A/N:I'm sorry it's taken this long to write and post a new chapter. I'm not sure if I'm too happy about this chapter but I felt I had to get it out in order for the story to progress. I hope you guys enjoy it and keep looking out for updates because there definately will be some!

The moment Lucky left the interrogation room he noticed Alexis arguing with Mac, a sight he rarely saw as the police commissioner usually at least listened to Alexis' demands. This time however it seemed he was standing up for one of his officers, a newly acquired one albeit, but an officer of the law nonetheless. While he appreciated Mac taking up for one of his own Lucky had to disagree on the topic.

"Either you let my daughter go or I will have this department under investigation faster than you can blink," Alexis hurled at him. Mac blinked on impulse and Alexis smirked then looked past him at Cruz who stood guard at the interrogation room door.

"And you…"

"Don't even start with me, lady," Cruz crossed his arms. "I didn't expect to find that murderous--"

"Hey—that's my friend you're talking about," Lucky snapped.

"Somehow I don't think putting this department under investigation will help the situation, after all your daughter was signed up as one of our voluntary recruits—emphasis on 'was'," Mac said leaving Alexis taken aback. Alexis recovered quickly but not fast enough.

"Oh, Sam didn't tell you? Well, maybe there have been a lot of things she hasn't been honest with you about namely current affairs!"

Alexis took a deep breath. "I don't need to know my daughter's present issues to know that she's innocent the police files prove her innocence in the case of the officer's death. And you if you don't back down on this you'll be lucky to be licking stamps and placing them on envelopes when I'm through with you, you'll never have a job in law enforcement again. So ask yourself Mac, is the word of some freshly arrived detective worth your job?"

Mac suddenly didn't look too sure.

Cruz's eyes widened at Mac's loss of confidence.

"We've still got her on assault on minors and not even you can get her out of that one," Cruz stepped up to the plate and Lucky resisted the urge to laugh. Alexis caught his eye and rolled hers.

"According to whom? Unless those boys want Lulu Spencer to press sexual harassment charges on them, I don't think so."

"Even so, there's still a process we must--"

"Oh, I'm sorry, what process is that? The process where you call me up and tell me I have thirty minutes to get my daughter to the police station to avoid public arrest and then have Detective dumb-luck arrest her anyway?"

Mac was at a loss for words.

"I'm not going to ask you again Mac, get my daughter out of those cuffs and out of that room!"

Mac looked sullen and utterly defeated. Lucky couldn't blame him. On a good day Alexis could run circles around anyone but today was a bad day and Alexis hadn't so much as run as she had stomped all over Mac with no mercy. He couldn't help but wonder if Mac had actually called Cruz to have him arrest her. He didn't think so. He'd known Mac for years and didn't believe he would go back on his word if it were given.

If Cruz went after Sam on his own accord he had penalties to pay for that. It wasn't exactly a wrongful arrest but there were stipulations involved that could earn him demerits depending on how bad Alexis wanted to push the issue. He watched the man take his medicine and disappear into the room just as Nikolas rushed into the war zone where Alexis and Mac still glared daggers at each other.

"Damn am I late?"

"Just a little but I'll bake you a cookie for trying," Lucky replied. Nikolas laughed.

"You bake? I think I'd rather eat sawmill."

Lucky tried to hide his taken offense but admitted he couldn't bake well. Laura had tried to teach him but he kept burning things. They said they'd keep it their secret. But that was until Lucky tried to bake something for Elizabeth once and it hadn't gone over very well. He wound up buying a cake from the store and pretending he baked it himself. He thought Liz knew but she made no mention of it. Lucky shook his head of the still too fond memories and tried to distance himself from them. He looked at Nikolas who was staring at him expectantly.

Nikolas waved his hand in front of his face.

"What's going on?" Nikolas asked, obviously annoyed that he had to repeat himself.

"Er, Alexis worked her mojo, mopped the floor with Mac and well, Cruz went to let her go."

"How long does it take to take off handcuffs?"

