(A/N: Hope you guys are still reading this. I'm trying to bring a lot more back to the show that I miss seeing, like Davis family, JaSam, and of course Logan in a semi redeemed role. That being said, it's been fun working on this particular story, I just hope it's actually worth a crap to read for you all. I wanna thank all my 7 reviews, you guys have kept me going this far, and my 11 followers, the 4 who favorited this story. I cannot express how much the reviews and the alerts added mean to me.)

CHAPTER 13

Family Discussions

Alexis called Molly's name all over the house. She must have yelled for her youngest child until her throat hurt. Molly and she had been fighting a lot lately, and she'd hoped that when Molly finally got done with TJ, who she felt was manipulating her, and started seeing Rafe, that things would get better. And for a little while there, they had.. Until Ric, her former husband and Molly's father had shown up.

"Have you seen her?" Alexis asked Julian who stood in the doorway of the living room of her lake house. He shook his head and said calmly, "Maybe she went out on the patio to cool off and think. You two were really going at one another. For the record, Alexis, I don't blame you for not allowing her to go and live with Ric. He is Sonny's brother, after all." the distaste he felt for Corinthos evident in his tone. Alexis looked at him for a moment, almost made a rebuttal argument for the pot calling the kettle black, but Julian, she was realizing, had been there for her a lot lately. He'd taken it upon himself to sort of place himself in not only her life, but the life of the daughter they'd had together, Sam, and the lives of the rest of her family. Family was important to her which was why this argument with Molly was weighing so heavily on her mind and heart right now.

She slid the patio door open and Molly wasn't there. Her heart was racing and she was about to grab her jacket when the cellular phone in her hand rang and Sam said quietly, "Molly just came by, Mom. She left with Kristina, Kristina thought taking her for a ride then taking her back to your house might give you both time to cool off.. What's going on?"

"Your little sister wants to move in with her father. Legally, I can't stop her, but given what I've just found out about why Ric came back into her life after not bothering to care for nearly half of it, it can't be good. If she wants to go, I really can't stop her. But I don't want her to go. I hate the thought of her moving all the way out to California just to get away from me and the so called 'strict rules' she claims I've been giving her lately." Alexis admitted quietly as Sam said "So you talk to her. Tell her how you feel and why. Don't talk at her mom, talk to her.. 90 percent of the times we've all fought, it's been because you occasionally talk at us and not to us. We're not good at dealing with that, we all learned it from you."

"Gee, thanks." Alexis said quietly as Sam sighed and then said casually, "If it helps.. I think she'd be better off staying with you. I mean I know all Ric wants is to punish you, hurt you somehow by taking her, enticing her to live with you. He's not a good guy, he never has been." as she shivered, grimacing at just how slimy Ric Lansing had been when her mother had been involved with him, much earlier in her own life.

Not that her own birth father was much better, but at least he didn't flaunt his status (like Sonny, Kristina's father) and try to be lord and master of all, or just do what Ric had done, walking out on Alexis and Molly when Molly was no more than an infant, not much older than Sam's own son Danny was currently. Alexis asked quietly, "What about Carolina? Did she get anything else from her dead husband's mother?"

"Not really. But the woman is still insisting that she get at least one unsupervised visit. I've got a really, really bad feeling about that too." Sam said as she shifted Danny around in her lap, looked at the picture of all of them sitting on the mantle, smiling to herself a little. No matter what, they were all family, and they'd always lived by the motto 'family first'.

Now she had her whole family back, including a daughter she'd previously thought lost to her, and she wouldn't trade any of it for a second, complications included. And yes, there were a whole varied assortement of those. Their family wouldn't be as close knit and sometimes dysfunctional to a certain point, if there weren't complications.

"He's there, isn't he, Mom?" Sam asked, rolling her eyes at the thought of her own father, Julian Jerome. She didn't hate the man, she couldn't, he was her father and she had always wanted her father in her life, but she disliked the danger he presented to her life now that he was in it more. And she knew that Carolina was slightly annoyed by his constant meddling, making offers to 'pay off' her former mother in law, Lenore. Carolina was exactly like her father, Jason in that respect. Pride kept her from accepting help almost all the time.

And sometimes, she seemed so calm.. Sam wished that she could be that calm. She'd taken after her mother though. She sighed and said quietly, "If he's there, you need to remember what I said about him earlier. He wants something.. We just won't figure out what it is until it's too late, Mom."

Alexis sighed and said "I know, Sam. I'm the mother, remember? I'm an adult too, I can handle myself." as Sam said quietly, "I know, but I also know the history you two had back then."

Alexis sighed and the front door closed, Molly called out through the house, "Mom? Are you here?"

"Out on the patio, talking to your sister. Did you cool off?" Alexis asked as she let Sam go, hung up the phone and waited, Molly emerging from the door a few minutes later with an apple in her hands as she said "No, but Kristina made a few good points while we were talking."

