Alexis headed to Kelly's to pick up some food to take to her office to work and fortunately Shawn wasn't behind the counter or in the kitchen for that matter. TJ was of course meeting up with Molly. So some woman behind the corner made her a roast beef sandwich and along with some bottled iced tea handed it to her.

She noticed Lucy and Kevin eating at a nearby table. So before leaving, she went over to say hi to them. She hadn't really seen Lucy since the whole Rafe deal earlier in the year except for a run in here and there and Kevin…there'd been that session under hypnosis with her in his office.

The one that introduced her to Julian.

They smiled up at her and invited her to sit down and join them but she shook her head.

"I've got work to do on the custody case…it's back in court tomorrow."

Kevin shook his head.

"Must be rough on both sides…family court can get so tangled and messy…I remember working as a court expert during some custody hearings."

Alexis nodded.

"Yeah…it's been pretty hard on my clients…and dramatic. The press has been covering it too. Not sure why."

Lucy sighed.

"They like to cover anything remotely scandalous or people slinging mud at each other…I just got a call from some editor at Crimson for an interview to be published in their special annual ode to older career women."

Alexis chuckled.

"Me too…only I didn't want to do it. The woman was asking me why my daughters…well they don't have the same father."

Lucy shrugged.

"Really is there a single woman in PC whose children all share the same father? So what did you tell her…I hope you told her off."

Kevin shook his head at his wife.

"Lucy…"

She rolled her eyes.

"No I mean it Kevin. Some people have a lot of nerve and the media's the worst at it…so I hope you gave her a piece of your mind."

Alexis took a breath.

"I did…and told her I wasn't interested and then Derek Wells you know him, he's the publisher of the parent company…he said if I agreed to be featured he'd do the interview himself."

Lucy's eyes widened.

"Okay…well that might work. I've heard a lot about him. He's very powerful and ruthless and he's been seen with Carly Jacks but that's hardly surprising given that he's a man new in town."

Alexis didn't want to be reminded about him and Carly, not that it was any of her business.

"He's all that but he's done good too….but while I'm here, Kevin I'm thinking that I might set up an appointment with you for a session."

He narrowed his eyes.

"Okay…is everything all right?"

Her skin flushed slightly. How was she going to put it into words that she was having lurid fantasies including while she slept with a dead man. Not just any dead man but a notorious mobster who might be Sam's father? If the DNA test came back positive on connecting Sam with Julian's son Lucas…well she'd have to cross that bridge when she came to it.

"It's fine…It's just that I'm doing research on a man who might be the one who's Sam's father. It's having some effect on me that I don't really understand…it's complicated."

He looked at her and nodded.

"Give me a call tomorrow and we can set up an appointment, get to the bottom of it. It could be residual stress from that health crisis that your grandson just went through."

She sighed.

"That's what I'm hoping…thanks so much…I'll let you both get back to your meal."

She left them and started walking to the door and then it opened and in walked Derek. He seemed surprised to see her as well.

"Alexis…"

"Derek…I was just leaving…"

He was dressed in casual jeans and a shirt like he had no plans to put in any work today.

"I just got a workout in…including some sparring at the gym…"

She smiled taking in the way his clothes molded against his musculature, the way his eyes appraised everything in Kelly's beginning and ending with her.

"What…go another round with Franco?"

He chuckled in his self-depreciating way.

"No…not Franco. He's with Carly right now…they were fighting over the chamber maid showing up to clean his room."

She narrowed her eyes.

"Really…I thought she was embarrassed about any feelings she might have for him…but then I don't understand much of the way she thinks about anything."

He shrugged.

"I'm here to get some breakfast. You've had any?"

She tilted her face at him. Did he really think just because he wasn't currently spending time with Carly that she'd jump at his impromptu invite? No, had plenty on her plate today beginning with a workload at the office…not to mention more research on Julian Jerome. Still…she didn't want to be rude about it.

So she smiled.

"Yes I did with my daughter. I've got work waiting for me at the office. Long day in court tomorrow."

He digested that and then his eyes became more focused.

"So how's your research going?"

"Research?"

"Yeah into Julian Jerome PC's most formidable and powerful mobster."

She waved a hand.

"I heard that he was somewhat hotheaded and did foolish things."

He frowned slightly but then she softened.

"Still…I can see why some women might find him attractive," she said, "He's quite good looking for a mobster."

He cleared his throat.

"Some might have said that but he didn't strike me as a player…based on my archives research."

She nodded.

"There's only one women mentioned and she met him in college or graduate school. Seemed like some kind of love match. He must have changed a lot since I met him…if he's the Julian that I met at the bar."

He sighed.

"People change in some ways but not others. Some principles they hold never change."

"True…but whatever I do find out about Sam's father, I don't harbor any illusions that it was anything more than it was…a one night stand, whether it's Julian Jerome or someone else."

He just stared at her and she continued.

"It is what it is right? If I hadn't gotten pregnant from it, I might not have remembered it at all and I'm sure that Julian forgot about it too by the next day…maybe it's just as well he never learned he had a daughter."

"There's no way to know that Alexis…including if it were this Julian Jerome…and he's dead and can't say anything about it."

She shrugged.

"That's true…but if I'm just the one night stand he had during the third week of September in 1979, it wouldn't matter would it?"

He fell silent…his eyes reflective. She'd learned how to read them, it was really the only way to know anything about a man who kept so many walls up around him.

But then she knew all about that.

"Well…I've got to head to the office and do some more legal research for tomorrow," she said, "My clients…they're fighting to keep a child that they love and I've got to come up with some way to help them…"

"But…"

She sighed not able to explain to him the legal strategy of her side of the case, let alone that she knew already that it'd take a miracle for her clients to keep Connie, that at some point they might have to say goodbye to the child they'd grown to love and hand her back to her parents. Then learn to move forward with their lives without looking back.

