"Mommy, let's play dress-up." Kristina insisted and shoved a handful of fairy princess dresses into Alexis's arms. Daddy was at work and since Mommy didn't have to work right now, it made sense to Kristina that she should be her constant entertainment. Besides, Mommy loved dress-up.

"Dress-up?" Alexis giggled throwing one of the frilly pink outfits over her face so that she could play a game her daughter would never grow out of.

"I can still see you Mommy." Kristina assured her with a shake of her head. She took the makeup kit Maxie had given her before she left for California and flipped it open. "Do you want me to do your makeup?" she offered, bringing the kit over to Alexis.

"I'll tell you what. Why don't you go in my room and find something for me to wear and I'll go downstairs and get those cookies started?" Letting an eight year old do her makeup was quite an endeavor and she needed chocolate to distract her.

"Chocolate chip?" Kristina's eyes lit up.

"Chocolate chip." Alexis confirmed. She bent down and reached for Kristina's new stuffed rabbit. She had replaced the bear after the kidnappings, but her daughter hadn't warmed up to it yet. "How about you put Miss Rabbit in the Belle dress?"

"But she doesn't want the yellow dress Mommy." Kristina argued.

"Which one does she want?"

"Cinderella's blue one."

"Then put her in that one."

"But I don't have that one."

"Where is it?"

"I don't know. I lost it."

"Let me see if I can find it." Alexis moved toward the closet while Kristina hopped across the hall to find her mommy something to wear.

"Mommy?" Kristina called, but her voice wasn't coming from Alexis's room. "Mommy, come see!"

"I thought you wanted me to find the dress."

"No Mommy, you've got to come now."

"Okay I'm coming." Alexis gave in, getting to her feet and heading for the stairs. "Where are you, baby?"

"Downstairs. At the door. Look Mommy."

"Well this is a nice surprise." Alexis greeted once she saw who was standing at the door.

"I wasn't sure if I should let her in or not. You told me not to do that." Kristina pointed out.

"Hi." Sam offered sheepishly. "I hope I'm not interrupting."

If Alexis had learned anything during her brief visits with her oldest daughter it was that less was more. If she eased her into the transition it wouldn't be nearly as frightening. "Not at all. We were about to play dress-up and get some cookies. Kristina, do you want to get your tea set out?"

"Yeah!" Kristina nodded running for the stairs.

"Dress up and cookies? Can't say I'm an expert at that." Sam stated nervously as she walked into the room, closing the door behind her.

"There's nothing to it. Kristina's tea parties always include actual tea and cookies. Are you interested?"

"Sure. If it's not too much trouble."

"It's not." Alexis promised. "Come in and stay a while."

"I had told Kristina I would come by and see her." Sam explained as she shifted from one foot to another. Every urge in her head was screaming at her to run and run quickly. She had been hoping it would have been the babysitter. She could handle small talk with the babysitter. Small talk with Alexis was something she was afraid she would never master.

"Do you like chocolate chip? I always melt some Hershey's kisses on the stove to dip it in."

"Chocolate is always good. I'm particular to chocolate cake."

"We actually have some cake. Somebody at work...Mac brought it home. Would you like some?"

"No. No thanks. There's still birthday cake at my place."

"Birthday? David's?" Alexis guessed.

She resisted the urge to point out her mother would know it wasn't her birthday. David's advice to take small steps echoed in her head. "Yeah. I may have gone a little overboard in the planning."

"There's no such thing."

"There is when apparently David doesn't celebrate his birthday."

"I didn't used to."

"What changed?"

"I met Mac. He asked me when my birthday was and I told him I couldn't remember. Then he asked me the next month and I said January which wasn't true. My birthday's in April. He made it a point to bring me a yellow cake with chocolate frosting every week until I finally admitted when it was."

"That's a lot of cake."

"Tell me about it. He came up with something equally ridiculous when I refused to go out with him. A two-year subscription of fruit."

"David just moved in with me. I'm thinking I got off easy."

"I'm glad to hear things are going so well."

"I think it is. I hope it is." Sam admitted quietly. Something had been bothering David for the past few days and she couldn't quite figure it out just yet. It had to be something about the case. Maybe tonight she'd get him to come out to the club and they could bust Vermin once and for all. That would put him in a better mood.

"Mommy, I can't find it!" Kristina yelled.

"Would you excuse me for just a second?" Alexis moved toward the stairs.

"Sure. Go ahead."

