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Family
Reunited Chapter 2 Once Alexis had decided to move to London, she wasted little time making it happen. She packed her clothing and personal items, donated everything else to charity and was on the Cassadine jet on her way to London within a week. Alexis had settled into her new life in London. She was excited about the opportunity for a new start, though she had not been able to completely shake the sadness of the life she had left behind. She kept reminding herself that the life she missed had actually been lost months before she left Port Charles. Despite handling some of the Cassadine family business, the move across the ocean had done wonders to reduce the stress in her life. The more she thought about it the more she realized that her loss of control one night in April 2002 turned her life upside down, eventually costing her everything she held dear: her best friend, her penthouse, the only place she had ever felt at home, her career, her sister...not to mention her integrity...the paragon of truth was living a lie that had turned her life upside down. But, it left her with something she never thought she wanted, or would have, a child. As much as her life now lacked the one thing that she had survived on, even thrived on, control, she held no regret for the decision she made that night. How could she regret something that had resulted in the love of her life, the child growing within her body. Her first reaction to the fact that she was pregnant was shock and fear, but she never once felt anything but love for the life that she and Sonny had created. Alexandria Davidovich had arrived in the United States at the age of 14 to attend boarding school, fleeing the wrath of the Cassadines. Alexis Davis, the brilliant, strong, powerful attorney, emerged from that frightened little girl. It hadn't been that many years ago that she learned that she had not been a cousin after all, but had in fact been Natasha Cassadine, the bastard child of Mikkos Cassadine and his mistress, Kristin Bergman, an opera singer. Now who was she? It wasn't who, it was what, she was a mother, something and someone she never thought she would become. Alexis knew what risks life brought; how could she not, she was raised by the Cassadines. But faced with the fact she was pregnant, she could do nothing to overcome that maternal instinct to protect her child at all costs. That determination rose from deep within her. So many times Alexis' friends had chastised her for putting Sonny before them and before herself. But there was one person that she couldn't put Sonny before, her child, their child. It had been mid-September when Alexis ventured from her London flat to meet her new obstetrician. She had planned to have an ultrasound before she left Port Charles but decided she would wait until she arrived in London. She looked at it as a new start. She couldn't think of a more special way to start over in London than to find out whether or not she would have a boy or girl. When she walked out of her flat on that cool, crisp September morning, she was giddy with excitement and nervousness. She had been over it so many times, the one thing she wanted was a health baby, but she couldn't fight the longing for a daughter, someone she could love like she always wished that her mother could have loved her. The apprehension she felt while waiting to see the doctor had everything to do with her experience with her obstetrician in Port Charles. Her experience with Dr. Meadows had been anything but pleasant. She knew that Dr. Lancaster had come highly recommended, but so had Dr. Meadows. When her name was called, she followed a petite nurse into an office where she was advised the doctor would meet with her shortly. When the door opened and the 50-something doctor with the salt and pepper hair walked in and introduced himself, she felt as if she had been holding her breath. After giving the doctor a brief history of her pregnancy, she felt a relief wash over her. She believed that this doctor was going to be a blessing, not a curse. He seemed genuinely interested and never once spoke down to her. She had quickly felt at ease with Dr. Lancaster, that is, until he called the nurse back in and advised that Ms. Davis was ready for her ultrasound. The nurse led Alexis to the small room, where she handed her a gown and advised her to remove her clothes and that the doctor would be in shortly. To Alexis, it seemed as if time had stood still. "Breathe," Alexis kept repeating over and over in her head. The last thing she wanted now was to have a panic attack. It couldn’t be good for her or the baby. She heard a faint knock at the door as it opened and the doctor and his nurse entered. As Dr. Lancaster prepared her for the ultrasound, he asked if she wanted to know the sex of her child. Her answered had been a whispered, "yes." She had been almost afraid to voice her wish. "It's a girl..." The doctor stated in his think British accent. "I...I...wanted a girl..." Alexis said softly...with tears in her eyes. And then she froze with the doctor's next words. "...and a boy." "What?" Alexis asked in shock. "A girl and a boy - twins," the doctor said with a broad smile on his face. "Oh...my...God," Alexis gasped. "I...I...had just gotten used to the idea of being a mother to one child and now you tell me there are two...oh...my...god." Alexis closed her eyes, grabbed the sheet draped over her, pulled it over her head and just laid there.
