Sonny sat on the jet as it winged back to Port Charles, the knot in his gut clenching and unclenching with more intensity the closer he got to home.

Close...he had let this man get close...too close. What had it almost cost him? His best friend? His family? What price had been paid that Sonny had yet to discover?

The answers he had sought hadn't been in South America the first time he had gone looking for Alcazar's killer, not in totality, but the crumbs that led him to the truth about Ric Lansing had started to come together there. First he had come back to Port Charles and confronted Ric with the knowledge that the man had known Luis Alcazar. Ric had deflected the accusation with a casual reference to knowing who Alcazar was because he had once delivered a contract to him for his former employer. Sonny hadn't believed him for a second, but it was easier to let Ric think his lie had bought him time. People made mistakes when they believed they only had a small window within which to operate. Ric was no exception.

A few traced phone calls, Benny's magic ability to track down the untraceable, and Sonny had found himself back on familiar ground -- Puerto Rico. And there he had found what he needed. Now it was time to end all of the lies once and for all.

"Mr. Corinthos," the pilot called over the intercom, "we should be landing in about 20 minutes."

Sonny picked up his phone and dialed in the number for Ric's cell. Jason's "attorney" answered on the second ring.

"Ric Lansing."

"It's Sonny. I need you to meet me."

"Is, uh, is this about Jason's defense?" Sonny liked that Ric sounded nervous.

"Yeah, it is. I think I have some information that could help, but I want to be sure the D.A. doesn't get even a hint of it. I have a safe house near the waterfront, let's meet there. 975 Canal. I can be there in about an hour."

"Okay, I'll see you there."

Sonny disconnected the call as soon as he had Ric's agreement. Settling back into his seat, Sonny fastened his seatbelt, and knew that a bumpy landing would be the least of his worries tonight.

One hour and ten minutes later, Sonny stood with a double scotch in his hand, pacing inside the Canal Street house. He was about to call his late guest of honor when a knock drew him to the front door. Johnny stood there behind a frazzled looking Ric. Johnny nodded toward his boss, and Sonny stepped aside to let Ric enter the house.

"I'm sorry I'm late. Carly was talking to me about plans for the club and I didn't think you wanted me to tell her I needed to rush off to see you, so..."

"Sit down."

Sonny read opponents well. Ric was on edge. He knew something had gone wrong, he just wasn't sure what. Normally, with this much of an advantage, Sonny would play head games, torture him a little more. But tonight Sonny just wanted answers. He wanted to know how much he was to blame for all that had happened to the people he cared about.

"So," Ric began, fighting to keep his nerves from showing up in his voice, "you have something that could help Jason?"

"Yeah," Sonny answered as he walked to the bar and drained his glass. He slammed the glass down, not hard enough to break it, but hard enough to make Ric almost jump out of his skin. Mr. Harvard wasn't used to being out of control, and it showed. Sonny leveled an intense stare at his quarry and Ric blinked, hard. Standing, the lawyer started to unbutton his jacket as he looked around the room, down at the floor -- anywhere but at where Sonny stood.

"You asked me here, Sonny. If you want to waste time, then..."

"What were you afraid Brenda would remember?"

Ric's movements stopped, his coat unbuttoned but still on because he was suddenly incapable of doing anything. Breathing was a struggle. Sonny knew who he was -- and Sonny saw the moment Ric realized it.

"Sonny, I..."

"You were on the boat the night Alcazar pulled her from the water, weren't you?" Silence answered Sonny's question. He picked up the glass he had earlier discarded and hurled it across the room, shattering the quiet. "Weren't you?"

"Yes," Ric answered, realizing there was nothing left to conceal.

"Yes, you were, weren't you Richard...Richard Scully, right? Isn't that your name?"

Ric swallowed hard, his eyes filling with a familiar look. It gave Sonny a moment of pause. It was the look of a man who had lost everything and survived it.

"Richard Lansing Scully, yes. Lansing was my mother's name. But my father...he still wanted me to have his last name even though they never married. So until a few years ago, I was Richard Scully."

"Yeah, I know." Sonny said with an air of smugness. "Why don't you sit down, Mr. Scully. You and me, we got us a lot to talk about."

Ric complied and sank down onto the sofa. Sonny pulled the straight-backed chair from the desk and sat it opposite Ric, seat facing away from his "prisoner" so that Sonny could straddle the seat and lean his hands on the back of the chair.

"So, where should we start, Ricky Boy, hmm? How about...how about you being Scully's kid, why don't we start there?"

"He and my mother had an affair, they had me. That's about all there is to tell. And for the record, I did not come here to get back at you or to try to exact some kind of retribution for you killing him. I have no illusions about who Joe Scully was or what he did."

