Elysium
by lsquared

Note: This was meant to be an alternate ending to the July 20, 2007 show.

E•ly•si•um
n.
1. A place or condition of ideal happiness.

There was a hum in the room and in her head, a vibration that started under her feet and spiked through her veins. Alexis wasn’t unfamiliar with the taste and feel of adrenaline, but it felt like it had been ages since she’d been caught in such an energized, fragile, risky moment – facing an adversary in the courtroom, or in her family. She heard the sound of her own excited breathing and speech; she couldn’t control either.

Jerry settled back in his chair. He casually spread his arms across the back of the seat. He smiled at the sight of a frenzied Alexis, at the way she worked so hard to explain herself, at what a coil of energy and tension she was. He wanted to stand up and unravel her, but he couldn’t deny how much fun it was to see her twist.

“I mean that I wanted to ask you to dinner as lawyer and client.” She was correcting her earlier statement. “A dinner meeting. I didn’t come here,” she said, gesturing around his hotel room, “to ask you on a dinner date.”

He nodded along with her. “Right, right. A business dinner.”

“Exactly,” Alexis replied a little too loudly. She saw Carly’s head bob behind the chair and tried not to follow with her eyes.

Jerry stood up, his wide steps bringing him too close, too soon. Alexis fumbled backward. “I’ll see about getting us a reservation somewhere more appropriate for a business dinner,” he offered.

Carly had stood up and had her sights on the door. She gestured for Alexis to get Jerry out.

“Let’s go back downstairs,” Alexis suggested.

He shook his head. “I’m not much in the mood for the noise tonight. You go ahead, though. Perhaps your long-haired, bearded rocker is still around.”

Alexis rolled her eyes and swatted the air at his suggestive tone. Her teeth pinched her bottom lip, her eyes knitted together – she made a quick mental list of all the ways she could get Jerry out of the room. “All this talk about dinner is making me hungry,” she said. “Let’s have a quick bite after all. There are so many people, no one will notice.”

“No, you were right. I don’t want to jeopardize my case by giving the DA any reason to call our professional relationship into question.” Jerry stood and walked to the desk. Behind his back, Alexis shot Carly a frantic, apologetic look. “We can order room service,” he offered, opening a drawer and removing a menu.

She watched him hold the menu open on his palms, his fingers casually tapping the underside of the leather cover. Alexis flushed; she felt a wave of heat pass through her, and her clothes felt suddenly too heavy. There was something about his large hands, thick fingers, and the way he cradled the menu. Her voice wavered when she said, “No, don’t do that. I know you think I’m crazy, the way I keep changing my mind, but I can’t stay.”

“Oh?”

Alexis caught the panicked look on Carly’s face and tried to reassure her without being obvious. “I clearly can’t think straight around you. I can’t do my best as your lawyer until I can differentiate between you and the Mr. Brosnan I first met at Wyndemere.”

“How do you plan to do that, Alexis?” Jerry took a step closer to her.

“I admit, in the beginning, I felt a connection to James Brosnan.”

“To me.”

Alexis shook her head. “You were playing a part, Jerry. That wasn’t you. The charming man I met … I just need to get him out of my head. I was drawn to him, and I need to once and for all convince myself that he doesn’t exist.” She punched the air with her fist for emphasis.

“Okay,” Jerry agreed. “I understand. You need to let go of the attraction you had for Mr. Brosnan so you can focus on business with me. Is that correct?”

She nodded, hesitated, and then said, “Yes.”

He held his arms out, offering himself. “Do what you have to do, Alexis.”

Alexis took a deep breath, holding it in, feeling the electricity in the air stretch her lungs. She exhaled slowly as she eliminated the distance between them. She lifted her hand to grip the back of his neck. Her mouth covered his, perfectly still against his lips at first. But when she felt his hands at her hips, Alexis’ courage spiked and she opened her mouth against his. Her attention was divided between making sure the kiss was serving its purpose – giving Carly time to escape the room – and trying not to lose herself completely in the softness of Jerry’s lips.

The click of the door sealing shut was faint, but Alexis heard it and turned her head, breaking the kiss. She pressed the tips of her fingers to her warm lips. She took a few awkward steps backward, struggling to gain feeling in her weakened knees.

“Did that do the trick?” Jerry asked her. His tongue licked a slow line across his bottom lip.

Alexis tugged at the hem of her shirt, straightening herself. “I hope so. I should go now,” she stammered. She nearly thanked him but stopped herself.

“Alexis, wait.”

She stopped at the door and turned around, half out into the hallway. She could see Carly waiting around the corner.

“I have a proposal. After you and Carly commiserate over the information you did or did not gather while searching my hotel room, why don’t you and I have a real dinner? Why don’t you and I have an evening without Carly hiding behind a chair.”

Alexis knitted her brows together in an unconvincing look of confusion. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

He shook his head and smiled. “That’s fine, dear, we’ll continue to play this little game. It is rather fun.” He rose on the tips of his toes and rocked back on his heels. “I am enjoying myself immensely. But my offer stands. You were here because you conspired against me with Carly, but I think you wanted to be here, alone. You should stop doing things because other people want you to and do something because it is what you want.”

“I need to go,” she cut him off. “I’ll be in touch about the case.” Alexis’ purse caught in the door when she tried to close it. She fumbled, loud and clumsy, out of the room and down to the elevator. She forgot about Carly waiting around the corner for her; she was too distracted by the lingering sensation of Jerry’s mouth on hers.

The night was restless; the humidity curled around her and made the air thick and hard to breathe. Alexis woke from an already fitful sleep and the sheets clung to her sticky skin. She kicked them to the edge of the bed and flopped from side to side. There was no use in trying to get comfortable. The air conditioner was busted and she couldn’t get Jerry Jacks out of her mind.

