Many thanks again to those who took the time to review. Annie certainly enjoyed the shock expressed in them all. Please keep them coming as they keep her inspired to keep me up writing until all hours of the night.

Because of this section's length, I decided to make it a filler chapter all of it's own. Chapter already underway.

Chapter Eighteen

Attachments

- "That was not a Greek meal. That was… I don't know what that was exactly, but it certainly was not Greek… or food, for that matter."

Being a man of great manners, Stefan paid the bill, tipped the waiter, and walked out of the restaurant with his family without a word as to what it was they had just consumed. However, upon entering the car, he had much to say concerning the atrocity done to their national food. He continued on his diatribe against the restaurant, swearing it would go out of business for such poor culinary service to his country throughout the entire drive to the hotel.

- "It was an absolute disgrace! They should be ashamed of themselves for calling that garbage Greek!"

Alexis, holding the children's hands as they walked into the suite, shook her head in amusement at her cousin's theatrics. She had known from the moment Nikolas had chosen their dinner plans that it was quite unwise. In fact, she had not tasted a properly cooked Greek meal since her last trip to the country, the Christmas prior. Nevertheless, she knew the comedy to ensue would be well worth a night of inferior dining.

- "It wasn't that bad, Stefan! Don't you think you're exaggerating just a bit?"

He looked at the woman as though he had been slapped in the face.

- "Surely you jest, Alexis! I know Helena was not the most gracious of hosts, however our servants provided us with the finest of meals. That garbage we paid to shove down our throats, my dear, was criminal. If you ask Samantha, a virgin to our culture's food and considering the color she has taken, I am quite certain she would agree. I suggest you rush her to the bathroom."

Alexis looked down at her daughter who had been unusually, in view of her newly discovered verbose personality, quiet throughout the ride home; the girl did not look well.

- "Baby, does your tummy hurt?"

Stefan, having before seen the look displayed on the child's face and knowing she would never make it out of the room, quickly grabbed the nearest garbage can and placed it in front of her. Sam immediately expelled the contents of her stomach into it.

- "Do you still believe the food wasn't so bad, Alexis?"

She smacked him on the back.

- "This is no time for your 'I told you so's.'"

- "Certainly not; I believe the proof is in the… wastebasket."

Alexis rolled her eyes at the man. She sat on her heels rubbing the girl's back.

- "Are you okay, baby?"

Allowing her mother to wipe her mouth, Sam nodded.

- "I didn't like the food, Mommy."

- "I know, chipmunk; I don't think any of us did."

Seeing that there was nothing more the child could regurgitate, Stefan immediately handed her a water bottle.

- "Here you go, raven; drink some of this. I'm going to call housekeeping and room service; perhaps we can get you some dry toast and tea."

Alexis pushed the can out of her way; she never could stomach the sight of vomit.

- "Thank you Stefan. And then Sammy we'll lie down and watch a movie until bedtime, alright?"

Sam took a slip before laying her head onto her mother's shoulder as she looked at her younger cousin who grimaced at the sight of the vomit in the trashcan his father had just placed in the corner.

- "That was a bad choice, Nikolas."

The boy looked down at his shoes.

- "I'm sorry, Samantha."

Alexis lifted her daughter as she turned to the boy.

- "Oh honey, there is nothing for you to apologize. You couldn't have known that Sam would get sick from the food."

He shrugged slightly.

- "I suppose you're right, Cousin Alexis. But, I should've known we wouldn't have good food from such a place… there aren't too many places here with good food; they're all nasty."

Alexis squeezed the boy's cheek.

- "My poor Nikky, you're going to starve in the States."

She looked over to Stefan who seemed to be eying her suspiciously; she had noticed his strange stares the entire night during dinner and the return drive.

- "Stefan, is everything alright?"

He looked from Nikolas, to Alexis, then Sam, and back around again. Alexis was the sister he should have and could have had had Sofie not died; Sam was his niece… and that was the truth, or so he hoped; and Nikolas, he was his beautiful son who reminded him more and more of her, except for his distinct Cassadine features. This was his family for whom he would lay down his life. He would be damned if any one of them would ever be taken from him.

- "Stefan?"

He had not previously heard her call to him.

- "Yes, Alexis?"

She frowned at him. He had never been one to be so lost in thought to lose his sense of awareness; that was her habit.

