UNEDITED

Chapter Four

Knock Knock

After Diane left, Sam went into the kitchen to clean up the dishes, while Alexis retook her place on the couch as her best friend's vivid description of the inner workings of her reproduction system left her with a headache.

When she finished loading the dishwasher, Sam sat on the coffee table in front of her mother.

- "Mom, do you want any Tylenol or something? You look like you're in a lot of pain."

Alexis opened one eye to look at her daughter.

- "You know, leave it to Diane to take a perfectly innocent story and turn it into something completely traumatizing. I swear to you, Sam, I don't think I'll ever be able to read that story the same way again. Thank goodness, she doesn't have any children."

Sam shook her head and laughed.

- "I don't think you need to take what Mac said seriously. I doubt he meant it to sound the way it came out. I'm sure he felt really bad about it."

Alexis attempted to sit up, but she thought better of her decision.

- "You know what, honey, I don't even care what he has to say. I'm not interested in him anyway, so it's fine."

- "Yea, okay, Mom—"

She frowned at her daughter.

- "What's your problem?"

- "You're not interested in him? Do you seriously think I'm buying that? Look how upset you are about this—"

Alexis forced herself to sit back up.

- "Sam, I'm upset that he embarrassed me the way he did. I'm upset that I woke up completely … you know, with him, that when he saw me that way, he acted as though he had acid thrown in his eyes, and that he assumed that I had some kind of molding dusty uterus."

Sam put her hands up in defeat.

- "Okay, so you have a point, Mom. I guess that would be embarrassing—"

- "You GUESS that would be embarrassing?"

- "Fine, I'm sure it's embarrassing. But, my point is that I don't think he meant you to feel that way. I think that he was probably just as embarrassed as you were because you clearly were not the only one… that way. And God knows you ramble when you're upset or embarrassed, Mac might blurt out stupid things. You know what I mean?"

Alexis stood up and gave her daughter a kiss on the top of the head.

- "I don't want to discuss this anymore. I'm going to lie down before your sisters get back from school. Are you sticking around?"

- "Um, I think I'm going to go; you need your rest—"

- "Are you going to Jason's?"

Sam smiled at the sound of his name. Alexis noticed and pulled Sam up. She took her daughters face in her hands.

- "Honey, I'm not going to say anything more about this—"

Sam grimaced causing Alexis to roll her eyes.

- "Okay, I'm not going to say anything more about this for the next hour… Sam, I just want you to be careful. I don't want you to regress back to your former self. Okay? Now, I don't want you to think that I would love you any less, but honey, I'm so proud of the woman that you've become since then, and only want to see you continue on that path."

Sam nodded her head. Alexis smiled and gave her another kiss on the forehead.

- "Mom, I promise you that I'm going to take this slow."

Alexis wrapped her arms around her.

- "And PLEASE don't do anything that'll get you arrested. You haven't been in jail since what? Last October? Can you keep it that way for me? I can't make your charges disappear so easily anymore."

Sam laughed and put her two fingers up.

- "Scout's honor."

- "Good."

Alexis smiled and began walking out of the room when she noticed something hanging from the wall; it was an extra set of house keys.

- "Sam?"

- "Hmm?"

- "Catch."

Alexis tossed the keys at her daughter.

- "I don't know why you never kept those. Remember what I said: this is your home, too."

Sam smiled at her mother.

- "Thanks, Mom."

Alexis shook her head and walked out of the room towards her bedroom.

Mac sat in his office thinking about the previous night when someone knocked on his door.

- "Come in."

Diane sauntered into his office, closing the door behind her.

- "Aren't you looking well, Mac."

He rubbed his temples; he knew that this was not going to be a pleasant visit.

- "You've spoken to Alexis, haven't you?"

She pulled a seat up to his desk.

- "I sure did! What the hell is wrong with you? Why would you insinuate that she was some kind of barren vessel! You hurt her feelings!"

Mac reddened at the memory.

- "I'm really sorry about that—"

- "Don't apologize to me, you dimwit! Apologize to her! What the hell happened between you two last night?"

He sighed and looked at her.

Flashback

Alexis walked into the house after speaking to Diane.

- "Maaaaaaalcolm?"

He was hiding behind the closet door.

- "Aaaaaaaaaaaaleeeeeeexis?"

She began walking toward the direction she heard his voice come from. When she got closer, he jumped out of the closet.