"And they're probably the same few good points I made earlier when we fought about you moving." Alexis muttered as Kristina shook her head and said "No, I just reminded her that Ric's never been a father of the year winner.. he left her and he not only didn't bother trying to keep in touch, he didn't seem to care to. I also reminded her that if she leaves here, she's going to have to essentially start all over again in the school she goes to there. There goes her advanced placement courses, right down the drain." before flopping down onto a lawn chair, asking quietly, "Do you have a little while?"

"What's going on?"

"I just.. I've been thinking about Trae a lot lately.. I miss him mom. I shouldn't miss him this much. This shouldn't hurt like it does." Kristina admitted as Alexis sighed and hugged her daughter, said quietly, "We'll go into the kitchen and talk."

"Not until he's gone." Molly said as she shot a firm glare in Julian's general direction through the window of the house. Alexis sighed and then said quietly, "He's here about his case."

"You really do not need to go down this road, Mom.. Cut ties now. He's not a good guy, I mean there's just something... He's slimy, okay? Like Joe was.." Kristina said quietly as she looked at her mother intently and then added, "Besides. I just think if you really, really tried, you could actually find a good guy."

"And so could you. I know it hurts, but it's the same thing I've been telling your niece about grief. Eventually, whether you like it or not, you have to move forward and stop living in the past, in the memories. I hate seeing you in pain.. I hate seeing Molly angry with me, but I really am trying to do what I think is the very best for both of you." Alexis said as the three of them stood and walked into the house.

The door was knocked on and Carolina came in, fuming as she held Coraline, said to the little girl, "Tell Mimi what you told me happened to ya at daycare.."

Coraline said quietly, "My mean granny came. She try to make me leave with her. Ms. Georgie say I couldn't go. Then she wait outside my school and stare all day." while biting her thumb. Carolina poured herself a glass of tea with shaking hands and sat down in a chair, raked her hands through her long dark hair as she said quietly, "Grandma? If she's not out of Port Charles in a day or two, you might be defendin me in a murder trial. Because if she comes near my little girl again? I'm gonna kill her.. I was about to strangle her in the parking lot when I saw her but Logan happened to be there, got between both of us."

Alexis sighed and said quietly, "Go to the station and get a restraining order. I'll get to work on seeing if there's not some way I can't bar her from having any further contact with either of you on the grounds of harassment. In the meantime, what do you mean Logan happened to be there?"

"Well, apparently, that's the funny part of the story.. My little angel here, she decides to call the fire department on the payphone outside of the daycare center.. And she asked to speak to him."

Alexis stifled a laugh as Kristina and Molly tried not to choke on laughter with Molly asking, "How'd she get out to do it?"

"She said she had to use the bathroom. Went down the hall and called the dispatch, who called the fire department when they finally figured out what she was trying to say." Carolina groaned, shaking her head as she asked Molly, "And you? Did you calm down any?"

"A little, yeah. I'm still mad because mom won't even consider me moving in with my father.." Molly said cautiously as Carolina looked at her and said "And your mom probably has damn good reasons."

Being a mother herself, and being a child to an equally stubborn mother, she understood both sides of her aunt's current dilemma. But she'd met Ric Lansing and she wasn't thrilled with him, either.

"Not now." Alexis said quietly, as Molly sighed, going silent, staring at the tea glass in her hands, biting her lower lip. "I just miss him, okay? I mean he's here now and he says he wants to be in my life. I want to at least attempt to give him a chance."

"I understand this, Molly, but you can do that here, without moving there with him. I just don't think it's a good idea." Alexis said calmly as Carolina nodded in agreement, looked at her cell phone, groaning when she realized it was Georgie calling about earlier, what'd happened at the daycare center she ran part of the day.

"I'm gonna take this." she said as she ducked out of the room. The door shut and Kristina said casually, "So, Corky.. What'd you say when you called Logan?"

"Just said I wanted to talk to my daddy, then told 'em his name." Coraline muttered, eating a doughnut that Molly had snuck out of a covered dish hidden in the back of the fridge.

"Where'd you get that?" Alexis groaned as she gave her daughter a dirty look, Molly shrugging and licking the powder off of her fingers as she said through a mouth full, "What? It's okay to have a little candy."

Kristina picked up the little girl and laughing she said "And, did he come?"

"Mhmm.. And he started cussin at that mean lady too. He was grabbin Mama, but he was yellin at her too, say he thought she was stupit. Say that her son wouldn't have want her to treat the mother of his little girl the way she was." Coraline said, stumbling over the bigger words she said as she looked at Alexis then asked "Can I has another?"

"Not right now. Right now, we need to get all of the powder off of you." Alexis said as she dabbed at the little girls nose and cheeks with a damp cloth, laughing when Coraline tried to take her glasses and wear them, announcing, "I pretty and smart too!"