Bar Exam tomorrow… I was told to relax and be a vegetable… so… this is me being a vegetable. Wish me luck… I'm terrified out of my behind. This is the most important exam of my life.

SOOOO many thanks to those of you who left reviews for the last chapter… keep em coming with this one. Those of you who read LSC, you're hurting my feelings by not reviewing there as well. So please do so.

UNEDITED… not even reread… you'll tell me if it sucks. If it does, I'll make it up to you with the next chapter.

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Bottled Hearts

She opened her eyes to feel the sun hitting her in the face. It felt strangely like a déjà vu as she awoke in a room that was not her own, and in a bed that was not familiar.

- "I really need to stop going to Jake's."

The only difference was that this time, she recalled with whom she had left that evening.

- "Hey—"

Actually, that was all she remembered. She spoke softly so that the sound of her own voice did not result in a larger headache than the one she already had.

- "Get up."

She leaned forward and playfully tickled him under the sheets.

- "Rise and shine—"

He grabbed her hand and pulled her toward him.

- "You're a tease, you know that, right?"

She smiled widely at him as he began to kiss her neck. She moaned in excitement as she allowed his hands to wander.

- "Did you take advantage of me last night? Is that something I'm failing to remember?"

He rolled her onto her back so that he could be on top of her.

- "I don't know—"

He kissed her as he made his way downward.

- "What… do… you… remember?"

She gasped.

- "That!"

He looked up at her.

- "Well, let's see if we can refresh your memory, then."

Staring at the empty bottle of vodka sitting on the nightstand, along with the half-empty bottle of tequila on the table, she simply nodded.

- "Yeee…eeea… I'm… I'm good… with… that."

After taking four more shots of tequila with Maxie and Diane while Mac looked on disapprovingly, Sam turned to notice that her father had arrived. She had not expected him. In fact, given the commotion of the day in taking care of her blooming sister, planning 'Project Hokey Pokey' with Maxie, and convincing her mother to partake in a fun-filled evening at the bar, she forgot to cancel with him for their weekly father-daughter Bar date.

- "Eeee! Daddy!"

She squealed in delight as approached his table. Placing a kiss on his cheek, she threw her arms around him.

- "I'm SO glad you're here!"

Mathieu smiled at his intoxicated daughter.

- "I see that. How long have you been here?"

Answering for her, Alexis rolled her eyes.

- "Not long enough. How much have you had to drink, Sam? I only left you like fifteen minutes ago."

Not realizing that her mother had spoken to her, Sam continued to converse with her father.

- "I'm so sorry that I sorta ditched you tonight!"

- "It's okay, cherie—"

He watched as she quickly took the shot that Coleman had placed on the table for her mother; she threw it back before the woman could stop her.

- "I had to help Mom—"

She turned to see her mother shaking her head at her.

- "Hey! No judging! You said I could drink. And since you left me with that rum soaked sponge cake known as your best friend—"

Alexis pointed to the table Sam had just left; like her, Mac sat deer-eyed watching as both Maxie and Diane pounded back shots of their own.

- "Yea, because yours is leading the Prohibition Society meetings in Queen of Angels' basement."

She slid her glass of water toward her drunken daughter.

- "Before you regret this in the morning, I suggest you have some of this, Sam."

But taking a seat on her father's lap, Sam pouted and nonchalantly waved her hand.

- "You know what you'll regret in the morning, Mom? Waking up nak—"

Blushing, Alexis quickly stood.

- "Excuse us, Mati."

She pulled Sam by the arm and away from the man. She dragged her toward the bathroom.

- "Mommy, I don't neeeed to use the bathroom! I can't break the seal!"

She interrupted her.

- "Have you lost your mind?"

Sam shook her head.

- "No, remember I told you that if you use the bathroom before—"

Breathlessly, Alexis put her hand out to stop her from continuing.

- "Oh my God… seriously, I'm going… I don't know what I'm going to do… you're… you're—"

Sitting on the toilet cover, Sam pressed her face into her hands.

- "Are you going to wake up naked with Dad?"

- "WHAT?"

There was a knock at the door.

- "Is everything okay? Alex? Do you—"

Alexis put her finger up to her daughter.

- "Don't speak another word."

She moved to the door.

- "No… I mean, yes… everything's okay, Mati! Sam's just… she's drunk. Why don't you go… I don't know… mingle. I'll talk to you later, okay?"

Without allowing him a chance to respond, she closed the door behind him.

- "Jesus Christ, Sam—"

But Sam disapprovingly stared at her.

- "I mean, every time you come to Jake's, you end up waking up naked with a guy. It's not very… ladylike… or Cassadine-like for that matter. "

Letting out a frustrated scream, Alexis banged her head against the door.

- "ONCE! That happened, ONCE!"

Moving from her seat towards the woman, Sam let out a sigh.

- "Listen—"

She grabbed her mother's hands.

- "I know that right now… the only pole…"

As Alexis attempted to speak, Sam focused her vision so that she could accurately place her finger over her lips.

- "Shh…shhh."

