Jax had tried to enjoy himself, but his thoughts kept wandering away from his friends at the table with him and settling on two different, troublesome subjects. The first, Jerry, had been preoccupying him a lot lately, as he scrambled to keep his brother out of prison. The meeting he'd had in New York earlier that night had gone well, but not as well as he would have liked. Alexis assured him that they would get Jerry out of this, but... well, Alexis herself was Jax's other cause for concern. She hadn't been herself for the past week or so, and he worried that their arrangement was getting to her. Normally she was so full of energy; now, she was the only person he'd ever known who could come home exhausted from a spa. As much as she insisted on staying married to him, Jax wondered if the seperation from Ashton and the stress of their pretense were beginning to impact her health.

With these thoughts in mind, he had excused himself early from dinner with Ned and Chloe, and rushed home to check on his wife. He crept in to the master bedroom and found her exactly as he had left her, asleep in his bed, her expression peaceful. With a mischievous smile, he pulled out a small box from his jacket pocket; it contained her favorite perfume, which he'd picked up in the city as a thank-you for everything she'd done for Jerry. He decided to leave it for her in the medicine cabinet, among the various other beauty products she deemed necessary to life, despite his firm yet undisclosed belief that she had no need of them.

Not wanting to wake her, he left the bathroom light off. His only source of illumination came from a small streak of moonlight that had managed to make its way in through the bedroom window, and in the near-darkness he accidentally knocked a paper bag off of the sink, its contents spilling out onto the floor. Quietly, he bent down to scoop up the small box, and was just about to stuff it carelessly back into the bag when the word "pregnancy" caught his eye, in small blue lettering that shone in the dull moonlight. He moved the box to the left a bit to better catch the light, and the word "test" came into view.

His head spinning, he quickly replaced the item in its bag and set it back on the sink. Well, this would explain a lot. Jax wondered idylly if Alexis had told Ned yet, but then realized that he was getting ahead of himself. The box had been unopened; Alexis herself didn't yet know if there was anything to tell. Still, the thought of getting to be Uncle Jax put a wide grin on his face as he carefully put the perfume away. His mission accomplished, he snuck out of the master bedroom and down the hall to his own temporary quarters, while his wife slept serenely on.

Alexis awoke early the next morning and marched straight into the bathroom, determined to get an answer right away lest she chicken out and procrastinate. While she waited for the results to appear, she paced the bedroom frantically, wondering how three minutes could possibly take so long. When they finally were over, however, she almost wished that they'd been a little longer. Inhaling slowly, she made her way back to the bathroom. With another deep breath, she forced herself to look at the results. There were two blue lines.

Pregnant. She was pregnant. She, Alexis Davis, born Natasha - a Cassadine, of all things - was going to have a baby. This had officially surpassed the myriad horrors of her childhood to become the single most frightening moment of her life.

There was joy, as well, mixed in with the trepidation. Joy, shock, awe... Shock was the one emotion that held her the most, so she sat down on the bed, trying to clear her mind and let it all sink in. Unfortunately, she was quickly interrupted by her cell phone ringing on the nightstand.

"Alexis Davis," she answered automatically.

"Hey," came Ned's voice on the other end. "I didn't wake you, did I?"

Alexis smiled. "No," she replied, "I was already up."

"Really?" He sounded surprised. "Now I know something's wrong. Jax told us you weren't feeling well last night. We missed you." He was silent for a moment, and then amended his statement to, "I missed you."

"I'm feeling much better now," she assured him, "And I missed you, too. In fact, I want to make it up to you. I'd like us to have some time alone - are you free at all today?"

"Well," he began slowly, "I do have an early dinner meeting to discuss some ELQ business... How about this afternoon, say around four? Come to the gatehouse; Chloe'll be gone most of the day, so it'll just be us."

"I'll be there," she promised, and hung up, feeling all the more nervous for their impending date, and the announcement she'd have to spring on him at some point during it...

A/N: Sorry I've taken so long, but my schedule's gotten a bit crazy lately. Review this and check out my other fics, and maybe I'll update them faster. .