"Kindred Spirits"
by Medea


Disclaimer: Sami Brady and Lucas Roberts aren't mine. Neither are Austin Reed and Nicole Walker (not that I'd want them). All belong to NBC and Ken Corday.

Note: Just a couple-page-long story to make up for making Julie work so hard, and to make up for telling her that this actually happened on the show . . . as if it ever would . . . but if the writers would like to borrow the idea, they're welcome to!

Nicole Walker Roberts grew more frustrated every day. She had made a decision to accept Kate's offer of five million dollars and her son's offer to hide her somewhat shady past. All she had had to do in return was marry Lucas, who was nice enough most of the time and treated her like gold without fail. Well, she was gold, wasn't she? Five million dollars' worth, give or take the few hundred thousand she and her brother had already spent. Still, she sometimes wished that she had married for love. Her ex-fiancé had made it abundantly clear that he would not allow her to "use me to have a fling on the side," as he put it, so she was forced to live in a house full of people that she simply did not like with very little contact with people that she DID like.

That was why she was enjoying her time with Rex. He was someone who had virtually nothing to do with Lucas or his family. Yes, he was helping her with her money, and she would never be allowed to forget where that money had come from, but he didn't act like one of those stuck-up, order-happy snobs with which she lived. So, when Rex made his interest in her body known, she gave him what he wanted. Why not? She did not put the importance on sex which most people seemed to. Lucas knew all about her past and didn't care, so why should he care about this? It wasn't really cheating if the marriage was a sham anyway, right?

Now Rex was talking about investments, and she wasn't really listening. Still, it was important to her that he stay around, so she moved closer to him and began to hang on his every word. "Really?" she asked in a breathy voice.

"Yes," agreed Rex, turning his head so that his eyes were level with the low neckline of her blouse.

"Thank you for working so hard, Rex. It means a lot to me."

"Um, glad to help."

"I hope you feel like you've been properly compensated for the work you do." She ran her hand under his sports jacket. Rex gulped. He had been warned about this.

"We're in your office. Isn't your husband right down the hall?"

"He has a real job, unlike me. I'm just here for decoration. But Lucas is working and I won't see him all day."

Rex checked his watch nervously. "It's getting late . . ."

"Oh, come on. You deserve a little fun." She reached up to loosen Rex's tie, sensing that Rex was about ready to give up resisting entirely. She could always tell with men.

"Nicole, what is going on?"

Nicole froze. Lucas was in the room, watching her. She dropped Rex's tie, and Rex quickly stepped away from her.

"Oh, hi, Sweetie. I was just looking at Rex's tie. Do you like it?"

"Not particularly. Do you?"

"No, I think you're right."

"Yes, I'm sure I'm right." He had been smiling, albeit in a frighteningly fake sort of a way, when she had first noticed him, but now even that was gone.

"Well, since we agree--"

"But I haven't told you what I think I'm right about yet."

"Honey," Nicole half-stammered, "why are you acting this way, and in front of Rex?"

"It probably has something to do with the way *you* were acting in front of Rex."

"Lucas, he's a business associate. What could possibly be wrong with the way I was acting with him?"

Lucas' sneer returned. "Is that how you treat *all* your business associates? I mean, I knew you were still after Eric and he was too pure to cheat on Greta for you, but THIS?"

Rex mumbled something under his breath and headed for the door.

"Go ahead, Rex!" Lucas called with mock cheer. "We know how to find you if we want to."

Nicole whirled on her heel as Rex exited. "How could you do that, Lucas! You practically accused me of cheating on you with Rex!"

"So?"

"Wouldn't you feel a little bit humiliated in my place?"

"That would depend if it's true."

"It isn't!"

"Then what were you doing with Rex just now?"

"I was looking at his TIE! What, Lucas, that makes me an awful person? I thought you said you didn't care about my past." She gave him her best pout, the one that worked on Eric without fail.

"I didn't care about your past when I thought it would stay in the past. Look, I'm sorry. But before we kiss and make up, how about you tell me why you were running your hands all over his body right before you checked out his tie?"

"I was just . . . what?"

"Nothing. I'm enjoying the show, although I really expected you to lie better than this. I guess all that hanging around with Sami has spoiled me for just average liars."

"You don't believe me?"

"In a word, no."

"If this is how you're going to think of me, why should I stay in this marriage?"

Lucas shrugged. "For the money?"

"What?!"

