Two For The Road

by Medea3

Business wars, eloping, cancer, high school dances, and Sami and Lucas in divorce court. Not my finest work, but here it is. Complete.

Two For The Road
Part One of Three: Sami
February 28, 2000

Disclaimer: You, I, and Ken Corday all know that they aren't mine. Oh, and the title is a rip-off of a movie which I also don't own. It has nothing to do with the story, but both the movie and this story have a strange timeline.

Notes: If you can't handle the weird order in which things unfold, there's a timeline at the end of the last chapter so you can cheat. Feel free to put this story and any of my other stories in an archive or on another page, but leave my name and e-mail address (chainlock@aol.com) attached.

Sami sat somewhat stiffly in the office, staring at the large wooden desk before her. She glanced at the page-a-day calendar. It read "May 1, 2002." She glanced at the clock. It informed her that she was still a few minutes early, and could not expect Lucas to arrive just yet. As uncomfortable as she felt, she didn't especially want him to arrive. His arrival would mean the end of their marriage. Of course, she could have made it difficult for him to get a divorce-- hadn't she done that to Austin?-- but she had decided not to bother. She really did love Lucas, and she wanted this to be as painless for him as it could be. She had hurt him enough, she thought as she sighed for the umpteenth time since entering the room. Sitting around, waiting for awful news, was not her strong suit. Was it anyone's? She could think of only one time when the anxiety had been worse, but Lucas had been right there with her that time.

*********

That had been the February when Will was four years old. He had not known that anything was wrong as he played quietly in the next room. Sami and Lucas had fidgeted in their seats as they awaited the doctors' returns. Lucas was still grumbling over Craig Wesley's remark that Will was a Horton, and therefore he would be well taken care of. "Just what I look for in a chief of staff. One who will do his best to save the life of a four-year-old if he's part of the family that built the hospital."

"Just be glad that you and he are part of that family."

"How can you say that? What if you had gotten away with lying about who Will's father is? If they thought Will was Austin's son, maybe they wouldn't have called in that specialist! Doesn't that bother you?"

"Lucas, they would have called the specialist. They always call the specialist. I know it isn't funny, but I do think Craig was kidding."

"How do you know they always call the specialist?"

"My Mom works here. My stepfather gives them I don't know how much of their money. I volunteered here when I was in high school. My little sister does now. My older sister used to be PR director. And if you haven't noticed, the Hortons and the Bradys are kind of tight, and you know how many Horton doctors there have been here."

"Well, I wish my brother was still here. I'd rather have Will in Mike's hands than Craig's."

"Did you call him?"

"Yeah, Grandma practically ordered me to do it as soon as I told her what was wrong with Will. She talked to my father, too, and some uncles and cousins I've never met. They all agree that this guy Craig brought in is the one to talk to. And Mike did say to call him back tonight and tell him everything. He said he and Carrie would fly out if it looked like there was anything he could do. They might come anyway once Jeremy gets out of school for the summer."

"Have they decided about having a child of their own yet?" It seemed wrong to ask that sort of question considering the circumstances, but she had to say *something,* and Lucas seemed calmer now that he was talking.

"They haven't ruled it out completely, but I don't think they will. I really don't think that's what Carrie wants."

"I think she's still kind of shaken up about her divorce. She never expected that. She assumed her life would be a storybook, and now that she realizes it isn't, she's worried about having a child. Besides, she does love the work she has now."

"That sounded almost friendly. I'm shocked."

"I like Carrie better when she's in Israel. I really *do* want her to be happy. I just don't want her to have Austin."

"Where is he? I'm surprised you didn't drag him along."

"He did want to come, but your Mom didn't want him to skip that meeting. The one about the Yellow Flower people."

"Yeah." Kate had probably only insisted that Austin show up because she knew that his presence here would only upset Lucas even more.

The doctors finally returned with grim looks on their faces. Craig spoke first. "Dr. Shand has informed me that none of Will's cousins are a match. We really hoped that one of the teenagers from Africa would match, Jeremy Horton and Abigail Deveraux, but unfortunately not. It's not as likely with half-first cousins, obviously."

Dr. Shand, the specialist, took over. "It's not terribly likely with cousins of any sort, actually. The most likely match is a sibling; cousins are only a fraction more likely to match than a complete stranger. I'm sorry."

Lucas lost his tenuous hold on calmness. "SO YOU'RE SAYING MY FOUR-YEAR-OLD IS DYING AND THERE'S *NOTHING* YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT?"

"Lucas!" hissed Sami. "He probably heard that!" Four heads swiveled toward the adjacent room, but Will was engrossed in his game and seemed oblivious to the tension centered on him.

"I'm sorry," said Lucas, not sounding as if he especially meant it. "Is there anything else that can be done? Money is no object. Nothing is any object, except Will's recovery."

Dr. Shand looked at him with sympathetic eyes. "You are lucky that this was caught in a check-up, before he began to get sick. I suspect he has a year before he shows any symptoms."

Great, thought Sami. He'll graduate preschool and even make it most of the way through kindergarten.

"And in that year, there's nothing we can do but wait for him to get sick? I refuse to accept that."

"Well, Mr. Roberts, most couples feel that way. As I said, a sibling is an almost certain match. Many couples do *provide* a sibling to be the donor, especially when they have so much warning time." Soon afterwards, he and Craig left the room. Lucas sighed and turned to Sami.

"What do you think? Should we go over to that fertility clinic now?"

"Why?"

"You heard what he said. Will needs a sibling." He leered at her briefly. "Unless you want to do it the old-fashioned way. I know it's been a long time since Franco."

"Lucas! We can't just . . ."

"Why in the world can't we? I thought you'd do anything for your son! We're talking about his life here."

"I can't just have a child with a man I don't love. You can't just have a child with a woman you don't love. The ink on your divorce from Nicole isn't even dry yet."

"What does that have to do with anything? We're raising Will, who I might remind you wasn't exactly planned, and we can raise and love the new baby whether or not we're together. We can get a surrogate mother if you don't want to go through the pregnancy."

Sami stopped herself about an inch before she slapped Lucas. "You think the reason I don't want to do this is because I don't want to deal with a pregnancy? Of course not, Lucas! But I'm not going to bring a child into this world knowing that his or her parents don't love each other and never would have had a baby without extenuating circumstances. This kid would have rights, too! It would never feel loved. We might as well name it 'Spare Parts!'"

"We can name it whatever you want, but we're going to have it!"

"You cannot have it without me, Lucas."

"I know, believe me, I know. But I'll do anything. It would be a close match if it's biological mother was Carrie or Belle, right?"

"You're grasping at straws. Carrie and Belle feel the same way as I do about this."

"Yeah, that's right, your nice, big, tight, dysfunctional family! You've got all of them and you don't need Will, is that it? Well, maybe he doesn't matter to you, but he's *all* that matters to me, Sami!" That time she did slap him. Then she burst into tears.

**********

Whatever awful things you could say about Lucas Roberts, and there was no shortage of them, you could not say that he didn't love his children. The image of him running into the emergency room of that godforsaken hospital in Denver, cradling a year-old baby, screaming at the doctors to save her life, please, would never be ripped from Sami's mind, no more than a hundred other incidents of the last several years would be. So many emotions had warred for possession of his face, panic and guilt and fear and anger. Anger at Victor and Vivian and Sami and Brady and himself.

She had slipped up behind him, afraid to get too close and hating herself for it. She knew he blamed her and she knew he was right to do so. Finally she gathered her courage and said one word. "Lucas."

He turned slowly, and then gathered her into a hug so tight that she lost her breath. They had both started crying, of course, and they had waited out that miserable night in a dirty waiting room in a hospital where "Horton" was not a magic word.

What kind of a mother was she? What kind of parents were they? Their children had spent more time in hospitals than any children had a right to. They had barely spoken since leaving Denver. A horrible city, Denver. Sami vowed never to return, as if her vows meant anything. Hadn't she sworn that nothing would ever hurt her beautiful family? And had that been a promise she had been able to keep?

No.

*********

Her beautiful family. She had almost felt guilty accepting that compliment from a woman she barely knew. Still, she had worked hard to arrange this little trip, and it felt so good to be outside in the sunlight, free of worries, with her son healthy, and Austin healthy, and Lucas looking pretty darn relaxed for once. He almost never wore jeans, and she was debating telling him how good he looked in them. Much better than the suit he'd been wearing when he'd strolled into her apartment that morning.

"Hey, Sami, it's me."

"Okay," she'd called from the other room where she was explaining to Will that while it was a beautiful spring day outside, he still had to wear clothes.

"Is everything all right? Do you need help?"

"No, just hang on a second, we'll be right out."

Lucas poured himself a glass of orange juice and sat on the kitchen counter, probably because he knew it would annoy Sami. His sitting on the counter, not his drinking the juice.

"Daddy!" cried Will.

"Hey, Will, how are you this morning?"

"Good, how are you?"

"Better since I'm here with you. And where is my little girl?" He looked at Sami.

"Asleep again. Finally."