Sam had been staring at her hands since Lucky had left. At first she had been glad for the distraction, her fingers traced over remnants of scars on her hands, calluses from her work in the salvage business, the space stretching from one end of her left palm to the other where stitches still faintly showed if she looked hard enough. When she was done examining she glanced at the clock, something she had tried hard not to do since she'd been placed in the room over an hour ago. Her eyes immediately darted back to her hands and she began to think of the things she used them for, attempted cooking, writing, picking up Molly, tickling Kristina, killing a man. A voice in her mind told her that he deserved to die. Sam bit her lower lip at the memory of the night she spent in prison and the immediate moment when her instincts kicked in. When she closed her eyes at that moment she could even drum up the image of the man lying beside her, bleeding. She could feel how hard it was at the moment to open her mouth and scream. Her eyes pricked with tears and she shook her head refusing to cry over it. She hadn't thought about that night or that man in many years. She blinked away the salty tears and closed her eyes again banishing the images.

When she opened them again Cruz stared back at her from the doorway. Keys dangled from his hands. He stared at her in disgust. Sam sat up in her chair when he shut the door behind him then sat down across from her.

"Aren't you ever sick and tired of getting away with things?"

Sam opened her mouth to protest, to say that he didn't know anything about her or her life, to tell him that he was wrong. Her voice halted and she swallowed back a lump that had formed in her throat when he fixed her again with his gaze. This time he wasn't smirking, he wasn't disgusted, what she saw made her eyes slam shut to avoid the feeling that consumed her. When she opened them again she was still staring at a pair of brown orbs saddened by the sight of her, heavy with unresolved grief and loss, sick and tired. Sam sat back in her chair and glanced down at her hands again.

"You—You know what happened that night," she tried. "You saw the security cameras…"

"I never looked. I couldn't."

"Then how can you hold me responsible when you don't know yourself what really happened in there?" Sam asked feeling sick to her stomach that her words were nothing more than a plea for him to not place the blame with her.

"Because no matter what happened in that cell; no matter who did what and why, he's dead. No amount of circumstances can change the fact that he died in that cell and you were the one that did it only to disappear and never be heard from again. Except of course to burn down your adoptive mother's home."

"I was acquitted--"

"As usual, Sam, you never face what you did. You killed that woman, and you killed my partner. Yet somehow you're not responsible, it's their fault, you had to kill them!"

Cruz rose from his seat and walked around the table. Sam couldn't find it within herself to look him in the eye so once again she stared at her hands remembering all that she did with them.

He stood beside her chair keys still jingling in his hands.

"I don't know how it's possible to look in the mirror with all that you did. But it looks like you get a pass again. Thanks to that district attorney mother of yours you won't have the pay the price again."

He reached for her hands and Sam drew back. Her heart hammered in her chest. She could feel Cruz's steely gaze up on her and she couldn't close her eyes without imagining the dead man in the cell. She killed him. There were no two ways that could change it differently. Suddenly she couldn't breathe correctly and tears began sliding involuntarily down her cheeks.

"Don't."

"You're free."

"I'm not going anywhere. You can tell that to everyone out there. I'm paying for my crimes."

"Isn't that what you wanted?" Sam asked finally looking up at him measuring the uncertainty in his eyes. Cruz didn't look relieved or hurt only confused at the turn of events. He only nodded solemnly then walked to the door. With his hand on the knob he stopped.

"I've always wondered."

"What?"

"Why you never screamed for help. If he attacked you like the police report said, you could have screamed for help. There was a guard on the outside of the jail that night. He would have come and stopped him if you'd just screamed."

Sam took a shaky breath and kept her voice even. He had no clue.

"You're right again. If I had screamed some one probably would have come."

"Then why didn't you?"

"Why don't you ask yourself what kept me from screaming."

Cruz didn't answer her. He simply opened the door and left Sam staring after him.

When Cruz re-emerged from the room without Sam by his side Alexis stalked across the room.

"What the hell is going on here?"

"She doesn't want to be released."

"What did you say to her?" Lucky more accused then asked. Cruz looked him squarely in the eye and Lucky felt sick just looking at him. Whatever had happened Cruz didn't look like he'd gotten what he wanted out of it. It was strange but Lucky considered that Sam was still sitting in the interrogation room with cuffs on.

"She just decided to stay. She wouldn't let me uncuff her wrists."

