Chapter 17

Looking up into the eyes of a man he respected more than anyone he knew, Thomas cringed at the faint hope and subsequent look of betrayal he saw in Cameron. Hope for finally being so close to those he loved and betrayal for all the months of being so close and not knowing it. In that moment, Thomas wanted more than anything to give his friend what he needed. But what price would it extract from him… from them? What would happen to Kristina and Alexis once someone on the outside knew where they were? His eyes fell away from Cameron back to the table in front of him then asked the question that he knew would be offensive to Cameron.

"Can I trust you, Cameron? Can I trust you to protect them just like I've tried to… just like Alexis herself has all these years?"

Cameron was having a hard time containing his emotions. So many raging through him… from joy to anger, hope and fear. It was all hitting him at once and then to be questioned regarding his intentions. He stood quickly and strode around the room once in hopes of settling himself. The last thing he wanted was to give Thomas any reason to doubt him. Looking back at the boy, he could already see the first signs of mistrust… of fear for telling a secret that had been buried for years. Taking a deep breath he walked back to the table and sat down reaching out to settle his hand on Thomas' shoulder.

"Thomas, everything you tell me will be held with the same trust and loyalty that you have provided them all these years. They are safe with me. Tell me, Thomas. Tell me about Alexis. Is she happy? Are they really safe? Does Alexis keep up with the news of Port Charles?"

Thomas sat back and studied Cameron for a moment and then finally decided that telling him everything was the best thing to do for everybody. Too much was happening now that could hurt Kristina.

"I don't know about how happy Alexis has been, but I never see her without a smile. Sometimes I envied Kristina for having such a close relationship with her mom. From the first memory I have, the two of them have been inseparable. K and I became best friends when we were real little. She was just a baby when they came to the island. Something kind of just clicked with me and I knew that she would always be inside me. And Alexis never raises a hand to do anything without first thinking about how it will affect K. She's always been like that. Used to drive me nuts. But, K never said much about it. It was just the way things were done and she accepted it. They have this thing they do every night. Just about the time the sun starts to set, they sit on the porch together and talk about their day or whatever is bothering them. They've never missed a day. Doesn't matter what's going on, everything stops long enough for them to have their time together. Would you like to see a picture of Alexis?"

Cameron's breath stopped as he looked at Thomas. Alexis. A dozen years later. Would she look the same? With a voice small as a whisper, "May I?"

Thomas reached back into his wallet and pulled another small photo from its depth. It was his favorite and was taken only a year ago. He handed it to Cameron with a wide smile.

Eagerly taking the photo from Thomas, he felt the hunger inside grow in intensity; a hunger born of the need to have anything of Alexis close by. Looking down, his breath exploded from him. The years that separated him from Alexis were very evident when he looked in the mirror now. The lines in his face deeper, the graying hair and eyes that seemed to forget how to shine… every day that was taken from him miraculously seemed to have been given to her. She was young again… Her smile lit every corner of the photo and looking closer he could see her dancing eyes as she looked at Kristina who stood proudly beside her holding some type of trophy. He couldn't get enough of looking at her. She was more beautiful than the first day he met her. More beautiful than anything he could have imagined. This Alexis was one he was unfamiliar with. This Alexis was happy… full of life… full of motherhood and every pixel of the photo shouted at him that she was finally free to be the woman she always wanted to be. Alexis found her destiny and was living it to the fullest.

Thomas watched Cameron's face go from eagerness to sadness and then into what looked like defeat.

"What's the problem, boss? I thought you would be happy to see Alexis now."

Without looking up, Cameron spoke what was in his heart. The grief inside so enormous that it prevented him from guarding his words.

"She's changed. She doesn't need me in her life anymore. She never really did. All she needed was to get away from here… from everyone that kept pulling her down. Look at her Thomas… She's the most beautiful woman I've ever seen. This is not the woman who left here 12 years ago. I can't take that away from her. Look at that smile. I've never seen her smile like that before. I can't go to her; I can't take the chance. After seeing her like this, I never want to do anything that could take any of this away from her."

Just as Cameron reached to hand the photo back to Thomas, his head jerked up at the sound of a loud crash. Thomas was standing over him with an angry fire racing across his face. The chair he was sitting in halfway across the room. He flinched at the words Thomas threw at him.

"I've never known you to quit on anything or anyone since I've known you and if you think I'm going to let you bail on me now, you better look again boss. I need help and you are the only one who can help me now. And this self-pity kick you got going here just makes you look nasty. So buck up, boss. Get it together so we can figure out how we're going to keep K safe."

The angry words hit him in the pit of his stomach but the meaning of them jolted him out of the hole he was falling into.

"Safe? Why would you question Kristina's safety, Thomas? No one here knows where they are living now. What are you getting at?"

"Haven't you seen today's paper? Granted it's not on the first page, but it's still there and with everything that has gone down in Port Charles over the last couple of years or so… Kristina and Alexis are not as safe as they used to be. Someone is either feeding information to the paper or somebody found the island and went there."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

A frustrated sigh exploded from Thomas as he looked around the apartment searching for the morning paper. Locating it on the coffee table he quickly retrieved it and opened it to the right page then thrust it under Cameron's nose.

"I think someone's found them. And I can't take the chance to wait around to see who it is. I have to keep that guy away from the island."

"What guy?"

Everything in Cameron was telling him that Thomas knew a lot more than he was letting on. The boy's fear was filling the room.

"Thomas, I think you need to sit down and tell me what's going on."

"Look at the damn paper, Cameron. There's your answer."

