He stood and watched as his daughter stared out the window. He had kept an eye on all of them over the years, watching them grow into the people they are, and none had made him as proud as her. She had endured so much tragedy in her life, and yet she'd become such a strong and brilliant young woman who loved life, who loved and was loved in return. He was proud of the woman his daughter had become, and yet it pained him to know that if he had been in her life she would not be who she is. He'd had such a demining attitude towards women that if he'd stayed present in her life he would have stifled her growth. Mikkos sighed softly. His little girl had been better off without him, and not for the first time he wished it had been him she'd lost all those years ago and not her mother.

"Natasha." He said softly as he came further into the sitting room.

Alexis closed her eyes at the sound of his voice. She was still dealing with the revelation that her father was alive, and that he had been watching their lives from a distance for all these years. When Stefan had first told her of Mikkos' death, Alexis had been torn. She was still so angry with him for taking her child from her, and yet she grieved for him like any child would grieve for a parent. She'd been heartbroken when she wasn't allowed to go his funeral. She'd shed tears over his tomb the one and only time she visited it. She could feel the anger rising in her chest again. How much emotional manipulation could she, would she, take from this man?

"Mikkos." She replied without turning around.

Mikkos frowned. "I am still your father, Natasha. You will address me appropriately."

Alexis turned to face the man. "What would be appropriate Mikkos? Shall I call you father or uncle? What roles are we going to play this time?"

"You know why I had to lie to you, Natasha." Mikkos replied as he looked into her dark eyes. They were dark like his own, but they were so expressive, so much like Kristin's. They were dark in color only, unlike his own. His darkness ran far deeper. "Helena would have killed you."

Alexis stared at him while the anger boiled in her chest. "She would have killed me. She would have killed my child. She did kill my mother. She caused me to loose my sister. You claimed to love us, Mikkos! Why didn't you protect us! Why didn't you kill her before she could destroy us all?"

"Because if I had killed her Stavros would have killed everyone in her name." Mikkos answered honestly.

"What?" Alexis asked, her eyes narrowed and her arms crossed in defiance.

"Helena had your brother completely under her control." Mikkos explained as he moved to the drink cart and poured himself a drink. "If I had killed Helena, which believe me Natasha I would have done happily when she denied me the divorce I asked her for, Stavros would have killed Stefan, you, and Kristina before finally coming after my brothers and me. He would have culled the entire family, leaving himself the last Cassadine standing." He took a drink before continuing. "So my only options were to try and control Helena as best as I could, or kill her and my own son."

Alexis listened. She knew what he said was true because that's just want Helena would do. Even her precious Stavros was a pawn in her game for power. It didn't help the anger any though. He was still the reason her mother was dead, the reason she'd gone so long without Kristina in her life, and the reason she'd missed the first ten years of her daughter's life. "Who controlled who? From where I stand she was the one with all the power. She killed my mother and nothing happened to her. She stole not only my birthright, but also my very identity, and nothing happened to her. She even killed my father, and nothing ever happened to her!"

Mikkos turned to look at his daughter. "Luke Spencer is the one who tried to kill me, Natasha. I must say, I highly disapprove of your choice of friends."

"I don't give a damn what you do or do not approve of in my life!" Alexis snapped. "And Luke might have been the one who tossed you into the deep freeze, but Helena's the one who drove you to the madness that caused you to be there in the first. My father was a brilliant man, a noble man, a kind and caring man. That man died the day my mother did. What was left in his place was a dark, evil, twisted madman who didn't think twice about hurting his own child, his own grandchild, or millions of innocent people."

"In regards to Samantha. I did what I thought was best for you both, Natasha." Mikkos replied calmly. "You were a child yourself. As for the rest, looking back, it was perhaps an ill conceived idea."

She looked at him and rolled her eyes. Only he would think freezing the world was in hindsight an ill-conceived idea, and not total and complete madness. "I could have done it." Alexis told him. "If you would have helped me I could have raised my child! Do you know what happened to her? Do you know what my child went through because of you? That clinic you forced me into was a front for a baby broker! My daughter was sold on the black market to a con artist for cash like she was an object rather then an innocent little child."

Mikkos took a step closer to his daughter as he said, "I didn't know, Natasha, I thought that clinic was a respectable place."

"You should have listened to me." Alexis told him coldly. "You should have heard me when I told you I wanted my child, that I wanted to raise her and be her mother."

"That's what you're doing now." Mikkos said with approval. "You're a wonderful mother, Natasha."

Anger flashed in her dark eyes. "I missed ten years of her life, Mikkos! I missed all her firsts! And worse then that, Sam suffered! She was smacked around and used. She went hungry, unbathed, unclothed, without a roof over her head!" Alexis stepped closer to the man. "I don't know why you brought us here, Mikkos, but if it was to make amends or to atone for your sins, it was a waste of a perfectly good kidnapping. For what you did to me and my daughter, I will never forgive you."

Mikkos watched as Alexis stormed out of the room with tears flowing down her cheeks and it broke his already weak heart. He walked over to the window where she had been standing and looked out over the view. He hadn't been expecting her to come back so when she spoke it startled him.

"I need to know one thing." Alexis said and then corrected herself. "Two things, actually. Did you know Sam was with the McCalls?"

"Yes." Mikkos answered without turning to look at her.

Her anger flashed. "How could you leave her with them?"

"You weren't ready." Mikkos answered.

"I wasn't ready for what?" Alexis asked as she came closer to him.

