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The
Road Trip Series All Hallow's Eve - October 31, 2003 Part 1 Helena is reminding me of the past and warning me that what my Mother sowed long ago, it is my destiny is to reap. Her voice danced solemnly on the air, each uttered word a dirge that haunted his soul. Words spoken in monotone with unnatural calmness, the message of a simple crystalline thorn piercing the shell around her, its meaning ambiguous to all but the heart that exists within the relentless embrace of her bitter memory. And Cameron, who had come in a very short time to face the reality of unthinkable evil if not fully understand it, shuddered as he watched the life drain from Alexis's face as she stared at the iridescent sliver of her Mother's past, her own past long buried. He hesitantly touched her icy hand and she didn't move, her eyes never leaving the crystalline thorn as if coaxing the memories into the present even as they burned and branded he. "Alexis, she's playing a psychological game of intimidation against you. You can't allow her to win." She sighed and glanced over at him. "She thrives on intimidation, feeding off pain and anguish and vulnerability like an appetizer of fine Beluga caviar. She's done it all my life so I guess I should be used to it." "You are not that little girl she tortured, Alexis, the little girl that couldn't fight back. You survived her and every other obstacle life has thrown your way. Obstacles test us but each victory makes us stronger and, by God, you are the strongest woman I've ever met." She smiled sadly, a mere hint of sparkle in her eyes. "I thought you said I was the most maddening woman you ever met." He grinned remembering the first time he spoke those words as he gently touched her cheek. "Well... that too, I guess. Maybe it's because you face life and don't give up no matter how hard it pushes back at you." She gripped the thorn tightly and felt a prick as the shard cut into her palm. "I don't know if that will be enough now." "The
difference, Alexis, is now you are not alone. I'm here with you
and I'll face whatever comes with you." He grasped her chin in his hand and forced her to look at him. "Who says you need to protect me? How can you be so certain that I am not as devious and capable of evil as any member of that twisted family of yours?" She looked into eyes full of serious purpose and saw something else, something a bit dark and mysterious and it unsettled her. "What are you trying to tell me?" "That I've done my share of things I'm not proud of so don't assume I'm some babe in the woods because you would be very wrong. And we both know how you hate being wrong." She watched him silently as she filed away the last statement. She knew him, she even believed she knew his heart and never felt any darkness there. Pain of loss and the anguish of living with his mistakes, yes, but darkness no and she of all people would recognize its foul stench. He looked into her eyes and saw hesitation after his speech but he had to force her to understand he could take care of himself as well as her and Kristina. She was so used to fending for herself that trusting in another never came easy and probably never would for Alexis. He needed to get them back on track and Alexis's mind off that damned crystal sliver of pain. He looked back in the rearview mirror at a happy, wide-eyed Kristina snuggled into her carseat playing with a toy and knew his next move. "She looks happy back there, like she can finally breathe." Alexis was happy for the diversion and smiled as she looked behind her and caught her daughter's eye, her reward a giggle and a winsome, gummy smile that shone all the way to her eyes. Her heart skipped a beat as she gazed into those eyes and felt the trust and love that connects Mother to child reaching out to her. She worried endlessly day after day that when she finally reunited with her daughter the bond would be incomplete, even severed, but with Cameron's consistent reassurance and lice's thumb-her-nose-at-the-judge assistance she had been more a part of her child's life than anyone would allow and she felt blessed. "She knows she has been set free," Alexis whispered softly as she reached back and tickled her daughter's leg eliciting giggles. "And
she's with her Mommy and she's going home," Cameron whispered