"That was a lot of the reason you married me in the first place, wasn't it? I could protect you from your past and I had money. You did tell me you didn't love me when you accepted my proposal. I haven't forgotten that, although I did think you were starting to change your mind. I should have known you wouldn't change."

Nicole was at least relieved that he didn't seem to know about the five million dollars. "So, you accuse me of sleeping around but you want me to stay married to you for your money?"

"Well, I want you to stop sleeping around, and if you care about your money you *will* stay married to me until I tell you otherwise, yes."

"You don't own me."

"That's really debatable, Nicole. I'll see you tonight. Talk about this to anyone and I promise you'll be sorry."

"Wait, where are you going?"

"What do you care?"

And on that note, Lucas left the Titan building. He wasn't sure where he wanted to go. No, he *was* sure where he *wanted* to go, but some part of him was insisting that he shouldn't. Still, it couldn't hurt things if he just wandered into Tuscany and sat at the bar, as long as he didn't actually drink anything, could it? He might *order* something just so it didn't look strange for him to be there, but he wouldn't drink it. It would be fine.

Sami saw Lucas enter Tuscany, and she was glad that he didn't notice her. Her table was half-hidden around a corner, and soon she was content that she could see him without his being able to see her. She still intended to leave at the first opportunity, though, because she was not up to fighting with Lucas, today of all days.

These dinner reservations should have been for both her and Austin. They'd been dating regularly for some time now, but she relished each dinner, each dance, each kiss as if it were the first. Spending year after year attempting to make someone understand how much you loved him, and how much he could love you, probably had the effect on people.

So it was disappointing that Austin was not here with her tonight. No, it was not simply disappointing, it was heart-breaking and earth-shattering. Still, she had asked for this time alone, and she was going to use it and try to enjoy it while she figured out what she was going to do.

The morning had started out fine. She enjoyed waking up to the knowledge that Austin was hers. Much of her day was going to be spent with her son, Will, whom she loved more than life-- and she did love life, especially since she had come so close to losing it last summer, when she had nearly been executed for a crime that she had not committed. Then, this evening, she would have her time with Austin, her other favorite person in the world.

She had been slightly flustered when he had arrived early to pick her up.

"Austin, you're early! I, I haven't changed yet, I'm sorry about my hair--"

He surprised her by kissing her mid-sentence. "Sami Brady, I love you. I would think you were beautiful no matter what you were wearing or how your hair looked."

"Oh, Austin, thank you." Sami suddenly felt shy.

"What? I've never known you to blush this easily, Sami. You were always so ready to go after what you wanted, almost shameless."

"No almost about it. You can say it, I was shameless. But that was the old Sami."

"That's right, I know. So, I brought the new Sami a gift, one the old Sami would never have appreciated but that the new Sami will love as much as I love her." Austin kissed Sami again.

"A present? For me?" Sami smiled and reached for the flat, wrapped package. She unwrapped the paper carefully, and found that she held a book in her hands. "How to Be a Better Person?"

Austin nodded. "I knew that you were afraid of slipping back into your old ways during this custody battle and I thought that this might help."

"That's very sweet of you."

"But . . .?"

"But, if I have to lie, cheat, steal, or kill to help my son, I will do it."

"Help your son? Of course, Sami. But Will isn't being harmed by living with Lucas and Nicole. I know you don't like them, but Lucas really isn't a bad father."

Sami grew more agitated. "Nicole--"

"I wish you wouldn't be so hard on Nicole. She hasn't had an easy time of it."

"That does not give her an excuse to treat my son the way she does."

"'The way she does?' Sami, what does she do? You don't have any specific evidence. You just have your impulses, which is natural, because you're a great mother, but there's even a chapter in this book about controlling impulses, and accusing people, and projection--"

"Projection?!"

"Yeah, it means--"

"I *know* what it means. You're implying that I project myself onto Nicole?"

"Well, you both got involved with Lucas under slightly shady circumstances. You accuse her of lying and hurting people, which you used to be very good at yourself. But you've stopped, Sami, and I love you for it. It's just this little thing you still have about impulsive judgments--"

"I am not that impulsive, Austin. If I were that impulsive, I would have broken that book over your head by now."

Austin was taken aback. Frankly, so was Sami. She had not intended to say anything negative to Austin; she never did that. She just didn't.

"I didn't mean to make you mad, Sami."

"I'm sure you didn't. And I'm sorry, and it does mean a lot to me that you would buy me this."

"So what's wrong?"

Sami took a deep breath. "Are you sure you love me?"

