Part of Your World

Daniel knows he is in love with Alexis and that he would leave everything in Wakan behind to be with her. Daniel tells Alexis he loves her.

Alexis is angry with Daniel for telling him he loves her when they both know their relationship has to end. He says he wants to try to make it work but that she won’t let him into her world, and the two of them argue. She tells him she loves him but that their relationship is over. At the same moment lightning hits a tree outside of the house and takes down a large branch. Even though there is no rain or thunder, the fallen branch prevents Alexis from driving away, and Daniel refuses to touch it, saying it is a sign from the universe that she shouldn’t leave. Despite her desire not to be in love, Alexis knows she cannot escape what she feels for Daniel.

Alexis is back in Minneapolis. She finally concedes that Daniel is her boyfriend and that they are in love, but she insists that this doesn’t change the fact that she can’t let him into her world. The morning after their fight, the board at the hospital casts their vote for the new chief of emergency medicine. Alexis is notified that she got the position, and her family arrives with Neil, Gabby, and Jessica to congratulate her. Alexis feels “oddly unexcited for some reason” and then sees Daniel walking in with flowers for her (262). Daniel introduces himself, assuming that they know of him, and realizes that no one knows who he is or how he knows Alexis. Knowing she can’t betray him again, Alexis admits that Daniel is her boyfriend. Her father finds this hilarious and says that she is still living with Neil and going to couple’s counseling with him (as he believes this). Daniel leaves and Alexis’s father asks if Daniel has asked her for money yet. Alexis chases after Daniel, angry with him for showing up unannounced. Daniel responds that she does this all the time with him and asks if she is really that embarrassed by him. Alexis doesn’t know what to say.

Daniel feels betrayed by Alexis’s treatment of him, although he also feels his reaction is irrational, knowing that she could never accept him into her world. He had intended only to see Alexis at the hospital, not her family and friends. Because she has hidden so many things from him, he didn’t know the situation. He believes that he does not exist for Alexis outside of Wakan as she does for him.

While Daniel is sitting in his truck, Bri knocks on his window; he is surprised that she knows who he is. They talk about what happened inside, and Bri explains the situation with Neil, Alexis’s hatred of Jessica and Gabby, and the way Alexis’s parents have treated Derek because of his romantic choices. Bri reassures Daniel that her relationship with Alexis is more real than her other relationships and that she knows Alexis cares for Daniel. Toward the end of their conversation, Alexis texts Daniel her address, and he drives over immediately. He is stunned by how enormous and impersonal the house it. Daniel finally begins to understand the kind of life Alexis lives and how she is a different person with him in Wakan than she is in Minneapolis. Now that he understands the pressures she is under, he still wants to be with her, but Alexis officially ends their relationship.

A month after breaking up with Daniel, Alexis is miserable and feels she is merely going through the motions of her life, avoiding everyone. Her mother asks her to apologize to her father for pretending to work things out with Neil, but Alexis feels catatonic. She knows she will never have a relationship like she had with Daniel again and that because of this, the Montgomery legacy will end with her.

Daniel does not feel any better than Alexis. It rains every day in Wakan after Alexis leaves. The one good thing that has happened since she broke up with him is that he has raised enough money to make a down payment on the Grant House by upselling his woodwork, as Alexis suggested. Daniel tells Doug that he plans to leave Wakan the next day because it is no longer the place he grew up in but the place where he lost Alexis. Doug tries to convince him to stay, telling him Alexis did not break up with him because she does not love him but because she has other things going on. Daniel is still hurt that her love for him did not outweigh those other things. One night Alexis calls Daniel. They talk about events in Wakan: Liz has left Jake, Jake has been sentenced to two years’ imprisonment, and Liz has been on a date with Brian. When Daniel mentions their breakup, Alexis hangs up and Daniel blocks her number so she cannot call again.

Alexis feels worse after calling Daniel and doesn’t care about anything while she gets ready for the 125th anniversary gala at the hospital. Neil asks to talk with her and tells her he is sorry and has been learning about himself in therapy. He says he was awful to her because he was afraid to lose her but now knows he was in the wrong, and he gives her the house. Bri is at the house and makes Neil leave Alexis’s bedroom. Alexis admits that she does think Neil wants to change, despite neither woman trusting him completely.

Bri tells Alexis that she does not have her priorities straight and that is why she is hurting so much. She compares Alexis’s relationship with Daniel to Derek’s relationship with Nikki, saying that Nikki was nonnegotiable for Derek, so he made the choice to put her first—something that Alexis is not doing with Daniel. Bri makes Alexis think about the possibility of quitting the hospital and how she could still help others outside of it. Alexis thinks about how her father is no different than Neil and how her mother enabled him; she realizes she has so much trouble disobeying her parents because they are her original abusers. Suddenly, Alexis realizes that she must save herself just as she knew Liz had to; although she escaped from one abusive relationship with Neil, she is still weighed down by the one with her father. Alexis sends an email about an emergency meeting of the hospital board, knowing that they will need to negotiate on her terms if they want to keep a Montgomery at Royaume.

Alexis’s meeting with the board goes on until midnight and she writes a new speech for the gala, all while reserving an invitation for Daniel and attempting to contact him. She calls others in Wakan until she learns from Doug that he left because of her, and she finally recognizes the full extent of her betrayal. At the gala, when her father makes a disparaging comment about Daniel, Alexis snaps, telling him that she will disown the family and that he will never see his children or know the people they love. She also tells her mother that she hopes she finds her voice. She tells her parents that she won’t be sitting with them at the gala and asks them to tell Neil that he can have the house.

She then goes on stage to give her speech, in which she announces that she plans on expanding Royaume to emergency clinics that will provide free care to underserved communities, starting in Wakan and in Cambodia at a branch Derek and Nikki will oversee. Even her parents are pleased with this announcement. Alexis thinks Daniel has not accepted her invitation but is determined to open the clinic in Wakan anyway. Then Daniel approaches her and explains that he heard her speech but did not want her to see him and get nervous. The two quickly forgive one another as Alexis apologizes for taking so long to understand her mistakes, and they dance together as the whole gala watches. They talk about marriage and their future as they realize they can have the best of both worlds.

Daniel and Alexis are waiting to tell others that Alexis is pregnant. Their child will be a Montgomery-Grant and will be able to choose whatever legacy they like. They got married in Doug’s barn three months after the gala, and Derek and Nikki stayed with them at the Grant House for two weeks. Alexis’s father did not come to the wedding, but her mother did and gifted them an extravagant honeymoon because she knew Daniel had barely traveled outside of Wakan. The new clinic is thriving, as is Daniel’s woodworking business, which he is able to dedicate more time to. As the two walk home from the VFW, petals bloom and fall from the trees around them like magic.