Finally looking down, Cameron saw a copy of the photo Thomas just shared with him staring up at him from the black and white page of the newspaper. The headline read: "Former resident and renowned Attorney Alexis Davis at home with daughter Kristina."

Cameron looked further down to scan the article. One particular item caught his eye.

'Local crime lord Sonny Corinthos was overheard to say, "I hope she's gotten good at looking over her shoulder because I'm coming after my kid".'

"Does Alexis know what has been going on around here, Thomas?"

"I don't think so, but…"

Cameron looked up quickly, "But what?"

"K knows."

Cameron's jaw dropped in shock.

"How the hell does Kristina know?"

"I told her a few months ago."

Cameron exploded unable to contain his anger.

"You told her. Why in hell would you do something like that to a child, Thomas? Have you lost your mind?"

The grief he gave himself over telling Kristina the things he did was a constant source of agitation with Thomas, but to hear Cameron come down on him about it was more than he could take.

"DON'T START WITH ME, CAMERON. YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE WITH K AND ME. YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE TO LOVE SOMEBODY SO MUCH THAT YOU'LL DO ANYTHING TO KEEP THEM SAFE."

Cameron interrupted with his own anger in full force…

"I DON'T KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE TO LOVE SOMEONE THAT MUCH, THOMAS? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? HOW LONG HAVE I BEEN SEARCHING FOR ALEXIS? I'VE SOLD THE CABIN, SOLD OFF EVERY STOCK I OWNED, EVERY PENNY I COULD GET MY HANDS ON I TURNED IT OVER TO A PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR TO TRY AND FIND HER. DON'T TALK TO ME ABOUT LOVING SOMEONE, THOMAS. I'VE BEEN AT IT A LOT LONGER THAN YOU HAVE."

"HAVEN'T LEARNED MUCH THOUGH HAVE YOU? IF SHE WANTED YOU TO FIND HER SHE WOULD HAVE PROVIDED YOU A CLUE OF SOME KIND. DID YOU EVER THINK FOR ONE MINUTE THAT SOMEONE COULD BE TAILING YOUR PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR? DID YOU EVER CONSIDER THAT EVERYTHING YOU WERE DOING COULD UNDO EVERYTHING ALEXIS WAS TRYING TO ACCOMPLISH? NO, YOU DIDN'T. ALL YOU SAW WAS WHAT YOU WANTED AND THE HELL WITH WHAT SHE WANTED. I DON'T THINK I LIKE YOUR KIND OF LOVE, DR. LEWIS. IT HAS ALL THE EARMARKS OF BEING TOO SELFISH FOR MY TASTE."

With that Thomas turned and started for the door, his anger such that he couldn't focus on the reasons he needed Cameron's help. Just as he reached the door he felt a hand fall gently on his shoulder and turn him around. Glancing up he breathed a sigh of relief at the change in Cameron.

"Thomas, you have every right to be angry with me. Everything you said holds merit and if I hadn't been so scared about what this could do to Kristina, I would not have blown up like that. When I let my emotions dictate my reactions, I tend to go overboard. I do love them both… so much that my life has been hell ever since Alexis left. And you're right, I didn't respect her wishes the way I should have. And if I've done anything that could bring harm to either of them… well I don't think I could live with myself. It seems I could learn a thing or two from you about how to love the Davis girls. Come on back and sit down. I think you need to start from the beginning and tell me everything."

Thomas followed Cameron to the living room and sat down in the easy chair opposite him. His anger dissipating, he settled back to tell Cameron everything.

"When Kristina got old enough she started asking questions about her dad and why they were living on an island; things like why they never had visitors or why her mom never dated…"

"Alexis doesn't date?" Cameron asked incredulously.

"Never had a date that I know of. Never seen a guy at all around her. You gotta remember, boss; the only guy I know she lets get anywhere near her is in a picture she keeps by her bed. You know the one I'm talking about. K told me about it."

Feeling his chest swell within him, Cameron told Thomas to continue.

"Well everything kind of got started about a year and a half ago, maybe more. K called me late one night and said she wanted to find you so her mom wouldn't cry anymore. You can only say 'no' to K for so long before she goes ballistic on you. And it's very rare that I say no to her at all. So when she came to me to help her find you she said that we couldn't do anything until we knew if there was anything really bad that happened to cause her mom to leave here. Even then she was real concerned about why her mom left Port Charles. So, when I started looking for colleges to attend I had my uncle bring me to New York to check out Columbia."

"Because it was close to Port Charles and you could do a little research without anyone being the wiser…" Cameron interjected.

"Exactly. I found quite a few articles about her mom and this guy named Sonny Corinthos. Like when she worked for him. So I made copies to take back to K. But, since they were so old, I figured it would probably be a good idea to check out what had been going on recently around here."

"And with it being so terrible, you felt Kristina had a right to know."

"Yeah. I wanted her to stop asking questions. She didn't need to keep pushing her mom. I didn't want her to get hurt or worse have to leave the island."

Cameron stood up and began to pace.

"You realize we have a major problem here, don't you Thomas?"

"Yes, sir. I do. That's why I came to you. I told you; I need your help to fix this."

"Thomas, I don't know that we can fix it. But, maybe we can soften the blow a little. Go get packed. We have to warn them. And don't give me that garbage about Alexis not wanting to be found. We don't have a choice anymore. And if I'm correct, we don't have a lot of time either."

"Right, boss. But, we still have to be careful. I've never left Port Charles and headed directly to the island. There are a number of stops we have to make on the way."

"It doesn't matter. Just get me to the island, Thomas. We'll figure everything else out when we get there."