"Will you be here when I come back?"

"I promised Kristina cookies didn't I?"

"Alright then. I'll be right back." Alexis promised. "Kristina, did you check in..." Her voice trailed off.

Believing that the hardest thing in the world was making small talk with Alexis was a misconception, Sam decided. The hardest thing in the world was sitting alone in Alexis's kitchen while she waited for her to come back so they could play tea and dress up with Kristina. What exactly was she supposed to do? Sit hear and eat cookies until they were all gone? Sit and stare at the wall?

David was wrong. The more time she spent here would not make her feel like this was where she belonged. It was all she could do to sit at the kitchen table without bolting for the door. She had promised Kristina and Alexis. She would stay. Even if it killed her. Perhaps it was the fact that her roommate was a detective, but she found herself moving around the kitchen curiously. There was so little she knew about them and she didn't feel comfortable asking too many questions. It had been her experience that people tended to edit.

Sam wasn't immediately alarmed when she saw the pill bottle. After all, Alexis had just undergone major treatments and the Chemo hadn't even done what it was supposed to. It would make sense for Sam to find a bottle or two because her—Alexis would have to find some alternative to deal with the lingering effects. She might be feeling better, but she wasn't Wonder Woman. Her name was printed on the side of it along with the quantity of pills. What struck her as odd was the name of the drug: penicillin. Since when was penicillin prescribed for cancer patients?

Kristina's cheerful voice spooked Sam and she dropped the bottle into the sink. "Are you ready to play tea party Sam?" she wanted to know.

"Of course I am." Sam replied, tucking the pill bottle behind her back.

"Good because I found the tea set." Alexis declared setting the pieces on the table. "What?" she asked when she noticed Sam watching her.

"Nothing. Nothing." Sam shook her head. The questions the penicillin bottle raised in her could be easily answered. A few hours on the computer and more than likely she would know. "Let's have tea."

*****

"Blue and white?"

"Don't care."

"Blue and red?"

"Still don't care."

"Lucky." Elizabeth let out an exasperated sigh as she sat down next to him on the couch. "Let me explain this to you one more time. See this wedding thing is a joint production so therefore you have to care. Otherwise I am putting you, Patrick, and Cruz in pink. With light purple accents."

Lucky paused briefly in his scanning of the weekly Billboard charts. She wouldn't really do that would she? It could be just like the time she threatened to name the twins Frick and Frack and be done with it. But that had been fueled mainly by pregnancy hormones. She didn't have that same look in her eyes as she had that particular day. He was getting the sinking sensation she was deadly serious. "Robin wouldn't let you."

"She would if I told her it was what I really wanted. Your mother too." She added quickly before he could throw that objection out there. "So start helping with this planning or this wedding will be getting press for all the wrong reasons."

"But it's color schemes." Lucky objected. "No groom helps with color schemes."

"You've given me no opinions on anything other than Mt. Hebron. I'm grasping at straws here Spencer. This is supposed to be your wedding too." Elizabeth pouted.

Smiling, Lucky pulled her into his arms. "Princess, as long as you're there, that's all the perfect wedding I need. The rest is just details to me. Even if the details were you that wanted a Star Wars theme wedding and being married by Obi Wan Kenobi."

"You're just being sweet to get out of talking plans." Elizabeth accused, tapping her finger on his chest.

"Maybe." He pulled her in closer to kiss her. It had been far too long since they had time just to kiss each other. Whose crazy idea had it been to have three kids and two careers again? "Is it working?"

"A little. You may be out of color schemes, but you still need to help." She responded between kisses.

"But this is so much more fun."

"It is. It is also a very large part of the reason why we currently have three children running around this house." Elizabeth pointed out with a laugh. "We do tend to get carried away with our fun."

"Are you complaining?" Lucky quirked one eyebrow. "After all, the twins are sleeping right now and Cameron can be entertained by that video game for hours."

"And he can just as easily lose interest and come down here." Elizabeth pointed out. "I thought we had a strict no causing additional therapy deal here."

"Then I guess we just need to take this someplace more private then." Lucky suggested, tracing the column of her spine with his fingers.

She shuddered involuntarily. It really had been too long since they had any time together. And didn't she just tell Robin the other day she needed something to get rid of all the wedding planning stress? Knowing Robin, this would be exactly what she would recommend. "Private huh? Do you have any suggestions?" she whispered into his ear.

