Part of Your World

When Alexis gets up the next morning, Neil is in the kitchen and has made her favorite quiche, which she realizes is another way he is trying to manipulate her. Alexis resolves that she won’t continue to be bullied by Neil and that he cannot make her leave her own house; she realizes that the emotional toll of giving in will be worse for her. Alexis’s parents arrive at her house and tell her they are going golfing with Neil. When she tells them that is inappropriate, her father says that he will not get in the middle of their “lovers’ spat” and that she should give the house to Neil anyway as she is the one who wants to end the relationship. Alexis is furious and drives to Daniel’s without telling him as soon as the others leave. Daniel is happy to see her, and Alexis is strangely relieved by this, wondering if things would be the same between them if she showed up unannounced and he was with someone else. Daniel tells her he wants to be her boyfriend; Alexis agrees to be monogamous but does not want the official commitment.

Daniel takes her to the grocery store and then teaches her how to cook their dinner. Alexis begins to realize the difference between Daniel’s actual value and the value people grant those like Neil and her father just because of their status. In the middle of this revelation, Daniel gets a call from Liz asking Alexis to help because one of the other VFW bartenders is in labor. Alexis helps deliver the baby, which might not have survived if she hadn’t been there. Alexis recognizes that this is why she is a doctor. Dozens of townspeople are there to help, and once the mother and baby are taken away by ambulance, they help by tidying the house for the family’s return. Alexis is amazed by how the townspeople look out for each other, and Popeye suggests that the town brought Alexis here because it needed her.

Daniel thinks about how much he cares about Alexis and how proud he was that the town could see him with her at the delivery. When he tells her, “[H]ow you feel matters to me” (181), Alexis is stunned into silence.

On Mother’s Day a few days later, Alexis meets her mother for tea and thinks about how she cannot fill her mother’s role as the elegant and charismatic philanthropic leader of the hospital. Alexis thinks her mother is more herself when she is not around Alexis’s father and sees a disturbing resemblance to her relationship with Neil. A few days later, Alexis is at the hospital, having gained permission to prepare an emergency kit to take to Wakan, when Bri comes in. Bri recognizes that Alexis is falling for Daniel, but Alexis just says she is going to Wakan to get away from Neil. Bri tells her that she needs to call things off with Daniel before they get too serious and she ends up even more hurt than she was with Neil. Alexis agrees, especially because she applied for a prestigious promotion that morning. Later that night Daniel calls, and Alexis admits to herself that she is falling for him and cannot end things even though she knows she is making the wrong decision.

Daniel invites Alexis to dinner at the VFW the following night and she agrees. He thinks about how surprised he is that his feelings aren’t one-sided and is ecstatic that she is finally agreeing to be seen in public with him.

Alexis invites her parents to dinner to tell them that she has applied for the role of chief of emergency medicine at the hospital. Rather than being happy for her, her parents say this is long overdue and express disappointment that her news isn’t that she’s returning to Neil. Her father threatens to cut Alexis off and reveals he did this to Derek for marrying Nikki, whom he considers disreputable. Alexis goes to the bathroom to cry, followed by her mother. Her mother pleads with her to agree to what her father wants because he is an old man who has lost everything he cared about in the last few months. Alexis tells her mother that Neil was abusive and considers how her mother must be dealing with the same issues with her father. She also thinks about how impossible it is for Daniel to be a real part of her life, as she knows her parents will not accept anyone who doesn’t meet their standards. Instead of going home, where she knows Neil will be waiting to ambush her, Alexis goes to Bri’s house. Bri shows her that Derek and Nikki‘s marriage is in the news, likely through Alexis’s father’s indiscretion. They discuss how Alexis knows she has to end things with Daniel and how her parents want her and Neil to try couple’s counseling. Alexis has the idea of telling her parents that they are having counseling together but actually insisting that Neil see her own therapist for four months as a condition of them having couple’s counseling.

Alexis travels back to Wakan. One of her patients died that day and she feels more upset by it than usual because it coincides with her difficult feelings about her family and the situation she is in with Daniel. When she and Daniel arrive at the VFW for what Alexis thinks is a simple dinner, the town has thrown a surprise dinner party for her as thanks for saving the baby she delivered. She compares the love she feels from the town at this dinner to the coldness of her own family at the dinner the night before. In the bar, Daniel shows Alexis the many framed articles about his family written over the years, and she thinks about the legacy of the Grants as compared to that of the Montgomerys. Alexis knows Daniel is meant to stay in Wakan and at the Grant House, and she offers to loan him the $50,000 he needs for the down payment to buy it. She knows it wouldn’t be a loan but a parting gift. Daniel does not accept it.

Alexis and Daniel see Jake and Liz outside. Jake throws Liz out of his police cruiser and onto the road, leaving her bleeding and sobbing on the curb. Daniel and Alexis rush to help Liz. Daniel says he is going to call the police in the next town but Liz stops him, claiming that Jake didn’t do anything and that she just fell out of the car. After Alexis has cleaned Liz up at the Grant House, she tells Daniel that he cannot force Liz to leave Jake; they “can’t save her unless she’s ready to save herself” (226). Instead, she tells Daniel they can help give Liz the tools she needs to escape from Jake. Alexis drives Liz home and tells her that she believes her and that she will be ready to help when she is ready to leave Jake. Alexis’s trust hits Liz hard, but she still won’t allow her to file a police report. Alexis agrees not to, as she knows how important it is for Liz to trust her, but she asks to document everything that happened that night and for Liz to do so in the future so they have a record when she needs it. Alexis tells her briefly about Neil’s abuse and how she also did not recognize it as abuse.

Alexis arrives at the Grant House and tells Daniel that Liz is okay but that they need to talk. Alexis admits that she is beginning to have strong feelings for Daniel but says that she doesn’t see a future between them and thinks they should stop seeing each other because it will be easier on him. Daniel still wants to keep seeing Alexis, even knowing their relationship might not last.