The spoon and the oatmeal upon it sailed straight past Alexis' ear
and onto the floor of Kelly's Diner, spattering mess across the
painted brick tiles. Alexis flushed a mortifying pink at what her
daughter, Kristina, had done. Her fellow diners, however, glanced
over with expressions of amusement mingled with pity.
Alexis heard one woman murmur, "Aww, isn't she cute?"
Her date harrumphed, "Sure, a living doll, but also a holy
terror."
Alexis was inclined to agree with the young man as she angrily swiped
oatmeal from the side of her face. She sent an apologetic grin their
way and murmured, "Terrible twos," in explanation of the
behavior her toddler had just demonstrated.
Kristina began to bang on the tray of the high chair, flashing an
imperious glare her mother's way. "Fwies, Mama, fwies!"
"You know, Your Haughtiness, you look every inch the typical
angry Cassadine right now," Alexis quipped. "And your
predilection for junk food obviously came from your mother. So I
guess I have no one else to blame for this tantrum but myself."
That earned another glob of oatmeal, this time tossed by hand. "That
does it," Alexis muttered, teeth grinding as she attempted
to control her temper. "We are so outta here."
She stood and carefully removed her flailing child from the high
chair, then attempted to put her bulky pink snowsuit back on. But
the child would have none of it, her mind fixated on the french
fries she wanted for breakfast. Krissy fired up her lungs for round
two of this fit of temper.
"On second thought," her beleaguered mother moaned, "I
think you get that stubborn streak from a certain mob boss I once
knew. There's no way I could be solely responsible for this."
In the back of her aggravated mind, Alexis heard the jangle of the
bells as the front door opened admitting more people to witness
this Showdown at the Toddler Corral.
"Kristina, your mother's heading an international charity.
I'm supposed to be really nice in public," Alexis said in exasperation.
"Please help me with that goal."
"Nooooo!" the little girl wailed and promptly threw herself
onto the floor.
"Hey, hey, hey... someone's not minding her mama."
Alexis lifted her eyes at the sound of the deep masculine voice
she could never ever forget. Sonny...looking gorgeous as ever, in
a snow speckled over coat and his usual impeccably cut designer
suit beneath it. He knelt by the flailing Kristina and placed a
gentle hand on the little girl's back. Kristina froze. Alexis froze.
Sonny Corinthos was touching her child. His child.
To Alexis' chagrin, her daughter instantly ceased her tantrum and
looked up into the dark, intense eyes of her father with something
akin to love at first sight. Alexis grimaced inside. It seemed all
females were vulnerable to his charm regardless of age.
"You have to mind your mama, princess," he said, his husky
voice seeming to hypnotize the child. "She's tryin' to take
to care of you. Now let's get you up off that floor."
Sonny instinctively reached for the toddler, but before he touched
her, he looked up at Alexis as if for permission. "May I?"
Some part of her registered guilt that he was asking permission
to hold his own child, but she just swallowed the huge lump in her
throat and nodded.
Sonny lifted the little girl to her feet with efficient, experienced
hands. He finished doing up the pink snowsuit in no time at all.
All the while, Krissy was simply staring across at him, her little
pink lips opened in a mystified "O" as if she, too, was
having difficulty believing this was happening.
"There you go," he told his daughter as he brushed dust
from her snowsuit gently. "All better, huh?"
Meanwhile, her mother was having something of a mini-stroke watching
the scene. Two years...for two years Alexis had been able to avoid
this little meeting taking place right now. She'd never formulated
some complex strategy to accomplish it; in fact she'd been shocked
at how well she'd avoided her ex-lover in a town the size of Port
Charles. She'd simply kept up the cold war with Sonny and thus he'd
done the "guy thing": he'd avoided confrontation.
Oh, sure one time he'd seen Alexis out at the shopping park with
a carriage and he'd ignored her. And they'd both seen each other
once at the Fourth of July picnic in the park when she'd gone there
with Jax and the baby. But it had been awkward; there had been only
the wordless nodding of heads acknowledging each other right before
Carly had pulled him away in a huff.
She watched now as Sonny smiled at Krissy, knowing he had enraptured
the tot. The man is like Kryptonite, she thought bitterly.
"I'm Sonny," he said to the little girl.
"Hi, Sonny," Krissy said back, the image of politeness
at the moment.
"Good to meet you, Kristina," he said, flashing the grin
that Alexis saw on her daughter's face every day.
A pain sliced through Alexis as she watched the tender scene, a
pain so sharp she had to shut her eyes for a moment and breathe
her way through it. When she opened them again, Sonny was rising,
and she was forced to drink in the dark beautiful sight of him once
more. She'd been caught unaware, her defenses were down, and her
traitorous body was sending her the signals it only sent in reaction
to this man.
Unconsciously, she gritted her teeth, pressed a firm hand to her
stomach, and willed the longing away. Only then could she force
the mask of Cassadine disdain to slip back into place.
Sonny stood up and faced her; all of the easy charm he'd just displayed
disappearing. She saw his jaw tense as if he was gearing up for
a fight. She knew exactly how he felt; her own gut was rigid with
nerves. So many things had been said...so much blame...so much guilt...and
one major lie. At that thought, Alexis' eyes lowered to her child,
the subject of said lie.
"I-I should thank you for calming her down," she told
him hesitantly. "Hate to admit it, but I was out of ideas."
"No problem," he replied with a self-assured smirk. "Sometimes
all you need is a man's touch."
Alexis rolled her eyes at him. "Can you reign in all that machismo
please? It's crowding me out of the room."
Sonny's mouth curved despite her angry response. "I was just
kiddin', Counselor," he laughed, holding his hands up in front
of him indicating surrender. "But it was good to see the eye
roll once more."
She met his eyes, and saw that he was indeed pulling her chain.
For the first time in a long time, she shared a genuine smile with
him in spite of herself. Amazing, how easy it was and how natural
it felt after all the pain.
Sonny nodded towards Kristina, "I've been in that parent abuse
zone when Michael was her age. And Morgan...well, his temperament
is turning out to be a lot like Carly's so...you know, I'm gonna
have trouble there in a while."
She allowed herself to share a second smile with him at that remark.
"I know they're the joy of your life, those boys."
His smile grew. "Yeah, well, I never thought I'd be lucky enough
to have 'em," he said. "We had to battle just to keep
Michael from AJ and then Morgan had trouble coming in to this world.
But I-I got lucky for once. I'm blessed to have 'em."
Alexis rested a hand upon Kristina's soft curls and her face became
suddenly serious. "I know the feeling," she agreed. "I
fought long and hard for my little girl."
Alone. She didn't have to say the word for him to have heard
it. Her eyes met his and they understood each other wordlessly as
they always had when they'd been friends. Alexis had asked for his
help to regain custody; he'd been angry and had refused. End of
story. They'd both had a point, and neither had been willing to
compromise on it. Not then...not now.
He decided to keep the peace by not engaging her on the issue. His
eyes instead fell to Kristina and he flashed her a grin. "I'd
say we both got lucky in the end. You have a little beauty queen.
I'd love to have a daughter like her someday."
Alexis felt her second mini-stroke approach and had to bite her
bottom lip just to stay on her feet.
