Maggie's lecture echoed through his head as Lucas peered through the small window in the lounge door, waiting for the signal to make his jolly entrance.

"Christmas is a time for miracles. Riiiight." He muttered to himself miserably. "That's what I thought a year ago." He remembered his elation when Sami had shunned Brandon, declaring her everlasting love, and her desire to make a family together with their son. January passed, and he had figured all was well and that they were finally on the same path, walking together towards their happy future. Then his entire world descended into chaos when he found her in bed with her idiot ex. Of course now he knew the truth, and the thought that it was his own failure to trust in their love, not Sami's that caused the year to play out the way it did, still haunted him.

"Christmas is the time for miracles Lucas and the best kind are the ones you make happen yourself."

Sighing, he leaned his body against the wall, tilting his head to look towards the heavens. "I wish I could believe that." He murmured. "I wish I knew how to make a miracle. If I could just see a sign - something so remarkable that I'd know instantly what I'm supposed to do."

A knock on the door, indicating it was time, jolted him from his reverie. He gave his hat one final adjustment and grabbed the sack of toys off the table. He pushed open the door and called out to the assembled children. "Ho-ho-h—." The words died on his lips as he spotted the long blonde hair cascading in curls down Mrs. Claus' back. His pulse leapt, his breath in-took sharply. He felt his knees wobble. Although he hadn't seen her face yet, there was no mistaking who was in that costume. He'd know her - he'd feel her - anywhere. He glanced upwards for a split second, mentally asking if this was it, if this was the answer to his prayers. Then she turned, holding a small blonde girl in her arms and he knew.

"Oh did you hear that Natasha? Santa's here. Sami cooed to the toddler in her arms. Technically she was supposed to be helping all of the children line up for Santa, but as soon as she had arrived in pediatrics with the candy stripers, the little moppet had attached herself to Sami and wouldn't let go. According to the nurses in the ward, the little girl and her parents had been in a car accident days earlier. Though they were expected to live, Natasha's parents were still recovering from their respective surgeries. Natasha's physical injuries were minor, but emotionally she was still quite shocked from the experience. Feeling an instant kinship with the scared little girl, Sami snuggled her while the candy stripers took care of collecting everyone else.

"Santa?" Natasha's eyes lit up, and the beginnings of a much-needed smile graced her face.

Sami grinned. "Yes. I just heard him." Turning around, she started to point him out to her little charge when she suddenly realized whose deep brown eyes were boring into her from beneath the fur trimmed red hat.

She gasped at the intensity of his stare as their eyes connected.

Across the room Maggie, Julie and Alice smiled smugly at the scene playing out before them.

"I have to hand it to you Alice; the little girl was a touch of genius." Maggie beamed as she watched the electricity spark between Sami and Lucas.

"I wish I could take credit for that Maggie, but it was purely a coincidence that she latched onto Sami. One of the nurses mentioned that Natasha's mother has blonde hair like Sami, so I think that's partly why she took to her immediately.

"And Sami's a natural with kids." Julie agreed. "I'm pretty sure that if Kate Roberts hadn't interfered last February, we'd be watching Sami and Lucas with a new baby."

"Or two. Sami's a twin don't forget." Alice reminded them.

"And judging by the expression on Lucas' face, I'd wager he's having the exact same thought right now." Maggie laughed.

This couldn't be happening. He thought to himself as he swallowed hard. All his efforts to move on, to just forget about her flew out the window as he stared into her surprised blue eyes. And the child, oh god, the little girl - that should be their little girl in her arms. It would have been if they hadn't screwed things up so badly over the years.

"Santa!" A group of children ran over to Lucas, breaking the awkward tension between them.

"Ho-Ho-Ho!" Lucas exclaimed, forcing himself to slip back into his Christmas role. He moved to the chair set up for him at the front of the room, and although he wasn't watching her, he knew exactly where Sami was every moment. He was thankful that the little girl in her arms seemed to be keeping her occupied, leaving the candy stripers to escort the children to him. After catching a glimpse of the front of her costume he didn't think he could have handled her repeated closeness.

One by one the children were led up to see Lucas. As she watched the last one climb onto his lap, Sami breathed a sigh of relief. Natasha had seemed content to snack on the cookies that one of the candy stripers had brought over and hadn't indicated any desire to go sit on Santa's lap. In a few more minutes it would be time to take her back to her hospital room and then Sami could escape without ever talking to Lucas.