"She didn't sleep through the night? Did it take this long with Will?"

"Yes, it did, Lucas. She's not even six months old, you know."

"She's done a lot for a six-month-old, though."

"She has and I'm grateful. And I will be only slightly less grateful when she starts sleeping at the same time I do."

"Me, too," added Will. He was trying to climb up to the counter to sit next to his father and couldn't manage the leap from the chair. Lucas winced. He had been able to do that this time last year. Luckily, though, he would be able to do it this time next year as well. Lucas grabbed his son and pulled him into a hug, then jumped off the counter.

"Come on, Buddy. Your Mom doesn't want either of us up here, you know."

"So why did you get up there, Dad?"

"Good question, Will," grinned Sami. She hadn't grinned for a while. Taking care of two young children, one of them recovering, albeit marvelously quickly, from a life-threatening illness, was a tiring way to spend your time. She was glad that Lucas was over here several times a day. She wondered how her mother had managed to take care of Eric, Carrie, and her during the time after her father had "died" but prior to John's appearance. Then John had done it after her mother's "death." Wow.

"Are you that tired, Sami? You're kind of zoning," Lucas interrupted her thoughts.

"No, it's all right."

"So we're still going to the park?" asked Will.

"Of course."

"Good."

"You're taking both of them?" interrupted Lucas.

"How else would I do it?"

"It's a lot to handle."

"It's been done before."

"I guess so. There isn't much you can't do." Sami smiled at the compliment. "Is there anything you want me to do for you today?"

No, Sami began to answer, when she realized with stunning clarity that she did not want Lucas to leave. She had felt the same way at .Com the other day, but this time she was going to do something about it.

"What do you have to do at work today?"

"Nothing special, why?"

"Wouldn't you rather come to the park?"

"Yeah!" agreed Will.

"Sami, Will, I can't just skip work whenever I feel like it."

"What if your daughter is sick?"

"You said she was fine! You wouldn't be taking her to the park if she wasn't-- you don't expect me to lie!"

"Exaggerate."

"There's nothing to exaggerate."

"She was up all night, or so it seemed. You never know. Young parents worry about these things."

"Sami." Sami gave him her best pitiful puppy-dog expression, and Will, with a bit of prompting, imitated her.

Lucas rolled his eyes. "Fine. You win." Will and Sami exchanged a high-five.

Will played on the swings for most of the morning, but he finally returned to the bench where Sami and Lucas held his younger sister. "Can we get ice cream?" he asked.

"In the afternoon, Will. After you've had your lunch-- Will? Where? Get out from under there!" Will had crawled under the bench. Lucas dragged him out.

"But it's a cop!" Will protested.

Sami groaned. "I talked to you about this, Will. I know what the kids in your class said about cops, but it isn't true. They're here to help you."

"Since when are you afraid of cops?" Lucas asked. Will, pouting, chose not to answer.

"The last week of school one of his classmates told him some story about how if you ever do anything wrong the cops will find out and throw you in jail. The kid's parents probably told him so because they were afraid to discipline him themselves. I hate that. I know it drives Uncle Bo and Uncle Abe and Daddy and John and Aunt Hope and all the policemen crazy when kids are afraid of them."

"So is Will afraid of the cops in your family?"

"I'm not sure he's completely made the connection." At this point, the policewoman in question arrived.

"Oh, it's you, Sami. Hello."

"Hi, what can I do for you?"

"Nothing, I just noticed your beautiful family and thought I'd compliment you on it."

"Well, thank you." The small talk continued for a while, but Sami had not gotten past the family comment. They must look like a perfect family unit. Mother, father, son, and daughter. She and Lucas were young parents as it was, and they looked even younger than they were. They had also been told, more than once, that they looked "cute" together. All that was missing was love between them. At least there was a fair amount of "like" between them. Maybe that was just as good. They hadn't always had even that.

*********

Sami had been horrified. Will's check-up was supposed to be a technicality, not an opportunity for his pediatrician to tell her that something was genuinely, severely wrong. She had almost wished she had let Lucas take Will to this appointment, but, as always, she had insisted on doing it herself; in fact, she had only told Lucas about the appointment at all because he had asked point blank and Victor had been in the room, ready to pounce on them if they started one of their usual arguments. So now she pretended to read the newspaper in the Kiriakis Mansion dining room as she awaited Lucas' return from wherever he was. Hopefully he wasn't getting drunk, because at this point she could not afford to go through that again, and neither could he. Still, she could hardly blame him if he did go back to his old habits, since he had only very recently realized that Nicole had been bought and paid for by his mother. Five million dollars! Sami might have married Lucas herself for that much money. She could always take the money and her son and run. At least Lucas had realized the problem himself, without Nicole's being exposed by someone.

Naturally, when Lucas had finally arrived, he had not been pleased to see her.

"Sami, what are you doing here?"

"I *live* here, Lucas."

"You live in the guest house. So why don't you go back there?"

"I should! I should just go back there."

"Wow, we actually agree. I wonder if the world is coming to an end."

"It might be." Her voice dropped.

"It might be? What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well, it's just that . . ."

"It's just that what? Don't give me this poor, weak, simpering stuff, Sami. I know better and you know I know better."

"There was a problem with Will's doctor's appointment today."

Lucas' expression showed plainly that he couldn't believe he hadn't thought to ask about that when he first saw Sami. "Well?! What kind of problem? Tell me now, Sami!"

She took a deep breath. "Remember, around the time you first came to Salem, Abby Deveraux had some kind of anemia--"

"Aplastic? Will has *aplastic anemia*?"

"No! He doesn't, hehassomeobscureformoflukemia," she rushed to get the words out. "There are some books and papers in the other room but I couldn't bring myself to look at them yet. The cure is the same as with Abby. He needs a bone marrow transplant."

"Oh my God. Are you sure?"

"Yes. The doctor is, I am. Will's pediatrician and Craig Wesley agree. They're calling in a specialist for him, and we, that is if you can come, have to meet him at the hospital tomorrow morning."

"Of course I can come, Sami! What kind of a question is that? Does Will have to come too?"

"Yeah. Mostly so the specialist can meet him, I think. They already have records of his bone marrow and everything. All of the Hortons and Bradys are registered."

"So if they already know about his family's bone marrow, that means--"

"They don't think there's a match." Her voice cracked, but she was *not* going to fall apart in front of Lucas. "They aren't sure because there was some problem with Abby's records, and Jeremy's, too, since they're living outside the States. Jeremy's is the one they're really waiting on because technically, Abby's should match Austin's since he was the one who gave her her transplant."

"Oh my God," Lucas repeated himself.

"I know. I can't believe this is happening, either."

"Nothing is going to happen. We're going to fight it all the way. Where did you put the stuff from the hospital?"

"In there." She pointed vaguely. He grabbed the papers and returned.

"Do you know the name of this special doctor we're talking to tomorrow? Is it in here?"

"No, they did tell me, it's" she searched her memory "Dr. Shand."

"I'm calling Mike. I want to know if he's heard of this guy, or if there's someone better."

"You could talk to your grandmother, too. You should. I saw her at the hospital today and I sort of dodged her questions. She knew something had happened."

"Yeah, she would. Who have you told?"

"No one, yet. I'll talk to Mom as soon as I can."

"You haven't told Austin?"

"I will. I can't find him."

"Oh, I should have known you would have told him instead of me if you could have!"

"Lucas! I told you because you had a right to know! You think this is easy for me?"

"No, but I'm sure you'll be able to exploit it and get Austin to comfort you, so get going!"

"Okay, I will!" And she had run out of the house. She had found both Austin and her mother, but nothing either of them said or did could console her, no matter what Lucas thought. It was really the first time in her memory that Austin's attention hadn't made her problems melt away.

*********

Then there had been that day when the one to whom she always went with her problems had become the problem. She had been annoyed with him already for his sneering comments during the Christmas party. It had been her daughter's first Christmas, and she had wanted it to be special. He had done the same for Will on his first holiday. But his behavior during the New Year's party at the Penthouse Grill had been astoundingly obnoxious. At least he had saved it for an event at which the children were not present.

She and Lucas had arrived at the party together, since they had said goodnight to their children together. Belle's on-again-off-again relationship with Shawn had been very definitely off at that time, since he had graduated high school and she had not, and he had suddenly found her too young, so she was staying with her nephew and niece.

Austin, though, had interpreted their motives in arriving together quite differently. His relationship with Sami had ended long since, but his reactions to her friendship with Lucas always seemed to border on jealousy. It was odd that he would finally be jealous of Lucas' relationship with Sami. Just when you aren't looking for something . . .

"I see you two made it. Ditched the kids so you could have a night to yourselves, huh?"

"Austin, I wouldn't say we ditched them. They're with Belle," said Sami in as conciliatory a tone as she could manage.

"Oh, good. You left a five-year-old who just had a life-saving operation and an infant with a high school senior who'll probably run off and leave them if one of her friends tears herself away from a hot party with a bottle of champagne."

"Austin! My sister is not like that, and you know it! Besides, this is the first time I've been away from them for months."