Mikkos turned around. "You needed to break away, to become your own person; you needed to step out of the shadows of others and stand in the sun on your own. When you did those things I made sure Samantha was set on the path that would bring her back to you."

Alexis narrowed her eyes at the man and crossed her arms over her chest. "Explain."

"Samantha was left behind when Cody McCall got into trouble he couldn't handle, correct?" Mikkos asked. When Alexis nodded he continued. "I made sure Mr. McCall would find that trouble. I also made sure that Sam's records were easily located."

Sam had never been in the Florida system. They never could figure out how Carly was able to find records on Sam when Sam had refused to give the authorities more then her first name. Now it made sense. "If you hadn't taken her in the first place…"

"Helena would have killed you both." Mikkos cut in.

Alexis glared at the man.

"You had another question." Mikkos reminded her.

It took several seconds for Alexis to bring herself to ask. Despite wanting to know the answer she was afraid of what it might be. "Did he ever come back?"

Mikkos looked at his daughter for several seconds before finally answering, "Yes."

Alexis' heart was caught in her throat. "Did you harm him?"

"No." Mikkos answered.

"Did you do something to keep him away?" Alexis asked, her voice betraying her emotions.

Mikkos nodded. "He wasn't who you thought he was, Natasha."

"What the hell does that mean?" Alexis asked as she angrily wiped a tear away.

"It means just what I said, Natasha." Mikkos replied. "He was not who you thought he was."

"Sammie?" Nikolas said softly as he stuck his head into his cousin's room. He'd been knocking on her door for several minutes but there had been no reply. When he stuck his head in he saw her sitting on her bed with her knees drawn up to her chest, her arms wrapped around her knees, and her head down. It was heartbreaking. He walked over to her and sat beside her, taking her into his arms and holding her tight.

Sam had managed to make it through dinner but as soon as she was alone she broke down. She was scared and confused, and she could tell her mother was just as emotional. She was worried about her mom, the baby, her aunt and cousin. She missed home and all the people there. It was just too much for her to handle. She'd heard Nikolas knocking but she hadn't wanted him to see her so crushed. Now that he had his arms around her, now that she heard his voice whispering into her ear, Sam realized just how badly she'd wanted someone to comfort her. She clung to her cousin as if she was drowning and Nikolas was her lifeline.

"It's going to be ok, Sammie." Nikolas reassured her. "I don't think we're in any danger. Aunt Alexis seems sure that this man really is Mikkos. And we won't be here forever. You know that Uncle is looking for us. You know that Luke and Jax are looking for us."

"You heard what my Mom said." Sam said with a sniffle. "No one knows about this place. Uncle Stefan won't know where to look or who to look at. He thinks Mikkos is still dead."

Nikolas kept physical contact with Sam even when she pulled away from him. He knew how much having his Aunts touch him when he was upset helped him to feel better, even if it was something as simple and subtle as brushing their fingers through his hair. "He'll figure it out, and if not, then Luke will." That was painful to admit. "He has this really weird knack for blowing apart the best laid Cassadine plans, and this time he'll have someone pushing him to be successful."

"Who?" Sam asked.

"My mother and Carly." Nikolas answered. "You know Carly won't let up on him until he finds you."

Sam smiled a watery smile at the thought of Carly. Then her eyes welled with more tears. "I want to go home, Niky. I want my Dad, and Carly, and I want my Mom safe at home and close to the hospital."

"I know, Sammie, and we'll get home, I promise." Nikolas pulled her close and hugged her again.

Zander knocked on the door of the brownstone and waited for someone to answer. He was worried about Carly. She was taking Sam being missing pretty hard, and he wanted to be there for her. He smiled warmly when Bobbie answered the door. "Hi Ms. Spencer. Is Carly home?"

Bobbie looked a little surprised. "No, she said she was going to be with you."

"I haven't seen her since yesterday." Zander said with a deep frown.

As soon as the seatbelt sign went off Luke made a beeline for the drinks. He was pouring himself a scotch as he explained, "The Cassadines have a habit of hiding things from each other as well as the rest of the world. They don't trust each other any more then we trust them. From time to time I comb through random global financials looking for any strange activity. I normally do it as a way of keeping track of Helena and Count Vlad, but recently I came across a name that peeked my interest."

"What name would that be?" Jax asked as Luke sat on the couch across from him on the private jet.

"Bergman." Luke answered then sipped his scotch. "Oh, good stuff pretty boy, I'm impressed."

Jax frowned a bit as he thought over what Luke was telling him. "As in Kristin Bergman? Alexis and Kristina's mother?"

"Yeap." Luke answered.

"So what? A relative or something?" Jax asked.

Luke shook his head. "Impossible. She didn't have any family. Most of them were wiped out following the world war two, and the ones who remained simply faded away year after year until she was the only one left standing." He took another sip. "What do know of the story of Kristin?"

"I know that she started out as a nanny for Stefan." Jax answered. "That Mikkos fell in love with her and hid her from Helena."

Luke nodded. He went into more detail about Alexis' mother, sharing some of the same stories with Jax that he'd once told Alexis. "She was Kristin Nelson at one point. Which is why when I noticed the name Nelson Bergman pop up in the places I normally look for Cassadines I got a little suspicious. Something about it just set my Cassadine sense tingling."

After discussing things for a few more minutes Luke excused himself to find the bathroom. When he opened the door to the compartment he was more then a little surprised at what he saw.

Carly smiled at her uncle as she waved at him. "Hey Uncle Luke."

"Caroline." Luke greeted. "You wanna get out of there. I kind of need to use the room."