"I'm going to go talk to her," Nikolas said and stepped off into the room.

"Listen buddy, I don't care what the hell happened in her past but she was proven innocent!"

"Not my problem. She decided to stay I can't go in there and uncuff her. "

"Then I will," Lucky snapped glaring at Cruz until the man had to look away.

Lucky glanced back at Alexis who nodded at him before he yanked open the door to the interrogation room and disappeared inside.

Mac left to answer a phone call telling Alexis that Sam couldn't leave without the necessary paperwork being filled out.

Cruz took a seat at Lucky's desk and placed his head in his hands.

This was what he'd wanted all these years. He wanted the woman who killed his partner to pay for what she did. He wanted to see her brought to justice and that was what he had thought when he heard the announcement over the police scanner in his car. He felt so sure when he brought her in and now he couldn't make heads or tail of it all. She had killed him. She did it. There was no question. And what did she mean by what could have kept her from screaming?

"Having second thoughts?" Alexis Davis asked him. He looked up to see that she hadn't moved from across the room. At least now she was the very picture of calm. The smooth features of her face rested so that he couldn't tell if she were angry or devastated with the fact that her daughter refused to leave police custody after all of her work to get her free. There were no remnants of the fury he experienced earlier. He realized this must be her poker face, the one she showed in court, the one she showed to people she didn't trust.

"I can't dismiss what she did Ms. Davis."

"I saw the tape, Detective Rodriguez."

"That fast? Nice use of the D.A.'s office and taxpayers dollars."

Alexis remained unmoved.

"I would move mountains for any of my children. When I found out Sam was mine it didn't make her any different."

"Nice to be yours I guess."

"I saw the tape," Alexis' voice traveled softly across the room.

"Yeah, so? I read the police report. Same difference."

"I beg to differ. It's not a stretch that a police station would omit information from a police report to cover for one of their own. He had a family. I doubt they wanted her to hear what he really did."

Cruz didn't want to entertain the idea.

"No jabbing remarks? No outburst?"

"Your daughter is a murderer, Ms. Davis. When are you going to own up to that."

Just then a cold look entered Alexis' eyes and she walked towards him.

"You had better hope that Mac has the foresight to change the fact that you and Lucky are partners. He and Sam have grown quite close and there's no telling what he'll do."

"Are you trying to threaten me?"

"Speaking of things you can't change. I can't change the blood that runs through my veins anymore than you can change the fact that sooner or later you're going to have to look at all the elements of your partner's death. Cassadines don't make idle threats."

When Lucky entered the room Sam and Nikolas were already arguing.

"So, why didn't you tell me? I could have had him watched or something, anything to prevent him from coming here!"

"He didn't know I was here anyway and besides I didn't want you to feel any different about me."

"What?"

"I did bad things Nikolas. And since you found out I was your cousin you've treated me differently than anyone else has. You treat me like I'm a lady, like I'm worth something--"

"Not that you don't!" Sam said looking at Lucky who closed his mouth.

"Sam, our whole family has done incredibly screwed up things, most of them to each other. I wouldn't have looked at you any differently than I do now. And you're still my friend and a part of my family."

"Well, I know that now and I'm sorry I didn't tell you but I'm not leaving. I have to pay for what I did."

Nikolas threw up his hands and Lucky patted him on the back. He walked around the side of the table and grabbed Sam's hands using his own keys to unlock the cuffs. Sam struggled for a moment before he twisted her arm a bit to get her to stop squirming.

"Ow, Dammit Lucky!"

"Sam, I can't let you do this."

"That hurt you ass."

"Can we please stay off the subject of my ass for five seconds please?"

"I'm so confused," Nikolas shook his head. Both Sam and Lucky looked at him and he shrugged.

"Alright lumpy butt present your case," Sam said. Lucky smirked at the remark but kept talking.

"Sam, I know you feel you have to pay for what you did but do you honestly think you'll feel better? I know you killed that man. He attacked you and you killed him but you can't hold yourself responsible for how Cruz feels. If he knew his partner at all he knew he was capable of what he did to you. You don't deserve to be drug through the mud over something that happened years ago, something you were aquitted for. You can't. And what about those you'll leave behind? What about your Mom and Kristina and Molly? Hell, what about us?"

