August 3, 2006

Stuck in a Moment

Alexis rushes back down the corridor and past the nurses' station to the elevator. She stops in front of it and thinks. She turns to the nurse. "Excuse me but are there stairs to the 7th floor?"

The nurse looks up at Alexis perplexed. "Yes. They're further down the hall. The elevator is functioning."

Alexis starts towards the door to the stairs. "I need the exercise, but thank you."

She finds the proper door and makes her way down the stairs. She stops and takes a seat not exactly sure why. She lays her head in her hands. "Please tell me he was faking again."

Kevin slammed the file down onto Alexis' desk. Lorenzo took his foot from the lounge chair and walked over to Alexis pushing her glasses closer to her eyes.

"What diagnosis did you give him?" She asked Kevin.

She noticed Kevin's lips locked tight and his chest ready to blow with steam.

Lorenzo interjected. "Shouldn't Ric be here for this?"

"I have trouble fabricating a defense for Sonny. It's unethical." Kevin muttered from his tight lips. "So I did a preliminary evaluation."

"And?" Alexis said.

"And I found that there is a strong chance that he has a bi-polar disorder."

"Would that lead to murder?" Lorenzo questioned.

"I thought we said Sonny was framed Lorenzo?" Alexis jumped in.

"Yea. But we're having trouble proving that he was framed Alexis." Lorenzo emphasized with his fist pounding her desk.

Kevin sighed to get back the attention. "Can we address the bigger issue here? Sonny has an illness. The evaluation that I did wasn't necessarily thorough. I need to dig deeper."

Alexis stood up from her desk. "We have two issues. We have two clients. Client A, Lorenzo's client, is Sonny Corinthos. Client B, Ric Lansing's client, is Jake Scalia. Client B Jake Scalia is framing Client A Sonny Corinthos for murder."

"So we think." Lorenzo added.

Alexis continued. "You may ask if there is somehow a conflict of interest. Why can't we just cut off the biggest reject of the two? I know you wanna ask right Kevin?"

Kevin clicked his tongue. "Why can't you just cut off the other client?"

Alexis grabbed Kevin's coat. "I would love to rid myself of this issue, but Jake Scalia is a flippin' maniac. I'm afraid he'd kill me and I'm afraid he'd kill my family."

Alexis grabs her hair and closes her eyes ready to scream as loud as her lungs will carry her stifled voice, but she feels a hand on her shoulder. She pushes the hand away and pulls up on the stairs. Kevin takes a step back and allows her some time to settle down realizing who he is.

"You're still jumpy aren't you?" Kevin asks with concern in his eyes.

Alexis finally relaxes. "I try not to be."

Kevin sits down next to her on the stair. "The prescription I gave you is not habit-forming."

"I know, but I have to be alert for Kristina." Alexis rubs her brow. "And when I take it, I don't see them as much."

"Them? Lorenzo and Ric?"

"Yeah. I almost think I need them sometimes." Alexis looks at Kevin. "Is Sonny faking?"

Kevin looks down and shakes his head. "No. He goes in and out. Certain things seem to trigger episodes. I guess when I asked Lucy what she was doing there, he freaked out."

"He does that every now and then Kevin. He was in a confined space. He should just avoid them."

"That's a band-aid Alexis. You and I both know that."

"He was stuck in a moment. I just need you to hold on the testing. Robin? How can she do anything far and away? What does she know really?"

"I checked his records and she's authorized. I thought it might be you…"

"He must have changed it after I took Kristina away."

Alexis closed Sonny's file and watched Lorenzo write his opening arguments. "In my hand is the one thing I need to never have to worry about losing Kristina."

Lorenzo looked up from his paper. "Don't screw up my case Natasha."

"Between Sonny Corinthos and Jake Scalia, my firm is practically falling apart."

"Alexis, the firm doesn't just belong to you. It belongs to all of us. We took Jake Scalia's case with the intent to uphold his rights. None of us had any clue that he was framing your baby daddy. Listen, I may not like Sonny, but it's not fair to kick a man when he's down. Tell Natasha to put her toys away for now." Lorenzo stared at her keenly.

Alexis closed the file. "I'd never use Sonny's supposed mental illness against him. But I need something Lorenzo."

"Then use his lifestyle."

"It doesn't work. He pays off the judges. They claim his lifestyle is a threat whether she has a relationship with him or not. With this file…"

"It's time for Natasha to stop." Lorenzo forced a smile and went back to his writing.

"Alexis loves Sonny." She quickly expressed.