"Yeah, sure, I'll just buy that story," Sonny said, adding his trademark taunting grin afterwards. "I react to perceived threat, and the only reason you're not dead right now is that I need you to get Jason and Brenda out of this mess."

Ric straightened his back at the mention of Jason and Brenda. Sonny was sure he knew why.

"Yeah, I know. I know you killed Alcazar. And then you set up Jason and Brenda to take the fall for it, right, because they matter to me and you want to punish me for taking your old man out."

"No," Rick shouted defensively, "No, that's not what happened. You have no idea what you're messing with here, Sonny. I can make sure Brenda and Jason go free, but you've got to just let me handle this."

"Like I'd let you within 10 feet of anyone I care about now? Brenda and Jason will never see your face again."

Ric sat up straighter and stared at Sonny defiantly.

"You need to just leave it alone."

"I need to leave it alone?" Sonny's rhetorical question hung in the air as he stood up and advanced on Ric. With one long, striding cat-like movement, he was on the attorney, his right forearm pressing against Ric's windpipe as his body pinned him to the couch. "You're the one who should have left it alone, Ricky Boy. You should have stayed away from me and Port Charles."

"No," Ric gasped out, the pressure on his throat choking off his air. "not...about...you."

The street-smart aspect of Sonny's personality was telling him to end this now. He knew Ric had taken Alcazar out. He would find a way to prove it and get Jason and Brenda off the hook. He didn't care why he had done it, this all just needed to be over. But there was another voice inside of Sonny's head - a calm, rational voice from days past telling him to be sure he thought this through, that this was the course he wanted to take. The voice was not his, but he knew that he could trust it...he could trust her.

Sonny backed off on the pressure enough to let Ric take a much-needed breath. As the younger man drew in ragged gulps of air, Sonny leaned closer and spoke in a low, menacing voice.

"I know you really did go to Harvard, left your cushy law firm to go represent Alcazar and trash like him, and then you dropped off the map until you resurfaced as Ric Lansing. You got 20 minutes to fill in the gaps."

Ric nodded and Sonny slowly moved away and returned to the chair that sat opposite his adversary. Sonny sat one hand on top of the other on the chair back, and leveled his eyes at Ric.

"Start talking."

"You're right," Ric, said, his hand rubbing at his much-abused throat, "Joe wasn't much of a father, but he left money behind for me and my mom, and it got me through law school. But being a lawyer...it bored me to tears. I knew about my father's life, his connections...and I thought, what the hell, I can handle this, and it's got to be more exciting than what I'm doing now."

"So you decided to represent a creep like Alcazar?"

"No, I didn't decide to represent him. I was working for the Pascalas and they had to negotiate a contract with Luis to get access to some landing strips in a few countries where, well, let's just say, a man like Alcazar could make things happen. Alcazar took a liking to me. He started asking me to do business for him, and he paid well, and I didn't care what he did. I mean, I can be honest about that...he was a paycheck to me, nothing more."

Sonny didn't respond, but he felt a tiny pang inside of him at hearing Ric's words. That's what he was to every lawyer who'd ever represented him, a paycheck, probably even to Justus Ward, who he had once called a friend...every lawyer except one.

"During those years I got married. Her name was Kara. She was...she was what guys like me dream about. Pretty and sweet, but damn was she smart. She was the lawyer for one of Mr. Pascala's sons, the one who ran the legit hotel franchise."

"You're talking about her in the past tense," Sonny said, a foreboding coming over him that he somehow knew where this story was going. The déjà vu feeling in his gut was unpleasant to say the least.

"I was on the boat the night Alcazar pulled Brenda out of the water. We were finishing up a deal and then all hell broke loose. I helped him get her settled, got a doctor for her. I mean, I figured he was going to take her into port, get her to a hospital."

Sonny nodded. Ric looked at him like he was waiting for a question, but when no prompting came, the attorney simply leaned forward and rested his head on his hands.

"About seven months later, I had to fly to Paris to go over some contracts for Luis. And I walk in and what do I see but Brenda Barrett. She didn't remember me from that night...but of course, by then I knew who she was. I'd seen the news stories about her 'tragic death'. I couldn't believe Luis was planning to keep her like she was some stray puppy he had found."

The disgust was genuine, Sonny could sense it.

"So what happened?"

Ric's eyes dropped to the floor and he shook his head slightly. "I screwed up. I told him I thought he was wrong, that Brenda's family had a right to know she was still alive." Ric leaned back, suddenly exhausted, his body slumping against the sofa. "He wasn't going to lose her, not even then. His obsession with her...it was instantaneous. And now I was in the way."

