Sorry about that last super long chapter. I just couldn't stop! I hope it wasn't overwhelming!

I'd apologize for the cliff, but for those used to my writing, you already know that I'm really not. LOL!

UNEDITED

Chapter Six

Holding On

The stench of alcohol was heavy in the living room; it turned Alexis' stomach. While she was disgusted that not only had these people broken into her home, and had done so while intoxicated, her main concern was for the sleeping and emotionally scarred girl asleep in her arms. She stood beside her cousin, keeping one arm around Sam, and the other firmly holding onto Nikolas' hand. She looked at the two people who had treated her daughter like an animal for six years of her life and spoke low, so as to not wake or scare Sam, but sternly.

--- "I don't know what you to think you're doing in my home, but you're not welcome here. I want you to leave."

Cody stumbled forward, causing Stefan to step in front of Alexis and the children.

--- "Not one more step, sir."

The drunkard smiled and held out his hands as though willing Stefan to strike him.

--- "Or what? Are you going through throw that prissy handkerchief in your pocket at me? That's my kid this little girl is holding, and I want her back. My wife had no right to give her away."

Alexis was furious.

--- "Sam is NOT your child—"

--- "Well if she isn't mine, who the hell do you think she belongs to? You? Have you been raising her this whole time? Have you been busting your ass to make sure that she was clothed and fed?"

Evelyn sneered behind her husband.

--- "Of course not, Cody. The princess has been doing nothing but living in luxury, while her little brat—"

Stefan felt Alexis inch forward; he put his hand out to stop her from taking another step. He looked at the couple with a feeling of absolute revulsion.

--- "You stand here reeking of alcohol, so inebriated you can hardly stand up straight, and claim that this child is yours, and yet you have the audacity in that same liquored up breath to insult her? If you do not leave in the next 30 seconds, I will call the police."

Typically, a Cassadine would not have involved the law in their disputes; either money or a disappearance would have been used to solve the issue at hand. Alexis understood, however that if she would have any real chance of raising her daughter, Stefan was ensuring that it was done legally and without any likelihood that Sam could be taken from her again.

Cody, on the other hand, was offended that this man would threaten him with the use of law. The man had his share of legal problems and could not afford another dispute; especially not one out of his resident state.

--- "HOW DARE YOU THREATEN ME? THAT CHILD IS MINE!"

His outburst startled Sam from her sleep. At the sound of Cody's angry and drunken voice, she immediately became frightened. The man had never before hit her, but knowing that he was in her new home, a home where she was actually happy, terrified her; she knew that he wanted to take her back. She gripped onto Alexis and buried her face into her neck.

--- "Mommy, please don't let them take me—"

Although she spoke so softly that her mother could hardly make out her words, Alexis understood every word; they were the same words she was reciting to herself as a prayer to God. She spoke as low as the child just had.

--- "Don't worry, baby. I won't let that happen."

Evelyn looked at the exchange, knowing that Sam had awoken.

--- "Samantha, get over here RIGHT NOW!"

Alexis felt her neck become wet with her daughter's tears.

--- "Do not speak to my daughter. You have no right."

--- "The hell I don't! SAMANTHA McCALL! If you don't bring your ass over here this minute, I'll make you sorry."

But for the child in her arms and the boy whose hand she held, Alexis would have strangled the life out of the woman.

--- "Listen lady, there will not come a day when you lay one filthy hand on my daughter again. You have no idea to what lengths I will go to protect my child."

Evelyn smacked Cody in the arm as she laughed at the young woman.

--- "Do you hear this girl? She really seems to think that I'm afraid of her!"

Stefan shook his head at the couple's ignorance; they were clearly unaware of the power and influence of his family. He would not resort to using his Cassadine name until it was absolutely necessary.

--- "I assure you, if you are intelligent, you would do well by being quite frightened. Now, I want you out of this house. I will not repeat myself a third time."

Evelyn pushed Cody onto the couch and out of her way.

--- "I believe we already said that we're not leaving here without the kid! Now, get your ASS OVER HERE, SAMANTHA!"

Hearing the woman moving closer to her, Sam began to shake in her mother's arms until she felt a warm release, causing her to cry harder. She was shocked and mortified at what she had just done. She lifted her head to look at her mother with tears quickly rolling down her face.

--- "Mommy, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

She continued to scream her apologies as she once again hid her face in her mother's neck and held onto her mother for dear life.

Alexis, unphased by what her daughter's temporary lack of control of her bladder, shook her head as she glared at the woman who appeared amused by Sam's upset. If could have killed, Evelyn would have died a most painful death imaginable.

--- "You are a hateful human being, you know that? You don't deserve to have children."

Evelyn shrugged her shoulders.