- "AAAAAH!"

She smacked him hard across the face.

- "Ow, Lex!"

She smiled drunkenly and gave him a kiss on his wounded face.

- "I'm sorry!"

He lifted her and carried her up the steps toward his bedroom. Once inside they could not keep their hands off of each other. Alexis reached into his pants and smiled.

- "You give new meaning to the Penal Code, Mac Scorpio."

Mac grabbed her face and planted another kiss on her.

- "Well, let's see if we can tip the scales of justice."

End of Flashback

Diane rolled her eyes at him.

- "That's it?"

Mac nodded his head.

- "That's all I can remember right now. Diane, we were pretty drunk—"

Diane gave him a look of disgust.

- "I remember… Geez, Mac, you both were an embarrassment to the good law! Penal Code and Scales of Justice? God, you both disgust me!"

Mac covered his face trying to think of how he could go back in time and take his foot out his mouth.

- "How is she?"

- "She's fine, embarrassed, but fine. Her ego might be a bit bruised, but she'll be fine. Maybe you might want to send her something nice. Like an expensive pair of shoes… Or a purse! I know of this beautiful—"

Mac interrupted her; he could not handle one of her style tangents.

- "Would flowers do?"

She pursed her lips.

- "I suppose they might."

He grabbed the phone and began to dial.

- "Robin, I need you to order me three dozen roses—"

Diane shook her head and walked out of his office.

- "MEN."

Shortly after returning to her apartment, someone knocked furiously at her door. Sam knew by the knock, before she checked the peephole, who was standing on the other side of that door. She smiled and let her guest in.

- "Hey Maxie."

Maxie walked into Sam's apartment looking flustered.

- "Is your mother sleeping with my father?"

Sam was shocked that Maxie had found anything out considering that she and Spinelli were supposed to be on their "honeymoon."

- "Um, I don't know? Why?"

- "Because Mac decided that he would call me up and ask me what was so wrong about asking a woman if she could still have kids. I mean, I don't even know why he would even consider asking me something like that because I can't, nor do I EVER want to, imagine my dad having sex… Gross. That's the most traumatizing thing you could do to your kid; making them aware of the fact that you do that. You know what I mean?"

Sam blushed at the thought of her earlier conversation with her mother.

- "Painfully."

- "Good. Well, I really need to get Mac some male friends because he kept going on and on about being hungover and not knowing what happened the night before, and how blames Spinelli for causing him to wake up and offending people. Then he let it slip that he had a woman in his bed. That was the point where I had to hang up the phone… And seeing the look on your face confirms my suspicions that that woman was your mom."

Sam covered her mouth with both hands before responding.

- "How did you figure out that it was my mom?"

Maxie rolled her eyes and sighed dramatically.

- "Let's be serious Sam; she's like the only single woman other than Kate in this town. And since Kate was all over Coleman, I figured Alexis was the safest bet. Did they sleep together? Because let me tell you, I'm not sure how I feel about that—"

- "Why?"

- "I don't know, I think it would be pretty weird. Your mom had a child with the local bipolar crime boss and another by his crazy brother, who kept a pregnant woman hostage in a panic room. And now, she slept with the Police Commissioner shortly after being removed from her job, as the D.A., for a sex scandal with the Mayor? I mean, seriously Sam, my dad doesn't need that kind of drama."

Sam was furious by her friend's characterization of her mother.

- "What the hell are you trying to say, Maxie? I don't appreciate you talking about my mother that way, considering that your past isn't the best anyway. Um, let me think about this for a second, faking a pregnancy, supplying Lucky with drugs, making a bet with Logan that if he slept with Lulu, you'd sleep with him, and that's to name a few of your questionable antics. My mom's not some kind of social leper, you know? She's a damned good attorney, who had a few things against her, but that doesn't mean that she's not worthy of your father. He's the one that should be worried about being worthy of her,."

Maxie knew she was wrong for the way that she spoke about Alexis; she had a tendency to put her foot in her mouth.

- "I'm sorry, Sam, I really didn't mean for it to come out the way it did. Your mom is fantastic and super nice. I definitely wasn't trying to make it seem like she wasn't up to my dad's level."

Sam crossed her arms and glared at Maxie.

- "So, what were you trying to say then?"