"So he tried to take you out." It was a statement. Sonny didn't begin to understand a man taking human lives to keep a woman by his side, but he had come to have some inkling of how Alcazar's twisted mind had worked. Ric nodded and Sonny felt that twinge of familiarity in his gut once more.

"Your wife?"

Ric's eyes closed and it was there again...Kara waving at him as she left for work. Her popping back in the door, scolding him for parking behind her and blocking her Mercedes in the driveway. Him tossing her the keys...and then the fireball.

"There was a bomb in my car. My wife...Kara had gone out to move it and..."

Sonny knew the "and", he didn't need to hear it. His own mind filled for perhaps the millionth time with visions of Lily and her sweet, innocent smile as she had walked to her own fiery death.

"So you went underground?"

The faraway look in Ric's eyes, the one that had carried him back to that painful day, disappeared, and he refocused his attention on Sonny.

"Not by choice. Mr. Pascala insisted. He liked me, and his family adored Kara. He told me Alcazar would be taken care of and that I should just disappear for a while. I was so damn incoherent, I just went along with what he said. And then six months later, the Pascala's plane crashed, and he and his sons were all killed."

Sonny remembered the story well. Pascala and he had never really crossed paths, but he had heard the man held good standing in the organization. No one had questioned the circumstances of the crash because there didn't seem to be any reason to. Only now that he knew Alcazar and Pascala were associated did Sonny suddenly wonder about the "accident" that had claimed the family.

"Yeah, it was him," Ric said, reading Sonny's thoughts. "He had a surface to air missile fired at them by one of his cronies in Colombia. He killed them all because they were trying to protect me. And then Alcazar came hunting...he was going to do whatever he had to do to find me."

"And Ric Lansing? How did that happen?"

"A friend of my father's heard what was going on. He offered to give me a new identity in exchange for my help in his business. I didn't have much choice. I'm not a brave man by nature, Sonny, and facing Luis again...I just wanted it over. So I kept my mother's name and my wife used to call me Ric instead of Richard...that's how Ric Lansing was born. Every day I would get up and get dressed and go pretend to care about what I was doing to pay off my debt. Every night I went home and I closed my eyes and saw Kara...I thought about the Pascalas and how they had died for trying to help me...and over time I came to realize that the only thing that would ever make the world right again was making sure Alcazar was gone."

Sonny nodded, stood and then walked to the phone on the desk. He picked it up and spoke directly into the receiver without needing to dial any numbers. "Benny, you got all that? Good. Right away." Sonny hung up the phone and returned to his seat.

"Whole place is wired?" Ric asked.

"Makes it easier to filter information to the people I need to get it. Every word better check out."

Silence fell between them momentarily. Sonny sensed there was still something Ric had yet to confess, and since they were talking, he decided it was time for another inquiry.

"And so you came here to kill him?" The question was free of judgment. Sonny had no reason to believe this story except that he recognized his own pain in Ric, and he didn't believe that type of loss couldn't be faked, not even by the most gifted of actors.

"Well, I took a few detours. Once I surfaced, Alcazar and I played cat and mouse for a while, and then I screwed up and got caught with too many passports in that South American hell hole where I first came across your wife and Jason."

Sonny's ears perked up. "You met Carly and Jason?"

"Not really met," Ric clarified. "I heard them talking about you and Alcazar, and I realized you might be the key to me finding him. The favor I had called in from one of my former employers came through and I got sprung, so I headed off to do as much research on you as I could and then, yeah, I came here...and yes, I came here to kill Alcazar."

"And you did."

"No," Ric said, shaking his head, "I didn't. I went there to do it, but things...things didn't happen the way I thought. Sonny, I'm not the one who pushed Alcazar over that railing."

"Why are you lying about this?"

"I'm not lying," Ric said defensively, standing up for emphasis. "Sonny, I'll get Brenda and Jason out of this, I will. But you don't want to push this any further. You won't like the answers you find."

"That's not your choice. So tell me. Tell me who the hell killed him if it wasn't you."

"Sonny..."

His temper snapped. Sonny stood up from the chair and threw it away from him.

"Damn it, just tell me!"

Ric sighed, resigned that he had no choice. He had never wanted the truth to come out, not for either of their sakes, but Sonny would not be denied, and if anyone was going to have the knowledge and not wield it like a weapon, Ric supposed Sonny was the person.

"Alexis Davis."

Sonny's whole body froze at hearing the words. His mind fought them, refusing entry to even that as a possibility, and he glared at Ric, a finger pointing at the man's face.

