Tonja Walker (Alex) knew she didn't want to miss the opportunity to return to ONE LIFE TO LIVE, but she didn't want to disappoint her family, either. When the call came asking her to appear on three episodes, Walker faced a dilemma.

"[I was] supposed to be flying to California with my family for the whole month of July," she explains. "We're supposed to leave July 1. I said, ‘If they really want me to do it, I'll just take my ticket and go on the 4th of July.'"

So now the character last seen on an island marrying who she thought was Asa is returning to Llainview. What has Alex has been up to?

"I don't have a clue," Walker says. "What I decided was there were so many things she could've done. She could've been adopting children like Angelina Jolie, but that really would all be about getting some prince from some country to marry her. Or she could be under some kind of an alias — got a new identity and went someplace where nobody knows her history. Figured out how to get her law degree back and owns some huge business and is really big someplace else."

But Walker's real concern is whether death is in the cards. It is — but not for Alex. Everyone is returning for Asa's funeral, beginning on-air Aug. 16.

"I'm sorry, but that's all I really care about," she admits. "I prefer to do a little bit more serious, evil stuff with a twist of humor. More Erica Kane-y," she explains, referencing the queen bee of ALL MY CHILDREN. "I like it better when there's a little bit of an edge in there."

Since her departure in 2002, Walker produced and starred in a movie called The Derby Stallion, starring Crystal Hunt (ex-Lizzie, GUIDING LIGHT) and Zac Efron (High School Musical). The film won awards at several festivals and is available on DVD from Echo Bridge Home Entertainment.

Walker also got to exercise her passion for acting on...well, PASSIONS, where she played Grace Nancier, a not-so-subtle parody of CNN's Nancy Grace.

"It's nice to get called to work when you're in the middle of something else. It was like God calling on the phone when these people called to go back and do my acting thing. That was really fantastic," she says. "I sure would like to act some more. It's a joy for me. It's not tedious. You go to work and you're done and you leave. I love that. It's the best."

Also rewarding for Walker: Raising her family in Connecticut. "The most important thing in my life is to make sure I'm there for my children," she says of her daughters, ages 7 and 9.

The family may move to the West Coast, at her husband's insistence. "We got this condo on the beach in Malibu," she explains. "I'm going to send him out into the traffic every day because I want to see if he's really going to like it or not. I'm not moving again. If we move out there, this is it."

Despite the possibility of moving to the Left Coast, one place Walker says she would love to stay in is at OLTL, which is celebrating its 10,000th episode.

"I'm having a ball," she says. "It was like coming home. There's a real special place in my heart for these special people. I hope they have another zillion shows!"