Since NLG made me super happy not only on twitter, but on FB, I have been inspired to write you turkeys a chapter a WHOLE WEEK EARLY (and I took the day off after slaying two large dragons in two days. I'm WHIPPED)

MANY many thanks again for your continued support, reading, and REVIEWING of this story. I'm DYING being unable to write to my heart's content. T- 6 days.

M, I'm stealing your nickname for Mathieu. THANKS! :o)

UNEDITED and I warn you, I was kind of falling asleep towards the end so I'll reread it in the morning before I study for the next two exams.

Chapter Sixteen

Discomfort and Oddities

After a few moments of awkward silence, Alexis cleared her throat.

--- "Okay. I think we should—"

The door to the interrogation room opened. It was Mac.

--- "Um, I'm really sorry to interrupt this… thing, but, uh Mathieu, you need to come fill out some paperwork to reclaim your belongings, then you're free to go."

Mathieu scowled at the man before nodding his head and walking out of the room, making sure to bump into him as he passed.

--- "Hey—"

Alexis cut him off.

--- "Mac, I think you need to let that go."

--- "Lex, that was assault of an officer! It's a felony offense!"

Alexis rolled her eyes, but smiled nonetheless.

--- "You kept the man in custody for an hour over rolling a cigarette. I think a little bit of leniency is in order."

He smiled back.

--- "Well, for you, I suppose I can give him a break. I mean, if he's anything like that one there, he'll be back."

Sam interrupted.

--- "Hey! I haven't been arrested for quite some time! AND, might I add the last time I WAS, it was because I was being framed and someone [ahem] didn't believe me."

Sam glared at her mother, who shrugged.

--- "Honey, I told you that I couldn't let Jerry know that I was working him—"

--- "So you let me spend the night, and refused to pay bail?"

Alexis wanted to choke Mac for bringing up the incident. Although they had forgiven each other for the "misunderstanding" that was the debacle called Jerry Jacks, it was still a sore subject, especially for Sam.

Alexis glared at Mac before looking at her daughter.

--- "I had Nikolas pay the bail, Sam!"

--- "Still—"

Alexis pointed an accusatory finger at her daughter.

--- "You were no innocent, Samantha. You were half naked—"

Sam shook her head and rolled her eyes at her mother.

--- "Um, in a bikini."

Alexis countered.

--- "You might as well have not been wearing anything. What was I supposed to think?"

Mathieu walked into the room and stared at the scene. The former, and perhaps still, love of his life, and his… daughter (it was still odd, and quite frankly shocking, for him to imagine that he was a father), were pointing accusatorily at each other, while Mac, his nemesis, stared dumbfounded at what had to be his doing.

--- "[ahem] What's going on here? Is MY family arguing?"

Mac shook his head.

--- "Your family? Really?"

Mathieu smirked at the man.

--- "Yes, Big Mac—"

Sam laughed aloud.

--- "Excuse me? Big Mac? Hmm, how long were you in here, Mathieu?"

Alexis sighed as the men stared at the young woman.

--- "Ignore her. Mathieu, you will come to learn that our daughter is a bit of a… what's the word I'm looking for?"

Mac spoke up.

--- "Pain in the ass? Smart ass?"

Alexis snapped her fingers.

--- "YES! Exactly! Thanks Mac."

Mac nodded his head, while returning Mathieu's glares.

--- "No problem! It's easy to finish your sentences; I HAVE known you and Sam for YEARS."

Sam put her hands up.

--- "Um, okay, this is getting a bit uncomfortable, so I'm thinking this is over. Uh, Mathieu, I take it everything is okay? You're free to leave?"

Mathieu looked almost hurt and rejected; he had been hoping to spend some time getting to know Sam, and getting reacquainted, in the cleanest sense of the word, that is… at least for now… with Alexis.

--- "Er, yes."

He extended his hand once again to his daughter as Mac looked almost amused at the sad look in the man's eyes.

--- "It was nice meeting you, Saman— pardon, Sam. I hope we can—"

Sam made a face at the man.

--- "No, I think you misunderstood—"

She looked at her mother. Alexis bit her lip for a second before relenting.

--- "Mati—"

He smiled at the sound of his nickname coming from Alexis.

--- "Would you like a ride?"

Sam smacked her mother in the arm. Alexis frowned at her.

--- "What?"

The young woman smiled at the men.

--- "Um, if you'll excuse us for a second."

She pulled her mother aside.

