January 14, 2006
The Space Between
"Alexis?" Lois opens her door slightly taken back by Alexis with Kristina in one arm and stuffed animals crowding the other.
"Hey Lois. How are you?" Alexis forces her way into the living room.
Lois stares at her with confusion. "Is everything ok Alexis?"
Alexis settles Kristina down on the floor with her array of toys. "Everything is peachy keen. I just had a vision."
"A vision? What kind of vision?"
"Well. Remember when Brooke Lynn and I met for the first time?"
Lois shakes her head. "No. I don't."
"Well I think she was a bit younger than Kristina. Anyway, I was nervous. Like really nervous because Lord knows I know nothing about raising children."
"You know nothing now?"
"Well sure. I know nothing ever. It's an instinct. I realize that. Anyway, my point is that I know you and Sonny are in a relationship."
"We are!" Lois' voice raises an octave.
"You are! And I could not be happier if I tried. But I thought about it. I want things to be easier for you and Kristina than they were for Brooke Lynn and me. I want her to embrace her new stepmother. So I thought I'd bring her over." Alexis heads towards the door. "I also figured you'd be great to find her Africa book. It'd be a perfect bonding moment."
"Where is this Africa book?"
Alexis takes a deep sigh. "Uh. Somewhere in the greater Manhattan area."
Brooke Lynn and Sonny make their way down the neighborhood street arguing like an old married couple. Sonny shakes his head in disbelief that he'd even entertain the mind of such a young girl with heated argument but he tosses adult restraint out the window until they both step up to the walkway leading to the house. He races up the walk ahead of her trying to catch up to him. He turns back to her with his hands shooing her away from him.
"Stay back Brooke Lynn!" He exclaims staring at the bullet holes decorating his front window.
"Who shot up your house Uncle Sonny?" She questions.
He looks at her almost guilty for wanting to point out to her the stupidity of her question.
"If I knew Dear, I probably could have prevented it. Don't you think?" He gives her a hint of sarcasm hoping not to seem too agitated.
They both continue with caution and tiptoe on the glass crackling below their feet. Sonny's heart beats heavily as he reaches near his pockets wishing his gun were still his appendage. He had come so close. He had even gotten to the point where he could linger in the house past dark without fear of the voices fumbling around in his head. But he still retreated to his tent in the backyard to sleep and shut off the noise.
He breaks his thought after seeing Brooke Lynn walk back outside. He moves towards the door and his eyes grow wide at the sight of her limo. Alexis steps out and Brooke Lynn greets her before she can ascend the steps.
Brooke Lynn wraps her arms around Alexis and buries her face in her chest hoping to smooth over her reaction to the obvious. Sonny steps back inside and meanders into the kitchen in search of a broom. He opens the tiny broom closet, decides to walk inside, and stay for a moment.
"Hi Alexis." Brooke Lynn looks up at Alexis hoping she doesn't notice the subtle kayos.
Alexis squints her eyes in disbelief. "Are those bullet holes? What happened here?"
Brooke Lynn pulls back from her and searches for a save. "Uncle Sonny and I have a surprise for you, but we need Kristina's help."
Alexis continues up the walk past Brooke Lynn and into the house. She squats down and gathers glass into the palm of her hand. She looks up the staircase and starts to remember.
"Sonny, I can't do this whole visit thing any longer." Her hands trembled with the receiver perked on her ear. She scribbled on her pad not sure of what the silence on the other end truly meant.
He finally chimed in. "Alexis that would be a violation of the visitation settlement that you and I agreed to with the judge." Sonny recited to her as he yanked out his custody file and juggled the phone at the same time.
"That's not necessarily true. Do you have the papers there?" She asked.
Sonny stopped fumbling with the file. Frustrated he tossed it to the ground leaving the papers scattered across his floor. Benny walked in with Sonny directing him to pick up the mess.
"Alexis. Can I call you back? I need to figure out what this all means."
"No. We need to settle this now. I will give you a moment to find the clause. It's on the last page Dear. There is a summary of visitation. I need you to find it."
Sonny yanked the phone from his ear and signaled to Benny who immediately picked up on his need. Benny found the page in question laid across the room. He glanced over it quickly and grabbed the phone from Sonny.
"Hi Alexis. It's Benny."
"Hello Benny. I don't mean to be rude, but this is between Sonny and me. Can you put him back on the phone please?"
"Well, I have that page right here." Benny noticed Sonny jerk at his belt buckle and walk out the penthouse door with a wave of the hand.
"Uh Alexis. I think Sonny's in the bathroom." Benny utterdhalf embarrassed.
"Ok. Do me a favor and tell Sonny to do as I asked and we'll go from there."
"Can I assist the situation in some way Alexis?"
"How about preventing the shooting incident that happened the other day from happening again." Alexis slamed down the phone certain in her decision.
She lets the glass sift through her hand like white sand. She stands up and focuses on Brooke Lynn sitting on the stairs waiting to be acknowledged.
"Do you know what happened?" Alexis tries to remain calm in her question.
"No. We were coming back from the diner down the street and happened to notice it. Sonny has no clue who did it. But Alexis. It's not his fault I swear. He's been building a tree house."
"It really doesn't matter Brooke Lynn. It never truly ends. I'm just glad you're both ok." Alexis gulps back her tears of insecurity having convinced herself that it was all over.
She allows her eyes to wonder down the dark hall. "I've never actually been in here before. Do you want to give me the tour?" Alexis reaches her hand out to Brooke Lynn.
Brooke Lynn perks up but shakes her head. "I can't Alexis."
"Why can't you?"