just as softly as he smiled at Alexis. Cameron felt guilty. He hadn't asked the court to do this but if it meant Kristina was out of that den of slavering lions, he vowed to do his best for her. He'd been thinking quite a bit since Judge Mulcahey named him temporary custodian, mostly the fear he would mess this up the way he did his own children. But this was temporary and he'd learned to do better since parenting Peter and lexander, not just from living with his own mistakes but from Alexis, the woman who lost so much and fought so very hard to reclaim not only her daughter but herself. She shamed him by her uninhibited willingness to move heaven and hell to bring her daughter back to her. He felt odd and uncomfortable being charged with the care of that little girl when her Mother sat beside him. Cameron cleared his throat. "My custody is temporary." Alexis replied with a hint of bitterness. "The word 'temporary' has been bandied about since the trial, Cameron, and it always seems to be tarnished by the ring of 'permanent' about it." "No!" he growled . He heard Kristina make a sound of discomfort from the backseat and he lowered his voice so only Alexis could hear. "Judge Mulcahey will finish his investigation and you will be given custody. It has to be that way, it is the ONLY way it can be." "Well, Cameron, until it is signed in legal black and white, sealed and delivered into my hands, I cannot allow myself to believe it. It hurts too much to think of the alternative." She needed something to hold on to so he decided this was the perfect time to spring his plan on her. "Will you come over to my apartment?" She nodded distractedly as she smiled at her daughter. "Of course, I'll help you settle Kristina. I know this happened quickly and you need to buy baby furniture and things but we'll figure something out for tonight." He arched an eyebrow. "Actually, I was going to ask you to watch over Kristina while I packed." "Packed? Are you going somewhere? Hotel with services?" she asked with interest. He tried unsuccessfully to hide a grin. "No, I was packing my things to move to your apartment." Her jaw dropped. "You want to move in with ME?" He knew he surprised her and as much as he enjoyed teasing and shocking her at least once a day, this was his way of making sure Kristina was as close to her Mother as possible while keeping to the intent of the court. But he had to admit what made him happiest was that the arrangement allowed him to selfishly be included in that mother-daughter world and he wanted that more than anything. "Think about it, Alexis. I have temporary custody and no extra bedroom. You have a nursery in move-in condition and an extra bedroom..." "How do YOU know what I have?" "Remember when I kidnapped you to Canada?" "How could I forget..." she snorted as she rolled her eyes. "Then you'll remember that Zander and I packed your suitcase..." "And you rooted through my things..." "No rooting... well maybe some rooting... in some drawers... and closets. I've already complimented you on that obsessive attraction to colorful satin and French lace lingerie." "Cameron!" "Seriously, so while we were there I took a look around your apartment. So sue me." "Watch what you wish for, pal. I have my license back so now I can sue your butt and not have to pay for legal services." He shrugged. "As I was saying... you fit the necessary requirements for both Kristina and myself so I thought moving in with you was the most cost-effective, time-efficient way of proceeding. Any objections? Rebuttals?" Alexis was trying very hard to be blasé but this very compromise had been in her thoughts ever since they left the judge's chambers. It was the perfect solution for so many reasons but she didn't want to appear too eager although she wanted to jump right into Cameron's arms and kiss him until they both expired from passion. "That is an excellent idea, very logical and well strategized." He grinned proudly at the compliment. "Really?" He thought it out from every angle so this was a surprise. "What problem?" "My guest room is my sculpture studio, that sacred space YOU urged me to create to fill my hours. In order for my sister not to haunt me, I had one of those fong shuey guys come in and make sure I wasn't breaking any karma rules. So, if you move in all that blatantly macho excess baggage you carry around is going to disrupt my creative karmic flow." Cameron raised his eyebrows wickedly. "Nothing etched in stone that my room has to be your studio. Two such brilliant individuals should be able to come up with a compromise that will satisfy both our... needs." She looked smug. "I'm already one step ahead of you as usual. The couch is perfect." Now it was his turn to drop his jaw. The couch? Did you happen to notice how tall I am? I'll be a corkscrew by morning. You wouldn't want to see that would you? She tapped