Alexis and Julian looked at each other and then at the door. Should they just wait before answering, maybe the person on the other side of it would figure no one was home and then go away, leaving them.

But then the knocks resumed and Alexis sighed.

"I guess they figure someone's here."

Julian nodded, thinking quickly. Maybe it was just one of the neighbors and they had their cover story ready. She went over and opened it and found a young woman standing there with a basket.

"Hi, you must be the house sitters," she said, "I'm Ivory, from next door. I brought you some things I baked this afternoon…fresh muffins and some leftover pot roast."

Julian and Alexis glanced at each other again. The woman looked harmless enough but you could never be sure and given that they were hiding out, they had to exercise caution when dealing with strangers. How did they know that Ivory wasn't really someone who had been sent to find them by Shawn or other members of the five families?

But then again, the leftovers smelled pretty good and Alexis took the basket from Ivory and took it into the kitchen. Julian looked at her, trying to figure out how to figure out exactly who she was and why she had come here.

"So how long are you…house sitting?"

Julian scratched his jaw.

"Oh a week…maybe two…our friends aren't sure when they're coming back," he said, "We've been enjoying the time together."

Ivory narrowed her eyes.

"You don't look married…"

"No we aren't," he said, then winked at her, "but I'm working on it. She's a little bit hesitant on making a commitment."

"I'm what….?"

Julian blinked as he looked to see Alexis come up behind him with her arms folded.

"Oh you're back…"

She tilted her face at the both of them.

"I've always been here…I've just been in the kitchen putting away that nice food," she said, "that Ivory was so thoughtful to bring us."

He nodded.

"Was I interrupting anything," Ivory asked.

Alexis smiled.

"Oh no…why don't you sit down and join us for some coffee…?"

Ivory shook her head.

"I've got to some errands but thanks for the invite," she said, "Maybe I'll see you around…there's a lot to do here…concerts…town picnics and bazaar sales…things like that."

"Sounds lovely," Alexis said, "We might have to check some of those out won't we sweetheart?"

Julian had to keep from raising his brow at her choice of words.

"Yeah…sure…"

Ivory smiled at them again and then walked out the front door and after she left, Alexis looked over at Julian.

"You laid this couple thing on her a bit thick didn't you?"

Julian didn't appear the least apologetic.

"Look we need it as an alibi to explain why we're here," he said, "As long as we don't make it too complicated."

"It's already getting to be that," Alexis said, "and I'm not the one who shared that with a stranger."

Julian looked bemused as she sat down on the couch.

"She's probably really just a friendly neighbor," he said, "Nothing to worry about."

Alexis stretched out.

"You're probably right," she said, "I'm worried that we're going to get discovered before we make our own move."

Julian joined her on the couch.

"I'm sure that while they're probably looking for us, they aren't around here."

"What makes you so sure?"

He looked over at her.

"They'd probably call a press conference announcing it. Which is what we planned to do so we'd better get on it."

She sighed.

"You might be right about that," she said, "So when are we meeting this friend of yours?"

"Tonight at a Chinese restaurant in the village…it's a bit off the beaten path."

She nodded.

"I hope he's got some good ideas….Really I'd rather not be here, I'd rather be back at PC with my family even if it does mean getting interrogated by feds or subpoenaed to the grand jury."

Julian shrugged.

"I wouldn't call it stuck," he said, "Maybe a long overdue vacation?"

She chuckled at that.

"It's definitely been interesting spending this time with you despite everything," she said, "Just when you think you really know someone, he helps you escape your own wedding."

"That was pretty exciting," Julian agreed, "We'll have to think of something to top it."

Alexis raised her brow.

"I don't think you'd like what I'm thinking Julian but you'll have your hands full just avoiding a prison cell next to Sonny," she said, "There's a certain irony to that."

His face fell.

"You'd enjoy that?"

She thought about it.

"I'm sure PCPD's not going to be able to do it with Dante being investigated but I'm sure Anna will help the feds coming after you. For some reason she doesn't seem to like you much."

