Happy Birthday, Jen!


Alexis was groggy and her head felt like it weighed 100 pounds. Worse, her eyelids felt like they weighed double that. Something that sounded similar to a groan escaped her lips, and when she tried to sit up, her midsection burned.

"Hey, hey, easy. You need to just lay still."

She blinked finally, once, twice, three times, then opened her eyes. After a few seconds, Alexis' eyes focused on the warm, chocolate depths of Sonny's as they stared at her from where he sat beside her bed.

"Sonny?" she asked, her voice weak and tired.

"Hey, baby, just rest, okay. Everything's fine."

Baby? Had he really just called her baby? What the...

"Sonny, what's...what happened?"

He smiled at her warmly and brought the hand that wasn't holding onto hers for dear life up to her cheek. He brushed the back of his hand gently against her skin, and despite her confusion, despite how terrible she felt, Alexis melted into his touch.

"Dr. Meadows said this might happen. Just take a few deep breaths and let yourself wake up all the way. Everything's okay, Alexis, I promise. You're fine, the baby's fine. It's all okay."

The baby...the word this time sent her into a near panic. Alexis felt her heart begin to pound in her chest as she suddenly remembered the terrifying images that had filled her head while she'd been asleep. She began to cry and shake as she grasped at Sonny's hand.

"Sonny, I don't...please tell me what happened. I can't remember. Did...did someone hurt the baby?"

Unable to stay away from her any longer, Sonny eased himself up onto the bed and slid beside her. Nothing in Alexis' consciousness had prepared her for the contact and her first thought was to try to get away, but it felt so good to be this close to him again. Despite all the misgivings she felt, Alexis let him curl his body around hers.

"Honey, listen. The doctor had to put you under anesthesia and do an emergency c-section to the deliver the baby. But you're fine. Stefan said this happened to you once before when you were younger, that you had a bad reaction to anesthesia and got confused. It's okay, though, all right? I promise. Everything's fine."

"Stefan's here?" she asked, her voice sounding young and innocent.

"Yeah, baby, he's here. As soon as you told him you were pregnant, he came home to make sure I was taking care of you."

She smiled at the thought even if it didn't fit with how alone she'd felt in her nightmare. She looked up at Sonny and stared into his face.

"You know the baby's yours?"

Sonny chuckled. "Who do you think figured out you were pregnant?"

Alexis shook her head, trying to get rid of the cobwebs that were plaguing her brain. She tried hard to grab hold of the last cognizant thing she remembered that wasn't terrible. She realized, blushing a bit, that it was waking up in Sonny's bed that first morning after their "first" night.

"Sonny, can you just talk me through what happened, please? The dream I had was so terrible and it's making it hard for me to remember what's real and what wasn't."

He snuggled closer to her and idly ran the fingers of one hand through her hair as he made soothing circles against her hand where it rested atop her stomach.

"Well, where do you want me to start?"

"Um," she said, a little embarrassed about how uncertain she was, "after, um, well, after the night you were going to 'take care' of A.J."

Clearly he could tell how distressed she was, but Sonny couldn't stop himself from laughing again.

"You really got knocked for a loop, didn't you?"

Alexis elbowed him in the ribs and when he yelped, she smiled and then glared at him from the corner of her eye.

"Just tell me and stop being a pig."

"Okay, okay, but you do remember that night, right?"

She turned then and looked at him, "it would serve you right if I didn't, but, yes, I remember."

Sonny kissed her on the tip of her nose. "Good. Okay, well, that morning, Zander showed up and said he thought Carly had been in an accident."

"So I didn't just dream that part?" she asked, sounding disappointed.

"Unfortunately not. We spent a week or so looking for her, and then she 'magically' appeared at her own funeral."

"And you went back to her." It was a statement, not a question, and Sonny felt a familiar pang of regret.

"Yeah, I did, but thankfully some other people were looking out for you and me."

Suddenly Alexis felt a spark of recognition, and she looked over at Sonny. "Zander and Kristina?"

Sonny nodded. "Yeah, they didn't buy her story, and so they teamed up and figured out she had engineered the whole thing. She wanted me to think she had almost died so I'd feel guilty and take her back."

"Helena...now I remember, Helena put the body in the car and paid Carly off to stay away longer, right? She knew I'd push you away and she wanted me to be alone so she could come after me."

"Yep," he kissed the top of her head, "now it's coming back. But Luke clued in on what she was up to and he and Laura and Nikolas called Stefan and they all set a trap for her."

"Laura's okay?" Alexis asked, suddenly a bit panicked.

"Yeah, honey, she's fine. She's the one who threw your baby shower, remember? You guys decided to bury the hatchet when Luke and I did."

She did remember, and Alexis nodded as she settled back against the pillows.

"Okay, so Zander and Kristina figured out what was going on with Carly and then?"

"And then you were furious with me for taking her back and you wouldn't talk to me. And then I figured out that all those dizzy spells and cheeseburger cravings probably meant we were a little productive that night at my place, and when you found out for sure you were pregnant, you lost it."