"Besides, Austin, it looks to me like you're the one whose been hitting the champagne a little too hard," Lucas added.

"Yeah, well, you would know, wouldn't you?"

Lucas rolled his eyes. "Drop it, Austin. It's been years."

"I'm just looking out for Will."

"Will and his sister and their mother are fine. Now, if you'll excuse us--"

"No, I wanna talk to Sami."

"Well, as you pointed out, Sami is with me, so--"

"Lucas, it's really okay. I'll find you later," said Sami quickly. People were already watching the group with interest. Lucas reluctantly crossed the room to see his mother, who had also been watching the exchange between her two oldest sons. "What's the problem, Austin?" she asked.

Austin sighed. "I'm sorry, Sami. It's just still a habit of mine to be protective of Will."

"I hope you always will be. He's your nephew, and you know how much he loves you."

"I still shouldn't have spoken that way, and I'm sorry."

"As far as I'm concerned, you have nothing to be sorry about, but I really think you're apologizing to the wrong person."

"Sami, I really think you're doing the wrong thing with Lucas."

"What thing am I doing with him? You think I shouldn't be friends with the father of my children?"

"Friends is fine, but you've been spending more and more time together ever since Will got sick."

"Naturally. We had a sick child and a new child."

"That didn't mean you had to come here together tonight, or go to the dance together last spring, or anything like that. You act like you're dating-- no, not like you're dating. Like you're already married."

"I don't think we do, but what's wrong with that?"

"You know how you and Lucas used to be the last time you were close. You did one horrible thing after another, not that I don't forgive you. I just think that the two of you are alike in the wrong ways. Your strengths don't balance out each other's weaknesses. The two of you are going to self-destruct, and I don't want to see Will caught in the middle." Austin's voice had risen again, and again much of the room was watching them.

"Please calm down, Austin. I will never let anything happen to Will."

"I know, I know." And he had walked off. She spent the rest of that party trying not to listen to the murmurs of people who agreed with Austin, that she and Lucas would self-destruct. How could they self-destruct if they weren't together? She was glad to leave after midnight, but was quickly called back by a waiter.

"Samantha Brady?"

"That's me."

"You're wanted at the hospital--"

"Oh no, Will!"

"No, it's about Austin Reed." She had gone to the hospital, of course, along with Lucas. There, they learned that Austin, slightly drunk but mostly distracted, had wrapped his car around a tree after his early exit from the party. Lucas quickly found his mother, who hugged him quickly, while glowering at Sami. "I can't believe what that little witch has done to my son!"

"Mom, it was an accident. Sami didn't make that car run into a tree."

"She upset him, and you *know* it, Lucas!"

"Mom, it doesn't matter, he'll be okay."

They sat in silence as Sami watched from nearby. Eventually, Kate was allowed to enter her son's hospital room. "Just a broken wrist and a concussion," she was assured. "He's much luckier than most of the car accidents we'll have in here tonight."

Sami and Lucas walked out to the balcony together. They could still hear gunshots and see a few fireworks in celebration of the year 2001.

"Thanks for defending me to your Mom."

"You're welcome. If anyone set him off, it was me."

"No, it wasn't. Tonight he was looking for trouble. But over the past however many years, it's always been me. I should have just left him and Carrie alone."

"It's a funny time to start feeling repentant."

"Maybe. I guess it's everything that's happened with Will. What I did to Austin and Carrie because I wanted him for myself was bad enough. But I made it worse by not keeping my word once I had him."

"Which word was that?"

"My word to be better for him than Carrie."

"You didn't cheat on him, if that's what you mean. You were barely even together."

"Yes, but he always felt like I did, when I decided to have another child with you."

"We did it for Will."

"You know how I feel about that--"

"I didn't say we don't love her for her own sake--"

"Okay, okay. Still, if I had ever loved Austin I would have left him alone. I can't believe he's been reduced to this."

"He's had concussions before."

"But he's all alone. It's like he never found a new place for himself after Carrie and Billie left town. And it's my fault Carrie's gone."

"Sami, I can't believe I'm gonna say this, but it is not your fault Carrie's gone. *Austin* chose you over Carrie again and again and again, and you and your fabulous powers of manipulation can't take all of the credit for that. He was always stringing at least one of you along. He never put his foot down. The way I see it, Carrie finally put her foot down, and she's happy now."

"Do you think Mike makes her happier than Austin?"

"It doesn't matter what I think. It matters what she thinks. And she thinks Mike is the one for her."

"Austin's situation is still my fault."

"Sami, it is not. I don't think so, and he doesn't think so, and if *we* agree, than it must be right."

Sami finally smiled. "Thanks, Lucas."

He smiled back. "Well, this is better than last year, I think, when that imitation Hope shot Shawn and your mother and then Bo shot her."

"Yeah, that was hard to top. The show we put on wasn't nearly as entertaining, I'm sure."

"So I wasn't imagining that everyone was watching us?"

She shook her head. "Austin said, very loudly, that we would self-destruct if we ever got together, and everyone was agreeing." She paused. "Lucas?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm gonna see if they'll let me talk to Austin, and then, will you take me home?"

"Sure," he whispered.

********

Sami dragged herself out of her daydreams. Maybe she would try having them again when they didn't hurt so much. The clock informed her that Lucas was now five minutes late. Couldn't he just let her get this over with?

Two For The Road
Part Two of Three: Lucas
February 29, 2000

Lucas looked at his watch. He was five minutes late. Maybe he should just be a few months late. He couldn't believe that this marriage would be even shorter than his marriage to Nicole. Still, he had no choice now, and he steeled himself to enter the room where Sami was waiting for him. They might have been truly happy. Who was to blame for this mess? The convenient answer for him at the moment was Brady Black.

**********

Lucas sometimes forgot that Sami had a younger brother, or stepbrother, as he technically was. Carrie, Eric, and Belle were all hard to miss, but Brady seemed to blend into the background until he was most of the way through his sophomore year of college. He had gone to school somewhere on the East Coast, on a baseball scholarship of course, but after three terms he suddenly decided to return to Salem and transfer to Salem University. Because of the manner in which he had transferred, he was forbidden to play baseball for that season, and as a result he had more time than he was used to on his hands. He began to spend it with his grandfather, Victor Kiriakis.

Victor was delighted. He had raised a nephew, Justin, as his own, but Justin lived in Texas with his four sons and a wife of whom Victor did not especially approve, the sister of Jack Deveraux and Steve Johnson. He had an adult son, Bo, but Bo never truly acknowledged him as his father, and he discouraged Shawn-Douglas from spending too much time with his biological grandfather. Besides, young Shawn did not seem to get along with Philip particularly well. Philip was to have been the heir to the Kiriakis enterprise, but Victor had serious doubts about him. Philip's mother has spoiled him, plain and simple, and Victor did not trust him to sweep the floors at Titan. Brady, though blunt and direct and raised to take little heed of his role as the only child of Victor's daughter Isabella, was different. He had piercing blue eyes and never missed anything he was told. He was strikingly handsome, and while he would flirt, he took little interest in serious relationships with women, or in anything but baseball. His time with Victor filled the void that baseball left.

Victor filled another void for Brady as well. During high school, his parents had lavished attention on his younger sister Belle and had barely had any time for him. He wondered if they had simply thought he didn't want or need them around, or if Belle had just asked for their attention more often, or if he was just making things up. After a few years away from Salem, though, he decided that he had not been imagining things, and he began to wonder if the problem was that he was not the natural son of Marlena Evans Black. He had called her "Mom" for as long as he could remember; he did not recall Isabella Toscano at all. The rest of the Toscanos were dead as well, and while that made him rich, sometimes it also made him feel alone. Victor Kiriakis was his only link to the woman who had been his biological mother.

So, Brady relished the opportunity to spend time with the man. At first it had just been an occasional conversation, often about his mother and his Toscano or his Kiriakis heritage. Later it had been an occasional lesson about the simpler business details of Titan or a visit to the stables on the beautiful Kiriakis Mansion grounds. Brady didn't especially like horses, but he had learned to ride and to take care of them, and Victor noted the latter approvingly. Now, he stopped by the mansion or Titan every day, sometimes for a few minutes, but usually much longer, and Victor frequently used the boy as a sounding board. Philip was furious, but he could not please his father as easily as his nephew could. Lucas had sympathized, but at the same time he enjoyed watching Philip worry about his position. With a little more time and effort, Philip might become a decent human being.

********

Currently, though, Lucas still considered his younger half-brother a brat. He actually resented it when he was compared to Philip, as in "Kate is spoiling Philip just like she spoiled Lucas!" When he had been in his early teens, his Mom had thought he was out of control, so she had sent him to a military academy. He had been obnoxious at times, yes, but he had at least picked and chosen his spots, unlike Philip. He had never felt more strongly that Philip needed reigning in as he had on that Christmas Eve, just days after Will had come home from the hospital. Their mother had been worried about him because she could not get the image of the previous Christmas Eve, when Philip had been beaten and left in an alley, out of her mind. Philip had sneered that he would do as he pleased, and Kate had been unable to control him. Then Victor had come down and yelled at them both.

