Alexis arrived back at the hotel after a grueling afternoon of juggling Cassadine business concerns, the needs of her daughters and Laura's occasional hysteria. The one surprising bright spot was that Victor somehow managed to get Patrick reinstated, and the neurosurgeon had stayed behind to coordinate resources needed to move Nikolas from Miami back to Port Charles. The Spencers refused to leave her nephew's side, so Alexis returned to her hotel to take a breather from Nikolas's other family and join her own.

She approached the day as a list of tasks to cross off the list, suppressing any thoughts of the prince's condition. The mother-daughters' dinner, arranged by Molly, was in a corner of the hotel's restaurant—a steakhouse with a live piano player and dark mood lighting. Alexis approached the table and turned off her phone, noting the four voicemails Julian had left for her as she did. He would have to wait until she was ready. If she was ready. For now, she was preparing herself for dinner with her girls, another to-do on her list.

-"Hey, Mom. How's Nikolas," Molly greeted her mother, quickly kissing her cheek.

-"No change in his condition, baby."

-"Any word on moving him?" Sam had ordered a bottle of cabernet as they waited for her mother, and now she poured Alexis a glass.

Alexis put up her hand. "Whoa, Sam. WHOA." She gave her daughter a look. "I hope we're sharing this."

Sam poured her glass to the rim. "Nope. I've got my own."

Molly watched from her mother to her sister, realizing that if she had any questions she'd better get them in now.

-"Mom, you didn't answer Sam's question. Are we going to be able to move Nikolas?"

-"Yes we are, sweetie. Thanks to you."

- "Why? What did Molly do?" Sam asked.

-"She made me call Victor, who offered to try and work GH to get Patrick back on staff. And it worked. Pretty amazing really." Alexis went quiet as she mulled it over, eventually breaking her own train of thought. "Well, however it happened, the move is happening. Patrick is coordinating the equipment we'll need to transfer Nikolas. Hopefully in the next couple of days after he stabilizes."

-"How's Laura doing?" Molly asked. "It must be so hard for her and Lulu and Lucky. I mean, it's hard for me with Nikolas but if anything happened to you, Sam, or Kristina?" A tear started down Molly's cheek, and she wiped it away looking surreptitiously around the restaurant to see if anyone caught it.

Alexis put her napkin on the table. "Nope."

Sam looked at her, "What? What do you mean 'nope'?"

-"This isn't going to work. What are you girls planning on ordering?" Sam and Molly looked at each other and gave their mother their preferences. "OK. Hold the fort. I'll be right back."

The maître d greeted Alexis, and as her daughters watched in the dim light, his warm smile descended into a grimace before evolving into a wide smile devoid of any sincerity. He returned to the table with her and removed the wine bottle and everyone's drinks. "C'mon girls," Alexis said. "We're going."

Molly protested, "Mom, I'm hungry."

-"Yeah, Mom. Stay," Sam implored. "The food here is supposed to be really good."

Alexis smiled, "I know. That's why they're going to deliver it to us." She looked at the baffled Davis girl faces. "We've had a rough day, and we could all let that out a little. I'm not going to make us sit in a restaurant where people can stare at us in our grief. Not when I've got a perfectly good suite upstairs with a balcony overlooking the ocean."

A waiter returned with four large cups in a carrier. Alexis tipped him and led the girls out of the restaurant into the hotel lobby. "Where is the food?" Sam asked.

-"I told them to deliver it to our room."

-"I didn't know they delivered."

-"They don't, Molly. I just promised them that if he didn't deliver the food, we'd stay and ruin the ambience with our incessant wailing. Then I told him that our company has a contract with Marriott that I'd be happy to tear up and move to Hilton or Starwood. And voila! They deliver."

Sam smiled, "So what's with the beverages."

-"Our wine. I'm not leaving that behind."

The three sat on the balcony finishing the last of the chocolate mousse Alexis had ordered as a surprise and their wine. Molly had been shocked when her mother poured her a third of a glass, looking at her questioningly.

-"You're almost 17. We drank this stuff on the island when we were 12. It's a Cassadine tradition. Just make sure you sip it."

Alexis and Sam giggled as Molly took an overly careful first sip. "It feels warm." She took a few moments to process the taste before turning to Alexis. "So, Mom. How bad is Nikolas? Really?" Molly's eyes were wide and there was hesitation when she asked, as if she feared the answer. Sam instinctively moved her chair closer and threw her arm around her.

-"It's not good, Molls." Alexis was stoic and clinical as she shared the doctor's assessment, concluding with, "this trip back to Port Charles…it's because they can't do anything for him here." Molly started crying.

-"It's like Rafe, isn't it?"

-"A little bit. But there's no reason to give up hope, Molly. Miracles sometimes do happen."

Molly looked up at her, "Mom, I'm not a child. You don't have to talk to me like I am one."

Alexis whispered. "I know, baby. Here's the thing: if GH can't help him, we'll have plenty of time to be sad later. But right now, it doesn't hurt to hope. Right?"

-"I guess not."

Molly slept on one side of Alexis's king sized bed, while Sam and her mother huddled on the other.

-"She's asleep, Mom."

-"Hmmph. She liked the wine."

Sam smiled, "We'll see how much she likes it in the morning." She waited a few moments for the silence to sink in before gently grabbing her mother's hand. "He's not going to get better, is he Mom?"

-"It's like I told Molly…"

-"Mom. I'm not Molly. I know he's not getting better. I can see it on your face."

Alexis felt a tear roll down her cheek. "Probably not. But…"

-"But what, Mom?"

-"I have decisions to make and things to do. And if I stop for a second and think of a world without Nikolas I won't be able to."

Sam squeezed her hand, her own eyes wet. "Mom, what decisions or plans outweigh losing Nikolas? You need to prepare yourself for this."

