Julian returned from the kitchen and saw that Cinder had left the building. He glanced at Alexis who sat on the couch.

"You kicked her out?"

She smiled.

"No…she gave me her tips on makeup and hair for the next pod cast interview."

He arched a brow.

"Next interview?"

She nodded.

"She said we need to launch a marketing campaign to counter what Shawn and Carly have been selling on the airwaves and in the press."

He joined her, kicking his feet up on the coffee table.

"So what did Coleman have to tell you?"

"Not much…oh he did mention he'd break more than a pool cue over my head if I messed you up."

She smiled.

"Good man that Coleman…and quite sexy in his own way."

Julian frowned.

"How sexy?"

She chuckled.

"That's for me to know and you to sit there and wonder about…well I'm off to the beach to finish my exciting novel."

She got up to go and change. He got out his cell phone and made a phone call to Sam.

Sam picked it up on the second ring.

"Hello Julian…."

"Hi Sam how are you and the little guy doing?"

A pause.

"Fine…just fine…listen I haven't heard from my mom but I know she's with you right? Is she okay? Do I need to come up there and kick someone's ass?"

He smiled. Leave it to his daughter to get straight to the point. Wonder who she got that from? He leaned back on the sofa.

"We're enjoying a holiday on the beach. We'd like to see you if you've got time."

"If I've got time…course I got time and I'm so on the assignment that you gave me…Spinelli too. We're doing double hours at the agency."

"Sam, I hope you're still saving time for a life."

She paused.

"Well if you mean me and Silas…your sister is sure making things interesting."

Julian sighed.

"Sam I gave her explicit instructions to not hassle you. So did your mom I understand but you tell me if she does try anything and I'll handle it."

Sam sighed in exasperation.

"I know you mean well….Julian but I can handle my own competition even if it's some nutty aunt who doesn't know how to walk away when it's over."

"Sam…"

"No if you want something to do you take care of my mom. You undo some of what you did to her and make sure nothing happens."

"I'm doing that but well, she's as stubborn as you when it comes to accepting someone's help when there's trouble…must be a family trait."

"Must be…I'm going to settle things here and then Danny and I will drive down to visit you and bring some things…for the day."

"Your mom will be happy to see the two of you and so will I."

He clicked off the phone happy that things were going much better with Sam…now all he had to do was figure out how to navigate the minefield that had become her mother.

Alexis went down to her familiar spot on the beach to finish her book. She felt the warmth on her skin and watched the waves lap the shore in front of her. Spreading the towel, she lay there and started reading.

She didn't want to think about Julian right now. She'd said too much to him already breaking her promise to herself not to share personal information about herself...not so worried that he'd use it against her to win some objective. But she'd spilled so much already, all that was left was the more difficult truths, the ones she'd kept tightly buried for the most part for many years.

The sun shone brilliantly over the waters of the Mediterrean Sea sparkling the tips of its waves like diamonds and sail boats bobbed in the distance alongside cruise liners. Alexis had slipped out of her prison to the coastline just a half mile down a stony path and down a twisty staircase to where the packed sand met the bluff. She hadn't come down alone as her cousin Stefan Cassadine had joined her. He'd served as lookout for the servants as well as Helena while she snuck out of her suite. She'd finished the homework the tutor had given her hours away and had grown bored and restless.

She and Stefan walked to where the tide tickled their bare feet after slipping off their shoes. She felt the delicious coolness which contrasted the heat that baked the island in the dead of summer.

"It's a beautiful day," Stefan said quietly, "I'm going to miss the Island when I head back to Cambridge."

Alexis felt sadness that he was leaving, her only friend in a sea of enemies on Cassadine Island. Stavros had left earlier traveling with his father Mikkos to Athens on a business junket and she was always glad when he left the island.

But Stefan had protected her from so much. It's just that there were some things even he couldn't prevent. How she felt inside, as if a part of her had died…leaving her mostly numb because grief and sadness were emotions alien to her heritage.

The dreams that haunted her at night of what could have been…if only her baby hadn't been ripped away from her…precious moments after she'd been born.

Alexis had only held her child once and it'd have to last her the rest of her life.

"Hey, you've got to forget about it," Stefan said, "The baby's gone and it's for the best. You need to forget about her and move on with your life. Finish school. Go to Yale, law school and then work alongside me running Cassadine Industries."

