Well look at what the cat dragged in… ME.

Ok, I'm beyond exhausted… But since I could not stand to look at another law book for a couple of hours, I quickly typed this up for you. [And myself because I sincerely missed writing.]

Many thanks for the well wishes, and super thanks to my tweeps who have put up with my crankiness and many "twants."

Thanks to M for her skunk comment.

UNEDITED and remember due to SORAS'd Alexis and Sam found each other earlier in age.

Chapter Fifteen

Trees

Alexis stepped out of the car and marched authoritatively toward the PCPD with Sam following closely behind her.

--- "Mom, what are you going to do?"

--- "I'm going to find out what the hell happened that your father got arrested."

It was still weird for Sam to hear the term, 'your father,' she slightly winced at the sound. The last time it was really used was in relation to her adoptive con artist of a dad. While she loved the man in spite of his obvious faults, he was what he was, and had it not been for Jason's help after her brother died, she would have never learned that Alexis was her mother and God only knows what would have become of her lying and deceitful life.

Alexis noticed the look of trepidation and slight anxiety on her daughter's face as they walked into the precinct. She stopped and grabbed Sam's arm compelling her to do the same.

--- "Honey, listen to me. I know that this is all strange, and quite frankly a bit like déjà vu, considering that you and I found each other pretty late—"

--- "Mom, I was 19—"

Alexis nodded her head in agreement.

--- "True, but you were also a grown 19 year old. You saw and did so much more than the average person you age had."

Sam rolled her eyes.

--- "You mean, did more guys—"

Alexis cupped Sam's face into her hands.

--- "Sam, I'm not judging you."

--- "Mom, I know."

Alexis sighed.

--- "Are you afraid of what Mathieu will think?"

The young woman looked away from her mother. Alexis turned Sam's face slightly so that she could look her daughter in her eyes.

--- "Honey, you've grown up so much in the past ten years. All of that is in the past. My goodness, considering that he's landed himself in jail, I'm sure that he had gotten himself into quite a few things at your age. Sam, we won't tell him anything that he doesn't need to know—"

Sam rolled her eyes at her mother.

--- "Mom, my reputation around town—"

Alexis shook her head.

--- "Your reputation around town is that you are a brilliant P.I., my beautiful daughter, and [ahem] Jason's girlfriend. You are not the same person you were when you first came into town. Do you understand me?"

Sam was somewhat relieved by her mother's words. She nodded her head in understanding.

--- "Ok."

Alexis gave her daughter a kiss on the forehead.

--- "Sweetheart, because he's your father, and if he's anything of a good one, he will love you despite anything you may have done in the past. I know I do… and I always will and have."

Alexis was alluding to Sam's transgression on that hot August night with Ric. While Alexis was beyond livid at her daughter for her actions, she never stopped loving the girl. Understandably, it took some time to repair the broken relationship, but they pushed through it, and had been closer for it.

--- "I love you too, Mom."

She wrapped her arms around her reassured daughter and walked toward Mac's office.

--- "Besides, if he says anything sideways to my daughter, I'll let Mac arrest him so that he'll spend the next few weeks or months unpeeling a few bananas in jail. He'll be having so much smoked sausage thrown his way, he won't know what to do with himself."

Sam shook her head and laughed.

--- "You're disgusting."

Alexis smiled at her daughter.

--- "I like to think that in the passed 10 years, that I've learned a lot from you much as you have from me."

Alexis spotted Mac talking to Lucky. She unwrapped her arm around her daughter and walked directly up to him.

--- "Mac, what the hell is going on here?"

He looked at her and smiled. While she was no longer wearing the sexy outfit she had been in at the restaurant, he never tired seeing her in her designer suits.

--- "I'm glad you took the time to get off the pole to pay us a visit, Lex."

Sam chuckled at the thought that Mac had seen her mother in the sweatpants that she had purchased for her earlier that day. Alexis turned to glare at her, causing the young woman to put her hands up in feigned innocence.

Alexis turned back to Mac.

--- "Mac, this is no time for jokes. Why is Mathieu here?"

He smiled and crossed his arms. She was finding it difficult to look into his eyes as she thought about waking up with him the other night, and realizing how beautiful his eyes really were.

--- "It looks as though one of my men found the good doctor rolling himself a nice herbal remedy."

Sam stood beside her mother.

--- "Oh dear God, my father is a pothead?"

Alexis smacked her daughter's arm.

--- "Samantha, stop it!"

Sam shrugged her shoulders.

--- "That's what he said, Mom."

Alexis rolled her eyes.

--- "Mac, I want to see him right now."

Mac shook his head and put his arm out leading the way toward the holding room. As she walked ahead of him, he noticed how nicely her skirt fit her. He did not understand how he had worked so many years with the woman and never realized her subtle, yet still overt sensuality.

Alexis walked into the room to find Mathieu sitting down looking like a schoolboy awaiting his punishment in detention.

--- "Mathieu."

He smiled when he saw her.

--- "Alexandra."

Alexis turned to Mac and Sam who were both standing near the door entry.