"You're a liar."

"I'm not lying, Sonny."

"You're a liar!" Sonny screamed, his heart pounding in his chest. "Alexis Davis is incapable of murder. You're lying and trying to use someone you think I don't care about to..."

"Sonny, I didn't say she murdered him, I said she killed him. And before you start telling me what Alexis is capable of or not capable of, maybe you should start paying attention."

"What the hell are you saying?" Sonny asked, his fury evident in his features and his voice.

"Ever since I got to this town, my survival has depended on watching and hearing everything going on around me. And what I hear and what I see is a lot of talk about how you and Alexis are these bitter enemies now...only that's not the truth, I know it, and you damn well better know it because I just put that woman's life in your hands, and you're the reason it's at risk."

Ric's passionate speech ended on such a stunning note, that Sonny found the reply he'd been planning to give suddenly lost all of its meaning. Alexis at risk...because of him?

"How do you figure that?"

The truth, once exposed, has to be given completely or too much damage can come from miscommunications or misconceptions. It was a lesson Kara had driven home to Ric, who had ascribed to a somewhat different theory in his lawyering. It was a lesson he knew had to come into play right now.

"Because she pushed Alcazar thinking she was saving you."






Alexis had just settled Kristina down into her bassinette in the General Hospital nursery when her cell phone rang. She hated having to have the thing on when she was here because she didn't ever want the real world to interfere in her time with her baby girl, but Brenda and Jason's trial was picking up steam, she had no choice. Moving quickly, she grabbed the device before the sound could disturb her angel.

"Alexis Davis."

"Alexis, it's Ric Lansing. I need to see you right away."

"Ric, can it wait until morning, please? I'm with my daughter and..."

"It really can't. I'm sorry to take you away from your baby, but this is urgent."

Alexis glanced at Kristina. The baby was sound asleep following some quality mommy time and a good round of nursing. She would probably sleep for at least three or four hours.

"All right, where?"

"Alcazar's hotel suite."

"Why...why there?" Alexis asked. Her nerve endings suddenly tightened and she felt a shiver run through her. That was happening a lot lately, and she didn't understand why.

"There's something I need to show you, and this is the best place to do it."

Shaking off the feeling that she was headed into trouble, Alexis agreed to meet Ric, then ended the call. Leaning over, she placed a kiss on Kristina's cheek.

"I love you, baby girl. I'll be back soon, I promise."

At the Port Charles Hotel, Ric closed his cell phone and looked over at Sonny.

"She's on her way."

"I'm still not sure about this," Sonny said, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Look, Sonny, you know now that I am who I say I am. Everything I told you checked out, right?"

Sonny nodded in response.

"Then trust that I know what I'm doing. Part of why I wanted to get into this case, why I kept nosing around you was that I wanted to be close by in case Alexis started to remember what happened that night."

"You're sure she doesn't?"

"Yeah," Ric said, nodding for emphasis. "I wasn't until the first time we really spoke, after I took over Jason's defense. Something's gnawing at her. She knows something is wrong, but I'm convinced Alexis doesn't remember what happened here. She only knows she can't let anyone else pay for it."

"Then maybe we should leave it alone. She's been hurt enough by all this."

Sonny turned his back on Ric as he finished speaking, but if his intention was to hide his emotions from Ric, it was a futile cause. When he'd said he'd been watching and listening, Ric hadn't been exaggerating, and one thing he knew was that Alexis Davis mattered to Sonny Corinthos as much as he mattered to her, there mutual denial of that fact not withstanding.

"Sonny, what if we're in court and she realizes it? Has a flashback without any kind of controls in place...I've been worried about that from the beginning. She doesn't strike me as the type of woman who's going to look over at the two defendants and be able to keep quiet about what she just remembered, or am I wrong about that?"

Sonny shook his head. "No, you're not. Alexis will bend rules when she has to, but she couldn't knowingly let Jason or Brenda get hurt for something she did. I just...you know, first her sister and then her baby almost died...she's just been through enough."

"I agree," Ric said, his hands sliding into his pockets. "That's why I didn't just hightail it out of town after it happened. I don't think anyone should have to pay for destroying that monster, especially not a woman who lost so much to him."

The door opened just then, and Johnny poked his head into the room.

"Boss, Max called up. Miss Davis is parking her car."

"Okay, thanks, Johnny," Sonny said, walking toward the door. "Make yourself scarce until she's inside, then you make sure no one comes through that door."

Johnny nodded and made his exit. Johnny, Max and Benny were the only people from inside he had trusted with being a part of this so far. He knew they all cared about Alexis. Even though they didn't know the whole story, they all knew she was involved in whatever was going down, and that meant they would be more cautious than even Sonny could expect them to be in a regular business situation.

