Kristina snuggled closer to the warmth and sighed in content. Fuzzy from the morning haze in her head, she wound her arm around Ethan in a lazy way and rested her hand on his back. She shifted and breathed in the scent of him. Slowly, her eyes opened and she found herself lost in his pools of dark chocolate.

"Good morning." His voice rough from the night was into her ear and she felt his breath tickle her.

"Morning." She greeted, closing her eyes again and snuggling in once more. "I feel so safe here with you."

"That's cause I'd never let anyone hurt you." Ethan reasoned. They laid quietly for a minute.

"You're leaving today, aren't you." It was a statement that she bit out.

"It's time." Ethan answered tightening his arm around her. "But I'm not leaving town any time soon. I can't hide out forever."

"I was getting used to having you all to myself." Kristina sighed.

"It's not like I'm disappearing." Ethan reassured her. "I'm always going to be here for you."

"Thanks." Kristina smiled.

"Kristina." Ethan chose his words very carefully. "I wouldn't have gotten through these last few months without knowing I had a home to come home to." He took a breath. "These last few days, you taking care of me was one of the first times in my life I put my trust completely in someone else and you don't know how hard that was for me."

"I'd glad I could be here for when you came home and that you chose to put that trust into me." Kristina answered. They began to drift apart and slowly climb out of bed. "I'm going to get a shower. Then we'll have breakfast at Kelly's before you head back home." She decided.

"Sounds like a plan." He agreed almost sadly as she grabbed her towel and headed to the showers.

Kristina was standing in her robe and a towel wrapped around her hair when there was a knock at her door. Ethan was in the shower and she quickly looked around to make sure there were no traces of him before she opened the door. For the first time in days, she opened the door widely, revealing more than a crack into her room. She was startled to see her father and mother standing in front of her.

"Hi honey." Alexis breezed into the room and sat down on her bed. "Your father and I came to take you to breakfast."

"You've been working so hard and no one in the family's seen you for a while so we thought we'd steal you away. How does that sound?" Sonny walked into the room too, resting on the shelves in front of her window.

"I, ah," Kristina's mind raced with an excuse and she didn't know what to say, forgetting to hold the door open and heard it close gently behind her. "I actually had plans today."

"Well, break them." Sonny shrugged. "We're not taking no for an answer."

"Love, I can honestly say that I feel like a million bucks." Ethan announced, coming through the door with a towel slung low on his hips and stopping short seeing Sonny and Alexis. "I can explain."

"You're moving home." Alexis sputtered after a minute. "Today."

"Mom, listen." Kristina started until Alexis pointed a finger at her, too shocked to speak. Alexis turned the finger to Sonny.

"I know I said not to be too rash and come down on her but I've changed my mind. Kill him." She suggested.

"Alright, this isn't how it looks." Ethan put his hands up but as the towel started to fall he grabbed it again.

"How's our favourite patient?" Johnny asked, letting himself in with the key as he had done this entire week. He saw the pained look on Kristina's face and the guilty one on Ethan's and started to chuckle until he looked over to the window and was speechless to see Sonny and Alexis standing there. Alexis continued to sputter realizing that Johnny had a key to Kristina's room and Sonny's eyes hardened dangerously. "Oh boy." Johnny sighed, looking over helplessly at Kristina. "I guess the jig is up."

"The jig is up?" Sonny repeated. "I come into my daughter's dorm room to find them in towels and you're just letting yourself in?" Sonny almost laughed.

"I can explain." Ethan repeated, knowing it wouldn't do any good.

"Then try." Alexis took a deep breath. "And do it quick because I don't know how long I want to try to hold him back."

"I got back with Luke a few days ago." Ethan began. "I was wounded after being jumped by some unfriendly gentlemen who didn't take a liking to my father."

"You can understand that." Johnny reminded Sonny.

"Ethan made it here and I've been taking care of him until he could leave. He was leaving today." Kristina finished. "That's why I've been avoiding everyone."

"And how are you involved and why do you have a key to my daughter's dorm room?" Alexis turned to Johnny.

"Johnny is Ethan's best friend Mom, I could only call him." Kristina sighed.

"I've been having my men watch this place to make sure there was no danger and it was just easier in case anything happened to have my own key." Johnny filled in. "I was going to give it back as soon as Ethan left. I swear."

"Give it to me." Sonny spoke. He extended his hand and Johnny dropped the key card into his palm. He slid his hand into his pocket. "Get dressed." He told his daughter and took Alexis' hand to lead her out into the hallway. "We're all going to breakfast." He let the door close behind them.

"Are you INSANE?" Alexis demanded. "What are you thinking leaving them in there like that?"

"Alexis, I'm trying something new." Sonny tried to calm her down. "What we've been doing clearly hasn't been working as she's inside with two of the worst choices in men for her." Sonny reasoned.