--- "Mac, if you'll leave me and my client please."

Mac looked a bit annoyed, but he knew procedure.

--- "Sam, let's go—"

Alexis put her hand up.

--- "Um, no. Sam, you can—"

Sam shook her head.

--- "Mom, I'll let you two chat… I, uh, I'm going to have a chat with Lucky for a few minutes."

Alexis saw the pleading look in her daughter's eyes.

--- "Okay, honey. Um, we'll continue this afterwards."

--- "Sure. I'll be waiting for you outside."

Once Sam was out of the room, Mathieu smiled seductively at the woman he loved.

--- "I'm sure that this isn't how you would have ever imagined us in a room with a pair of these."

Alexis rolled her eyes at the man's blatant flirts.

--- "Mathieu, really? You're flirting with me while you're sitting there with your hands in handcuffs. My goodness, you're under arrest for position of marijuana!"

--- "I did not have marijuana, Alexandra! I don't know what Pepe la Pew's been telling you, but I don't, how do you say, get HIGH."

--- "Pepe la Pew? Mathieu, you are aware that he was French?"

He flashed her another smile.

--- "Yes, however, have you noticed Big Mac's hair?"

Alexis shook her head, not wanting to get into a conversation concerning each man's ego, or how sharp their pencils were, or weather they were sharpened or unsharpened; she was fairly certain that when Diane awoke the next morning, she would be recounting this conversation anyway.

She put her briefcase on the table and sat down across from him.

--- "So what the hell happened?"

He shrugged his shoulders.

--- "I was sitting on the docks looking at that dark and dreary Cassadine castle—"

--- "How'd you know that—"

He smiled.

--- "Cherie, really? You told me about your family and about the house that you grew up in. When I was walking along the waterfront, I noticed the dark and dreary castle in the distance; I just knew that it had your family's name written all over it."

Alexis rolled her eyes.

--- "Gee, thanks. And beside, the only one that's left is my nephew Nikolas."

His mouth fell open.

--- "No Stavros?"

--- "Nope."

--- "Stefan?"

A sadness filled her eyes.

--- "No."

He knew that she loved Stefan; he was the only one who had ever been kind to her growing up. He reached for her hands.

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

She shook her head.

--- "Don't be. It's all in the past."

--- "Et Helena—"

Alexis laughed aloud.

--- "Please! That old bat will never die. She is still very much alive, although luckily she's found something better to do with her time than to pester me."

He sighed in relief. He knew that she had always been afraid of that wretched woman. In fact, it was because of her that the two had almost broken up.

Flashback

Alexis was quite upset over having been ditched everyday that week by Mathieu. Each afternoon during her lunch break, she walked to their spot, hoping that he would show up, but he never did. She was certain that he had broken up with her.

One night, as she laid in bed close to tears, she heard sounds of rapping against her window. She quickly got up and found Mathieu sitting in a tree outside of the window. She was enthused yet anxious about seeing him.

--- "What in the world are you doing here?"

He smiled at her.

--- "Are you going to ask me questions, or are you going to let me in, Cherie?"

She stepped aside and allowed him room to climb into her room. Luckily because the school was quite exclusive and catered to the rich and uppercrust Europeans, the students were all given their own rooms.

Once he was in the room, she realized that she was dressed only in her nightgown. She quickly moved to grab her robe, but he pulled her toward him. He kissed her passionately, and she gladly reciprocated before pushing him away.

--- "I've been waiting a week for you, and you haven't sent a single word to me about where you were, or what happened! I thought you didn't love me anymore, or that you didn't want to be with me! Now you're here in my room, seeing me practically undressed—"

He put his finger to her lips.

--- "It's not like that, Alexandra! I love you! I could never stop loving you!"

She had begun to cry at the thought that the one person who loved her for her, might have abandoned her.

--- "Well then what happened to you? Why didn't you meet me like you said you would?"

He pulled a letter from his back pocket and handed it to her.

--- "Because of this."

She took the letter from him and was shocked to notice that it was Helena's handwriting. She looked at him disbelievingly.

--- "Helena?"

He nodded his head. She was still shocked.

--- "How?"

He shook his head.

--- "I don't know, but she sent this to me anyway."

She opened the letter and read it aloud.

--- "'Dear M. LeGros. I understand that you have taken company with my petite sourite (or little mouse, as I like to refer to her). Please know that she is not of your caliber, and but for our generosity would have been nothing more than a pauper in the street. I ask you for your sake, and the sake of your family name to refrain from involving yourself with this charity case. I would not want your family's fortune to suffer on account of your irresponsible teenaged errors.'"

She looked at him.

--- "So that's why you haven't wanted anything to do with me?"

He passed his hand in her hair.

--- "No! My family found the letter and threatened to have me transferred if they found out that I was with you."

She wiped the tears from her face.

--- "God, you would think I were some kind of leper! Watch out for Alexis, the little mouse, she might infect you with her humble surroundings."

He pulled her to him.

--- "I don't think of you like that, Alexandra. All of the money in the world could never amount to what you mean to me. I hope that you believe this."

