Luke
leaned over the counter and handed Alexis a list of phone numbers.
"These numbers are where you can get your Port Charles news
from. I'll make sure that Nedly and Mr. Jacks understand if they've
got anything to tell you, not to leave messages on your voice mail.
They'll call one of these numbers instead. Sorry, Natasha, but you'll
have to call all of them every day to collect your information."
"Thanks, Luke. I appreciate it. Thanks for arranging everything
so quickly." Alexis folded the piece of paper and put it in
her coat pocket. "I've got to go."
"Just a second, I've got one more gift for you." Luke
pulled something from beneath the bar; it was a large Bowie knife,
sheathed. "I want you to have this, just in case you run into
Hells on your trip." Alexis looked reluctant to take it. Luke
looked intently at her and said, "Natasha, if you do run into
Helena, you're going to need that knife and the first SWAT team
you can find to survive her. Take it."
Luke slid the knife across the counter and Alexis put her hand on
it. She stared at Luke and said, "Thank you." She took
the knife with her when she left.
*****
Alexis stared at her daughter, asleep in the car seat. The tiny
girl had dozed off an hour before; they'd been on the road for more
than three hours and Alexis didn't know how much longer she could
stay awake, herself. She didn't want to fall asleep, though. If
she slept, she'd see Nicholas, she'd see Stefan, she'd see her sister,
and her mother...all the people she loved whom she'd never see again.
"You all right?" Sonny asked beside her. He'd driven them
out of Port Charles in a 10-year-old blue Volvo, and hadn't spoken
ten words to Alexis during the entire ride.
"I'll feel better once we get there," Alexis said, turning
away from Kristina, satisfied she was safe for the moment. "Do
you really think Helena won't suspect where we're going?"
"Jax is sending out five decoys right now, by jet and boat,
to the far corners of the world. That'll at least slow her down.
And she never came to see you at school, right? So she doesn't know
these woods, and you do. That's an advantage."
Alexis nodded, wishing she could feel as sure as Sonny sounded.
When they were brainstorming where they should go, Sonny told Alexis
she needed to be somewhere where she felt safe, but it had to be
completely unfamiliar to Helena. Somewhere Helena had never been,
and wouldn't ever think of going. Alexis had suggested one of the
small, sparsely populated farm towns near her boarding school in
New Hampshire. Sonny had smiled when she mentioned it. "Perfect,"
he'd said. "I always wanted to see that school of yours."
Alexis hadn't commented, and it was the last real conversation they'd
had all night. Till now.
"I still don't understand why you're coming with us,"
Alexis said, gazing at Sonny's profile in the moonlight.
"Because this way, you don't match the description of a single
woman travelling with a child. That's what Helena's spies will be
looking for. I told you I'd help you, and that means trying to give
you the best possible chance." Sonny looked straight ahead
at the road as he spoke, not glancing at Alexis once.
"But Sonny, you've got a wife and child at home. And it's almost
Christmas," Alexis said on a sigh, peering out at the darkness
and catching glimpses snow-covered ground where the moon struck.
"I promised Michael I'd be home for Christmas. Benny will tell
Carly I'm on a business trip."
"You didn't talk to her before we left Port Charles?"
"I don't talk to her when I'm living under the same roof as
her," Sonny said enigmatically, and Alexis didn't ask him to
explain. She had enough to dwell on without puzzling out Sonny and
Carly's dysfunctional relationship.
****
The small house Sonny'd managed to find them was really more of
a shack. It stood on the north end of the property of a man named
Woodson. It had obviously been built for hired help, in the days
before farm machinery had made half the farm jobs unnecessary. The
place was dusty and small, but it was dry and well-furnished and
there was a fireplace, which Alexis looked at longingly, holding
the sleeping Kristina tightly against her chest, to keep her warm.
"You're beat," Sonny said. "Why don't you get to
sleep? I'll get the fire started before turning in."
"There's only one bedroom," Alexis said, walking around
the tiny cabin, still holding her daughter. "We could take
the bed on alternate nights, if you want."
"The couch'll be fine. You and Kristina take the bedroom."
Alexis nodded. She carried Kristina into the bedroom and closed
the door.
Half an hour later, Sonny lay on his back on the wide, old-fashioned
cream-colored couch, one arm stretched across the high back and
the other behind his head. His shirt was unbuttoned, and heat wafted
steadily at him from the crackling fire. He could hear Alexis moving
around in the other room, making soft noises as she got ready for
bed. It reminded him of nights long before, nights he'd spent guarding
Alexis in her apartment, him on the couch and Alexis in the bedroom,
a few thin walls between them.
Sonny sighed at the memories. He remembered Alexis in a lavender
nightgown, trying to avoid his wolfish grin. Those had been confusing,
strange times, filled with flirting and friendship and signals so
mixed up from both sides that they seemed to need decoder rings
-- and they never had them. In retrospect, he realized, those had
been some of the happiest times of his life.
****
"Stefan! STEFAN!" Alexis sat up gasping and wild-eyed.
"Shh, it's okay. You're safe, you're safe," a deep voice
said, and Alexis trusted the voice. She reached out in her panic,
and a warm hand took hers. "I'm right here," the voice
said.
Alexis blinked, feeling unsteady and unsure of where she was, what
was going on. She'd dreamt she'd seen Stefan's body....Then she
remembered. Stefan was really dead, and so was Nicholas, and she
was here, on the run, with Kristina and...
"Sonny!" Abruptly, Alexis pulled her hand away from his.
"Quiet, you'll wake Kristina." He looked over at the tiny
little girl, who slumbered peacefully through her mother's nightmare
and sudden wakening. Thank God for the deep sleep of children,
thought Alexis.
Sonny cleared his throat. "Do you want to come sit with me
for a while? Talk?" He almost smiled at how panicked Alexis
looked at his suggestion. Ah, how he remembered that look.
"If you go back to sleep now, you know you'll just have another
nightmare."
Damn the man, he was right. Alexis got out of bed slowly, so as
not to wake Kristina, settling the covers more securely around her
daughter, and walked out with Sonny to the front room.
Sonny put another log on the fire as Alexis sat on the couch, tucking
her feet underneath her. When he turned back to her, he saw she
wore a white cotton nightgown that had long sleeves with lace on
the ends and a square-cut neckline. Cut a little too low for Sonny's
comfort; he had to make an effort to look at her face instead of
her chest.
He sat next to her, at the opposite end of the couch, just as he'd
done in the penthouse. "Wanna tell me about it?"
Alexis took several slow breaths, trying to calm her racing pulse.
She said shakily, "If..if I start talking about it, I'm not
sure I'll be able to stop."
Sonny nodded thoughtfully. One thing he and Alexis had always understood
about each other was the need to keep some things buried: some feelings,
some memories, and all fears.
"I know something else we can do."
Alexis' eyes flew nervously to him. In the firelight, with his shirt
unbuttoned and his well-muscled chest exposed, she admitted to herself
he was still the most alluring man she'd ever seen. "What?"
She asked, hating how breathy and nervous she sounded. "Wh-what
else can we poss-possibly do?"
Sonny bent forward and rummaged through the outer pocket of his
overnight bag. Finding what wanted, he sat back up and held out
a small package to Alexis. She looked at what was in his palm: it
was a pack of cards.
"Five card draw?" Sonny asked, and grinned at her in a
way that her heart remembered from nights long past.