her fingernail on her chin. "I could buy an inflatable mattress for the living room floor..." "Alexis..." O"k, you can have the guest room. I was just joking about the karma stuff. I can move my pottery wheel..." He was disappointed but he didn't feel right being in Alexis's bed in her home until she decided it was right for her. "Why not keep it there... you can always exile me to the living room when you want to play with clay. Or I could even help you..." She blushed remembering the pottery scene from Ghost. "It's a deal." * * * Alexis was sitting on the floor in Cameron's bedroom with Kristina watching as he packed two suitcases with what he would need in the short term. She was absently massaging her daughter's back when she felt a deep sigh rumble under her hand. She gazed down at her tired daughter, now asleep. Her tiny hand was nestled in hers and it felt so very right. Alexis felt a teardrop splash on her hand as she marveled at the simple act of sitting quietly and watching the child of her heart sleep, an act so many take for granted and she yearned for but was denied. She heard Cameron rummaging in the closet and looked over just as a box and a collection of tapes cascaded over his head and buried him. She grinned as she laid a kiss on her baby and stood up to help uncover the body. "Need some help in there?" she asked trying not to snicker. He groused, "No, I'm just fine." "Doesn't sound like it but, hey, whatever you say." "Alexis, can you do me a favor and check the top drawer in the bureau for my checkbook?" She grinned. "I always like a client who pays up front." "Pays?" "Room and board, of course. I might be easy but I'm not free." She heard him chuckle from the bowels of the closet as she walked over and opened the drawer to find a collection of cufflinks, some quite ornate and unusual for a man so rugged and comfortable with the outdoors, a microcassette recorder and a few tapes, a silver money clip with a wad of bills tucked into its grip, coins scattered about, a few pens and a notepad, and no checkbook. "It's not here." A muffled response came from the closet. "Try the second drawer." She opened the drawer and blushed as she saw his underwear, boxer briefs in varying colors and snorted as she pulled out a pair of silk boxers covered in dancing Santas, the fabric threadbare from washing, an old memento and probably a gift from his sons. She pulled them out of the drawer and decided to give Cameron a hard time. "So, are you one of Santas elves in disguise?" she laughed as she held up the boxers and twirled them in her hand. He blushed behind his beard and cleared his throat. "A gift from..." "Your sons." "Ah... no. They were a gift from my ex-wife." Embarrassed beyond belief, she averted her eyes as she mumbled, "Sorry." She turned back to the drawer and her eye caught something pink tucked in between the boxers and lifted it out and wondered aloud, "I know men have some strange habits but why is there a pink knit bootie in your underwear drawer?" He froze as he recalled stuffing the bootie he found in the Paris apartment in his underwear drawer, the bootie he did not want to Alexis to see, the same bootie now held lightly in her hand. He hated to do it but he did not want to alarm her so he chose to lie. "Oh, I found that one evening in the foyer when I was visiting Kristina and I stuck it in my pocket. I guess I just shoved it in the drawer." Alexis frowned. "You were just going to keep one bootie? I assume you know that two are usually required." "Yes but I forgot about returning it. Now that Kristina is with us, I guess I won't have to," he said nonchalantly as he turned back to the closet. Alexis continued to gaze at the bootie, marveling at the stitchery down to the tiny pink satin rosebud on the toe. She heard cooing and glanced over at her daughter now awake from her nap. She dropped the bootie back into the drawer and shrugged her shoulders as she turned to walk over to pick up her daughter. Cameron exhaled as Alexis twirled around the room with Kristina giggling in her arms, the small bootie now forgotten. He walked over to the bureau and reached in to push the bootie farther back into the recesses of the drawer. He retrieved his checkbook from the nightstand and picked up his suitcases. "Are we ready, ladies?" Alexis smiled nervously as she nodded. "As ready as we will ever be. I hope you like popcorn." * * * Cameron heard giggling as he was unpacking and stopped to listen to Alexis as she bathed Kristina. There was a lot of splashing, some off-key singing and more giggles than he'd heard since the days when Peter