--- "And yet, that brat in your arms is legally mine."

Alexis ignored the woman's statement, knowing that it was true. She needed to turn her attention back to the little soul in her arms.

--- "Baby, it's okay. Mommy's not mad. It was an accident. It's okay. Mommy just wants you to calm down."

Evelyn looked at Alexis and noticed the entire reason behind Sam's hysterics; she laughed hysterically at the terrified child.

--- "Look at you, you little pig! This princess buys you all those pretty clothes I saw in her closet and drawers, and here you go wetting yourself like an idiot! Even that retarded brother of yours is able to hold his piss."

Alexis was enraged.

--- "How dare you—"

Stefan attempted to calm his cousin down for fear that Sam might become more frightened.

--- "Alexandra, calm down."

She was so upset by the way in which Evelyn had spoken to Sam that she could no longer think straight.

--- "She's a little girl, who's terrified because all she knows from living with you is that she'll get beat for every little thing she does. You're an animal! Someone should take you outside and kick your ass for a change, perhaps you would realize that it isn't a pleasant feeling."

Evelyn scoffed.

--- "How dare I?! I'm the brat's mother—"

Alexis could not believe the woman's audacity to think that she was actually anything remotely close to being Sam's parent.

--- "You are not her mother! You've treated her like garbage all of her life. My goodness, she doesn't even call you anything but your first name—"

Stefan put his hand on her shoulder as Sam was becoming more agitated.

--- "Alexis, you have to calm down!"

Evelyn and Cody laughed at her.

--- "Yea, listen to your little bodyguard!"

Having heard the two mock her, she looked at him with the same fury in her eyes with which she had spoken to Evelyn.

--- "How can I calm down! This bitch—"

Stefan shook his head and pointed to the shaking child in her arms.

--- "Samantha—"

Alexis had tears rolling down her own cheeks as she nodded her head.

--- "Baby, I'm sorry. Mommy's sorry."

Sam feeling her mother calm down a bit, without moving her head from its buried spot in her neck, nodded to indicate that she had heard her.

--- "I'm sorry, Mommy."

--- "Baby, it's okay. I told you, Mommy's not mad."

Alexis turned her attention back to Evelyn who watched the exchange in silence.

--- "She's been with me and recognizes that I'm her Mommy. She's experienced more love in this house in less than twenty-four hours than either of you assholes have given her in the six years she's been with you. I'm her mother!"

The hateful woman rolled her eyes and laughed aloud at the last comment.

--- "From the looks of it, you're more like her john."

Cody slouched on the couch, unable to stand for fear of falling over. He watched the encounter.

--- "Oh come on, Ev, you scared her. Come on over here and sit on this comfy couch. We got nothing like this since we've been too busy taking care of Sam."

Stefan moved away from his family so he could more clearly see the drunken man on the couch. He was thoroughly astounded by the man's disregard to the verbal abuse his wife had just inflicted on the child, or to the obvious progress Sam had made in such a short time.

--- "That's all you have to say to her? Your wife just insulted Samantha, and all you're concerned with is sitting on the couch? You see this child, whom you're attempting to steal from the only parent who obviously loves her, and you sit your vile ass on my cousin's couch? You have your nerve, sir!"

Cody was furious by the man's intervention.

--- "Why don't you shut the f*ck up? What are you banging this broad? How is any of this your concern?!"

He picked up a book from the coffee table and threw it at Stefan, shocking everyone but Evelyn in the room. Nikolas was terrified.

--- "FATHER!"

Alexis squeezed Nikolas' hand and spoke to him in Greek.

--- "It's okay, my love. Father's fine."

The boy looked up at Alexis and leaned into her leg much like Sam had done earlier. Although repulsed by the overwhelming scent of the room, he knew better than to say anything more during what was clearly a serious adult exchange.

Stefan calmly picked the book up from the floor and placed it on the kitchen counter. He walked up to the man and grabbed him by the collar forcing him to stand to face him.

--- "You are the most disgusting of this earth's creatures—"

Alexis prayed that, albeit deserving, her cousin would not strike the man; she needed their hands to remain clean throughout this whole ordeal. She did not want anything to stop her from keeping Sam.

--- "STEFAN!"

Evelyn ran up to the men and tugged on Stefan.

--- "GET OFF MY HUSBAND!"

Stefan gave the man an ice-cold stare before shoving him back onto the couch. He looked at the woman whose fists were clenched onto his suit jacket.

--- "Madame, I suggest you remove your filthy hands from my jacket this instance. You cannot afford to repay me for damages."

The woman was so stunned by the insult she immediately released the jacket. She pushed Stefan out of her way to look her husband over.

--- "You okay, baby?"

