and made baby talk. Xenia moved to the other cabin to smoke. Private planes were the only way to go. Now that the Natzi anti- smokers ran the airlines, commercial travel was impossible. Like she could handle a 10 hour flight without a cigarette and scotch. Well, she could but one of those snippy little air waitresses would die in the process.
They were Natzi's too. The whole world was against her. All the little rules and regulations that made life on the main land so....so.....unbearable.
About the only places she could stand were Paris and Moscow. Paris let her smoke. Moscow allowed her to vent her violent tendencies. The whole city was teeming with mobsters now. They ran everything in the former Soviet Union. The city had passed from evil monarchs, to evil communist, to evil gangsters......yes Moscow was her kinda town.
Stefan handed her the keys to that kingdom years ago. The Cassadines had given up turning over any legitimate profit in Mother Russia so they figured give it to Xenia, she's crazy, it will keep her out of our hair.
But she'd managed to turn things around. Okay, so her means were not exactly up to the current "Cassadine Code of Conduct" but her Father would have been proud and that was all that mattered to Xenia. Until she'd made a few too many enemies and had to return to the island to let things cool off.
The island was a nice place to hide. It was a fortress. Very safe. Her ancestors knew exactly what they were doing when they moved the family there after the revolution. And things over the last year had been more interesting than she ever dreamed, until she got this assignment.
"Go retrieve my sister and her child."
Xenia rolled her eyes. A babysitting gig.
And look at what Alexis had become. A drooling baby loving idiot! Afraid of some two bit hood who wouldn't even qualify as a real mobster in Moscow.
Or worse yet. Running from some merchant class American rich boy! There was a time when Alexis had been a role model for her. Not anymore, the woman had lost it. Too many years eating cheeseburgers and listening to rock and roll. She had forgotten who she was entirely.
"Why couldn't I tell Nikolas?" Alexis was standing in the doorway between the two cabins.
Xenia pretended to be deeply absorbed in a file as she smoked her cigarette. "Plausible deniability. We will wait a few days and tell him then."
"He'll be worried."
"He'll get over it."
"I can't believe Stefan is going to let him wonder what happened to me...."
"How often do you even see Nikolas anymore?"
Alexis made a point of waiving at the smoke as she sat down across from Xenia. "Do we have to go to the island?"
"Yes." Xenia paid no attention to Alexis's obvious discomfort from the smoke.
"I never wanted to go back there. I certainly never wanted to take Kristina there."
"Beggars can't be choosers."
"Why not Switzerland?"
"I can protect you on the island. Any place else would require a new identity. There wasn't time."
"No there wasn't."
Xenia set the file down and looked up. "Why now? You've known who the father was all along, why is it so urgent now that you leave?"
"Ned wants partial custody."
"So! You almost married the guy, how bad could he be?"
"He's changed."
"Changed how?"
"I don't know him anymore."
"People could say the same thing about you the way you have been acting lately."
"How closely are we watched?"
"Very."
"I thought Stefan just didn't care anymore."
Xenia nodded. "Nikolas is still the future of this family. His life is important. The people around him are important so they are watched."
"I don't like it."
"Tough."
Alexis glared and stood up to walk away. The smokey air was making her queasy. "Ned will come after us."
"And he won't get far."
"You don't understand. He's different. I didn't know until now what he was capable of."
"What's changed to make you so afraid of him?"
Alexis crossed her arms and remained silent.
Xenia shrugged, "Fine, you don't want to tell me what I'm up against. I'll deal with him, he's hardly a threat."
"I think....I think.he's a murderer."
"What do you mean you think he's a murderer?" Xenia narrowed her eyes at Alexis.
"I don't want to discuss it." She snapped.
Xenia shook her head, "You don't just toss something out there like the word murderer and expect people not to respond."
"I don't know anything for certain."
"This isn't a court of law. I don't require proof; just tell me what you suspect."
Alexis stared at her cousin for a moment and shook her head. She held her arms tightly around her body.
"Are you cold?" Xenia asked.
"I'm fine."
Xenia watched her pace. Her face was tired, drawn. She looked thin, too thin and very scared. This was a woman teetering on the edge. "You are far from fine Alexis."
"You don't even know me. We haven't seen each other in years. Why did Stefan send you?"
"I apologize if my presence offends you so much...."
"I know what you do Xenia."
"So condescending for a woman fleeing the country with the bastard daughter of a common criminal."
"Sonny is in the same line of work that you are so I guess that makes you a common criminal as well?"
"Oh I may be a criminal but I'm hardly common!"
"Well at least you have your pride."
"Which is more than I can say for you."
"I have principals."
"Really?"
"Ya, really. I know the difference between right and wrong."
"So was it right or wrong to take on a murder case and then dump the clients just before the verdict?"
"I'm doing what is RIGHT for my daughter. She comes first."
"But you made that decision AFTER you took the case."
"I thought I could do both."
"But then Ashton went and killed somebody..you think..and now he wants his daughter."
"He knows Kristina isn't his."
"Oh this just gets better and better. Well at least he is not as boring as I initially thought. So please tell me, oh wise and magnificent attorney, just WHY he thought he stood a snowballs chance in hell of taking the brat if he knew she wasn't his."
"He threatened to tell Sonny."
