The greatest gift anyone had ever given her was asleep in the guest room of her penthouse. Alexis Davis was still finding it hard to believe that her baby sister was alive and back in her life after so many years lost, and it was all thanks to Jasper Jacks. How was she ever going to repay her best friend and the man she loved for such an amazing gift? She couldn't, there was no possible way, but what she could do was savor every moment with her sister and enjoy getting to know the bright and bubbly redhead. They had been spending the last few weeks getting to know each other and were finally starting to get into a somewhat normal routine with each other. They had seamlessly acclimated themselves into each other's lives and there were moments when Alexis forgot that they had lost years together, moments where it felt as if they'd always shared their lives, but then again she also had moments when she was all to clear about the time lost with Kristina.
Kristina's returned presence in her life had opened a flood of memories. Memories that were both consciously and subconsciously suppressed, suddenly came rushing to the surface. Memories of their mother that Alexis had blocked out after watching Helena slit their mother's throat. Memories of actually loving her father rather then fearing him, resenting him, and out right hating him for what he'd done to her. It was the memories of having and giving true and unconditional love to someone for first time in her life, and then of Mikkos' greatest betrayal that haunted Alexis more and more these days. Standing by her penthouse's terrace doors Alexis stared up at the moon as it hung over Port Charles. Silent tears rolled down her cheeks from sorrowful, remorseful and pain filled brown eyes as her thoughts traveled ten, eleven years back in time to the scariest, happiest, worst times of her life.
"Alexis?" A sleepy voice whispered from the stairs.
Alexis quickly wiped away her tears and swallowed the emotion from her throat. "Kristina, what are you doing up?"
The tall, slender, beautifully pale, bright hazel eyed, redhead walked over to her more olive skinned slightly taller, dark haired, dark eyed sister and reached out to wipe a falling tear off the older woman's chin. "Hey, what's wrong?"
"Nothing." Alexis lied as she gave her sister a weak smile. "I'm fine. Why are you up?"
Kristina shrugged. "I just felt the need to wake up. I think it's because my sister's upset about something. You don't cry without a damn good reason, Alexis. What's wrong?"
Alexis simply stood there and once again took her sister in. Kristina looked so much like their mother with very little of their father. In fact the teenager looked so much like Kristin Bergman that the sight of her freaked Helena Cassadine, their mother's murderess, the hell out. But Alexis found the similarities comforting for the most part. It was in moments like theses when her mind was so far away that Alexis found the sight of her beloved sister a little painful. "Nothing, I'm fine."
"You said that already." Kristina replied as she continued to look into her sister's expressive eyes. "I know I haven't known you for long, Alexis, but I do know you. I can tell something is really hurting you. Talk to me." She gave her sister a sweet and reassuring smile. "That's what sisters are for, right?"
"So I've been told by those who've had them longer." Alexis said with a sad little chuckle.
Kristina noticed that her sister kept looking at her but not in the same way she had been since they were reunited. She'd caught a look that said Alexis was half expecting her to be a dream and would disappear the moment she looked away. She'd also seen a look that was so full of love, gratitude, and longing fulfilled that she knew without a doubt that her sister loved her, missed her, and welcomed her back in her life without hesitation. The look in her eyes now however was full of pain so deep that it was crushing. "Are you thinking about Mama?"
Alexis looked surprised for a moment and then shook her head. "No, not Mama, but I guess in away I am thinking about our father."
"Mikkos?" Kristina asked, hoping to pull her sister into a conversation about what was troubling her so deeply. "What are you thinking about him?"
"About how he, either indirectly or directly, took from me the three people I loved the most in all the world." Alexis replied as she turned back to the window. "The three people who loved me almost as much as I loved them. Three pieces of my heart I never thought I'd ever get back."
Kristina moved closer to her older sister and pressed her hands against Alexis' back as she rested her chin on her shoulder. "Me, Mama, and who else, Alexis? Who else did Mikkos take from you?"
She hadn't told anyone and as far as she knew the only people who knew were herself and Mikkos. She never confided in Stefan, or even Jax who she loved, and trusted enough to tell him so openly the memories of her mother and lost infant sister. These memories, the ones now flooding her every moment, she had pushed these memories and the emotions that came with them to the deepest part of her soul and locked them away in an impenetrable box. Or at least it had been impenetrable until she held Kristina in her arms again. Having that piece of her heart back, a piece she never thought she'd have again, caused the box to dissolve and now Alexis was drowning in the memories, the emotions, and the scariest thing of all, the hope. If the piece of her heart that belong to Kristina could be returned, perhaps this piece could be as well?
"Alexis?" Kristina said softly. Her sister was so far away from her right now the older woman hadn't noticed Kristina turning her around her face her. "Natasha!"
Alexis blinked, her eyes filling with tears.
When the redhead realized her sister was back she asked again, "Who did Mikkos take from you?"
"My daughter." Alexis said in a trembling whisper.
Kristina's eyes went wide and she gasped a little before covering her mouth in shock. A moment later when she was recovered from what Alexis said she repeated, "Your daughter?"
Alexis nodded but didn't say anything more.
Taking her sister by the hand Kristina lead her to the couch before slipping into the kitchen and making them tea. She was wheeling from Alexis' revelation and wanted to know more, but Alexis seemed to be in shock just from uttering the words. After she pressed the cup of hot sweet tea into her sister's hands and watching her sip it for a few moments Kristina finally said, "You've never told anyone?"