Brooke Lynn looks up the stairs and back to Alexis. "Not if you want to go up there. I can show you the kitchen. Sonny doesn't go upstairs very often. Every once in a while."
"Where is he now?"
"I think he's in the broom closet." Brooke quickly mentions and leans her chin on her hands.
"Obviously he's hiding something." Alexis crosses her arms slowly seething mad.
"Obviously he's just afraid of your reaction."
"What has he told you about me Little Girl?" Alexis' face turns red and she balls her fists ready to pummel Sonny if he were to even think to emerge from the closet.
Brooke Lynn knowing she is oftentimes one to say too much fidgets for a way to smooth over Alexis' disposition. "Nothing that you didn't already know. He said you saved his life. He's very grateful. He just doesn't want you to say no if Kristina wants to play in her tree house. You might say it's unsafe."
Alexis stops herself from diverging onto an adult explanation. "He's taught you well. Kristina can't play in the tree house without me being there. Is that a good compromise?"
"Yes." Brooke Lynn perks up again taking what she can get. She hops up from the stairs ready to lead Alexis towards the kitchen and to the backyard. Alexis grabs Brooke Lynn's backpack covered in glass to dust off the debris. The letter slips out and onto the ground. Brooke Lynn, noticing the letter drop from her bag, turns quickly to Alexis to snatch it up before she can recognize it. But she's too late. Alexis finishes the unfold and wonders how the letter got there.
"I was looking all over for this letter. How did you get it Brooke Lynn?"
Brooke Lynn quickly forfeits her protection of him. "Uncle Sonny gave it to me."
"That would mean Sonny took it from me."
Sonny finally emerges from the closet. "But that would in turn imply that you took it from me. Can I have it back?"
Alexis slowly hands Sonny back his letter noticeably handled by many. He steps back from her and crimples it up into a ball to stuff it into his pocket.
Brooke Lynn looks to both of them picking up on her uncomfortable position as the space between them. She breaks into tears, grabs her backpack from Alexis and races out of the house and on the route to home.
Alexis points at Sonny. "You made her cry. Lois is going to kick your ass. She was fine until you came into the room. I was about to get a tour of the house. So you and the closet are friends now?"
Sonny drops his head wanting to remain humble. "I can't explain to you what happened here."
Alexis walks back outside and positions herself in front of the large window. She looks down and notices glass on the outside.
"You know what Sonny? Whoever did this obviously shot from the inside and the outside. Did you leave the door unlocked?"
"Yea. We just went down the street for lunch."
"Why don't we call the police?"
"Are you crazy? I can't call the cops. They'll haul me in. Don't worry about it Alexis. I'll clean it up and worry about it tomorrow."
Sonny walks back inside and grabs his broom. Alexis follows him inside.
"Sonny, why won't you let me help?"
He drops the broom. "You confuse me Alexis. Now you wanna help? I'm fine. All is well. I'm tired of everyone wanting to help."
"Not that I want to bring up the fact that I have pried into your personal affairs, but is this attitude you currently have linked to the letter?"
"I don't wanna hear anything else concerning that stupid letter." Sonny snatches the balled up paper from his pocket and rips it into pieces allowing them to crumble to the floor.
"Well. I guess you've made yourself clear on all fronts." She observes.
"It's always all or nothing with you Alexis."
"Well. To be honest I've typically only been given the choice of all or nothing. And frankly, you should be lucky that I chose to walk away from our circumstance of entrapment with all."
Kevin sits back in his chair barely showing his happiness of having her sit across from him again.
"I'm…sorry…Alexis." He swallows hard and tries to maintain the upper hand despite having to concede some defeat in their duel of the egos.
"I'm sorry too Kevin. I overreacted. And obviously I've proven that I need you." Alexis tilts her head and stares at him waiting for the response she'd like to hear.
Kevin tightens his lips and relents. "I need you too Alexis. You're the most screwed up patient I have. I'm nothing without you…Damnit."
Alexis takes a moment in thought. "Can you just say you were wrong and we can get over the semantics?"
"Sure Alexis. I was wrong. And you really don't need that prescription for Valium." Kevin rips up the prescription and tosses it into the wastebasket. "Did you? So what's the problem now?"
"You know how every night I dream, the day that Ric and Lorenzo were killed plays back. Every moment. And it seems that the closer I get to the end, it plays slowly."
Kevin starts to write notes. "How is Sonny?"
"Are you listening to me?"
"Yea. I am. So how is he? Dating Lois huh?"
"Oh. I see what we're doing here. You're trying to get me to forget."
"For the moment." Kevin interjects.
"I guess they're dating. I just left his house. Someone shot at his house. He seemed quite agitated. And I said something that I probably shouldn't have said due to the circumstances. We kind of just left it hanging in the air. You know how it is."
"No. Please describe it to me."
Alexis uses her hands to demonstrate her point. "I stood here and he stood here."
"A couple inches apart? Kevin exclaims.
"No." Alexis measures again. "I'd say about two feet apart. There was this space between…"
"…Did you expect he would lean in and make out with you?"
"No. It seems as though every time we convene again, we have to work our way into that space between us. There's always something that keeps us apart."
"Ric? Lois?" Kevin offers his theory.
"No. It's something. Something unspoken. With Ric and Lorenzo, I always knew where I stood and they always knew how far they could go with me. Sonny says that I often confuse him with some of the things that I say."
"Can we get over the semantics Alexis? If you love him, you should tell him so."
"No. I think he should tell me first."
Kevin throws up his hands. "Well there you go. That would explain your relationship. You need to fill the space. You're allies with warring hearts. You're at opposite ends of the spectrum and you're both stubborn as hell. And until one of you concedes in blissful defeat, the war will prove to be greater than the victory."