Chapter 11: Parents Are People With Children

Alexis Davis gritted her teeth and mumbled obscenities in Russian as the nurse jabbed the injection into her stomach. "Are you sure you're doing this right?" she said aloud in English.

The African American nurse, who's name Alexis thought was Rita or maybe Reena tossed the needle and syringe into the sharps container. "The Lovenox is supposed to given subcutaneously, Ms. Davis."

"Ok, great, so now can I go?"

"No, they still have to do the Chest CT and Dr. Scanlon said he wanted at least another EKG and a second set of markers before you go."

"Well, when is that going to be? You know I have things to do?"

"I think they are a little backed up in radiology. There was a multiple car accident on the highway, so Dr. Scanlon told them to just do your head CT and then get the Chest CT later."

"Well, if it's going to be awhile maybe I could just come back tomorrow," Alexis suggested.

"No, you can lie back and get comfortable because you aren't going anywhere until after they have done all the tests they need," Scott Baldwin said from the doorway.

Alexis frowned at the sight of her boss. She realized that Scott was probably concerned but she didn't really want to think about that, because that required facing her own mortality. She also didn't feel like rehashing everything with the situation with Ric. Then there was the fact that Kyle had admitted that Sonny would probably be showing up soon before he had gone to retrieve Kristina's forgotten inhaler from her car which was still locked in the garage under the courthouse. Alexis didn't feel like she had the energy to deal with either Scott or Sonny, but she certainly didn't have the energy to deal with them together. That just made the situation exponentially worse. "Is that an order?" she finally asked.

"Does it need to be? You have two adorable little girls and I don't want to have to explain to either of them that something happened to their mom."

"So says the man who signed out AMA with a head injury," Alexis said.

"I had a concussion, and I swear if I hadn't been an attorney and the Chief of Staff's brother in law Dr. Jones would have discharged me from the ER. Anyway, we were in the middle of several family crises. One of my daughters was missing, another daughter was still recovering from the trauma of being held hostage during orientation, and my sister was probably still traumatized from that cokehead cardiologist someone thought it was a good idea to hire."

"Wasn't Dr. Dorman hired by her husband?"

"No, that was Dr. Steve Hardy who also hired the illustrious Dr. Bennett Devlin but my mother always said it was impolite to speak ill of the dead so I will say nothing further about any of the three. The point is I wasn't going to just hang out in the hospital when my daughter was missing. The whole thing got blown out of proportion anyway, and if the neurosurgeon on call really felt so strongly that I couldn't leave then he could have taken the time to come down and talk to me in the ER rather than turfing that responsibility to some poor intern."

"You mean Dr. Tony Jones? He was probably too busy playing mattress tag with his stepdaughter."

"As I said before, it's impolite to speak ill of the dead. But the divorce was final before I got mowed down, by that, still yet to be apprehended motorist, so she wouldn't have been his stepdaughter then."

"Let me guess, you handled their divorce too? Do you handle all your ex-wives divorces?" Alexis asked. She knew he had handled Laura and Luke Spencer's divorce in 1998.

"Bobbie and I were never married, but I did help her with the divorce. She needed a friend, I just happened to be an attorney as well."

"How convenient."

"Not exactly for Tony; but these things happen. Did you want me to call Mark or something?" Scott asked.

"Why would you call Mark?" Alexis asked. Yet, she knew the answer. Scott who had just for some reason kept presuming that she and Jax were involved had finally realized Jax was at least theoretically with Ally Corinthos. With Jax out of contention, he had apparently dropped back to the illustrious Dr. Mark Quartermaine..

Sometimes Alexis wondered if Scott just didn't believe that women were capable being alone. She had never known Serena's mother, who was probably at least the most stable love of Scott's life, but it seemed like all of his other relationships followed a pattern of rescue. He stood by Dr. Evelyn Lambert through the tumultuous trials and tribulations of her intern year. Alexis had been PCGH Pro Counsel then and she spent a decent amount of time just dealing with the headlines resulting from the unfortunate intersection of the young woman's past and present. The details were different, but she thought that the situations were very similar for the subsequent relationships he had been in with Laura Webber, Lucy Coe, and Bobbie Spencer. The difference was he had a prior past with all of those women although she could believe that if Eve had lived, and somehow the Thornharts hadn't been able to make their marriage work Serena very well might have a little stepbrother named Danny. For some people familiarity bred contempt, but not for Scott Baldwin.

"I just thought maybe you needed someone. I think Mark would want to be here for you," Scott said.

