Alexis rolled up to the gate and announced herself. As the large iron bars rolled back, she proceeded to the large home on a small hill. In the moonlight it seemed like a place that was haunted. Alexis shuddered to think that at one time she might have lived there.

The door opened as she approached, "Good evening, Ms. Davis. It's late and the boss has asked if you can come back tomorrow. He's busy."

-"Hi Max. I know it's late, but I have to talk to Sonny."

-"It's really not a great time."

-"Really? Too busy with Carly?" she asked conspiratorially. Max was impassive. "Max. That is her car in the driveway. I know she's here." Alexis sighed. "Look Max, I've had a long night. Tell Sonny it's an urgent legal emergency. The Constitution lost an amendment! Tell him it's the sixth one. Ooh better yet the second-that would be a boon to business. He'll come running on that one." She didn't know why she was being so flippant, she was chalking it up to nervous exhaustion. Her efforts were wasted, though. Max was unmoved. She sighed, "Look, I'm not leaving until I see him. I'll take any heat and say I lied to you to get in."

-"OK. Can you just wait on the sofa? I'll let him know."

-"You're a prince, Max."

Alexis sat and took a couple of deep breaths. Carly and Sonny again? She shook her head, happier than ever she was here to quit. It had been a long time coming; the resignation had been on her computer since the day she started. But it had always been so much easier to stay. It never seemed worth the hassle of a battle with Sonny. Until now.

Sonny padded down the stairs in satin pajama bottoms and a black tank top. He looked at her unsure whether to be annoyed or concerned. "Alexis," he mumbled, "What's going on? Why are you here?"

-"I'm sorry to wake you, Sonny. This couldn't wait anymore." She cocked her head to the side and began her preamble. "When I started working for you again, it was with the understanding that it would be temporary."

-"Well, we had a deal Alexis."

-"We did. And we both fulfilled our parts of it. And I appreciate that I got a chance to work with you again. But it's over now." She passed him a sheet of paper. "I'm sorry, but I have to resign."

Sonny looked at the paper and read the brief statement. "Well, I don't accept this Alexis."

Alexis sighed. She had held onto a brief glimmer of hope that Sonny would thank her, shake her hand and she'd be on her way; she didn't have time to waste on this.

-"Sonny, you have to accept it. I quit."

-"Why? I mean why now?"

-"Sam."

-"What about Sam?"

-"She was arrested today. They think she killed Silas and Nina. It's a mess, and I need to focus all my resources to defend her."

-"Well, OK. You can take some time off. Come back when you're done."

-"Sonny, you're not—ugh. No, I don't have time to explain this. I quit. I can't work for you anymore."

-"Alexis, I don't accept this. I mean we're family."

-"We're not family, Sonny. We're friends. We share a daughter. A daughter who is fully grown and taking care of herself. Sam is my family. Molly is my family. Kristina is my family. You are an old friend. A dear friend, but a friend nonetheless."

Sonny's eyes were hurt, and he was starting to lose his temper. "I'm not about to let you quit, Alexis. You're the best lawyer I've ever had."

-"I've already talked to Diane. She's happy and willing to help you with the transition to a new lawyer. I bet you can even convince her to stay on full time. She misses you, even though she won't admit it."

-"Well, I don't know if I want Diane." He took a minute to look at the note and processed her last statement. "And when do you think this is effective?"

-"Today. Now."

-"No," he shook his head as though the mere act was shutting the door on the conversation.

Alexis looked at him hard. "Sonny, I'm walking out this door. I no longer represent you. When I leave here, I will have one client. My daughter."

-"What if I sue?"

Her mouth agape, Alexis was silent for a full five seconds. "Sue me for what? For able representation for years? For keeping you out of jail when you basically belong there? I have given you notice. I am going to make sure your legal needs continue to be met. I will fulfill all my existing legal obligations to you Sonny. But I am no longer your attorney." Alexis turned to walk out the door, mumbling under her breath "sue me. He thinks he's going to sue me." She whipped around.