"See Santa?" Natasha looked up at Sami expectantly, causing Sami to groan internally. The last thing she wanted was to go near Lucas. Oh it wasn't that she didn't want to be close to him; she did, desperately. But she was tired of the hurt she felt every time he turned his icy gaze on her in the past few months. "See Santa?" Natasha repeated, this time more insistently.

Sami didn't want to disappoint the little girl, so she nodded at Courtney, one of the candy stripers. "Would you mind taking Natasha up to see Santa?"

Courtney smiled as she stepped forward and reached for the little girl. "Of course."

"No!" Natasha cried as she tightened her grip on Sami.

"Aww." Courtney cooed. "It's okay. I'm just going to take you to see Santa Claus. Don't you want to see Santa?"

"With Sami." Natasha insisted stubbornly.

Sami sighed. As much as she didn't want to have to face Lucas up close, she wasn't about to make the little girl go through any more trauma than necessary. She nodded at Courtney. "It's fine. I'll take her."

She plastered a smile on her face as she carried her charge up to where Lucas was sitting. Purposely avoiding his piercing gaze, she tried to coax the little girl into shifting from her arms into his outstretched ones.

Natasha was having none of it. "Sami sit."

Self-preservation kicking in, Lucas just managed to bite his lip to keep from laughing out loud, though he knew there was no hiding the smirk on his face.

"Natasha, I'm too big for Santa's lap." She shot Lucas a look that would have killed a lesser man, causing his smirk to grow.

"No. You're just right Mrs. Claus." Lucas replied in a tone only loud enough for Sami to hear.

Sami swallowed hard as her mouth was suddenly dry.

"Sit." Natasha asserted.

Sami could see a hint of a quiver in the toddler's bottom lip. Deciding that a minute on Lucas' lap would be less torturous than five or ten minutes of the little girl's tears, she reluctantly acquiesced. "Okay, but we can't stay too long. Santa has a lot to do tonight."

"Santa's never too busy for a girl as beautiful as you." Lucas murmured as she carefully perched on the edge of his knee.

Sami felt the heat infuse her cheeks. To a casual viewer Lucas appeared to be talking to the little girl, but unbeknownst to all but the most keen-eyed observers his left hand had slipped around her waist, pulling her body up his thigh until her lower back was brushing against his chest. It was nothing short of exquisite torture.

From across the room, 3 pairs of keen eyes watched the pair with amusement. "Well this is going well." Julie commented. "Maybe we won't have to do anything else and just let nature take its course."

"Uh-oh, don't count your chickens before they hatch." Maggie replied as she nodded to where Sami had just abruptly jumped up from Lucas lap and hurried off with Natasha. "Looks like Sami got a little bit spooked."

"It's alright." Alice said. "We're dealing with two very stubborn individuals here. We simply need to stick to our original plan. Ladies you know what you have to do next."

"Oh Lucas, I was wondering if you'd be able to do me a favor tonight?" Maggie smiled warmly as she walked up behind her nephew who had just returned from changing out of his Santa costume. "I wouldn't normally ask, but it's rather important."

Still dazed from his encounter with Sami, it took Lucas a few seconds to realize he was being talked to. "Huh? What? Oh!" He grinned sheepishly as he turned to face her. "Sure Aunt Maggie. You know I'd do anything for you."

"I was hoping you'd say that, and I'm hoping you'll continue to say that after you hear my request."

"Oh?"

"Well you see… I left my Christmas presents for Mickey at the Horton cabin, over on Smith Island."

"Why did you have them there?"

"Well every year Mickey searches our house high and low for his presents, and he usually finds them. This year I wanted them to be a surprise, so I hid the presents there. Mickey and I normally don't go anywhere near the cabin in the winter, so I knew he'd never think to search there. The problem is that I was on my way to catch the ferry there this morning to get them, but I got called back for an emergency in the kitchen at Chez Rouge."

"Is everything okay?"

"Oh it's fine - just a temperamental chef… nothing-new there. Anyhow, as you can see I'm in a bit of a quandary now. The ferry only runs every other hour. I can't exactly sneak away tonight without Mickey noticing."

Lucas looked across the room to where Mickey was chatting animatedly with Doug. "You know, I never would have pegged him as the type to sneak into presents early."

"And I wouldn't have pegged him as the type to fall for a gold digging blonde 35 years younger than him, but he did!"

"Good point." Lucas shrugged. "So you want me to go out to the cabin and pick up his presents? I guess I can do that. Will's staying at the pub and celebrating Christmas Eve with the Brady's tonight."