"So we should be in there with them, doing it your old way!" Alexis threw her hands up. "Since when have you been the calm and rational one when it comes to our daughter and men?" She demanded. "I don't like that you've chosen this minute to start accepting the fact she's growing up and that you're not as angry as I am."

"I am as angry as you are." Sonny told her honestly.

"THEN START SHOWING IT!" Alexis cried out.

"You know who might be able to help us with this?" Sonny asked amused that Alexis was finally OK with his 'old way'.

"Who?" Alexis asked, folding her arms across her chest.

"Carly. She deals well with Kristina." He pulled out his phone. "And I'm starting to think that she didn't do this all on her own."

"Hey, are you here to meet Dad too?" Michael asked, coming off the elevator at the hotel restaurant and spying Dante sitting at a large table with Carly.

"Yup. I don't know why though." Dante said quizzically. "I just got a cryptic text asking me to meet him here."

"Hey, what are you guys doing here?" Sam asked, getting off the second elevator with Jason. "Mom called and asked us to meet her here for breakfast.

"Well, Sonny called and said he needed a big table with privacy." Carly explained.

"Maybe it's something serious." Michael turned to look at the elevator door as it opened to reveal Sonny, Alexis, Kristina, Johnny and Ethan. "Oh, no." Michael moaned.

"So you did know." Sonny nodded. "I thought so. You were covering for her too much. "

"Know what?" Dante asked confused, reaching for his water.

"You didn't know." Sonny concluded. "Stay. You're going to love this."

"Didn't know what?" Carly asked, looking from Sonny to Johnny and back again.

"Know that Kristina had been shacked up with Ethan and Johnny in her dorm room for the last few weeks." Alexis supplied miserably, falling into a seat. Dante spit the water he was drinking out in a great fountain. Carly's mouth dropped open and stayed that way. Sam sighed and shook her head. "I'm going to need a drink. A stiff one." Alexis told Carly.

"I can help you with that Natasha." Luke appeared out of nowhere.

"Look, I can confirm for you that Dodger has been with me for months." Luke told everyone as they ate the breakfast laid out in front of them. "He's only been back for a bit."

"So he came back to our daughter." Alexis shrugged.

"I came back to my home." Ethan said amicably. "Where I have family and friends."

"Yet you chose to see none of them and went to my daughter." Sonny pointed out.

"Kristina is a friend, remember?" Ethan asked the table.

"He was hurt Dad." Kristina sighed. "He couldn't have made it anywhere else."

"Of course he couldn't." Alexis smiled.

"Look, we tried to move him somewhere else but it wasn't an option." Johnny told them all.

"Because you showed up hurt and bleeding on my daughter's door step, hoping she would take care of you." Sonny decided looking at Ethan for the first time.

"I get that. She's been in so many accidents and the hospital so much that she, a freshman in college taking pre-law, could manage a man with a knife wound." Alexis nodded sarcastically.

"We had a doctor come look at him." Kristina pointed out.

"So you did take him to the hospital. And none of the good doctors there would care to let me know my 18 year old daughter had come in with a man who had a knife wound?" Alexis started talking with her hands; a sure sign she was getting worked up again.

"I had the doctor come to us." Johnny put in.

"Look." Sonny cleared his throat and took his time with the next sentence. He had one of his grins on his face. "It doesn't matter what happened and who knew. What matters now is: where do we go from here?" He asked the table.

"We know that." Alexis looked at him quizzically. "She moves home."

"I'm not moving home Mom." Kristina sighed.

"We had an agreement." Alexis jabbed her finger at her daughter. "This isn't working."

"Except for this, I have had great grades and other than this, which I'm not seeing as a problem honestly, I'm fine and it's working." Kristina argued.

"Kristina has been living the normal college life." Dante put in, thinking of his little sister partying.

"She's been doing all kinds of things on campus." Michael added in her defence. "She hasn't been in too much danger."

"She has calmed down quite a bit." Sam added quietly. "There's been so much less drama for her this year."

"She's a dream employee." Carly added. "Can I add my opinion here?"

"Please do." Sonny invited.

"I think that it was a shock for you to find out that Kristina's been taking care of Ethan this way." Carly started. Johnny laughed out loud, thinking of their faces at that moment. "But really, they've told you it's been harmless and they are just friends. She was helping him out, just like she would have done for Michael."

"Thank you." Kristina sighed.

"I'm out numbered." Alexis sat back.

"Alexis, I have the key that Johnny had. We can pop in Kristina's room whenever we like." Sonny decided. "I think that's punishment enough."

"I have nothing to hide." Kristina sighed as everyone else looked at her with wide eyes. "Well, not anymore." She grinned.