Baby Book
by SexisFan

Chapter 4

Alexis leaned back on her pillows and smiled. In her hand she held a crumpled ball that had once been her letter to Sonny, informing him that she was moving out of PH2. It was the same letter that he'd held in his hand when he appeared at the door of her new house on moving day. It was the same letter he'd started to mutilate unconsciously when his hands reflexively closed into fists at the sight of Jason - gorgeous, half naked and somewhat damp - descending the stairs from Alexis' second floor.

When Kristina had heard the tread of a man's step on Alexis' stairway, the assumption that the man was Sonny was easily read in her eyes. Alexis had watched that certainty transform into surprise as her sister turned to leave, and came face to face with Sonny standing on the porch at the doorway. Kristina had turned back toward the stairs and her surprise had obviously turned to something more akin to shock when she saw Jason step into the room.

Kristina's reaction, and expression, while a little comical in retrospect, was also completely understandable. She hadn't met Jason, and had no idea who this blonde god might be - or how her quiet, attorney sister might come to know such a hunk of manflesh. No, Kristina's reaction didn't surprise Alexis. But Sonny's did.

Alexis saw the startled expression pass across Sonny's face as the shadow of a low hanging cloud passes over the ground. It was there, then gone in an instant when Sonny's mask of control appeared instead. What remained behind, though, was a darkness in his normally soft brown eyes, and an almost imperceptible tightness in the muscles of his jaw. He was gritting his teeth, Alexis knew.

At first she read his reaction as anger about her move, though at this point she wasn't sure why he'd care. He had Carly now. Having Alexis gone had to make Carly happier. And when Carly was happy, people were less likely to get turned over to the FBI. Or be accused of kidnapping. Or shot. A happier Carly was a less dangerous Carly. So why was Sonny so obviously upset?

"I fixed your shower," Jason repeated to Alexis, seemingly oblivious to the reactions his presence was eliciting from the other two people in the room.

"Th-thank you," she responded lamely.

"I couldn't find a towel," he stated simply, explaining the tell-tale signs of shower spray dampening his hair as well as his muscular chest and shoulders. Things seemed so straight-forward for Jason.

"A towel. Yes. Let me see. . ." Alexis scanned the room full of boxes, wondering how she might tell the box of linens from the boxes of law books and case files.

At that point, Kristina jumped into action. Unwrapping the scarf that was serving as a belt for her outfit, she held it out to Jason. "Here, try this," she offered.

Jason turned. It was easy to see that the blankness of his expression had an unnerving effect on Alexis' sister. "I don't want to mess it up. It's pretty."

Alexis couldn't help a hint of a grin. There again was the paradox of Jason Morgan.

"It's okay. I mean, you won't. It'll be okay." Kristina was flustered. Clearly she didn't know what to make of the tall blonde with his unreadable face and his simple heart.

Alexis let her glance slide over to Sonny, who continued to glare at Jason throughout the exchange with Kristina. Maybe his anger wasn't about Alexis' move at all. Maybe he and Jason were having some trouble, undoubtedly about Carly.

Jason took the scarf and wiped the water droplets from his face, ignoring those glistening on his chest.

"You have bread."

"What?" Alexis replied, perplexed by Jason's incongruent remark.

"In your hands. You have bread. Are you making lunch?"

Alexis looked down at the housewarming loaf still in her hands. She had bread. "Lunch? Lunch would be good. And, I would make lunch. . .if I had anything to put on the bread. I don't suppose bread sandwiches would go over very well?" She was babbling and she knew it. Something about the vibe going on in the room made her nervous. A storm seemed to be brewing in Sonny, and Jason hadn't even bothered to utter a word of greeting to his friend and partner.

Jason offered a crooked grin in response to Alexis' meandering thought. "I'll go get something for lunch. And dinner." He finally turned his gaze toward Sonny, "I'll just get dressed, and I'll be back in a while."

Alexis saw the muscles in Sonny's jaw twitch again as Jason turned and bounded up the stairs to retrieve his shirt. There was definitely something going on between those two.

Kristina hadn't missed picking up on Sonny's mood either, and she was eager to make her own exit. "Well, Alexis, I really need to be running. But, um, happy housewarming!" Kristina moved toward Alexis and dropped a kiss on her sister's cheek. "Call me."

Alexis nodded. "Thank you for the good luck," Alexis replied, gesturing toward the housewarming gifts. I have a feeling I'll need all the luck I can get.

With a nod and quick goodbye in Sonny's direction, Kristina breezed past him and on her way, with Jason, now dry and fully dressed, on her heels to make a food run. Funny how the room suddenly seemed a lot smaller with half of the people gone from it. Shouldn't it have been the other way around? But when all was removed but Sonny's presence, Alexis suddenly felt very much trapped. The angry glare in his eye didn't help matters one bit.

"What is going on here, Alexis?" He strode into the room evenly, the aura of controlled anger emanating into the air around him.

"Moving day." She busied herself rummaging through the contents of an opened box, giving her somewhere to focus other than on the intensity of Sonny's eyes.

"What the hell is this all about?" He slapped her letter to him down on the table next to the box.

"It looks like my notice telling my landlord that I am vacating his premises."

Wrong answer. As the temperature in the room rose along with Sonny's blood pressure, Alexis realized too late that sarcasm was not the road to take with him today.

"Stop playing games, Alexis," he growled at her. "Just give me a straight answer."

Alexis sobered at the accusation that she was playing any sort of game with him. Gathering her nerves about her, she looked Sonny in the eye and answered him calmly.

"There aren't any games going on here, Sonny. I decided that I wanted to move, and I did it. End of story."

"Why didn't you tell me? Why tell me in a letter sent to the warehouse?"