Alexis growled and sat up, giving the sheets a final kick to the floor. She looked at the clock and ran through a list of things she could do at two o’clock in the morning to either force sleep or relieve her stress. She considered soaking in a cold bath or driving to Sonny’s to slip into bed with Kristina. But it seemed clear, even to her, that there was really only one way to get Jerry out of her head and be able to relax.

She had showered quickly, leaving her hair to dry into tight curls, and thrown on a pair of jeans and a plain tank top. Alexis’ flip-flops were loud as she walked across the Metrocourt’s lobby. She drew the attention of the tired employees and a few stragglers at the bar.

Alexis rode the elevator up, nervously tapping her foot on the floor. She was surprised that she had made it so far without turning back even once, and when she made it to Jerry’s suite, she banged urgently on the door.

She heard the shuffle of his feet and the clatter of the locks. Alexis straightened her back and shoulders. She smiled when he opened the door; for once she was not the one left shocked and caught unawares.

“Alexis?” Jerry blinked sleepily.

“Hi,” she said, nonchalant. “Did I wake you?”

He twisted his neck side to side. “It is the middle of the night.”

It was then she took in his appearance. Jerry was dressed in a pair of striped pajama pants that hung low on his hips. His bare chest was pale in the darkness, and the medallion around his neck glimmered against his skin.

“Alexis, is something the matter?” Jerry asked. His pulse quickened. At first it was the thrill of finding her, damp hair and smelling of fresh soap and water, at his door in the middle of the night. But this was Alexis Davis.

“No, everything’s fine.” She paused and leaned into the room until Jerry stood to the side. She entered his suite, the room darkening even more when he closed the door. “Everything’s fine except that my air conditioner is broken and I couldn’t sleep. And I kept thinking about what you said and what … well, what happened here earlier.”

His teeth pinched his bottom lip. “So you were lying awake, in your bed, thinking about our kiss?”

Alexis ignored his suggestive comment. She paced around the room, picking up random objects from the desk and coffee table as she spoke. “I was thinking about your arrogant assumption that I wanted to be alone with you, that I would have chosen to be here even if Carly hadn’t asked for my help. You said that I should stop doing things for other people and do something to make myself happy. I hate to admit that you were right, but you were. You are. I’ve always gone out of my way to please other people. After the kind of year I’ve had, why shouldn’t I do something simply because it would make me happy? Even if it’s just for one minute? Even if it’s shallow or wrong or completely senseless?”

He nodded along with her words, his eyes following Alexis’ frenetic trail around the room. When it seemed she had stopped, Jerry said, “I agree. So how does that relate to you knocking on my door at this late hour?”

Alexis made her way from the mantle, between the couch and chair, to stand in front of Jerry. She felt less inhibited in the dark than she had earlier in the day. The moonlight was soft on his skin, pouring a pale glow onto everything that made her feel safe and romantic. Only inches between them, she could see the scar on his shoulder and other smaller, rough patches on his chest where he had been cut. She touched the tips of her fingers to one of the marks, a long curve of white, raised skin just above the waistband of his pajama bottoms. Alexis felt Jerry tremble under the light weight of her fingers and it propelled her further. She pressed the front of her body to his, a slow coming together; their chests touched, her hips aligned with his.

He whispered something she couldn’t quite make out. It could have been her name, or something in French. She only felt the words – a hot wisp of breath on her face.

Alexis felt his hands grip her hips. She remembered fixating on his hands earlier, and the feel of them through her clothes sent a wave of warmth up and down her body. She slid her hands up his ribcage, to his shoulders. She rose on the tips of her toes and touched her mouth to his. Unlike with their first kiss, staged to give Carly an escape, Alexis wasn’t distracted. She tasted him completely – the spearmint of his toothpaste, the hint of bourbon from his nightcap. She felt her entire body slacken against him and her hand trailed down to his bicep, holding on to keep from crumbling. Alexis’ body memorized every detail, every sensation; the way his muscles flexed under her touch, the sound he made when she hooked her leg around his.

Jerry’s hands gathered the fabric of her shirt, reaching under the thin scrap to feel the warmth of her bare skin. And then his hands were in her hair, her surprising, unruly curls tangling around his fingers. He spun them until Alexis felt her legs hit the edge of the couch.

It took some work to maintain her balance and keep from falling back onto the sofa with Jerry, but Alexis managed to remain standing. She broke the kiss but her hands couldn’t seem to let go of him.

“How did it feel?” he asked, catching his breath. “To do something just for yourself?”

Alexis smiled and slowly peeled away from him, her fingers uncurling from around his arm. “Good. It felt good.”

Jerry tucked a thick lock of Alexis’ hair behind her ear and tenderly touched her cheek. “Well, you’ll never get any sleep if you go back to that stuffy house,” he said. “There’s a second bedroom.”

She shook her head. “No, that’s okay. I don’t need-”

“All right,” he agreed. “I’ll walk you out.”

“Maybe I could just stay on the couch?”

Jerry kissed her forehead and held up his hand for her to wait. He dashed down the hall and returned with a blanket and a pillow, arranging them on the sofa for her. “Goodnight, Alexis.”

“Goodnight,” she said. She waited until Jerry was gone, the door to his room shut. She bounced down onto the sofa and spread her arms, her legs dangling off the side. She felt sated, like she could fall asleep right away, but Alexis wanted to stay awake. Not because she felt unsafe with Jerry in the next room, but to simply savor the moment a bit longer. She wanted to remember what it was like to be alone with him, free of Carly, free of Ric’s scrutiny, of her own second thoughts. She felt that same vibration, the same hum of adrenaline, but it was no longer laced with a sense of danger. It was peaceful, joyful, and it stayed with her well into the morning.