- "I mean, Mac hasn't been in a relationship for a while, and the last serious relationship he had was with my mother… that was a trainwreck; I think I'm a good example of that. I just don't want him to get hurt. It's not as though Alexis has that great of a track record. Doesn't she date… criminals and crazy guys? I mean, isn't that where you get it from?"

Sam walked to her door and opened it.

- "Bye Maxie."

Maxie took her jacket off and sat down on the couch.

- "Come on, Sam! I'm serious. I'm worried about him. I think he likes your mother—"

Sam closed the door and sat down beside her friend.

- "Why would you say that?"

- "I think he's always liked her, but because they worked so closely together, he didn't want to get involved. Now that Alexis ran Claudia off the road—"

- "MAXIE!"

Maxie smiled apologetically.

- "Sorry."

- "Well, I think that it's a good thing. My mother would be dating someone other than Jerry and every other psychopath that might come her way, and your father would finally have a relationship. That's not a bad thing."

Maxie looked at her watch and stood up.

- "Well, I'm just telling you that Alexis better not turn Mac crazy. Anyway, I have to go. Kate's probably slept with Coleman, so I can only imagine her attitude if I'm late."

- "Alright, bye. And Maxie—"

- "Yup?"

- "If you talk about my mother like that again, I'll have to hurt you."

Maxie walked to the door smiling nervously.

- "No worries, Sam! Um, I'm going to keep my mouth shut… In fact, I'll send Alexis a basket of Pepto and ginger ale, because if she sounds anything like Mac, she's gonna need it, so… um, I'm gonna go!"

She quickly left the apartment leaving Sam to laugh in her wake.

He walked up to the house. While he did not notice Sam's car in the driveway, he sighed and knocked on the door anyway.

- "HOLD ON!"

He crossed his arms as he realized that it was Alexis coming to the door. He would have turned to leave, but he figured that he might as well see her; he had managed to avoid her at the wedding, but he could not manage to do so indefinitely.

When she finally came to the door, she was shocked to see him standing there.

- "Jason."

- "Alexis."

She opened the door for him to come in.

- "What are you doing here?"

- "I was looking for Sam—"

She frowned at him. It was not that she did not like him; she just did not want him dating her daughter.

- "Why didn't you call her—"

He showed her the cellphone in his hands.

- "Oh."

- "Yea, she forgot it—"

Alexis closed her eyes at the reminder that her daughter had stayed the night at his place.

- "She went home about an hour ago."

- "Thanks."

Jason turned to leave, but Alexis stopped him.

- "Jason wait; I think we should talk."

This was what he did not want to deal with.

- "Alexis—"

She put her hand up to indicate that she meant no harm.

- "I just want to talk to you. I already told my daughter that I wasn't going to meddle in her life. Considering the way things turned out the last time, I'm going to say what I need to say to you this one time, and then leave it alone. Any other issues, I'll speak to Sam—"

- "Fine."

- "Have a seat."

Jason sighed and sat down on the couch. Alexis paced for a few moments as she gathered her thoughts.

- "Okay. If you hurt my daughter, Jason, I swear before God, that I will hurt you."

Jason blankly stared at her.

- "That's what you wanted to tell me?"

She moved to sit across from him.

- "You don't understand. You left my daughter broken and fragile when you broke up last. You threatened her life and completely wrote her off. Since that debacle, she's picked herself up again. She's not some dependent plaything anymore, Jason. She's an independent woman who's made a life for herself. I don't want you dragging her back into your criminal world where she'll pull any stupid stunt just to remain with you. I don't want her getting shot again, I don't want her getting kidnapped, and I don't want her getting arrested. Do you hear me? I don't like that she's in this relationship with you, but I know that she's going to do whatever she wants despite what I say. I understand that. And even though I promised her that I wouldn't interfere, I'm just letting you know that if you hurt her, I will hurt you."

- "You're going to hurt… me?"

Alexis scoffed at the shocked look Jason had on his face.

- "Don't look so surprised. I might not affiliate much with the Cassidines, but their blood runs through my veins. I don't take kindly to anyone hurting my children."

- "Alexis, are you threatening me?"

Alexis stood up and walked to the door.

- "Nope. I'm just giving you a few tips. Goodbye Jason."

He nodded his head and made his way out; he stopped before leaving.

- "Alexis, I just want you to know that I have no plans on hurting Sam. She means a lot to me."

Alexis smiled at him.

- "Good. That's nice to know."

Jason walked out of the lake house dumbfounded.