"Of course I am! I tell you that every day. I've said that in the last five minutes."

"Then why do you want to change me? I mean, it annoys me when Eric moons over Nicole because I don't think she's good enough for him, but I wouldn't reach into him and change those feelings if I could. They're part of *him* and I love *him*."

"This is hardly the same thing."

"Yeah, you want to overhaul my whole personality instead of just adjust one or two feelings."

"That's not what I want to do."

"Isn't it? You know, when I was a teenager my grandparents and other people were always giving me pamphlets, and lectures, and things like that. I was bad and they tried to reform me. They never asked what was wrong, or why I was acting like I was. They never gave me their time, or their energy. You were different, Austin. You were always there when I needed you. And you still are. But now you're trying to make me what I'm not."

"You don't want to be the kind of person who's good to other people?"

"Not when the 'other people' might hurt my son! Even Lucas admits that Will can't sleep when I'm not around! So you don't think it hurts him that Lucas has full custody because he bribed Nicole?"

"Look, we've been over this. Let's just go to dinner. Come on, get changed if you want to."

"I'm really not sure I want to go."

"What?"

"Look, I love you, but I need time to think."

"To scheme?"

The hurt look on Sami's face made Austin instantly regret his last comment.

"I'm sorry. Hey, if we aren't doing anything, I'd like to go to the gym. So do you want the reservations? Have some fun, don't let them go to waste?" He gave her a charming smile and she responded as he had hoped she would.

"Okay. Thank you for understanding."

"Always. And I want you to remember that if you do want to end this, we will still be friends."

Sami had been startled. If SHE wanted to end this? She had been throwing herself at Austin since high school. And yet, she had just told him that she did not want to go out to dinner with him. She was suddenly struck by the terrifying thought that perhaps the past seven years had been one long mistake, that perhaps she did not WANT the object of her affections.

So, she had nagged herself into going to Tuscany anyway, and here she sat, watching Lucas. He was probably meeting some businessman from Titan, the company which she had lost her interest in when she was sent to death row, here. Even better, he might be meeting his miserable wife for dinner.

Sami's eyes pricked up, if such a thing were possible, when Lucas walked over to the bar instead of a table. She had thought he had given up even going near bars since he'd stopped drinking. At the moment she wouldn't question it, though, because, even more interesting than Lucas' choice of location was his posture. She could tell even from here that he was upset about something. Even from here? Why kid herself. They had spent so many years scheming together that Sami could tell by the way Lucas BREATHED if he was upset. She didn't need to be able to see him or talk to him to tell what was going on in his head. Unfortunately, he was able to do the same with her, not that she ever intended to let him know it. That was what made scheming against him interesting and challenging all at once.

What had happened, then? It couldn't be a problem with Will; someone would have called her. She quickly checked to see that her cell phone was on; it was. She sighed in relief. Maybe Nicole had finally gotten Eric to give in to her demands to resume their relationship despite her marriage? Probably not. Eric seemed committed to Greta.

Suddenly, Sami realized that she was wasting her time speculating on the cause of Lucas' discomfort. He was unhappy. He was at a bar. All he had to do was take one drink, and she would have custody of her son. Full custody, and she would never have to let Lucas near him again.

On the other hand, while he was distracted would be a good time to get out of here without his noticing her. If he saw her, he wouldn't drink, she was sure of that. She would serve as a reminder of why he had stopped in the first place.

Speaking quietly to her waiter, she explained that she had to leave to take care of her little boy, who had suddenly gotten sick. She stole quietly around the restaurant and made it to the door with ease. Once at the door, she stood, undecided. Would it be possible for Lucas to get drunk, not get caught, and be fine in the morning, with no one the wiser? Just in case, she stood her ground and studied the father of her child.

The bartender handed him something, and he accepted it and thanked him. Sami leaned closer. Definitely alcoholic. He was really going to do this! A minor pang a disappointment rose within her, but she quickly squelched it. In some corner of her mind, she had admired Lucas' ability to get over his drinking habit, especially since she doubted that he'd had much support from that loving mother of his. After all, had anyone besides Sami even noticed as he had gradually become more and more dependent on the stuff in the first place? Besides, it had been ages since her mother had discovered her bulimia and forced her to get help and she was still sometimes tempted to make herself throw up. Lucas had not even been away from alcohol for two years.

Lucas was still playing with the shot glass. Suddenly, it clattered to the ground, broken. Alarm bells sounded in Sami's head. "He did that on purpose!" The bartender came over to replace the drink, but Lucas, while apologizing profusely and handing him money, refused.