- "Where did you go just now?"

- "Nowhere darling."

He walked over and took Nikolas by the hand.

- "Are you ready to watch our movie, agoraki mou?"

The little boy, having been worried he had added to his cousin's problems, had forgotten about his plans with his father. He was grateful the man remembered. Then again, his father remembered and knew everything. He smiled excitedly until he looked back over to Sam.

- "Yes Father… but, if you'd like to tend to Samantha—"

Alexis ruffled his hair as she felt Sam's grip on her tighten; since she returned to her after several hours away, Sam clung to her more so than normal. Unlike previous occasions where she allowed Stefan to hold her hand or hold her, Sam would have no one, but her. Although she worried about her daughter's setback, Alexis loved to be so needed because in some ways, she too did not want to detach herself from her little girl.

- "Don't worry about Sam, sweetheart; I'll tend to my little chipmunk for the night. You enjoy your movie with your father."

- "Are you sure?"

She tapped his nose.

- "Of course I am, honey. Sammy and I are going to watch boring fairy-tale movies! Go ahead with Stefan, Nik; be men together… fart and burp—"

Stefan rolled his eyes in disgust.

- "Alexis, really?"

Sam looked at her mother.

- "That's nasty, Mommy!"

She smiled at her daughter.

- "You hush."

The man nodded approvingly.

- "At least Samantha is aware of how barbaric your suggestion is; such acts are to be done in the privacy of one's bathroom. What kind of unmannered person does so on another!"

Sam pointed to her mother.

- "Mommy farts a lot when she eats Chef Boyardee. They smell like—"

Alexis, turning red in embarrassment, covered her daughter's mouth. She whispered softly into the girl's ear.

- "Thank you, baby. I suppose we should now discuss Mexican food and your tummy… and underwear?"

Sam shook her head as she buried her face into her mother's neck as she recalled her unpleasant reaction to black beans coupled with a broken leg. By the end of the night, realizing she couldn't run quickly enough to dash the immobile child to the bathroom, Alexis sat her on the toilet until every last bean passed through her tiny stomach.

- "Sorry—"

Alexis kissed the girl's little hand.

- "I wouldn't say something like that to them, chipmunk. That's between you and Mommy; we'll laugh about it when you get older."

Sam stuck her pinky up to the woman; Alexis quickly wrapped her own finger around it.

- "Okay."

She smiled at her mother as she spoke to her cousins.

- "They smell like roses."

Stefan laughed aloud.

- "The raven lies to protect her mother's honor."

Alexis pushed the laughing girl's head back onto her shoulder.

- "Ignore my silly chipmunk; she's not in her right mind. Yes, I will freely admit that I happen to enjoy Chef Boyardee perhaps a bit too much at the expense of this one's olfactory sense. I might have stunted her growth, but I like her this small!"

- "Oh Alexis—"

- "Besides, she happens to also enjoy the good Chef when we don't have you, Stefan, spoiling us with snails, duck liver, and frog legs."

Nikolas made a disgusted face at the thought of Chef Boyardee. Because of his formalness, and being a young boy, passing gas was far less unappealing than his cousin's choice of meals.

- "I don't like canned food, especially not that! Your ravioli gave me diarrhea. Remember Cousin Alexis?"

Before she could respond to the recent memory of her backfired attempts at getting the boy to loosen up, Stefan, clearly sickened by the conversation, cleared his throat; he needed the conversation to stop before it truly began lest he expelled the contents of his own stomach.

- "Alright, now that we've come to learn more about each other than I personally cared to learn, I believe we've each our respective movies to watch. Samantha, I'm certain you'll be watching a princess film?"

The little girl smiled as she nodded excitedly.

- "Uh-hmm."

- "That does not shock me, one bit. Nikolas and I will enjoy Hercules."

Alexis smirked at the man.

- "Color me surprised."

- "Hush. Now, you and I—"

He continued in French.

- "—are still on tonight. I believe eleven thirty is adequate time. I doubt your little one will make it through the entire film, so feel free to unpack and make yourself at home. We'll discuss everything later."

She smiled at him. She was beyond grateful for his generosity. She wondered what she would ever do without him in her life.

- "Thank you, Cousin. –Good night, Nikolas. I'll see you in the morning."