Lorenzo continued to write. "I know she does."

"I owe him Kevin. Right?" Alexis starts to fidget on the stairs.

Kevin grabs her hand to keep her still. "It's not like you didn't feel an element of guilt about it. He didn't lose Kristina forever. You said he's stuck in a moment. He was when he was in the mob. But he chose that lifestyle Alexis. This thing he's going through now isn't a moment. It's something he can't control. And you have to realize that."

"I just don't want him to lose Kristina again if something happens to me."

Alexis couldn't bear to look at Sonny's face across the courtroom. She fought with herself and questioned why in God's name she felt like Sonny was the victim. She had everyone's support on her decision except for Lorenzo and even Ric was hesitant.

Alexis slammed her hand so hard on the table in Lorenzo's apartment that she thought she might've broken it. Lorenzo and Ric just stared at her and shook their heads.

"Guys! I did everything I could to prevent using that file. It's not like they weren't going to question his mental health. Come on Guys. Ric? When did you lose your head so far up your ass that you couldn't see the forest for the trees?"

Ric slouched down in his chair. "I just don't want him shooting up folks. You don't need the stress right now Alexis. Couldn't this have waited until after Ricky is born?"

"I will not have time when Ricky is born and I would lose my focus. The judge might not even side with me. We'll see tomorrow." Alexis sat back and decided not to worry about it any longer.

Sonny and Alexis both rose when the judge entered the room. Alexis could barely stand. She took a peek across the room at Sonny and found him as confident as ever. She looked back to her other side and found AJ sitting in the audience shaking one leg with nervous movement. AJ flashed her a smile and a slight wave. She smiled back at him and focused back on the judge.

Not really focused at all, she stared off into space while the judge said a prelude to her decision. Alexis didn't hear a word. She just knew it was finally going her way.

And when the judge dropped the words that she couldn't wait to hear, Alexis tried to look to Sonny to see his expression, but her heart wouldn't let her turn in his direction.

Kevin releases Alexis' hand. "Not to have a therapy session here in the stairwell, but I think you had the similar reaction that you have in the nightmare that keeps coming up."

Alexis grabs the back of her neck. "Yea. The one where your whole body is paralyzed. I could not look at him. My neck would not turn in his direction. I know he was devastated. He just knew he was gonna have the upper hand. I just had that same feeling again in his room. He's lying in that bed thinking he has the upper hand, but yet he thinks his mother is still alive. I hate Adela. Is that wrong?"

Kevin laughs. "No. I freaking hate her too."

In his backyard and newly released from his session with Kevin, Sonny picks up the fallen side of his Superman tent and reworks the post in the ground. He tries to keep from crying by constantly sucking back the sniffles that try to break. "I hate her." He says to himself.

He stands up and looks down at his tent. He looks up at the moon showing its face from the dark mask. He shivers remembering the day he almost died. "I can't hate her."

The sniffles break through and he throws himself to the ground and shoves his body into his tent while believing the darkness outside is mocking him for crying. He turns onto his back and looks up at the moon. "Why is she treating me like a child? I just wanna help her. My mother used to do this to me. I didn't know what was wrong. Why she was sad."

Kevin took notes and waited for Sonny's response to his question. "Sonny? This can be quick and easy or this can be long and painful. I'll ask again. Do you know how your mother died?"

Sonny sat as still as possible.

Kevin leaned in to him. "Sonny. Remember Stone? You know I cared for him very much."

Sonny finally broke from his trance. "Whatever happened to Sigmund?"

Kevin bulked. "The duck? He's no longer."

"He died?"

"Yea Sonny. He died."

"I'm sorry Kevin. I don't understand death and how bad things happen to good people. He was a cool cat."

"But Sigmund was a duck Sonny. Not a cat."

Sonny closes his eyes on the moon shining through the mesh of his tent. He tries to forget his evaluation that didn't seem to amount to anything to him, but provided pages and pages of written notes to Kevin.

Sonny tries to shut off his brain, but it goes in overdrive. "I wonder how Superman knows how to fly. I mean…does he wear special shoes? Is it the cape? How come I never asked my mother these questions when she was alive? I wonder if Alexis knows. I hate her." Sonny throws his hands on his eyes to take away the thoughts of resentment.

Alexis walks up to Sonny's tent just as he's cursing her name into the darkness. She tries not to be offended. She stays for a moment until she notices his discussions quiet down to silence. She walks away and studies the exterior of the house ready to go inside and figure out what's haunted Sonny for all of his years.