Note: This is very outdated, especially since I began writing it a while ago (even for me it's a bit outdated by now *g*) but I thought it was a fun idea.
Don't get me wrong – I LOVE Days and can't get enough of it – but sometimes I just wish the storylines would move a little bit faster. Here is what might happen if they were put on extreme fast-forward: to put it shortly, a very eventful hour in the Days plotline.
This is set before Mike and Carrie are together, before Carrie and Austin are together too, and before Lucas started to totally hate Sami and vice versa. Also before Billie and Bo were married, I believe (i.e. married in Rome for the undercover operation).
I Can't Believe I Chose That Moment To Blink
Sami glares at Lucas. "You're supposed to be my friend."
Lucas leans forward, arms crossed over his chest. "I am your friend, Sami. I just hate it how you're blackmailing my mother."
"How she's doing what?!?!"
Sami and Lucas turn as one to stare at the open French doors where Carrie is standing, a gob-smacked expression on her face.
"Uh…I…uh…."
Carrie glares now – it seems everyone is having a turn at that lately. "I cannot believe this! I was right! You're the same old deceptive Sami we used to know. How could you?"
"What's going on here?" Austin asks, entering the room from another doorway. He eyes up Carrie briefly, the longing in his eyes obvious to everyone in the room – for once, including Carrie! She finds herself wondering if he still loves her after all.
"You'll never guess what I just found out, Austin," Carrie blurts.
Lucas trots over to Carrie and says, "I think you need a drink of water, Carrie. You're looking kind of faint. Come on, I'll take you into the kitchen." He tries to usher her out before any more damage can be done, but she isn't having a bar of it.
"Spare me, Lucas," she begins, including him now in her glare. "I really should've known you'd be in on it too." She shakes her head angrily.
Austin steps forward and waves both arms in the air. "I'm here. Anybody? Tell me what's going on."
"Mike loves Carrie!" Lucas blurts, trying to change the subject. Everybody stares hard at him.
"What are you talking about?" Carrie asks in confusion, distracted in spite of herself. Now everyone realises that Mike has arrived. He now stands in yet another doorway, looking like a small animal caught in the car headlights.
Lucas repeats, "Mike is in love with Carrie. I just know it." His voice gains confidence as the words flow from his mouth.
Carrie shakes her head. "Don't be silly. Mike and I are just friends. There're no romantic feelings between us, right Mike?"
As usual, Carrie's obliviousness is just begging Mike to blurt out the controversial truth – and yet he cannot bring himself to do so. It is, again, left up to someone else to do his work for him.
"I heard him talking with Laura Horton," Sami speaks up, finally catching on to Lucas's brilliant plan.
"Yeah," Lucas picks up the trail. "He and Mrs Horton were talking about it, and he said he'd never tell you the truth, Carrie, before he knew how you felt."
"Mike, is this true?" Carrie asks, turning her full attention on Mike. Everyone else is looking at Mike again, too. Austin's gaze is one of the more penetrating ones in the room.
"I…uh…umm…" Mike can't make himself be any more articulate, and trails off. In the ensuing silence Austin leaps into the conversation once more.
"This isn't what we were talking about first," he says. "We were talking about what you guys were talking about…which…I'm still not sure about, 'cause I asked you guys to tell me about it, but no one has yet."
Carrie smiles at Austin now. "Yeah, actually, we should get back to that. I was about to tell you how–"
"Hi everybody!" Hope exclaims, wandering into the room with Franco at her side.
"Hello," he adds in his sexy accent, nodding his head and raising a hand in greeting. Everybody has turned to face him and Hope by now, temporarily foiling Carrie's attempt at revealing the truth to Austin.
"Hope!" Sami exclaims, not failing to take advantage of the situation. "How's Uncle Bo? I heard he was back in town."
Hope's cheerful smile fades from her gorgeous face and she averts her gaze. "I…uh… To be honest, I'm not sure. I haven't spoken to him."
"What about Billie?" Austin asks without thinking. "He did bring her back, right?"
An expression of acute emotional pain flits onto Hope's face. Lucas glares at his half-brother. "Gee, Austin, could you be anymore insensitive?"
Austin is too busy worrying that Lucas has a point to be angry with him. "I'm sorry, Hope, I didn't mean–"
"Oh, it's okay," Hope interrupts. "I'm not a china doll. You don't have to tread carefully around me."
"Fancy Face!" came a new familiar voice, and Bo appeared – you guessed it, in yet another doorway. "There you are! I've been looking for you everywhere."
Hope tries not to look at Bo, the pain still evident on her face. Franco moves closer to her side, touching her arm lightly. "Are you okay?" he asks quietly, sending a disgusted look in Bo's direction.
Hope nods, and smiles up at him. "I'm fine. Or I will be. Thank you, Franco. You're such a wonderful friend to me."
"Well, you know that I love you, Hope," Franco replies. "I'll love you forever."
She smiles. "I know. Just give me some time."
"I'll give you all the time you need."
