The Prodigal Daughter-Chapter 13
Alexis woke up the next morning, and knew there was no way possible that she would be able to go into work. After her late night at the office last night, she was only able to get about three hours of asleep. That was not the problem, though. She had survived on less in law school. No, it was the fact that her head felt like it was being pounded into her pillow. She felt like she was going to die.
Ned came in and over to the bed. "You look awful," he remarked placing a hand on her head. "And, it feels like you have a fever."
She pulled the covers up higher. "Thanks, Ned. This is just what I need. I don’t need to be sick right now," she declared.
Ned left and returned with a thermometer. "Maybe this is what you need right now. At least you’ll have to get some rest. Open."
She complied and rolled her eyes as she did. He removed the thermometer. "I have a meeting with Sonny today, and I really don’t want to postpone it. I don’t know when I’ll ever be able to reschedule. So, what does it say?"
"That you’re in fact one sick lady, and there is no way that you are meeting Sonny or anybody today." He turned the thermometer so that she could read the temp for herself.
"One hundred," she moaned covering her face with the sheets. "I’m not going to the doctor, Ned," she promised him and followed promptly with a sneeze.
"Okay, for right now you will have your way. It’s probably the flu, and considering the way you have been taking care of yourself lately, it’s no wonder you were left open to it. I think that you will just have to call Dara and tell her to meet with Corinthos instead, and just forget about the rest of your case load for a while."
Alexis really hated to ask Dara to that, but she saw no way around it. "Fine. I’ll call her and tell her to meet with him for me. It shouldn’t be that big of a problem."
*****
Dara couldn’t believe what Alexis was asking her to do. She couldn’t turn her down, because Alexis sounded absolutely terrible on the phone. She had been trying to avoid Sonny, and now she had to meet with him now. This was awful
Her secretary’s voice broke her out of her thoughts, "Ms. Jensen, Mr. Corinthos is here to see you."
She glanced at her watch. Right on time. Sonny was always punctual. "Send him in," she said into the intercom.
"Good morning, Ms. Jensen," he said smiling as he came in. "How are you this morning?"
"I’m fine, thank you," she said gesturing for him to have a seat. "Could we get started? I have a lot of work to do today."
Sonny did as she bid him. "Yes, I noticed that you have been very busy lately. I haven’t seen you around Port Charles since that night you were at Luke’s. I must say that I have been very disappointed by that."
"Mr. Corinthos, please don’t do this," she said to him as she pulled out his file.
"I’ve told you that you can call me Sonny," he said smiling. He reached over and closed the folder. "None of this is very pressing right now. I would have told Alexis not to worry about it, but when she said that I would be meeting with you, of course I had to come."
"Okay, you see, we’re not doing this. I have things I have to do, and you are just wasting my time," she informed him.
He shrugged, "The way I see it, I am paying for two hours of you time. So," he said looking at his watch, "I gather they are still serving breakfast somewhere. Would you care to join me?"
She sighed. Why was he doing this to her now? "I thought I explained all of this to you before, Sonny. You should not be interested in me. It just wouldn’t work out."
"Why not? You gave me that speech a while ago, when you were still the DA, if I’m not mistaken. Now, it seems that you are no longer in that office. So, what’s the problem now?"
"And are you out of your position? I know it seems like you are, and you couldn’t really tell me if you weren’t. It just wouldn’t work."
He nodded. She was going to be a tough one to break, but he would do it. She was so unhappy and alone, and he wanted to be the one that made her happy. "I know that it will work. There is nothing that would make it not. Listen, I’m not going to chase after you; that just isn’t my style. But, I won’t leave you alone, either. I will invite you out to breakfast, lunch, and maybe even dinner. I will ask you to spend some more time with me until you can see how truly wonderful I really am," he said smiling at her and flashing his dimples once again.
She closed her eyes and looked away. Her reaction to him couldn’t be good. She knew that she should have never accepted his invitation to go to Alexis and Ned’s party; now he was full of hope for them. But, she couldn’t turn him down or turn him away. What was wrong with her? ‘Don’t do it,’ she kept telling herself.
"So, will you join me for breakfast. I know that you haven’t eaten this morning."
She looked back at him. "Yes, I will go with you to breakfast." She could not believe the words that had just left her mouth. Were her brain and her voice working separately of one another? She rose as he did. "I want you to know that this is just a meal between a lawyer and client."
Smiling again, he agreed, "Whatever you say, Counselor."
