Chapter 54

"Are you sure this will work," Anna asked. She was pacing in their hotel room waiting for Andre to arrive. They had talked about this a lot while they walked in the morning while they were at Sean and Tiffany's and had agreed that he was the best choice to help them with this.

"Can we be sure that he will be able to figure out what all Peter did to Alex and deprogram her? No. She will have to be willing to go along with this but I know Andre should be able to help if she is willing to at least hear us out."

Their visit with Sean and Tiff had been a wonderful break from dealing with this but now it was time to get answers. Anna wanted to know what had been done to Alex. What all had he made her do? What all had Peter cost her? What had he taken away from her besides her freedom? "I hope she will see that we want to help her."

Robert stood up and walked over to her, putting his arms around her as she turned to him. "We can't force her to do anything but hopefully, she will want answers as much as we do."

Anna leaned into him, "I know," she said with a sigh. "I hate thinking that Peter may have had something to do with the way Alex has changed, that he might have had something to do with her marriage to Dimitri ending. How could her own son do that to her?"

"I don't know." He was thinking look at who his father is, who raised him. Peter may want people to believe he is nothing like his father, but doing whatever it takes to get what he wants no matter who it hurts is very much something Faison would have done. "He is a Faison."

Anna put her head against his shoulder, burying her face. He had a very good point, Henrick Faison is proving to be very much his father's son. "Alex feels so guilty about the fact he raised him."

"Feeling guilty for someone should not mean you throw away your ethics. She changed a lot in the time you've known her, you told me that." Anna nodded as she looked up at him "Just how willing was Alex to have the mind mapping experiment done on her? You still don't know when this was done to you. The timing for when everyone went blind would suggest that you were all exposed around the same time. This wasn't done to you twenty-thirty years ago, this was resent, just like the others."

Anna stepped back, "She said after I had met her, after I had recovered."

"Yeah, I would say it would have to be. When did they report Ryan dead, it would have been after the DVX had him."

"That was, " she paused, '95, it was still six years before I met Alex."

"Yes, but Jason and Drew weren't taken until 2012."

"Around the same time, Faison showed back up as Duke."

"We know he was involved in that but did he know about patents one through four?" Robert asked.

"I don't think he could have, then he would have known who Peter was, wouldn't he. Besides, do you think he would have just let me walk away if they took me somewhere to have the procedure?" They were interrupted by a knock at the door.

Anna turned to answer it, "That will be Andre." She opened the door and smiled, "Hello, thanks for coming."

He smiled back, "Hi, I hear I might be able to help." The WSB had sent him to help them however they needed, that was all he had been told. Robert had contacted Frisco and filled him in on what they now suspected and requested Andre's help with this matter.

"Come in, it's nice to see you again."

Andre stepped inside, "So why am I here?"

"You are going to help us find out what all was done to my sister," Anna paused, "by her son."

"Sorry, what?"

"We now believe that Peter August has used mind control on Alex Devane. We want you to help us figure out what all was done," Robert explained.

He looked at Anna, "Now I understand why I was requested for this."

"We don't know if this has anything to do with the mind mapping or not. I think we should look at this and the mind mapping as separate."

"Alright, I guess you should start by telling me what you think might have been done to Alex."

Anna offered him a drink as they all got settled. They went on to explain what all they had started to suspect and that they felt Peter was the one that was actually worried about the truth coming out. If Peter had done anything to Alex they wanted to know when and what. What all had he influenced her to do?

"Alex doesn't know what you're suspecting does she?" Andre asked when they had finished explaining.

"No she doesn't. That's why we wanted to talk to you about this first," Anna told him.

"Would you want to watch when we talk to her tomorrow? Get a better feel of what we're trying to explain."

"I would, it would help me if I can see how she reacts to certain topics."

"Alright, we are leaving here at nine in the morning."

"Then I will be ready," Andre said as he stood up. "I'll see you in the morning." Then he turned and left their room.

Once they were alone Anna let out a long breath, she didn't know how Alex was going to react to any of this. Anna was fairly certain that it wasn't going to be well received. They are going to have to tell Alex they think her own son has manipulated her thinking, more than once.