Well, quite honestly, Alexis had pretty much given up on needing anyone because it just left her disappointed. As for Mark, the, perhaps pathetic, thing was she could probably call him, and he would come. Alexis doubted it would really be for her though. It might be some sense of obligation to Kristina's sister, or possibly to Kristina's mother, or just because Dr. Mark Quartermaine had a really hard time walking away from someone in trouble. He took a Hippocratic Oath after all. Regardless, Alexis had no intention of calling him.

"Obviously you're behind on the PCPD scuttlebutt. I'm sure Mark has big plans with Allison."

Scott appeared shocked. "Allison? She's practically young enough to be his daughter."

That was a bit of an interesting reply from a man who had dated one of his daughter's best friends. Alexis thought Scott had only been eighteen or perhaps nineteen when Karen was born but still. "I highly doubt she's much more than five years younger than Mark."

"Five years? Try more like fifteen, I think she was in Emily's class in school. Maybe she was a year or two ahead, but I'd say two years max."

"She's got a ten-year-old daughter Scott and she was hardly a teen mom."

"Allison Barrington has a ten-year-old daughter?"

"No, but Allison Jordan, who Mark is dating, does."

"Oh," Scott said.

Alexis just shut her eyes and shook her head. Unfortunately, when she opened her eyes moments later there stood Sonny in the doorway. Alexis sighed. Score one more for Mr. Impeccable timing.

"You know, Corinthos, this really isn't a good time. Just call my office on Monday morning and I'm sure we can work out some deal where you do maximum prison time," Scott said.

Sonny looked amused for half of a second before his eyes grew hard and dark. Alexis knew that look and those eyes all too well. Their daughter had them.

"As appealing as that sounds, Baldwin, I didn't come to talk to you. If you don't mind, I'd like a little privacy with the mother of my children," Sonny said.

Scott raised his eyes at Sonny's use of the plural but didn't comment. Alexis wondered if perhaps even Scott could see that if the choices for Molly's father were Ric or Sonny then Sonny would easily be the choice. Of course, Scott also felt that if the choices for Kristina's father had been Sonny or Mark Alexis should have never broken her silence. They had discussed that before when he had called her on her distraction.

April 25, 2007

"Well if you must know, and apparently you must, I wasn't even thinking about Jax. I was thinking about Kristina. She has this art show at school today and she'll be devastated if everyone isn't there. Well, in Sonny's case, sometimes being there is beyond his control," Alexis said.

"You make it sound as if his possible absence was for a noble purpose, like a doctor who had to save a life, or even a cop. If Sonny misses her art show, for another shootout in the warehouse district, forgive me if I don't feel too sorry for him," Scott said.

"My point was only that things come up. If Sonny isn't there Kristina will be hurt," Alexis said.

"Well perhaps the sooner that Kristina accepts the reality of her criminal father's life the better," Scott suggested.

"Don't refer to him that way," Alexis fumed.

"Why not? It's true," Scott protested.

"Actually, it isn't. He's never been convicted of anything. Last time I checked, Scott, you weren't exactly a perfect person either," Alexis challenged. She realized that her words were unfair although Scott had made some stupid, and perhaps even illegal, choices in the past, in a time long before she even knew he existed. When his daughter had been born fifteen years ago, he had left the past in the past.

Taking over as DA in the shroud that their office faced because of the multiple illegal, and frankly brutally malicious, offenses her former husband Ric Lansing had committed during his tenure had not been easy she was sure. Scott had not wavered from the straight and narrow, still he didn't have to be so self-righteous about her daughter's father. Sonny wasn't a bad man, and she could see how much he loved their daughter.

"He's never been convicted because he had a good attorney. Chapparal County is glad you finally came back from the dark side," Scott quipped.

"You can detest Michael Corinthos Jr all you want, but I won't allow you to refer to him as Kristina's criminal father. That isn't fair to Kristina," Alexis said firmly.

"If you want my opinion the most unfair thing to Kristina is that she not only has that monster's blood running through her veins, but that she also knows that he is her father. You should have stayed with Mark when you had the chance," Scott said.

"First, I don't want your opinion. Secondly, I regret lying to Kristina, and the world, about who her father was. I made choices that were unfair to a lot of people," Alexis admitted.

"You were trying to protect her, that part I could understand," Scott said.

"But I didn't protect her. Mark's rejection hurt her deeply, and I'm the one who set that all in motion," Alexis admitted sadly.

"Do you feel badly about hurting Kristina or about hurting Corinthos?" Scott asked.

"Both," Alexis said flatly.

"This is the wrong time for you to be seeing Corinthos as the injured, misunderstood party again. You know now that we formed the alliance with the FBI, we're going to clean up this town. Corinthos is going to be one of the casualties so if you can't separate your personal and professional lives this is the time to get out. I don't want to see you go, Alexis, but I can't have doubts about if you're playing for the other team," Scott said.