and lexander would read under the covers with flashlights. It was the happiest he'd heard Alexis since the day they met and it did his heart good. He wanted to give them time alone so he slowly unpacked and made room in the closet full of art supplies, summer clothes, antiques and a packing box covered with words in another language, perhaps Greek or Russian. He walked around and studied the framed pictures scattered through the room. solemn young Nikolas looking up at his aunt as she fed seagulls, an intense man with Alexis's eyes encased in a dark wood frame staring unhappily into the camera, a young Alexis and Stefan laughing as they lobbed snowballs at each other, her sister Kristina with hair aglow like burnished flame looking out at the world with such overwhelming joy and exuberance he expected her to laugh out loud. He wished he had known her. He heard footsteps in the hallway and a knock on the door. very wet Alexis stepped into the room with Kristina in her arms, her soaked pink shirt hugging her body in all the right places, her hair curling into ringlets about her face. His body involuntarily responded to the sight and scent of her and it took everything he had to feign calmness. He grinned. "I see Miss Kristina is done bathing... her Mommy too." Alexis looked down and saw the outline of her body and blushed as she shifted Kristina to cover her breasts. "Oh... yeah... seems that Mommy won't need a shower tonight. I'm going to put her down," she said as she turned to walk away and stopped to call over her shoulder, "Coming?" He smiled happily at the unexpected invitation as he followed them down the hall to the nursery, the room that remained silent and unused for nearly a year was now filled with cooing and laughter as this Mother finally did what every Mother takes for granted, sets their child down to sleep. He watched as she carefully dried, powdered and diapered, each movement of her elegant hands a gentle maternal ballet. fter Kristina was snug in jammies dotted with bunnies with trusted Lambie-pie in hand, Alexis sat down in the rocker and told her a story about a young girl that finds a lamb that was lost and afraid. s he listened and watched Mother and child, he experienced a singular moment of serene happiness, one he hadn't felt in a very long time, perhaps even before his own children were born. It enveloped him in a rush and he turned his head to wipe the tears that flowed from somewhere deep inside. He felt at home here, in this nursery, watching the simple act of storytelling and he vowed not to allow anything - or anyone - to disrupt what they had here. Alexis put Kristina down, covered her and leaned down to kiss her cheek as she quickly surrendered to the embrace of sleep. She motioned Cameron to the crib and gestured for him to say good night. He smiled as he rubbed Kristina's back and leaned down to kiss her head. He reached up to wind the mobile and listened to the strains of Mary Had Little Lamb and soon felt Alexis leaning into him. He wrapped his arms around her as they both watched her sleep. She whispered with awe. "I can't believe she's here, Cameron. I've waited so long..." "I know... but she's home now where she belongs." She looked up and unwrapping herself from his arms reached up and drew him into a kiss, a kiss sweetly tender, thankful and filled with a range of emotions that left him breathless. She looked into his eyes as she touched his cheek. "Thank you for being here, for caring so much about both of us." "I do what I can." "You do more than that, Cameron," she murmured as she stared into the distance, more than anyone has ever thought to do for me including my family. "Are you going to tell them about Helena?" he asked. She put her finger to his lips, deposited another kiss on her daughter's cheek and after rearranging her blanket, drew him out into the living room. "I intend to go tomorrow to see Nikolas." "Not your brother?" he asked curiously. She had been strangely quiet on the subject of her brother for weeks now and it seemed to Cameron that she was unsettled about him. "I want to discuss it with Nikolas, not Stefan," she answered sharply and that seemed to be the end of the discussion. She looked at his expression and pursed her lips. "I need to unwind. Would you like a glass of wine?" He smiled as he squeezed her hand. "I'd say that is just what the doctor ordered." * * * Alexis jolted awake to the sound of Kristina warbling over the monitor. Countless mornings she awoke from her dreams, dreams filled with images of her daughter, to find the deadly quiet hush of the apartment the only sound