Lucas had been thrilled to escape to the Horton Center. The Bradys were all there, too; most of the Hortons had planned to join them at Midnight Mass and then at the Pub. The combining of their plans was done mostly in tribute to Bo and Hope, who were finally married and happy. It had only taken until the year after their son's high school graduation.

However, both families had ended up fussing over Sami and Lucas's children for most of the evening. "Will, you look so grown-up!" and "She really is a beautiful baby." Lucas had felt uncomfortably at the center of the gathering. He was overwhelmingly grateful for Sami's presence. She had grown up in a big family and knew the drills. He had a sneaking suspicion that she even enjoyed them, despite the fact that she'd spent most of the time he'd known her rejecting her family.

At any rate, he was immensely relieved that his son and daughter were healthy and happy. They were the only young children around, although there were several teenagers: his favorite (and only) niece Abby, his and Sami's shared cousin Shawn, Belle, Brady, and Sami's cousins Drew and Jeannie. The teenagers seemed more than willing to help Will with the annual Christmas rituals of cookie-leaving and stocking hanging, although he had been adamant that he put his own ball on the tree this year, as well as that of his sister.

Then a few more friends had arrived to hurry everyone along to the church. Austin had been among them.

"I see my little brother is the center of attention," he had said. Lucas had exerted all of his self-control to prevent himself from squirming or decking his brother. Maybe he hadn't meant it in a nasty way. "Cute little family," he whispered. "Too bad it's a fraud." Maybe he had.

Luckily, he had left soon afterwards. Sami and Lucas stayed behind, since neither of their children were physically capable of behaving themselves in a church at the moment. They were both asleep soon after their families left.

Sami immediately went after the sugar cookies Will had left for Santa.

"Sami!" Lucas reprimanded her.

"Hey, I bought their presents, and wrapped them. I deserve these."

"So that's why you're so set on their leaving sugar cookies. They're what *you* like."

"No!" cried Sami, sounding properly horrified. "We always left sugar cookies, and not just Eric and Carrie and Belle and Brady and I. Shawn and Drew and Jeannie would back me up if they were still here. So would Steffi, I'm sure."

"I know I should know, but who's Steffi?"

"My one cousin that you haven't met. She's my Aunt Kayla's daughter. She lives in California, near Aunt Kim and Jeannie and Drew."

"Why didn't they come with your other aunt and cousins, then?"

"They went to Texas instead. You know Victor's nephew Justin? He's married to Steffi's father's sister. I'm actually surprised that Abby and her family are here and not there."

"That's right, I knew I knew all that."

"Is everything ready for tomorrow?"

"I think so. You know, we're going to end up with two very spoiled children if we aren't careful."

"They deserve some spoiling this year."

"They do." They shared a long look.

"Well, as long as we're lounging around the Horton Center, we might as well clean up."

"You're right."

The rest of the night had been blissfully uneventful.

********

The next Christmas, though, had been anything but uneventful. Will was a very active six-year-old, and Sami and Lucas decided to risk taking him to the second half of the Christmas Eve celebration. They counted on their daughter to sleep through everything. The two were once again the center of attention, and Lucas had to work hard to corner Sami alone in the Horton Center's kitchen.

"Sami, hold on."

"What are you doing? We have to go, right now."

"We have a few minutes."

"Fine. What?"

"You don't sound as if you really want to know."

"I'm not sure I do."

"I think you do."

"Fine, then, spit it out."

"Spit it out? Maybe I'll wait and do this in a more elaborate way."

"Elaborate way?" Something clicked inside Sami. Lucas couldn't really be planning to . . .

"Elaborate way."

"No, no, I don't want elaborate. I want now."

"Now. Very greedy of you. Thinking of the bottom line. No wonder Vivian Alamain was trying to get ahold of you the other day."

"Yeah. I have to track her down. Now, about that bottom line."

Lucas smiled. "The bottom line is this: I'm a Horton. You're a Brady. What more do you want?" With that, he dropped to his knee, since you could get too much of this casual thing. "Samantha Gene Brady, will you marry me?"

"Yes. What else can I say? Yes!" He got to his feet to hug her and swing her into the air, as they both laughed.

********

They hadn't even been dating officially, but he hadn't felt strange asking her to marry him. The two of them always had done things in an odd order, after all. They had barely been able to tolerate each other's presence when their daughter was conceived. That had been when they were still living at the Kiriakis Mansion. He had chased her into the guest house.

"Sami, this is Will's best chance at living! I can't believe you won't do it over ethical objections! Ethics! You!"

"I know, Lucas, I know."

"What do you know?"

"It was a lot easier to have an ethical objection when it wasn't my kid!"

"So put aside the ethical objection! Change your ethical code! And do it soon! You've done unethical things before, and this is only very arguably unethical! I mean, isn't it ethical to do anything in your power to save your son's life?"

"There is a line there. I've always had trouble finding that line. I've had my life back on track since I got off of death row, and I don't want to make any more compromises."

"So, given a choice between your self-respect and your son's life--"

"Look, Lucas, this is hard enough as it is."

"Well, what I'm suggesting will make it a lot less hard!"

"We don't have a guarantee that a sibling would match. They don't always, you know."

"But they very frequently DO! Can you live with yourself if he *dies* and you didn't try everything?"

Sami finally answered, in a whispery voice that didn't sound like hers. "You win. How do you want to do this?"

"We'll call the clinic tomorrow."

"The one that put Philip into Vivian's body instead of Kate's?"

He smirked. "That's the one."

"Maybe they have a special. You know, we get your order wrong, next one is free."

"That's disgusting." He was laughing, though. They always had shared an unfortunate sense of humor.

Sami stopped laughing abruptly, and turned and walked into her bedroom. He followed. "Sami? Sami?" He wondered what to say. She was sitting in the middle of the bed. Most of her face was obscured by her long hair, but he could still see that she was crying. "What's wrong?" and "Are you all right?" were both ridiculous questions, so he simply climbed onto the bed next to her and wrapped his arms around her.

"Thank you," she whispered. And she sealed her "thank you" with a kiss. They both remembered what had happened the last time she had thanked him with a kiss. They had thought they were under stress then, but this was ridiculous. Lucas was already nearly on top of her, and he knew that she was close enough to feel his reaction to her. Their eyes met, and she nodded, and reached up to pull his jacket off of his shoulders.

They awoke at almost the same moment, and glanced warily at each other.

"Better than the floor at Titan," Sami declared.

"You're right, there. But . . ."

"What?"

"It's not very likely that you're pregnant, is it?"

"We weren't using anything. It's not out of the question."

The silence lingered.

"We should get up." They did, and they managed not to meet each other's eyes until they left the room.

Outside, they were greeted by Austin.

"Interesting way of expressing your animosity you two have," he said.

*********

Lucas hadn't even thought about Austin at the time. He had never really accepted his brother and Sami as a couple; he knew that Austin still loved Carrie and that Sami wanted a man who was more a product of her imagination than reality. They were in love with each other's facades, and they spent very little time together, as if in an effort not to challenge their opinions of each other. It was different when he was with Sami. There could never be masks between them; they knew too much about each other. Had she really ever been surprised by him? Maybe once.

He knew that he was risking his life by returning to Salem so quickly, but he had to see for himself that they were all right. His children and his wife. God, he missed Sami.

He left his rented car along the wooded lane that led to the house in which John and Marlena lived. He was glad that they finally had a real home for Belle and Brady, and even more glad that it gave Sami a place to stay now that Victor was after him.

Naturally, because Sami's family had a stunning ability to attract psychopathic stalkers, the house was protected by every security measure known to man. Some of the codes he knew. A-E-N-R-E let him onto the grounds. It was the last letter of the middle name of each of the five children of the family. Casual acquaintances weren't terribly likely to crack it, but the family could remember it easily. He shook his head that he thought that this was easy. But he didn't know the code that disarmed the interior system. He wasn't even completely sure that Sami knew it.

Now, he looked up at the windows. A light shown softly in one. A night light. There was only one person in that house who was likely to have a night light.

He considered the trellis. This was not his strong suit. Maybe Austin had been all for dancing on rooftops, but he preferred the insides of buildings to the outsides. Why bother building them if you were just going to climb on them? That was what mountains were for. He did know how to scale a wall, though, and climbing on the trellis, while easier, was asking for trouble.

Well, enough thinking about it. He could be as much a super-man hero as Austin or assorted members of his wife's family. He just ordinarily had the brains to stay out of situations in which he had to prove it.

Luckily, the window was partly open, and he was able to slide it up after removing the screen and tossing it to the ground, which was soft from a recent rain and muffled the noise of the fallen screen. Sami could explain that away in the morning.

The crib stood not far from the window, and the child within it slept peacefully. Lucas gazed at her for a moment, but was afraid to disturb her. He turned to the bed. Sami was asleep in the same room as her daughter. Should he wake her up by putting his hand over her mouth so she couldn't scream before she realized who he was? Or would that scare make it more likely she'd cause a commotion?