She sniffled and looked at him.

--- "So what does this mean?"

He brushed the hair from her face.

--- "It means that we will have to be more daring and adventurous."

The idea of being more bad than they had been previously turned the teen on more than she had ever been before; she pulled him toward her bed.

--- "I love you, Mathieu LeGros."

He smiled at her.

--- "And I love you, Alexandra Davidovitch."

The two, for the very first time, succumbed to the love they shared, and made love secretly in Alexis' dorm room.

End of Flashback.

Alexis smiled at the memory of her first time.

--- "Well, I'm glad that you didn't let Helena scare you away, otherwise—"

He smiled at her.

--- "We wouldn't have a beautiful daughter together. Our Samantha."

Alexis smiled back at the man.

--- "Um, I'm going to go speak to Mac about these charges and getting them dropped."

Just as she made it to the door, Mac walked opened it, hitting her in the nose.

--- "DAMN IT!"

--- "Oh my God, Lex, I'm so sorry!"

Mac pulled a pack of tissues out from his pocket and held one to Alexis' nose.

Sam, hearing her mother's scream ran toward the interrogation room.

--- "Mom, what happened."

Alexis' nose was bleeding.

--- "Crap! I was coming out to see what was going on with these charges just as Mac was opening the door—"

He held the baggy in his hand.

--- "I was coming in to tell you that my men are morons, and arrested him for rolling a cigarette."

Alexis could not believe her ears. As she held her bleeding nose she berated the man.

--- "You're telling me that your people are so incompetent that they couldn't tell the difference between a joint and a cigarette?!"

He blushed in embarrassment.

--- "Well Lex, it was dark, and he was rolling it—"

Mathieu interjected into the conversation.

--- "Actually, that's common practice in France. I'm sorry, but your American cigarettes are disgusting. Now remove these bracelets from my arms."

Sam laughed aloud as Mac walked over to the man and uncuffed him.

--- "Um, Mathieu, they're called handcuffs here."

He was also in awe of having heard his 29 year old daughter actually speaking and to him for the first time; previously it was in hushed tones and to her mother. He felt like a proud father.

--- "Er, thank you. I'll remember that next time."

Sam could not help but laugh again at the thought that there might be a next time.

--- "Mom, I guess that apple—"

Alexis pointed her finger at her daughter.

--- "Samantha—"

Mathieu was happy to see his daughter smile and laugh for the first time since meeting her. Perhaps given the situation of the night, the more appropriate term would be seeing, rather than meeting her.

Mac walked back toward Alexis.

--- "Look, I'm really sorry about all this, especially about your nose. If I had known that my men would have been so careless—"

She shook her head.

--- "Mac, it's alright. No harm, no foul."

He found her sexy even as she head the bloody tissue to her nose.

--- "Look, Lex, I know that tonight was a bit of a bust, but I'd love to still take you out."

She smiled at him, while in the corner of her noticing Mathieu looking at her.

--- "Um, I think we'll have to talk about that later."

Mac nodded and smiled slightly as he walked out, leaving the women with the Frenchman, whom he did not like one bit, to talk in his precinct.

Sam could almost feel a tension rising in the room, so she turned to her mother and smiled.

--- "So, um, Mom, considering the way the evening went, you might want to consider rubbing someone's head for luck. I mean you seem to have a couple of options."

Alexis, having finally stopped the bleeding in her nose, walked over to Sam and kissed her on top of the head before walking her toward Mathieu.

--- "Mathieu, I'd like you to meet Samantha, although she goes by Sam, your daughter. She is one of the three lights of my life, despite her interesting and filthy humor."

He smiled and after rubbing his wrists from the strain of having them in handcuffs, he outstretched his hand to his daughter.

--- "Hi Samantha—"

She corrected him; she did not know him well enough to allow him to call her by her full name. In fact the only person who did so was her mother, and it was not as though she had ever been given a choice in the matter. Alexis called her by her full name whenever she was in trouble.

--- "Sam—"

He nodded his head.

--- "Excuse me, please, Sam."

Alexis gave her daughter a squeeze on the shoulders.

--- "And honey, this is Mathieu: your father, clearly a jailbird."

Sam felt like a teenager meeting her father for the first time.

--- "It's nice to actually meet you."

He smiled at the beautiful woman who, in his eyes, looked very much like the love of his life standing beside her.

--- "You have no idea how happy it makes me to meet you."

Alexis looked from her daughter to her… something… It amazed her how she had never had a normal relationship with any of her daughters' fathers except the one standing before her, and she had no idea where it had gone wrong.

Nonetheless, she was happy, for Sam's sake, that her daughter would hopefully have a relationship with the man. Despite the fact that she had always been silent on the matter, Alexis had a feeling that her daughter wanted to know about her father. The odd thing about the matter, however, was that her daughter never asked, so Alexis, simply never told… she simply didn't know.

Now, PLEASE review and make me happy because my brain is certain to explode if you don't. THANKS for reading!

The chapter is subject for editing, nothing major… perhaps lengthening when I actually finish exams, so stay tuned.

The hiatus continues…