--- "Mom, you haven't seen this man in nearly thirty years, and from the looks of it, the sexual tension in this room is getting a bit comfortable for me with both of your—"

--- "Sam, both of my nothings!"

She rolled her eyes at her mother.

--- "Please, you still love Mathieu, and you've some kind of something with Mac."

Alexis smiled at the men praying that they did not hear Sam's public service announcement. She pulled Sam closer to her.

--- "Honey, will you be quiet about that! It isn't true."

--- "And yet you're getting defensive."

--- "I'm not defensive."

Sam crossed her arms across her chest.

--- "Argumentative."

Alexis' arms crossed as well.

--- "Samantha."

Sam smiled.

--- "See! Now, seriously Mom, can you just arrange it so that I can get to know baby daddy number one. I guess that way, I'll be able to make a clear decision—"

Alexis closed her eyes as she pressed the bridge of her nose; she was almost afraid to ask her next question.

--- "What decision would that be?"

Sam smiled and grabbed her mother's hand.

--- "Um, who you should choose to father your next baby!"

Alexis pulled her hand from Sam and wrapped it around her daughter's neck. Mac cleared his throat.

--- "Lex, you're in a police department; I don't think it exactly wise for you to kill your daughter in here."

Mathieu scoffed.

--- "Not that I'm condoning the murder of my daughter, Alexandra, but I am going to assume that these incompetent morons would not be able to solve the murder even if Big Mac is the witness. I think it's pretty clear that they don't know merde."

Alexis let go of Sam's neck, and kissed her on the forehead.

--- "Don't worry boys, I wouldn't dare kill my big one here. Besides, its far more fun to torture her alive."

--- "Sure, Mom."

Sam rolled her eyes and turned to face her father.

--- "So, Mathieu, it looks like you're coming with us."

He smiled at the younger woman.

--- "That sounds wonderful. Where to?"

Alexis smiled as the man she had first loved stared at her… their daughter.

--- "How about we move this to the lake house."

She was certain that she had had a slight groan from Mac, however before she could say anything, Sam teasingly nudged her and whispered,

--- "Moving a bit quickly are we Mom?"

Alexis pinched her daughter's arm and hissed in her ear, all the while smiling at Mathieu's inquisitiveness as to the women's relationship.

--- "Honey, my little jelly bean, you seem to have forgotten that you're sleeping with Mommy tonight."

Sam laughed aloud and turned to face her mother.

--- "Seriously Mom, you do know that I could just go home right?"

Alexis took her daughters face in her hands before giving her a hug.

--- "Oh, honey—"

She stuck carefully stuck her hand in Sam's back pocket and slowly removed her "wallet" and cell phone. Since she still had her daughter's car keys, and had driven them both to the precinct, there was no way Sam was escaping. She quickly slipped them into her purse as she let her daughter go. She tapped her on the nose.

--- "I don't know what I would do without you!"

Sam eyed her mother suspiciously.

--- "Um, okay? I guess you'd have permanent residence in the Gobi desert?"

Mathieu loved the interaction between mother and daughter. He hoped that he could get the chance to have such a relationship with Sam.

--- "So, Mati, I guess we should all get going; we have a lot to catch on."

Alexis realized that that was an understatement if ever there was one. He smiled at her, while sensing Mac glaring in his direction.

--- "That sounds good."

Mac shook his head at Alexis.

--- "Lex, um, do you mind if I talk to you for a second?"

Alexis nodded her head and followed him out of the door.

--- "Mati, please do not let that one corrupt you as she did me, although I have to say that she has taught me a lot in the past few years."

She winked at him, knowing that he had seen her pickpocketing their daughter… that was going to be an adjustment for her to remember that same was no longer "her" daughter, but part of an "our," assuming of course that Mathieu was truly interested in getting to know Sam. Alexis was weary of the man she had not seen in years.

Sam gave her mother an inquisitive look.

--- "Hmm, I'm not sure I like the way that sounds."

Alexis blew a kiss to her daughter before stepping out to speak with Mac, leaving Sam to spend some quality time with her father.

Mac stood at his door, waiting for Alexis to come into his office. When she finally walked in smiling at him, he took in the sweet aroma that lingered as she passed and took a seat.

--- "What is this about Mac?"

He leaned against his desk and thought about what he wanted to say. He liked the woman, that was certain, but everything had been quite awkward between them ever since the night after the non-wedding, and then he insinuated that she could no longer have kids, then he had Robin send her flowers, and then the kids tried to set them up, and because of that, she now had frog legs competing for her attention; needless to say, Mac was afraid that he would once again put his foot in his mouth.