"It's been a long day, why don't you call Robin, let her know we're back here and doing fine then I want to get you into bed," Robert said grinning at her. He knew there was a lot on her mind but nothing was going to change tonight so he didn't want her dwelling on it all evening.

"Why don't we get into bed then I'll call Robin. We can cuddle while we do a video chat with them."

"That's an even better idea." Robert stood up and held out his hand to her. "Let's get a little more comfy." Anna smiled up at him, this was what she needed tonight. All she wanted to think about now was their family.

…

Finn was tired of waiting for Anna to finally call him and tell him who did what to him. He should know who had the power to make him do things, make him believe things he shouldn't. For the last three days, it seemed like everyone that he saw he'd wondered, could it have been them. He knew Anna wasn't back yet so maybe they still didn't have the answers they were looking for. That didn't make him feel any better.

The fact Valentin came to the Metro Court often to see Nina made it easy for Finn to watch him. He wanted to see if Valentin would give anything away about what he had done to him. If there was anything that might hint that it was him that had helped Alex. There was nothing though, Valentin either wasn't bothered by what he had done to Finn and wasn't giving him a second thought or the last option, it wasn't him.

Finn didn't like to think that could be it. If Valentin hadn't been the one that had helped Alex, that had used mind control on him then who was? Who else would want Alex's secret to stay hidden? Was it someone here in Port Charles at all? Finn chastised himself again for letting his thought dwell on this again. Why is it taking so long to get answers from Alex? What could possibly be going on that it's taking this long?

Finn turned towards the elevator, to go up to his room and almost walked right into Peter, who put his hands up to stop him. "Oh, sorry. I'm just a little distracted."

"That's alright, no harm done," Peter said as he patted Finn's arms before letting him go. "What's on your mind if you don't mind me asking?"

"I um, well actually I was wondering when I lost control of my life again. I got clean, I got it all together, then Hayden left and the whirlwind Anna Devane came into my life and now here I am a year and a half later and I have no idea how I got here. Confused, alone and just trying to keep my head above water." Finn wasn't sure why he had told Peter all of that but it all just started pouring out.

"I'm not sure I know what all that means but it sounds like you are trying to deal with a lot at the moment."

"Yeah, once I have some answers maybe this will make more sense but until then I'm left wondering what happened and why." Finn realized he had to be somewhere, "I should be going. It was nice talking to you."

"Yeah, nice seeing you." Peter watched him walk away. What kind of answers was he waiting for? Did he think Anna was out there looking into what all was done to them? Do they even know what all was done? Finn looks like a man that is struggling with a lot and it had sounded like that involved his relationship with Anna. Where was she anyway, Peter wondered. If they were visiting their friends, how long were they staying there? Whatever was going on it didn't seem like Finn thought Peter had done anything to him at least. Hopefully, it stays that way, Peter thought as he turned and walked away as well.

…

"How do you think she's going to react?" Anna asked Robert. They were waiting to be shown in to see Alex. It had been five days since they had last been to see her. In that time Anna had become convinced that yes, Peter must have done something to Alex, but how much. It worried Anna to think what all he had done, how much of Alex's life had he interfered with? The thing that worried Anna the most was, would Alex accept that something was done to her?

As soon as they walked inside Alex started talking. "What happened? You two leave and I basically got put into solitary confinement. What did I do?"

"You didn't do anything," Anna said.

"I haven't spoken to another person since you left, Anna."

"What did you do with your time?" Robert asked.

"I thought about how nice it would be to talk to someone," Alex shot back.

"What would you have talked to them about?" Alex glared at him. "Will you tell us what you've been doing since we saw you?"

"Please," Anna added.

"I spent a lot of time thinking what else was I going to do, redecorate?" She paused but neither of them said anything. I thought about how I ended up here mostly. There's a lot I don't understand. There are things I never wanted to happen. I don't understand why things were done when there should have been other ways. I was happy and I had the life I wanted, then I didn't. I don't know what changed but I knew Dimitri is better off without me, no matter how I feel about him."

"Wait what?" Anna asked, leaning forward.

"I knew I was never going to truly make Dimitri happy, that he needed more than what I could give him so I left him."

"That's why your marriage ended? You decided Dimitri wasn't happy so you left him."

"No, that wasn't what happened. I, well it was," Alex paused. "There was, I had to let him live his life."