Alexis shook her head and sipped her tea.
"Tell me, Alexis, tell me what happened." Kristina said lovingly.
Brown eyes locked with hazel that seemed almost as blue as their mother's in that moment. Several long minutes passed before Alexis finally began speaking. "Mikkos," It was almost painful to say his name, "sent me away when I was fourteen. He sent me to a boarding school here in the states to get me away from Helena and Stavros. I loved it. For the first time in years I was out from under their hate and contempt. I was finally able to thrive and develop into my own person. When I was sixteen I met someone and I got pregnant." Alexis whispered the last part as if she were afraid someone else would hear. She was silent for a moment, until Kristina reached out and took her hand, and then she looked up from the depths of her tea and once again into her sister's eyes. "I don't know how Mikkos found out so quickly. He was at my dorm room door before I'd been able to figure out a way to tell my baby's father. Oh, Kristina, you don't know how badly I wanted that baby. How badly I wanted to be her mother, to give her a life so full of love, the kind of love from my fuzzy memories of Mama, but Mikkos wouldn't allow it. He whisked me off to this clinic in Maine. A place for stupid, slutly little girls whose thoughtless actions endangered the well being of their family names, even if they didn't carry those names themselves."
"Alexis!" Kristina scolded at the description. "You weren't…"
Alexis shook her head. "I loved him, I think, my baby's father. He was the only one I'd ever been with and it had been my first time." She chuckled sadly. "My first time and I get pregnant, but it was such a lovely, such a loving first time." Alexis sighed as she finally set her mug of tea on the coffee table. "I loved being pregnant. Oh how I loved the little life growing inside my body. I read to her every night. I sang to her. I spoke to her in Greek and Russian so she'd be use to the sound of them as well as English. I explained what I was doing with my schoolwork. I spent every night dreaming of how I wanted things to be, of who she would be, only to have those dreams shredded to hell." The tears flowed down Alexis' cheeks like rivers. "I was still sixteen when she was born, Mikkos was my guardian, he signed away my parental rights, he placed her for adoption. I held my little girl, my perfect little daughter in my arms for an hour before they came for her, before they ripped her from my arms."
Kristina gathered her sister in her arms. She was shedding tears of her own as she held her sister while the woman wept for her lost child. When the sisters finally broke apart Kristina reached up and caressed Alexis' cheeks, wiping away her tears as she asked, "What was her name?"
Alexis blinked. "What? I didn't…"
"No, after the way you described your pregnancy, the way you bonded, she had a name." Kristina said softly. "What was it?"
Alexis hesitated before softly whispering, "Kristin."
"Mama would have like that." Kristina told her sister brightly.
"I've been wondering." Alexis said after a long pause. "I've been wondering if maybe I would have been able to keep her if Mama had been alive."
Kristina gave her sister a sad smile. "If Mama had been alive you're life would have been so different Alexis, so would mine, and neither of us would be who we are. Kristin may never have even been conceived." She watched her sister think about it and then nod before she asked, "Have you… have you ever tried to find her?"
"Once." Alexis admitted. "Just after Mikkos was killed. She would have still been a baby."
"What happened?" Her sister asked.
"I chickened out." Alexis admitted. "Mikkos promised me she would be given to a loving home, to people who would give her a loving, caring family, that she would be safe from people like Helena and Stavros. I went back to the clinic but I never asked. I got there and I suddenly thought what would happen if Helena found out about her? So I believed what Mikkos said, that she would be safer and that she would be loved, and I left. I went back to school and threw myself back into my studies."
"Which is why you're this young hot shot lawyer who makes people twice your age shake in their loafers." Kristina said trying to lighten the mood.
Alexis chuckled. "I graduated early and went right into law school. Worked just as hard there. It was easier to become obsessively compulsive with that then it was to feel."
Kristina nodded in understanding. "God Alexis. You've gone through so much in such a short life time."
"I'm not the only one who's suffered." Alexis said as she caressed her sister's cheek. "You lost your parents; twice."
The teenager sighed. "But I've found you."
Alexis smiled and pulled her sister to her and held her tightly. They sat there cuddled together, each lost in thought, for an hour before Alexis finally said, "Alright Kissy, it's late and you should get some sleep."
"Alexis." Kristina began to protest but stopped when her sister shook her head.
"I'll be alright." Alexis reassured. "It helped a lot to finally just say it all out loud. Thank you."
"You're not alone anymore Alexis." Kristina said as she hugged her sister. "I love you."
Alexis hugged her sister tight again. "I love you too little one." She pulled away and kissed her sister's forehead. "Now go to bed. I'm heading up myself soon."
"Ok." Kristina said. She got up and headed upstairs but stopped halfway and turned back to look at her sister for a moment. Just before Jax found her Kristina had lost her adoptive parents in a car accident. The sixteen year old was looking at a life with relatives she'd never felt comfortable with because she'd never felt accepted by them, but then Jax showed up with proof of her true identity and now here she was with her sister learning about whole lives that had gone on without her. Alexis had accepted her, she'd taken her in with no hesitation, loved her as if she had never stopped. She owed Alexis for taking her in, so after her sister left the next day for work Kristina picked up the phone. "Hi Jax, Kristina, I need to talk you about Alexis. Can you come over?"