--- "Lex, don't you think this is moving a little fast?"

She tossed her hair and looked at him strangely.

--- "What are you talking about? We haven't had a real date or anything? I mean, it was weird waking up with you and all—"

He reddened at the memory.

--- "No, I wasn't talking about that! Lex, you told me he was the reason you squeezed the cream out of éclairs! When he showed up earlier today, it did not seem to me as though you really wanted to get to know him—"

--- "Mac, I never said that."

He gave her a look. She rolled her eyes.

--- "I meant, aside from the éclairs comment, I never said that I did not want to get to know him. I'm just, I don't know—"

He put his hand on her shoulder.

--- "Nervous?"

She nodded her head.

--- "This is going to sound really ridiculous, because she's a grown woman and all, at least she continuously makes sure to remind me of that, yet she does silly things like going skinny dipping in thirty degree weather—"

--- "Yea, well at least she didn't somehow manage to take a nice amount of money from your bank account to buy a bunch of clothes for herself—"

Alexis shook her head.

--- "That's a crime, you should really talk to her about that."

Mac scoffed.

--- "Are we really going to talk about criminal acts, Ms. Davis, mother of the woman who currently holds the longest rap sheet? Mother of the woman who is dating the man who has the longest rap sheet of all the criminals we've encountered?"

Alexis smacked him playfully.

--- "Excuse me! My daughter's rap sheet is basically from before I got a hold of her—"

Mac started counting on his hand.

--- "Um, the shooting of Diego Alcazar?"

Alexis waved her hand dismissively.

--- "Proclaimed innocent. If you remember, Diego resurrected—"

She stopped midsentence; of course he remembered that Diego killed Mac's daughter, Georgie. She gave his hand a squeeze.

--- "I'm sorry Mac."

He squeezed her hand back before releasing it to sit at his desk. He looked at a picture of Georgie he kept on the desk; it was a picture of her holding a book on Paris.

--- "You know, Lex, I still can't believe that she's gone. I mean, there are times when I walk pass her bedroom door, and expect to her the French language tapes playing. She wanted to spend her last year in college there so badly."

He sighed and shook his head as he passed his hand along the picture. Alexis, while she sympathized, could not imagine ever losing one of her girls. Mac was a good man, although neither Maxie nor Georgie were his biologically, and even in the instance of Robin, he loved his girls immensely. He looked at her with those beautiful eyes she had never before noticed, at least not until this whole strangeness arose between them.

--- "It's going on eight years since she died, you know."

Alexis nodded her head.

--- "I know."

He sighed.

--- "I swear, you would think that after all this time, that I would have gotten over it—"

Alexis shook her head.

--- "Mac, you don't just get over losing your kid. I'm sure you just learn to cope with it, but the pain never goes away. My goodness, I remember when I lost my sister—"

She began to get choked up at the sad memory. She took a deep breath and looked at Mac with tears in her eyes.

--- "You know, Mac, we didn't come in here to lament over our losses! I'm sure Kristina and Georgie are up there wondering why the hell we're boohooing when Christmas is around the corner."

Mac laughed and leaned back in his chair and looked at Alexis as she crossed her legs looking in her bag for a tissue. He opened his desk drawer and pulled out a box of Kleenex.

--- "Here Lex—"

She smiled and gladly took the tissue.

--- "Thanks."

He returned her smile and put the tissues away.

--- "Now, back to the issue at hand. You said that you were nervous about something in regard to Sam?"

Flashback

For the next month, Alexis and Mathieu spent several hours together, almost every night, in her bedroom. They were learning each other's bodies, one freckle and scar at a time.

As they lied in her bed, with her head on his chest, Alexis made an announcement.

--- "Mati?"

He passed his hand down her spine.

--- "Hmm?"

She looked up at him.

--- "I'm pregnant."

Mathieu held onto her for a few moments before letting go.

--- "Um, you're pregnant?"

She nodded her head as she bit her lip.

--- "Yes."

She spoke almost as low as… well as the little mouse she was referred to when she was in the Cassadine household.

Mathieu looked at her before getting out of the bed to pace the room.

--- "Ok, um, what are we going to do?"

Alexis knew that she was not going to get rid of the child. The life growing inside of her was not only a symbol of the love that she and Mathieu shared, but also of the unconditional love that the child would have toward her, and her toward it. She could never think about throwing that kind of love away.

