Ned: (leaning against the bar) I'd try and pick you up, but I'm married, and I'm not in the mood, and I'm not very appealing right now.

Alexis: Thank goodness you explained.

Ned: Would you like a drink?

Alexis: Something to delete short-term memory. Perhaps a carafe of martinis.

Ned: Oh fine choice for killing maximum brain cells with minimum effort. I think I'll go for a bottle of scotch myself.

Alexis: Good and nasty!

Waiter: Hi. May I get you something to drink?

Alexis: Seltzer.

Ned: Make that two, with lemon.

Alexis: All that talk about alcohol sent me right to the hangover.

Ned: I have to warn you. I have an exceptionally thick head. That makes it very difficult to read my mind. Most people just simply ask what I'm thinking.

Alexis: I was actually trying to read your soul.

Ned: You have a truly devious mind.

Alexis: Takes one to know one.

Alexis: You're unbelievable!

Ned: Thank you.

Alexis: Are you flirting with me.... or are you being honest?

Ned: Just call it an intense desire to see you in something other than a designer business suit.

Ned: So where did Davis come from?

Alexis: Where did Ashton come from?

Ned: I'm going to have to kiss you. (she looks at him very surprised) You could probably stop me.

Ned: Ask me. I know everything.

Alexis: And reveal nothing.

Ned: Good. I found this earring in my car. (he holds it up) I figured you must have lost it when I gave you a ride back from the PC Grille. I considered keeping it, but it didn't go with anything I owned.

Alexis: Oh, how fortunate for me. (she holds her hand out and he puts the earring in it; she examines it) How can you be sure it's mine?

Ned: Oh, it has to be. No one else has... (Alexis gives him a teasing look) Very sharp, Ms. Davis. I should have seen it coming.

Alexis: Desire is not only "permissible," it's required. And if I thought that all you wanted was a night of distraction I daresay we'd be an hour or so into it by now.

Ned: I wake up in the morning and I fill my days with tasks, and I dispatch said duties as efficiently as possible. And I go to bed -- at the end of the day -- with a clear conscience of a hard working man. No muss, no fuss, no emotional entanglements. And now I meet you. (Alexis seems nervous but can't take her eyes off of him; Ned is nervous, too) And I'm very attracted. (Ned takes a deep breath) And I'm not entirely comfortable with that.... yet. So...there it is. (pauses and his voice becomes low) Yes, I did come looking for you tonight. And not only did I see the understanding that I was hoping to find but you were sexy as hell. (Alexis breathes deeply, smiles, and looks down) And I just didn't want this evening to end -- as they always do -- the two of us going our separate ways..... (pause) That's my truth. Is that enough for you?

Ned: No one can say that we don't lead a rich, fulfilling fantasy life.

Ned: Maybe I'll send you anonymous, dirty e-mail.

Alexis: (smiles) I'll know it's from you if everything is spelled correctly. (Ned smiles and goes to leave) Ned? (he stops and turns around) Promise me that you'll ask again.

Alexis: (into her cell phone) I have no idea what time it is in Jakarta. I don't know if you're sleeping or catching a bus or stuck in an office somewhere. (pause, shifting gears) The weather is nice here. They say that the leaf color is past its peak. I hope you come home before I'm past mine. (she pauses, taking the phone away from her ear and shaking her head, a little flustered) Why am I calling? Obviously, not to talk about the weather. It's late. And I'm going home. (beat) And I wish I were going home with you. (she's horrified by what she said and flusters) And I wish there was some way to delete that last sentence form your voice mail. I think what I mean to say.... I just wanted to say.. .good night. (trying to recover) So Good Night, Ned.

Alexis: (standing) Um.... Not that it makes any difference now, bu I didn't betray your trust. I never had it to betray. I never asked for it. You never offered it to me and that was okay with me. And if you feel there's some deep, dark, intimate secret that I know about you, you may be right. But I didn't hear it from you. What the hell? We hardly knew each other. We weren't even friends.