They look into one another's eyes for a moment more before being interrupted by Bo.
"Get away from her, you bastard!" he exclaims, glaring at Franco with a hatred that has been seen in his dark brown eyes only very rarely in the past.
"How dare you?" Hope exclaims furiously, placing her hands on her hips. "Franco has been a wonderful friend to me. Without him, I wouldn't have got through the last few weeks."
"A wonderful friend, huh?" Bo shakes his head angrily. "If only you had heard what I heard a few hours ago." He turns a triumphant gaze on Franco, who knows just what has happened – he's been exposed. Now Bo is going to tell Hope what he knows.
"What are you talking about?" Hope asks, taking the bait.
"There are things about this man that you don't know," Bo begins. "I can't believe it took me so long to–"
"Hey!" Franco yells suddenly, pointing an accusing finger at Sami. "Do not tell me you are still with that girl, Austin? Even after everything she's done to–"
"Excuse me," Lucas butted in. "Franco, weren't you accused of trying to attack Billie once upon a time?"
Franco glares fiercely at Lucas, and suddenly an all out battle of the accusations begins. This is something utterly unheard of on the set of Days of our Lives.
"Austin! Austin! Guess what?" Carrie says excitedly. "Sami has her–"
"Hope, guess what?" Sami butts in. "Uncle Bo doesn't really love–"
Mike mutters, "I really do love you, Carrie, it's true–"
Sami finishes, "–Billie. He loves you."
"–Memory back!" Carrie finishes.
"–And I always will," Mike continues, apparently unaware that no one's paying attention to him at this moment.
"What are you talking about?" Austin begins, staring at Carrie.
"Bo is with Billie now," Hope responds, her voice quiet. "Right Bo?"
"I hate my mother!!!!!" Sami yells, leaping at any chance to rectify matters – by now she has totally forgotten what she said to Hope.
"You don't love me back, I know," Mike laments to an unhearing Carrie.
"Sami's been different since the accident," Austin insists. "She has been sweet and kind…"
"Fancy Face, I've been trying–" said Bo.
"And screw John Black!" Sami yelps. "My real dad's my hero!"
"But I'll always have the memories," Mike murmurs. "The wonderful, beautiful memories of our kisses…"
Bo went on, "–To tell you that Franco isn't–"
"No, Austin!" Carrie exclaims. "Sami's the same old–"
"…And the sandcastles we built on the beach…" Mike sighs.
"–What he seems!" Bo finally finishes. "He's been working–"
"–Witch she's been for years!" Carrie finishes triumphantly. Sami is glaring at her.
Bo says, "–With Kate to keep us–"
"Oh God," Mike despairs, slumping to the ground. "What am I gonna do without you, Carrie my love?"
"–Apart, and now that–" Bo says.
Austin says in disbelief, "It can't be true…" in response to Carrie's accusation about Sami.
Bo continues, "–The truth is out we can finally–"
"But Carrie," Austin amends, "I know you'd neve lie…"
"Your heart is with another man," Mike says sadly, rubbing his forehead wearily.
Bo finishes, "–Be together."
"Guess what?" yells Jennifer from another doorway heretofore unseen, catching the attention of Jack, who is in another formerly hidden doorway opposite her. "Trent, the neighbour? He's really Travis from prison!"
"No shit!" Jack exclaims, just as the room falls into a deep silence. Jack's last word echoes throughout the room, and in fact throughout the entire house, summing up what everybody has been trying to say in the past minute or so.
Everybody is looking at everybody else – the room is full of tension.
Sami stares worriedly at Austin, occasionally glancing nervously at Lucas.
Lucas glowers in the corner, wondering how he's going to get himself out of this one, but knowing that since this is such a confusing afternoon there's still a chance everyone will forget he was ever here. Maybe he can sneak out the back way…
Austin stares at Carrie pensively, on the brink of acting but still struggling with the choice he must now make.
Carrie's frown deepens as she realises the last thing Mike said, and she turns slowly to face him, recognition and shock flooding into her eyes.
Mike is too busy lamenting his unrequited love to realise Carrie now knows the truth.
Franco is making a mental tally of all the phone calls he is going to have to make to take care of Bo Brady once and for all.
Bo is marvelling at the fact that the truth, or at least his truth, has come out after so long. He is still waiting expectantly for a reaction. When Hope only stares at him, he murmurs, "Fancy Face?"
For another moment everyone stands still, eyeing up everyone else, marvelling over all that has been revealed here in this room today. Then bedlam breaks out once more as Sami physically attacks Kate, Austin kisses Carrie and whirls her around, Carrie stares at Mike over Austin's shoulder, Mike starts yelling at Lucas, Victor has another of his famous strokes, Hope cries on Bo's shoulder, Franco sulks in a corner with his mobile phone, and Jack and Jennifer sit talking about the many faces of Travis Malloy.
Yes, it's been an eventful hour on the set of Days of our Lives. I'm sure we'll never see a real episode like it.