They really had no one else. Sonny as usual was too busy to pay attention to his son. Olivia was too busy having psychic visions about everyone else and Luke…well he was off on some adventure somewhere and Laura was somewhere in Europe. So she felt that in a sense, she was all the support they had and Nicholas would want someone to be there for his little sister. He'd been such a rock for her, Sam and Danny during the health crisis.

She brightened.

"I really should get going…see you around…"

"You can be sure about that. We have to schedule that interview…"

She shrugged as she moved towards the door.

"I'll get back to you on that."

The door closed behind her as she got on out of there. She really had to focus on what she planned to do in court tomorrow. She had done well so far, had fought hard, pulled off a few wins but the war still remained ahead.

She continued walking because her office wasn't that far away from Kelly's. It was a beautiful sunny day unusually warm for this time of year.

"Hey Alexis…"

She glanced over to see Liz.

"Hi Liz."

The nurse was dressed in some jeans and a woolen sweater, her hair back in a ponytail. Alexis thought Liz to be a very beautiful woman, she just couldn't figure out why someone who was intelligent, good at her career and hardworking would attach themselves to someone like AJ.

The Quartermaine heir had always struck Alexis as a snotty spoiled brat who used and abused people around him especially women. If ever he'd been forced to grow up, he might have been a good man but considering what he'd done including with her daughter Kristina. If she hadn't tried hard to respect the legal system even when it wronged people, he might not have lived long enough to be arrested for murder himself.

No she just didn't get his appeal at all.

"I'm off to visit AJ. Dianne told me his trial might start soon. But the D.A…Mr. Callantine might postpone it until after the election."

Chase seemed formidable enough to take on any case himself but often in the DA's office politics played a role and she knew that Scotty had his supporters as disgusting as that might be.

"Liz you sure you want to do it? I mean what's AJ done but be cruel to you including about your own children?"

The other woman sighed.

"I know what he's done but he's a better man than that. I just know it. Underneath it all, the drinking, the rude behavior, he's really a nice guy."

Alexis figured that Liz had some rough truths to discover ahead of her but maybe that was unavoidable at this point. Some lessons were tougher to learn than others…she'd learned that herself.

"Good luck Liz…"

Liz smiled at her and nodded before heading off to the jailhouse. Alexis didn't judge her, knew she wasn't in any position to judge her given her own predisposition for bad boys. Mobsters, sleaze bags and sociopathic killers.

Someone told her she should pen a book about them all but she said no one would ever believe it.

She tilted her face.

"I didn't know whether you wanted me to undress for you…"

He approached her as she watched.

"Let me worry about that…it's part of the fun."

She smiled at him.

"Okay…"

But he had reached her by then and with one of his hands, he cupped her chin in his hand. He drew her closer to his mouth and then he kissed her before she could say anything. Then a split second later, she had lost her words as his mouth covered hers in swift possession. His hands settled on her hips as he teased her lips again, searing them and then withdrawing just long enough for her almost to catch her breath before he kissed her again. Her hands gripped his hips and she pulled him closer to her, backing up a bit. His mouth moved to burn a trail on her chin…her jaw line…and down her neck. Damn if he reached that sensitive spot between her neck and shoulder, she'd do whatever he wanted…as long as he held her up.

"Julian…"

"Shhh….I'm busy…here…"

The man had no mercy and when his mouth returned to worshiping hers, he started outlining her lips with his tongue. She gripped him even tighter when he did that and he took that as an invitation to start pressing his tongue against her pliant lips. Should she let him inside, silly question she thought as her lips parted on their own and his tongue slipped in between them inside her mouth. She shivered as he began his exploration, his tongue caressing hers and then…she felt that ache in her belly. The kind that would drive her crazy, the kind that could only be cured one way until pleasure replaced the anticipation.

But he didn't seem to be in a hurry to do that, not just yet. He was too busy tasting her mouth, with his evil tongue. Thrusting it between her parted lips that opened up just enough to allow him inside…and when she tried to hug his tongue with her mouth, it just upped the ante more. His hands started sliding beneath her shirt on the bare skin of her back.

"So soft…damn…"

She moaned as he stroked her back with his fingers, how could she not? She had wanted him to touch her all day. Then his hands reached in front to tease the lower curves of her breasts tucked under lace, aching for some serious attention. She hitched in her breath as he kissed her harder, his tongue more insistent as he started to coax her shirt right off of her. She found herself lifting her arms without even thinking about it and he stopped kissing her enough to get her shirt off of her body. But when he did that, she put her hands back on his hips and kissed him back even harder, her heart beating fast in her chest.

Alexis jolted awake. She looked around her suddenly and saw that the sunlight streaming through the window of her office had faded. Damn she'd nodded off in the middle of her legal research …what time was it?

She picked up her notepad and saw that she'd done a lot of the research on her notations and she'd already completed the response to Dianne's latest motion for the morning. But she'd been dreaming again…about him.

Again. What the hell was going on with her? She knew it'd be time to head back to the lake house for movie night with Molly. Her daughter said she'd fix them both some salad for dinner along with the left over baked chicken. She didn't know what she'd do without a daughter who enjoyed fixing meals in the kitchen.

So she packed up her things to leave her office, still feeling the sensations that had been so vivid in her sleep even as the images had faded.

As she walked down the staircase she thought about what movies she would watch with her daughter tonight and then suddenly she heard a loud bang and the entire building shook. She dropped instinctively and waited until the shaking stopped.

Then the shrieks of car alarms interrupted the stillness of the evening and then the wail of sirens approaching from a distance.