"Perfect!" Maggie exclaimed happily before fishing for something in her purse and handing to him. "Here's the key. The next ferry runs at 7 and you can just make it if you hurry. That'll give you enough time to catch the last one back."

"Sure—" Lucas began and then hesitated as he realized that in his post-Sami stupor that he'd totally forgotten about his new houseguest. "Carrie!"

"Carrie?"

"Carrie's fine dear." Alice Horton interjected as she made her way towards them. Ever the gentleman, Lucas quickly moved to assist her as she took a seat on a nearby chair.

"You saw her Gran?"

"Yes." Alice nodded. "I ran into her earlier, while you were getting dressed as Santa. She mentioned that she was staying with you because Roman didn't have any room. I reminded her that her that Shawn and Caroline have lots of room at the pub and suggested that she give her grandparents a call, and that even if they didn't have a space for her, she was more than welcome to stay with me."

Lucas gulped. "You did?"

"Yes dear, and Caroline was overjoyed to hear from her, so Carrie will be staying there while she's in Salem. It's for the best, don't you think? She should be with family over the holidays."

As much as he wanted to stomp his foot and protest because his plan had been thwarted, Lucas knew better than to go against his grandmother. "Of course. Families should be together."

"Yes they should."

Letting out a sigh as he glanced at his watch, Lucas smiled at the two beaming women. "Well then, I guess I'd better head up there."

After watching him walk away Maggie turned to Alice with a sly smile. "Well that worked just perfectly."

"It did. Hopefully Julie is just as successful with Sami."

"Sami darling?"

"In here Julie." Sami answered from inside the room where she'd changed into her costume earlier. "Perfect timing." She said to the older woman as she joined her. "You can help me search."

"Search? For what?"

"For the bag that has my clothes. I want to change out of this costume, but I can't find my bag. I was sure I left it in here when I changed earlier."

"Well that's odd. Are you sure you didn't stash it somewhere? Maybe it's in your car?"

"I don't have my car. I took a cab here."

"Oh, well then I'm sure it must be around here somewhere. Maybe the custodians will find it when they clean."

"What am I supposed to do in the meantime? I can't go out in this with these on display –" She gestured to her cleavage.

Julie laughed. "What's that old saying? Those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind? You're fine. Besides, you can just wear your coat overtop of it, especially where I need you to go."

"I suppose." Sami shrugged. "And what? You need me to go somewhere?"

"Yes. Out to the cabin."

"The cabin? You mean the Horton cabin on Smith Island?"

"Yes, that cabin."

"For what?"

"Uncle Mickey is planning to surprise Maggie out there tomorrow morning – you know they had quite the year, so he wants to try and make it up to her by pulling out all the stops for a romantic Christmas morning. I promised him that I would go over there today and drop off a basket of goodies so he'd have everything already there when he surprises her."

"Oh. That's sweet of him. But it needs to be there tonight?"

"Yes. He's keeping it a total surprise. He doesn't want her to guess what he's up to when he takes her there tomorrow."

Sami's eyes narrowed. "Won't she guess when he takes her on the ferry?"

Julie shook her head. "No, he's going to blindfold her and make her wear headphones."

"Uhm, okay. So what exactly is it that you need me to drop off and why do you need me to be the one who does it?"

"It's just a picnic basket full of goodies for their romantic day tomorrow. I'd take it myself but Doug is performing during mass tonight and I don't want to miss that. I figured that you probably didn't have many plans for this evening. I wouldn't ask, but I have no one else. I'm hoping that you'll agree to help me out. Will you Sami? You'd be doing me and Mickey a huge favor and we'd really appreciate it."

Sami took a moment and pondered Julie's request. It wasn't as though she had anything else to do. Maybe this doing this good deed would help balance out her karmic scales too. "Sure. Why not."

"Perfect! Grab your coat and I'll give you a ride over to the ferry so that you don't miss the 7 o'clock one."

"But what about my clothes?"

"Like I said before, I'm sure the janitors will find them after they clean up. I'll let them know to watch for your bag."

"Okay. I assume the ferry still runs every other hour so I can catch one back tonight? I haven't been over to Smith Island since Lucas and I went there last summer…" She trailed off

"Oh I'm sure it does." Julie nodded. She smiled her most devilish smile once Sami's back was turned. Julie had already confirmed with the ferry operator that due to it being Christmas Eve, the 7 o'clock run would be the last of the day. She'd also gone to the trouble of making sure that the ferry operator knew to keep Sami and Lucas from seeing each other until the boat was well on the way to the island.