--- "I want to keep it."

Mathieu stopped pacing and sat on the bed.

--- "Cherie, will your family let you?"

She shrugged her shoulders. She honestly had no idea what her "family" would or would not do. This was new territory.

--- "I don't know. But, you know what, I don't care! This is my baby, and I won't let anyone take it away from me."

Mathieu pulled her toward him and gave her a kiss on the lips.

--- "Well, I guess there's only one thing left to be done."

He passed her hand on her cheeks before moving them to her stomach.

--- "We won't tell them, not my family and definitely not yours. We'll keep this as a secret."

She smiled at him.

--- "Really? Do you think we can manage to keep this secret?"

He leaned her back on the bed and pulled the sheet off from her. He kissed her until her reached her stomach. He laid his head gently on it, and looked up at her.

--- "Together, we can do anything."

He reached his hand out to her. She took it and placed her other one on her stomach near where his head was resting.

The three of them were a family in that moment.

End of Flashback.

She looked up toward the ceiling before looking at him.

--- "Sam is a tough woman. I mean, she has her heart locked away behind a vault. But, once you key the combination to the safe, you realize that she's not as tough and hard-core as she makes herself to be. My daughter is emotional. She probably would hate me for telling you this… I don't even know why I'm telling you this—"

--- "Come on, Lex! We're friends—"

He felt as though he were choking on that last word; the more time he spent with her, the more he realized that was the furthest thing he wanted to be to her. Mac did not want to be her friend; he wanted to be more than that.

--- "You can talk to me about anything."

She shook her head and stood up. She did not feel comfortable having a conversation about another man with Mac. Sure, she and he were not anything to each other, but there clearly was potential, and the code of ethics was not to talk about your past relationships and their effects on you with your potential.

--- "Um, you know what, I think I should probably get going. I mean, I definitely left Sam with her… her… father! How weird is that? She's already uncomfortable with the whole situation—"

Mac grimaced.

--- "She seemed pretty okay to me."

Alexis ran her hands through her hair again.

--- "See, that's because you don't know my daughter like I do, Mac."

With that, she made to leave, but Mac was up in a flash stopping her.

--- "You never did answer me really about going out."

She smiled at him.

--- "Well, that's probably because I had a busted nose!"

He once again reddened.

--- "I'm really sorry about that, Lex. How is it?"

She tapped it slightly.

--- "I mean it hurts and all, but I'm pretty sure it's not broken! Don't worry about it."

--- "Well that's good! Not that it hurts, but that it isn't broken."

Alexis laughed.

--- "I know what you meant."

She opened the office door and walked out, leaving Mac disappointed to once again not get a response as to his question.

Once Alexis left the room, Sam looked at Mathieu.

--- "So, um, this is weird."

He rubbed his wrist.

--- "Yes it is. Er, I want you to know, Saman—sorry, Sam—"

She shrugged her shoulders.

--- "You know what, you can call me Samantha. I mean it's not like I haven't been called that before."

He smiled at the pretty young woman.

--- "Thank you, Samantha. I want you to know that I'm not really in the habit of getting arrested."

Sam laughed at the irony.

--- "Well, that's a good thing, believe me!"

While he knew what she meant, he sensed an underlying meaning to it. He decided to wait until their relationship become more comfortable; he did not want to push the woman into things she may have been uncomfortable disclosing to a father she never knew.

--- "I see you and your mother have a nice relationship."

She bit her lip.

--- "Yea, we do. I mean, it wasn't easy in the beginning, and we've still got out problems, but we're pretty close."

He nodded his head.

--- "Well, you would never know that looking at the way you two interact. I can see how much you love her—"

Sam moved to the table and sat down.

--- "I do. I love my mom more than I ever thought I could. I love my family in general."

He moved to sit in the chair he had previously occupied when he was being held for possession.

--- "Your family?"

Sam smiled.

--- "Yea. I have two sisters, plus there's Nikolas, and Spencer—"

He never realized that Alexis had had anymore children.

--- "Alexandra has four more children?"

--- "No, no, no. It's we three girls, um, Kristina and Molly; then Nikolas is my cousin, her nephew, and Spencer is his son."

He nodded.

--- "But she's not married?"

Sam reddened.

--- "Um, no, not anymore. Not for years."

He noticed her blushing. He wanted to know everything about Alexis, but he figured that it did not make much sense to ask Sam, when he could just as well talk to Alexis about it himself.

