Alexis' eyes were rolling between Sam and Julian. She hadn't planned on telling Sam anything about the man but now he'd forced her hand. Clearing her throat, she decided to get the inevitable out of the way.

"He's your…" the word stuck in her throat when she looked from Julian to Sam. Clearing her throat again as her eyes darted to the side she rushed out, "He's your father!"

Sam's eyes opened wide. "Excuse me?" The only father she'd known was the low life thief who robbed her and her brother of any kind of a childhood or normal life. Mr. Handsome, fidgeting in her living room, was not Cody McCall!

Julian shifted nervously from one leg to the other. "I wanted to visit you in the hospital but didn't think you'd want to see me."

Sam roved over the man again, studying everything about him this time. He looked around Alexis' age, with the low cropped gray at his temples that some would call distinguished. His eyes shifted nervously, which gave Sam the sense of beady deceit. He was dressed casually in blue jeans and a black collar shirt with the sleeves rolled halfway, and he wasn't half bad to look at, which Sam noticed Alexis obviously agreed with.

"My father?" She couldn't keep the wonder from her voice. "As in the man who donated a sperm to sixteen year old you and took off?"

Alexis turned pink and Julian cleared his throat before he smiled at Sam. "That's one way to put it, I suppose, but I never knew about you, Sam. Look, I know you don't remember me right now but I've been in town for a few years and we managed to make room in each other's lives to build a relationship. You are my daughter, and I love you very much. I needed to see how you're doing."

"Thank you - I'm sure we're best friends and all but back up for a sec to the part where you had a knife to my mother's throat!"

He couldn't react fast enough to mask the shock. Alexis turned another shade of pink when Sam stopped glaring at Julian long enough and turned to her, "What the hell happened to you?"

"What do you mean?" Alexis' voice was shaky as she wondered just how much her daughter overheard. Oh, my God, could she be remembering?

"I mean, the Alexis Davis I know would axe the balls off a guy who even thought of abusing her, but I just rolled out here to find you two seconds away from drowning in a man who actually tried to kill you? You called me pathetic and worthless when I tried to go back to a man who pushed me away to keep me safe from his dangerous lifestyle - so what would you call a woman who weakens herself for a man who physically harms her?"

"Sam, you don't have all the facts…"

"I'm not talking to you!"

Sam allowed the acid in her voice to drip every bit as deadly as she felt. She looked back to Alexis. "Let me guess, he didn't actually kill you so it doesn't count as abuse, am I right? You're not six feet under right now, so he gets a pass on a few pretty words and gestures! Jason may have said the words to me but at least he never tried to execute the deed…and you thought he was the scum of the earth. So why exactly does Prince Charming here get a pass from you?"

"Sam, I would never hurt your mother, she knows that."

"No? Did I hear you incorrectly - did you not physically hold a knife on her?"

"Yes, but - it's a really long story. You don't understand everything that happened."

"Spoken like a true abusive fuck face!" Sam rolled herself to the couch and started to transfer from the chair, brushing Julian off when he moved to help her. "I'm gonna need you to leave my house." She looked over to Alexis angrily, "And if you have a problem with that you can leave with him!"

"I'm not leaving you alone, Sam. Julian was just leaving!" She moved to the front door and held it open, glaring at the man to follow the gesture of her hand waving him out.

"I'm not giving up, Sam. I will redeem myself to you and your mother…I'll get my family back. Everything I've done is to protect my family - I'll make you see that."

Neither said another word to him, only watched him walk out the door that Alexis closed behind him before approaching Sam cautiously.

"I know you must have questions - after what you overheard - but it's complicated, Sam."

"Ah - I see! Any other woman goes soft in the knees for the man she loves and it's just weakness and lack of self esteem, but Alexis gets abused and goes giddy for her abuser and it's complicated! How the hell do you not choke on your double standards, lady? Still defending the scum of the earth whenever it suits your purpose, but you judge other people for having feelings! What happened to the feminist warrior you used to be? Who the hell are you right now?"

"Sam, please - you don't understand. Your father and I were married, he gave up the life for me, for us, and we were happy together. We were so happy! You don't know what it's like - just wait until you get to be my age and the career is all you have - you'll find that it doesn't keep you warm at night, it doesn't hold you when you're scared and lonely."