He groggily nodded his head.

--- "Yea, I'm fine. But I might have a sprained neck from the way he threw me onto the couch."

Stefan and Alexis shook their head knowing that these two pitiful souls wanted nothing but money from them in exchange for Samantha. Stefan looked at his cousin.

--- "Yes, clearly it was I, not the amount of liquor in his system enough to set this entire place on fire if a match were struck, who caused his supposed neck sprain. It certainly was not his inability stand up like a man, and the numerous stumbles that we've witnessed here that had anything to do with this sporadic pain."

He turned to face the 'wounded' man.

--- "I'm almost certain that tonight alone, you have had enough vodka, gin, or rum to turn your blood pink. You have not yet seen what kind of damage I can do to you, sir."

Evelyn was astounded by the way the man spoke to her husband.

--- "Where are the cops? I want to file a report against you for assaulting my husband. And that bitch for kidnapping my daughter."

Alexis' mouth fell open. She could not believe what she had just heard.

--- "WHAT?! I DID NOT kidnap Sam! You left me a note, which I STILL have saying that you didn't want her! You dropped her on my doorstep. And from the looks of her body, that was probably the only good thing you've ever done for her."

Evelyn released her husband and pointed toward Sam.

--- "I don't care you say, I WANT HER BACK."

Her exclamation further terrified the already scared child. Sam began to cry harder, choking on her tears and spit.

--- "Mo-mm—my, please! Do-o-ont l-ee-tt them taaa-ke me."

Sam wrapped her arms so tightly around Alexis' neck that the woman felt as though she might choke. Alexis held Sam's arm and loosened it enough that her breathing was no longer constrained. She whispered softly in the girl's ear while rubbing her back in the hopes that she might get her own breathing under control.

--- "Okay baby, okay. Look at me. Look at Mommy."

Sam shook her head and kept her face buried in Alexis' neck as she cried. With Cody and Evelyn in the room, she could smell the familiar odor of being in their home. As they stood in the room undoubtedly watching her, all the memories of being beaten and ignored, the mice and rats on the floor, the broken toys and ignored birthdays crashed into her memory. She became inconsolable.

Alexis knew this. She had heard that cry before. It was the same almost clairvoyant cry her daughter had let out when she was taken from her arms and handed off, shortly after she was born, to people who would not love her the way she deserved to be loved. As she held her daughter in her arms, she knew that she was the only thing keeping her together; if she released her, Sam would certainly break into pieces right before her eyes. So Alexis did what only a good mother would do: she kept holding her.

--- "It's okay, chipmunk; Mommy's got you. She's not letting you go."

She looked at Evelyn with the deepest of hate in her eyes. She hated the woman more than anyone she had ever encountered in her entire life. She hated both Evelyn and Cody more than her disdain for Helena and now Mikkos. Her blood boiled with every breath that those people took in her home, on this earth. It took everything in her to keep her composure as she held the shaking child in her arms.

As much as she wanted to murder those people before her in cold blood right then and there, she needed to get Sam out of the room and out of her wet clothes. If she was not mistaken, the child's forehead felt warm against her neck.

--- "You know what? I think it best if Sam and Nikolas were out of the room—"

Evelyn attempted to move toward Alexis, but Stefan quickly stepped in front of them.

--- "Not another step."

There was something intimidating about the well-spoken man that caused the woman to stop moving. She crossed her arms and flared her nostrils as a bull on the verge of charging, yet restrained by the chain around its neck.

--- "Hurry up. We have a bus to catch."

Stefan looked at Alexis, then to his son who was clearly terrified, but afraid to show it. Just as Alexis previously did, he spoke to the boy in Greek.

--- "Nikolas, go outside and wait for us in the car with Peter. Tell him to take you back to the hotel; Aristea will take care of you."

He gave the boy further instructions and kissed him on the top of the head. Nikolas nodded his head and slowly walked out of the apartment to the awaiting car.

Stefan then turned his attention to his cousin and continued to speak in Greek.

--- "Go change your clothes and—"

Evelyn shook her head in protest.

--- "You need to speak English! There'll be no secret stuff in whatever language you're talking!"

Not wanting to seem as though he were plotting anything with Alexis, Stefan simply smiled.

--- "I apologize, Madame. I seem to forget in what company my family and I are. You must excuse my manners! I was simply telling Alexandra to clean herself and Samantha up, then put the child down to sleep as she is clearly terrified and distraught that two people are standing in this room threatening happiness."

As Evelyn was about to protest, Stefan continued to speak.

--- "Now, you will allow my cousin some time with her daughter. If you miss your bus, I will more than gladly pay for you to take the train to whatever rock it is you crawled out from under."