Sami removed the choice by sitting up and looking at him, still mostly asleep.

"I thought someone was looking at me."

"You were right." He reached out to brush her hair away from her eyes. And she pulled away.

"No."

"Sami, do you think it was easy for me to get here? Don't be mad at me."

"No, it's not that. I don't want you to wake me up." Her eyes shone in the odd combination of moonlight and night-light light, and she looked impossibly beautiful.

"Please . . . trust me."

"Okay."

He kissed her with as much passion as he ever had. When he broke the kiss, reluctantly, she stared into his eyes. "You are here," she whispered.

"Yeah, I am."

"You're *here*!" she said in an entirely different tone of voice. He felt himself shoved backwards onto the bed. "*What* are you thinking about? You're putting your life in danger!" she hissed.

"I had to see you. I had to see them. Let me up, Sami."

She allowed him to sit up, but kept her hands on him, as of she was afraid that he was a dream after all. "So," she whispered. "Where have you been?"

"Colorado, like we decided."

"And are you okay there?"

"I have food to eat and a place to sleep, if that's what you mean. But you'll never know how much I missed you."

"How can you say that? I know, because it's as much as I've missed you."

He held her even closer. "Sami, I'm sorry about this. Most couples are still on honeymoons at this point in their marriage."

She laughed, and quickly smothered it, afraid someone would hear her. "Lucas, you and I are not 'most couples.' We never have been and I never want us to be. I want us to be *us.*"

"Us. We should adopt 'Think, there must be a harder way to do it!' as our motto."

They again found themselves trying not laugh at the absurdity of their situation. Then Sami resumed her interrogation.

"Where are you staying?"

"A hotel. A cheap one. It's awful."

"Welcome to how the other half lives."

"Hey! Was that a dig? You knew I was a snob when you married me."

She ignored him. "What name are you using?"

"Bob Horton."

"You don't think that's a little predictable?"

"That's why it's good."

A creaking board outside the room made them both cringe and freeze.

"Mommy?" Will opened the door without knocking, and his eyes grew as wide as saucers. "Daddy--"

Lucas picked Will up. "Be as quiet as you can, Will. Please."

"But why--"

"You're having a dream, Sweetie," said Sami quickly. Lucas made a face at his wife. He wasn't sure that lying was the best option. Will, though, immediately relaxed and quieted, proving him wrong.

"Come on, Will, let's go back to sleep."

"But I'm already asleep."

"Well, I want you to be asleep asleep so you'll get twice as much rest. You and Mommy probably have lots of things to do tomorrow."

"I don't wanna go back to my room."

"Get in my bed, Will," Sami commanded quickly. "I'll be here, and your sister, too."

"Yeah, and I'll tell you a story, okay, Buddy? Close your eyes." Will obeyed. "Once upon a time, there was a king and a queen. They had three daughters, their princesses, whom they wanted to grow up to rule all the world."

"No princes?"

"There were princes, but they aren't important."

"Why not?"

"Because this is my story, not yours."

"But I don't like princesses."

"Well, let me tell you about them, and then you can decide if you like them."

"Okay."

"But you can't hear the end of the story if you say one more word."

Will nodded earnestly and Lucas continued. "The oldest princess was beautiful. Men from all over the world came to see her. They said she was the most beautiful woman ever, more beautiful than any goddess. She was beautiful inside as well as outside. But she only ever cared for the--" he stole a glance at Sami "--peasant boy who lived on the streets below her castle."

"*Peasant boy*?" queried Sami.

"Sami, as I told Will, this is my story and if you want to hear the end, you can't comment on it."

"Fine, go ahead."

"No, this peasant boy, he was ugly. He wasn't very charming. He made his money by beating up on other peasant boys. But he was chosen by the oldest princess, and they married. Now, the rich, handsome, charming, charismatic, intelligent prince form a neighboring kingdom asked her to marry him instead, but she said no. He hoped she'd change her mind, and he befriended the middle princess. The middle princess spent all of her time with him, so the men turned their attention to the youngest princess, who was nearly as beautiful as her oldest sister. Some said even more beautiful. Of course, they came running to the middle princess if she ever so much as looked at them, because not only was she just as beautiful as her sisters, she was passionate and smart and sensitive and stubborn and sweet. And one day the prince realized that he wasn't quite as smart as he thought he was. Close, but not quite. Because all along, he had been much more in love with the middle princess than the oldest princess. He was never happier than he was when he was with her. She made him feel completely at peace. So they had a wedding, and invited the other princesses. Unfortunately, the public was fascinated by the lives of princesses, and the paparazzi ran down the oldest and youngest princesses by accident. So the middle princess and her *very* handsome prince had to rule the world all by themselves. It was a tough job but somebody had to do it--"

"Lucas Roberts, you had better be glad he's already asleep! *What* kind of a story was that?"

"You didn't like it?"

"I was the only one who didn't have men fawning all over me, and you killed both of my sisters!"

"You think that story was about *you*? My, how conceited, Samantha."

"Fine. But *why* did you write it that way?"

"To take your mind off your problems for a while." He sighed. "I'm so sorry it has to be like this."

"No, Lucas. *I'm* the one who's sorry. You know this is my fault. I never should have even talked to Vivian."

"Why not? You have your own life. You're your own person. You did make a mistake, and I was mad, and I was hurt. I'm not gonna lie about that, Sami. But I know that that was a little slip, and not the real cause of this. I went swimming with a shark. I had to expect to get bitten."

"But you keep talking like it's your fault you're on the run, when it's mine."

"I don't think it's either of our faults. But we'll share the blame until we figure out what really happened, okay? We're still partners."

"Okay." They resumed their kissing, which grew progressively more urgent. "Lucas."

"Sami. You know we can't do this."

"Yes we can. Who knows when we'll see each other again?"

"There are six other people in this house, two of them in this room."

"We can get into the spare room. No one will hear."

"Oh, Sami . . ."

"Lucas, we have to do this."

"We don't *have* to," he argued, although he was beginning to wonder why he was arguing.

"We really should."

"Why?"

"Well, apparently that boyfriend Belle had when she was trying to make Shawn jealous told her that he could die if she didn't . . ." she raised her eyebrows.

"Has any girl in the history of civilization ever believed that?"

"Well, no, but I still don't want to take any risks. I'd hate to have anything happen to my children's father." She kissed him again, and pulled him into the next bedroom.

That had been a good night. But it was horrible saying goodbye to Sami and Will, who at least was asleep this time. He didn't think he'd be able to handle it if Will woke up and asked him to stay. His daughter was the one who woke up this time. "Daddy?"

"Alisha." She smiled. He hated to leave. He thought about his daughter, who was changing so much while he was gone. Learning new words, learning new things, and he was missing it. He had missed so much with Will. This wasn't fair! At least he had known throughout the pregnancy that this was his child and had been an active participant.

**********

Sami and Lucas still hadn't been getting along very well, but while she was pregnant with his child, she had not been able to avoid him or fight with him as much as she usually did. He knew that sometimes she really did need his help, so he made sure he was always available. One afternoon, she found an urgent phone message from Belle, saying that their mother had to see her.

"Lucas, I have to go talk to my Mom. How long has that message been there? What's wrong?"

"I don't know. Did you call her back?"

"I think the phone's off the hook."

"Look, get Will and I'll drive you, okay?"

"Thank you."

Her mother and stepfather had moved into their new house at almost the same time she had moved into the apartment Lucas had bought for her and Will. It took them about fifteen minutes to get to the house. Sami flew inside.

"Mom? John? Hello?"

"Sami?" came Marlena. "What's wrong? You're out of breath. Is the baby okay?"

"No, I mean, yes, the baby's fine." She touched her barely-bulging stomach. "Are *you* okay?"

"Why wouldn't I be, Sami?"

"Belle left a frantic message on the answering machine. She said I had to find you right away. She sounded so upset."

"Belle." Marlena rolled her eyes and called upstairs. "Belle! Come down here please."

"Coming!" Belle pranced down the stairs. "Hi, Sami. Hi, Lucas."

"Belle, why is Sami here?"

Belle tried to look innocent. "Why aren't you asking her?"

"She says you called her. I hope you had a good reason for scaring her."

"Scaring her? Oh, I'm sorry, Sami, I didn't mean to, I just wanted you to talk to Mom."

"About what?" asked a slightly annoyed Sami.

"They want to cancel the spring dance. And they can't! It's the last dance that Shawn will be at Salem High for."

"So?"

"The problem is chaperones. There's some strange new rule about having parents there. They thought that the parents clustered together too much, and the kids right near them behaved, but the ones away from them were drinking and stuff. So they wanted people who could almost blend in. People in their early twenties would be good . . ."

"Belle. No."

"Sami, why not? Is it just because I scared you? I'm really sorry. Please? If Mom can tell the other parents at the meeting tonight that you'll do it, they'll be able to get others, and they won't cancel. Please?"

"Belle, I went to Salem High. They know me. I don't think they want me as a chaperone." Besides, this is about as pregnant as I was during what would have been my senior year if I hadn't run away to Seattle, was the clear implication.

