Alexis and Kristina
Alexis and Kristina pick up with their discussion from the previous day about Kristina singing for L and B Records. Of course, Alexis thinks it's a mistake to join L and B. Kristina asks if she's against her singing. She goes on to plead her case with Alexis saying she may wake up tomorrow and decide she's a terrible singer or may want to become an Italian chef. Still trying to talk her out of it, Alexis questions why Kristina is doing this. She reassures her that she's enormously talented and sings beautifully, however...Kristina asks, "Why else would I be doing this"? Then, Alexis says the dreaded "N" word, "Ned."

Continuing to seek out why Kristina is getting involved with Ned, Alexis questions whether she is plotting to get them back together. Although the thought had not crossed her mind, Kristina threw the ball back in her court by saying, "Unless that's something you want?" Alexis reluctantly says, "Ned and I are through." Again, Kristina has her on the ropes, "Because of Sonny" she inquires. Alexis snaps back, "This has nothing to do with Sonny, this has to do with Ned and me." "It just didn't work." Kristina repeats her case for persuading Alexis by telling her Ned's opinion of her musical talent and style. Still digging for the truth Alexis questions, "And all this happened while I was away?" Kristina tells her, "While you were away unlocking new doors in Puerto Rico I was unlocking my own in Port Charles." Kristina asks her if she understands and Alexis replies, "The picture is getting clearer every second."

Alexis reassures Kristina that she will support her in whatever she does and it would come in handy if she would become an Italian chef. Someone knocks at the door, Alexis opens it to see Ned and again the uncomfortable vibe fills the air between them. After some chitchat about her trip to Puerto Rico, he asks for Kristina. Alexis tells Ned her feelings on the talent discovery coming out of the blue. Ned asked her, "What are you getting at" and Alexis remarked "I was just about to ask you that, what are you getting at with my sister?" Ned questions Alexis, "You think, this is all some bizarre payback because you went off to Puerto Rico with Sonny?" Ned in a backhanded way points out the differences between Alexis and Kristina remarking that she is a free spirit but commits to something even when it scares her. They both remember that today is the day (anniversary of the wedding that didn't happen).

Someone knocks at the door, Alexis opens to find Sonny, he apologizes and asks if he can speak to her for a second. She steps out into the hallway, leaving Ned to stare at the door closing behind her. Sonny informs her that Carly may be reconsidering the adoption. Alexis asks what should she do but he just says he wants her to know that there could be a problem. Alexis looks longingly at Sonny as he walks away.

She walks back into her apartment where Kristina and Ned are still standing, awaiting her return. "I have to go", Alexis states. "Somehow that makes perfect sense," says Ned. Alexis apologizes for what she said to Ned before about him getting back at her through Kristina. This being the wedding day that never was, she sincerely said, "Apparently this is the day of the year that I act like a jerk." Grabbing her belongings, out the door she went.

Kristina questions Ned about whether he and Alexis were fighting over her singing. "Alexis and I fight about nothing and about everything" Ned answers. He blames himself for falling back into the same pattern wishing Alexis were somebody different. Trying to make Ned feel better she drags him to a surprise she has for him. Another surprise.

L and B Records
Ned is on the phone trying to position his newly found talent. Describing all Kristina's qualities "she's commercial, young, sexy, smart. I'm going to cut a demo and send it over." He puts down the phone and bends over to pick up something that dropped to the floor. Of course, it's the wedding invitation from the wedding that did not happen, thanks to Alexis reenacting the role of runaway bride.

Edward bursts in on Ned as he throws the wedding invitation on the table asking for his help with Skye. Edward explains to Ned that Skye is "mounting some mysterious offensive that she plans to unleash at the board meeting." He tells Ned he knows she has Jax involved and "those two manipulators must be stopped." "It's them against the family." Ned has to remind him that Skye is family. Edward begs Ned to not let Skye win and they must stick together, "strength in numbers." Edward asks Ned if he can count on his vote and then Ned goes into a tirade about how they are a family not votes, "human beings who happen to be related, we have feelings, we have thoughts, we're not corporate assets." Edward tells him it's not time to "stretch his sentimental streak." As Edward tries to convince him even more of the importance of his support, Ned gathers his things and walks out the door, yelling to Edward, "I'll try to make it" leaving Edward to exasperatedly say, "Oh God."