Sonny turned back to Ric, but neither man spoke. What more was there to say? They were in agreement about the result they wanted, but neither was really sure how they were going to get there...not yet. They had to find out what Alexis knew, and help her remember what she needed to know before they could go any further.

The door opened, and Alexis tentatively stepped inside. She saw Ric and smiled nervously, but the smile vanished the second she saw who else was in the room.

"What...what's going on here? Why are you here with him?" she said to Ric, her eyes nervously flitting from him to Sonny and back again.

"Alexis, Sonny's here to help."

"Help?" Alexis asked, her incredulity showing. "Sonny doesn't help, he causes problems and gets people killed, and I don't want or need that in my life anymore."

"Even if it means that we guarantee Brenda and Jason walk?"

Ric's question stopped the immediate thoughts of escape that were flowing through Alexis' mind. Her own self-preservation instincts were still screaming at her to run, but her lawyer's brain couldn't walk out without knowing what might be happening here that could help her client. She surrendered to the latter and felt yet another of those unexplained shudders pass through her body.

"Is it legal?"

Ric smiled slightly and stepped closer to her. "Well, that I can't guarantee you. I can promise you, though, that no one is going to get hurt here. Not Brenda, not Jason, and not you."

Alexis turned slightly and leveled her eyes at Sonny. The connection between them sparked instantly and neither could look away.

"Can you promise me the same thing?"

Sonny shook his head no, not because he doubted he and Ric could find a way to get everyone off for Alcazar's murder, but because he knew whatever happened here was very much going to hurt Alexis by forcing her to remember things she did not want to remember.

"I never wanted to see you hurt, Alexis. You have to know that."

Alexis willed herself to finally break their visual bond, but the words he'd spoken sent a different kind of tremor through her body. He sounded like Sonny...her Sonny...and she hadn't heard that voice in a very long time.

"I have to get back to my daughter. What is it you wanted to show me?" she asked, turning her focus back to Ric.

"I wanted to propose a theory. An idea of how Alcazar's death wasn't a murder."

"Okay," Alexis said, stepping forward. "What?"

"What if whoever pushed him wasn't actually trying to hurt him? What if they walked in on something, say Alcazar making threats, actually physically harming another person, and they reacted...reached out to try and help this other person, and Alcazar was pushed to protect that person. He stumbled, his leg caught the edge of the chair and boom, the momentum carries him to the balcony and he falls over the railing."

"So you think someone was saving another person's life? Nice idea, but how exactly do we prove it without knowing who any of the participants were?" Alexis asked, walking closer to the edge of the room and the balcony doors, which were standing open.

"That's actually what we wanted to talk to you about."

Ric's words made Alexis turn around, and again, as that feeling of something akin to dread washed through her, she looked from one man to the other.

"We again. You two have become quite the twosome."

"We have the same goals," Sonny said, walking toward Alexis. She took a reflexive step back from him, and Sonny stopped moving. "No one thinks that a good person should have to go down for taking Alcazar out except for Baldwin, and he only cares about hurting me."

"Seems he and Alcazar had that in common," Alexis quipped, crossing her arms in front of her. Sonny grinned slightly and raised his eyebrows.

"Yeah, I guess so."

They kept hold of each other's gaze a moment longer before Alexis once more nervously tore her eyes from Sonny's and looked at Ric.

"So, tell me, why hasn't this good Samaritan come forward? They must know that Brenda and Jason are in trouble for what happened."

"I think it's possible, very possible," Ric started as he, too, advanced a few steps closer to Alexis, "that she doesn't remember what happened."

"I'm sorry?" Alexis said, yet another shudder shaking her body.

"I think that the person who pushed Alcazar was so traumatized by everything that happened that she's blocking it out." Ric moved a few steps closer. "But she also knows something happened because she's trying damn hard to make sure no one else pays for it."

"How..." Alexis wrapped her arms tighter around herself as she felt her skin grow cold, "how do you know it's a she and what do you mean, she's trying to make sure no one pays for it? Brenda and Jason are paying...they're on trial for their lives."

Sonny took advantage of her distraction with Ric to move up behind Alexis. He and Ric exchanged a look of agreement and then he leaned forward.

"Alexis, Brenda and Jason are going to be fine. It's her we're worried about. She thinks she did something terrible. She's consumed by her guilt over it, but she won't deal with it, and she's the one who's hurting. But, Alexis..." Sonny paused and raised his hands up to put them on her shoulders. When she flinched before he could even touch her, he stopped, hands still in the air. "You didn't do anything wrong. You aren't to blame, for any of this."