"But Sami, it's one night. It'll be over for you really fast and you can forget about it. But I don't want to forget about it. I want to remember it forever."

Sami sighed and Belle knew she had won.

The night of the dance, according to Belle, Sami rushed Belle and her friend Mimi through their preparations so that they could arrive with her. Sami was not pleased with the situation, but she slipped into the decorated high school gym and did her best to look like she wasn't dodging her former teachers. She decided to do her best to be a good chaperone, though. Disappointing Belle was not something she was in the habit of doing. She had liked dances when she was Belle's age, too. Hadn't she manipulated Lucas, of all people, into taking her to the Spring Fling? She had even demanded that he wear that uniform, and had spent the night calling him "General," a nickname that seemed to amuse her much more than it amused him.

Lucas remembered, too. So, for reasons he couldn't completely figure out, he drove to the high school that evening. He walked into the gym and searched the crowd for Sami. She was hard to spot, because she could have passed as an eighteen-year-old if she had desired to do so, but he finally saw her, leaning against the far wall. Sami Brady, impulsive, passionate, manipulator of all of Salem, had no business being a wallflower!
He moved through the
crowd, trying to avoid being seen by Sami or the social circle of teenagers
that included Philip, Shawn, and Belle. Thanks to the music, he was able to
sneak up behind his former partner-in-crime.

"Sami, would you dance with me?"

"Lucas!? What are you doing here?"

"Me? I just wondered if you thought our baby would like to take its first
dance lesson."

"So you came all the way down here, just to ask me that?"

Lucas was overwhelmed by the urge to lie. "No, I got roped into being here
pretty much the same way you did. Philip is my half-brother, you know, and
Mom asked me to do it as a favor." Sami never talked to his mother except to
accuse her of criminal acts, of which she was usually guilty, so she would
never find out the truth.

"Oh." She relaxed slightly. "But didn't you get that lecture from the teacher
in charge of school activities? About how we should be watching, not dancing?"

"In that case, do you want to go over to the stage and watch from there? We
can see everything and make snide comments about how much better this dance
would be if we were still in high school."

"You had a lot of dances at that military academy?"

"As a matter of fact, we did, but you're right, they weren't quite like this.
Are you coming?"

"Sure, why not?"

They adjourned to Lucas' chosen spot, from which they could see most of the
action. "Oh, there's Belle," Sami said at last.

"Dancing with Philip. What is it about your sisters and my brothers?"

"Believe me, I'm as puzzled as you are. I have no idea what the attraction is."

"That's why you spent seven years or so chasing Austin and have two children
with me?"

"Lucas Roberts, you know how that happened and it wasn't because I found you
even remotely attractive! When you were eighteen years old, you were selfish
and full of yourself and materialistic and nasty and unbelievably snobby, and
now you're worse! At least you used to be smart and occasionally funny, but
now it takes you months to realize that your mother bought you a wife!"

He knew better than to draw attention to himself in this particular setting,
so Lucas controlled his anger and answered tightly: "Sami, I didn't say
anything nasty to you. I don't know why you are acting like a little bitch
tonight, but my relationship with Nicole has nothing to do with it. Now, I'll
leave in a minute, but you do realize that our new son or daughter will
probably sense it if we fight all the time, right?"

To his great surprise, Sami nodded. "You're right. *This* time."

"I'm right about the baby or about your having no reason to insult me?"

"The baby. I will always have a reason to insult you."

"That's comforting, in a weird sort of way."

"Good." He turned to leave, and was startled when she called him back.
"Lucas."

"Yes."

"You might have been a little bit right about the other thing, too."

"Really." He returned to his place beside her, wondering if she would say
more.

"Yes. I'm not happy to be here. I'm practically hiding from my popular little
sister, almost like I used to be embarrassed by being popular Carrie's
not-popular little sister." The words came out in a rush. Austin was barely
speaking to her, and this was a subject she felt that her parents and
siblings felt she had exhausted. She winced at what she had just said and
looked into Lucas' eyes. She saw nothing there but understanding, She must
have been afraid of that, Lucas realized later. It was easier to talk to
people who just didn't listen than to people who would listen and remember
and maybe say something annoyingly insightful.

"You aren't in high school anymore, Sami. Hard as it is to believe, this has
almost nothing to do with you."

She smiled. "Thanks."

"No problem."

"Since we're both here anyway . . ."

"Yeah?"

"Do you have any thoughts about what we should call the baby?"

"We don't even know if it's a boy or a girl yet, do we?"

"No. But we can pick two names, although I really have a feeling it's a girl."

"Do you want a girl?"

"Either is fine with me. I want healthy."

"Me too. I did mean it when I said you could pick the name, though."

"You said I could pick the name if I agreed to have the baby. I didn't agree
to have this baby for you, so that bargain's off. Besides, you are the
father."

"That's true." It had better be . . . he squelched that thought.

"Will is named after your sister Billie and your mom's family in general. I
thought that this one should have a real Horton-Brady name."

"Like Shawn-Douglas."

"Pretty much."

"No offense, but you don't want to saddle it with a name like Roman or
Marlena, do you?"

"No offense taken, and no, I don't."

"Did you want to name it after one of your brothers or sisters?"

"I thought about that, but we're all named after people ourselves. Carrie is
Caroline Anna for Grandma and her mother, I'm Samantha Gene after Mom's
sister and her best friend, Eric is Eric Roman after our great-uncle and our
father, Brady is Brady Victor for obvious reasons, and Belle is Isabella
Beatrice after Isabella Beatrice Toscano. I have a lot of cousins who have
'Caroline' or 'Shawn' somewhere in their names."

"What about the Horton side?" He figured she knew those names about as well
as he did, perhaps even better.

"I didn't want to do that without asking you. I know you haven't even met
most of your Horton relatives."

"The only ones I have any relationship with are Jenn and Mike and Mickey and
Maggie, and Grandma, of course. But since you did ask for my opinion, I don't
exactly want to call the baby something in honor of anyone. I think a child
should have his or her own name."

"No."

"Just 'no?'"

"It matters to me that her or she always feels a connection to the family
somehow."

"Okay, fine. But you've eliminated most of the names you can use, which isn't
surprising after a few generations."

"What if we used a variation on someone's name? It would still be a unique
name and it would still show the connection?"

He was surprised that she actually seemed to be considering his thoughts on
the matter. They giggled over every name they could think of for most of the
rest of the night, and, between their decision and their duties as
chaperones, the time passed quickly.

Suddenly, Sami looked him right in the eye. "Alisha."

"What?"

"It's a variation on 'Alice.'"

"Alisha. That's good, Sami. That's actually good."

"You don't have to sound so surprised."

He shrugged. "Do you want a middle name from your side, then?"

"Yeah. I really want something for my mom, since I was so awful to her and
John for so long."

"So she can have 'Marlena' for a middle name."

"Alisha Marlena? That sounds terrible. I wish we had one of those
name-your-baby books."

"There's a store right down the street. Want me to go buy one?"

"You can't. We have a job here."

"To tell you the truth-"

"What?" she asked warningly.

"I'm not really a chaperone. I just came to see how you were doing. So I can
leave and come back."

He watched Sami as this news sunk in. "Okay," was all she said, and he
reached for his car keys. She called after him. "Lucas?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks. And hurry back."

From that day forward, Sami had not acted as if his presence reviled her
nearly so often. She had been completely cooperative and had told him about
every doctor's appointment and everything she felt. He had been right there
with her the day the ultrasound revealed that she was right, the baby was a
girl. Alisha Maren Roberts.

More importantly, he had been there on the day of her birth, or rather, the
night. Alisha had taken after her mother and decided to do things in a
difficult way whenever possible. He'd been fast asleep when the phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Lucas? It's Sami." Even in his barely-awake state, he recognized the multitude of emotions in her voice- fear and nervousness and excitement.

"Sami? What's wrong?"

"I'm sorry I woke you up."

"You didn't," he lied, for no particular reason.

"I'm a lot of things, Lucas, but stupid isn't one of them."

"Fine. You woke me up. I don't mind that you woke me up. What's wrong?"

"I think I'm in labor."

"You think? You don't *know*?"

"I know that a lot times women think they're in labor and they're not, but I do think I am-OW! Okay, if that wasn't a contraction--"

"Sami! Is someone with you to take you to the hospital?"

"No. And I don't really know any of my neighbors and I don't want to just--"

"All right, I'm coming over. Hold on."

He broke every speed limit known to man in his quest to get to Sami. Will happened to be with Lucas' mother that night, so that was one less thing to worry about. He sprinted to Sami's door, which stood slightly open.

"Sami?"

"Lucas. I'm sorry I called you, I didn't know what else to do."

"Sami, come on! Alisha is my daughter, too! How are you feeling?"

"As good as can be expected." She managed to lock her door, and they headed for the car together. Sami stumbled and Lucas, feeling slightly awkward despite the progress that they had made in their relationship during this pregnancy, wrapped his arm around her for support, which she accepted gratefully.