"Well, I may have just the spot in mind," Lucky began to drawl before the knock on the door interrupted him. Groaning, he buried his face into her neck. "Ignore it. It's a salesman."

"There's no such thing as door-to-door salesmen anymore. It's probably your family."

"Why my family?"

"Grams calls first and Steven's on the other side of the world. Georgie's not exactly comfortable with me just yet to just pop on by. That leaves your family. This also means they aren't leaving."

"They will if they think we aren't home."

The knocking continued and Elizabeth finally stood up. "Lucky, the sooner we answer the door, the sooner we get rid of them and the sooner we can get back to what we were doing."

Grumbling, Lucky reluctantly allowed himself to agree with her. Damn his family's stubborn streak. Throwing open the door, he was momentarily confused to see Lucas and Lance standing there. In the back of his mind, he had assumed it was Patrick. "Lucas? Lance?"

"Hey Lucky." Lucas smiled awkwardly and then let it fall.

"Hey." Lucky returned carefully. "What are you doing here? Is everything ok?"

"Lance, you want to go play with Cameron a minute? Is he here?" Lucas wanted to know.

"Yeah. He's upstairs playing video games." Elizabeth offered. "Go on up Lance. He'll be thrilled to see you."

"Thanks!" Lance hurried up the stairs.

"Lucas? Do you want to come in? Is anything wrong with Lance?" Elizabeth asked as Lucas continued to stand on the porch.

"What? Oh, no, Lance is fine. I came here to talk to both of you about something." Lucas replied.

"Both of us?" Elizabeth remained puzzled. "Did Dillon send you over to try to take over wedding plans?"

Lucky didn't like the way his cousin was refusing to look at him. And whatever this was affected both of them? His gut was twisting into knots and his every Spencer instinct was telling him this was not good. Sometimes he really hated his instincts. "Lucas? Just say it. What's going on?"

Lucas pulled the folded newspaper from his back pocket and opened it up to the front page. "Max Giambetti is eligible for early parole." He said with a weary sigh.

"He's what?" Lucky exploded, ripping the papers from Lucas's fingers. "How is that possible?"

"He has some information on a current case and they're willing to wipe the slate clean for him if he proves useful." Lucas clarified.

"So there's no way we can stop this? Nothing we can do?" Lucky questioned.

"Elizabeth, can I talk to Lucky in private please?" Lucas stressed.

"No. Max is my past. We discuss this together." Elizabeth shook her head, which matched her shaking knees and voice perfectly.

"Baby," Lucky turned to her. "You don't have to listen to this."

"Yes I do. Max is my baggage. My past. I have to deal with this too. Don't try to protect me on this one."

"Elizabeth I just want..."

"I know what you want to do Lucky." Elizabeth cut him off with a wave of her hand. "And I love you for it, but you can't cut me out on this one. If, when Max gets out this is going to affect me most of all. So whatever you are going to say Lucas, you better say it to me too."

"I think Max knows enough to help them because he's in on it." Lucas expelled a breath. "And I'm going to do everything I can to prove it."

"What exactly does that mean?" Elizabeth questioned.

"He's got specifics and that tends to make me suspicious."

"How big of a case is it?" Lucky wondered.

"You aren't going to like it."

"You knew that before you mentioned it." Lucky pointed out.

"Do you remember Patrick's neighbor, Greta?"

"The slut?" Elizabeth questioned. When both the men turned to look at her, she shrugged. "Robin may have mentioned her once or twice."

"Clearly we know who she is." Lucky continued, turning his attention back to Lucas.

"She happens to be the daughter of the Senior Director of the FBI." Lucas went on.

"And Patrick thought she didn't have high maintenance written on her forehead." Lucky muttered. "How does she fit into this Lucas?"

"She was kidnapped two nights ago. When the kidnapper contacted her father, they explained the ransom demand and how it would all go down. The drop was supposed to happen last night, but something went wrong. The money's gone and Greta McLachlan never turned up. The director is furious and willing to do anything to get her back, even if that means dealing with scum."

"So it doesn't matter if he's involved up to his eyeballs. He spills, he gets out right?" Lucky guessed.

"That's right. All the director has to do is snap his fingers."

"So that's that. He's getting out." Elizabeth said in a shaky voice. "There is nothing to stop it. Max is getting out."

"Unless Greta's already dead." Lucas groaned.

"We aren't that lucky." Lucky muttered.

"He's getting out." Elizabeth repeated in a sing-song fashion. "He's getting out."