"What are you doing? As much as you might want to, you know you can't share this with him." As the sadness began to overtake her, she took a deep breath, wiped a tear from her eye and called one of the only two people still in her life, her brother, Stefan. "Well...what's the verdict? Am I having a niece or nephew?" he asked, with a hint of excitement in his voice. "Both," she whispered quietly. "What?" he asked in shock. "You can't do anything half way can you sister dear," he said with a chuckle. Once again she was back on an emotional roller coaster. She had been in shock for the first week. She found after that she vacillated between fear and excitement. High-powered attorney, Alexis Davis, who never considered having a child, was now having two...at one time, who'd have thought?" she laughed. The move to London had actually done wonders for her pregnancy, things went smoothly until she went into labor on New Years Eve 2002. Stefan was right there with her to welcome his niece and nephew, though it had taken Alexis months of coaxing, not to mention a little bribery, to get him to be her Lamaze coach and agree to be with her in the delivery room. He wasn't the person she dreamed could have been there with her. "What was she thinking? It had been a fantasy. Dreams come true," she sighed to herself. "You made your choice." After hours of labor, Alexis gave birth to a 5-pound 2-ounce baby girl at 10:13 pm and a 4-pound 8-ounce baby boy at 10:15 pm. Naming the twins had been fairly simple. She had made a deathbed promise to her sister that she would name the baby after her, even if it was a boy. Hence the names Kristina and Kristopher. Alexis had fought a fierce battle within herself when it came to choosing her daughter's middle name. Sonny's mother had meant the world to him. Alexis knew what it would have meant to him to have his daughter named after her. Could she do that and still protect the children from the dangers of their father's life? Her heart finally won out. Since she was no longer in Port Charles, the chances of running into Sonny Corinthos or anyone that knew the import of the name Adella, were slim, Kristina Adella it was. She wasn't sure why, but she chose Alexander as her son's middle name. Stefan had pushed her, wanting to give the children their "rightful" family name. She pointed out that their "rightful" family name started with the letter "C" but Cassadine it was not.
"If you do that, you've undone everything you have put in place to keep them safe," she told herself. That's when the attorney in her came up with a brilliant idea. The children would be given the surname Davis on their birth certificates at the hospital and their father would not be listed. She would then petition the court to change their names from Davis to Corinthos and then add one Michael J. Corinthos Jr. as the father. She would then immediately have those birth certificates sealed. That way, they could remain safe from their father's life and enemies and still carry his name, though in secret. She hoped that one day the danger would be gone and they would be able to know their father and he would be able to know them. After a short hospital stay, Alexis' new family joined her at her London flat. Alexis had not wanted a live-in nanny, but when she found out she was having twins, she felt that she was going to need more help than she had wanted to have. Mrs. Landsbury, who had remained in Port Charles to cook for and look after Nicholas, referred Alexis to her cousin, Maria. Maria had worked for a London family, distant relatives of the Cassadines, for many years. Her husband had worked as that family's gardener. The couple, in their late 50s, had no children. Mrs. Landsbury explained that Maria's husband had recently died of a heart attack and she needed to make a change in her life. Alexis had been nervous about finding the right person to be a big part of her children's lives. She knew from the moment she met Maria that she had found that in her. Maria was about two inches shorter than Alexis. She had wavy salt and pepper hair, pulled back in a bun. The woman's green eyes stood out in contrast to her olive complexion. Alexis liked the sparkle that was always present in the woman's eyes, as well as the smile that always seemed to grace her face. Alexis felt at ease with Maria, who quickly thought of Alexis as the daughter she never had. Alexis treated Maria as a member of her small family. She had vowed as a child to never treat anyone the way her family treated those in their employ. Alexis worked out of an office in her London flat in order to spend more time with her children. Maria cooked, cleaned and helped Alexis with the twins. Alexis found that she was happier than she had ever been in her life...that is as long as she could keep the guilt of keeping her children from their father pushed aside. Whenever she felt it creeping back in, she would imagine what a monster Sonny had been, and how her children may not be alive today, if they had even been born, if his enemies knew about them. Alexis had been surprised at how easily she fell into the roll of mother. Yes, being a single mother, of two no less, was no picnic, but none of it seemed as difficult as her life had been before her children. She was not alone. She loved them. They loved her. Gone was that insecurity she had had with both Stefan and Ned. She had lived in fear of doing something they didn't approve of and being cast aside. Sonny was the only person that had ever accepted her for who she was and did not judge her, at least that's the way it had been in the beginning. She hoped that her children would always see her that way. But, in the back of her mind she feared that when they found out she had kept them from their father, they would look at her like everyone else had all her life. She had decided to enjoy each and every day with them and put Sonny out of her mind. Though that was something that grew extremely hard to do as Kristopher began to look more and more like his father every day. And, though Kristina looked like Alexis, she had definitely inherited her father's strong. They both had his charm. Since it was becoming increasingly more difficult for Alexis not to think about Sonny, she decided that letting her children know a little about their father would help them if he were ever able to be a part of their lives. And, she hoped it would also keep them from hating her. During those late hours, as she sat in the rocking chair holding one of her children, she would tell them about their father. She told them about the person that she had thought Sonny to be. She told them about her friend who was there for her when she needed him. She told them of a trip to Puerto Rico. She told them that he loved them. She told them that he wasn't with them because they wouldn't be safe. She told them she wished for the day that he would be able to be with them and love them like she did. But she didn't tell them his name and she never showed them his photo.
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