"Nice ex-fiancé you have there."
"Like I said, I don't know him anymore."
"So do you think he will tell Corinthos once he finds out you've left?"
"I don't know. Probably."
"I guess I had better get to work then." Xenia stood up and stretched.
"What are you going to do?" Alexis asked anxiously.
"Make sure it is in his best interest to keep his mouth shut."
She moved back toward the other cabin and Alexis felt the knot in her stomach tighten.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Just when we get there..let me tell him." Jason hit the button as the elevator doors closed.
"Fine." Brenda shrugged.
"I mean it. Let me tell him."
"I said fine.....but how are you going to do it?"
"What do you man how? I'm just going to tell him."
"Well you can't just burst into the room and hand him a cigar, you have to do this tactfully and let's face it, you don't have much tact."
"I'll handle it."
"How?"
Jason sighed and looked up at the ceiling. "God would you knock it off!"
"You need a plan. What if Carly is there?"
"Then well...."
"You are NOT going to let Sonny send her out of the room!"
"Brenda..."
"The woman has a right to know! I mean the two of you.." the elevator doors opened.
"Just..let...me..handle it."
"Fine." Brenda followed him to Sonny's door.
He stopped, "You don't have to be here."
"I'm your wife. I'm here for moral support. For when you blow it."
Jason didn't even get a chance to knock on the door before it opened.
Sonny stopped and stared at them. "What are you doing here? I thought you two were on a plane to Lisbon?"
"Change of plan." Jason and Brenda walked past Sonny into the penthouse.
"What do you mean? Was there a break in the case?" Sonny closed the door.
"Where's Carly?" Brenda asked.
"She's upstairs with Michael."
Jason looked at Brenda, "So should we tell him or wait for her?"
"NOW you ask for my advice? We had a WHOLE elevator ride to come up with a plan and NOW you want to know what I think?"
"Think about what?" Sonny asked.
Brenda ignored him and continued with Jason, "You're chickening out."
"I'm not chickening out!"
"You have NO idea how to do this. Mr. 'Let me handle it' doesn't have a plan."
"Will one of you tell me what the hell is going on?" Sonny asked again.
"Call Carly." Jason nodded.
"Ohhhh. Bad idea." Brenda cringed.
"I thought you said she needed to here this?"
"I meant if she was already HERE. Like already in the room.."
"SOMEONE TELL ME WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!" Sonny demanded.
"Alexis just left the country with your daughter." Brenda blurted out.
"What?"
Jason rubbed his hand over his head, he really needed to get a divorce, "We heard her on the tarmac, we were getting ready to leave..."
"Well actually we were ARGUING about leaving..." Brenda interrupted.
"....Alexis showed up and she left with some woman."
"What woman?" Sonny asked.
"I don't know, I've never seen her before." Jason shook his head.
Brenda started to describe her. "She was really pretty. Kind of exotic, dark hair, blue eyes. About 5'8 or 5'9 GREAT cheek bones..."
"Anyway Alexis came right out and told the woman....you're the babies father."
"THAT LYING BITCH!"
No one had noticed Carly come down the stairs.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"But Kristina wasn't scheduled to have that surgery for another two months." Ned jerked his gloves off in frustration and set them down on the counter at the nurse's station.
Bobbie shrugged, "Well, I guess Alexis decided it couldn't wait."
"Well it wasn't up to Alexis!" Ned hissed.
"She's her mother."
"And I'm her FATHER. It was up to the doctors and they said two months!"
Bobbie shook her head, "I'm just telling you what happened. They came and took Kristina a few hours ago and Alexis signed the papers. Maybe she meant to call you and there wasn't time."
"This is the age of cell phones, of course she could have called me. No, she did this on purpose."
"Ned..."
Ned stormed away from the desk before Bobbie could finish. The elevator doors had barely closed behind Nikolas before Ned was upon him. "Do YOU know what is going on?"
Nikolas looked up from his paper work and greeted Ned with a puzzled look. "What? Is something wrong with Kristina?"
"You tell me. Alexis took her."
"Took her where?"
"To Baltimore for surgery."
"Surgery? What's wrong?"
"Nothing that couldn't have waited a couple months but Alexis has taken it upon herself to take Kristina...."
"Hey Ned, if Alexis took Kristina for surgery I'm sure she needed it!"
"No, that's just it! She didn't need it for another two months and it was scheduled and we discussed it but now she's gone. So what's going on?"
Nikolas shook his head and continued toward the nurses station passing the paper work to Amy at the desk before turning back to Ned, "Why are you asking me? I'm not exactly in the loop where Alexis is concerned these days."
"She's your Aunt!"
"Ya, something she forgot when she restricted Kristina's visitors last week. I couldn't even get in to see my own cousin!"
"Well you can just imagine how I felt when she did the same thing to me!" Ned hissed.
"What?"
"I think she's going crazy."
Nikolas sighed. This wasn't something he wanted to deal with right now but Alexis had been very irrational lately. "She's been under a lot of stress."
"So she shouldn't be making life and death decisions about OUR child by herself!"
"I'll speak to her."
"How are you going to do that Nikolas? She's gone!"
"I'm sure she will be back as soon as Kristina is out of surgery."
"Well I'm not waiting that long."
"What are you going to do?"
