Baby Book
by SexisFan

Chapter 3

The humidity by the lake had long ago turned the salt into a cemented mass at the bottom of the glass shaker. She could have replaced the salt and used the shaker, but somewhere along the line pregnancy had made her extra sentimental. So she'd taken this, her first housewarming gift, and tucked it away in her box of memories.

Kristina had brought the salt, along with a loaf of bread and a silver dollar, to Alexis' new home the day that she moved in.

"For luck!" Kristina had explained, prompted by Alexis' perplexed expression.

The bread, Kristina explained, was so that there would always be food in the house. The silver dollar was so that there would always be money enough. And the salt. . .well, Kristina couldn't remember what the salt was supposed to represent but she certain that it was an important element of the gesture, and she didn't want to tempt fate by leaving it out.

"Maybe it's so that there will always be spice in your life," Kristina suggested. Alexis had laughed inwardly at that. As if my life is not eventful enough of late.

The move out of the penthouse seemed sudden to those around her, but it had been on Alexis' mind for a few weeks before a chance encounter with Carly prompted Alexis to commit to her decision. It was an afternoon after a full day at the courthouse. Alexis was feeling particularly fatigued and more than a little irritable. The last person she needed to see that evening was Carly. But when the elevator arrived at the top floor and the doors slid open, there was the she-devil herself, in rare form.

Apparently Carly had expected it to be Sonny in the elevator. Seeing Alexis instead had been more than a disappointment to Sonny's overgrown adolescent semi-ex-wife.

"Alexissssss." Carly had hissed, her lip curling in that look of disgust that mirrored what Alexis felt whenever she had to deal with the woman.

"Carly." Alexis stepped past the scowling blonde and headed for her apartment.

Alexis could feel Carly's stare boring into her back as she slipped her key into her lock. "Listen, I wanna know how long you're going to sit across the hall from Sonny, waiting for another chance to climb into his bed?"

Incredible. The lack of class and tact shouldn't ever have been surprising, but somehow it always was. Alexis chose to ignore Carly's remark as she worked to jiggle her lock open.

"You can't ignore me, Alexis."

"I can try."

"I'm part of Sonny's life. I always will be."

"I am well aware of that Carly," Alexis answered, still working to open her door.

"He loves me."

"How nice for you," Alexis replied coolly as her lock finally slid open.

"I want you to leave, Alexis."

At this Alexis turned around to face the nervy little pipsqueak. "You want me to what?"

"Move. Get out. Get away from Sonny. Michael and I will be moving back into the penthouse soon, and I don't want to see your pathetic face mooning over my husband every day. I want you to leave."

Alexis' blood was boiling. Visions of inflicting unspeakable Cassadine tortures upon Carly, beginning with a choke-hold around her scrawny neck, flashed through Alexis' mind. There were times when Alexis truly felt that morals were over-rated. And this was one of those times.

But Alexis reined in her murderous instincts. The twit was full of herself, but she had a point. The last thing Alexis wanted to do was live under the stress of repeated hallway encounters with the Thing from The Lake. Make that nearly the last thing she wanted to do. The last thing she really wanted to do was to expose her child to this vile woman's hatred, particularly when Carly's emotional and mental state had never been particularly stable. So while she was loathe to give Carly the satisfaction, Alexis knew what she had to do.

"Fine, Carly."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Carly sneered.

"It means I'll be moving as soon as humanly possible. Goodnight." With that, Alexis had shut the door calmly in Carly's startled face. Alexis could only hope that the shock had caused the bitch to swallow her tongue so that she might choke on it.

Once inside her apartment, Alexis made a quick call to a realtor and set the move into motion. It hadn't taken long to find the perfect little home on the lake. The house had three bedrooms, a fireplace, a generous piece of land, and was a perfect distance from the city without sacrificing the convenience of nearby civilization. It was just what Alexis needed.

Informing Kristina of her plan hadn't been too difficult. Her sister at first wanted to move with Alexis, Alexis had been insistent upon needing some breathing room. In the end, Kristina and Ned decided to make their romantic arrangement official, and it was decided that Kristina would move in with him.

Telling Sonny was another story. Alexis first approached Jason, letting him know that she was moving and that his old place would be available to him once again. Jason had nodded with understanding and offered to help in any way he could. The offer had been sincere, and Alexis had appreciated it greatly. It was wonderful to have someone know about the baby, to have someone understand and make no judgments.

Alexis' next step was to make the long walk across the hall to let Sonny know that Jason would be taking Alexis' place in PH2. Deciding that morning was best, since she could excuse herself rather shortly claiming a need to get to work, Alexis picked up her briefcase and strode purposefully to Sonny's door a couple of days before the scheduled move.