-"You know it's amazing to me that you pull the Kristina card every time you need something from me. 'We're family, Alexis' 'My family is your family' Well you know what, Sonny? I've seen how you treat your family. And I don't want any part of it. If you need anything call Diane. I'll work with her."

Sonny started to speak as Alexis turned to walk out the door. He was saying something but she was too angry to hear it. She needed to drown it out. "Goodnight, Carly," she yelled as loud as she could as she slammed the front door behind her.

By the time Alexis rolled into her spot it was 11. She took the elevator to the penthouse. The fight with Sonny took her back decades earlier and when the doors opened she half-expected to see Johnny standing in front of her door. The key worked on the first try, too. But as she opened the door, the familiar feeling of living alone overwhelmed her. The room was empty.

Alexis put down her keys and heard a noise upstairs. She froze. "Diane?" she called tentatively.

-"Nope. It's me." Julian came bounding down the stairs. He stopped when he saw her. "Hey."

-"What are you doing here?"

-"After the police left, I came up. Diane let me in and we both worked on cleaning stuff up. We figured you and Sam would want to come home to some semblance of order."

Alexis nodded her head and walked over to the bar, pulling out the bottle of Macallan 12 and two glasses. She didn't look at him as she poured the second one, "I'm assuming you want one." She turned and handed him the glass silently on her way to the couch.

-"OK. So I'm assuming Sam isn't parking the car, Alexis. What happened?"

She took a sip from her glass. "They arrested her."

-"What?"

-"Yup. The evidence is all circumstantial, but they felt like they needed to do it." She had yet to look at him. "Look. I know you have questions, but I need to talk to Diane to find out what the police left here with. Can you entertain yourself for a couple of minutes?"

"Sure." Julian watched her walk up the stairs. He was anxious to follow her: patience wasn't one of his virtues and he'd waited hours for news of their daughter. But something about her voice, how she held herself—it was different. It told him his best play was to wait. He looked at the glass she left on the table with a finger's worth of scotch left. She'd be back.

Ten minutes later she walked downstairs, clad in the same yoga pants and t-shirt he'd seen her in the night before. He wished for a moment she'd put on the pale gray robe that always seemed to enhance how luminous she was in the morning. But he stopped himself when he realized he no longer had the right to want that. And then he remembered that one of the reasons why was the robe no longer existed; it was a pile of ashes among roofless rubble next to the lake.

She returned to the living room and sat in the solitary chair. She held up her hand and he passed her the scotch. Alexis took another pull and put it down on the table. For the first time since she'd arrived home, she looked at him.

-"Thank you for cleaning up. I don't think I could have faced this place after the police tore it apart. That was very thoughtful."

-"Alexis. I know you're tired, but tell me about Sam. I'm really worried."

-"It's those paternal instincts kicking in," she smirked. "Well, Julian. It seems that Sam has no alibi, she recently had a fight with Nina and Silas—which a neighbor witnessed—and Silas and Sam broke up."

-"That's it? That's all they have?"

-"For now."

-"What does that mean? 'For now'? Sorry, Alexis, but you're being really cryptic. What's going on?"

She couldn't share Samantha's Adventures at Crichton Clinic with him. She'd have to wait for the police to drop that shoe or Sam to tell him. That left one topic of discussion. She took a deep breath.

-"Give me your wallet."

He looked at her and shook his head in disbelief. "So we're going to do this now? You're going to be my lawyer." Julian sighed exasperatedly. "I thought you couldn't represent me because it was a conflict with Sonny."

-"I don't work for Sonny anymore."

-"Since when?"

-"Since about an hour ago."

-"Why do I need a lawyer, Alexis?"

She giggled. "Really? You're asking me?" The giggling continued, "How would I know, Julian?" She wasn't sure why it struck her as funny, but she couldn't stop laughing. "I'm just playing the odds, really."

His mouth was slightly ajar at the sight of Alexis. For three weeks he would have done anything to hear her laugh again. But this was bitter to his ears. He just wanted it to stop. "I guess I deserve that."