Anna looked over at Robert sitting beside her, what does she even mean by that, Anna wondered. For someone trying to explain why she ended her marriage, it didn't seem like she even knew how to explain it, like she didn't really know why it ended. "So you thought about Dimitri while you were alone. Do you miss him?"

"What is this, Anna?"

"I want to understand you better. You can seem like two very different women at times. There's the sister I first met, that helped me, that helped so many others and this other person that is only looking out for herself and her son apparently."

Alex put her head down, Anna had summed up exactly how Alex sometimes felt herself. The person she is now is not the woman she had set out to become, who she was with Dimitri, the woman Anna first meet. "I wish I could understand it," she said quietly, her head still down.

Upon hearing that Anna squeezed Robert's leg, Alex didn't know why she left Dimitri, she was sure of that. Would she accept that an outside force might have played a part in how she got here? That Peter was that outside force. "Alex, did you think about anything else?" Anna asked.

"I thought about a lot of things. People and things I miss, my clinic, my career. I thought about my family, about how wonderful it is to see you so happy. Even though you're here to question me, I love getting to see how happy you are with Robert. I love that you found each other again." Alex wiped away a tear, the way Anna had talked about him when she got her memory back. Alex had been sure he was Anna's true love and that she was heartbroken over losing him. Now they are here.

Anna looked over at him, "He really does. Did I tell you he moved in with me?"

"No!" Alex leaned forward and took Anna's hands. "I am so happy for you, for both of you." This is wonderful, they really are committed to this. Could this finally be their time, Alex wondered smiling at them.

"A friend made me see that there was someone that loves me more than anyone else. That he always has and always will. We actually were just visiting them again."

"Oh really. So that's where you've been."

"Yeah, Sean and Tiff are a short flight from here."

"Sean and Tiff, that would be Sean Donely and Tiffany Hill, am I correct?"

"Yes."

"That's the man that introduced you two." Alex smiled, "See Robert, I know things," she teased, making them all grin.

"We have been visiting often lately, Sean is slowly slipping away from us." Alex saw the sadness on both their faces. Anna, with some help from Robert, explained Sean's condition to her.

Alex was slowly nodding as Anna finished speaking. "I want you to tell Tiffany to take him to my clinic in Hungary. Tell her to make an appointment with Dr. Marcus Bowmen. What you described sounds like the type of cases he's had a lot of success with. I think Sean could be a good candidate for his treatment."

"Thank you, Alex. I will call her when we get back to our hotel," Robert said, giving her a genuine smile. Robert put his arm around Anna and she leaned closer to him. "If there's something that can help Sean, I know Tiff will want to know about it."

They talked more about their visit with Sean and Tiffany. They even told her about how once in a while Sean could be aggressive towards Robert when he's confused. Then she asked them about moving in together and what they were planning now. They happily talked about life back in Port Charles.

There was a tape one the glass and Robert checked his watch. "That must be our time for the day."

They all stood up, Alex reached out and touched Robert's arm, "Let me know what Tiffany says."

"I will."

Anna started to walk around the table, Alex smiled and turned to her and hugged her. "This was nice, just talking."

"Yes, it was." Alex held Anna close, "What did he do to me?" she asked just above a whisper.

Anna took a sudden breath, she knows something isn't right. "I don't know but we want to help you find out."

Alex nodded, "Please."

"Alright, we'll talk more tomorrow."

"Thank you, Anna."

"Time to go, Luv."

"Bye, we will talk more tomorrow."

Anna turned and joined Robert, he took her hand and they walked over to the door. Once they were through and the door was closed Anna looked at Andre who had watched their entire visit. "You can see her tomorrow." Robert looked at Anna, she smiled up at him. "She knows something was done and just asked me for help." Robert pulled her into his arms, as they both signed. Please let the Alex she knows and love shine through, Anna thought in Robert's arms.

"That's good, I can see what you were talking about. She's not always the same, I could tell when she was completely herself while you were just talking about your lives. I hope I can help her," Andre told them.

This is only the first step and there's no telling what will happen next. Only time will tell if Andre will be able to help. If he can even find out what was done. All Anna knew was tomorrow they will start the work to hopefully, get some answers.