"I'm going after her. I'll call the hospital and see when the surgery is scheduled and I'll take a flight to Baltimore in the morning."
"Ned, don't make this harder on her than it has to be."
"She's the one making it hard."
"I'm sure she has her reasons."
"Damn right she does. She's not pushing me out of my daughter's life!"
"I'm sure that's not...."
Ned punched the elevator button and the doors opened. "If you here from Alexis do me a favor?"
"What's that?"
"Don't tell her I'm coming. No telling what she'll do next."
The elevator doors closed before Nikolas could respond.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"You don't think Sonny would really let Carly kill her do you?" Brenda cringed as she and Jason heard another loud crash from the second floor.
"Carly's not going to kill anybody." Jason ran his hands through his hair and began to pace.
"Are you sure? She looked pretty capable of it before Sonny drug her upstairs.
"We should go."
"Go where?" Brenda wandered over closer to the stairs to see if she could hear a little more of the argument.
"How about you go to Lisbon?"
"What about you?" Brenda hopped up a couple of stairs straining to hear.
"Will you knock it off and let them have some privacy!"
"If they want privacy they shouldn't yell so loud."
"It's their home!"
"They have guests! They should be more considerate."
"I guess they forgot their manners when their world FELL APART!"
Brenda rolled her eyes, "Oh please, they'll be fine."
"Fine? Sonny's got a kid with another woman!"
"People work these things out all the time. Sonny and Alexis can share custody...."
"Well obviously Alexis doesn't want that or she wouldn't have left the country."
"So we'll go get her and straighten..."
"WE? What do you mean WE? There is no WE here Brenda. This is Sonny's problem and YOU are getting on a plane and going to stay with Jax."
Brenda crossed her arms, "You know I'm getting REAL sick and tired of you telling me what to do!"
Jason glared at her, "Well you won't have to deal with it once you get on the damn plane!"
"YOU ARE NOT THE BOSS OF ME!"
"The courts say otherwise, now are you going to get on that plane or am I going to have to drag you...."
"You wouldn't DARE! I'm not going anywhere without you!"
Jason stared at the ceiling and tried to count to ten, a little trick he had read somewhere that was suppose to help people keep their temper, funny that he even remembered that because before Brenda he'd rarely ever LOST his temper. 1,2,3,..4..
"I'm not LEAVING you here!" Brenda continued. "You'll go to prison and."
5, 6, 7......whoever wrote that article had obviously never met Brenda. "I should just take you to Switzerland AND HAVE YOU COMMITED! You're making me crazy!"
Brenda stopped suddenly and stared at him. He couldn't believe how quiet and still she became suddenly.
"You...you wouldn't do that."
It took Jason a moment to figure out what he'd said. He sighed, "Brenda..."
"I mean..you wouldn't do that to me, would you? Not really." Her eyes welled up and he felt like sh**.
"I would never do that." He said quietly.
"You know I'm not crazy."
"Of course not. You just...."
"Cause it's not right. It's not right to leave you here to take the blame when it's my fault. It's not crazy either, I don't care what you say. If you go to jail we both go to jail."
"Nobody is going to jail." Sonny stood on the landing between the two floors.
"Is Carly okay?" Jason asked.
"No, she's not okay but I'll have to deal with that later. Do you know where Alexis was going?"
"She just said the island." Brenda answered before Jason could.
"Do you know what island?" Jason asked Sonny as he crossed the room to pour himself a drink.
"The only island I ever heard Alexis mention was the one she grew up on but she wouldn't take the baby there."
"Why not? Wouldn't that be home?" Brenda sank down on the couch.
"She hated it there."
"She didn't sound too happy about it. I think it was the other woman's idea." Jason added.
"So what are you going to do?" Brenda asked.
Sonny drained the glass and set it back down on the bar, "I'm going to find her."
"How?" Jason looked upstairs. He didn't like how quiet Carly had become.
"We'll figure that out on the plane. You two are leaving the country tonight and it looks like I'm going with you."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~~*~*~*~*
The nurse checked the warmer again. "Everything is fine Ms. Davis."
Alexis smiled as she looked down into the incubator. "It went out before, I just wanted to check."
"This is state of the art equipment. You really shouldn't worry, your family went all out, no expense was spared. Dr. Lee is one of the best neonatal specialists in the country, probably the world. You are very lucky to have him on board."
"Have you worked with him long?"
"Oh no but he is well published."
"Then how...." "
I work in Seattle. Ms. Cassadine contacted me a couple days ago. She said she read about my award and asked if I would take a special case."
"And Dr. Lee?"
"He works in Baltimore, I believe he was supposed to see Kristina in a couple months. When Ms. Cassadine said I would be working with Dr. Lee well that was just icing on the cake. I had the time saved up. A year's salary to go stay on an exclusive Greek island..it was just too good an offer to refuse."
"How long will you be staying?"
"Just as long as Kristina needs us and by the looks of things that won't be long. She's doing very well."
Alexis was beaming, "You think so?"
"Well just look at her! She barely needs us now but Ms. Cassadine didn't want to take any chances. You have a wonderful family Ms. Davis. You're very lucky."
Alexis was too busy grinning at Kristina to contemplate that statement.