"You know you're a really good speech giver."

Lucky rolled his eyes.

"Sam what will Kristina think when it's blasted all over the news that her big sister is in jail?"

"She doesn't know what they're saying," Sam was cracking and Lucky knew it. He moved in for the kill.

"She'll know it when you're not there."

Sam looked down and sighed heavily. "If I leave then I'm proving him right. I'm a criminal and I run away from the law. Besides, with all of this how can I join the force now? They'll never let me in."

"Sam you have to live with what you did. You have to live with whatever guilt you have rolling around inside you and if anyone can beat you up over it, I'd say it's yourself and you've been doing a damn good job. Don't let him stop you from doing what you need to do for yourself."

"And about the force, we'll handle that hurdle when we get there. You're ready for this I know it."

"You can't let him win Sam," Nikolas chimed in. "You've got to fight."

"And we'll fight for you. Me, Nikolas, Alexis--"

"Oh God…"

"Yeah, when I think about it Cruz probably heard Mac over the police scanner and came after you himself. That little issue will probably keep him in line for a while."

"And if it doesn't there are plenty of catacombs and unmarked places at Wyndemere where we can hide his body."

Again Sam and Lucky looked at him in disbelief.

"It's a called a joke and here's where you two should start to laugh."

"Gallows humor suits you Nikolas," Sam said and Nikolas beamed.

"So does this mean we won't have to drag you out of here kicking and screaming?"

"Yeah."

"Good, because I would have hated to drag you out of here kicking and screaming."

The ride home was a short one. For Sam it was short and unbearably quiet. Sam's eyes remained glued to the lines on the ground as they quickly dissolved into dirt and then the gravel of their driveway. When the car came to a stop Alexis finally looked over and Sam did the same. Alexis's eyes focused on Sam like they hadn't before. She marveled at that moment how small Sam looked to her and the amount of time they'd spent apart. Sam didn't look a thing like her until she looked in her eyes and saw what she had always felt she had within herself. The intense and often feral will to survive.

"Mommy!" Kristina shouted. She appeared in the doorway of the lake house with Viola by her side holding Molly in her arms. Sam got out of the car first leaving Alexis staring at where she had been. Alexis' eyes followed her up to the steps where she met Kristina and picked her up enveloping her in a big hug.

"Sam! Guess what I did today!"

Sam smiled at her and kissed her cheek.

"What did you do?"

"I climbed the monkey bars all by myself! No one helped me and I didn't fall down! I wasn't scared!"

Sam grinned at her and acted amazed at the feat. Alexis watched her twirl her sister around.

"I guess you'll have to show me sometime, big girl," Sam said. She turned her attention to Molly who gurgled happily oblivious to what anyone was saying. Sam was happy, Kristina was happy, and she giggled and reached out for her big sister. Sam leaned forward and let Molly grab at her face. Her tiny fingers gripped the skin at Sam's cheeks and Sam laughed.

Alexis couldn't help the smile that formed on her face. She got out of the car and left her briefcase inside deciding work could wait for the evening or at least until she got her girls off to sleep. She joined Sam on the porch taking Kristina from her.

"Did I hear correctly? Did my big girl do something amazing today?"

"Yeah!"

"Well, you'll have to tell me all about it while we eat dinner!"

"Can we eat pizza?"

"Oh, well…I'm sure we can get something ready…"

"Please?" Kristina begged and Alexis relented. She was tired and she didn't feel like cooking and today was supposed to be Viola's day off.

"Alright but just for tonight," Alexis conceded.

"Yay!"

"Alright purple or blue pajamas?" Sam looked down at Molly who sat up glancing between the two pairs of pajamas Sam held up. She looked confused for a moment then and gabbed at the blue ones.

"Blue it is," Sam said then proceeded to get the little girl dressed for bed. She zipped the outfit up to the chin then hoisted her up on her hip. "Time for bed."

Molly gurgled something sleepily into Sam's shoulder and she was quite sure she was drooling. With a sigh she began rubbing her back before putting her in her crib and tucking her in.

"Nighty night," Sam whispered and began backing out of the room. She had gotten rather good at backing out unnoticed. This time however the moment she started out the door Molly let out a scream that pierced her ears.

