Chapter Text
Chapter 29: A Different Road Back
For just a moment, when he stepped back into his living room and saw that his couch was empty, Sonny’s heart dropped to his knees. “Lex?” he called as jogged through the penthouse and tried to convince himself that nothing had happened. His mind was already working overtime and he wondered if Ric had gotten past his guards somehow. Had bringing Alexis into his home just made her more vulnerable to her ex-husband?
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Alexis shivered as she stood outside Sunset Towers and struggled to catch her breath. She had thought the fresh air would be good, perhaps it would be easier to breathe. Perhaps the open skies would help her feel less trapped. Sometimes that had worked in Greece, or at least she had pretended it had. Yet, eventually she always had to go inside, back to the life of nightmares. She would have to do that again. Sonny's penthouse wasn't exactly the fortress he believed. Yet, once she had believed that there, she was safe from her demons. Unfortunately going back inside meant facing more of her demons and Alexis wasn't sure she could do that.
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Sonny heard the tight gasping cough before he came around the corner of the building and it gave him hope. She was leaning against the building struggling to fill her lungs with air. He scooped her into his arms and started back inside. "The cold air can't be helping," he suggested.
For once she didn't have a ready retort, and that just concerned him more as he inserted his key into the elevator. Upstairs, he deposited her on his couch, pulled out Kristina's spare nebulizer, and emptied a vial of Albuterol into the chamber. He turned the machine on and passed the t-piece to Alexis who took it warily.
Sonny shook his head. "It's the same medicine that is in that inhaler you left upstairs, just a little bit easier. Trust me," he said. He winced at the irony of his last statement. If she trusted him everything would be so much easier. Maybe he didn't deserve easy any more than he deserved her trust.
Alexis glared back at him which pretty much conveyed her distrust. Sonny supposed he deserved that. He took another deep breath and tried to convey nonchalance he didn't truly feel. "So, when do you go see that lung doctor?" he asked.
"Dr. Thornhart is a pulmonologist," Alexis said.
Right, that was what I said, Sonny thought with a shrug of his shoulders. "Ok, so when?" he repeated.
Alexis didn't meet his eyes. "Sometime next week. The appointment is filed in my data deck."
Sonny decided not to ask what a data deck was. It was probably one of those new high-tech gadgets like that palm pilot Spinelli had tried to give Jason. "I'm going with you."
"What? No! You are not coming to a doctor's appointment with me! Now don't even think about trying to have Spinelli hack into the PCGH mainframe. They really cracked down on network security after that dateline expose and Nikolas is very well versed on HIPAA laws."
"Nikolas is easily distracted by bright and shiny objects, like that ring Dr. Drake put on Emily's finger," Sonny said but he almost had to smile that she was able to spout off at him. She had to be feeling at least a little better.
"If you must know, Nikolas has moved on."
Sonny shrugged his shoulders again. "If you say so. I'm sure that was why he wanted Kristina to invite Emily to her first Communion reception."
"Kristina has always liked Emily. Anyway, kids always invite their pediatricians to their things."
Sonny raised an eyebrow. "Really? I guess I never really had a pediatrician."
"Abused children usually don't. No one wants another witness to the bruises."
Sonny supposed she would know about that. Probably more from her own childhood in Greece than working as a prosecutor he suspected. At eight, Alexis had watched Helena Cassadine murder her mother. The incident had apparently been so traumatic that Alexis had repressed it for many years. So Mikkos Cassadine had brought his illegitimate daughter into the house of the woman who had murdered her mother and raised her as if she was a poor cousin taken in during a rare charitable Cassadine moment. His wife and oldest son, Stavros, had emotionally tormented and physically abused Alexis mercilessly and Mikkos’ nonintervention had at least implied acceptance. She had explained much of that the day he learned she would still be his attorney after all.
March 4, 1998
Sonny looked up from the ledger on his desk when Alexis stepped into his office. She looked completely downtrodden; she had told him that the meeting was a formality. She had claimed she already knew the outcome, but Sonny could see that didn’t make it any easier to take.
“So apparently you’re still looking at PCGH Pro Counsel,” Alexis said.
So perhaps she hadn’t known the outcome as much as she thought she had. “The hospital board went against your brother?” Sonny asked.
“Apparently the Quartermaines think I’m an asset to the hospital, exactly why I’m not sure.”
“You represented Monica during the Dorman Debacle, right?” Sonny asked.
“Actually I represented the hospital, of course since the hospital investigation had concluded that there wasn‘t any wrong doing on her part I suppose by proving that the hospital investigation was adequate, unbiased, and accurate that I did vindicate Monica. I also represented her in her countersuit against Dorman for sexual harassment which we won.”
