Chapter 6: Information Overload

October 19, 2007

Friday afternoon, Alexis scribbled her name at the bottom of another file and added it to the cart beside. Only twenty more to go, woo hoo, she thought as she picked up another file from the stack on her desk. In spite of her complaints she was actually grateful for the paperwork, it was just enough to distract her from her thoughts of Sonny but not enough to really force her to focus. Plus it would give her an excuse to stay at work late and not focus on how empty her townhouse seemed when the girls were at their father's.

Sonny had taken Kristina every other weekend for over a year. Molly had started joining them more recently. Sometime after Ric's death, or perhaps that should be alleged death, Alexis realized with a pang. She scribbled a furious signature, tossed the file onto the cart with more force than necessary and forced herself to try to focus on the task ahead of her. Thinking about Ric was not an option. It was just not an option.

Kyle Durant stood silently in the doorway to his colleague's office waiting for a good moment to interrupt. Alexis looked quite industrious; however, they had worked together for over two years; and the intensity of her scribbling simply told him that her mind was on something other than the stack of files in front of her. What he still hadn't quite mastered was how to tell if whatever she was really thinking about was something he could or should interrupt. He supposed there was always the popcorn option, maybe that was the way to go.

He had been about to go find some microwave popcorn when Alexis looked up from her desk and met his eyes. "Are you summoning your courage or something, Kyle?" she asked.

"I just didn't want to interrupt your train of thought. Scott told me to take half of those trespass and prohibited possession cases from that PCPD bust last weekend. I guess you have all of the files."

"Yes, my penance for convincing him to not make an example of his daughter. They're over there," Alexis said gesturing to a table against the wall with a stack of files.

"For what it's worth, I agree with you. I doubt she knew that wasn't soda. Of course, I don't believe that she didn't know there would be alcohol there when she decided to go."

"I don't think she ever claimed she did. She made a poor choice but technically a fifteen-year-old hanging out with other kids who are drinking but isn't drinking herself hasn't violated any applicable statutes."

"Until they turn sixteen when they can be charged with misdemeanor trespass. But New York statute doesn't allow misdemeanor charges against juvenile offenders so there is the loophole. So even if Serena hadn't learned her lesson, or been under careful watch by her father, and ended up at the party the PCPD did bust last weekend there wouldn't be anything legally we could do," Kyle said.

"Other than count down the months until her sixteenth birthday, no. Convenient how that works isn't it?"

"Well, not if you're over fifteen like the majority of kids at that party. Did you want me to just take the top half of the stack or should we divide based on the case associated anticipated headache factor?" Kyle asked.

"These are misdemeanor cases, Kyle, this isn't rocket science."

"Yes, but our accused include the granddaughter of a state legislator, and the son and daughter of the mayor. To further complicate things said, son of mayor inadvertently gave the officers his fake ID instead of his real one, so we're supposed to be making a case with him as the supplier and pursuing twenty counts of unlawful dealing with a child against him if we can make it stick. Of course, his father, who just happens to be the Police Commissioner's boss, is trying to make this all go away, and quickly, since you know we're coming up on an election year. Our boss wishes that someone had opened his own eyes that these parties existed before his daughter ended up at one and wants whoever supplied the alcohol prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

"Yeah, this really hasn't been Garrett and Andrea's year. Their older son, Chris, pled no contest to assault charges in Connecticut. Supposedly that was just a bar room brawl that got out of hand. Of course, public perception may be different," Alexis said.

"Plus, we have to prosecute the daughter of Chapparal County's MADD Chairwoman, Inez Lewis, who has already gone on the record that none of this would have happened if we had passed the dry county referendum in August," Kyle said.

"Oh, leave me the Callie Lewis file. I think that is definitely part of my penance. It gets better too; Serena has released Dara Jensen as her counsel but retained her for her best friend. In the future it might behoove Scott to not vent about the legal tactics of criminal defense attorneys to his daughter. She knows things I didn't know as a third year law student, and now she's teaching them to my daughter."

"Allowance negotiations aren't going well?" Kyle quipped.

"Very funny. Actually, allowance has stayed stagnant. Anthony didn't lobby for a cost of living increase this year. That may be because allowance is chump change when your sister pays him a dollar a minute to be silent. Of course, his earnings are limited by her presence in his life I think she only pays for silence when she is around."