He didn't say anything to that and she didn't expect it.

"But no, I probably wouldn't enjoy watching either father of my daughters who are mobsters go to prison and we'll just leave it at that."

Julian thought that she looked resolute enough despite everything going on around them. His heart skipped a beat.

"Are you sure about that?"

She nodded.

"Yeah I think so," she said, "Now, we have to be in the proper state of mind when we meet with…your friend so I intend to do some relaxing."

"I've got some ideas on how to do that."

She looked directly at him, a faint curve of a smile on her face.

"I'm sure you do but I'm talking about reading a book or taking a walk, something like that. It's calm right now, take advantage of that.

Julian thought that left plenty of opportunity for them to wile away the hours in the meantime, she'd read him well but Alexis apparently had other plans.

She stood up and stretched her arms.

"I'm heading to the beach to get some sun," she said, "You can join me if you'd like."

His facial expression told her what which option he liked.

Later, she spread her towel on the beach before lying down with her novel pretty close to where the waves broke on shore. The tide would rise later on but she had plenty of time to enjoy the perfect spot to relax, as she had been doing since they had been staying at the beach house. It had been great to get away from Shawn and the mess surrounding their wedding. But if Julian hadn't crashed the estate just hours before the ceremony what would she have done, would she have married a man who turned out to be a hired killer?

She would like to have said not but that's exactly what she had been planning to do despite having some misgivings about it.

"Want some company?"

She looked up to see him with carrying a towel while dressed in those breathtaking black Speedos she enjoyed so much. She had to look away when he sat down beside her before reminding herself that he

Alexis said, "I think maybe I'd like to move here."

Julian's brow rose.

"Are you serious?"

"It's so beautiful out here,"

"Really…you'd leave everything you built in PC behind?"

She pondered his question.

"Maybe…I liked living there but I think I'm over it…I just would like to get away from it."

Julian heard the wistful tone in her voice.

"You could commute from here…though it's a bit of a drive," he said, "or buy a Lear jet."

She smiled.

"I might do that though I'll need more billable hours for the jet but maybe it's time to make a clean break."

"You really want that kind of change," he asked.

She bit her lip and nodded.

"Yeah I've been doing a lot of thinking and god, after I nearly married a hit man among my other epic fails, I think I need to sit back and reevaluate where I'm going in my life."

He sighed.

"I think you were going in a pretty good direction…except for the detour into marriage of course."

She didn't bristle at his assessment like she thought she might.

"Oh so you think because you and I…no you're wrong about that. You're in the mistake column pal and don't you forget it."

He looked out into the sparkling waters of the ocean.

"If I am, I'd like to make it up to you. Why don't we start from scratch like we did that night at the Floating Rib?"

She shot him a look.

"No Julian…because weren't you Derek back then? I kind of liked him. I still haven't made my mind up about you so maybe we'd better stick to our plan here."

"Okay then, my friend did contact me and said he's going through all that he's gotten on Shawn's employers and you know Spinelli and Sam's working on their end."

She reached for some more sunscreen.

"She's quite a woman, our daughter."

She smiled at him despite herself. Even if he was pointing out the obvious.

"Don't I know it?"

His facial expression changed, grew more thoughtful. She knew by now that he'd had plastic surgery done since they first met and that's why among other reasons she hadn't recognized him. Well, not entirely true because on some level she did because not every part of a person could be erased or redrawn by a surgeon.

"I wish I'd seen her growing up…"

She narrowed her eyes.

"So do I. I'll always regret that but it's not going to change anything. I'm just glad that we found each other even though it was real rough for a while."

Julian closed his eyes unable to even contemplate that reality.

"I wish I'd known sooner."

Not the first time he'd said that to her.

"Maybe that wouldn't have been such a good thing," she said, "You led a violent life Julian by choice. You were young yourself. What would you have done? I mean you think your family's tough but mine would have made short work of you…and maybe them too."

He resisted that but she'd seemed so adamant. He'd heard of the Cassadines' rep but the Jeromes weren't pushovers.