“Because you take cases to win,” Sonny said.
Alexis smiled for the first time since she came into his office. “I do.”
“Well, I’m glad everything worked out for you. I think you could have been an asset to Corinthos-Morgan too.”
“Oh, the job at the hospital is part time at best. Lee Baldwin was the hospital attorney before and managed to find time to bill one hundred hours a week in private practice most weeks. I did more legal work for Cassadine Enterprises over the past two years than PCGH even with dealing with the trials and tribulations of Dr. Dorman, Dr. Collins, and now Dr. Lambert. I may have retained my position at the hospital, but Stefan made it quite clear I would have nothing to do with Cassadine Enterprises until hell froze over. Of course, I suppose with Mikkos there it could,” Alexis said. Her words were punctuated with a dry and bitter laugh.
Alexis must have realized he didn’t quite get her inside joke. “Mikkos had this great plan to freeze the world.“
“Seriously?“
“Yes, but who knows. He was a bit eccentric at the end. The servants suspected Helena was poisoning him. Not that they would have done anything about it.“
“Because they hated him too?“
“Oh, some of them did I’m sure, and for good reason. But honestly, they were afraid of Helena. Everyone was, well, except for her sons. Stavros perhaps hated me even more than Helena, but Stefan, well, he didn't. She hated him for that, and he became my protector. Maybe he did that just to get to her. Because it did get to her.”
“Your father didn’t protect you?” Sonny asked. Mike had never been there to protect him. In his mind that had often translated to Mike had never protected him, even if Brenda had always argued there was a distinction. Maybe there was.
“My father didn’t admit to being my father. I was raised as if I was some distant, poor, and unworthy cousin. There weren't a lot of options. My mother was dead, Helena slit her throat when I was eight. I was supposed to be hiding in the stables with my sister, but I went to check, and I saw the final fatal blows. I guess I repressed that, and I suppose that Mikkos couldn't quite fully abandon his child."
Sonny nodded even though he wasn't quite sure he fully understood.
Perhaps he still didn't fully understand. After all, Alexis's family was staging deadly vendettas while his ancestors were still toiling in their fields with the other peasants. Sonny shook his head as he recalled more of Alexis's post eulogy remarks. She had gone on to talk about the trail of death and destruction that followed him everywhere. He hadn't even tried to argue that point at the time. For years he had avoided any mention of anything that might possibly shift a conversation to Kristina Cassadine. He would have said he was respecting Alexis's feelings. He was respecting her grief. Or maybe he was. Maybe he was just spineless. Maybe they needed to talk about Kristina because she had never been acceptable collateral damage and maybe nothing would change until Alexis believed that.
As Sonny mulled all of that over in his mind, Alexis stood up from the couch. "I'm going to go sleep in Leticia's room. Don't follow me."
Her words caught him off guard. "Wait, you still haven't eaten dinner," he protested.
Alexis glared at him. "Yes, and, as we discussed before, my eating habits are not for you to comment on," she said as she started across the room towards the stairs.
"They are if your lack of them interfere with your ability to care for my daughters," Sonny threw back. Once the words were out, he knew they had been the wrong ones. Just once he wished he could figure out how to show concern without just completely annoying her. Because he was concerned. He always would be even if she didn't return his feelings.
Alexis stopped and spun back around to face him. Her eyes locked with his and grew harder, darker, and colder with each second of tense silence that passed over them.
Sonny squeezed his chin as he waited for her to speak. Yet, the silence remained unbroken as Alexis locked eyes with him and silently challenged him to continue. He couldn't though, and he had no idea how to take it back either. He exhaled praying for some clarity or divine intervention.
Alexis took a wavering, unsteady step towards him and then lurched forward in trembling fashion.
Sonny wrapped his arms around her and guided her over to his couch. He picked the glass of juice up from the tray on his coffee table and raised it to her lips. He watched as she sipped, then gulped, and then seemed to take a very shaky deep breath. Another rapid breath followed and then another. "Lex, don't do this," he said as he fumbled for a paper bag.
"You, can't, take, them," she eventually ground out around more gasping breaths.
"I don't want to take them," Sonny said as he raised the paper bag to her lips.
He didn't want to take their children away. He wanted to help her. Maybe she would never see that. "Don't you know me better than that by now?" he asked aloud.
Alexis didn't answer him. She broke into another round of coughing.
Sonny just shook his head and reached for another vial of Albuterol. As he poured it into the chamber of Kristina's nebulizer, he wondered what he was really doing. He still had no idea; except he couldn't let Alexis self-destruct.