*****
"Hi, Alexis," Chloe said coming in the house. "I heard that you weren’t feeling well, so I came by to check on you."
Alexis smiled as she fell back onto the couch. "Thanks. Yeah, I’m pretty much on my deathbed. What’s bad is that I think that Ned is glad that I’m not able to do anything."
Chloe looked concerned. "Alexis, you have been pushing yourself too hard, and you’ve been trying to do too much. You need to get some rest."
Alexis saw that something was wrong with Chloe. She thought that she was finally beginning to move on with her life, but today seemed like a remission. "What’ s wrong, Chloe? You seem really sad today."
She looked down at her shoes so that she could avoid eye contact with her. "I don’t know. I just don’t seem very cheery today. Jax is gone isn’t he? I called his house this morning, and his message was that he was going out of town for an extended amount of time. What does that mean, Alexis? Does that mean that he is never coming back."
Alexis sighed. Maybe it was time for Chloe to seek some help. "I don’t think that he has any plans of not returning."
"I wouldn’t suppose that he wouldn’t stay away for too long. Do you know that he believes that Keesha Ward is carrying his baby? I can’t believe that he would believe her. It’s so obvious that she is trying to trap him."
"I really don’t think that’s the case, Chloe. She is carrying his baby, and she is out of town with him. She is not trying to trap him, either. Actually, they have no plans to get married right now. Chloe, Keesha is a good person; she would never do anything to harm him. Chloe, you have to put your past behind you and move on. I thought you and Marcus Taggert were going out."
She nodded, "We have been seeing each other, but it isn’t anything really serious. So, do you really think that anything is going to happen seriously with them."
Alexis smiled at her. Was she losing touch with reality? "They’re having a baby together, Chloe. I think that is a little serious. Do me a favor, forget about this. Call Marcus and tell him to take you out for a night on the town tonight. Tell him to make you forget about your past. Believe me, this is the best thing for you and Jax to leave the past behind you."
She finally looked up at Alexis and smiled. "Okay, I will. This is really hard, but I will try to have some fun tonight. Get better, Alexis," she said rising to leave. "Thank you for being my friend."
"You are very welcome. Have fun tonight."
"I will try. Bye," she said closing the door.
*****
Keesha looked over at the clock on the bedside table. It was just after 4 am, and she was starving. She looked over at Jax and found that he was still sleeping. She hated to do it, but she was starving. "Jax," she said softly tapping his shoulder. "Wake up."
"What time is it?" he asked sleepily.
"Boy, it’s late. After 4," she said sitting up.
He looked toward the window and saw that it was still dark. "Four in the morning?"
She nodded, "Yes, four in the morning. Jax, I’m starving, and I figured that we should at least eat something, and maybe change clothes or something like that."
He sat up and rubbed his eyes. "Okay, fine." He handed her the menu off of his bedside table. "Look through this and find what you want. I’ll order. Go ahead and take a shower first. I want to check in with Alexis and tell her we’re still alive."
"That’ll be fine. I want that," she said pointing at the menu before getting up to shower.
"Hello," Alexis said from her end of the line.
"Hi, you sound terrible," he noted.
"Thanks, it’s nice to hear from you, too. You don’t sound very awake."
"That’s because I’m not. Keesha just woke me up; she’s hungry. Oh, the things we do for love," he laughed.
Alexis knew that he meant that as a joke, but she wasn’t so sure that it was. Was he really falling in love with her niece? She decided not to comment on that right now. "Yeah, we do crazy things some times. So, the two of you arrived safely without mishap from old Hells, huh."
He smiled at the nickname. "Yes, we have. Seriously, though, Alexis, you sound sick. Is there anything wrong?"
"Just a little touch of the flu. Nothing serious. Just don’t get into any trouble there; I won’t be able to come bail you out."
He laughed, "Okay, I’ll try to stay out of trouble. Take care of yourself, Alexis. I just can’t have you getting deathly ill on me."
"I’ll try not to," she laughed. "What, isn’t it like four over there?"
"A little after. Well, get better Alexis, and I’ll talk to you later."
"I’ll work very hard at it. Tell Keesha I said hello. How is she?"
"She’s wonderful." He paused; he needed to talk to someone about what was going on. "I need to talk to you about that later, though; I think that we have enough to concentrate on right now."
"Okay," she agreed. She could tell that this was serious. "Have a good night," she said disconnecting the call.