The Path to Power
Faith sees the bassinet being wheeled to the hospital room where the psycho bitch is being observed and recognizes the baby as being Ned's. Already knew it was Ned's. She winces and tries to cover even from herself but finally gives in. "Is this Ned's... and Alexis' baby?" She asks the nurse to slow her progress toward the door. The little brat is going to spoil everything. Ned was already pulling back from what it would take to take Sonny Corinthos down. He just didn't have the killer instinct that was necessary to succeed in this business. Even that old fart Edward had more of a clue but The Old Man is, was and would always be lead around by his dick. For some reason his grandson wasn't. Ned liked it rough and was game for just about anything but that was what it was to him-- a game. Ned might get his rocks off but he was into using sex for control, whereas Edward... well sex is what controlled him.
"Yes, I'm taking her in to see her mother."
Faith leans over the bassinet and brushes a single finger over the baby's cheek. "She's so soft and helpless." She murmurs quietly.
The baby's head turns to try to latch on to Faith's finger and draw it into her mouth. "And hungry." The nurse quips. "I better get her in there before she starts kicking up a fuss."
Faith holds the door open for the bassinet and then as the baby is clear in the room leans over to pick the baby up to take it to Ned. She cuddles and coos to the baby bringing it close to her as she turns toward the bed.
"No!!!!!! No!!!!!" Alexis' screams fill the room and then echo down the hallway "She can't have Kristina! I won't let you take her! Give me my baby! Give me my Baby!"
Faith's jaw drops and her eyes go wide. She'd known that Ned's ex was wacked but Jesus! The woman is deranged her body arcing off of the bed like she'd been hit by a jolt of electricity. Her leather restrained hands have formed into claws tearing at everything it can get in their grasp.
"What is going on here?!" Cameron charges into the room.
"I was just bringing the baby..."
"I'll kill you! I'll kill You! You killed my mother, you bitch! You'll never get my daughter; you'll never get me; I'll kill you!!"
Cameron snaps at the nurse. "I need 1 mg of ativan. now." The nurse races from the room. "What the hell is going on?" Cameron comes over to Alexis and holds her shoulders to the bed even as he asks the question of Ned.
"I don't know?" Ned shakes his head even as he plants both arms on Alexis' to try to keep her down on the bed. "The nurse brought Kristina in and Alexis freaked."
"She's going to hurt the baby! Have to protect the baby. Have to protect the baby. Have to hide." Alexis pants and strains against Ned, Cameron and the restraints.
"Shhhh Alexis.... I'll take care of the baby. You know I would never do anything to hurt Kristina."
"Why are you calling me Alexis? Who are you?! Who are you people? Where is the Baby? Where is Kristina?"
"Kristina?"
"My sister! Where is my sister! What have you done to my sister! I have to protect my sister! Mama! Mama no! No, Mama!" Alexis screams at a vision only she can see.
"Here you go, Doctor." The nurse comes back with a vial and a needle. She quickly preps up the 1 mg of tranquilizer and hands it to Cameron along with a swab. Cameron quickly brushes down an area on Alexis' arm and jabs the needle in. It seems like forever but gradually the muscles relax and Alexis quietly sobs shrinking as far as the restraints will let her into the bed.
"Alexis...." Cameron says softly brushing her sweaty hair back from her face.
"Is that who you are? Are you Dr. Alexis?" The patient asks.
"No, my name is Dr. Cameron Lewis. And I think you need to tell me your name."
"Natasha, Natasha Bergman. But my papa calls me Tasha. Where is my papa? Did he take Kristina? Is that where the baby is?"
Ned recoils with horror now realizing what is going on with his former fiancé. He knew that she'd confessed to killing Alcazar. But he'd been told that Kristina had actually killed Alcazar. Or some alter of Alexis that called herself Kristina but this is something totally different. "Ale.... Tasha... do you remember who I am?"
"Do you work for my papa?"
"Yes.... he couldn't come to the hospital... but he sent me to check on you. I want you to be good for the doctors."
Alexis curls her finger to get Ned to come closer. "You have to find my sister. I hid her in the barn. You have to find her and take her to papa okay?"
"You just worry about getting better." Ned starts backing away leaving Cameron there with Alexis. Once he is outside of the room he collapses on a couch in the hallway, not even really realizing he is sitting next to Faith as he buries his head in his hands.