Alexis wheeled around, her eyes wide with a combination of fury and confusion. She looked from Sonny to Ric and then she instinctively began to try and put distance between her and them. Stumbling backwards, she caught her foot on the edge of a nearby chair, and as she started to fall to the ground, her mind snapped into a slideshow-type of view of the horror she had pushed down for months now.

Alcazar falling...falling backward toward the railing...falling over it...and Alexis standing there, arms extended, hands in front of her, watching it happen.

As she hit the ground, Sonny moved to her, pulling her into his tight hold as she began to surrender to the mental onslaught their prompting had begun. Her face twisted into a mask of pain as she began to cry and tried to curl her body up into a ball.

"Oh my God! Oh my God! What have I done?" Alexis cried out, and Sonny held her, his eyes flashing up at Ric to indicate he should keep his distance.

"Alexis, it's okay...it's gonna be okay, I promise." Sonny whispered to her in a soothing voice, his words, however, seemed to make no difference. Alexis' memories were flooding her senses, and Sonny knew she was seeing the story Ric had told him earlier unfold in her mind.

[i]"She must have come there to confront him. I'd heard what he did to her, leaving her in the park when she went into labor, and I can only imagine the anger she must have felt on top of what happened to her sister. But when she got there, I was already inside.

"Alcazar and I were going at it. I had a gun I was holding on him, and I told him he was finally going to pay for what he had done to Kara, to everyone he had hurt. He laughed. He said I didn't have the guts to kill him. And he was right. I kept trying to pull the trigger, but I couldn't do it." Ric's eyes lowered in shame at his failure, especially because he now knew what it had cost someone else. "That's when he jumped me. He knocked the gun away and we started to struggle. But then he got me down and he was choking me. Alexis must have seen us. And when she did, she thought I was you."

"How could you know that," Sonny asked, "if you never talked to her about what happened?"

"Because she called out to you. 'Sonny, no,' she screamed, and then I heard footsteps and then Alcazar let me go and started to fall back. Then he went over the railing. She saved my life, Sonny. But she thought she was saving you."[/i]

Alexis' whole frame shook as she remembered the horror of that moment...of seeing the dark hair and the expensive wool overcoat and believing, just for a few seconds, that Alcazar was about to kill the man she loved. And she did love him. Nothing had been able to kill that within her, and when she had believed Sonny was about to die, she had been willing to do anything to stop it.

"I couldn't let him hurt you," she whimpered, her voice barely audible through the tears and anguish that wracked her body. "He had killed Kristina, he had almost killed our baby...I couldn't let him hurt you."

Sonny turned Alexis over in his arms and pulled her closer. She curled against him, her face buried in his chest as she cried out all that she had kept hidden.

"It's all right, Alexis. I swear to you, I will make this go away."

Ric sat down on the couch, helpless, as Sonny comforted Alexis. He had done what he could for now, and he would do more in the next few hours to make certain Sonny's promise was kept. But right now he was reeling, reeling from the depth of Alexis' suffering, and from the words he was certain he had heard her say.

For more than an hour, Sonny held Alexis. Slowly her cries began to slow and then, finally, they stopped. When she felt as if she had some control of herself again, she turned and looked at Ric.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Honestly," he said, looking directly at her, "I was hoping I'd never have to. You saved my life, Alexis. And I repaid that by panicking and running away. You were shell-shocked that night. I just told you to get out of here and I ran because I didn't want to have to explain what I was doing here."

Alexis sat up more, pulling slightly out of Sonny's embrace, but not pushing him away. His arms remained wrapped loosely around her.

"I remember...you said that no one ever had to know, that I should just leave. And I didn't know what to do so I ran downstairs and out the back door. And then when I saw Alcazar's body...it was like a switch just flipped over...and then suddenly it was all just gone."

"I'm sorry I ran away," Ric said, his shame evident. "It was the wrong thing to do, and I'm sorry. But I will help Sonny clean up this mess, and I promise you, we're not going to let Alcazar hurt anyone else."

Sonny could feel Alexis gearing up to argue. Despite everything, now that she knew the truth in her conscious mind, he had known she would want to just confess the truth. But he wasn't going to let her take that chance. Standing, he helped Alexis to her feet, then he quickly walked over to the door and beckoned Johnny inside.

"Boss?"

"Johnny, I want you to take Miss Davis back to the hospital. You stay there and you make sure no one bothers her until I come there for the both of you, you got it?"

"Sure. Miss Davis, I'll be outside when you're ready."