--- "I should probably tell you, Samantha, that you have eight more siblings."

Her mouth fell open.

--- "Are you serious?"

He looked at her seriously as he nodded his head.

--- "Well, you see, I was married four times—"

Sam was astounded.

--- "Wow. That's… a lot."

He smiled at her.

--- "I'm joking! I don't have any other kids. Just you, I guess."

The young woman laughed.

--- "If you promise me that you'll tell my mother that, I won't bother you for a car when I turn 30 in—"

He finished her sentence.

--- "In May."

She was shocked that he knew. Sam did not know what to think. She had so many questions that she wanted to ask him, but like with her mother, she was afraid to ask. In fact, it wasn't until months later, that she had actually begun asking Alexis questions about her childhood and her past. Sam felt, and knew, in Alexis' case, that life must have been so difficult for her parents, that it was best not to press on revealing the matter until they were ready. She knew that in Alexis' case that she did not, rather than giver her adoption, keep her, because growing up in the Cassidine household was difficult enough for a young orphan, but as an infant it would be ten times worse.

In regard to Mathieu, Sam simply hoped that the same were true, and that he did not go along with giving her up for adoption because he did not want to deal with raising a child. She wanted to ask him those questions, but she could not bring herself to.

Mathieu picked up on her discomfort, so he decided to change the subject.

--- "So, er, what do you do?"

Sam knew that he was avoiding discussing what happened between he and her mother. She decided to leave it at that; he probably wanted to speak to Alexis first, or speak to them together.

--- "I'm a P.I."

He was impressed.

--- "Oh, a Private Investigator? That's interesting! What made you get into that?"

--- "Well, I guess I had a lot of practice fitting into various situations, so this career came fairly easily for me."

He was interested in his daughter's career. It wasn't every day that someone learns that their kid is a P.I.; being an adventurous person himself, he could not help but feel that his daughter got that from him.

--- "Wow, that's great! What's the most interesting case that you've gotten?"

Sam smirked.

--- "Well, that's a really good question because I've gotta tell you, these cases are insane! My partner and I—"

--- "Are you married?"

Sam recoiled slightly.

--- "NO!"

Mathieu was shocked by her response.

--- "You don't want to get married?"

Sam shook her head.

--- "It's not that at all! I do want to get married, it's just that I also don't want to see Mom in the insane asylum."

--- "What does that mean?"

She laughed.

--- "It means that my mother HATES my boyfriend, and would sooner have me handcuffed to her for the rest of my days than to have my ever marry him."

Mathieu frowned.

--- "He can't be that bad."

Sam gave him a knowing smiled.

--- "Um, I think that's up for interpretation. As a matter of fact, I should probably call him and let him know that... um, never mind. I should just probably call him."

She leaned over to reach into her pocket, but alas there was nothing there.

She stood up quickly startling Mathieu.

--- "What's wrong?"

Sam knew something felt off when she sat down on the table.

--- "Where the hell is my phone? AND my money and credit card?"

Mathieu looked at her with almost an amused look on his face. He could not give Alexis up, so he simply shrugged.

When Alexis realized that she had not answered Mac's request, she smacked herself on the forehead and turned back around toward his office. She knocked once and poked her head in.

--- "Mac?"

He was once again seated at his desk looking at Georgie's picture.

--- "Yeah?"

She smiled at him.

--- "How about breakfast?"

He frowned at her.

--- "Breakfast?"

Her grin never wavered.

--- "Yea. I mean, you and I woke up together, you know, but we never had breakfast."

He nodded his head.

--- "Okay. Breakfast it is."

--- "Good."

So the chapter was supposed to be longer, but I sincerely cannot keep my eyes opened.

Hiatus is over next week, so stay tuned!

Now REVIEW and make me happy. THANKS!

BTW, Mathieu or Mac? At this point, it's all Alexis' choice because I have NO idea who she's going to choose! LOL.

12/12/09

To Answer LondonNow's question about Georgie dying 8 years ago as opposed to 2, because of the SORASing, the timeline is changed. Remember, Kristina was a kid, about 6 or 7, when it happened, but now she's 16.

Alexis and Sam have been bonding for 10 years, instead of 3 in this story. Sam also never lived her life as Angela Monroe, as she came to PC when she was about 17-18. Prego shortly thereafter, and dated Jason from about 18-20.

Any other changes in history, just roll with em! lol. I hope this clears up any confusion!

Thanks again for reading and reviewing! T - 4 days!!! I CANNOT WAIT!