Kyle took a deep breath. There wasn't a great response to Alexis' accusation. It was true, Kyle had heard Ally say as much herself. It was another one of those topics in parenting they would never agree on. But it wasn't for him and Ally to agree because her boys were his nephews not his sons. It wasn't for Alexis to agree just because her and Ally's respective children shared the same father. A father neither woman had been married to when any of those children made their way into the world. Sometimes Kyle wondered if Alexis condemned Ally's choices so vehemently because she herself had made some of the same.

"I'm sorry that was out of line," Alexis said.

Kyle read some genuine remorse in her face. "Yes, it was. Listen, I like to think that we're friends. But Carly and Ally will always be my sisters and while I may not always agree with all of their choices, I will always support them. This isn't really about Allly though is it? Do you want to tell me what else is bothering you?"

Alexis didn't say anything at first so Kyle tried a different approach. "Why don't you think about it? I'll be back in five minutes with popcorn and we can divide up these cases or you can tell me what's really bothering you. It's totally your choice and I won't push, ok?"

XXXXXXXX

Alexis watched Kyle's retreat from her office. Kyle Durant was about the last person she should be talking to about what was bothering her. What was she supposed to say? I'm sorry I've just learned that my ex-husband, you know, the man who caused your sister to lose her baby, and killed your father, well, he might still be alive.

With that thought she tried, and failed, to take a deep breath as her cell phone started to ring. She scowled at it and then scowled more as she saw the name on her caller ID. Of course, Mr. Impeccable Timing strikes again, she thought as she opened her phone.

"Alexis Davis, and you're calling me because?" she asked as she struggled to find enough air again.

XXXXXXXX

In his office, in Corinthos-Morgan Coffee House, Sonny Corinthos shook his head at the frustration he heard in her voice. He wondered if it was too much to hope that Baldwin was just being annoying or something. He was sure that happened a lot so that could explain things. He wanted to believe it was that, not that she had seen his name on her caller ID. "I'm calling because I wanted to know if you wanted me to pick up Molly a little early. You mentioned that Viola was going away for the weekend?" he asked. He attempted to insert some protective indifference.

He failed. In his heart he knew that but perhaps she didn't sense that. Perhaps that was actually worse. There had been a time when he had thought they shared a soul. Or he had wanted to believe that.

"Fine pick up Molly early. You know I'm a little busy here, Sonny, I can't just drop everything to renegotiate the great child exchange."

What? The great child exchange? What?Sonny shook his head. He had accepted that her mind just went to places his would never get. He was ok with that, well, mostly. Sonny knew he had mostly gotten through high school because Carmine Cerullo was determined he would not be the first in the family to not graduate from Sacred Heart Academy. "The great child exchange?" he finally asked aloud.

Ok, so her intellect kind of turned him on. Contrary to popular belief, he didn't consider women property nor was he intimidated by smart women. But what would CandyBoy know about that anyway? He was still blaming Ned Ashton for poisoning Brenda's mind against him. As if he didn't believe that Brenda could rub a few brain cells together on her own and conclude that any man who would publicly humiliate her by saying I don't in place of I do had either never loved her at all or was just a class A jerk.

Sonny voted for both but knew better than to verbalize either. He wasn't really a completely insensitive clod. He heard Alexis exhale in frustration. He scrubbed a hand over his face before grabbing his chin in contemplation. Ok maybe he was insensitive because he was obviously not making things easier for her. Apparently, he had forgotten how to do that. Or maybe he had never known. Maybe their great connection had all been in his mind, and one sided at that.

"You know, Sonny, I'm trying to get work done here."

Alexis' words pulled him from his internal monologue. "Right, well I'll pick up Molly now," he said. He had been about to let go, at least of the conversation but something struck him. She still hadn't told him what had been bothering her the day before. "You would tell me if you were in trouble right, Lex?"

Alexis laughed yet Sonny heard more bitterness than humor and more fear than anything else. It was nothing like the laughter he had heard on the beach in Puerto Rico.

"As entertaining as this conversation is, Sonny, I do have work to do. Goodbye!" Alexis said.

Sonny grimaced at the click and silence. Well at least she hadn't gotten frustrated enough that she just hurled her cell phone across the room to end the call.

Ally had done that, or at least before his attorney had enlightened him to the power of communicating via email. It was really working for them. Or he thought it was. Their divorce had been finalized. The custody battle, well that was another matter entirely and one he couldn't fully face all the time. He was trying though. No one was going to convince him that giving his sons to CandyBoy to raise was a good plan. After giving his chin another squeeze of contemplative anguish, he got up from his leather chair and went to go pick up his daughter, Molly.