"She is fucking nuts." Faith states flatly. "Wacked, psycho, funny farm bound. Never getting out. Get out the restraints, no worries about the manicure she won't be seeing her hands for a good long time in that straight jacket."
"How can you be so callous?" Ned straightens and turns to Faith. Seeing for the first time that she still has Kristina and is holding the baby close and rocking her.
"Did you just see what I saw? She's gone. Long gone. I wouldn't leave a dog with her let alone a kid!" Faith shudders. Murder, mayhem and violence she understands and had lived with all her life but insanity... that just gave her the creeps. "Here. Take the kid. She's asleep now. No thanks to mommy dearest in there."
"Alexis would never hurt the baby." Ned defends automatically.
"Alexis don't live there anymore." Faith retorts sharply.
"Unfortunately stated but accurate." Cameron says grimly after shutting the door.
"What are you saying?" Ned denies the possibility. "Alexis is the strongest person I know! What you're saying is impossible."
"Yeah, and strong people don't bend. They break." Cameron sits down next to Ned. "Why don't you tell me exactly what happened in there. If I'm to treat Alexis I need to know exactly what triggered this episode."
"Trigger? She killed Alcazar right? That was the trigger."
"No, killing Alcazar was a symptom not a trigger." And if I'm right then things just got a lot worse. "Who is Natasha?"
Ned sighs. "Natasha is Alexis. I mean that is who Alexis was when she lived with her mother. It's her birth name."
Cameron starts swearing. "This is worse than I thought."
"Alexis doesn't know who she is, killed somebody and now you think it's worse?!" Ned shakes his head. What kind of shrink are you?
"Alexis doesn't exist. She never did. Alexis is an alter herself. She might have been the strongest once but I don't know if that's true anymore. What do you know about DID?"
"Sybil right? Three faces of Eve?" Ned looks over at Faith and hands her back the baby before rising to pace. "It's a bunch of hysterical crap right? Stuff that is planted by hypnosis? It's soap opera stuff."
"It happens a lot more in soaps than it does in the real world." Cameron agrees. "It's very rare. Extremely rare. It only happens under the most horrific of childhood abuse when the brain is still young and a child's instinct is still to run. Not fight but flee and the only place to hide is inside their brain. That's why I thought initially that Alexis was faking. Having an alter come out at this late date is just about unprecedented."
"What?!" Ned and Faith both drop jaws on that. Faith is the one that continues. "Well then give her the fucking Oscar because she is wacked."
"I want to see my aunt NOW."
Ned looks over to the nurses station at the end of the hallway and calls out. "Nikolas."
"Ned!" Nik strides over to Ned and the Doctor. "I just heard on the news that Alexis has confessed to Alcazar's murder?! That's impossible."
"She wasn't exactly herself." Faith says wryly.
"Who are you and what are you doing holding my cousin?" Nikolas comes over to Faith and takes the baby away from the woman.
"She's a friend of mine and that is my daughter." Ned takes Kristina from Nik and hands the baby back to Faith.
"Enough musical baby can we get back to Alexis now?" Cameron demands impatiently. "So Alexis was born Natasha... when did she become Alexis?"
Ned looks at Nik. "Seven? I don't know. It was when she went to live with Helena and her father."
"Her name was changed to Alexis Davidovich and she was believed to be a distant cousin." Nikolas explains the family fiction.
"And Helena... she was the one that slit... Natasha's mother's throat?" Cameron asks.
Faith grimaces at that. "Was the kid there?"
Ned nods. "She saw the whole thing."
Faith just shakes her head. "Rough."
"And that was the last time anyone saw Natasha... until just now, in there." Cameron states pointing to the hospital room. "So what was the trigger? What happened in that room that brought back Natasha?"
Nikolas looks at Faith holding little Kristina. "She was the trigger. Was she holding the baby in front of Alexis?"
"Well yeah," Faith shrugs. "I was just bringing it over to Ned."
"Bringing HER over to Ned. Her name is Kristina." Nik snarls.
"What in the hell is your problem?" Faith snarks back. "Is your whole family wacked? Do you get group discounts on the padded cells?"
"Look at her." Nik demands of Ned.
Ned eyes his lover and groans when he realizes.
"What? What?!" Faith demands. As all three men stare at her. "I didn't do anything."
"Helena." Nik says coldly.