Returning to a Friend
by Cowgirl

Part 24

Alexis sat at her vanity and put the finishing touches on her makeup. She and Sonny were meeting for their second joint session with Dr. Lewis. They were supposed to have met last week, but Cameron had to cancel due to an emergency with a patient. Alexis stopped her movement and stared at her reflection in the mirror. "Is this what you want Alexis?" she asked herself aloud.

"What's that?" came Zander's voice from her doorway. He stood holding Kristina on one hip, and wiggled lamby pie in front of her face with the other.

Alexis turned and smiled. "Thank you again for babysitting today Zander."

Zander tickled Kristina's chin with the plush toy. "No problem." He looked up at Alexis. "You seem nervous."

Alexis looked at the young man that she had come to think of as a surrogate son. He had been her friend through thick and thin ... sometimes the only one who was. She stood and walked to the bed, sitting down and patting the space next to her. Zander made his way across the room and sat. She took Kristina from him. "Zander, I'm going to tell you something that you don't know."

Zander's eyebrows raised. "What's up?"

Alexis looked at Kristina. "I've got an appointment with your dad this morning. You know that I've been going to him since the court ordered me to."

Zander shook his head. "Yeah, he told me. If you ask me he likes seeing you on a regular basis."

"Your father has helped me out a lot." She took a deep breath. "Today I'm having a joint session."

"Joint session? With who?"

Alexis looked down and then back to Zander. "Kristina's father."

"Ned?"

"No, not Ned."

Zander's eyebrows drew together in confusion. "I don't follow."

"Zander, Ned is not Kristina's father. He just claimed to be to protect her from her real father. I thought it was best at the time." She shrugged. "Now he knows and we're trying to work on getting along for her sake."

Zander brought a hand up to his chin and thought for a moment before looking at Alexis. "The night Carly caught you and Sonny in bed ... you got pregnant," he stated matter of factly.

Alexis nodded. "Sonny's the father. So now you know why I'm nervous."

Zander shook his head. "I don't know why I didn't put it together sooner." He looked back to Alexis. "So you and Sonny are going to try and work things out?"

"We’re trying to work on getting past all the pain we've caused one another."

"Alexis?"

Alexis raised her eyebrows, waiting for his question.

"Were you in love with him when you slept with him?"

Alexis sighed and looked at her daughter again. "Yes," she said timidly. "I was."

"I'm sorry he did that to you," he replied earnestly.

"Sorry he got me pregnant?"

Zander smiled. "No, I mean I'm sorry he hurt you."

Alexis wrapped her arm around his shoulders. "Sonny and I hurt each other Zander."

He nodded. "So ... do you still love him?"

Alexis stood up and gave him a sheepish grin as she handed Kristina to him. "That is none of your business."

"I'll take that as a yes. My dad's going to be awfully disappointed."

******************

Alexis knocked on Cameron's office door and waited until he called out to enter. Sonny was already seated in the same spot he was last week. "Am I late?" Alexis asked looking around the room for a clock.

Cameron shook his head. "Not at all, Mr. Corinthos was a little early."

Alexis nodded and sat down in the chair next to Sonny. Sonny flicked his head at her. "Hey."

She flicked back. "Hey yourself."

Cameron took a seat on the edge of his desk. "Well, we have a lot to cover today." He looked at both sets of nervous eyes that were fixed on him. "I take it the visitations have gone well the last couple of weeks?"

Sonny nodded and cleared his throat. "Um ... yeah, great."

"Just fine," Alexis agreed.

"Good. I'm glad to hear that." He clasped his hands together. "So, who wants to start?" He looked at the two of them. Neither one made a move. "Okay ... Sonny. How did you and Alexis come to be in one another's orbits?"

Sonny shifted uncomfortably in his seat and cleared his throat again. "Ah ... we ... I sought her out for her legal abilities. My friend Jason Morgan needed help in a custody matter."

Cameron nodded. "And how did you and she come to be friends?"

Sonny smiled and wiped a hand across his mouth. "It wasn't easy. I don't exactly know when we became friends."

"Alexis? Anything to add?"

Alexis' head snapped up. "Oh ... pretty much what he said."

"How did you end up representing him?"

"Under duress," Alexis said under her breath.

"I'm sorry I didn't hear that," Cameron quipped.

"She said under duress," Sonny interrupted. "She didn't want to be my lawyer."

Alexis shook her head. "I was at the courthouse one day and he ... " she flicked a hand towards Sonny. "Was being arrested. Dara Jensen, the ADA at the time, was horribly violating his civil rights." She shrugged. "I stepped in."
Cameron nodded and took note of the way the two individuals in front of him had very similar patterns of fidgeting to display nervousness. "How did you become friends?"

Alexis closed her eyes. "Who knows? It just sort of ... happened. He ... Sonny would listen to me when I talked ... I guess I was just drawn to that given the relationship I was currently in was falling flat."

Cameron raised an eyebrow. "Sonny?"

Sonny sat up straight. "Yeah ... um ... Alexis was ... is smart. I started to ask her advice about more than just my business problems." He shifted in his seat and let his eyes wander over to Alexis. He stared at her profile as she sat bone still, staring straight ahead. "We found out we had a lot in common despite our social differences."

