Julian awoke alone in the darkened bedroom. He assumed Alexis was in the bathroom and decided to wait for her return before succumbing once more to sleep. Wrapped in thoughts of how they spent the evening, he took a few minutes to realize she'd been gone too long. The darkness under the bathroom door confirmed his first instinct was incorrect. Worried, he rose from the bed and tiptoed through the second floor hallway. Julian found her curled up in Sam's bed wearing a T-shirt and shorts. He watched her for a few minutes, saddened that the brief window of time they shared had apparently closed without his knowledge: he had hoped for a longer reprieve. Julian briefly considered sleeping in the overstuffed chair by the window, but it was obvious she needed distance. He opted to oblige her.

Alexis awoke in a foreign bed to the smell of coffee. She turned her head to see Julian dressed and sitting at the foot of the bed, his packed bag on the floor and her breakfast perched on the nightstand. She shut her eyes for one last moment before opening them to confront the awkward morning after.

-"Hey."

-"Morning," she smiled. "Coffee delivered? What service. Thank you. What time is it?"

-"9:30"

Alexis raised herself to her elbows in a slight panic. "What?"

-"Yup. You were so tired I decided to let you sleep. But now I have some work to do, so I'm going to head out."

As she sipped her coffee and more fully entered the land of the living, Alexis remembered that with Sam out of jail and Sonny a memory she didn't have anywhere to be. She was unsure what to say to Julian after she muddled them further last night, so she ate some of her omelet blaming her silence on good manners as opposed to abject terror.

-"So," he started

She swallowed another sip of coffee. "Yes."

-"I was thinking I'd come back this afternoon so you and Sam and me can discuss strategy."

-"Sure." Alexis mentally willed him to leave so she could think about how she wanted to handle him.

-"But before we talk to Sam, Alexis, you and I need to talk."

She sighed. He was apparently going to push the issue. "Look, Julian. About last—"

-"We can get to that later. I'm more concerned about my boss. Sam can't know about him, Alexis. It's bad enough I had to tell you. I can't risk her knowing as well."

Alexis knew Julian was right: Sam struggled with discretion, particularly when she was angry or emotional. "I get it. It's just that I'm going to have a hard time lying to her and Molly."

-"I know. But here's the thing. Until she's cleared, Sam will need me. I can't have her ignoring my help or keeping me out of the loop because she's pissed about my lying. Not to mention the fact that she's as tenacious as you are, and if she finds out about my boss she's not going to sit on her hands—she's going to do something about it. I need you to help me keep her away from this stuff with Luke…at least until I can neutralize him."

-"What if you can't?"

-"I'll figure it out, Alexis."

She wasn't particularly reassured, but she also wasn't in the mood for a fight. She was raw after the events of the past few days, and she needed time alone to regroup before her next move. Compromise would be her strategy for the morning. "OK. But then I want something from you."

-"What?"

-"You share anything with me that your boss wants. As soon as he mentions our daughter you share that with me. I can't defend her if I don't know where the next hit is coming from, Julian."

-"Done."

She sat up so they were face to face. "I mean it, Julian. I don't want any more of this splitting hairs crap. I want you to adhere to the spirit AND the letter of this request. If it wasn't clear before, I consider a lie of omission a lie, Julian."

Julian sighed. He rubbed his temples and looked at her. The morning was a reset of where they had been yesterday, as if the previous night hadn't happened. His voice held the faintest trace of impatience. "I get it Alexis. We're on the same page. No more lies."

-"OK. Then I'll see you at lunch." She smiled at him. "Why don't you bring something for the three of us. See if you can top breakfast."

Sam strode in laden with Danny and his accoutrements. One of Nikolas's men helped escort her to the door and then left. Alexis closed her laptop at their arrival. "Here's my big boy!" She beamed as she grabbed her grandson in a squeeze that left him squirming for air. The hard-nosed lawyer traded the legalese of the previous 48 hours for toddler-speak.

-"Gee, Mom. I'm here, too."

-"Yes you are, my love. But I've seen you. This is my man. I've missed him."

-"OK, Grandma. I see you're anxious for your reunion. Can you watch him while I put his stuff upstairs?"

-"Can I?" Alexis started tickling Danny. "Can I? Sure, I can."

-"Oh, also? Mom? Mom!" Alexis jerked her head up and threw Sam an expression that was both exasperated and bade her to continue. "Nikolas said that he discussed Markos with you?"

-"Yup. We're going to need to make sure that whoever is framing you doesn't have access to the apartment. A Cassadine-employed titan at the door 24/7 should make our nemesis think twice."

-"I think you mean 'my' nemesis."

-"Your nemesis is my nemesis, sweetheart. That's how parenthood works," she said lightly. "Go, unpack. Me and my man are going to do some reading. I figure we'd start with some 'Llama Llama Red Pajama' then maybe Homer in the original Greek." She saw Sam's face, "Don't worry, sweetheart. I'll edit out the inappropriate parts." She turned to Danny, "Would you like that my little man? I think you would!"

Sam shook her head, turned on her heel and took the bags upstairs.

After some quality reading time, Sam put Danny down for his nap and then joined her mother on the couch. "I can't believe you're reading to him in Greek."

-"Why not? This is when he's a little sponge. It's the best time to teach him a new language. Besides, Danny and I need a secret code so we can conspire against his mother."

Sam made a face as she changed the topic. "So, was someone sleeping in my room?"

-"Oh. Yes. That was me. I fell asleep there."

Sam smiled as she drew out her one-word question, "Whyyyyyyy?"