Quartermaine Mansion Showdowns Continue
Edward and Skye still going head to head. He asks if Monica has thrown her out in time to miss the board meeting and she stands firm on still being a member of the family. Edward wishes, " Well, a man can dream can't he?" and Skye retorts "but your dreams are too little just like your imagination, which is why ELQ is such a glaring underachievement." Skye accuses Edward of "using ELQ as his own personal weapon to batter people into his way of thinking to control their lives." Alan and AJ listen from the foyer. She smugly mentions she has a plan for today's board meeting that will end Edward's "rein of terror" and "get rid of Sonny once and for all."

At the Quartermaine house, A. J. discusses with Alan how he should vote giving him the choices of voting with his children or with Sonny and his father. Alan questions why A. J. would think he wouldn't be on Syke's side. While pondering whether Skye's proposition is going to be good for everybody, Monica walks into the room and A. J. leaves. Alan says to her, " I certainly don't have to guess whose side you're on." Monica coldly tells Alan, "I think you'd better leave the guessing to other people, especially when it comes to me." Angered by Alan's invitation to Rae to come to their house for Christmas, Monica assures Alan that's she's not going to interfere at all. Alan thanks her, thinking that the war is over, moves closer to her seemingly to give her a hug adding, "You don't know how much this means to me" but Monica has something else in store when she says, "I don't give a damn how much that means to you because I'm not going to be here to find out." "I'm leaving, this afternoon" she declares, "I'm going to spend the holidays with your other children, Jason and Emily."

Alan reprimands Monica, "Don't you realize how unreasonable you're being?" Monica doesn't back down from her decision, they both think they're right and nothing Alan can say changes her mind, including the fact that he's not going to give in to "emotional blackmail." Monica sees her leaving as a solution to the problem = Skye + Rae for Christmas. Alan tries to get Monica to understand that he wants to be with her but she is not having it and tells him he had his chance. Again, Alan begs Monica to meet him half way but she says she can't because the price is too high. Alan, tired of trying tells her if she wants to go, go but leave him her proxy for the board meeting. Of course this didn't go over well and Monica feverishly said as she slammed down her purse, "So you can vote with Skye?" "Like hell I will!" She leaves the foyer and runs into Lila reading by the fire. Lila asks what's wrong and Monica in a high state of displeasure says, "I'd like to get my husband back."

She pours her heart out to Lila about how she feels dealing with Alan, Skye and Rae. As usual, Lila is understanding and supportive and is able to see things from all sides. Lila gives her advice, "My dear, if you want Alan, perhaps you have to stop fighting with him and start fighting for him."

Edward enters the foyer, "So where's the redheaded swindler?" he asks A. J. Edward continues, "Don't look so smug." "Skye's plotting is going to come right back and bite you on your rear end." "You brought this on yourself," A. J. retorts, "because you hurt people." A. J. tells him that Skye may use all the ammunition she has to shoot him down, and then walks up the staircase. Edward again is left alone and frustrated.

Alan comes down the staircase to find Edward in the foyer. Edward inquires about Monica, as Alan begins to explain that she will be going away, Monica steps into the foyer and warmly says, "I'm right here." "I thought you were leaving, a puzzled Alan asks. Monica's holiday personality takes over, "I couldn't possibly leave now, there's too much to do before Christmas." She walks over, extends her arm for Alan to take and asks, "Shall we?" They walk together, arm in arm towards the family room. Next down the staircase comes A. J., "Grandfather" he acknowledges his presence. Things get busier, Skye walks through the front door and A. J. asks her to explain how she's got Grandfather on edge but Skye will only say, "All in good time" and walks into the family room. The doorbell rings, A. J. answers it to find Sonny (he's been a busy man today). Edward immediately approaches him trying to get assurances that he won't be in hot water because of Jeannine. Sonny tells him Jeannine has been handled and enters the family room as well.

Skye welcomes him, "Well, if it isn't Mr. Corinthos, good evening." "Always a pleasure" Sonny says but Skye has more to say, "Well, you might not think that once the meeting is over." She continues, "As a matter of fact, there's lots of surprises in store here." At that moment, Jax rushes to the family room doorway and Sonny turns around to see who it is, a look of irritation spreads across his face.