Xenia stood in the doorway between the two cabins. Dr. Lee was asleep. She'd paid a small fortune to get him to come along. He'd been plenty cranky about rescheduling his patients but at least the nurse had been cooperative. Did Alexis even know how much trouble she had gone through to find the nurse? The perfect nurse. The perfect doctor. The best a vast fortune to buy. Would Alexis even appreciate all the trouble she'd been through? The risk she'd taken even leaving the island!
Xenia went back to the fax machine as it spit out yet another report. Ned Ashton was on his way to Baltimore. He'd ordered the Quartermain private jet ready and waiting for him the next morning.
Boy did he have a surprise waiting when he arrived. No Alexis. No baby. What would he do?
Well judging by his history he would return to Port Charles and throw a hissy fit. But that seemed to be the old Ned.
He wasn't himself these days.
Faith Roscoe. Now there was a name Xenia recognized. Somehow it didn't seem to belong next to the name Ned Ashton. Faith was a wild card. Her presence threw off the predictability of Ned Ashton.
But she couldn't be the only reason Mr. Ashton wasn't acting like himself . Faith had only been in town a few weeks.
If Ned knew the baby wasn't his why was he so determined to go after her? Why was he so determined to claim a family that wasn't his and obviously didn't want him? According to his file he HAD a daughter he never saw and his own family seemed to need him constantly.
Xenia flipped through a thick stack of faxes on the Quartermain family. Maybe Mr. Ashton needed to get his priorities straight.
Alexis worried about the fog. Would the plane even be able to take off? It had to. Everything was already in motion. There was no turning back now.
She heard a noise and jumped. Her nerves were raw. They had been for months. She felt like she should be used to it by now. It was exhausting. She had to rest, she couldn't take anymore.
Jason had thrown Brenda over his shoulder when he heard the footsteps. They were now hiding on the other side of a chain link fence behind a row of barrels. He kept his hand over Brenda's mouth. "Shhhh."
She finally managed to manipulate her teeth around one of his fingers so she bit down, HARD.
"Ouch." He whispered.
Brenda narrowed her eyes at him, "You deserved it! Why are we hiding? It's just Alexis. Maybe she's looking for us. Why am I whispering?"
He put his finger to his lips signaling for her to stay quiet, for all the good it would do. "She's an officer of the court. We'd just get her into trouble."
"So what! She dumped us. You think she's here to tell us to our faces, cause I'd like to give her a piece of my..."
Jason covered her mouth again and she began to stomp and make little squealing noises until she realized why he had done it. Someone else was approaching.
"Are you ready to leave?"
Alexis tried to make the woman out. She hadn't seen her in over a decade. Of all the people for Stefan to send. "Xenia?"
"Yes."
"What are you doing here?"
"You told your brother you needed to leave the country. I'm here to help."
"Why didn't he come?"
Silence.
Alexis sighed, "He's still angry with me...about Kristina."
Again she was met with silence.
"He can't be as angry with me as I am with myself. I know it is my fault she died..."
"I cannot help your sister. I came to help you and your daughter." Xenia's tone was completely unsympathetic.
Why did Stefan have to send Xenia? He didn't even like Xenia! Victor's only daughter was not the easiest woman to get along with. Alexis supposed a long plane ride with the woman was yet another way to punish her for Kristina's death.
He hadn't even called when his niece was born. She'd had to leave a message on his voice mail begging for help. He'd never even returned her call. She was certain he had abandoned her completely until that morning when she saw the envelope on the floor just inside her front door. A heavy linen envelope sealed with the Cassadine crest telling her to be at the airstrip that night. All the arrangements had been made for Kristina.
"Where is my daughter?"
Xenia looked around. She shivered a little, unused to the cold damp air. What a horrible place to live. Why would anyone choose to live in this miserable little town? "She is on the plane. The doctor's say she is fine."
"You....you didn't give me much time."
Xenia shrugged, "You made the matter seem quite urgent. I thought we should act quickly. I mean we are stealing a man's child. The further away we are when he learns that, the better."
Alexis glared at her, "The child's father won't be after us."
"You made it sound like he was ready to snatch her from your arms."
"No, that would be Ned. Kristina's FATHER doesn't know she's his."
Jason's heart nearly stopped. He actually let his hand drop from Brenda's mouth. He started to step out of the shadows but Brenda grabbed his arm.
"What are you DOING?" She hissed.
"She is about to leave the country with SONNY'S daughter!"
"And we are about to flee the country on a murder rap!"
"I can't let her leave."
Brenda rolled her eyes, "What are you going to do?"
"Stop her!"
"How? Shoot her?"
"No, I'll..I'll talk to her."
"Ya right cause you're her favorite person. She's really going to listen to you!"
"I can't let her just leave."
"And you can't shoot her! She's scared Jason. Look at her, she's terrified."
"So I should just let her take Sonny's kid?"
"We need to tell Sonny."
"There is no time." He started to move again and froze when he saw it.
Xenia pulled the gun out of her coat pocket.
Alexis clenched her fist. "What do you need that for?"
"The father is Sonny Corrinthos, correct?"
"How do you know that?"
"We keep an eye on things. Nikolas is here so we need to know what is going on."
"We?"
"Your brother... myself. Nikolas's safety is important to the family and when it became apparent you were associating too closely with dangerous people.."
