Ric: Get that report back to me as soon as possible. Oh, hey. Oh, God, I’m an idiot -- our date. How long have you been waiting for me at the P.C. Grill?
Elizabeth: Oh, long enough to have left two messages that you never returned.
Ric: Oh God, I’m sorry. I just -- I've been swamped, you know? I've been -- you hate me. okay, I don't blame you for it, really.
Elizabeth: Oh, I'm sure I’ll survive the humiliation of being stood up by my husband in front of half of Port Charles.
Ric: Great.
Elizabeth: Honey, I'm kidding.
Ric: okay, I deserve that. I'm sorry, really. I'll make it up to you, I promise.
Elizabeth: Oh and I'll make sure of that. So, were you working on a break in the case against Nikolas, I hope?
Ric: I don't know, he's -- so far, he's our only suspect.
Elizabeth: Listen, I wanted to talk to you about that. It -- it has occurred to me that you might find yourself in a really bad position.
Ric: What do you mean?
Elizabeth: Well, Zander’s made no secret of the fact that he would love to see Nikolas convicted. I mean, he wants Nikolas as far away from Emily as possible so he can move back in.
Ric: Any chance of that?
Elizabeth: No, no, never, but Zander can't see that. He's very single-minded when it comes to Emily.
Ric: Yeah.
Elizabeth: Anyhow, it's not difficult to figure out where this is going. Listen honey, I know how badly you want a family, but you need to promise me if Zander tries to hold this baby over your head --
Noise.
Elizabeth: To encourage you to go after Nikolas --
Ric: No, no! Get a hold of him! Get a hold of him!
Zander: Get off me!
Ric: What the hell is this?
Zander: I was worried about Emily; I asked Nikolas where she was. He jumped me!
Nikolas: Zander threw the first punch -- oh, God!
Zander: This guy's more out of control every day. I want him arrested.
Ric: You know what? I got a better idea -- I'm placing you under arrest.
Ric: All right, would you like to press charges?
Nikolas: Oh! You bet I would.
Zander: There was no witnesses. It's my word against his.
Ric: Yeah, well, it'll stick for about 12 hours. Should be enough time for you to get some much-needed perspective. Interrogation room.
Zander: You're keeping awfully late hours for a pregnant woman, aren't you?
Ric: Wait outside, please. Mind telling me what the hell is wrong with you?
Zander: Why don't you tell me what's going on with you. Our deal was to put Nikolas in jail, not me.
Ric: You know what? If I have to lock you up in order to keep you from blowing this whole thing out of the water, so be it and another thing -- I don't appreciate the little comment to Elizabeth.
Zander: What, I can't talk to her, express my concern for her condition?
Ric: Cut the crap, okay Zander? We both know you're trying to intimidate her. I'm not going to stand for it. Now, you need to remember something -- you're not the only one with something at stake here, all right? You're pining away for your ex-wife. I have put my career on the line for you, pal. I have suppressed evidence, I have buried leads on other suspects, and I have put together a case against an innocent man for you.
Zander: No, not for me -- for the custody of my child!
Ric: That's right and if what I've done comes out, I'm going to lose my job, I'm going to lose Elizabeth and she's made of a lot better stuff than you and I, Zander, okay? She might take offense to the fact that I’m putting her -- her best friend up for murder, but not having her in my life is unacceptable.
Zander: Maybe you need to think about whose good side you want to be on.
Ric: Well, right back at you Junior. Because if I go down, you're going down with me. Now, I’m going to go out there and I'm going to clean up your latest temper tantrum so that we can get back to where we started here. You don't get in my way again -- you understand me?
Zander: What are you going to do?
Ric: You're spending the night in the holding tank and I'm reinstating Nikolas' bail.
Alexis: I got your message. All right, now what? Never mind. Nikolas, what happened? Is it true what I heard?
Nikolas: Yeah, Lansing decided to reinstate my bail.
Alexis: Why?
Nikolas: Well, Zander picked a fight and tried to say I started it. I guess Ric didn't buy it.
Alexis: Well, that's quite a turnaround, since he fought your bail with every obscure precedent that he could find. So now all of a sudden -- uh-uh. Uh-uh. Something's not right here.
Nikolas: Not really, Alexis. I'm still standing trial for murder with false evidence stacked against me.
Alexis: Or maybe he realized that he went over the top with the bail issue, so he's trying to show impartiality by going by the bookay.
Nikolas: Let's stop wasting time dissecting Ric’s motives, okay? I'm getting out of here, that's what matters. What about this fence guy, Ben? I'm positive he's the one who killed Sam’s father. We need to find this man.
Alexis: I've been following your lead with Ben following Sam to Azure Key. Unfortunately, there's a hurricane so there's a communication problem. There might be something else to accomplish here. I heard what happened. Do you want me to get you out of here?
Zander: Wouldn't that be a conflict of interest?
Alexis: My interest here is seeing that justice gets done.