Port Charles Ain't Big Enough For Them Both
Jax walks into the Port Charles Grill, sees Sonny at the bar sipping a drink, sits down and orders a vodka martini. Sonny hears his familiar voice, cocks his head to the side then turns around to give his nemesis some advice about his venture with Carly without skipping a beat to greet him. "Once you and Carly get the club up and running, give me a call 'cause I can get you a good price on some very good rum." Jax assures him that he and Carly don't need his help but as usual Sonny doesn't give up, " Oh, I don't know, the size of the club Carly wants in that part of town, securing a liquor license might be a problem." Never one to run from a confrontation, Jax sits back in his chair, "I'm assuming that's a threat?" but Sonny hits him again with his form of sincerity, "No, see I'm concerned because Carly is starting to believe in this and I don't want her to get disappointed because you don't know how to handle (pause) the necessary paperwork." Jax gets up from his chair, walks over to face Sonny, "I know what I'm doing, the question here is why do you know so much about Carly's club, unless of course you've got someone following her, reporting back to you." Sonny gives him the infamous "Sonny stare" and raises his eyebrows-enough said.

Sonny tells Jax he hears things and Jax accuses him of using the things he hears to his advantage. Jax hits Sonny with, "Just seeing her out from under your thumb makes me very happy." Sonny accuses Jax of trying to rescue Carly but assures him that Carly doesn't need his armor act and he should take it on the road. Jax tells Sonny he underestimated Carly, "She's a lot stronger than you give her credit for." Of course, Sonny had a comeback, "The only thing I don't give Carly credit for (pause) is having the brains (pause) to stay away from you. Ouch. Then Sonny looks at him with a clenched teeth smirk and walks out. Jax exhales.

Skye, Skye, Skye
Jax is sitting alone at the Port Charles Grill when Skye enters, spots him, then puts some pep in her step to hurry over to his table. She thanks him for meeting with her before the ELQ board meeting today. He asks for details, Skye shares her plan with him for the board meeting that she thinks he's really, really going to like after asking if he is always straight and above board. Jax tells her when it comes to business and something he really wants he can be ruthless.

Skye is confident that she's done all the legwork and only has to wait for the pieces to fall into place. Jax reassures her that there are no holes in her plan, "No, it's brilliant Skye, congratulations." Jax excuses himself to make some calls before the meeting parting with, "You're turning out to be a better friend than I thought." Skye says to herself as he walks away, "That's the whole idea."

Carly's Place
Still bothered by their accidental kiss Zander helps Carly bring packages into her place to decorate the Christmas tree. Carly reminisces with Zander about her and Sonny's oh-we-were-so-happy-last Christmas tree decorating story while Zander seems to want to be anywhere else besides with her. Carly asks for "a little more help" from Zander to have everything ready for Michael, like the lights detangled and hung on the tree, the ladder up, the garland hung...Carly promises it won't take as long as it sounds but Zander says "I can't." Carly asks "Why not, Zander what's wrong?" (As if she didn't know).

While decorating the tree, Zander explains to Carly how he's never been big on Christmas except last year; it was almost good except for the shooting at the Port Charles Police Department. Handing Carly more decorations Zander is losing his zeal to help. Zander tells her, "I need to be alone." Carly says, "Oh I see, alone or just away from me." "What is really bothering you?" Zander unconvincingly said, "I don't know" "Sure you don't...you're still hung up on what happened in your room-that kiss" Carly guesses. Zander, still in angst over the kiss Carly tries to explain to him why it happened, "Okay, listen to me for the last time, you were hurt, you were angry and that is exactly what caused the kiss." Zander begs her to stop saying "the kiss." In an attempt to give Zander shock therapy over locking lips Carly goes into repetition mode with, "What, the kiss...kis..okay...kiss...kiss...kiss...kisssss...okay the sky hasn't fallen, nope world has not come to an end." Carly tells Zander to get over it but Zander is still feeling bad, she tries to convince him to kiss again, not her but some other girl, to lighten up and have some fun.

The doorbell rings, Sonny is surprised to see Zander open the door and straight out asks, "What are you doing here?" Zander looks back at Carly, then to Sonny. He begins to explain how he ran into Carly at Jake's and she asked him to help her out. Carly rang in trying to keep Zander out of trouble by also explaining Zander was helping her with Christmas decorations. Sonny, feeling better about the situation softens and says, "I was just asking."

