Alexis walked into the MC the next day to pick up some breakfast. She didn't want to chance running into Shawn at Kelly's because he'd left a couple voice mails asking for her to take him back.
Not that he had any plans to quit working as Sonny's hired gun of course. God, she really needed to get out of PC for a while where the men were usually ruthless mobsters or unrepentant sociopathic killers. Occasionally there was a Lothario doctor who cheated on his wife with a nurse at the hospital or some dirty cop who exuded hotness in his costume of faded jeans and a black turtleneck.
She sighed, as she eyed the gift shop where Franco worked behind the counter in his uniform. This obviously meant that Carly had found her latest boy toy gainful employment so she no longer had to support him in a manner of speaking.
Remind herself not to shop there anymore.
Yeah Franco's reputation might have been cleaned up in some circles but he'd always remain the sadistic serial killer who terrorized her daughter. She'd saved his life once but only because she had to do it. If Sonny and Shawn had beat him to death before dropping him off Pier 52 then it might have cost Danny his only chance at life.
Now that Danny was healthy she had no use for him.
She saw Bobbie of all people chatting with Carly in the lounge area, with both mother and daughter looking disconcerted. Bobbie looked almost afraid. Alexis walked onto the restaurant to place her order for a Croissant breakfast sandwich and coffee to go.
The cashier told her that her order would be ready in 20 minutes so she went back to the lobby again. Carly was there pacing talking to a young man who looked like Felix, a nurse who worked at the hospital. Occasionally he stepped in as her best friend forever when Sabrina didn't need his services.
"I can't believe it," she said, "My mom is freaked by Julian Jerome being back alive."
Felix rolled his eyes.
"Doesn't anyone ever stay dead in this town?"
Carly sighed.
"I have to have a plan Felix. It's only going to be a matter of time until he finds out…I can't tell you what but I have to stop him."
Felix sighed.
"I don't like the sound of what I'm hearing. What have you planned now?"
Carly wrinkled her forehead.
"I'm going to have to work my charms on him again," she said, "and what will Franco think?"
Alexis waited by the concierge desk listening to the two of them jabber back and forth.
"It didn't work with that other mobster, Johnny what's his name…and why are you still with that psycho serial killer anyway?"
Carly snorted.
"It's going to have to work," she said, "I don't know what else to do. Besides what man can resist me? And don't badmouth Franco, he's changed. He saved Michael's life you know."
"Yeah you told me half a dozen times."
Alexis watched the two of them. How like Carly to hatch another one of her seduction plots that started out not so innocently enough and then inevitably blew up in her face?
Carly smiled, swaying her hips.
"He won't know what hit him."
Felix looked nonplussed though he likely knew that stopping Carly from hatching one of her hare brained plot was useless.
That's what Carly always did, ran off halfcocked before her brain caught up with her and then when she got in over her head, some man would have to jump in and rescue her from herself. Crazy as it sounded there were a herd of men in town who found those types of antics alluring and sexy.
Alexis didn't understand that type of herd mentality either.
Carly looked up and spotted her.
"Alexis…what are you doing here?"
Alexis took a breath and exhaled it, not willing to feed any of Carly's many neuroses today.
"I'm just here to pick up breakfast."
Carly snarled her lip.
"Oh I thought you were here to see Julian," she said, "since he's still slumming in my hotel."
Alexis tried not to roll her eyes.
"I'm not here to see him and I don't care where he's staying."
Carly flipped her hair back.
"Well I do because he's been ignoring my phone calls," she said, "and it's just so unlike a man to do that."
Alexis bit back a chuckle. Carly looked pretty bewildered underneath her sultry pose. She almost felt sorry for her.
"Yeah he mentioned at the gallery that he left you?"
She'd flashed back to that night when she'd used his tryst with Carly as a parting shot before leaving him alone. Only before she took one step, he'd grabbed her arms forcefully almost causing her to drop her purse.
"I don't want Carly. I never have…"
The way he'd looked at her, if Alexis had been a smoker she'd had needed a cigarette afterward. But she knew he didn't mean any of it. After all he'd just admitted he'd played the whole seduction game with Carly for information so what was to stop him from doing the same with her?
Still Carly didn't know that…
"He definitely said something about it being over between the two of you."
Carly made a face. Felix stepped in front of her.
"Excuse me but no man is done with Carly until she says it's done."
Alexis arched her brow.
"Does your shtick work as well with her as it does Sabrina?"
Felix just looked at her.
"Don't answer that," Carly said, "Felix is my best friend."
Alexis smiled.
"That's good…if you want to patch things up with Julian, good luck. The two of you deserve each other."
She walked off to go collect her breakfast.
Julian looked at Ava who stood there mad as a cobra, arms folded watching him carefully.
"You did what?"
He tilted his face studying his sister. He wondered what else she'd done behind his back lately.
"I sent Morgan on an errand to deliver a package."
She frowned.
"What kind of package?"
"Nothing serious. It's just another test to see if he's going to be a good fit in our organization."
Ava glared at him.
"He'd better be. You were going to have him killed. If it hadn't been for Carlos…"
Julian stroked his chin.
"I'm not sure what to do with him. He handled the Lazaro matter very well but his father and brother found out about it."
Ava sighed contemptuously.
"That surprised me. I didn't think Sonny had any brains…and Michael, he didn't inherit any good qualities from his parents."
"There's no room to be surprised Ava," Julian said, "We can't afford to be surprised like that again."