Except her aim was off; her finger had instead landed on her mother's chin.

- "Listen… if riding a pole is what you want, Mom, I will make it happen! I mean, I tried to get you into Mac's orbit…"

She frowned.

- "Or is it him into your orbit? I guess that would make more sense, right? He's the rocket… I mean, with a broken engine…"

She smiled at her mother.

- "We're trying to fix that, Mom! We'll get you on his pole! And… and if that doesn't work… if that doesn't work, I will buy you that stripper pole—"

Alexis had attempted to zone out most of what Sam had said, but she found the task to be difficult when the woman would not stop discussing poles, orbits, and rockets.

- "I don't need you to buy me a stripper pole, Sam!"

- "Fine! I will buy you a drink instead! And then you can try and uncork… ya know…"

He attempted to pull her back to him before she made it to the door, but she squirmed from his grasp.

- "I have to goooo! I don't want Sam to realize—"

He kissed the nape of her neck.

- "Come on! She wanted this, didn't she?"

She buttoned his open shirt.

- "I know that, but if she finds out… you know… where… here… she's… she's going to FREAK out. And honestly, I don't want to deal with that. I already missed countless phone calls from her."

He kissed her lips before moving back to the bed to put his shoes on.

- "You know, it's probably for the best to keep her guessing… you know, the element of surprise."

Alexis ran her hands through her hair before crossing her arms against her chest.

- "Have you met my daughter? The element of surprise will be the element of my death. Come on, I need to pick her up."

Grabbing his jacket, he followed her to the door.

- "Should we clean this place up first?"

She shook her head.

- "Mac, after last night, definitely not. We'll let Coleman figure this out."

Walking out of the bathroom with her mother for the second time in one night, Sam spotted her boyfriend uncomfortably reenter the bar; the social scene had never been his thing.

- "JASON!"

Yanking her arm free from Alexis' grasp, ran toward the man.

- "Where have you been?"

He knew that he had left her unattended… with Maxie… for far too long.

- "I was on a phone call. Um… how much have you had to drink?"

She realized that she had forgotten about her mother and the drink that she had promised her.

- "Come on! I'll buy you a drink… tequila!"

He winced at the high-pitched way in which she had managed to pronounce the second syllable.

- "Wow, okay."

And as Sam dragged him to the bar where Alexis had already begun to take the shots that Coleman had placed before her, Maxie pushed Mac toward the woman.

- "Um… how about I take you home, Sam? You're a little… you're… you're drunk."

In response, she threw her car keys at an unsuspecting Coleman.

- "Hey toots! If you're going to be throwing things at me, I'd prefer them to be lacey… or attached to your body… the top half."

Alexis glared at the man.

- "Hey! That's my daughter you're talking to."

Pouring her another drink, he smiled.

- "I don't discriminate foxy mama! I'll take whatever you're giving away… especially since there isn't much going on at the sausage factory… if you know what I mean."

Maxie shoved her father into the bar stool next to Alexis.

- "Coleman, something potent… something blue over here please!"

Both Mac and Alexis stared at one another; they needed to leave before the bar's patrons undressed them and coached them on how to… do the deed.

- "Maxie, I'm not sure if you know much about the male anatomy—"

She shook her head.

- "Oh, I know plenty, Daddy. I've been learning since—"

Sam quickly used her best friend's proximity to kick her leg before she revealed more about herself than her father would have cared to know.

- "Maxie!"

But the save was not appreciated.

- "Okay, that was the SECOND time tonight that I've been kicked! Is this some kind of Davis girl thing? Like, 'Hi, nice to see you,' and then you kick people? If so, I'm sorry, but your Cassadine genes are definitely dormant. This is NOT how civilized people greet one another!"

- "I'm trying to help you out here! You should be a bit more grateful, you know. Now, let's give these two… love birds, or whatever, some time alone. You know, performance anxi—"

Seeing both her mother and Mac glare in her direction, Sam stopped speaking. She simply smiled, and allowed Jason to take her to a private table far from where the couple sat.

- "I'm really sorry about this, Mac. I don't know—"

He stopped her.

- "It's okay. Look, if you want to… I don't know, call this off… then—"

She placed her hand over his. She knew that Coleman was listening to their conversation, but at that point, it did not seem to matter; the entire town seemed to know of their issues.

- "If I wanted to call this off, I would've done so a long time ago. I've been with a lot of men—"

Coleman began to cough.

- "Excuse me—"

Alexis let out a sigh as she grabbed the bottle from his hands.

- "This has just turned into self-service—"

- "You're telling me!"

She pointed to the other side of the bar.

- "GO OVER THERE, COLEMAN!"

She turned her attention back to Mac who attempted to act as though his ego was not shrinking by the minute.

- "Why don't we get outta here?"

He looked about the room.

- "Where? And how do you expect us to get out of here? There's a neon arrow flying above us."

She shrugged.

- "They'll just think we've gone off to try—"

Seeing him blush, she stopped.