Alexis ignored the implication of that tone. "Well, I felt bad about your father sleeping on the couch, so I let him sleep in my bed."

-"…aaaaand?"

-"And I didn't feel comfortable spending the night in the same bed so I slept in your room. I hope you don't mind."

-"No, I don't mind, I'm just curious."

Alexis knew when she was being cross-examined, and she was ready to deflect. "About?"

-"About you two. You seem to be getting along pretty well right now."

-"Well, we are."

-"I know but I mean…you're broken up."

-"Sam, we have a mutual interest right now which is your freedom. This isn't unheard of, you know. I've worked with Sonny when Kristina was making terrible choices, and even Ric and I could be civil when it came to keeping Molly safe."

-"This is different."

-"It's different in that it's recent. But I'm remarkably adept at compartmentalizing when I need to. It's fine, sweetheart."

-"Mom. Come on."

-"Come on what? What do you want me to say, Sam?"

-"You and Dad."

Alexis saw her way out and jumped on it. "Dad, huh?"

-"Julian. You and Julian. You and Dad. Whatever." Sam cursed herself silently.

-"It's pretty significant that you called him, Dad."

-"And it's pretty obvious that you're ignoring my question."

-"Sam, you haven't actually asked me a question. We're working together to help you. That's it."

-"That's it. There are no feelings there, Mom? You've been spending a lot of time alone with him."

-"Yes. That's it."

-"Or that's all you want to talk about."

-"Sam I've answered you. You can try and use different words to ask the same question, but it's not going to change my response."

Sam couldn't hide her frustration and gave a petulant "Fine."

-"Fine. New topic." Alexis adopted a cheery tone. "How's Nikolas?"

Her daughter smiled. "He's good. He's got his hands full with Spencer—"

-"—Tell me about it."

-"But other than that, he was the perfect host as usual. I think he's got some issues in his love life, but he seems to be pretty settled on Liz, so I guess that's good."

-"Well, it's good if she reciprocates."

Sam sat up and clapped her hands together. "Oh and I almost forgot! We met Uncle Victor!"

Alexis wrinkled her forehead in confusion. "Uncle Victor? My Uncle Victor? Victor Cassadine?"

-"Yup. And you are soooo busted when Molly comes home, by the way. She must have asked him every question she could think of about the Cassadines. So prepare yourself."

Horrified by the potential answers shared with her youngest, Alexis gripped the table. "Oh my God. What did he tell her?"

-"He was keeping it light. At least last night when I was around. I'm not sure what Gothic nightmares he shared the night before, though."

-"Shit."

Sam put a hand on her mother's arm. "Mom, I'm sure it's fine. You know Molly. If he had spooked her it would have been all over her face last night. He was nice and ambiguous when we asked questions about you."

Alexis looked even more stricken. "What did you ask about me?"

-"Just what you were like as a kid. He said you looked a lot like Molly, which I believe. At one point he called you 'Stefan's shadow.' You were quiet, polite, obedient. The usual good stuff. Enough detail to answer the question but not enough to share anything truly insightful."

Alexis let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. "OK. So what's he like?"

-"Victor? Do you not remember him?"

-"I haven't seen him in decades and even when I saw him as a kid, it was infrequent. I remember he had a sparkle to him—a lot of charm. He smiled a lot."

-"He *is* very charming. And *very* well-mannered. Honestly, I find it hard to believe that he's one of 'those' Cassadines."

Alexis smirked. "You try to freeze the world once and no one let's you hear the end of it. So how long as he been shacking up with Nikolas?"

-"I think he's been around a while. Nikolas said he was pretty wary of him when he first arrived, but he's been really—as Nikolas put it—'delightful.' He was very nice to me. Offered help if we needed it."

She perked up at that. "What kind of help?"

-"Calm down. He wasn't specific. I think he was just being kind." Sam smiled to herself.

-"What?"

-"Nothing. It's just that we had a similar conversation with Victor last night only YOU were the topic."

-"What did he ask about me?"

-"Just things like what you were like. He said he was going to call you to set up lunch or something."

-"Great," Alexis murmured under her breath. "So on top of everything else now I've got Cassadines to deal with." She looked at her daughter's grim face and took a conciliatory tone. "Sweetheart, that wasn't a dig. You are not something I ever have to 'deal with.' You're my baby and my job is to help you when you need it."

-"I know. I'm just frustrated."

-"I know. So your Dad's coming over in about an hour and I told him we'd discuss strategy, ways we can work together. But before he comes over, I just want to make one thing clear about Julian."

-"Sure."

-"Your father can be subpoenaed. So when you make a choice to tell him something, know that he'll have to repeat it on the stand. Even if he tells you he'll lie for you, I won't let him."

-"Do you really think they'll call him?"

-"Sam, if this goes to trial they will ABSOLUTELY call him. An opportunity to get your father under oath? Don't think that Anna or Scott won't pass that up."

Sam let out a huge sigh and pantomimed banging her head on the table. "It's just such a mess."

-"Yup. But we've dealt with messier. Well, at least from a legal standpoint." Alexis put her hand over Sam's. "How are you doing?"

-"I'm ok."

-"I meant your heart. How is your heart doing?"

-"It's so…surreal. I mean I spend a good part of every day wondering how Silas and I can fix our relationship, you know? And then I remember there's nothing to fix. He's gone." The tears started to fall. "It's all so overwhelming. I alternate between being sad and then being angry. Angry that he's dead and angry that someone is trying to pin it on me."

-"Well, we can't do anything about the first part, but we can about the rest. We'll find who did this, Sam."