Alexis shook her head. "Yes, I know, I screwed up. I get that. In case you haven't noticed I am paying for that now. My sister is dead. My career is over after today. All I have left is Kristina."
"You realize you cannot come back here. You are leaving your clients to hang. Even if Mr. Corinthos doesn't know he's the father, he won't forgive you for this."
Alexis nodded, "I know that. Just put away the gun, you aren't going to need it. I told Sonny I was taking Kristina to John Hopkins just as you instructed."
"The flight plan is filed for Baltimore."
Alexis grabbed her bag and started to follow Xenia toward the plane, "So where are we really going?"
"Home."
Alexis swallowed hard. "The island?"
Xenia smiled, "Best place for me to protect you. No one can touch you there."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Great Brenda, now their leaving!" Jason threw his arms up.
"Quick, where's your gun? Maybe you can shoot the plane down." Brenda rolled her eyes.
"This isn't funny."
"Forgive my hysterical laughter." Brenda smirked.
"She's got the kid and we don't know where they are going." Jason started to pace.
"Sure we do. You heard her, they're going to the island."
Jason stopped pacing long enough to stare at her and grit his teeth. "Okay, what island?"
Brenda shrugged, "THE island?"
"DAMNIT Brenda why did you stop me? This is stupid she was right here..."
"And you were just going to what? Tackle her and force her to hand over the baby who is probably in an incubator..."
"....now we have no idea where they are going..." Jason yelled at her.
".....and the poor little thing is sick and this cold damp air can't be good for her, I mean it's making my hair frizz...."
"...she could be anywhere...."
"We need to tell Sonny." Brenda put her hands on her hips.
"And Carly." He added.
"Oh no. I'm not telling Carly. YOU tell Carly. She's just looking for an excuse to claw my eyes out."
"You aren't telling anybody ANYTHING."
"Say's who?"
"Say's me. You're getting on that plane and going to Lisbon and staying with Jax."
"No I'm not."
"Yes, you are." Jason froze. "Why am I arguing with you?"
"Cause it's what we do."
"How long does it take to get a divorce in Lisbon?"
"I don't know."
"Because it might be worth the trip to find out!"
"Hey, I want out of this just as bad as you do!"
"Not possible."
"What...your new little chickie the impatient type?"
"Shut up Brenda. You don't know what you're talking about."
"Riiiight. Cause she would have to have LOADS of patience to put up with you!"
"Unlike you."
"Ha! So you admit she is some passive little girl." Brenda nodded. "I can just see her now in an apron serving you martinis..."
"I don't drink martinis."
"..beer and making you chicken pot pie..."
Jason blanched and Brenda froze. Her hands flew to her mouth and she started laughing. "Oh NO!!!! She has ACTUALLY made you chicken pot pie! Was it frozen?"
"SOME women know how to cook, unlike you."
"I have more important skills."
"Like running your mouth about things that don't concern you."
"Don't concern me? You're my HUSBAND! I have every right to know what woman you're sleeping with...."
Jason looked away.
Brenda nodded, "So you are actually having SEX with her? Boy it MUST be serious. You never get laid."
"Will you shut up and get on the plane!"
"No, let's go see Sonny and get this over with."
"Get on the plane."
"Are you driving or should I call a cab?"
"JESUS, what do I have to do to get rid of you?"
"I don't think he is going to help you. I really doubt you are on his good side with the whole 'life of crime' and 'killing' thing."
"I've never done anything bad enough to deserve YOU!"
"I'm sure there are plenty of bodies floating in the bottom of the river that would disagree."
~*~*~*~**~*~*~*
Xenia made a sour face as she looked down at the squirming infant in the incubator. Sure was a homely little thing, but then again she was a lousy judge. Babies always disgusted her. The noise, the smell, the constant NEED. She hated needy people, little or not.
Alexis cooed and awed and made baby talk. Xenia moved to the other cabin to smoke. Private planes were the only way to go. Now that the Natzi anti- smokers ran the airlines, commercial travel was impossible. Like she could handle a 10 hour flight without a cigarette and scotch. Well, she could but one of those snippy little air waitresses would die in the process.
They were Natzi's too. The whole world was against her. All the little rules and regulations that made life on the main land so....so.....unbearable.
About the only places she could stand were Paris and Moscow. Paris let her smoke. Moscow allowed her to vent her violent tendencies. The whole city was teeming with mobsters now. They ran everything in the former Soviet Union. The city had passed from evil monarchs, to evil communist, to evil gangsters......yes Moscow was her kinda town.
Stefan handed her the keys to that kingdom years ago. The Cassadines had given up turning over any legitimate profit in Mother Russia so they figured give it to Xenia, she's crazy, it will keep her out of our hair.
But she'd managed to turn things around. Okay, so her means were not exactly up to the current "Cassadine Code of Conduct" but her Father would have been proud and that was all that mattered to Xenia. Until she'd made a few too many enemies and had to return to the island to let things cool off.
The island was a nice place to hide. It was a fortress. Very safe. Her ancestors knew exactly what they were doing when they moved the family there after the revolution. And things over the last year had been more interesting than she ever dreamed, until she got this assignment.
"Go retrieve my sister and her child."
Xenia rolled her eyes. A babysitting gig.