And that's when she told herself she should have been more vigilant at figuring out that the man had something to hide, a part of himself clearly had been withheld from her. She had tried to probe a little bit, gently but he hadn't said very much. Then when the reveal came…it just reminded her of her cast of ex-boyfriends.

She just lay on her towel and picked up her novel, to start reading it. Julian just looked at her and stood up to go out into the ocean for a brief swim. He enjoyed swimming in the ocean, taking long swims along the coast for an hour at a time before washing back on shore to eat a huge breakfast.

Back in his younger days.

He broke cleanly into the surf and started moving away with clean, sure strokes. Julian seemed so sure about everything in his life, until the day he realized he wasn't certain of anything at all.

Later, after they had finished up and had showered back at the beach house, they headed to meet Julian's friend at the diner. After parking the car, they headed into the place and saw him sitting with sunglasses in the back booth. He looked up and smiled at them as they slid into the seat opposite him. Alexis' eyes widened. Damn it if she wasn't looking at Mitchell Ratcliffe, aka Coleman.

"Son of a…"

He gave her a little wave.

"Nice to see you too Alexis…"

She narrowed her eyes.

"You and…Julian are friends?"

Coleman shrugged.

"Not really but we can put that aside to work on a common cause," he said, "I've always liked you Alexis…you're a hell of a woman though you always hid that part of yourself though not all of the time."

Her face flushed. Was he going to fire off a litany of the times in Coleman's bar involving a certain pool table…

"Coleman…don't you dare."

He chuckled and then turned to Julian all business.

"You're alone…"

Coleman nodded.

"I thought it would be better this way…the fewer people know…"

"Yeah…we're kind of fugitives right now."

Coleman sipped his iced tea.

"The police aren't really actively involved in the search," he said, "They sense at least that Shawn's not the grieving or jilted fiancé that he appears to be."

"It's reassuring that they've given this some thought," Alexis observed.

"But Shawn and Carly, are hitting every talk show in L.A. getting airtime to paint you as a jilted ex-lover crashing the wedding and abducting the bride at gunpoint…"

"Didn't happen…though there was a gun involved…actually more than one of them."

Coleman nodded before continuing.

"They believe that Alexis is emotionally distraught, perhaps even imbalanced and incapable of making decisions on her own."

She picked up a menu.

"So they're trying to get me institutionalized?"

Coleman appeared somber when the waitress came to take their orders.

"That might be part of the plan."

Alexis shook his head.

"Why do they always assume when a woman leaves her fiancé that it's because there's something wrong with her?"

Coleman looked at Julian.

"I mean that usually means there's something wrong with the guy," she said, "I think I'm going to try to get some equal time so that I can get the truth out about what's really going on here."

"I don't know if that's wise Alexis..if there are police involved, they might come to the studio during the interview."

She sighed.

"Julian…I don't care. I want equal time on this one. No one's going to want to hire a lawyer with an institutionalization on her record but more importantly, Ric might use it as an excuse to take Molly away from me."

Julian shook his head.

"That's not going to happen. So Coleman you think you can do it?"

Coleman nodded.

"It might work…though maybe we could arrange a remote interview and not disclose your location to the talk show."

"You mean a phone in," Julian asked.

"Possibly or through web cam…"

Alexis brightened.

"That sounds like a great idea," she said, "If it's encrypted no one will be able to find us."

"I don't know about that," Julian warned, "Shawn or certainly one of his bosses can probably afford the best."

Alexis considered that possibility but they had to try it because her ex-fiancé and his crew had already taken a huge lead with the war on words and they needed at least to keep pace and get the truth out there.

Julian read her face and sighed.

"Okay, we'll go back to the beach house and set something up," he said, "There's a guy out here named Spinelli who knows a lot about media and computers who can help us."

Alexis nodded. Spinelli had helped her and her family in different ways over the years. Almost as if he were one of them.

"Let's do it…"

And they spent the rest of their time in the diner deciding how to do just that.