Jason Morgan and Alexis Davis, canon

September 2010

"I don't like it," Ric ground out harshly, as he stood in Alexis' living room four days after the girls were both diagnosed with strep throat.

Alexis had a week from hell. Days spent in court doing a trial with a judge she hated, and nights spent with the kids who were sick. Both Kristina and Molly didn't take being cooped up well and we're running their mother ragged. Plus Jason went out of town so Alexis missed that energy he brought to her world. That added excitement and spark. That reminder that she was more than a mom, aunt, lawyer, godmother, friend, and ex to two men who still made her crazy. Jason made her crazy too. But in a way that sent her body shaking in spasms that she thought, when it happened, would never end. He made her crazy in a fucking hot way that she absolutely loved.

Now he was finally back in town- after four horrible days without him- and he was about to come over.

Unfortunately Ric had stopped by to drop off medicine for the kids, and this was his first chance to tell Alexis- in more than a bitter laced tirade left on her voicemail- just what he thought about the fact she was dating Jason. Nadine had filled him in on it. Nadine and her complete honesty with her Richard.

Thank you so fucking much, Nadine

, Alexis thought, mad at the farm girl for the first time ever.

"I don't care what you like, Ric."

"We're co-parents. You have to care. I get a say."

She was scrambling to clean up the living room from all the kids toys before Jason showed up. Shoving a big pile of stuffed animals in a hope chest, Alexis said, "Of course you get a say in the girls. You know that."

Over the last year Alexis and Ric had forged a better friendship- all brought on after Sonny and Ric had a huge emotional conversation about Claudia and the baby. It brought the brothers closer. Somehow, Claudia carrying a child that could belong to either of them had become a bonding point. Bizarre but true. It might have helped that Alexis went to Sonny and eased a lot of his pain for a few months there...until Gia showed up...and Cruz hit on Alexis, and it was back to their own corners. Not that they had been thinking about sleeping together.

Okay, maybe she had been thinking about it, but then she thought again. Because he was married to psycho Claudia back then. Alexis would not get in the middle of that marriage. She wasn't anybody's fool.

Alexis told Ric "But you don't get a say in who I see socially."

"See socially? What a pleasant euphemism for jumping into the sack with a HITMAN!"

"SHHHHH!"

"Sorry." He shook his head wearily.

For a moment, she saw real traces of the broken man he used to be...and that hurt her to see that ugliness flaring in his eyes once more. She might never love this man again but...okay...she cared about him. She liked the changes Nadine made in Ric. How he was more confident and secure. How he smiled more. How he could hang out with Sonny now. How they were all co-parents. Nadine made Ric into the man Alexis used to believe he really was...the man he lost in vengeance plots and insanity in panic rooms and jealous, desperate affairs later on...but all it took, it seemed now, was him hearing about Jason being with Alexis and he was back to being the abandoned little boy he started out as. Yelling for someone to listen to him but everyone turned their back.

She had no choice but to ignore him this time though. He wasn't taking Jason out of her life. No way in hell. She was a Cassadine. She didn't get ran over for nobody.

Their eyes warred. Ric sighed. "Reconsider," he begged.

"You have Nadine. Why is this any concern to you?"

"Just because I love Nadine does not mean I stop caring about you, Alexis. I care about you! I care that you don't end up dead because your 'seeing socially' a killer!"

"Be quiet! If the girls hear you, I swear to God, I'm gonna kick your ass into that lake outside and tell the guards to stand on the shore with their uzis so you can't get out."

"They don't have uzis."

"You know what I mean."

Ric stepped closer to her. "Why would you want Jason in your life? Is this...because..."

"Don't even try to understand it because its not any of your concern."

"I don't think you even understand it. Are you doing this...is there a possibility...this is all because Sonny married Gia?"

"That was four months ago. Do you think this is that much a delayed reaction?" She moved around Ric and kept straightening up. "Besides, why would I care who Sonny married? I mean he marries, or tries to marry, or marries and then annuls the marriage, at least once a year."