Sam looked at the boy and her Cousin; she waved at them with a smile on her face.

- "I forgive you Nikolas, but I still choose the diner for breakfast. Good night."

The boy looked at the girl as though he had been smacked in the face; she knew how much he hated the diner and yet she wanted to punish him by having to go there again. He was not pleased.

- "Father, that's not fair! That place is… gross! I didn't know the restaurant food tonight would've made her sick! If we eat at the diner, I bet I'll vomit… on… on… myself!"

Stefan winked at his son.

- "Don't worry, my son—"

He gave the girl a kiss on the head.

- "I think we'll order room service for breakfast in the morning. And I believe it's Cousin Alexis' turn to choose where we lunch, and then mine for dinner; I suppose I'll choose another French restaurant seeing as Samantha enjoys the escargot. Well, good night, darling."

Alexis eyed her Cousin knowing that he was attempting to cajole the girl out of choosing a place that he would again find unsatisfactory. Sam, on the other hand, merely shrugged her shoulders.

- "Okay, but Mommy will just order me chicken… or a burger. I'm still going to choose a diner next."

The man eyed the girl for a moment. His doubts about her continued to diminish as in that moment, he saw of glimmer of Stavros pass through her. However, with Alexis' influence, such traits would remain a glimmer, rather than a flooding of the dead man into her personality.

- "As you wish, my dear."

He nodded and walked towards his son's room. Nikolas, on the other hand, narrowed his eyes at the girl and stuck his tongue at her once his father's back was turned. Alexis saw his act and threateningly pointed her finger at him. He quickly ran into his room behind his father leaving the two new residents of the suite standing in the living room.

There was a knock on the door.

- "That's probably your tea and toast. Do you think your tummy will be able to handle that?"

- "Uh-hmm."

She rubbed her daughter's back as she went to answer the door.

- "Yes?"

- "It's room service ma'am."

She opened the door. The man carried in a tray of toast, jelly, butter, and two cups of tea; he set them at the dining table.

- "Have a good evening, ma'am."

- "Thank you."

After he departed, Alexis put Sam down and grabbed the tea and toast from the table.

- "How about we have this in our room?"

- "You don't like for me to have tea, Mommy… you said it makes me pee too much."

Alexis laughed to herself; this was another discovery she had made about her daughter's digestive system when the poor girl was immobile due to her casts.

- "Ah, yes! You're right, chipmunk. Then, how about we just have the toast and a little bit of water?"

Sam nodded as she ran ahead of her mother so that she could hold the bedroom door opened for her.

- "Good idea! Tea makes you pee a lot, too!"

- "Well, you are quite observant, aren't you sweetheart?"

Alexis walked into their new bedroom grateful for the change of scenery. She smiled at the realization that she had not seen Stavros in some time. It seemed her decision to move from the apartment was a smart one. If luck remained on her side, he would remain there and leave her be.

She put the toast and bottled water onto the desk. She began rummaging through the quickly packed bags searching for their pajamas.

- "Is your tummy okay?"

- "Uh-hmm."

Sam crawled onto the king-sized bed. She quickly removed her shoes and stockings. She smiled as she held the still whole stockings out to her mother.

- "Mommy, I didn't mess them up! Look!"

- "That's my big girl; I'm proud of you! But remember what I said, stockings rip all of the time; it's not a big deal for me to buy you new ones, okay?"

She nodded once again as she stood on the bed removing her dress and shirt.

- "Oooookay!"

Alexis watched Sam dance for a moment on the bed as she did every night whenever undressing; the girl's personality never ceased to amaze her.

- "Now, which pajamas are you wearing tonight, silly goose?"

The petite child, undressed down to her Little Mermaid panties with matching t-shirt, hopped off of the bed to hand her mother her dress and shirt.

- "You forgot my Ariel pajamas?"

She poked the child in the stomach.

- "No, chipmunk, of course not! I just forgot which ones you wanted me to pack for you; but looking at you, I guess I should've known."

She put the girl's dress onto the desk chair and lifted her onto the desktop.

- "Eat your toast, baby."

Sam took a bite from the bread and looked at the amount of clothes her mother had packed in the bags; it was more than she thought necessary for an overnight trip.

- "Mommy, why did you bring all of our clothes? We're not going home tomorrow?"

Alexis quickly found the nightgown in the bag and handed them to her; she took a bite from the girl's toast.