She went to pour herself a Scotch.
"So what's this errand you've got Morgan running? It's not dangerous is it?"
Julian chuckled.
"Hardly it's another surveillance job to plant more bugs. I've sent one to plant at the PCPD. Right in the commissioner's office."
Ava slid her tongue over her lip.
"That won't be too hard what with Anna Devane having taken off on one of her adventures which just leaves Sonny's son in charge."
Julian sighed.
"He should be able to handle it."
Ava folded her arms.
"You still don't trust him do you?"
Julian went to refresh his drink.
"No…any reason why I should…besides that he's your latest bed warmer?"
Ava sneered.
"Well, I guess since your girlfriend Carly's frozen you out once she read that newspaper article…"
Julian shrugged.
"This isn't about her," he said, "This is about whether or not we can trust Morgan. Will he remain loyal or want to return to his father?"
Ava grimaced.
"I don't know but he hasn't talked to his father since the night of the party after he ran off," she said, "Like I said, I ran into him at the waterfront and took him home. He was pretty upset but I think he's over it now."
Julian shook his head not knowing whether to believe her. He'd noticed she'd gotten attached to the angry, petulant teenager which might mean trouble for both of them.
Ava nursed her Scotch looking at him.
"I don't imagine your family's been dropping by to get acquainted with you," she said, "after that bombshell you dropped on them the other night."
He slammed his glass down on the table startling her.
"You don't know anything about that or them."
She laughed without mirth, knowing she'd hit a sore spot.
"Well Julian they're probably still stuck on what to call you," she said, "by Derek Wells upstanding media publisher or your real name."
"Ava…"
He had a warning tone in his voice but she just smirked at him, enjoying herself.
Alexis ate her breakfast in her office before settling to work on more of Sonny's contracts. She leaned back in her chair pausing to look out at the window where she noticed the sky had darkened into a leaden grey.
Snow was supposed to fall by late afternoon and all night. She had a dinner date at the Floating Rib with Taggart who was going to get off his shift early since he'd put in so much overtime since Anna took off again.
She looked forward to it because she needed to relax and move on with her life, not focused so much on how original baby daddy dropped back into it and where to fit him. He'd turned out to be arrogant and self-centered, a ruthless mobster and just as entrenched in that lifestyle as his enemy Sonny. No doubt the two boys would fight it out for turf until one of them decided they'd had enough. In the meantime, she'd keep her family including Sam and Danny well clear of it.
Suddenly she heard a light knocking on the door. She looked up and saw her nephew standing there.
"Nikolas!"
He smiled at her and walked on over while she got up to embrace him tightly. She still held him at arm's length looking at him.
"You look good."
"Alexis…it's been too long."
Yes it had, she thought but she knew he'd been busy with some caper involving his houseguest Britt. Not that Alexis trusted that scheming lying witch, well according to Sabrina but when she'd met her one time at Wyndamere, the vibe that came off the beautiful young doctor…well it had been chilly to say the least.
She hoped whatever she had planned, she wouldn't hurt Nikolas. If so, she'd have his aunt to answer to and it wouldn't be pretty.
Cassadines looked after their own after all.
She invited him to sit down and he did, looking around the office.
"I can't stay long. I have to get back to her."
Meaning Britt of course. Alexis wondered if she'd even bothered to pay Nikolas any rent for living on his plush estate.
"I know what you're thinking and yeah I know she's not always the nicest person but if you knew her parents…"
Alexis tilted her face.
"Meaning…"
Nikolas sighed.
"She's a daughter of that Faison creep. The one who killed Jason and her mother's some mad doctor who does these experiments…I can't get into it more than that."
She knew he hid a secret but then he held many. She didn't press him on it.
"Well as long as someone takes responsibility for their own actions and doesn't blame them on their parents."
He paused.
"Well, she keeps saying how evil her parents are," he said, "and she's right about that. But then having a man like Stavros as a father…"
Alexis smiled.
"I can relate. My father was hardly a kind man. But then I didn't know he was my father while he was alive."
Nikolas sighed.
"I wished forever Stavros wasn't my father…and that my mother hadn't left me though I know now she had her reasons for not wanting to remain a prisoner on that Island."
"She does love you Nikolas…"
He nodded slowly.
"I know though it took a long time to realize that…she loved me as much as Lucky and Lulu."
Alexis looked down at her hands.
"I didn't know my sister most of her life. I forgot she existed, part and parcel of blocking out our mother's murder. I wish I'd had more time with her and that we hadn't…"
But no need in rehashing the past and the secret that her sister had agreed to keep, even in death. The person who killed her had answered for it.
"Lulu and I are close…Lucky and I…he's gone most of the time."
Alexis smiled.
"He'll be back and maybe you'll have another chance…"
Nikolas didn't answer and she'd known there was bad blood between the two brothers.
"I wish Uncle Stefan would come back."
She blinked her eyes at his statement.
"Well that's going to be difficult since he's dead and unlike some people, apparently staying that way. Nikolas…he wasn't in a good place when he fell into that abyss. I still don't know why he turned evil except that he's a Cassadine and it's always a razor sharp edge to walk between what's good and what's not."
Nikolas had struggled with that himself but so far he'd kept the darkness, a legacy from his father at bay. Alexis had fought her own battles too, when Kristina died in that explosion and whenever her own children were in danger.
All of them were children of a family steeped in evil and had to find their own way to skirt that darkness and stay in the light.