Once they were settled in the car, they drove to the hospital quickly.

"Sami, did you call Dr. Bader yourself?"

"Yes."

"Good. Don't look so frightened. We'll take good care of you."

To Lucas' great relief, they did take impeccably good care of Sami and their new daughter. He admitted that he tried hard to find fault with the doctors and nurses and was unable to do so. Soon, his little girl was placed in his arms.

"Hi, Alisha," was all he could think to say.

"Come over here, Lucas! Let me see. Is she okay?" A little thing like giving birth didn't shut Sami Brady's mouth.

"She's perfect, Sami." He walked to the head of her bed and placed the child in her mother's arms without completely letting go of her himself. "Are you okay? In a lot of pain? I know you were after Will."

"No, I'm actually fine. I'm really glad this wasn't another c-section." Her gaze flickered briefly between his face and that of their daughter. "She's so beautiful."

"She is."

**********

Lucas wished he had known then how much he cared for Sami just because she was *Sami,* not just the mother of his children. He wished that they had been married then, so they could have had a little more time together.

"You'll still see her," he told himself. It seemed like he had never dreaded anything as much as he dreaded walking into that room and signing those divorce papers. Best to get it over with, though.

"Mr. Roberts? Phone for you," he was interrupted before he could enter. Any diversion was a welcome one.

Two For The Road
Part Three of Three: Sami Again
March 12, 2000

Where in the world was her husband? This would be one of the last times she would be allowed to think of him as such. Sami began to daydream again, deciding that the pain she would feel when she was done reminiscing would pale in comparison to the pain of just sitting here thinking about getting a divorce from a man whom she loved with all her heart. Her thoughts refused to cooperate with her desire to make herself feel better, though. She kept remembering the day Victor arrived at her Mom and John's house.

**********

She and Brady has been doing some sister-brother bonding over a deck of cards and a bowl of popcorn that night. She wasn't quite sure why Brady wasn't at school. Now that he was at Salem University, he did come home for a weekend or just a meal sometimes, but he should have been preparing for finals and declaring his major that week. She had a sneaking suspicion that his parents had demanded that he baby-sit his older sister. Her mother and John weren't entirely convinced that she was going to abide by her promise to Lucas and remain in Salem where she, and her children, would be safe. They had, naturally, seen though Sami's excuses about the displaced bedroom screen, and had redoubled their efforts to convince her that she was doing the right thing by remaining separate from her husband. After all, she had around-the-clock assistance with her children, time spent with her parents and siblings, and, as an added bonus, no one was shooting at her.

A rough knocking at the door interrupted them.

"Isn't the security system on? Dad's gonna kill us," remarked Brady.

"It could be someone who knows the gate code and not the house code. There are a lot of people like that." The banging continued, then broke off sharply. "Let's see who it is."

"You wait here."

Sami rolled her eyes. "I am your *older* sister."

"That doesn't mean it isn't my job to protect you."

She didn't feel that much like moving anyway. "Fine. I'll call the cops if you aren't back in five minutes."

He smirked and passed quickly through the house to the front door. There, *inside* the house, was his grandfather, and a man whose name he vaguelly recalled was Nico.

"Hello, Brady. Home alone?"

"No, um, Sami's here," he answered, looking immensely grateful for the fact that he wasn't in fact home alone.

"Good. Just the woman we wanted to see." Victor shoved Brady aside, and Sami, who had been watching them from around the corner, scrambled to get back to her seat in the kitchen and look nonchalant.

"Hello, Victor! Would you like some popcorn?" she asked as soon as he entered the room.

He muffled a snort. "You seem to be feeling brave, Samantha. I'm surprised. Don't you miss your husband?"

"Very much, but I don't see what that has to do with you."

He laughed out loud this time. "Don't play dumb, Sami. It doesn't become you."

"Fine. You ran Lucas out of town. What do you want now?"

"I'm just paying a friendly visit to let you know I've discovered who I should have run out of town."

"Well, now that you've told me, you know the way out--"

"I should have realized it, Sami. You weren't even married a month when you used your husband's connections to very nearly hand Titan over to Vivian Alamain. Lucas truly does have horrible taste in women. You're even worse than Nicole."

"Fine, Victor," she said, putting just enough sarcasm into her voice, "everything that's happened to you is my fault. Now what?" She really didn't like having Nico stare at her like that.

"Now, you sit here and wait. Don't leave Salem and don't tell your parents or your relatives what's going on or I'll show Lucas even less mercy than I now plan to."

"What about her relatives that already know?" asked Brady. Sami had nearly forgotten his presence. "Grandpa," he said strongly, "you can't threaten my sister."

"Stay out of this, Brady."

"Why? I'm the one who showed you that fax. You wouldn't have been able to stop Vivian without it. But I didn't show you so you could threaten my sister."

"She isn't your sister. She is the child of Marlena Evans and Roman Brady. You are the child of--"

"Stepsister, then. Whatever. It doesn't matter."

"Don't tell me you believe that."

"Of course I do."

"You don't resent Marlena's obvious favoritism of your younger sister who happened to be her biological daughter? You've never noticed the difference in how Shawn Brady treats Roman, who is his son, and Bo, who is *mine?*"

"Bo isn't going to be happy when he finds out what you're doing to his niece. And my mother wouldn't think much of it either. Didn't you make her some kind of promise about being someone I could be proud of? Because if you did, you haven't kept it!"

Brady's last comment had obviously hit home, but it wasn't enough. "Sometimes promises are made to be broken." He left, along with Nico, and Brady turned to his sister. "Sami, I'm sorry."

"Sorry!? You're *sorry?* You sold Lucas and me out! You're why my husband, and my children, are in danger! Brady, I know that it's hard to grow up in a strangely blended family, but, this-- once my children are safe, you will pay!"

Brady paled. He had heard stories about Sami doing unthinkable things to her sister Carrie when he was a little boy, but he had much believed them. Now he was faced with his sister threatening him.

"Look, Sami, I'll do anything I can to stop Victor--"

"Which is nothing!"

"Then I'll leave Salem."

"I can make your life a living hell no matter where you are." She headed for the stairs on that promise.

"Where are you going?"

"To pack. I have to find Lucas."

"I know you're mad at me, but you'll put yourself and him in much more danger if you do that."

"He doesn't know what's going on. There's no way for me to call him without your dear grandfather finding out."

"You have a point. I'll take care of your kids."

"You think I'd leave them with you? They're coming!"

"Do you have any idea how easy it is to track a family with two small children?"

"You're an expert?"

"No, but Sami--"

She ignored him, but he had been right. She had known it at the time, too. She just hadn't been thinking. Why didn't she think? She had gone running to Denver, and as soon as she had seen Lucas, a hail of bullets surrounded them. Only Alisha was hurt, and the hitmen, who had obviously been instructed to leave the children alone, had realized their mistake and run.

********

That had been their worst mistake in a string that had started the day they met. She couldn't believe that they had once thought everything was behind them, so much so that they could laugh about things.

Austin had just been released from the hospital, and he had requested some time with Will. He gamely agreed to share the afternoon with his new niece as well. Sami dropped them off at the Kiriakis Mansion, where Austin was recuperating, and ran into Lucas on her way out.

"Hey, Sami. Where are you headed?"

"I have an afternoon to kill since Austin has the kids. Probably Salem Place."

"Want company?"

"I thought you were just coming in."

"I'd rather see you than Austin or my mother at the moment."

"You and your mom are having problems?"

"It's mostly a work thing."

They headed for Salem Place in companionable silence and eventually ended up at the hangout of choice of their younger siblings, .Com.

They grabbed their drinks and sat in a corner booth to watch the crowd of flirting, fighting teenagers.

"Can you imagine if this place had been here when we were their age? We would have spent all of our time here," grinned Lucas.

"Yeah. Carrie and Austin would be over their bonding over a video game, and we'd be huddled together right here, saying things like 'Now that she beat him at Pac-Man, they'll break up for sure!'"

They both laughed at the image, and Sami was feeling something akin to complete happiness when Lucas' cell phone rang. He turned to her after a brief conversation. "I have to get to Titan." She tried to hide her disappointment. Why was she feeling like this about Lucas? "Are you okay to get back to the mansion?"

"Yeah, fine," she lied. She was anything but fine.

********

She had known then that Lucas was what she needed to be happy. Still, the next winter, even engaged and then married to Lucas, she had decided to try to get more. She had felt bored and boring, especially in the presence of women like her mother and Julie Williams and even Kate Roberts. So when Vivian Alamain had called, she had been intrigued. Life around Vivian Alamain was never dull. Vivian, it seemed, had decided to restart her company, Alamain International. She offered Sami an executive position, no questions asked, because she had been so impressed with Sami "and the way her warped little mind works" when she had lived in Salem. "Only I could appreciate it, of course," she had added. Sami took her up on the offer, with Lucas' blessing, and they put off their honeymoon until after Alamain International was rolling.

********

They hadn't really planned a honeymoon, anyway.

