Chapter One

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"May I come in?" Julian questioned softly.

Words seemed beyond her and before she realized what she was doing, Alexis had moved aside and let him enter her home. He walked down the two steps into the livingroom and Alexis didn't miss the fact that he winced in pain as he removed his coat.

"What are you doing here?" she asked as she shut the door.

He turned around and gave her a small smile. "I didn't want to leave things the way we did earlier. I thought maybe we could…talk."

Alexis scoffed. "What is there to talk about?"

Julian sat down on the couch and put his feet up on the coffee table. "Anything. Everything."

Though she was skeptical, she did have questions for him. She moved slowly to the chair and sat down across from him.

"Anything?" she questioned.

He nodded. "Yes, but before you start, I wanted to tell you that I met Lucas the other day."

Her reaction was what he expected. Her eyes widened and her mouth twisted in that cute way that made him want to grab her and kiss her.

"That must have been…interesting," she finally commented quietly.

Julian put his feet on the floor and leaned forward, forearms resting on his thighs. "Why didn't you tell me who he was?"

Her eyes met his. "It wasn't my secret to tell."

He stared at her for several long moments before he again leaned back. "I suppose I can accept that."

"Why didn't you tell me and Sam who you were when you first figured it out?" Alexis demanded, deciding to take him at his word that they could talk about anything and everything.

He cleared his throat before he spoke. It wasn't the question he expected first, but it was one of the easier ones to answer.

"I wanted to," he began. "The moment I realized I was her father, I wanted to tell you both. I just couldn't find the right time, or the…the right words and then that damn gallery opening happened and…Alexis, I wanted so badly for you to know who I was, who I really was. I wasn't lying that night in the gallery when I said I remembered you. It was the truth. I remember that night, us, together."

Alexis snickered then. "Sure, you remember one teenage girl from…"

She stopped when he stood up and walked around the table and knelt down in front of her, his hands taking hers and lacing their fingers together. He looked into her eyes and made sure she was seeing only him before he spoke again.

"It was late October, so it was cold," he said quietly. "When my friends and I walked into the bar, I saw you immediately. You were sitting on the end stool and you had on a black skirt and a light pink top with a thin sweater."

Alexis' mouth opened slightly, shock evident on her face.

Julian smiled and continued. "Your hair fell down your back in waves and framed your face so beautifully. I told my friends I'd be right back and I walked over to you. I asked you your name and you told me…"

"Natasha," she whispered, a sudden memory flooding her mind.

He smiled. "Yeah, Natasha. I offered to buy you a drink. You told me you were eighteen when I asked. I wasn't sure I believed you, but who was I to judge? We drank, we played pool and then we went for a walk outside."

"You gave me your jacket," Alexis said softly, more and more memories coming back as she listened to him tell her the story of their past.

Julian nodded. "Yeah. We walked and talked for almost an hour. You told me all about your family. I told you about mine."

"We ended up in your car," Alexis took over. "You turned on the heat and the radio."

"An Andy Gibb song was playing and you told me that…"

She cut him off. "That was my favorite song. It was called I Just Want to be Your Everything. It's still my favorite song."

Julian pulled one hand free and reached up and cupped her cheek. "I remember everything about that night. A few nights later, I went back to the bar hoping I might see you again."

"You did?" Alexis asked, surprised.

"Yes, I did," he said, nodding as he stood and pulled her up with him. "I kept going back for a couple of months because I just…I finally went to Briarton but no one would let me talk to you. One of your friends eventually told me that your uncle had come and had taken you back to Greece."

Alexis nodded as a few tears cascaded down her cheeks. Julian tenderly wiped them away with his thumbs.

"He made you leave because of me, didn't he?" Julian questioned. "You were pregnant so he took you home?"

Alexis turned and walked over to the mantle above the fireplace and stared at the photograph of Sam. After a few moments, she began to speak.

"I was caught sneaking back in after you dropped me off," she told him. "They watched me like a hawk after that. About six weeks later, I started feeling sick and went to the nurse. She asked me if I was pregnant. I knew it was possible so…it wasn't too long and I knew for sure. I begged her not to call my uncle, who turned out to be my father. She did anyway and when Mikkos arrived, he was…I'd never seen him so angry. He demanded that I tell him the name of the boy who had dishonored the Cassadine name."

She hadn't heard him come stand behind her. But she felt his breath on her neck as he wrapped his arms around her waist and gently pulled her back against his body. She gave in and leaned back into his warmth.

"You didn't tell him?"

She shook her head. "No. Somehow I knew that if I told him, he would have…I think I told him I didn't know so often that I came to believe it myself."

"He obviously got over his anger though, right?" he asked. "He let you keep Sam."

Tears flowing anew, Alexis shook her head. "No. No, I…he made me…he took her from me right after…after she was born."

Julian was too stunned for words. "What…how…?"

Alexis managed a tiny chuckle. She turned around and saw the confusion in his expression. She grasped his hand and led him back to the couch. They both sat down and Alexis draped his arm over her shoulders and she leaned into him, her head on his shoulder.

"Mikkos wasn't about to send me back to Briarton," she began. "So, after we'd been back in Greece for a while, he told me he'd located a clinic, the Billmont Clinic, for unwed mothers in Maine. He would be sending me there until I was ready to give birth."

"Sam was born in Maine?" he wanted to know.

Alexis nodded. "Yes, she was. She was born May 11, 1980. It was Mother's Day that year. The midwives were the only ones in the birthing room with me. I spent just over twenty-one hours in labor with her."

Julian pulled her closer. "I wish I had been there with you."

Almost as if she didn't hear him, she continued. "When they placed her in my arms, I knew it had been worth it; Mikkos' wrath, all the morning sickness, the pain of labor. She was…she was so beautiful. I held her for all of five minutes before Mikkos came into the room and told me she was being put up for adoption."

Julian didn't think he had ever hated anyone as he hated Mikkos Cassadine in that moment. If the man wasn't already dead, he would have killed him with his bare hands.

"I sobbed when the midwife took her from my arms," Alexis whispered. "I knew I'd never see her again, and I didn't, not until Sam and Jason discovered the truth in 2006. Before that, I'd believed her to be dead."

Julian tensed. "Why did you think she was dead?"

"Years later, after college and law school, I tried to find her," she told him. "Turns out that Mikkos had…arranged just after Sam was born for it to appear she had died. He never wanted me to be able to find her, so…I thought my baby girl had died as an infant."

Julian closed his eyes against his own tears even as he felt Alexis crying in his embrace. He turned sideways on the couch and pulled her into his arms. He wanted nothing more than to be able to give her back all the years she had lost with their daughter. He wished with everything in him he'd been able to see her again, to get to her before her father had.

"I'm so sorry you had to go through that," he whispered and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. "If I had just…"

Alexis pulled back. "There was nothing you could have done. If my father had ever known your name, he'd have had you killed."

Julian stood then. He wiped the wetness from his own cheeks and walked back towards the mantle. He stood looking at the photographs; most were of Alexis and her daughters. There were a couple of Sam and Danny. But then he got to one that stopped his heart.