"This time its going to stick, though. We both know that."

She started picking up crayons off the table. "Help me with this mess, would you? Be useful instead of just annoying."

Ric sighed and started to pick up DVDs of kids movies. "Sonny is worried about what you're getting into with Jason too, you know that, right?"

"I don't know anything like that. I haven't spoken to him about anything but the girls. Maybe he...surprisingly....is trying to respect my boundaries." She picked up markers from the table. "Could that be something for you to try? What do you think?"

"Maybe he just doesn't want to be the reason you see the truth about this whole thing."

"What truth is that?" She turned and looked at him.

"There's no way you'll ever last with Jason. He's beneath you in every way. And if he doesn't get you killed, he will surely break your heart. I've seen it happen to Liz and you saw it happen to Sam. He's only about one woman-"

"You're clutching at straws now!"

Ric raised an eyebrow. "Can you really stand to lose a man another man to Carly?"

"Thanks for the medicine," Alexis said through clenched teeth. "Now get the hell out of my house."

Ric looked down, shaking his head, accepting defeat. "Fine! But keep my objection on the record."

"Duly noted, you selfish prig."

Ric walked closer to her. A small smile tugged on the corner of his lips."Well, that was uncalled for."

"And you coming in here- and thinking you have a say in my relationship- wasn't?"

"I'm sorry I upset you."

"I'm sorry I called you a prig, prig."

He kissed her cheek while she stood there stiffly. "Nadine says she wants to sit with the girls tomorrow afternoon, give you a break, since Voila has the weekend off. Three sound okay?"

"Tell Nadine she's wonderful, and her boyfriend is a jerk." Alexis gave him a small smile.

Ric smiled more fully and said softly "Yeah, well, look at your boyfriend."

"I don't call him that. Now go away."

"Be careful, please."

"Good bye."

Ric smiled at her, trying to make some sort of peace before he left.

Just then Jason knocked on the door.

XXXXXXXXXXX

Jason felt his blood boiling with rage at the sight of Ric Lansing kissing Alexis' cheek and then they smiled at each other.

There were so many days Jason wanted Ric dead. And others when he accepted, because Carly still cared if Sonny went insane, that Ric couldn't be murdered by Jason. But that didn't stop him from wanting to beat the living hell out of the man till he was looking at Jason through two black eyes and a mouth full of broken teeth.

Ric was a menace, a liar, a snake, a threat, and all around just Jason's most hated enemy. So to see him touching Alexis made Jason's jaw clench.

To remember that Alexis used to sleep with this guy....it made Jason sick. But the past was the past. Best left in the past, as much as it could be.

Still she didn't have to smile at Ric now.

Of course she got to do whatever she wanted, and knowing Alexis like he did, even if Jason was the type to tell her what to do she was the type to tell him to go straight to hell with his orders. She'd do what she wanted.

For Molly's sake, and her sake only, Jason knew that Alexis had to keep being friendly with Ric.

But seeing it. Seeing it made him want to snap Ric's neck.

Alexis walked over and opened the door. Thoughts of Ric fell away from Jason's mind as his eyes settled on Alexis.

She was wearing jeans. Hot damn. This was a good day after all. "Hi."

"Hello. You're home," she said in this dreamy tone, then snapped out of it. "I mean, of course, you're home because you're here, which is not your home, but by home I mean Port Charles.....you're back. Come in."

Jason walked inside.

Ric said "Morgan."

"Lansing."

"I was just going."

"Good."

Ric shot him a disgusted look and left. Alexis closed the door after him. The room filled with all this tension and heat in the second they were alone together. Alexis turned back to face Jason, and leaned against the door.

He looked at her. Those brown eyes of hers...dark, deadly, world taking over Cassadine eyes...were hungrily looking at Jason- like a piece of meat and she was half starved to death.

He'd be dinner for her...anytime. Tell him the place. Jason started toward Alexis and she started toward him, they met in the middle of the room and, without saying anything, started kissing.