And look at what Alexis had become. A drooling baby loving idiot! Afraid of some two bit hood who wouldn't even qualify as a real mobster in Moscow.
Or worse yet. Running from some merchant class American rich boy! There was a time when Alexis had been a role model for her. Not anymore, the woman had lost it. Too many years eating cheeseburgers and listening to rock and roll. She had forgotten who she was entirely.
"Why couldn't I tell Nikolas?" Alexis was standing in the doorway between the two cabins.
Xenia pretended to be deeply absorbed in a file as she smoked her cigarette. "Plausible deniability. We will wait a few days and tell him then."
"He'll be worried."
"He'll get over it."
"I can't believe Stefan is going to let him wonder what happened to me...."
"How often do you even see Nikolas anymore?"
Alexis made a point of waiving at the smoke as she sat down across from Xenia. "Do we have to go to the island?"
"Yes." Xenia paid no attention to Alexis's obvious discomfort from the smoke.
"I never wanted to go back there. I certainly never wanted to take Kristina there."
"Beggars can't be choosers."
"Why not Switzerland?"
"I can protect you on the island. Any place else would require a new identity. There wasn't time."
"No there wasn't."
Xenia set the file down and looked up. "Why now? You've known who the father was all along, why is it so urgent now that you leave?"
"Ned wants partial custody."
"So! You almost married the guy, how bad could he be?"
"He's changed."
"Changed how?"
"I don't know him anymore."
"People could say the same thing about you the way you have been acting lately."
"How closely are we watched?"
"Very."
"I thought Stefan just didn't care anymore."
Xenia nodded. "Nikolas is still the future of this family. His life is important. The people around him are important so they are watched."
"I don't like it."
"Tough."
Alexis glared and stood up to walk away. The smokey air was making her queasy. "Ned will come after us."
"And he won't get far."
"You don't understand. He's different. I didn't know until now what he was capable of."
"What's changed to make you so afraid of him?"
Alexis crossed her arms and remained silent.
Xenia shrugged, "Fine, you don't want to tell me what I'm up against. I'll deal with him, he's hardly a threat."
"I think....I think.he's a murderer."
"What do you mean you think he's a murderer?" Xenia narrowed her eyes at Alexis.
"I don't want to discuss it." She snapped.
Xenia shook her head, "You don't just toss something out there like the word murderer and expect people not to respond."
"I don't know anything for certain."
"This isn't a court of law. I don't require proof; just tell me what you suspect."
Alexis stared at her cousin for a moment and shook her head. She held her arms tightly around her body.
"Are you cold?" Xenia asked.
"I'm fine."
Xenia watched her pace. Her face was tired, drawn. She looked thin, too thin and very scared. This was a woman teetering on the edge. "You are far from fine Alexis."
"You don't even know me. We haven't seen each other in years. Why did Stefan send you?"
"I apologize if my presence offends you so much...."
"I know what you do Xenia."
"So condescending for a woman fleeing the country with the bastard daughter of a common criminal."
"Sonny is in the same line of work that you are so I guess that makes you a common criminal as well?"
"Oh I may be a criminal but I'm hardly common!"
"Well at least you have your pride."
"Which is more than I can say for you."
"I have principals."
"Really?"
"Ya, really. I know the difference between right and wrong."
"So was it right or wrong to take on a murder case and then dump the clients just before the verdict?"
"I'm doing what is RIGHT for my daughter. She comes first."
"But you made that decision AFTER you took the case."
"I thought I could do both."
"But then Ashton went and killed somebody..you think..and now he wants his daughter."
"He knows Kristina isn't his."
"Oh this just gets better and better. Well at least he is not as boring as I initially thought. So please tell me, oh wise and magnificent attorney, just WHY he thought he stood a snowballs chance in hell of taking the brat if he knew she wasn't his."
"He threatened to tell Sonny."
"Nice ex-fiancé you have there."
"Like I said, I don't know him anymore."
"So do you think he will tell Corinthos once he finds out you've left?"
"I don't know. Probably."
"I guess I had better get to work then." Xenia stood up and stretched.
"What are you going to do?" Alexis asked anxiously.
"Make sure it is in his best interest to keep his mouth shut."
She moved back toward the other cabin and Alexis felt the knot in her stomach tighten.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Just when we get there..let me tell him." Jason hit the button as the elevator doors closed.
"Fine." Brenda shrugged.
"I mean it. Let me tell him."
"I said fine.....but how are you going to do it?"
"What do you man how? I'm just going to tell him."
"Well you can't just burst into the room and hand him a cigar, you have to do this tactfully and let's face it, you don't have much tact."
"I'll handle it."
"How?"
Jason sighed and looked up at the ceiling. "God would you knock it off!"
"You need a plan. What if Carly is there?"
"Then well...."
"You are NOT going to let Sonny send her out of the room!"
"Brenda..."
"The woman has a right to know! I mean the two of you.." the elevator doors opened.
"Just..let...me..handle it."
"Fine." Brenda followed him to Sonny's door.
He stopped, "You don't have to be here."
"I'm your wife. I'm here for moral support. For when you blow it."
Jason didn't even get a chance to knock on the door before it opened.
Sonny stopped and stared at them. "What are you doing here? I thought you two were on a plane to Lisbon?"
