Chapter 3- CO77X

Mr. Corinthos kept dodging Alexis' questions. He'd even turn it around on her asking personal questions about her family. She could have sworn he was hitting on her, but the time on her watch just wouldn't move fast enough. They stepped out of the interrogation room when they received word that his wife had paid his bail. Olivia walked over and slapped him in the face.

"You said you would give up your life of—"

Sonny pressed a finger to her lips to silence her. "Everything is under control. I've got this."

Olivia pushed his hand away and laughed. "Everything is under control? That's what you always say. God forbid if Dante gets abducted again."

"I will protect him."

"Mrs. Jerome?" the receptionist said after hanging up her phone. "Your husband keeps trying to get a hold of you."

"Why?" Alexis scrunched her face. "What's wrong?"

"He needs you to meet him at the hospital. Something about your son fainting in gym class."

GHGHGH

Andrew Quartermaine was a very busy sophomore. He was more involved in extracurricular activities than Jason was, particularly the media team. Each twin were honours students. Jason, however, spent most of his free time doing Carly and AJ's homework, babysitting Michael, and running errands for Carly. AJ and Drew didn't get along, but all three brothers doted on their little sister Emily. Emily also babysat Michael quite a bit when their mother was working.

When Drew arrived home from a meeting with the other writers of the school newspaper, Carly was sitting in the living room with Jason and Emily.

"What do you mean AJ is at Kelly's with Sarah!?" Carly huffed and crossed her arms. "He's supposed to be my boyfriend!"

Emily shrugged. "He said they were working on a science project."

"Well, then. Two can play at that game. I'll go find another man to do a project with!"

She flipped her wavy blonde hair and held her head high. She grunted when she saw Drew and left the room dramatically.

Drew plopped down next to Emily and rolled his eyes. "I guess I heard wrong then. Rumour has it that Carly pressured Elizabeth and a new girl to smoke. Everyone was saying she was in loads of trouble. I would've thought she'd be grounded at least."

"She was," Jason said. "She snuck out."

"Of course she did…" Drew said. "Did she bring Michael?"

Emily shook her head. "She said he's with her mom, but she doesn't know Carly left."

"Okay… do you know when Mom and Dad will be home?" Drew asked.

"Oh, Drew, stop!" Emily smacked his arm. "I don't want you to go away."

"You know I've always wanted to go to military school. I'll still come back to visit. It starts in September, just a couple weeks after regular school starts. I'm sure they'll let me go. Though Mom might take some convincing. And I know Grandfather wants all of us to work for ELQ one day… but I want to be in the army."

"But it won't be the same without you here."

"If Drew wants to go to Military School, then he should go," Jason said. "We should support him."

Emily groaned, then nudged Drew. "You know, there's a start of school dance next Friday. You might meet a girl. That could change your mind."

GHGHGH

Sam started to worry when they still hadn't heard from either of her parents after dinnertime. She loved playing with Kiki but could only take Candyland in small amounts. But Kiki wanted to play it over and over and over and over again. By the time 7 o'clock rolled around, Kiki had fallen asleep over the board game. Aunt Ava carried her to bed. While said waited, she heard a strange hissing sound like a snake from down the hallway.

Slowly and quietly, Sam followed the sound to a slightly opened door. She pushed it open more so ever so slightly. The hissing sounds were coming from Franco as he made big and violent strokes of red paint over a canvas with CO77X written in the corner. But underneath the red paint was a figure of her father lying dead under a bridge. Sam gasped and Franco turned to her sharply.

GHGHGH

Julian was growing frustrated while he and Lucas waited for the test results and he couldn't get a hold of Alexis. Dinner time had passed but Lucas said he wasn't hungry. But finally, Dr. Quartermaine brought Alexis in. She gave Julian a worried look, then rushed over and hugged Lucas.

"Mommy…" Lucas said. "I wanted you."

"I'm so sorry, buddy. I'm here now and I'm not going anywhere."

The door opened again, and Dr. Drake walked in. "Mr. and Mrs. Jerome, can I speak to you outside?"

"Mommy, don't leave me…" Lucas stuck out his lower lip.

"We just need to speak to the doctor," Alexis said stroking his hair. "We'll just be outside the door."

"I can stay with the little guy for a few minutes," Monica offered.

Alexis kissed Lucas' forehead before she and Julian joined Noah in the hallway.

"What's wrong with Lucas?" Julian asked.

"It can't be anything serious, can it?" Alexis said.

Noah frowned. "There's no easy way to tell you this. But Lucas has leukemia."

Alexis' face went white as a ghost.

Julian laughed. "You're joking, right? There is no way that my son has cancer."

"I'm so sorry," Noah said.

Alexis burst into tears and buried her face into Julian's chest. Julian clenched his jaw.

"We're going to give him a steroid to try and jump-start his red blood cell production," Noah explained. "If that doesn't work, we'll start H.L.A.-typing for bone-marrow matches."

"He needs a bone marrow transplant?" Alexis asked.

Noah nodded. "Yes. Preferably from a blood relative."

GHGHGH

Sam thought Franco would get angry, but he just grinned creepily.

"Uhhh," Sam said awkwardly. "I was just looking for Aunt Ava. Didn't mean to interrupt…"

"Are you an artist like your aunt?" He turned back to the canvas, painting more blood coming from her dad's gut.

"Not really."

"I could give you some lessons," Franco said. "There's such beauty in art. Especially when working with real dead models."

Sam gulped.

GHGHGH

Lucas was moved to a room and hooked up to an IV. Alexis laid with him on the bed until he fell asleep. Alexis felt her own eyes get droopy but then she jolted. "Where's Sam?"

"Ava picked her up from school," Julian said. "Though I haven't touched based with her in a few hours. She's likely wondering where we—"

"She's at Ava's? With Franco there?"

Julian sighed. "I'm sure Ava won't leave her and Kiki alone with him."

"I'd rather her stay at Wyndemere with Stefan and Nikolas. Helena's not in the country."

Julian nodded.

"I don't…" Alexis said. "I don't want to break my promise to Lukey. Can you go get Sam?"

"Yeah, of course."