- "You and I are going to stay here with Stefan and Nikolas for a little while. Is that okay with you?"

Sam, having stuffed the final bite of the bread into her mouth, shrugged. She removed her t-shirt and slipped on her nightgown.

- "You're staying here too, right Mommy? You're not gonna leave me?"

She gave her daughter a kiss on the forehead.

- "I'll never leave you, baby; I told you that you're stuck with me."

She grabbed a pair of shorts and t-shirt for herself and began changing into them.

- "I think I brought everything we'll need. We have more than enough clothes stuffed in the bags to last awhile."

Sam smiled at her mother. She jumped down from the desk and searched the bag closest to her.

- "Did you bring Danny and Duckbert?"

Alexis noticed that the bear had fallen to the floor. She picked him up and grabbed Duckbert from the outside pocket of the other bag. She held them out to the girl.

- "Didn't I promise you I would?"

The little girl jumped up and down hugging her mother's bare legs.

- "You're the best, Mommy! Since we're all here, we can stay!"

She laughed at her daughter's excitement. She handed the duck to her and threw Danny onto the bed.

- "Silly girl! Why don't you put Duckbert in the tub and go brush your teeth while Mommy finishes changing."

- "Okay! You won't watch the movie without me?"

She grabbed the toiletry bag with their toothpaste and toothbrush from the duffle and handed it to her. She tapped the girl on the nose.

- "Of course not, chipmunk. Now, go ahead."

She swatted her bottom as Sam ran into the bathroom.

- "My crazy girl."

Alexis quickly finished changing into her pajamas, found the DVD of The Princess and The Frog and put it into the player Stefan had requested to be sent up to the room. Just as she was ready to hit play, Sam ran out of the bathroom and onto the bed where Danny was waiting for her.

- "I'm ready, Mommy."

Her back was turned to her daughter; the child's voice was different than she had heard over the past several weeks.

- "Mummy!"

She turned to smile at Sam's excitement, but she was no longer there. It was the same child she had seen in her dreams; she was staring at herself as though she were looking in a mirror. Her brain filled with memories of her forgotten childhood; it laid them before her like a television scene.

A beautiful blonde woman stood in front of her mirror holding two dresses in front of her; she smiled at her four year old's entrance into the room.

- "Natasha, my little chipmunk, you can help Mummy choose a dress for dinner tonight. Which do you prefer? The red or the blue?"

The child pointed to the red dress. Her mother always looked beautiful in the color.

- "The red one!"

Elizabeth nodded as she threw the blue dress onto the bed and slipped the red one onto her slim body. She lifted her daughter, who wore a pretty red dress of her own, onto a chair.

- "Zip Mummy up please, darling."

Natasha did as she was told. Her mother gave her a kiss on the cheek.

- "Thank you, sweetheart. Now, what did you need?"

She sat the girl at her vanity and began braiding her hair into two French braids.

- "Daddy asked me to tell you to finish dressing so we could leave."

Elizabeth rolled her eyes in amusement; her husband knew to never rush her as she always became cross with him. Instead, he sent their daughter in after her knowing she'd be unable to resist the child's adorableness. It worked every time.

- "You tell Daddy that he mustn't rush a lady; beauty takes time."

Natasha looked up at her mother. She had inherited the woman's high cheekbones, but she was every ounce her father's child.

- "But you're already beautiful."

She lifted her four year old's chin to stare into her dark brown eyes.

- "Not as beautiful as my little chipmunk. You walk into a room Natty, and you make even the most beautiful girl look like the Ugly Duckling. I'm keeping up with you, my love."

Alexis covered her face as she sat on the bed. Her heart raced in her chest as the memory rushed through her.

- "We never made it to dinner."

It was true. On their way to the restaurant to celebrate Elizabeth's birthday, a driver ran the intersection and slammed into the passenger side of their car, killing the woman on impact.

- "Oh my God."

She could almost see the lights approaching. The screaming was loud in her ears. She felt as though she were having an out of body experience, frozen in her spot and unable to move as she watched the car crash into her family's car… into her memory.

- "They're gone—"

Sam, noticing that her mother seemed distressed, crawled over to her; the woman appeared to be on the verge of hyperventilation.

- "Mommy?"