"Change of plan." Jason and Brenda walked past Sonny into the penthouse.
"What do you mean? Was there a break in the case?" Sonny closed the door.
"Where's Carly?" Brenda asked.
"She's upstairs with Michael."
Jason looked at Brenda, "So should we tell him or wait for her?"
"NOW you ask for my advice? We had a WHOLE elevator ride to come up with a plan and NOW you want to know what I think?"
"Think about what?" Sonny asked.
Brenda ignored him and continued with Jason, "You're chickening out."
"I'm not chickening out!"
"You have NO idea how to do this. Mr. 'Let me handle it' doesn't have a plan."
"Will one of you tell me what the hell is going on?" Sonny asked again.
"Call Carly." Jason nodded.
"Ohhhh. Bad idea." Brenda cringed.
"I thought you said she needed to here this?"
"I meant if she was already HERE. Like already in the room.."
"SOMEONE TELL ME WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!" Sonny demanded.
"Alexis just left the country with your daughter." Brenda blurted out.
"What?"
Jason rubbed his hand over his head, he really needed to get a divorce, "We heard her on the tarmac, we were getting ready to leave..."
"Well actually we were ARGUING about leaving..." Brenda interrupted.
"....Alexis showed up and she left with some woman."
"What woman?" Sonny asked.
"I don't know, I've never seen her before." Jason shook his head.
Brenda started to describe her. "She was really pretty. Kind of exotic, dark hair, blue eyes. About 5'8 or 5'9 GREAT cheek bones..."
"Anyway Alexis came right out and told the woman....you're the babies father."
"THAT LYING BITCH!"
No one had noticed Carly come down the stairs.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"But Kristina wasn't scheduled to have that surgery for another two months." Ned jerked his gloves off in frustration and set them down on the counter at the nurse's station.
Bobbie shrugged, "Well, I guess Alexis decided it couldn't wait."
"Well it wasn't up to Alexis!" Ned hissed.
"She's her mother."
"And I'm her FATHER. It was up to the doctors and they said two months!"
Bobbie shook her head, "I'm just telling you what happened. They came and took Kristina a few hours ago and Alexis signed the papers. Maybe she meant to call you and there wasn't time."
"This is the age of cell phones, of course she could have called me. No, she did this on purpose."
"Ned..."
Ned stormed away from the desk before Bobbie could finish. The elevator doors had barely closed behind Nikolas before Ned was upon him. "Do YOU know what is going on?"
Nikolas looked up from his paper work and greeted Ned with a puzzled look. "What? Is something wrong with Kristina?"
"You tell me. Alexis took her."
"Took her where?"
"To Baltimore for surgery."
"Surgery? What's wrong?"
"Nothing that couldn't have waited a couple months but Alexis has taken it upon herself to take Kristina...."
"Hey Ned, if Alexis took Kristina for surgery I'm sure she needed it!"
"No, that's just it! She didn't need it for another two months and it was scheduled and we discussed it but now she's gone. So what's going on?"
Nikolas shook his head and continued toward the nurses station passing the paper work to Amy at the desk before turning back to Ned, "Why are you asking me? I'm not exactly in the loop where Alexis is concerned these days."
"She's your Aunt!"
"Ya, something she forgot when she restricted Kristina's visitors last week. I couldn't even get in to see my own cousin!"
"Well you can just imagine how I felt when she did the same thing to me!" Ned hissed.
"What?"
"I think she's going crazy."
Nikolas sighed. This wasn't something he wanted to deal with right now but Alexis had been very irrational lately. "She's been under a lot of stress."
"So she shouldn't be making life and death decisions about OUR child by herself!"
"I'll speak to her."
"How are you going to do that Nikolas? She's gone!"
"I'm sure she will be back as soon as Kristina is out of surgery."
"Well I'm not waiting that long."
"What are you going to do?"
"I'm going after her. I'll call the hospital and see when the surgery is scheduled and I'll take a flight to Baltimore in the morning."
"Ned, don't make this harder on her than it has to be."
"She's the one making it hard."
"I'm sure she has her reasons."
"Damn right she does. She's not pushing me out of my daughter's life!"
"I'm sure that's not...."
Ned punched the elevator button and the doors opened. "If you here from Alexis do me a favor?"
"What's that?"
"Don't tell her I'm coming. No telling what she'll do next."
The elevator doors closed before Nikolas could respond.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"You don't think Sonny would really let Carly kill her do you?" Brenda cringed as she and Jason heard another loud crash from the second floor.
"Carly's not going to kill anybody." Jason ran his hands through his hair and began to pace.
"Are you sure? She looked pretty capable of it before Sonny drug her upstairs.
"We should go."
"Go where?" Brenda wandered over closer to the stairs to see if she could hear a little more of the argument.
"How about you go to Lisbon?"
"What about you?" Brenda hopped up a couple of stairs straining to hear.
"Will you knock it off and let them have some privacy!"
"If they want privacy they shouldn't yell so loud."
"It's their home!"
"They have guests! They should be more considerate."
"I guess they forgot their manners when their world FELL APART!"
Brenda rolled her eyes, "Oh please, they'll be fine."
"Fine? Sonny's got a kid with another woman!"
"People work these things out all the time. Sonny and Alexis can share custody...."