Ned: I know. But sometimes even a grown woman needs a friend.

Alexis: It's me. (she can't completely stop crying) It's..... I found out who I am.

Ned: (trying to make her smile) I hope that doesn't happen to me.

Ned: Yes I do. The Cassadines play for different stakes than the Quartermaines, but essentially the rules are the same. The Gatekeeper, no matter how despised, is the most valuable piece on the board. She moves anywhere, influences every situation, and knows all the secrets. Now you'd have to be pretty stupid to remove a piece like that from the board. Now your cousin may be angry right now, but he's definitely not stupid.

Ned: (turning on the charm again) Batteries not included. Attachments extra.

Alexis: You've... (she blushes immensely) ...given me something to think about.

Ned: (immensely pleased with himself and her reaction) Good.

Ned: You'll never guess what popped into my mind.

Alexis: The witty comeback to the first girl who turned you down.

Ned: I think you're one of the most fascinating women I've ever met, and the fact that you could entertain the notion, even for a moment, that you could be anything less than spectacular -- I just don't understand.

Alexis: Do you think it was incredibly brilliant, or unbelievablely stupid that we waited this long?

Ned: Incredibly brilliant.

Alexis: I missed you. (kiss) It was too far away... (kiss) On the phone, it lacked a few things that I couldn't stop thinking about.

Ned: Just one question, and then I will go.

Alexis: "Why?"

Ned: No. Who? Who is Alexis Davis?

Ned: I tried to hate you. But I can't. I missed you too damn much. Alexis please come home with me. Come back home.

Alexis: That was ah...spontaneous

Ned: Now that's very ironic. If your brother were any bluer, they'd name an anti-depressant after him.

Alexis: (slightly horrified, but smiling) You never said anything about leather pants.

Ned: Are you angry?

Ned: How angry?

Ned: Should I be angry back? Should you throw me out, or should I leave? Contrite.... And then wait a week. Maybe two. Until we're both desperately lonely. And then I'll start lurking around the hotel lobby, hoping to run into you. (pause) Or we could skip all of the above and just... go straight to the making out.

Alexis looks shocked.

Ned: (quickly) Up. (looks the slightest bit sheepish)

Ned: (seductive, leaning forward so that they're just inches from each other) Lady Godiva, you're making me want to take your clothes off.

Alexis: All right, all right. It's a little obvious. How about just lean up against him (she leans against Ned) or put your hand on his... (she puts her hand under the table)

Ned: (grinning mischievously) That's classy.

Alexis: (mock offended) Knee. (she looks at Ned pointedly)

Alexis: (suggestively) I'll raise you.

Ned: I'm in.

Ned: I so love these spontaneous moments.

Ned: Well, if it's bad news, I'll be shattered. (Alexis nods) And you'll have to take me back to your suite and comfort me. And if it's good news, well then I'll be so ecstatic, you'll have to take me back to your suite, so we can celebrate. Either way, (turns so they're facing each other, holds both of her hands at the their sides) it promises for one fine afternoon.

Ned: You're so good for me.

Alexis: This amazing sensation came over me while you were singing. I felt like a groupie!

Ned: Oh, then let's get backstage...

Alexis: (seriously) You know that I have the utmost respect for your privacy. And I would never ever ask you, or push you to do anything, or say anything, that you felt uncomfortable to say, but if you don't tell me how you are going to double-cross Edward, I will never do that thing that you like that I do to you ever again.

Ned: I believe I've made a discovery about you.

Alexis: Is this about the time you looked in my lingerie drawer?

