The phone was ringing as Lexie leaped out of the shower to answer it. Robert had mumbled something about vanilla truffles and hurried out the door to go find a candy store as soon as they had woken up. His eating habits had gotten so strange lately. He tried to blame it on the fact that she talked in her sleep but she didn't believe for a second that she really did.

"Hello?" Lexie said as she pulled the towel around her tighter.

"Hey, Barbi. It's John." She always laughed at him on the phone. After all of the years of phone calls he still figured she wouldn't recognize his voice, not to mention he was the only one who ever called her Barbi.

"Hey Bubba." She said using a nickname she had always taunted him with.

He chuckled but she could tell that he had something on his mind. "So I guess congratulations are in order."

She smiled as she looked at her ring again. "Yes they are. And thank you for the flowers and the cider. It was really sweet of you even though I know you aren't thrilled about this whole thing."

"Not the brother-in-law I had hoped for but if you are happy than I can live with it." He paused. "I got a call this morning. Some lawyer by the name of Kennedy who called the ER looking for you but Frank thought that he was calling for me so he gave me the message."

Lexie sat down on the bed. "What did he want?"

John cleared his throat. He had no idea how to tell her the news he had gotten so he figured he would just say it. "Your friend Sara died Barbi. She and her daughter Kelly were killed by her husband Michael."

Robert walked back into the room with a mouthful of chocolate and stopped when he saw her pale face. He set the box down and walked over to her. She made no move to look at him.

"What about Max?" She asked in barely a whisper.

"He is fine. Michael took him as a hostage to try to escape and the police were able to get him away from him before Michael shot himself." John paused to let it set in as best as it could. He had been shocked when he heard the story but he had been even more shocked when the attorney had told him the real reason for the call. "Barbi, you know that you are listed as Max's guardian right?"

Lexie nodded. "Is Robert there?" John asked and Lexie handed him the phone so John could explain it all to him. The lawyer needed Lexie to pick Max up and take guardianship of him or he would become a ward of the state. Robert listened in shock. He had seen the story on the cover of the newspaper the day before and felt a connection between Lexie and the poor woman in the story but he had no idea how much of one there had been.

Lexie sat frozen next to Robert as he got the information and promised John that he would take care of Lexie and all of the arrangements. Lexie got up before Robert got off of the phone and started to get dressed. She needed to get to Max. He and Kelly had been the light of her life through out her years in New York and she and Sara had always held each other up. Lexie felt like a part of her had died with her because she had let her down, she had gotten out. Now Kelly and Sara were gone and Max would never know the amazing people they were. Robert stood in the doorway to the bathroom. He had no clue how to handle this. Lexie was franticly trying to pull her clothes on and getting more frantic as each moment passed. He walked closer to her and put his hands on her shoulders to stop her. She tried to pull away.

"I have to get to him!" She said with more force than she had intended. He said nothing but continued to hold onto her and she finally relented and he pulled her into his arms as she let the sobs flow. She stayed in his arms until she felt she couldn't cry any more. Robert called the lawyer while Lexie finished getting dressed and an hour later the got out of the cab and onto the elevator in the lawyer's office.

Lexie barely heard anything the lawyer said and relied on Robert to not let her sign anything she shouldn't. All she could think of was Max. There would be a 30-day waiting period for Max to go back to Chicago with them and then he could be legally adopted. Lexie sat nervously waiting in the chair while the lawyer went to get the social worker and Max. The door down the hall opened and Max's two-year-old figure walked slowly through the door, apprehensively looking around to see where he was being taken next. Lexie leaped up and he spotted her almost simultaneously, his small body running towards her and she pulled him into her arms. She held him as close to her as she possibly could, her hand resting instinctively on the back of his head to ease his crying face into her shoulder. "Shhhh baby, no one is going to hurt you ever again." She cooed as she held him and he grasped onto her shirt with all his small hands could muster. He had spent the last forty-eight hours in sheer terror and he had never been so happy to see his aunt Rex. He knew she would protect him.

"Are we through here?" Lexie asked and the lawyer nodded. Robert got all of the necessary paperwork and they headed out of the office, Lexie never letting go of Max. They said nothing as they rode back to the hotel. Robert had a million questions but knew that they could wait. They took him into the room and laid him down on the bed. The poor thing was so upset that he had cried himself into exhaustion and started to drift off almost as soon as Lexie put him down. He started to panic when she got up to get a cool cloth to wash his face off but relaxed when he saw that she wasn't going far. She washed his face and hands and tucked him in, cradling him until his breathing became deeper and it was apparent that he was asleep.