"I did not lose it," she said, annoyed by his description of the memory that had just flooded back to her. "I don't consider telling you that I'm not a charity case who needs you to marry her because she's pregnant losing it."

Sonny laughed again and put his arm behind her so he could pull her closer. "Okay, you didn't lose it. Well, at this point, Zander and Kristina were seeing each other and you wanted to get away from me, so the three of you headed over to Paris together."

"Brenda!" Alexis said, stunned by the clarity with which she remembered walking into a party where several Cassadines, including Stefan, were in residence only to come face to face with one supposedly dead Brenda Barrett. "I found Brenda and brought her back."

"Right," Sonny said, tightening his hold on her because he knew the next memory might upset her. "And that's when Alcazar came to town."

A bolt of panic went through her, and Alexis tried once more to sit up, but Sonny held her back so she wouldn't hurt herself.

"Kristina...did he hurt my sister?"

"Shh...no, honey, Kristina's fine. She and Zander are on their way back from Florida right now." Sonny could see how rattled the bad dream had left her. He didn't think now was a good time to remind her about Ned's strange demise. Who know a man could develop an allergy to leather pants?

"Florida? Why are they in Florida, Sonny?"

"They went there so Kristina could meet Zander's mother. Now that he and Cameron are working things out, he thought it was time."

Alexis vaguely remembered the pieces of that puzzle and let it rest, simply grateful that the worst part of her nightmare was indeed just that -- a terrible, terrible nightmare.

"Did Brenda break up Jax and Skye? Did I dream that?" Alexis asked as she settled back with Sonny.

"Almost. Jax went a little nuts for a while, but you told him to get his act together and Skye and him made it through. Alcazar kept after Brenda, though, and I was worried about her, but Jason was back by then, and he said he'd take care of things so that I could concentrate on you."

"Brenda and Jason," she said thoughtfully, "I remember telling you they were falling for each other. You didn't believe me," she added, tickling his ribs this time.

"No," Sonny agreed, "I didn't, but as usual, you were right. They expect us to return the favor, by the way."

"Favor?" Alexis asked.

"Yeah, they want us to be the witnesses at their wedding since they were the witnesses at ours."

Alexis' face clouded over with confusion as Sonny lifted her hand up and her eyes locked on her wedding band, a simple but perfect platinum circle that rested on her left ring finger.

"Puerto Rico..." she said, her voice taking on a sweet, dreamlike quality. "You came over to my penthouse and handed me a chip from the Puerto de Santos and asked me to make one bet for the whole house."

"Yep," Sonny said, as he moved her hand to his lips and kissed it. "And we both won."

Alexis settled back against Sonny's warm body as so many of her real memories returned to push away the horrible visions she'd had while she was unconscious. Thank goodness it was all a bad dream. No lost sister, no hideous feud with Sonny, and no endless barrage of abuse from all the people who had claimed to love her. It was all a bad, terrible dream.

"Knock knock," Bobbie called out from the doorway, and Sonny climbed carefully from the bed when he saw who Bobbie was cradling in her arms. The nurse helped Alexis into a more comfortable position as Sonny cooed at the baby in his arms. Once they were alone again, Sonny approached the bed and placed the pink-wrapped bundle in Alexis' waiting arms. Tears streamed down the cheeks of both mother and father as Sonny kissed Alexis and she snuggled the baby close.

"Sasha Adella Corinthos, this is your mama, the incredibly brave and beautiful Alexis Davis-Corinthos."

Alexis sniffed and turned to kiss Sonny's cheek. He climbed back into the bed with them and the two parents marveled over the life they had made together. It was only later, as Sasha lay sleeping on her mother's chest, Sonny's arms wrapped protectively around them both that Alexis looked at Sonny with a concerned face.

"One more question?"

"Anything," Sonny answered.

"In that terrible nightmare I had, these three really horrible people kept making all these awful things happen to me. Bob, Charles and some woman...Elizabeth I think? Not our Elizabeth, this terrible, mean woman. Who are they?"

Sonny laughed and kissed Alexis on the forehead once more.

"Baby, Bob and Charles are the trash collectors at the Harborview, or rather they were. You got them fired because they kept leaving heaps of garbage in the alley and it was littering when they were supposed to be making things better. They tried to get ugly with you and you totally told them off."

Alexis sighed, remembering. "And that woman?"

Sonny let out a belly laugh. He couldn't help it. "She's Carly's roommate in Pentonville. You used some info you had on Scott Baldwin to make sure he prosecuted Carly for fraud and aiding and abetting an escaped felon. Her roommate is a little nuts. They call her Dizzy Lizzy; she just walks around all the time saying, 'Carly is brave, Carly is strong, Carly is a survivor. She's nothing to you, honey, none of them are. All that matters is you, me and Sasha and the life we're gonna have together. You just let that terrible nightmare go, okay?"

Alexis nodded and nestled deeper into Sonny's embrace. Her daughter was safe, her husband was at her side. What power did one vivid, terrible nightmare have over her now that it was over?



Author's note: Who knew someday I would think "Dallas" had the perfect solution to all our problems.

(thanks for the name borrow, Kel :))

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