Ned: There are probably a thousand ways to say you love someone. You can say that she's beautiful and hope that she understands you don't mean the obvious by it. You mean the color of your hair, and the curve of your shoulder affects you the way music does. That the sight of her entering a room makes you think forbidden thoughts. And you feel blessed among mortals that they're not forbidden to you. You can tell her that she's healed something in you that you thought was forever beyond reach. You can tell her that she makes you feel, for the first time in her -- for the first time in your life... easy in your own skin. That who you actually are, with no hiding or dressing-up, is all you need to live today, tomorrow, and all the days after, as long as she's there. (a tear escapes Alexis' eye, she exhales hermly and leans forward to place her glass on the table; Ned grabs her wrists, afraid she'll run away, and makes her look at him again) Or, or... you don't worry about what it means, you just say it. Because in the calmness of your head, and in your heart, it's the truest thing that you know. And it's time that I say it.

Ned: I love you, Alexis.

Alexis: (hesitantly) I've told exactly two men in my life that I love them: (pause) my brother and my nephew. Neither of which want to have anything to do with me right now, so I hope that's not any kind of a precedent. It's not that we Cassadines aren't clever with words, I mean, we can explain the most complicated philosophical reasoning, but not the simplest emotion. For that we favor arsenic or a gentle push in front of a speeding car.

Ned: Not you.

Alexis: (with her head down) No, no, not me. Not me. If I never told you that I love you it's because I thought that it would scare you away. (recovering)I was so determined not to do that one thing that I was willing to do the other thing in secret. But now that you mention it... (quietly) I do love you. (a pause as Ned's eyes fill with tears) Ned Ashton. (she looks for a moment frozen and shocked that she's just said it out loud, Ned chokes back tears)

Alexis: I'm not that kind of woman. And I don't give that kind of advice. And even if I could explain to her how you and I got to be however we are, I would, but I can't, so I won't. But I will give you the next best solution.

Ned: Which is?

Alexis: Mind our own business and focus on ourselves. And cherish every moment of it.

Alexis: (smiling widely) I'm a special order.

Alexis: You are sooo...

Ned: Only because you made me that way.

Alexis: What way?

Ned: Sooo... Like you said.

Alexis: Sooo... What did I say?

Ned: Sooo... not done.

Alexis: Ooooh.

Ned: (outstretching his arms and nodding his head with enthusiasm) Now come to Papa.

Alexis: He really can't help it. It's a gatekeeper thing. We hover over people that we care about because we just assume they don't know what they're doing.

Ned: To do things with your clothes off?

Alexis: Good for you. I'm a firm believer in abstinence before marriage.

Ned: (raises his eyebrows) For other people?

Ned: (looks around the restaurant; then, quietly) I wish I could kiss you right now.

Alexis: (equally as quiet) I'll take a rain-check.

Ned: I hear there's a thunderstorm on the way.

Ned: Is that your bat phone?

Ned: If you can look into the seeds of time, and say which grain will grow and which will not --

Alexis: (crawling up on the bed to lay beside him) Oh, my God, there's a bard in my bed.

Ned: I was just thinking what a long, strange trip it's been.

Alexis: That's not Shakespeare.

Ned: Oh. Well, how do you think I feel?

Alexis: (still not looking at him) I don't know. (he looks back at her; she's trying to keep a straight face) I think you feel pretty good.

Ned: Oh, you do, do you? (she starts laughing; he leans in closer to her) I like how you feel too.

Alexis: Are we engaged?

Ned: (looks at her, then down to her hand) Not yet.

Alexis: (crawling across the bed to him) How much more serious do you want me to be?

Alexis: It's true what they say about rock stars.

Ned: (smiling broadly) We're famous for our long encores?

Alexis: (calls out to him) Honey?

Ned's voice: (from the bedroom) No, I'm not going to put on the pants.

Alexis: (tearful, quietly) No one has ever loved me the way that you love me. And it means everything to me.

Ned: (looks from her to the axe and back) Honey, you have no idea what that axe does for me.

Alexis: Do you have to grunt like that?

Ned: (laughs lightly) I told you, it's not grunting. (starting up the stairs) It's an expression of pleasure.

Alexis: Speaking of pleasure, maybe we should get the axe.

Alexis: (looking up at him) You better kiss me if you do that.