"Such as?"

Sonny wagged his head to the side. "Our childhoods for one. I never talked to anyone about how my life was when I was a kid. Alexis made it easy ... I could talk to her."

Alexis cleared her throat. "I felt the same way," she said meekly. "Sonny became my best friend. I trusted him."

"And when did the two of you start to have feelings for one another?"

Both of them ceased any movement and sat still. Neither one was willing to be the first to say anything. Finally Sonny stood and went to the window. He leaned on the wall and looked out. "My wi ... Carly was always harping on me about my relationship with Alexis. She hated the fact that I talked to Alexis and not to her. She would go on and on about how Alexis was trying to split us up ... that Alexis was in love with me." He stopped and lowered his head. "Then one day Alexis and I had an argument. Her sister, Kristina, came over and started yelling at me." He wiped a hand across his mouth. "She asked me if that was the way I treated someone who was in love with me."

Alexis closed her eyes and winced. She remembered that day. She hadn't known at the time what Kristina had said, but she remembered the argument.

Sonny turned back toward Cameron and Alexis and continued. "After that I started to wonder if was true. Was Alexis in love with me? I wanted to find out ... need to find out, but the funny thing is at the time I didn't know why."

Cameron nodded. "It intrigued you maybe to find out that a woman of Ms. Davis' caliber would have feelings for you?"

Sonny lowered his eyes. "I guess. I mean I ... I was confused by how I felt about what Kristina said."

"How so?"

Sonny fidgeted around in his seat, crossing and uncrossing his legs, his mouth twitching and twisting with the difficulty of what he trying to say. "I liked it. I couldn't stop thinking about the possibility and I wanted to find out if it was true."

Cameron stood and paced a couple of steps. "Tell me Sonny, what would you have done if Alexis had walked into your apartment and told you this revelation herself."

Sonny chuckled. "Miss I keep my feelings under lock and key?" He shook his head. "Never."

Alexis' mouth hung open. "I resent that."

Cameron held up a hand. "Let's just say for argument's sake that she had done just that. Walked in to your place and said Sonny, I'm in love with you."

Sonny took a deep breath and slowly released it. "I don't know."

"Did you feel anything for her at the time?"

"Of course. Alexis knew she meant a lot to me. She knew I needed her in my life."

"That's not what I meant."

Sonny rubbed his head. "All I can tell you honestly is that after Kristina told me what she did, I felt different around Alexis."

Alexis sat with her eyes closed listening to what Sonny was saying. It would be her turn next and she was dreading it.

Cameron cleared his throat. "Different you say. How?"

Sonny squeezed his eyes shut tight. "I think that's when I began to realize I was falling in love with her and it scared the hell out of me."

Alexis' eyes snapped open and she looked at Sonny with wide eyes. Sonny met her gaze. "It's true Lex. No matter what you might think, I started to think that maybe I was falling in love with you. I just couldn't get myself to believe that what your sister said was true so I tried to test you ... get you to give me a signal." He shifted again. "I thought maybe it wasn't true after all ... until that night."

Alexis shifted in her seat uncomfortably and cleared her throat. "I ... I can't believe that."

Sonny's head dropped. "I wish you would, because it’s the truth."

Alexis said nothing and closed her eyes once more. She didn't want to do this ... she didn't want to be here and know these things. She didn't want to hear Sonny drone on about how he had loved her and gone back to his wife anyway. She didn't want to have to sit here in this room and be forced to tell Sonny that she had loved him with all her heart and he had broken it into little pieces. And she certainly didn't want to tell him that despite all of that, she still loved him anyway.

She stood and moved around the room. "I don't see how all of this has anything to do with Kristina." She turned to both men. "That's what this is all about isn't it? Sure, Sonny and I have issues to work out, but things are what they are and it will no good to sit here and rehash old feelings and re-open old wounds."

Cameron tilted his head and looked at Alexis, forcing himself not to smile. She was deflecting, she didn't want to have to spill her guts and she was going to fight it every step of the way. "So what is it that you want to talk about Alexis?"

She stood breathing hard, her head beginning to ache. "Sonny and I want to get along for our daughter's sake. I'm thrilled to have Sonny back in my life and am more than willing to let bygones be bygones and work toward the common goal of raising our daughter in the healthiest environment that we can, but I don't want to do this."

Cameron stood. "What is it that you don't want to do Alexis? Admit your feelings?"

Alexis turned away from them again. "There's nothing to admit," she said quietly.

"How about what you're feeling right now?" he persisted.

Sonny ran a hand through his hair. "Doc, if she doesn't want to do this than why make her?"

"Because Mr. Corinthos. Not talking about your feelings for one another is what led to this landslide that has been your lives over the past year and a half. Not talking about your feelings is what pulled the two of you apart the first time ... is that what you want?"

Sonny sat back in the chair and let out an audible sigh.

Alexis cleared her throat and looked first at Cameron and then to Sonny. "Fine ... you want me to talk, I'll talk."

part 25