that greeted her. But today she heard Kristina's voice and had to shake herself and listen again to accept reality - her daughter was waiting for her in the room she decorated with loving care and that remained without life - and hope - until yesterday. She grinned as she jumped out of bed and sprinted down the hall to the nursery to be greeted with a very wet but smiling baby. She hugged and kissed her, changed her and chatted with her as they walked down the hall. s she passed Cameron's room she looked in to find the bed made and the room empty. She was disappointed as she wanted to share breakfast - their first together - as she fed her daughter. She saw the note on the hall table and found he'd gone to the hospital but promised to be back to have lunch. smile on her face and a spring in her step, Alexis walked toward the kitchen and stopped in her tracks. Luke Spencer was sitting pretty as you please in her living room reading the Port Charles Herald and drinking her coffee. "What are you doing here?" "Hey sweetcheeks!" he chirped merrily as he looked up. "Gettin' the dirty lowdown on all the fine Upchucklians and having a cuppa joe. nd just let me say... despite working for the criminal coffee baron of Port Chuckles for years, your choice of coffee is appalling. nd did you look in that kitchen of yours? Popcorn, chinese food that is about to walk away, coffee - and I use that term loosely - and a few measly jars of baby food. No half-and-half, vodka or sugar to be found so borrowed some from the little one." Her jaw dropped. "You took my daughter's baby food?" "Desperate times call for desperate measures, Tash. Who knew baby applesauce could be so coffee-friendly." She shuddered at the thought. "Luke, are you out of your mind?" "That sounds like a Dr. Quack question. And speaking of... is the good Doc plumb tuckered out from your all night session of the wild thing or has he already abandoned you? And Tash, I must say you never impressed me as the shacking up type - all that royal blood and all." She chose not to address her living arrangements. "He's at the hospital." "See that is the difference between old Luke here and the shrink. I'd never leave your bed until you threw me out of it bodily and then I'd probably just bounce right back up into your sweet soft princessy arms." Alexis started to say something when he put down the paper and stood up with his arms outstretched. "Hey, Krissy la Deux, come to Uncle Luke." Kristina giggled as she clapped her hands and reached for him. She reached up and patted his cheeks as she settled into his arms and looked over at her mother. Alexis wrinkled her nose at her daughter. "Traitor." Luke smirked at her as he played airplane and swooshed her daughter from side to side. "No... she knows quality when she sees it," he smugly retorted as he looked down at Kristina. "Don't know about you, little miss sweetcheeks, but Mommy doesn't seem happy to see Uncle Luke. Not a morning person I guess, huh." "Luke, what are you doing here? We left you in Paris safe from Baldwin's hounds." Luke smirked, "Baldwin isn't going to be a problem." Alexis rolled her eyes as she walked to the kitchen to fix her daughter some breakfast. "What did you do, throw him over a cliff?" The minute the words were out she regretted them. Luke was close to Summer and her unthinking words merely underscored his pain. He looked hurt as he walked into the kitchen, then shrugged. "Nope, I found the real killer." She was surprised. "You found Darius?" He shook his head sadly as he looked into her eyes. "Darius is dead as a doornail and has been for quite some time. Seems in addition to botching the kill-Emily hit, he had his fingers in a whole lotta pe-can pies and it caught up with him." "Who killed him?" Luke knew this was going to hurt but he had to tell her the truth. "Your brother." She heard the words and tried to push them away. Stefan had returned to her a changed man, dark and cynical and ruthless, and she worried over it every day. For him to arrange for Emily to be killed was frightening and, if true, she now believed he must have lost his mind somewhere between Milan and Port Charles. "That can't be. Stefan would not do something that brutal." "Which Stefan? The one who left here or the one who slithered back into town? Cuz, Tash, this one would slit your throat as fast as his Mama." The image of her Mother flashed before her, the knife swiftly drawn across her throat and she shivered. "So what are you going to do?" she asked. "I'm
gonna turn him in to Bubba - dead or alive."
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