Zander: Then we're on the same page.
Alexis: We're not even reading the same book, Zander. I am asking you one last time as your friend to stop this before it goes any further.
Zander: You already know what I said, Alexis.
Alexis: And then I’m going to give you one last chance to let it sink in. Zander, what do you think, that you're going to put Nikolas in prison and that Emily’s going to be out there waiting for you?
Zander: Alexis, just leave me alone.
Alexis: It's not going to happen. It is not going to happen because I am not going to let Nikolas go to prison and even if he did, it wouldn't change anything because Emily is not going to stop loving Nikolas any more than you can apparently stop loving her. Stop hurting everybody just because you're hurt. I want you to leave them alone and I want you to stop holding that baby over Ric and Elizabeth’s head. Just look to the future. Just let the past be the past, Zander.
Zander: You sound so sincere. It sounds like you really care about me.
Alexis: I do.
Zander: Maybe, on some level, but not the one where Nikolas lives. When it comes down to it and it's me or him, you're going to sink me. So, thanks for the advice, but no thanks.
Elizabeth: Hey, do you have a minute?
Zander: I got all night. Consider me your captive audience. Just don't bring up anything about how I need to move on from Emily or how she's in love with another man.
Elizabeth: Actually, I was going to mention that for you to have a prayer of being friends with Emily again, maybe you should lay off the people she cares about.
Zander: Yeah, that sounds familiar too.
Elizabeth: Well, then maybe you ought to listen, Zander. look, Ric did some really terrible things to me and I thought that I would never, ever be able to forgive him. But look at us now, we're married because he was strong enough to change. He was strong enough to let go of his hatred and his need for revenge and I can't help but think how good it would be for everyone concerned if you could just take a lesson from him.
Ric: And once the paperwork is finished, your client is free to go.
Alexis: Thanks, that's very generous of you.
Ric: You're welcome.
Alexis: Too generous.
Ric: What does it take to win with you, huh, Alexis?
Alexis: The truth usually does it.
Ric: You know what? I don't know where this is going, but I’m really pressed for time.
Alexis: Well, make time. I'm just getting started.
Alexis: When you kidnapped Carly, it's because you wanted her baby, right?
Ric: Wait, wait -- what does this have to do with anything?
Alexis: Well, and sadly enough, you find yourself right back where you started. I mean, even you can see that and I want you to know that on some level, I can actually understand that you want your family and you will do whatever it takes.
Ric: What's your point?
Alexis: Well, my point is, is that Elizabeth is pregnant with Zander’s baby and Zander has promised to sign over custody to you. And I'm guessing that he hasn't done that yet because he's waiting for you to find Nikolas guilty of Cody McCall’s murder. That way, Zander gets Emily, you and Elizabeth get to keep the baby and then my nephew -- he gets to go to prison, which is completely unacceptable to me.
Ric: That's quite a theory.
Alexis: I'm not finished. There's a more likely suspect -- a jewel fence that you haven't made any attempt to look for at all. I don't think that I have to tell you just how much trouble you are going to be in -- both professionally and personally -- if it comes out that you are tampering with evidence in order to convict an innocent man in exchange for a signature on custody papers. I don't know why I’m giving you a choice. I have no idea why I’m being so, so nice to you, but you can either risk me talking to a judge, or we can make a deal.
Elizabeth: Hi.
Nikolas: Hi.
Elizabeth: Congratulations. I heard you're being released -- not that you should've been arrested in the first place.
Nikolas: Tell that to the judge.
Elizabeth: I know you'll be found innocent.
Nikolas: It's not a given, Liz. There's still a lot of fabricated evidence against me.
Elizabeth: Despite what you might think of Ric, he's only doing his job. See you around.
Nikolas: Yeah. Liz, wait. There's -- there's something you don't know.
Alexis: I'll push for a speedy trial, you keep Zander believing that Nikolas will be convicted and then at the last minute, you throw the case. If you so choose, you can drop an injunction barring Zander from any contact with the baby based on his police record and the fact that he's working currently for a known mob figure.
Ric: I thought Zander was your friend.
Alexis: Nikolas is innocent.
Ric: All right. One condition, though.
Alexis: What's that?
Ric: Don't tell Elizabeth.
Alexis: Deal.
Nikolas: Look, I know that Zander’s stalling to sign custody of the baby over to you and Ric and I just --
Elizabeth: And you're afraid that he's going to lean on Ric and make things worse for you? I can't speak for Zander, okay, and God only knows what he might try, but I can assure you Ric would never go along with it. He's changed, Nikolas. What is it that you wanted to tell me?
Nikolas: Uh -- I -- I thought it might calm things down a little if -- if Emily left town for a few days. So if you don't hear from her, that's why.
Elizabeth: Oh. Well, that's good. It's probably for the best. okay. Well, thanks for letting me know. Take care.
Nikolas: Yeah.
Alexis: We're out of here.
Nikolas: All right.