He asks Zander outside to make sure he understands why he asked. Sonny doesn't want Carly to get suspicious of him watching her every move and requests that Zander keep watching out for her. Carly asks Sonny to take it easy on Zander because Emily just broke up with him and went on to someone else, she tries to equate their situation to Emily and Zander without mentioning Alexis' name. After Sonny asks if they can arrange a time to take Michael to see Santa Claus, Carly wants to know if Sonny wants to still adopt Michael. Carly tries to use Michael to get to Sonny by saying she doesn't want him to get hurt. She mentions Alexis as lacking maternal instincts. Again, Sonny tries to reassure Carly that nothing has happened between him and Alexis and that she is not going to be Michael's stepmother and that he's not going to keep explaining that to her. But he does. His parting words, "Yes, I still want to adopt Michael." After Sonny leaves, Carly is upset with herself, explaining to Zander that she did it again.

Carly says when Zander leaves the room she can't control herself and begins to lash out saying what will hurt Sonny the most. She begs Zander to help her stay in control. Now, she wants to be alone and asks him to go and he's eager to leave but first she makes him agree to continue to look out for each other. As she starts to decorate the tree alone, the doorbell rings. Guess who's there? Alexis.

Back in the Saddle On the Water
Luke and Laura on the ship deck, Luke says, "I had just about given up on you." Laura tells him, "I barely made it on board." Laura explains that she wasn't sure that she was doing the right thing. In a short black wig to disguise her golden locks she says, "Here I am." Luke compliments her, " I love this look" which Laura considers cautious still remembering the importance of a disguise. Luke says her instincts are still "pure gold" and adds how much more beautiful she is under the wig, Laura beams.

The bon voyage whistle blows, Laura states, "Well, we're on our way" and Luke checks with her to find out if she is having any second thoughts, Laura says "No, not a one" so Luke declares, "Good. Let the games begin."

Laura wants to know where they should start, Luke points out the "target" of the enemy agent spy ring she thinks she been asked to come along to break. The "spy targets" playing the game with Luke want to make the caper really good for Luke's sake. Luke fills her in on their caper, their job to identify the target, "described as Philip Hart a.k.a Vidal Valentine codename Cupid, leads women to destruction, seduces them, uses them, breaks their hearts." "Nice guy" Laura retorts. Luke reminds her, "You should never steal a woman's heart, always let her give it away" she once told him. Laura smiles at Luke's remembrance. He continues briefing her on the target, "He's got a state-of-the-art microchip he's going to deliver to someone on this boat." "Our mission is to recover the microchip and identify the intended contact." Falling for this, Laura asks to get settled in her stateroom. Luke suggests they order in because he's heard they have great stateroom service aboard the ship but Laura questions how they can keep an eye on Cupid in the stateroom. Luke tells Laura they're sharing the statement as their old covers Mr. and Mrs. Johnson. Surprised, Laura wonders if there is a "sofa or something" in the stateroom (anticipating sleeping arrangements) and Luke replies, "Oh sure, there's all kinds of furniture." That Luke.

On her way to the stateroom, Laura looks back at Luke with the biggest grin on her face in months. While Luke is looking in the opposite direction knowing the feel of her eyes upon him.

Luke dressed in White tux and black tie, stand on deck near the railing, Cupid steps up to speak with him while passing by to find out how things are going. Luke admits, "Things are slow." Then, Laura walks towards him and he compliments her on the dress she's wearing. Laura sees a crewmember that she thinks is doing something they should check out. Luke suggests they slow dance over towards the crewmember he follows her lead. Luke romantically tells Laura, "All the stars in the sky are in your eyes." Ahhhh. They gaze into each other's eyes and bring their faces close enough to kiss. But not yet. Luke remembers the summer of '92 in Canada, trying to woo Laura further into his web, it works as she too compares note. Laura sees the crewmember hand something to Cupid and they dance closer to see if they can hear something. Laura, taking this caper seriously feels the need to follow the crewmember leaving Luke without a dance partner which leads him to sigh, "Ohhhh, Cupid has just requivered his arrows and put down his bows."

Still on deck, he waits for Laura's return from following the crewmember. She has fun telling him how she picked the crewmember's pocket thinking she'd find the microchip but instead she only found a note for the band to play a musical request. She wants to continue the job, looking around for Cupid instead of Luke agreeing they should he stops to confess that there is something about the mission she doesn't know.