She eased into a sigh. "There's no guessing about it," she said pointedly. Alexis rose and went back to the bar to retrieve the bottle and brought it back to the table. She then opened his wallet and took out the biggest denomination he had. He lifted an eyebrow remembering Sam's retainer of a dollar. "I'm worth it," she winked.

Julian thought she may be a little drunk. This wasn't flirtation; it was something else, something angry. It was a side of her he hadn't seen before. He wasn't sure where she was going, but he felt he needed to move it along.

-"OK. You have your retainer. You're my lawyer. Can we get back to Sam now?"

Alexis raised her glass and toasted in his direction. "Once more into the breach." She drained the glass. God, she wished she had vodka in the house. As the burning subsided, she sat up straighter. She wasn't drunk, or even tipsy really. But the scotch was a nice bit of liquid courage.

-"Right. On to Sam."

-"Can you explain the 'for now'? What are they going to get later?"

-"Yes, I can since it's all on the record now. Silas and Nina were killed with a 22. Sam owns a 22. The PCPD naturally wanted to test the ballistics of the gun, so they got a warrant to get the gun from her office. That's where we were when I called you."

-"Ok, so then why did they search the penthouse?"

-"Great question, Julian. Well, you see it turns out that the gun wasn't in the safe where Sam left it."

-"What do you mean?"

-"I mean yesterday at around 2:15 Sam locked her .22 caliber handgun in her safe. And today at 3-whatever when we went to open the safe, it was gone."

-"How is that possible?"

-"Because someone is setting up our daughter, Julian. That by the way is not on the record. It is the conjecture of the accused and her counsel," Alexis lifted the bottle. "I'm going to have more, any interest?" Julian nodded his head and Alexis poured.

-"So, who'd want to set up our daughter?"

-"You know that's a great question, Julian, and I spent the better part of the day thinking about it."

Julian eyed her without expression. He knew she was warming up to something. He suspected where she was going, but he opted to let her run with it. Julian approached these conversations as poker hands; he'd learned early the best way to hide what you were holding was to wait for your opponent to open. Sharing before you needed to was just another type of tell. He would wait until she made her final bid, then he'd respond accordingly.

Alexis continued. "And do you know what I thought about today? Or I guess I should say who." She paused for dramatic effect. "Ric Lansing."

-"Really?"

Alexis tried to read his face, but she knew it was futile. He would stay impassive until he was in a corner. And that was fine because she had one with his name on it.

-"Yup. It was just a feeling when I was at Sam's office. Something familiar but dangerous. That's when I called you as a matter of fact. But it wasn't until I was in the interrogation room and saw my baby cuffed to the table that I saw his face clearly."

-"Why was that?"

-"Well, I think in that instant I was remembering when Ric was prosecuting Sam for allegedly killing Diego Alcazar and she was cuffed to the table, just like she was today. And from there, it just snowballed. I thought of all the despicable, deplorable things Ric had ever done. I mean, he wasn't just an unbelievably corrupt DA. He threw in with Sonny, and the Alcazars and the Zaccharas. And I'm not even counting what he did to me. Arresting me when I had cancer, the adultery…do you know the reason he started dating me? Because he found out Kristina was Sonny's. No one else knew that but Ned. And then he would go and do something lovely like stand by me when Kristina got sick. Of course that was only because it benefitted him." She knew she was rambling but she didn't care. "In summation, Ric could be sweet on occasion but tended towards being a devious bastard." She looked at Julian who remained stone-faced.

Alexis sighed and looked at her drink, contemplating another sip. She opted to set the drink down on the table, and she turned to Julian. "And in spite of that long list of sins and crimes, do you know he was maybe arrested once? Never charged, I don't think. Never stood trial. And do you know why that is Julian?"

-"No"

-"Because even though he was an asshole, he wasn't the type of asshole that was stupid enough to shoot someone, leave his prints on the gun and then hide it in his hotel room."

Julian took a sip of his drink and turned to her. "It seems you have a point Alexis. So why don't you go ahead and make it."