She barely heard him, her focus out into the endless ocean in front of her that even the horizon couldn't limit. Somewhere out there, her baby lived with a mother who hadn't carried her for nine months and then birthed her in a chalet in Maine hidden away from the world. In her baby's new world, she had a father who loved and raised her, not one she would never know.

Her uncle had promised he'd find her baby girl a good home. But the visions in her head of the life her daughter must be living…didn't make her come back to life inside. Stefan's words as logical as they sounded bounced off the surface.

"When you leave Stefan I don't know what I'm going to do."

He sighed.

"Alexis you can handle life here. Just stay out of sight, away from my brother, study hard and one day you'll step foot off the Island again…"

She furrowed her brow.

"I don't know…something's wrong. Mikkos and his brothers…they're away most of the time. Mikkos seems more on edge and Helena…"

"Is just being Helena… My father and uncles are working on some deal…they've been heading to auctions looking for some diamond. But then it's not the first time they've been involved in something crazy."

Alexis knew that something dark, something dangerous was brewing on the Island and she knew she just had to figure a way to survive until like Stefan said, she could leave it behind her. That meant pushing down deeply everything having to do with the baby she lost because if she succumbed to it, that would surely keep her prisoner more securely than an island compound out in the middle of an endless sea.

Alexis blinked her eyes waking up, not realizing she'd nodded off while reading. She was no longer alone. At some point, Julian had joined her.

Wearing his damn speedos again, cursed. She marveled the absolute lack of modesty the man had when it came to shedding clothes. She assumed both Carly and Olivia had found that marvelous too.

"Sam and Danny are coming to visit."

She smiled at him.

"Oh that's good news. I missed them…"

He digested that and then looked at her carefully.

"What's with Stefan?"

She looked at him warily.

"What do you mean?"

"You were sleeping, must have been dreaming and his name came up…"

She sighed.

"Oh…Nothing…you know he's my half-brother. But he's been dead for some years now."

"He doesn't have nine lives like Stavros?"

She narrowed her eyes.

"Apparently not, but then Stefan wasn't Helena's favorite. He wasn't bad enough at least not until much later on."

He chuckled.

"That makes two of us."

"Yeah well, you still have time to change that script if you want. It's up to you to decide what to do. You've got a mess waiting for you back in PC but your social life at least won't hurt for long."

He sharpened his glance.

"Meaning…"

She shrugged.

"You bedded two of Sonny's molls and managed to do Olivia without her seeing you in a vision first. I imagine they'll be waiting for you…with Sonny going off to prison."

He pursed his lips.

"Carly's off helping her business partner Shawn and Olivia's probably hanging out at the FBI station, while they interrogate Sonny."

"That still leaves you plenty of time. Not that I'm judging you but it seems that you might have your hands full."

He chuckled.

"And I thought I was the master of deflection. First of all, both women as you know were part of the master plan."

She rolled her eyes.

"Oh yeah right…that. The one that I took myself out of the running from early on…"

His eyes grew serious.

"The one that thankfully you took yourself out of the running early on…"

She fell silent then.

"So back to Stefan…?"

She blinked her eyes.

"What?"

Julian moved closer to her.

"You were close to him growing up weren't you?"

She nodded.

"We spent time together usually at the beach on the island during the summers I lived there. He's my only friend in that family or was until he went into a dark mood at the end."

"Did he know about Sam?"

She paused looking at the ocean and then glanced over at him.

"Yeah…he did…I spent the summer after she was born back on the Island when he was there. We spent a lot of time together. Mikkos and his brothers were of course gone most of the time planning that whole Ice Princess Caper."

"Ah, the plot to freeze the planet."

Alexis shrugged.

"It almost worked in PC. But I was being tutored to be ready to apply to Yale when I was old enough and the rest of the time…well Stefan helped me sneak out of the compound. He knew it was…hard for me and well Cassadine men don't care much about emotional stuff…they're trained from the cradle but Stefan… he wasn't from the usual mold."

"I'm glad you had someone in your corner."

She smiled but her eyes betrayed some sadness from long ago.

"Me too…

Her hand lay on her towel and he placed one of his hands on top of it and she didn't move her own away.