AN: Mostly Nik/Sam cousin fluff, with a little fanwanked Alexis backstory.
"Will there be anything else sir?" Alfred asks.
"No, thank you very much Alfred. It looks wonderful and thank you for the update about the arrangements for John. Take the rest of the evening off, I'll clean up here after we're done."
"Very good sir, Mr. Lansing is dining in town and Ms. Davis opted to eat on her own as well…she said something about pop – corn? I'll take my leave, goodnight Mr. Cassadine, Ms. Samantha." Alfred backs out of my suite, silently closing the door behind him.
"Wow." I say. "He's good."
"He's no Mrs. Lansbury, but he's growing on me."
"He deserves a raise. Not only has the household quadrupled in the last few months, but he has to put up with me and my crazy mother."
"Now, Sam, Lexis is a neurotic control freak with a type A personality, but she's not exactly crazy. Helena…now that's crazy." He lifts his wine glass, and I find myself toasting … what exactly I'm not sure. "To family." Nikolas adds with a wink and we clink glasses.
"To family" I toast, but can't help adding "…warts and all."
"Warts and all." Nik drinks and leans back in his chair. "So where were we?"
I'd stopped Nik on his way out to ask him about Alexis…the one he knew, and I just didn't. Before he could even start to answer, his stomach growled rudely, causing him to turn bright pink. He whipped out his cell called his butler. They had a brief conversation and the next thing I knew Alfred was laying a four course dinner out in my sitting room.
"You call your butler on a cell?"
"Doesn't everyone?" He smiled "Hey, it's a big house. I call his cell, I get him…Do you like Duck L'Orange?"
"You were telling me you and Alexis never lived on the Island together." I prompt.
"Yes, by the time I came on the scene she was starting college. I was about 8 when she finished Law School and then she was at Oxford for a couple years. After that she joined a law firm in New York City."
"So you didn't know her at all till you moved to Port Charles as a teen?"
"Oh, no, you misunderstand." Nikolas explains. "I always knew Alexis…she just never lived with us. She and Stefan always had a very deep bond. As far back as I can remember we spent Christmas with her. She called all the time, and sometimes we would visit her in New York or in England. She was always such a different person when we saw her away from Greece."
"How do you mean?"
"She was whole…she smiled…joked…I can't say she was truly happy, because I'm not sure she was…but she found some sort of peace away from the compound."
"When you were alone with her, what did the two of you talk about?"
"Oh, the usual things. Philosophy, Shakespeare, Politics, the Environment."
"No, seriously, Nikolas."
"Sam, I am serious. I talked about what I knew. My childhood was all about grooming. I was to be the Prince. I was privately tutored, I didn't have friends outside the family, and no one around that was my age…"
"Nikolas, that's sort of sad."
"You're telling me? Alexis understood my upbringing better than anyone else, she had watched my father go through it and to a lesser degree Stefan, but she also understood that I was a child, much better than I did, certainly more than Uncle did." Nik smiled, "She always gave the best presents."
"Oh." I push the rice on my plate around, my stomach squirms. Nikolas picks up on my discomfort.
"I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking..."
"Don't be sorry, I asked you to tell me about it and you are," I shift my gaze back to him. "So what was so great about Alexis' gifts?"
"Well, as you might have guessed, I had pretty much everything a kid, a very studious, overprotected kid could want. But every year Alexis would get me something I knew nothing about, but within hours of opening it I couldn't imagine ever living without it."
"Like what?"
"Waldo." Nik's whole body changed, he looked like he was 7 years old again. "Lexis introduced me to Waldo."
"She gave you a friend?"
"In a way, I spent hours and hours with him. Don't you know about Waldo?"
"Can't say we've met."
"Oh, wow, you have no idea what you missed! Where's Waldo are the greatest books ever!"
"A book…what was so great about it?"
"Ok, ok…" Nikolas thinks for a minute, "Waldo is a cartoon figure right? And he wears jeans and a red and white rugby shirt, glasses and a hat…"
"Are you sure you're not thinking of Harry Potter?"
"No…anyway, he like traveled all over the place and you had to find him."
I'm laughing out loud now. I've never seen Nikolas so animated about anything. "And the great part would be?"