She continued in a flat voice. "I think you had a boss Julian. And I don't think he liked it when you tried to leave. You needed a fall guy for the drug shipment, so you gave them Ric. I don't know where you found the evidence; it was impressive, by the way. In fact, it's not something you could have developed overnight. Clearly, there were plans in place to set up Ric as a fall guy for months before you actually pulled the trigger. Pun intended, by the way."

She stood up. "So my point: I don't think Ric was your boss." She took a deep breath, "I think you have another boss, Julian. I think you continue to piss him off which is why my house blew up and why he's framing our daughter."

Julian sat silently on the couch. "Alexis…" he trailed off.

Her tone switched from accusing to pleading. "You can tell me, Julian. I'm your lawyer now. It's all confidential. Tell me who it is and we can take him down. We can protect Sam. Please, whatever he wants. Just do it."

-"What makes you think someone's blackmailing me?"

-"Because it doesn't make sense, otherwise. If you want to frame Sam, you use her gun and put it back so the police have it. No, someone's holding onto the gun and using it as leverage."

Julian felt a pit in the bottom of his stomach. He mentally went through the list of things his boss had recently requested. He'd been compliant on all of them. Maybe this was preparation for a new order? Something he thought Julian would balk at?

Alexis looked at Julian and saw the wheels turning. She walked up to him and put her hands around his face. "Just tell me who it is Julian. We can figure our way out of this." He looked at her eyes. He just couldn't do it. It was still too dangerous.

-"Alexis, Ric was my boss. I'm not lying to you."

She pulled away from him in frustration. She was so close! She could feel the tears of anger pooling behind her eyes. She started pacing across the floor.

-"Alexis…"

-"No. You're lying to me. Why? Why can't you trust me?" She could feel the desperation work it's way up through her body. "I figured it out Julian. You're not telling me something I don't already know."

-"Sweetheart…"

-"Don't sweetheart me, Julian. Don't condescend to me. You think I'm that stupid? That I'm some kind of lovesick fool that's going to buy your shit." She stopped and closed her eyes. "Of course that's what you think. Because that's what I've been."

-"Alexis, please…"

The sound of his voice increased her anger "Don't 'Alexis, please' either. Let me tell you something 'sweetheart' you may have given me back my grandson, but you have made me pay for it." He winced as she continued. "My house is gone, Julian. My relationship with Molly is destroyed. My heart? You ripped it out when you lied to me. And I'm not even including how your little war against Sonny is going to hurt Kristina."

She paused for a moment to get her bearings. "But all of this, Julian? All of this is forgivable. It will take time but I can work through it. Because there is a part of me that still loves you and misses you and aches for you."

He looked at her and felt the tears well up.

"But if I lose Sam, Julian…if they rip her from me again, I swear to God not only will I never forgive you, I will make it my *mission* to destroy you. You'll long for the day you could have told me right now, in this living room, who your boss is."

She saw a tear start in the corner of his eye. "Please," her first sob escaped. "Just tell me." And then the sobs kept coming. The exhaustion from the day overwhelmed her. The realization that it was happening all over again; after the miracle of getting Sam back she was going to lose her a second time.

Julian was overwhelmed. Her sobs were tearing into him; he wanted to make it go away. He walked over and gathered her in his arms, pulling her tightly into his chest. As he tried to soothe her, he realized that he was instinctively mimicking the comfort he'd watched her provide her children and his grandson. It was one more thing she'd given him, and he suddenly couldn't remember why he was lying to her. He'd sworn up and down that if he could turn back the clock, he'd fight to keep her and Sam safe. And now it was like fate was calling him out, and he just didn't have the heart to bluff.

Her sobs continued to rack her body and she fell against Julian. She hated him, but she needed him. And then she heard it. At first she thought it was a hallucination, but he repeated it. "Shhh. OK, Alexis. I'll tell you. I promise. But you need to calm down first." And the wave of relief that spread over Alexis just made her hug him harder.