"So, are we getting another Horton-Brady wedding?" asked Lucas' cousin Julie innocently. Sami and Lucas jumped apart guiltily, although they'd been doing nothing wrong. Julie smirked. She had had no qualms whatsoever about eavesdropping on her little cousin's marriage proposal. "Let's see the ring, Sami." Sami extended her hand. Julie nodded. "Good taste, Lucas. Quality over quantity. I'd much rather see a perfect diamond than one that makes everyone say 'Look at the size of that rock!'"

"Glad you approve, Julie," said Lucas.

"So? *Are* we having another Horton-Brady wedding?"

Sami was glad that the discomfort she was sure was on her face was mirrored on that of Lucas. "I don't know, Julie," she answered. "I've had a few big weddings, and they didn't work out too well."

Lucas was visibly relieved. "I think almost every man would elope given the choice, so if Sami doesn't want a big wedding, I don't see why we should have one."

Julie smiled even more deviously than before. "If certain members of your families hear about this, you won't *have* a choice."

Sami caught on. "So, what do we do to keep them from hearing about this, as you put it?"

"Well, number one would be take off the ring." Sami reluctantly slid the new ring off her finger. Lucas handed her the box, but she shook her head, and, removing the chain she wore around her neck, placed the ring on it. She then tucked it underneath her collar.

"Does it show?" She was rewarded with unified "nos."

"Now," continued Julie, "have you started the paperwork?"

"No."

"Do. Start it the day after tomorrow, and I'll push it through. We'll see if we can marry you by New Year's."

Julie Williams was an amazing woman, and she was as good as her word. On December 30, Sami and Lucas found themselves on their way to the courthouse.

"Are you sure it doesn't bother you not to have a religious wedding?"

"It does, but we can do that later. And we can throw a party to make up for depriving the Hortons and the Bradys."

"That sounds good." There was a long pause. "Sami, I'm not going to give you one of those speeches about how you've changed my life and I'd be lost without you, even if it might be true, but I just wanted to tell you how glad I am that you're marrying me."

"Thank you." She felt almost shy, if that were possible. "I feel the same way. I love you and I like you, and I'm so proud that you're the father of my children."

"I don't know which of those I've been waiting the longest to hear you say."

"I'll say them all the time now if you want."

"As long as I know you feel them, that's all that matters."

"I do. I really do. Uh, do you think Julie's there already?"

"Yes. I'm sure she is. But what about our other witness? You need a Brady."

"Well, the witness doesn't know who she is yet."

"She? You didn't send some kind of twin radar signal out to Eric?"

"Eric doesn't live in Salem anymore. If he flew in, everyone would suspect, and then he'd be in trouble for not telling."

"So you're drafting Belle."

"You got it. Wait, we're almost to .Com. Pull over. That's where she was meeting her friends tonight."

"Want me to come in?"

"No, just hang out here. Besides, we're illegally parked."

"Yeah, but my fiancee's family has connections with the Salem PD."

She left him with a grin and was relieved to see Belle as soon as she entered the cafe. "Belle!"

"Hi, Sami! What are you doing here?"

"Actually, looking for you. I need to kidnap you for a while."

"But I promised Mimi and Chloe and Philip and Shawn I'd meet them here. I've hardly seen any of them since I started college."

"Just get in the car and let me explain. If you think you have something better to do when I've told you what's going on, we'll drive you right back."

"Okay, now I'm curious. Oh, hey, Lucas."

"Hi, Belle. Ready?"

"How would I know? Tell me what we're doing."

"Well, your sister and I are getting married tonight, and we want you to be a witness."

"What?" Belle was almost screaming. "You're getting married and you didn't tell me until now?"

"No one knows," Sami took over. "Just Julie Williams. You're number two. So, would you be my witness?"

"Yes! Of course, I can't believe you think you have to ask--"

"You were awfully excited about meeting your friends at .Com. Maybe I shouldn't take you away from that," she teased.

"Sami! No! Oh, this is great . . ." Sami and Lucas were spared from having to say much of anything for the rest of that extremely happy night. They celebrated the new year as a married couple, and for the first time in three years, no members of their immediate family spent the celebration in the hospital. They couldn't have asked for a better wedding present.

**********

And then she had destroyed it all with one impulsive mistake.

She'd been having a wonderful time with Alamain International. She talked to Vivian on the phone every evening and found that she looked forward to the call for many reasons, some work related, some not. One night, Lucas was at Titan and Sami jumped for the phone when it rang.

"Hi, Vivian."

"I'm not sure if I should be grateful that you were thinking about work or sorry that you were so sure it was me who was calling. Don't you have any fun, Sami?"

"Lucas and I have lots of fun."

"You two always had an odd definition of fun."

"I think most people would say the same about you."

"Touche. Did you get the fax I sent?"

"I don't know. Let me check." She wandered over to the fax machine. She idly wondered how many couples argued over whose company got the number one position on the fax speed dial.

"Sami?" questioned the phone.

"Hold on, there's a lot of stuff here. It's about that Hopkins deal?"

"Yes, Sami."

"I have it. He wants twenty million for the Taverner-Browne thing?"

"Eloquent phrasing, and no, he has no connection with Taverner-Browne."

"Sure he does. It says . . . oh my God."

"I truly doubt that God cares that you are unable to read a fax."

"No, this is a Titan memo."

"You have internal Titan memos right in front of you? Victor always tries to keep Nikki and me from seeing anything important. You'd think we didn't own forty-nine percent of that company. What else does it say?"

"Nothing, really. Vivian, you can't use this information."

"Probably not, since there is so little of it."

"That isn't what I meant--"

"I know what you meant. Now, did you speak to the woman from D'Artagnan?"

The rest of the conversation was completely uneventful, but before the week was over, Vivian had used her Titan shares and her upstart company to cost Victor and Kate millions of dollars and to embarrass Titan internationally. Sami seldom saw Lucas, who spent most of his time on the phone in his office. One day, unable to focus on her own work, she put her children in her car and drove out to her mother and John's house.

"Sami? Is something wrong?" ask Marlena as soon as she saw her older daughter.

"Kind of. Can we talk?"

"Of course."

She explained the situation, and felt better just talking about it, although she was horrified when her mother insisted on stating something that she already knew-- she had to talk to Lucas. She had intended to do so eventually. Sami was so distracted that she was unaware of her eavesdropping step-brother.

That night, Sami brought dinner to Lucas in his office. He smiled tiredly when he saw her. "Wow. I can't believe how much better seeing you makes me feel." She cringed.

"I'm going to have to make you feel worse tonight, Lucas. I'm sorry, but you have to hear this from me."

"Sami, what is it?" The smile vanished.

"It's about the problems Titan is having."

"Oh, Sami, tell me you didn't--"

They were interrupted by a loud knocking on the door.

"Come in," called Lucas. He stood up when Victor entered the room.

"Lucas."

"Victor, what happened?"

"My company just lost untold millions of dollars, that's what happened. Don't play dumb, Lucas, it doesn't suit you."

"I meant, why did you come to see me?"

"To tell you to get out of my office and preferably out of Salem. Do it fast and you won't have to worry about the lives of your wife and children. You did know that the code numbers on individual faxes can be traced if someone suspects something, right?"

"Victor, what--"

"Goodbye, Lucas, and good riddance."

Several very clear signals that his life was in danger later, Lucas left for Denver with a promise to get some kind of word to Sami that he was safe.

*********

The door finally opened, and Sami felt as if she would throw up. He was there. Her husband, but only for a few more minutes.

"Hello."

"Hello."

"Did you have trouble getting here?"

"Not really. Sorry I'm late."

"No problem."

They lapsed into silence.

Finally, he said her name just as she said his. They laughed nervously. "Ladies first." She drew in her breath.

"I just- do you remember the night we got married?"

"It was four months ago."

"Well, when I told you that I loved you and liked you and was proud that you were Will and Alisha's father? I still feel that way. I won't fight you over Will and Alisha at all, or over anything else."

"That's good. Thank you. I don't want to hurt them."

"I don't either. And I don't want to hurt you."

"If you don't want to hurt me, don't divorce me," he answered impulsively.

"What?"

"What do you mean, 'what'?"

"I told you I didn't want to divorce you. I just want what's best for you."

"When did you say you didn't want to divorce me?"

"I said I love you."

"You did, didn't you?"

"This is kind of an awkward question, but how do you feel about me?"

He leaned over and kissed her as an answer.

"One more question."

"Yeah?"

"What are we doing here?"

"I have no idea."

As one, the reached for the desk and ceremoniously ripped the divorce papers in half.

The End

**********

You didn't really think I'd break them up, did you?

**********

As promised, a timeline:
2/2000: Will gets sick and Alisha is conceived.
5/2000: Belle's dance.
11/2000: Alisha's birth and Will's recovery.
1/2001: Austin's accident.
mid 2001: S&L get closer, hanging out at .Com and the park.
12/2001: Proposal and marriage.
1/2002: Sami works for Alamain International and Brady transfers to Salem U.
3/2002: Lucas goes on the run.
4/2002: Sami joins Lucas on the run.
5/2002: The divorce.