"Hey, Sami," Lucas called out, fairly softly, "you can come out now. I didn't do it."

Sami did as she was asked. She couldn't simply pretend that she hadn't heard Lucas, and she didn't want to give him the impression that she was too intimidated or distracted to go toe-to-toe with him. Never!

"Hi, Lucas. Came back to visit your second home, huh?" Lucas looked at Sami, surprised, yet not surprised, to see her. He hadn't really known she was there, but, from years of experience, he knew that this was the kind of situation into which she tended to stumble.

"Very funny. I hope you amuse yourself, because you don't amuse anyone else."

"Well, I'm not trying to amuse anyone else. Certainly not you."

"Yes, Sami, because you hate me. I know that. You know that. Why do you have to say it every time you see me?"

Sami thought before she replied. Hadn't she been avoiding Lucas in the first place because she didn't feel like having the conversation they had every day? The silence lengthened while she pondered this thought.

"Sami--"

"Lucas--"

They both laughed, not real laughter, but the kind that was almost required in certain situations.

"Go ahead."

"I want to get custody of Will away from you. I think that you either killed Franco or know who did and let me be framed for the crime. BUT, we can't decide anything now by arguing in front of an entire restaurant, so I'm not going to say anything else nasty to you. Tonight."

"Very generous of you, Sami. It's a deal." He really looked at her for the first time. She didn't look very happy. It wouldn't have been noticeable to most people, but he knew her ups and downs better than he knew just about anyone's. Certainly better than he knew Nicole's. He tried not to scowl at the thought of his wife; if Sami figured out what was bothering him, she would use it to her advantage within the hour, no matter what else she happened to be worried about at the moment.

Sami's waiter re-appeared. "Miss? Is your son all right?"

"Will?" asked Lucas immediately. The waiter looked at him curiously.

Sami smiled politely at the waiter. "My son is fine; it was a false alarm. This is his father, as you can see."

"Oh. Are the two of you staying with us after all, then?"

Sami and Lucas glanced at each other. "Yes." Neither one was going to let the other look more strongly held together. They returned to Sami's recently vacated table.

"There wasn't really a problem with Will, was there? That was just an excuse to spy on me?"

"It was an excuse to get out of here. I didn't intend to spy on you."

"That spying thing just kind of happens, I understand."

"I thought you wanted to be civil tonight."

"I'm trying. I wasn't exactly being sarcastic."

"Well, as long as you weren't *exactly* being sarcastic."

"I wasn't."

"I think we've exhausted that topic of conversation, then."

"Fine. Pick a new one."

"The only one we really have is Will. Can we talk about him without talking about custody?"

"We can try."

"This might be almost as bad as custody, but what do you think about kindergarten next year? Should we leave him in his preschool or switch him into the public school? Or are you hot for some snobby private school?"

"Snobby?"

"Never mind."

"I actually really like that preschool. But do you think there would be a problem if we left him there and then switched him into first grade where the other kids know each other from kindergarten . . ."

They managed to stretch the conversation throughout the entire meal, and the topic even drifted off of Will, to shared jokes from years ago that they both regretted to one degree or another now.

"That was when Vivian and Ivan came out of nowhere, and promised to get us the money, but they wouldn't tell us what they wanted."

"It must have looked so strange, with us on one side of the room and them on the other."

"We got involved with a lot of strange people. There was Lynn . . ."

"You dated her!"

"So? You were dating the Ital-- sorry."

Sami mumbled her response, but the damage was done. They left quickly and went their separate ways, each wondering just what they had done to make their lives go so terribly wrong that they would rather have stayed with their enemy than return to their alleged partners.

Sami decided that she should wander around for a while before returning to the apartment that she now shared with Eric. If she got home late enough, she would have an excuse not to talk to Austin. As she walked quickly through the streets of Salem, though, she found her thoughts returning to Lucas. There wasn't a place in the town where they hadn't gone together, sometimes just for fun, more often to scheme. It was no wonder that Will wanted him in his life. She almost missed having him in *her* life.

She resigned herself to a sleepless night. Sleepless over *Lucas Roberts*. What an embarrassment. Still, she had to go home. It was possible that she was worrying Eric, and she didn't want to worry him, even if she didn't want to talk to him, either.

Sure enough, a figure stood in the hallway as she made her way to the door. But it wasn't Eric.

"Hi," said Lucas. "What took you so long?"

The End