"So this is about sex? You're letting some man walk all over you because he's good in bed? Alexis, if what I'm looking at is what I'd become over love, I'd rather die an old, bitter Betty!"

"He saved Danny's life, Sam! Before you write him off as heartless and unworthy, think about the fact that if Julian hadn't stepped forward when he did, that little boy wouldn't be here today!"

Sam felt the stab like a knife through her heart. "What the hell are you talking about - what happened to Danny?"

Alexis instantly regretted blurting it out the way she did, but the words were out and she couldn't unsay what she had. "Sam, I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have just let it out like that!" She threw her hands over her mouth as she watched her daughter regrettably.

"Well it's out now, Alexis so just say it! How did Julian save my son?"

Alexis sat next to her daughter and she wanted desperately to hold her hand but knew Sam would not allow it, so she clasped hers together and leaned towards her. "A few years ago, when Julian first showed up in Port Charles, we found out that Danny…" she still found it hard to talk about a time that was so painfully devastating for their entire family. Her daughter's eyes were glaring her to continue, so she did. "Danny had cancer, Sam. He was diagnosed early and thankfully Julian turned out to be a match. We had tried everything else and no-one was a match for Danny, until Julian showed up. He saved Danny's life, Sam."

"And he used him as a human shield as well!"

Both women looked towards the door where Kristina stood, her mouth falling open as she gaped at her mother. "Why are you in here singing Julian's praises to Sam after everything he's done to you, Mom?"

Sam barely registered her sister storming in and confronting their mother, just like she barely heard the heated exchange between the two. Danny was sick? She had almost lost her miracle baby to cancer?

"Are you seriously sniffing around Julian, after everything? What the hell's the matter with you, Mom…Julian is no different from Kiefer, who beat the living daylight out of me on a regular basis! What happened to your big sermons on self worth and respect, and strength? They only apply to other people, is that it? You can call it when everybody else has a weak moment and it's pathetic and degrading, but your rules don't apply to you?"

"Kristina, that's not called for! I am your mother, please don't speak to me like that!"

"Then stop being a hypocrite! Stop being a spineless coward - it's beneath you! Julian is beneath you - why can't you cut your losses and leave that abusive, self entitled, egotistical jackass in the dust where he belongs? Because he loves you? Guess what, Mom…love is not demanding someone give up who they are to suit your agenda! It doesn't require burying everything that makes you who you are, so that someone else can proclaim you worthy of them! You used to know that! Is Julian really that good in bed where you'll sacrifice every part of you to be with him?"

"Kristina!"

"No, Mom - don't Kristina, me…that is exactly how you're acting! You have turned your back on your career and your ethics, you've walked away from everything that made you, you and laid yourself at Julian's feet…never mind how many times he's reached his foot out and kicked you in the head! And now I find you laying yourself open for more? Well, I hope you can build a life on great sex, Mom…because Julian Jerome will never leave you with anything more!"

"Krissy," Sam found her voice, breaking from the fog in her head to reach her hand out to beckon her little sister. "Kristina, please…"

Pursing her lips hard and grunting, Kristina looked over to Sam stubbornly, but reluctantly stopped yelling. Taking a deep breath, she walked over to where her sister was sitting.

"What, Sam - don't you dare defend her - she's being ridiculous falling for this man again, I mean, c'mon!"

"I'm not falling for anybody, Kristina and you're not being fair. Julian is not like Kiefer, he didn't beat my face in every chance he got. He made mistakes, yes, but…"

"He didn't beat your face in - just used a knife that would have ended your life! Oh, my God, are you listening to yourself? Stop making excuses for him, Mom! He tried to kill you, and if my dad hadn't tracked him down and found you, I would have to go to a graveyard to visit my mother! You're really considering giving him the chance to finish what he started?"

"Krissy, please - I need you to do something for me."

Sam tried pulling her attention again. She agreed with everything her sister said but she was getting too emotional and would end up saying something she couldn't take back. She needed a break and she had the perfect one for her. She grabbed hold of Kristina's hand and yanked her attention her way.

"I need you to find Jason and Danny and bring him home. Danny, I mean - not Jason. I need to see Danny, I need to hold my baby right now. Please, can you find him for me?"