Alexis nodded and quietly wiped at the remaining tears on her cheeks as Johnny made his exit. Only then did she clear her throat and start to lodge her protest.

"Sonny, I'm not just..."

He walked forward and placed the index finger of his right hand against his own lips in a gesture of silence.

"This one time, can you please not think about anything but what's best for you? One time, Alexis. Go to the hospital, be with Kristina, and let me make this disappear."

It was a stunning statement from a man who had so often benefited from Alexis doing what was not best for her...and that he had noticed it and mentioned it now touched more deeply than she would have thought possible. Blinking back tears that wanted to fall for a far different reason than those she had shed earlier, she once more crossed her arms in front of herself.

"No one else will get hurt?"

Sonny smiled and chuckled slightly. "Mob boss' honor."

Ric and Sonny both held their breath and waited. After another few moments of contemplation, Alexis nodded her agreement. She started to walk toward the door and Sonny followed, opening it for her.

"Once we take care of everything, I'll come to the hospital. Until then, you just stay with...stay with your daughter."

Alexis nodded again and stepped through the door. Sonny watched Johnny walk off beside her and then he ducked back into the room.

"Sonny..."

Ric's statement was cut off by a wave of Sonny's hand as he pulled out his cell phone. Speed dial got him the line he needed right away.

"Benny? Yeah, do you have it? Okay, we're on our way."

Sonny ended the call and looked up to see Ric staring at him in utter disbelief.

"How could you not ask her?"

Sonny knew what Ric meant, but now was not the time, and he was certainly not the person it needed to be discussed with.

"Forget what you heard here today. After we take care of this, it doesn't concern you, you got it?"

"But, Sonny, she admitted..."

"You heard nothing."

The finality of Sonny's words told Ric the subject was closed. He only raised his eyebrows as further commentary, but remained silent.

"All right, let's get this over with," Sonny said, leading the way to the hotel room door.





Scott Baldwin stood in the alleyway behind a cluster of abandoned buildings on the waterfront. He glanced at his watch and wondered if he was being had. Ever since Ric Lansing had come into his office several weeks ago promising he could deliver Scott big game in exchange for a favor when asked, Scott had been waiting to see what the man had in mind. Tonight was apparently "show your cards" night, and Scott was anxious to play.

The sound of footsteps drew his attention down the alley. Ric approached, briefcase in hand, and stopped a few feet away from Scott. He placed the briefcase on an old crate and then turned to look at Scott.

"Sorry I was late. I wanted to make sure that all the components of my offer were in place."

"And what is your offer, Mr. Lansing? I don't like being jerked around, so just know that going in."

"I doubt you'll find this a waste of your time."

"Does it involve taking Sonny Corinthos down?" Scott asked, practically salivating at the thought.

"Oh, I think what I have here will get you a lot more headlines than Sonny Corinthos. In fact, it'll give you the chance to dismantle one of the most powerful companies in the world."

"Do tell," Scott said, stepping closer to the briefcase. Ric's hand reflexively shot out and came to rest atop the leather attaché.

"First things first. If I give you this, Ida Warren's taped statement disappears, and you will find 'problems' with her I.D. of Brenda Barrett--perhaps a medical report stating that her eyes were so bad there's no way she could have seen from that distance? I mean, that's just a suggestion. You can come up with your own if you like."

"If I do that," Scott stated, brows narrowing, "Brenda and Jason walk."

"Exactly. And the police and the district attorney's office, with sincere frustration, will close the file on Alcazar's murder because they can't secure enough evidence to re-file the charges."

"And why would I do that? If I get a conviction on Jason, Sonny's right hand is taken away. He'll be more vulnerable than he's ever been."

"If you use this," Ric tapped the briefcase, "in a timely fashion, say three weeks from now, Sonny Corinthos will suffer millions in business losses. True, it won't cripple him, but it will cause him a lot of upset. And I'd think you'd enjoy that almost as much as you will what's in this case."

"How do I know the goods are worth what you're asking me to give up?"

"Mr. Baldwin, do you really think I'd waste either of our time by offering something that wasn't of equal value to what I'm asking for in return?"

Scott considered his options. Alexis Davis was a damn good lawyer and he wasn't really into the idea of being beaten by her at his first major trial as D.A. There was still a chance she could get Brenda acquitted, and Lansing here was clearly willing to bend the rules to get what he wanted for his client. Something with only a little crow to eat was better than a public humiliation, and the truth was, it wasn't as if the citizens of Port Charles were crying out in outrage over Alcazar's murder.

"You're sure this will hurt Sonny?"

Ric smiled. "Oh, yeah, it's gonna hurt. He'll survive. But the people in these files, them you can take down in a nice, big public win."