Alexis spoke to herself as though she were attempting to figure out a riddle; unfortunately, she already knew the answer.

- "And they left me… alone."

Sam gently shook her mother.

- "Mommy?"

Alexis jumped at the child's sudden appearance beside her, at first seeing her young self traumatized after the accident, but quickly realizing it was Sam. She looked at her baby whom she called chipmunk with her hair in two French braids; it was from her mother such a name and hairstyle was implanted into her brain. The woman was beautiful; she could not believe that she had forgotten that… she did not remember outside of the one picture she had of the woman, how stunning she truly was. But when she looked at her daughter, she saw her mother in her; while she saw a very young version of herself in Sam, it was clear to Alexis that the child took her mother's petite height, high cheekbones, and the shape of her face. The features were there; they had always been there, and yet she felt as though she were looking at the girl for the very first time. It scared her. The memory of her mother… of her parents, Elizabeth and Andreus… her life with them… everything, was somewhere in her subconscious wanting to come out, but as she looked at Sam, she was afraid of what she might learn about them and the reason they chose this moment in her life to resurface.

- "Hmm?"

Sam touched her mother's face, wiping a way a single tear that rolled down her cheek.

- "You're crying. Do you want me to get Cousin Stefan for you? He can make it all better?"

She gave the child a kiss on the cheek.

- "No, I'm fine… chipmunk."

She was doing it again; she was allowing her six year old to worry about her when it should have been the other way around. After eighteen years of being locked away, memories of her former life, a life she barely remembered, were creeping into this new one she was attempting to establish as a mother to this sweet little girl; she needed them to go leave her be. She was fine not knowing who she was then because she was happy with the person staring at a child she had only imagined having back in her life. This was enough for her.

She scooted up on the bed and leaned against the headboard. She pulled Sam to her.

- "Look, I brought The Princess and The Frog and a few of your other movies with me. When we find a new apartment, I'm going to put all your princess movies into your bedroom for you—"

Sam frowned at her mother.

- "You don't want to share a room with me? Is it because I told Cousin Stefan and Nikolas you fart? You can tell them about the Mexican food!"

Although her cheeks flushed at the memory of her daughter's overshare, she smiled at how uncensored children, especially Sam, tended to be. And the point of the matter was that being as attached to her as the girl was, there was no real room for privacy; as well as she knew her daughter, the child grew to know her like the back of her own little hand.

- "No, sweetheart. Believe me, while I would have preferred you kept that bit of information about Mommy to yourself, Cousin Stefan and Nikolas do the same thing; so, don't worry about that. But, Sammy, don't you want to have your own room?"

Sam shook her head as she crawled into her mother's lap.

- "I don't like being by myself. I like being close to you. You make… her… go away when she tries to take me at night. I don't want her to come back again… if I'm in another room, you might not know!"

She wrapped her arms around the girl, almost cradling her. She had to admit that she had grown accustomed to her daughter's excessive attachment to her, but she certainly knew that there would come a time when her role as Sam's security blanket would stop and her six year old would no longer be traumatized and would discover personal space. If she were to ever heal and become a normal child, the girl could not stay this way forever.

- "I tell you what? How about we get a two bedroom apartment, but we keep the other bedroom for when you're ready to move into it? Okay? Mommy's not going to rush you; you can stay stuck to her like glue for as long as you want. When you're ready, you let me know and you can move into the second bedroom."

- "If I get scared I can still come back to you?"

- "Of course."

- "Promise?"

Alexis drew a cross on her daughter's chest.

- "Cross my heart."

Sam, feeling reassured, nodded.

- "Okay, but not for a long, long time. I don't want Danny to miss you too much when it's just me and him in a big room all alone."

Alexis laughed; she kissed her daughter on her forehead.

- "Danny and you are always welcome. If either of you gets scared, you can come to me; I'm always here."

Sam nodded as she began to play with her mother's locket attempting to open it.

- "Mommy?"

Alexis removed the necklace and opened it for her daughter.

- "What is it?"

Sam studied the picture for a moment before looking up at the woman again.

- "You said this is your Mommy and Daddy, right?"

- "Yes."

She stared at the picture of her parents for some time. There they were as handsome and beautiful as they appeared in her memory and dreams. She felt a pang of pain within her at the knowledge that she would never see them again. While she had only four years with them, most of which would continue to be buried in her subconscious as there was only so much a person recalled at such an age, the knowledge that she had had two loving parents and was loved by them left her grief-struck.

