Stefan stood at the edge of the pier, facing Wyndemere. It suddenly didn't look like his home. It was suddenly so foreign to him, or he was foreign to it. To all of Port Charles. He wanted to be enraged at someone but knew it was his own doing. How could he have ever thought he could fake his own death, come back to his family and be accepted with no hesitation? No questions? No anger?

The bitter wind whipped around him. His coat flapped against the back of his legs. His skin was chapped and raw. Stefan looked down at the water, dark as night. Through the white light of the moon he could almost see his reflection rippling in the water. He nearly fell forward when a shadow fell over him, and the image of his sister shown back at him. He turned around, moving away from the edge. "Alexis."

She smiled a genuine smile. "Hi."

"Hi."

She decided to jump right into the awkward conversation she knew was inevitable. "I can remember the first time we ever fought," Alexis whispered, not quite able to find her voice. "It was about a rock. A little jagged stone. Who found it first? Who's pocket should it be carried in? You were so tired of me whining about it that you pried it out of my hand and tossed it into the ocean. I hated you for that." She pulled her coat closed, her arms crossed over her chest. "For the first time since I had known you, I was angry. I ran down the beach and hid from you. It only lasted a few minutes, but during the time... God, Stefan! I was so upset. Not only had you taken something from me, but it was hurting to be apart from you. I couldn't stand that feeling. It was like I couldn't breathe. Our fights got more petty, or more passionate. And every time, I wondered why do we argue? Why do we get so angry with each other when the pain of being apart is far worse than the pain of being mad?"

Stefan wanted to respond to her. But all he could do was nod. He felt like he didn't deserve to speak to her; that he should only listen. And he did.

"Whenever we fought, afterwards we always promised that no matter what, nothing could really come between us. That not even death would break us. It was always understood that no matter how betrayed we felt, we'd always come back to each other. If one of us had a scheme, we'd share it. If there was something to be happy about, we'd celebrate together. You devised this plan to disappear and you left me alone and thinking you were dead. You left me to think I would never see you again. Never hear your voice and touch your face. But since I know how much I love you and how much you love me, I can't walk away when you're standing right there. I can't ignore you. We break promises. That's what we do best. But we're even better at making them, and trying to keep them. And working together. I'm empty when you're gone. I don't know if I can forget what you did, but I know I have to forgive you." Alexis pursed her lips together when she finished. Tears slid down her cheeks, almost freezing against her skin.

Stefan removed his gloves. He stepped toward her and framed her face with his hands, wiping at her tears. "I love you," he told her, eliminating the space between them.

Alexis nodded. "I know." She curled her fingers around his wrists, needing to hold onto him. "I'm so mad at you, Stefan."

He dropped his arms to his sides. His head hung toward the ground.

"I needed you so much and you weren't here. A lot is happening to me. Huge things! I could have used my big brother." Alexis' voice broke, and her shoulders shook as she cried. She wiped the back of her hand across her eyes and held her hands up when Stefan reached for her. "I don't know what I'm doing," she confessed. "I'm supposed to marry Ned and become a part of his family, and that seemed so easy knowing that most of my family was gone." She reached forward, tugging at the collar of his coat. "What am I supposed to do?"

Stefan flinched. He hated himself for not being there for her, and for being the cause of so much of her strife. "Look at you," he marvelled. "So full of life. I feel like a corpse standing here with you. Like I'm not even real. I've made myself dead. Perhaps I should leave and let everyone go on as they were."

Alexis shook him violently. "No," she screamed. "Stop! Don't you ever leave me again. Don't you ever put Nikolas through that kind of hell again. You're not supposed to die until you're a crippled old man, Stefan! Don't leave me. Don't leave."

He pulled her into his arms, rubbing his hands up and down her back. Stefan whispered soothing words into her ear and rocked her gently. "I'm not going anywhere," he promised.

She pulled away enough to look into his eyes. "We have so much to talk about."

"I know," he nodded.

"Stefan... will you help me?"

"With what?"

Alexis circled her arms around his waist, gripping his coat tightly inside her fists. "I don't know," she admitted, shrugging. "I feel like everything is falling apart. I don't know what I want anymore, or who I want to be. I love Ned, I really do. But all of a sudden I'm not so sure I want to be married to him."

Stefan pushed her hair behind her ears, his fingers caught inside her thick hair. He leaned forward and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "Do what makes you happy. That's all I have ever wanted for you."

"I know. I feel like I'm stuck. When I walked into the hospital and saw Nikolas, I realized that all this time I've been trying to create a family for myself. I already have one."

"Yes, you do," he told her, smiling. "We are going to make things different, Alexis. We are going to make things better."

She fell against his chest, listening to the steady beat of his heart. "Do you think we can find a way, Stefan? A way to be as close as we were as children? Do you think we can become a family again?"

"Is that what you want?"

Alexis lifted her head from his chest. She met his gaze, smiling at the familiarity she saw there; his tenderness, passion, playfulness and his intensity. She nodded and said, "More than anything. Is that what you want?"

"More than anything." They were silent, looking into each other's eyes. Stefan felt how cold her hands were and realized just how red her cheeks were. He looked over her shoulder at Wyndemere and said, "We should go home."

Alexis nodded, but she made no effort to move. She held him close and took a deep breath, letting his life fill her. In the back of her mind she was still worried about Ned and their relationship, their future. But it had been a long time she had been able to hold her brother and feel the safety of his arms.

Stefan reached up and held his hands at either side of her head. He leaned forward and his lips pressed against the corner of her mouth, lingering there. He closed his eyes when he felt her fingers trailing through his hair, pressing into his back. Suddenly neither of them noticed the bitter cold or the thick flakes of snow falling all around them, dusting their hair and melting against their clothes. When they were holding each other, nothing else mattered. It was just the two of them, as it had always been and would always be.

I'll never find someone quite as touched as you
I'll never love someone quite the way that I loved you