"I came over to tell you in person. You were out of town on business."

"That was just last week, Alexis. You knew you were moving before last week."

"I was able to close on the house sooner than expected, that moved my plans up considerably. As soon as I realized when I'd be moving, I tried to tell you but you weren't available."

"So you type something on letterhead and send it to me at the office? At the office, Alexis? Like we're nothing to each other but business associates?"

"Carly made it very clear to me that business was to be conducted through your office. I was merely respecting her wishes."

"Carly?" Sonny nearly spat out the name. Jamming his hands into his pockets, he spun on his heel and paced the floor. "You moved because of Carly."

"I moved because it is the best thing for all of us, Sonny."

Sonny turned to face her, his eyes liquid pools as he peered into hers. "It's not best for me, Alexis. I don't want you to slip from my life. I need you, you know that."

Alexis bowed her head, dropping her gaze from Sonny's. "It is best for you, then, Sonny. You have to stop needing me so much. If you're going to make your relationship with Carly work, things between us have to change."

"But I don't want them to change, Alexis. I trust you. You know what that means to me."

Alexis felt a pang of guilt at his admission of trust in her. She still hadn't told him about the baby yet. She wasn't keeping it from him because she wanted to, though. She was trying to find the right time, and trying to give him a chance to steady his relationship with Carly. She didn't know why he wanted the woman, but he did. And if he did, then Alexis wanted him to have a decent chance with her.

"Sonny, the woman you trust should be the woman you are planning your future with. She should be the one you need. Not me, Sonny." Alexis was puzzled by what she imagined was a fleeting expression of pain passing over Sonny's features.

"Alexis. . ." Sonny stepped closer to her, sucking up the air in the room and making it harder for Alexis to breathe. Instinctively she stepped away.

"It's best for all of us, Sonny, if we have some distance from each other. You have your family to focus on and I have. . ."

"Jason?"

Alexis' head came up in surprise. Did he mean that the way it sounded?

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, the two of you weren't exactly confidents before he left. Now he's back and there's something different about him. Then suddenly you're spending a lot of time together."

Was that jealousy in his tone? In his demeanor, as he dropped his eyes from hers and shifted back and forth on his feet?

"What would you know of our time together? Other than the night you were skulking on the docks?" Now it was Sonny's turn to look up in surprise. Busted.

"You looked pretty comfortable together that night."

"So?" She was getting angry now.

"And today he's here half dressed doing domestic chores!"

"So?"

"Alexis!"

"What?! What do you want Sonny? Some explanation for how I live my life? Well, you aren't going to get one. I'm an independent woman. I live how I want. And I don't have anyone I need to explain myself to. Not even you."

Alexis was fuming. It didn't matter that there wasn't anything going on between her and Jason, nothing more than friendship. Sonny just had too much nerve to be trying to control her life, as if one night together gave him some claim on her forever. Didn't it? Alexis' hand automatically went to cover her belly as her conscience reminded her that one night together had indeed bonded her and Sonny for life. He just doesn't know it yet.

Sonny's eyes had gone hard at her words, his face dark with anger. "Fine."

"Sonny. . ." She took a tentative step toward him.

"No, Alexis." In three quick steps he crossed the room, heading for the table where he snatched up the letter informing him of Alexis' move. He held it up as he continued, "You want room to 'breathe'? You want distance? You got it. Use it to do anything and anyone you want."

Alexis' ire rose again. "I don't remember asking your permission to do anything or anyone that might catch my fancy!"

Sonny's lips were thin lines of white as he glared at her. He nodded to the letter still held high in his hand. "I suppose I'll be getting another one of these next week, telling me that you're resigning as my lawyer?"

Damn, she didn't want to do it this way. Alexis took a deep breath and replied as calmly as possible. "There are conflict of interest issues involved in me acting as your lawyer for personal or criminal matters. . ."

Slowly, with a controlled fury that was frightening, Sonny crumpled Alexis' letter into a ball, letting it fall from his hand to drop at his feet.

That was the moment when Jason appeared in the still open doorway, a bag of groceries cradled in his arm. Taking the scene in quickly, he fixed his gaze on Alexis. "Are you okay?"

"She's fine," Sonny spat, his eyes never leaving hers. "She'll have room to breathe, now." Without another word, Sonny turned from Alexis and stormed from the room, brushing silently past Jason as he blew through the doorway and out of the house.

Alexis turned her back on the door and covered her face with her hands. She heard the soft sound of Jason closing her door and setting the grocery bag down. In a few seconds, she felt him behind her.

"I'm fine," she lied, wiping at the dampness on her cheeks. "I'm good."

Jason's hand fell gently on her shoulder. "He doesn't mean it."

Alexis turned to face him. "Oh, yeah, I think he does." A few more tears down her cheek as she continued. "How am I ever going to be able to tell him about the baby when he's this angry with me?"

Jason lifted his hand to her face and wiped her tears away with his thumb. "He's not mad at you Alexis. He's mad at himself. And when he realizes that, things will change."

Alexis sighed. "Jason, I don't know. . ."

"I do." With that assurance, he gathered Alexis into his arms and held her, stroking her hair as she cried away the tension of the day.

***** Alexis sat up on the bed, wiping away the tears welling in her eyes. She hadn't allowed herself to believe at that time that Sonny's reaction was rooted in jealousy. All she could see, and feel, was his anger with her. But that changed in the weeks that followed, beginning the day that a package arrived at her door.

Alexis reached into her box of mementos and lifted out a small plastic container. Removing the lid, she peeked inside at one of her most prized treasures. This is what started to open her eyes to Sonny's unabated feelings for her. Definitely this was the next page in the Baby Book...

Chapter 05