A/N: Anyone still reading this? Heh...some birthday sap...about a month late!!!

I flip my phone open "Hey, how's the stakeout going?"

"Same old, same old. This guy is never gonna make a move. How'd the party go?"

"It wasn't much of a party. Alexis didn't want a 'fuss'."

"Heh, she wouldn't let you invite Corinthos?"

"Yep, it was just me, Nikolas and the kids."

"Did she like your present?"

"Um…"

Cruz laughs. "You chickened out?"

"No."

"Liar…oh I gotta go, I'll talk to you tomorrow."

"Okay, Cruz? Be careful."

"Always."

I plug my phone into its charger and grab my Biology notebook. I lay it back down. I pick up Alexis' present. I study the silver paper and blue ribbon. They belie the painfully ordinary contents. Nikolas had shot me a quizzical look after Alexis finished opening her gifts. I'd shrugged in return. He let it go, but pulled me aside later.

"What are you going to wait till Christmas now?" He'd accused.

"No, I'll give it to her."

Instead of learning the reproductive patterns of the blowfly, I memorize the swirls in the silver paper, the satin sheen of the bow, the envelope. To Alexis. To Mom. To Mother. To…. How long had I spent trying to put the appropriate address? Finally giving up and writing only Happy Birthday. I don't know why sometimes calling her Mom seems right and sometimes it's so very awkward. How the phrase 'My mother' can conjure the image of two completely different people.

"Sam?"

She startles me. I instinctively hide the package behind my back. It's too late, there is no way she hasn't seen it. "Hi." I say with a heavy dose of guilt.

"Is that for me?" She slinks in and points with both hands gripped in front of her.

I only nod. I don't offer it to her. I'm still not prepared for the barrage of questions that will follow. "Where did you get these? Why have you kept them from me?" for starters. The unasked questions will be worse.

"Sam?" Alexis tilts her head.

"Sorry, I…I." I stutter…"Here." I push the box toward her.

"Are you sure?"

"Not really." I bite my lower lip.

"Come." She pulls me to the loveseat. "I'll love it, whatever it is." She assures me.

She unwraps the paper with precision, and maybe some trepidation. She opens the box and places the tissue paper beside her. She opens the silver frame.

I watch her eyes. For the briefest moment they don't register what she's seeing, then tears invade. A soft gasp escapes her lips, and her hand traces the curve of the image on the left. She looks at me, brushes her hand along my cheek, stopping at a small scar. She looks back at the photo…"This was brand new then, what happened?"

I touch my cheek and remember. "Billy Raymond…he was chasing me with something…I ran into a bush."

She flinches slightly. Then studies the photo again "Your bangs." She says.

"Dad, he was a little drunk, and…" I trail off as she starts to cry. "He never hurt me, never."

She nods silently and returns to the picture. "How, how old were you? In this one?"

"Seven…"

"1st grade?"

"2nd."

"When did you lose your first tooth?"

I shrug. "I'm not sure, but the second one…I fell off my bike, I was bleeding so much that Ms. Hansen didn't realize I'd lost it. And I was so worried that the tooth fairy wouldn't come since we didn't have the tooth. But Dad promised he would leave a note explaining."

"Did he?"

"I guess…I had a quarter under my pillow in the morning."

"I think her rates have gone up, Kristina said Michael gets five dollars a tooth."

"Wow…he must have some teeth!" Alexis gives me a small smile and returns her gaze to the photos. "You don't have to memorize them Mom."

"I missed so much…so very much." She sobs. "I'm sorry Sam."

"Don't be…it's okay, I'm okay."

"I want to be the one who butchered your bangs and explained things to the tooth fairy on your behalf." She pulls up and looks at the picture on the right. "And who explained your period to you?"

I laugh involuntarily. "That was a few years down the line. I was 14. I knew all about them, because I was the only girl who didn't have it yet. I'd stolen a thing of pads a whole year before, just to be prepared. But of course I got it in the middle of the day, when I was at the library. I always thought you woke up with it first thing in the morning! I don't know why I thought that…."

"Because no one explained it to you. Because I didn't explain it to you."

"I'm sorry…I don't want to hurt you…I thought maybe you'd like them." I reach for the frame, she pulls it to her chest.

"Oh Sam…I love them…you were so beautiful…you are so beautiful."

"You don't need to say that. They are lousy pictures…I wanted Nikolas to fix them…."

"Fix them?!" She yells, suddenly angry. "Samantha McCall…You are beautiful…unique…strong…independent, and that is abundantly clear in your eyes, your smile, your scars. I don't ever want to hear that you want to be FIXED. You are perfect just the way you are and just the way you were. LOOK at me when I'm speaking to you!" I meet her eyes again. "I love you Sam and this is the single most precious gift I've ever received. I need you to understand that 'fixing' it would have ruined them. Do you understand that?"

I nod. "Say it Sam."

"I understand." She pulls me to her and embraces me. "I understand."