In answer to her knock, the door had swung open, revealing Carly's none too pleased face.

"What do you want?" the witch spat out.

"I need to talk to Sonny," Alexis replied professionally.

"He does business at the office. And it better be about business."

"Is Sonny here?" Alexis persisted.

"No. He's gone out of town on business. I'm surprised you didn't know that. Your stalking skills must be slipping." Poison flowed from Carly's lips as easily as water flowed from a spring. She certainly was a wellspring of nastiness and venom.

"Fine. I'll talk to him when he returns, then."

"Call first, next time," Carly warned snottily. "I'm redecorating the bedroom as a surprise for Sonny, and when he gets home I'm sure he'll want to spend as much time as possible christening it with me."

Alexis bit back her reply and turned her back on Carly, heading wordlessly for the elevator. Sonny's door slammed shut behind her, causing her to jump in her own skin. This move was definitely the right thing to do.

Alexis ended up typing a note for Sonny, informing him in writing that she was vacating the apartment and that Jason was taking over tenancy. She addressed it to the coffee warehouse and slipped it into the mail that day. Three days later, the movers came and carried her boxes to the truck that would transport her life to her new home.

Moving day had been quite eventful. In hindsight, of course, it hadn't been especially practical to have the new furniture delivered the same day that the movers where bringing over the boxes. As fate would have it, the furniture delivery truck and the moving van arrived at the same time, each with a set of men eager to dispatch their loads and move on. It was near pandemonium as Alexis tried to give both sets of men directions on where to place particular pieces of furniture, and in which room to put each box. The movers were falling over the delivery men and vice versa as each team found the other's items in the way of their own load. Finally, Alexis told the movers to just leave all the boxes in one of the spare bedrooms, and the delivery men to set the furniture up as best they could as long as it was in the right room. She didn't want her bed in the living room or the sofa in the upstairs hallway, but other than that she'd manage to get things set up on her own somehow.

But she hadn't had to manage on her own, as it turned out. She had her share of both visitors and help that day. Kristina had arrived somewhere in the middle of it all, not long after the movers and delivery men had left.

Alexis had greeted her sister warmly, smiling sentimentally over the gifts that were meant to convey Kristina's hopes and concerns for her sister's well-being.

"This place looks like a tornado hit it Alexis. What can I do to help?" Kristina had asked.

"Don't worry about it," Alexis replied. "I'll be fine. It will take a little time to get things put away, but the most important stuff is nearly in place."

"You haven't been overdoing it, have you? You look a little pale, Alexis."

Kristina still didn't know about the baby. No one but Jason and her doctor knew. But certain signs of ill health were visible to others. The nausea and fatigue had left Alexis looking more tired and worn down than was her usual countenance. And this worried those who didn't know that cause. Of course, the cause would have worried them even more.

"I'm fine," Alexis reassured her sister."

"You need someone to help you with this Alexis. Let me. . ." Kristina's words were cut off by the sharp sound of something metallic hitting tiles in an upstairs bathroom. Looking toward the stairs and pointing, Kristina asked, "Who's up there?"

Alexis glanced up the stairs nervously. "It's. . .a friend. He. . .he stopped by to help."

"He?" Kristina smiled. "I get it! Now I know why you don't need me around. . ."

"No, Kristina, it's not. . ."

"It's okay, Alexis. I can take a hint. I'll just go now," Kristina inched her way toward the open front door. "You just say for me to. . ."

"Sonny!"

Kristina turned toward the doorway, following her sister's gaze. Surprise registered on her face when she saw the mobster standing there on Alexis' front porch. Quickly she turned toward the stairs, the question evident on her face.

Two seconds later, the sound of footsteps echoed from the stairway, and immediately the question was answered.

"That shower's ready for you now, Alexis." Jason descended the stairs, stripped to the waist and looking every inch the blonde Adonis as tiny beads of water dripped from his tousled hair onto the glistening bronzed expanse of his muscular chest.

Alexis didn't miss the looks of surprise that registered on the faces of her other two visitors. Neither did she miss the darkness that clouded Sonny's eyes almost immediately, or the subtle twitch of muscles in his jaw as his teeth clenched.

***** Alexis reached into the box and fished out a second memento from that day. Looking down at what she held cradled in her hand, she smiled as she recalled how surprised she'd been by the events that followed Jason's appearance. It had seemed impossible to her at the time, but she'd finally seen a hint of something she'd never expected to discover in Sonny. Jealousy. Over her.

Lying back on her bed, Alexis smiled and let the memories flow. . .

Chapter 04