- "I loved them very much."

Sam snuggled into her mother.

- "Did they let you sleep with them when you were scared?"

Alexis thought for a moment. While she did not remember such acts, she knew that they must have; she was deeply loved.

- "Yes, I think they did."

- "They didn't think you were a baby because you got scared… or sometimes wet the bed?"

She shook her head.

- "I don't think so, but sweetheart, I hope you know that I don't think you're a baby. You're MY baby, but you're far from a baby. I remember when I first moved to Stefan's house as a little girl, I had accidents, too."

Sam looked up from the picture and at her mother. She was shocked that a woman as her could have done the same thing.

- "You did?"

Alexis nodded as she thought of the times when Stefan, with the help of the servants, quickly changed the sheets on her bed before Helena noticed that they had been soiled.

- "I did. I had nightmares at night, just like you, and I didn't wake up on time."

- "What were they about?"

She thought back to those terrifying first few months. She dreamt about everything… about nothing… about them before she truly knew who they were and what they meant to her.

- "Um, my parents."

Sam attempted to snuggle closer to her mother, but she was already completely wrapped in the woman's embrace. She once again stared at the photograph.

- "They died, right? That's what you said?"

She thought of what her life would have been like had they had lived. She had an English accent in the dream; it seemed she lived somewhere in England. She wondered whom she would have become they had made it to the restaurant and celebrated her mother's birthday as a family.

- "Yes, chipmunk."

- "Do you miss them?"

That was a difficult question to answer. It was hard to miss people you have only just come to remember, but she certainly did, even as a young and tortured child in the Cassadine household, miss the idea of having parents. She always knew that she was an orphan, and Stefan had always told her that her parents loved her, or at least they must have because she was a loving person, but that never dulled the sense of loss within her.

- "Um, you know sweetheart, I missed having parents growing up, but I don't remember them."

- "Why?"

- "I guess I was really young when they died—"

Sam tearfully looked at her mother. This was what scared her everyday and caused her to cling to her mother.

- "Are you going to die, too? Nikolas told me he doesn't have a mommy, and he said Cousin Stefan's mommy is mean like Evelyn that's why he doesn't ever see her. You don't have one either, Evelyn said hers died too, so did Cody's! Belle, Ariel, and Cinderella! Mommy, nobody has one but me and I don't want you to die!"

Alexis held the girl to her, rocking her back and forth; this explained part of her clingy nature, no one around her had a mother. Sam had spent years being treated horribly by Evelyn, and now that she was in a loving home, her fear that she would suffer the same fate as those around her, terrified her. Alexis could not believe that even the child's fairy tales were filled with the same message; she wondered if she should attempt to find a different interest in her daughter.

- "Sweetheart, I can't promise you anything about not dying because no one knows when their time will come, but I will say that I have no desire to leave you anytime soon. Okay? I'm sticking with you as long as I physically can. And do you know how tough Mommy is?"

- "You scared Evelyn and Cody away."

She poked her daughter's belly.

- "Exactly! Don't worry about this, baby. I'm here with you now and I intend to keep it that way, alright?"

Sam nodded her head as she yawned and rested her head on her mother's chest. Alexis grabbed Danny and handed him to her daughter.

- "Let's see how long you last through this movie, chipmunk."

She smiled when she looked down at her daughter to see that she had already fallen asleep. She looked at the clock and noticed that it was only ten o'clock. Seeing as she had an hour and a half remaining before Stefan and she discussed what was on his mind, she figured she would watch the movie to ensure that perhaps this princess had a mother to hold her close.

Just a note in re a review: Keep in mind that $100 in the late 1960s and 1970s was a decent amount of change. From what I looked up, it was between $500 and $600 today. So, Cristoff wasn't EXACTLY skimming on Evelyn; he was giving her a bit over bare minimum. If she had wanted, she very well could have lived off of that and stayed away from Cody; the problem was that the money didn't give her the love or wealth she wanted. To a woman such as her, being the daughter of a man such as Cristoff, $100 was easily dismissed as chump change. So she married him, got the love (to some extent), but lost the stability and certainly did not get the wealth. LOL.

You will find out more about Evelyn as the story continues.