"Just let me out here, please," Alexis instructed her chauffer, about two blocks from her former office. "It's a nice night, I'd like to walk the rest of the way."
It wasn't a total lie. The weather was really quite warm, unusual for this time of year in New York. Alexis' desire to escape the limo, however, had little to do with the outside temperature, and was instead wholly relevant to the pharmacy perched at the next corner. She walked briskly up to it and pushed open the door, blinking as she stepped inside and her eyes were flooded with harsh flourescent light. Her sight adjusted quickly, and she began browsing the aisles, suddenly nervous.
Her heart raced when she found what she was looking for: pregnancy tests, aisle three. Blindly, she grabbed one, and headed over to the check out. On the way she had to keep reminding herself that she was a grown woman, legally married (though not to the prospective father, but nobody else needed to know that just yet), and had no need to disguise her purchase with cough drops or chocolate bars or any of the other miscelleneous items she was tempted to pick up. Alexis held her breath when she got up to the till, but the cashier barely glanced at her, and the transaction was completed in silence. Feeling a bit like a criminal who'd just gotten away with something very bad indeed, she stuffed the paper bag into her purse before exiting the pharmacy, and, for lack of anything better to do, continued on to see the old friends she had told Jax that she was visiting.
Alexis slept through the short plane ride back to Port Charles, and Jax looked on, concerned. When they landed, she opened her eyes and groggily walked with him to the limosine awaiting them.
"So, how did your meeting go?" she asked him as they stretched out in the back seat.
"Fine," he replied, distracted. After a beat, he asked, "Is everything all right with you? I mean, no offense, my darling wife, but you look like hell."
Alexis managed a weak smile. "Thanks," she said, "I'm fine, just tired. You did have Ned drag me out of bed at practically the crack of dawn, you know."
"The crack of - oh, hardly!" Jax exclaimed with a chuckle. Alexis laughed with him, her brown eyes emitting but a fraction of their usual twinkle, and the matter was dropped, until they returned to the penthouse. No sooner had they walked through the door than Alexis collapsed on the couch, one hand massaging her forehead, the other balancing her chin on her knees.
"You know," she said, "Actually, I'm really not feeling well. Would you mind handling Ned and Chloe by yourself for tonight?"
"Are you sure?" he asked, sitting down beside her. "I mean, I could just call and cancel, if you'd rather have someone here with you. I'll even make you popcorn for a change."
"I don't need to be babysat, but thanks for offering," she replied. "Really, all I need is some rest and I'll be fine. You go have a good time, and make sure you tell everyone just how much you miss me while you're out."
"Okay," he agreed reluctantly, "But I still have an hour before I need to be there, anyway, so at least let me take care of you until then. Come on now, up to bed."
She was about to protest, when she stood up, and immediately had to grab onto him for support. He steadied her until she felt that the room had stopped spinning, and helped her upstairs to the master bedroom.
"Now, if you want me to come home, you just call, okay? And if you want Ned, call me and I'll find a way to get him here without alerting Gertrude. In the meantime, just get some rest," Jax ordered an hour later, just before he left to meet Chloe and Ned.
Alexis sighed, and rolled her eyes. "Yes, Dad."
Jax flashed her a smile and then left, closing the bedroom door behind him. Alexis lay on the bed, still fully dressed, and waited until she was sure he had gone before slowly rising to her feet.
She crept downstairs to retrieve her purse, and from it pulled the paper bag she'd gotten at the pharmacy earlier that night; the one containing the pregnancy test. She knew that, for best results, she should wait until the morning, but she didn't want to leave the bag downstairs until then, for fear of Jax finding it. Not that it would matter much; if the result was positive, then it was only a matter of time before the man she was living with figured out what was going on, but she hadn't even told Ned yet. She wanted him to be the first to know, regardless of how the test turned out.
She sprinted upstairs with the bag, and placed it on the vanity in the master bathroom. Despite the early hour, she then changed out of her clothes and in to a silk nightgown. Forgoing various other nighttime rituals, Alexis climbed back into bed and went to right to sleep staring at the silhouette of the paper bag, and waiting for the morning to dawn and tell her future with its contents.