-"His plans and his decisions." She stifled a sob. "I'm his executor. And I'm the only Cassadine left that's here to make sure that Spencer has a normal life."

-"Mom, but all that is later. All that is after…"

-"I know." Alexis paused and wiped a tear. "I'm just not ready yet." She squeezed Sam tighter. "How are you doing?"

She took a few minutes to articulate her thoughts. "When I….when I found out you were my mother and that I had this whole family, Nikolas was the only adult other than you…well, except for maybe you-know-who," she whispered and looked over at her sister out of guilt to ensure she hadn't heard. "I mean, does that make sense? His relationship to you…it was like he was a real sibling. Not that Molly and Krissy aren't—"

-"—they were babies."

-"Right. I couldn't see what a version of you and me looked like when I watched you with them. It wasn't a blueprint for a future relationship, you know? So I watched you sometimes with Nikolas. That's how I first started to really figure out who you were."

-"I never knew that…"

-"Well, it wasn't like I was going to come forward and tell you, Mom. I mean…I couldn't stand you."

Alexis chuckled. "Well, we couldn't all be 'Miss Congeniality,' Sam."

Sam smiled, "It's hard for me to say it's like losing a brother. Because it's not the same as when I lost Danny. But it definitely feels like I'm losing a piece of myself, of our family." She used the heel of her hand to wipe her eyes. "Are you sure about his condition, Mom? Are you really, really sure?"

-"Maybe we should go back to the hope thing for a bit."

Alexis got up at some point deep in the night to use the bathroom. She came back to find her small, teeny girls had somehow managed to sprawl across her bed. The clock read 2 am, but Alexis was wired. She moved out onto the balcony with her phone and turned it back on to check her messages. Patrick had left one saying they could probably leave in a couple of days. Laura had let her know how to reach her at a hotel closer to the hospital. There were two with assorted business crises, which she quickly skipped, and then she got to Julian: "It's me. I'm in the hotel, room 612. Whenever you need me. I love you."

Julian sat up realizing that there was a knock on his door. He saw the clock and threw the covers off the bed. He opened the door shirtless, natch, and squinted at the bright light of the hallway. As his eyes adjusted he saw that hers were wide and lost. She was standing ramrod straight, as though trying to be taller would compensate for how small she felt. "Hey," he murmured.

-"Hey," she whispered.

He walked into the hallway and pivoted behind her so he could more easily steer her into the room. Julian shut the door and was putting on the lock when he heard the first sob. He turned to her, and she collapsed into him. He walked her over to the bed, tucking her in before he crawled in on the other side.

-"What can I do for you? What do you need?"

-"I just have to get it out. I can't do it around Sam or Molly, Julian. I can't. They've got their own stuff between Ric and Rafe and the lake house…"

Julian grimaced at her list; were he to trace the origins of each disaster, he would find the seedling to be his arrival in Port Charles. He squeezed her tighter, pulling her flush against his chest. He whispered, "Tell me."

-"I said I would do it, but I don't know if I can."

-"Do what, sweetheart."

-"Turn the machines off."

He paused. "Is it your job to do that?"

-"Yes. I have his medical proxy."

-"OK. Did he tell you what he wanted?"

-"Yes. We talked about it a lot. And I made him put it in a living will."

-"So it's not a fear of making the wrong decision, right? You know what he wants. You can be confident in that."

-"Yes."

-"So what is it then? Is it actually turning them off?"

She started sobbing. "Yes. Julian, he was the second person that ever loved me. Really loved me. My family was so small for so long. I promised Stefan I would take care of him and that I'd protect him. And somehow I let this happen."

Julian tried to sort through her emotions to offer comfort, but he was struggling to follow her monologue. "Honey, this isn't your fault."

-"I missed a threat, Julian. I was busy with my life and I disentangled myself from Nikolas's. He was supposed to get married this summer and Britt had stolen his nephew. And I have maybe seen him twice since then. I promised Stefan I would watch him, and I failed. And now he's in a bed with a brain that doesn't even work anymore. He's already gone, Julian. He was in trouble, and I was just sleeping."

He woke to find her on the balcony watching the sun rise over the water. She had made some coffee and he found a lukewarm mug waiting for him.

-"Did you sleep at all?" He asked as slid the door shut behind him.

-"A little," she grimaced. "Thank you. I didn't mean to fall apart."

-"Seriously? You're kidding right?"

Alexis sighed. "It's really hard for me to put into words, what Nikolas means to me. And it's probably harder to follow since we really haven't discussed my family much."

-"Other than your step-mother."

-"Right."

Julian studied the rim of the mug. "You know, you said something last night that normally I would let slide. But given how your mother died…"

Alexis looked at him warily. "Yes?"

-"You said something about missing 'a threat.'" He paused and looked at her. "Are you saying you think someone tried to kill Nikolas?"

-"I know that he fell and hit his head. And I know that with his history of the tumor and the poison he was given—"

-"—your family poisoned him?" Julian asked incredulously.

-"No. Jerry Jacks did." Alexis was quiet. "My family has a history of killing to get what they want. He's the prince." She sighed. "I know intellectually it's probably the fall that did this to him. But I can't rationally accept that Nikolas is lying in a hospital bed with barely any brain function because the soles of his shoes were too slippery."

-"Are you saying you'd feel better if someone murdered him?"

She looked at him sadly. "No. I'm saying that I understand murder and dying violently. But I'm completely unfamiliar with people dying naturally or by accident. I don't really know how that feels." Alexis closed her eyes as she tried to articulate for him what she was feeling. Her eyes opened and she asked him imploringly, "Where are you supposed to target your anger?"

Julian grabbed her hand and kissed it. He looked at Alexis and wondered if Ava was right. Did he really know enough about the woman he loved?