"You just don't understand…the pictures are so detailed and you have to find him on every page…oh man…hey, I should get those out for Kristina."
"Don't tell me you still have them?"
"Yes!" His face changes suddenly. "I think, I think I kept every gift Alexis ever gave me."
My laughter stops. I cast my eyes around the room, trying desperately not to cry. "That's, that's pretty amazing."
"She's pretty amazing Sam."
"What else…what else did she give you?"
"Lots of books, books Uncle didn't approve of usually. All kinds of music from Jamaica, Africa, Hawaii, China, a hacky-sack, she totally got me hooked on Pogs, you remember Pogs?"
"Those stupid milk bottle caps…I was a junky." I grin.
" … and Hotwheels."
"You mean those little cars you get at the grocery store?"
"Yep, she gave me a dozen for my 6th birthday, and a dozen every birthday since. I have an extremely cool collection of them."
"Maybe I can see them sometime…" I shift in my chair, I say "Sometimes I think this must all be some kind of mistake. Alexis and I are so different, maybe we aren't really mother and daughter at all. Maybe her daughter really did die and this is some kind of sick joke Helena dreamed up."
"No."
"No? You don't think your grandmother would do something that twisted?"
"Oh, sure she would, she probably has done worse through the years, what am I saying, she has done worse…but you are Alexis' daughter."
"Why because you and I are both AB negative? It's not all that uncommon." I argue, "So maybe this was some plot between Helena and my parents…Evelyn had a twisted streak herself. I don't look like Alexis, I'm not smart like she is…"
"You are very intelligent Sam. And you might not physically resemble Alexis, except around the eyes, but you are just like her in other ways."
"Name one."
"Well, you are always ready for an argument." I blush…"neither of you will back down from a fight, even after it's painfully obvious you've lost. You love with every fiber of your being. Both of you are compelled to move your hands with every word you utter."
"I said name one." I object.
"But there's something more…" he continues "something else I can't put my finger on."
"When did Alexis tell you about me, I mean about having a daughter?"
"Honestly?" I nod. "It was just this last April. She was looking for you and told some story to one of Grandfather's solicitors. The solicitor felt obligated to let me know about a possible relation. I was clueless, so I asked Alexis…"
"You two are so close, I just assumed you'd known for years. Do you think Stefan knew?"
"It's possible, but not likely…they had some very ugly years after we moved to Port Charles, I think he would have thrown it in her face at one time or another if he knew." Off my look, Nikolas explains. "Like I said before, they had a very deep bond, but they were raised by Mikkos and Helena…it wasn't always the healthiest relationship."
"I thought he was always her protector. She speaks of him like some sort of superhero who saved her from a life of poverty and abuse."
"He dubbed himself her protector, and he did a great deal for her. He shielded her from the wrath of Helena and my father when she was a child, he recognized her intelligence, and made sure she was given the opportunity to be educated, he was kind when she was considered a pariah among the family. But he never let her forget any of it. He wanted her complete and blind loyalty, and she couldn't always give it to him, for reasons of her own. He considered her revealing herself as Natasha Cassadine, the ultimate betrayal. He banished her from the family."
"I had no idea." I shake my head, "when she talks about him, it's always so fondly. It reminded me of me and Danny. But Danny would never hurt anyone…I mean I just can't imagine…"
"Alexis has, always has had a selective memory. In some ways, I'm not sure she can even control it. She blocked out her mother's murder until she was in her 30s. She had no memory of being Natasha for the first 5 years of her life. It took another few years for her to remember her sister Kristina."
"I wonder…" My head is spinning. What else had she blocked out?
"What?" Nikolas asks.
"Nothing…" Nikolas looks expectantly at me so I offer "I wish she would tell me this stuff."
"She won't tell anyone Sam, it's not just you. Most of what I know is because I witnessed it or heard it in bits and pieces over the years. It's very, very rare for her to speak of her past." Nikolas stifles a yawn.
"Nikolas, you look so tired, thank you for everything. I know you have a lot on your mind tonight."
"Well, it was a welcome distraction, but I should probably take care of a few more things before I call it a night."
"You go on ahead, I'll take care of the dishes."
"You'll be here tomorrow?"
"Definitely, I'll be here when you bring your son home."
"That means a lot to me Sam. Thank you."