The desire for fame was far greater to Scott than any real sense of justice. His choice was made.

"Deal, my friend. The tape will get gone by morning, and, uh, I think I can manage that medical report. You'll be introducing that at trial as soon as it's available, I take it?"

"Count on it," Ric said, turning to start his journey home. "Enjoy your reading."

Scott waited until Ric was all the way out of sight before he sprung open the latches on the briefcase. Inside rested 10 files. He flipped open the first one and almost choked when he saw the photo there. Ned Ashton and Faith Roscoe...Suddenly visions of RICO statutes and ELQ headlines began to dance in Scott's head. Hell yes, he thought, this deal was definitely worth it.





Ric climbed into the waiting Jaguar and turned to look at Sonny.

"Are you sure you want to do this?"

"If I take some hits, Baldwin will never suspect I helped you get the information." Sonny said, starting the engine. "We don't want him tracing anything later on."

"But, Sonny, you're talking about millions of dollars."

Sonny stared into the rearview mirror and took stock of his reflection there. Even after they'd lost everything, some men never learned what was really important. Sonny wasn't one of those men.

"Alcazar's gone, Brenda and Jason will be safe, and Alexis...Alexis will be where she belongs. That's worth any amount of money it costs me."

Ric nodded and turned his eyes forward. Soon the car pulled from the curb and drove off into the night.






Johnny was sitting in one of the hallway chairs trying to stay unobtrusive. Miss Davis had gone straight inside to her daughter and she hadn't left the room since. No one had been by to try and talk to her, and so Johnny had simply kept silent vigil as he and his charges waited for Sonny's arrival. He had no sooner finished thinking about what was keeping Sonny when he saw his boss come around the corner. Standing, Johnny met him in front of the nursery door.

"Everything okay?" Sonny asked.

"Fine. She's just in there with Kristina. No one came by."

"Good. Look, from now on, Alexis is your detail. Wherever she and Kristina are, that's where you are, and when Alexis isn't here, you get someone else in this hall until you're back."

Johnny knew better than to ask why, though he had his suspicions. Miss Davis had held the baby up at the window for him to see her, and, well, those dimples were a little familiar.

"Whatever you say, Boss."

Sonny nodded and moved to the door. He pushed it open and stepped inside. Alexis was standing in front of a colorful mural rocking Kristina in her arms. She turned at the sound of Sonny's footsteps. Brown eye met brown eye as Sonny took in the sight of her there, holding the child he had thought he might never have...holding their daughter.

"Hey," he managed, though where he found his voice was a mystery.

"Hey," she replied.

"Everything's done. This will all be over in a day or two, and I promise, no one's getting hurt. A few people are getting what they have coming, but it's not physical, only legal."

Alexis nodded, her gaze never wavering from his. She had an urge to thank him, and yet she knew there was nothing she really needed to say to him. Sonny knew why she had snapped, why she had pushed Alcazar. What more needed to be said to tell him how she felt right now? Yet there was something else that needed to be spoken...and she knew that now was the moment for it.

"You heard what I said, didn't you?"

At the time her words hadn't registered, but as she sat here looking down at their beautiful baby girl, she knew what she had revealed in the throes of her earlier emotional breakdown.

"Yeah," he said, eye contact unbroken, "I did."

Alexis nodded and felt tears began to run from her eyes.

"I don't know what to say."

Sonny shrugged slightly, and then took a few steps closer to her.

"Then let's not say anything right now. For a few hours let's just not worry about what we should have done or what we wish we had done."

Again she nodded her agreement. Still their eyes remained trained on each other. Only when Sonny let his gaze fall to Kristina did he break the visual contact between them.

"Alexis?"

"Yes?"

Sonny's eyes returned to hers. She saw the tears pooled there as he looked back at her.

"Can I hold our daughter?"

His chin trembled as he spoke the words, and Alexis and he both surrendered to the overwhelming surge of tears neither could fight anymore. Moving with a confidence she had never suspect she would have in this moment, Alexis placed Kristina into Sonny's waiting arms. The baby blinked, looking up at him with curiosity, and then she snuggled into his embrace, content.

"Kristina," Alexis whispered, "this is your father." She kissed the baby on the cheek and then looked up at Sonny. "And Sonny, this is our daughter."

To so many people, the scene would have looked like the ending of a nightmare that had kept them both from what they wanted for so long...each other, a shared connection with their child, and a feeling of security. But both Sonny and Alexis knew that this moment was a beginning...and they were both determined to let the sins and mistakes of their past go in favor of the future that lay ahead.

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