Kristina heard the unusual panic in her big sister's voice and she suddenly remembered the conversation she'd walked in on. Sam had just learned that her baby had cancer! Kristina had been so shocked by the rest of what she'd heard that she went off on her mother without stopping to think what that astounding news would do to her sister who was hearing it for the first time. It was hard to remember that almost everything she'd hear for now would be for the first time to her.

"Oh, Sam I'm so sorry!" She dropped into the opposite chair and clung to her sister's hand with both of hers. I should have realized…please remember that Danny's okay now…that's the important part, okay - Danny is a healthy, happy little boy! He kicked cancer's ass and he's doing great, Sam!"

Sam nodded vigorously for her sister's sake. She knew that what she said made sense but she couldn't calm down until she held her baby. "Krissy, please can you get him for me?"

"Of course I can!" She got up from the chair, whipping her phone from her pocket as she made her way towards the door. "We'll be right back."

Silence fell heavily over the room after Kristina left. Alexis moved to the terrace doors and looked out at the harbor, trying to calm her nerves. She was right at the cusp of a panic attack but fought it as hard as she could. What the hell was happening to her life?

"Are you alright?" Sam didn't look over but she knew Alexis was in turmoil. She had to be after that.

"You don't understand."

"Actually, I do, Alexis. You're exhibiting all the signs of a battered woman…I think you're the one who don't understand."

"I am not a battered woman - that's just ridiculous!"

"Except that you are! Your husband isolated you and led you to believe that he's the only one who would be there for you, that you needed to do everything he asked in order to preserve your life together. He got you to rely on him, keep secrets from your children and your friends who care about you, put his hands on you, then tried to make you believe it was all your fault for not trusting him and doing everything he said. Now he says he's sorry, he loves you and wants you back, and he shows up every chance he gets to work at your weaknesses and get back inside your head. How am I doing so far?"

"This is ridiculous…Sam, I am not going back to Julian. So I had a momentary slip - it was just for a second - I don't know why you and Kristina are making such a big deal out of nothing."

"Because you're acting like me, Alexis! Kristina and I have both been there - we know the signs you are exhibiting very well because we've lived them…you haven't. This is not like you, and we want you to see that."

"What you and Kristina went through is very different, Sam."

"No, it is not! Just like you, we thought we were in love, did everything to try and please someone else, everything they asked to make them love us, then blamed ourselves when it turned out they didn't. Julian is the worse kind of Kiefer and Nico, Alexis - he may be more sophisticated and subtle in his approach, but he is no better than either of those sick bastards."

Sam watched her mother close her eyes tight and run her hands through her hair as she struggled with her emotions.

Sam, you don't have room to judge me here. Your life is perfect - you have the family you've always wanted with a man who loves you more than anything. Your happiness is complete."

"Jason loves me? Jason threatened to kill me…I'd say that proves he loves someone else."

"I love you more than my own life, Sam."

The soft tone from the front door took both women by surprise. Both turned their heads to find the man in question standing there, keys in one hand and a sleeping Danny on his shoulder. Walking further into the room, Jason eyed them both before he gestured towards the stairs that he'd take Danny up.

"No, please…put him here." Sam patted the spot on the couch next to her urgently. She would hobble up those stairs if she had to, she wanted her baby near.

Jason looked her in the eye and saw what Kristina described. Without a word he laid Danny out on the couch as Sam cradled his little head in her lap, caressing his curls lovingly as he slept.

Taking a deep breath, Sam was able to release it calmly as she watched her little angel. "Sleep tight, buddy. Momma's here…I'm right here," she cooed as she stroked his hair back.

Alexis gave her daughter a pained smile. "I'm gonna take off, Sam - do you need anything before I leave?"

Still watching the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen sleep, Sam answered, "No, I'm fine, Alexis. Go take care of yourself."

"I love you, Sam. Get some rest too, okay?"

Sam nodded then bent her head to lightly kiss her son's head. She didn't know it was possible to love someone so much. It was hard to believe that the lively little sprite who was off in dreamland at the moment, had come so close to dying.

"Thank you, God," she whispered. "Thank you for saving my baby!"

Jason watched his family from across the room and he marveled for the hundredth time that day how it was possible for him to love them so much. His wife couldn't express it at the moment but he knew it was there…just a mere glance from those beautiful brown eyes was enough for him to see what she hid unsuccessfully behind the rage. She loved him too, and he was ready for the battle back to her heart!