"When have I ever compromised an investigation or evidence for Sonny Corinthos?" Alexis asked angrily.

"To my knowledge, never. I just want us to be clear," Scott said.

"Oh, we're clear, Scott," Alexis said. She didn't even bother to hide the anger in her voice.

"Good. Well I've got that evidence hearing on the Todesto case in thirty minutes. Why don't you go ahead and take off a little early so you can get to Kristina's art show," Scott suggested.

"I thought Kyle was handling that hearing," Alexis said.

"He was until he came down with the flu," Scott explained.

"You don't sound convinced," Alexis said. Fellow ADA Kyle Durant was the son of the late US attorney John Durant.

"Well, considering he originally requested vacation this week, which was denied, I was a little suspicious. But I went to see him yesterday afternoon and he looked awful. I seriously almost insisted he let me take him to the hospital," Scott admitted as he transferred some papers from his desk into his briefcase and then closed the briefcase.

"Well, maybe someone should check on him today," Alexis suggested.

"Yes, I called him, he's got a doctor's appointment today," Scott said.

"Well that's good," Alexis said.

"Yes, anyway you should go, and I better head to my hearing. Dara Jensen is opposing counsel, I really wish we could lure her back from the dark side too," Scott quipped as he picked his briefcase up off the desk.

Yet, when Alexis remembered that conversation with Scott, besides Kristina's pain, and her responsibility for that, what she thought about was the period she had been Sonny's attorney. In spite of how she had portrayed it after the fact that hadn't been a bad time. As pathetic as it might be to admit, Sonny had been her first friend, and perhaps the friend he had been to her then was the best friend anyone had ever been. "Scott, why don't you go see if Kyle is back with Kristina's inhaler?" she suggested.

Scott looked at her warily, but he did step from the room.

Sonny shoved his hands in his pocket as he crossed the room. "Thanks for calling off Baldwin. How are you feeling?" he asked.

"I figured the less time you spent together the less likely I'd be spending the rest of the evening in the PCPD paying someone's bail. Are the girls alright?" Alexis asked. She knew she had ignored his question, but she couldn't answer it. She didn't want to lie to him, yet, getting into the truth with him was more than she could handle.

XXXXXXXX

As he sat down in the chair Scott had been in moments earlier, Sonny was well aware that Alexis had ignored his question and tossed out her own. He wasn't sure if that was just her maternal devotion showing through or if she wanted to distract him. Probably both. "They're fine. Carly was taking them over to visit the Grablers.

"It's good to see Carly still knows which side her bread is buttered on. In the future, I would appreciate it if she didn't use my children to score extra brownie points with her ex-in laws," Alexis said.

Sonny let that comment go. "So, what happened before?" he asked.

"We've been through this before, Sonny. Try to take notes this time. You hired Scott's daughter as an exotic dancer in your night club. Somehow you were the person who she turned to when her drug addiction spiraled out of control. On some level, he's probably actually grateful that you helped her. But, on another level, he feels like he should have been there. He didn't know so he couldn't have been, but the situation is what it is. So, just cut him a little slack."

Sonny was quite sure she had not misunderstood what he had been asking but had answered a different question just to reaffirm that her life was not a topic of discussion. Yet, she would discuss her life with Baldwin? Yeah, that made sense.

Or maybe it did, Sonny decided with a pang. Alexis had slept with him when she had worked for him. She had never worked for, or apparently slept with, Dr. Mark Quartermaine. She had slept with Ric while she had worked for him. Scott had taken Ric's job and become Alexis' boss. Was he also filling that place in her bed? Kristina certainly did seem to mention mommy's friend Scott a lot. "If you marry Baldwin my daughters will not be calling him daddy Scotty," he said.

"I'll take that under advisement," Alexis said without betraying any emotions on her face.

Somehow her calmness almost made him feel worse. So, did that mean she was sleeping with Baldwin? Was she considering marrying him? Sonny supposed that couldn't be a worse mistake than marrying Ric had been for her. He wasn't sure if it was any better. Of course, Karen had seemed to feel Scott had been a good father, once she told him he was hers of course. Baldwin probably wouldn't sleep around the way Ric had, or at least he wouldn't be so obvious about it. So maybe he was better than Ric, but Sonny was still not sure that was saying much.

Sonny exhaled as he gripped his chin. He glanced at Alexis again. She was fiddling with the sheet as if she was uncomfortable. Had she gotten horrible news before he arrived? Was it just his presence that upset her? Did she really just want him to leave so she could cry with Baldwin?

Sonny took another deep breath and remembered that there had been a time she had been able to cry with him. How did he get that time back?