It was not a request, but a declaration for which Alexis did not wait for the woman's consent. She simply carried Sam out of the room.

Alexis closed and locked the door behind them and walked directly into her bathroom with the still hysterical Sam. She filled the tub and sat on the floor with Sam still clutching onto her.

--- "Chipmunk, it's okay, it's just you and me… just you and Mommy. I need you to calm down, okay? I need you to try and relax so we can talk."

After a few minutes, Sam calmed to a quiet sob. She slowly released the hold she had her mother and moved so she could lay her head onto the woman's chest; there was something about hearing her mother's heartbeat that soothed her.

--- "I'm sorry, Mommy—"

Alexis held the little girl's hand and gave it a kiss before kissing the top of her head.

--- "Shh, my love. Just… just sit with Mommy for a moment."

If she had attempted to speak in that moment, Alexis was sure that she would have turned into a puddle of tears in front of the already traumatized child. She needed a minute to collect her thoughts and to regain her composure.

She sat with her head resting against the bathroom tile. She let out a deep sigh and closed her eyes, feeling her tears escape and roll down her cheeks. As she sat there listening to her daughter's cries, Alexis felt a sense of despair fill her heart. She knew the law. She had no rights to the beautiful girl; they were long ago signed away.

This was her worst nightmare revisited. She had to fight to wake up.

--- "Chipmunk?"

Sam, blinded by her tears, but knowing that she was in the comfort of her mother's arms without Evelyn, or even Cody, to scare her, looked at Alexis. She sniffled through her hiccupped cry.

--- "Yes?"

Alexis wiped her daughter's little face of the tears and covered it with kisses.

--- "Mommy loves you. She loves you more than she can even express to you. Do you understand that?"

Sam could not understand how her mother could possibly love her after she urinated al over her. She was everything that Evelyn had said she was. She tried to move from her mother's lap, but Alexis gripped her arm.

--- "Samantha, stay here."

She messed up; like Evelyn said she would. She was certain that her mother thought lowly of her and would want nothing more to do with her. She crumbled into another fit of sobs and pressed her face against her mother's chest.

--- "I'm sorry! I'm sorry I messed you up! Please don't throw me away again!"

The last word was a stab in Alexis' heart. She took Sam's face in her hands and looked at her with an equally tear-stained face.

--- Oh, baby, I never threw you away. Only garbage is thrown away—"

Sam looked down as she continued to cry.

--- "I'm garbage. That's why you gave me away—"

Despite her hiccupped cry, Alexis was able to make out her daughter's painful words; they infuriated her.

--- "Samantha, you listen to me. You are NOT garbage. You are a treasure… my treasure. You are the most important thing to me. Those people out in the living room who've done nothing but make you sad all of your life, THAT'S garbage."

--- "But I had an accident on you."

Alexis passed her hands through Sam's hair.

--- "It doesn't matter. It was an accident and you were scared. Mommy will take a shower later; for now, she needs to get you cleaned up. Okay?"

Sam nodded her head.

--- "You won't let them take me, right?"

She kissed her daughter on the top of the head.

--- "I am going to fight for you, Samantha. I will not let them have you. I will do whatever it takes to keep you with me."

--- "Okay."

Alexis gave her another kiss.

--- "Now, we need to get you out of your wet clothes."

***************

After bathing Sam and getting her settled into bed, Alexis managed to convince her daughter to allow her to quickly shower as she not only had the child's urine all over her midsection, she also had her snot on her neck. She left the bathroom door open door so that the child could come get her if in case she got scared sitting in the bedroom alone, but with her teddy bear, Danny, she let her mother alone.

When she came out of the bathroom and changed into a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, she turned to face her child who tightly clenched her bear.

--- "Do you want Mommy to lay with you as you sleep?"

Sam nodded her head.

Despite the drama outside, Alexis could tell the Sam would fall asleep the moment she put her arms around her; Sam's eyes were heavy.

--- "Are you going to leave me alone?"

She walked over to the bed and pulled the sheets back so that she crawl in beside her tiny girl. She pulled the girl to her.

--- "I'm going to stay with you until you fall asleep, and then I'm going to deal with all of this."

Sam yawned and laid her head directly at the crook of her mother's neck.

--- "What if I have a bad dream?"

--- "Then I'll come back to you."

The little girl took a deep breath as she took in her mother's scent, almost attempting to make a memory.

--- "Mommy, I'm scared."

Alexis took a deep breath and kissed the top of her daughter's head.

--- "I know you are, sweetheart, but I'm here and I'm not going anywhere. I'm your safety, and you're mine. I won't let you get lost."

Sam shifted slightly and a low snore was heard; as she had predicted, Sam was asleep.