"Oi…" Sam murmured. Alexis appeared behind her easing past and picking Molly up from the crib. Sam quietly shut the door to block out the sound of Molly's cries just in case Kristina was already asleep.

"Shhh baby, Mommy's here," Alexis cooed. Molly's cries ceased but her eyes were still wide open. Alexis sat down in the rocking chair across from the crib. She hummed softly and Sam for a second wished she could have had the experience of being the little girl that she tucked in.

"Sam?"

Sam looked at her mother rushing before the older woman could say anything else.

"I misjudged you. I should have known that you would never have turned me in."

"Sam, it's not a stretch to believe it. I did give you up when you were born."

"You were just a kid."

"And so were you. Come here."

"Alexis—Mom, I should have told you about my past."

"I never asked you and I should have. All those years apart and I couldn't imagine—didn't want to imagine that you would end up as bad off as you did."

Sam stood by her mother. "No one held a gun to my head. I did what I did…"

"I saw the tape Sam," Alexis blurted out. Sam sank down then rocked back on her heels and leaned against the wall. Her stomach felt queasy. She didn't want to look at her mother. How her mother could look at her she didn't know. Sam waited for the disgust and the sickening insults she waited still for the disappointment. But they never came. She simply rose from her seat and walked to the other side of the room and laid Molly in her crib waiting until she was sound asleep to move away. She knelt in front of Sam and touched her face. And that's when Sam couldn't take it anymore. She jerked away from Alexis' grasp sick to her stomach that she had seen what happened and didn't care that her daughter was dirty and low.

"I know what happened. I know what he did and what you did to protect yourself," She brushed away the tears that had begun trailing down Sam's cheeks. "You did what you had to do."

"I--"

"You know what I said when I watched that tape?"

Sam shook her head in her hands.

"After I got over the shock and the anger of what had happened to you I thought 'My God, I have one brave strong daughter who doesn't give up without a fight'. And I saw myself there. I saw myself in you and I knew that it was a part of me inside you that made you survive. You're my daughter Sam, I could never turn my back on you again."

Alexis embraced her daughter stroking her hair and back to soothe her. When Sam's sobs had stopped and she sat back out of her mother's arms.

"God I must seem so silly," Sam said wiping at her damp face. Alexis smiled through her own set of tears. " A grown ass woman needing comfort from her mother."

"Nah, I don't think that ever gets old."

Sam smiled and folded her legs Indian style infront of her. Alexis did the same and Sam was quite sure that she hadn't done that in a while. Sam enjoyed the ease Alexis was showing, a far cry from the woman she once hated. But still there was so much for them to talk about. So much ground they hadn't covered as Mother and Daughter that Sam was sure they'd never get to.

"Mac told me you signed up as a voluntary recruit to the force."

Sam's eyebrows rose at the news that her mother was in on what she'd been keeping from her for a week straight.

"I am. I'm sorry about the desk job. It just isn't me."

"It's dangerous."

Sam groaned inwardly. "I know but somehow it just feels right. Besides if I get in I'll be getting to do some good for the community, maybe start atoning for my years as a criminal."

"Sam you know you have nothing to atone for."

Sam's expression darkened at the many things she had yet to tell her mother.

"Well, not that I know of anyway."

"Just promise me this won't be a big issue?"

Alexis seemed to struggle with the idea.

"At least until I find out if I've made it in. Then you can complain and worry all you want because I'll actually be in danger."

"Alright, alright, but I am proud of you for going after what you want."

Sam beamed at the approval and would have thanked her mother had it not been for a voice screaming at her in the back of her mind. Her eyes perked at the sound of the door downstairs quietly shutting.

"Did you hear that?"

"It's probably Viola, she probably left something behind, besides she's the only other person with a key to the hou--"

Sam's eyes widened in horror when she saw bright lights out of the corner of her eye. She screamed at Alexis to get down but it was of no use. The windows shattered in their panes and the house shook on its foundation. Kristina screamed for help from her room as another explosion roared through their home.

Disclaimer: Alexis and Sam's relationship was not harmed during the process of writing this chapter. Their house however might need some heavy repairs.