"Well obviously Alexis doesn't want that or she wouldn't have left the country."
"So we'll go get her and straighten..."
"WE? What do you mean WE? There is no WE here Brenda. This is Sonny's problem and YOU are getting on a plane and going to stay with Jax."
Brenda crossed her arms, "You know I'm getting REAL sick and tired of you telling me what to do!"
Jason glared at her, "Well you won't have to deal with it once you get on the damn plane!"
"YOU ARE NOT THE BOSS OF ME!"
"The courts say otherwise, now are you going to get on that plane or am I going to have to drag you...."
"You wouldn't DARE! I'm not going anywhere without you!"
Jason stared at the ceiling and tried to count to ten, a little trick he had read somewhere that was suppose to help people keep their temper, funny that he even remembered that because before Brenda he'd rarely ever LOST his temper. 1,2,3,..4..
"I'm not LEAVING you here!" Brenda continued. "You'll go to prison and."
5, 6, 7......whoever wrote that article had obviously never met Brenda. "I should just take you to Switzerland AND HAVE YOU COMMITED! You're making me crazy!"
Brenda stopped suddenly and stared at him. He couldn't believe how quiet and still she became suddenly.
"You...you wouldn't do that."
It took Jason a moment to figure out what he'd said. He sighed, "Brenda..."
"I mean..you wouldn't do that to me, would you? Not really." Her eyes welled up and he felt like sh**.
"I would never do that." He said quietly.
"You know I'm not crazy."
"Of course not. You just...."
"Cause it's not right. It's not right to leave you here to take the blame when it's my fault. It's not crazy either, I don't care what you say. If you go to jail we both go to jail."
"Nobody is going to jail." Sonny stood on the landing between the two floors.
"Is Carly okay?" Jason asked.
"No, she's not okay but I'll have to deal with that later. Do you know where Alexis was going?"
"She just said the island." Brenda answered before Jason could.
"Do you know what island?" Jason asked Sonny as he crossed the room to pour himself a drink.
"The only island I ever heard Alexis mention was the one she grew up on but she wouldn't take the baby there."
"Why not? Wouldn't that be home?" Brenda sank down on the couch.
"She hated it there."
"She didn't sound too happy about it. I think it was the other woman's idea." Jason added.
"So what are you going to do?" Brenda asked.
Sonny drained the glass and set it back down on the bar, "I'm going to find her."
"How?" Jason looked upstairs. He didn't like how quiet Carly had become.
"We'll figure that out on the plane. You two are leaving the country tonight and it looks like I'm going with you."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~~*~*~*~*
The nurse checked the warmer again. "Everything is fine Ms. Davis."
Alexis smiled as she looked down into the incubator. "It went out before, I just wanted to check."
"This is state of the art equipment. You really shouldn't worry, your family went all out, no expense was spared. Dr. Lee is one of the best neonatal specialists in the country, probably the world. You are very lucky to have him on board."
"Have you worked with him long?"
"Oh no but he is well published."
"Then how...." "
I work in Seattle. Ms. Cassadine contacted me a couple days ago. She said she read about my award and asked if I would take a special case."
"And Dr. Lee?"
"He works in Baltimore, I believe he was supposed to see Kristina in a couple months. When Ms. Cassadine said I would be working with Dr. Lee well that was just icing on the cake. I had the time saved up. A year's salary to go stay on an exclusive Greek island..it was just too good an offer to refuse."
"How long will you be staying?"
"Just as long as Kristina needs us and by the looks of things that won't be long. She's doing very well."
Alexis was beaming, "You think so?"
"Well just look at her! She barely needs us now but Ms. Cassadine didn't want to take any chances. You have a wonderful family Ms. Davis. You're very lucky."
Alexis was too busy grinning at Kristina to contemplate that statement.
Xenia stood in the doorway between the two cabins. Dr. Lee was asleep. She'd paid a small fortune to get him to come along. He'd been plenty cranky about rescheduling his patients but at least the nurse had been cooperative. Did Alexis even know how much trouble she had gone through to find the nurse? The perfect nurse. The perfect doctor. The best a vast fortune to buy. Would Alexis even appreciate all the trouble she'd been through? The risk she'd taken even leaving the island!
Xenia went back to the fax machine as it spit out yet another report. Ned Ashton was on his way to Baltimore. He'd ordered the Quartermain private jet ready and waiting for him the next morning.
Boy did he have a surprise waiting when he arrived. No Alexis. No baby. What would he do?
Well judging by his history he would return to Port Charles and throw a hissy fit. But that seemed to be the old Ned.
He wasn't himself these days.
Faith Roscoe. Now there was a name Xenia recognized. Somehow it didn't seem to belong next to the name Ned Ashton. Faith was a wild card. Her presence threw off the predictability of Ned Ashton.
But she couldn't be the only reason Mr. Ashton wasn't acting like himself . Faith had only been in town a few weeks.
If Ned knew the baby wasn't his why was he so determined to go after her? Why was he so determined to claim a family that wasn't his and obviously didn't want him? According to his file he HAD a daughter he never saw and his own family seemed to need him constantly.
Xenia flipped through a thick stack of faxes on the Quartermain family. Maybe Mr. Ashton needed to get his priorities straight.