- "Seriously Mac, it doesn't matter. As I was saying before, I've been with a lot of guys who didn't exactly treat me the way I should've been treated. I'll take a hundred sex-less nights with you, than one night with them."

She leaned in and gave him a kiss on the lips.

- "You're one of the good guys, Commissioner. I'm going to hold onto you… and one day, when you're ready, I'll get to play with your fun police toys."

Grabbing the bottle she had taken from Coleman, she hopped off the barstool, approached the table at which Sam and Jason sat, tapped the man on the shoulder, whispered something into his ear, kissed her oblivious daughter on the top of her head, and flagged to Mac to join her outside.

- "Hey!"

Coleman attempted to grab Mac as he passed him.

- "She didn't pay for that bottle!"

Rather than hand him any cash to cover the amount of drinks that had been consumed that night, Mac patted the man's cheek, took yet another bottle, and a set of keys hanging on a numbered hook.

- "Thanks buddy."

She threw her arms over his buff, manly body. It kept her warm at night. It got her hot and bothered all day… it…

- "What the hell?"

It was smaller than what she had remembered. She knew that she had been in a drunken stupor throughout most of the previous evening, but she had not been so drunk as to not recall that her stallion, or prized bull, as she preferred to call him recently, had shrunk… significantly in size.

- "Max? What in the—"

She pulled the sheets back to reveal…

- "OH… MY… GOD!"

Realizing that she too was undressed, as was her habit in sleeping, she wrapped the blankets around herself before jumping from the bed.

- "WAKE UP! WAKE UP! WAKE UP!"

As the man rolled over from his stomach onto his back, Diane's eyes widened at the sight before her. For the first time in as long as she could recall she was speechless.

- "Oh—"

The breeze from the open window sent chills over the man causing him to awaken.

- "Merde."

Sitting up in the bed, he wiped his eyes. His head was pounding, the sun was shining, and the sheets on the bed had…

- "Oh—"

He finally turned his head to realize that he was not alone in the room; Diane, glued in her spot at the foot of the bed, stood agape at the sight of him.

- "What… are… you—"

Much to the redhead's displeasure, he grabbed a pillow, immediately stood and covered himself.

- "Is… uh… is your name truly Le Gros? Or was that a nickname? Because lemme tell you, it… is certainly is an understatement."

Mathieu reddened at the woman's continuous southern stare.

- "Er… how—"

Before he could finish his statement, Diane shook her head.

- "All I know is that this is a very unfunny déjà vu!"

- "This has happened—"

She sat down on the bed.

- "God no… at least not with someone I barely know! I'm not that kind of person! This has happened to Alexis—"

Keeping the pillow against him, he kept his back to the wall as he moved toward his clothes; they were neatly folded on top of the dresser. Looking about the room, he noticed that Diane's clothing had been hung. The situation was curious… to say the least.

- "She's woken up with—"

She rubbed her temples in order to ease her pounding headache.

- "Mac. That's how their whole escapade started. And for some reason, the same has happened with us. Shit. What the hell happened last night?"

He handed her her clothing.

- "Do you normally hang your clothes before… you know? And… er… do you know where we are?"

She looked about the room. She had not the slightest idea.

- "My best guess: the stables. You know, other than the fact that I sleep completely in the nude, even on the coldest day of winter – one can never be to prepared, if you catch my drift – I don't think we have much to worry about here, Mathieu."

Before he could respond, she pointed to the pillow.

- "I have plenty of experience bullriding… especially as of late. HOWEVER, if I had ridden in the Kentucky Derby, I think I'd know. I'm walking entirely too normally to have saddled up with you last night. No sir… I'm sure of that."

Letting out a sigh of relief; he was not exactly his type; he could not have imagined, even in a drunken stupor, sleeping with the inebriated attorney. He interrupted her.

- "Alright, I… uh… I will let you get dressed. I think I should look around; maybe something will help me remember how I… we… got here."

Covering her face as the sound of his accented voice aggravated her headache, she waved him out of the room.

- "Yea, yea. Whatever, Secretariat."

Walking down the apartment steps to what he presumed was the front door, he smiled; it was a nice apartment. While he liked his hotel just fine, he would not mind a place such as that.

- "Ok… let's see—"

He exited the apartment, and approached the elevator. From the apartment across the way, he heard a woman groan in what appeared to be annoyance.

- "Hmm… ouais…"

He could relate.

- "Ok, let's get outta—"

Still buttoning her shirt, Diane's mouth dropped as she exited the apartment and realized where they were.

- "Oh, you have GOT to be kidding me right now!"

And no sooner had she spoken had Sam appeared and the elevator door opened to reveal Alexis.

- "Oh… wow."

Sam looked from her father, to Diane, then to her mother.

- "Do I EVEN want to know what's going on here?"

At the sight of her best friend and ex… whatever… Alexis' hangover returned. She was not sure how she felt about the sight before her.

- "Yea, I'm… uh…"

She shook her head as she walked past the… couple… and moved toward the penthouse Sam had just exited. Her heart… hurt.

Keep me in your thoughts and prayers for this exam tomorrow... it's a bit of a big deal.