Matters of the Heart
Chapter Seven
After nearly tripping over Belle's fuzzy pink slippers, which she had left at his place a few days prior in the middle of the hallway, Shawn-Douglas Brady managed to make it out to the living room in one piece.
Rex was slumped over on the couch, staring off into the distance, with Mimi curled up against him, resting her head on his shoulder while her arms snaked securely around his waist. As Shawn came to a halt at the edge of the room, he realized that Rex wasn't staring off at nothing as he'd assumed, but rather at something sitting on the shelf along the wall. Following the other man's gaze, Shawn felt a pang of sadness.
It was a framed photograph of Cassie.
From the scenery in the background of the picture, it looked like it had been taken at the DiMera mansion, probably sometime over the summer. She had a carefree smile on her face, reminding him of how innocent she had been when she first came to Salem, and the fact that she had been anything but by the time she died.
Shawn shook his head with regret, trying hard not to think about the nightmare that had occurred at Salem Place on Thanksgiving. Cassie had been a complicated girl, lonely and misunderstood, which wasn't all that surprising given her childhood. She had been genetically created in a lab and trapped there for most of her life, with only her twin brother Rex for company. Although she had been hung up on him and determined to seduce him away from Belle for a while, she had eventually given up on that idea, much to his relief, even more so when he discovered that her biological father was actually Roman Brady, making them cousins.
Only in Salem, Shawn thought, knowing that even trying to untangle the family trees that all seemed to intertwine at one point or another would give him a headache.
Venturing further into the room, he caught Mimi's attention as he neared the couch, and she lifted her head to offer him a tired smile. "What did your Dad say?" she asked, and Rex tore his gaze away from Cassie's picture to look up at him expectantly.
"You remember that blood sample Uncle Roman collected at the tree lot?" Shawn asked wearily, glancing at Rex nervously, uncertain how his cousin was going to react to the news. Losing Cassie had just about destroyed him, and then thinking that Tony was the killer had only made his grief that much more compounded.
"Yeah, what about it?" Rex asked with a confused frown.
"Apparently when they got Tony back to the station, he agreed to give a blood sample of his own," Shawn replied evenly. "Tek ran a test, and they don't match."
For a long moment the room was deathly silent. Mimi's eyes had widened and she was looking from him to Rex and back, clearly stunned. As for Rex, his face was blank, completely expressionless and hiding what was going through his head. Shawn hated the way Rex could do that, because he never knew what the guy was thinking or feeling until he decided to let it show.
Finally, just when Shawn couldn't take it anymore and was about to say something, Rex looked up at him, jaw clenched and eyes dark with a grim set. "I still think he did it," he said lowly.
"But if the blood samples didn't match..." Mimi argued.
"He has no alibi for any of the murders, we found the evidence on his PDA, and he was slinking around outside of Tuscany when Sami was attacked." Rex shook his head adamantly. "There is no way he's innocent!"
"I hope you're wrong," Shawn grunted. "Because they just released him from custody half an hour ago."
"What!" Rex demanded, on his feet with an explosion of anger, eyes blazing. "He murdered Cassie, not to mention four other people, and he just attacked Sami! Why the hell would they let that bastard go!"
"There wasn't enough evidence to hold him," Shawn muttered darkly.
"That's crazy," Rex raged, waving his arms, and for the first time Shawn noticed that Rex's face was just as expressive when he was angry as Sami's, not to mention the fact that his temper was just as short. "And now he's out there, free to kill his next victim!"
"Rex, sweetie," Mimi said gently. "We don't know that he's the killer."
"Who else could it be?" Rex asked incredulously. "I mean, every other suspect was inside at the wedding, remember?"
"Maybe it's somebody the police haven't even started to suspect yet," Mimi suggested.
"Or maybe Tony switched the blood sample," Rex retorted darkly.
"That's a possibility," Shawn conceded, making a mental note to run that by his father in the morning. "I think we all know Tony has the resources to do that. But when would he have had the time to do it?"
"Who knows," Rex shrugged. "And how do we know that the blood at the tree lot wasn't just staged, anyway? I mean, I know Roman fired the gun and all, but the killer got away, and I don't know about you, but I haven't seen anyone in town that looks like they've been shot recently."
"You have a point," Shawn agreed gravely. "I mean, no one actually saw the killer get shot. I know Uncle Roman said the killer stumbled to the ground for a second, but that doesn't mean they were hit."
"Exactly," Rex said triumphantly. "The cops made a big mistake releasing Tony from jail, and they're going to regret it when the next victim turns up."
"You mean after Sami?" Mimi said quietly.
"Yeah," Rex murmured. "After Sami."
Turning her head in his direction, Mimi looked at Shawn inquisitively. "Did your Dad have any news about her condition?"
Instinctively, Shawn's eyes darted to Rex, who was staring in the other direction. "No," he answered with regret, although he supposed that no news was better than bad news. "But Uncle Roman did call him to let him know that he was going home for a few hours, while Lucas stays with her."
"I'm glad he stayed," Mimi said with a small, secretive little smile, her eyes glittering like she knew something that they didn't. "He wouldn't have been able to get any sleep at home anyway."
"Yeah, because he probably feels like crap for locking her out of the wedding," Rex muttered under his breath.
Shawn stiffened, but Rex didn't seem to notice or to realize that his words might affect anyone in the room. Mimi gave Shawn a sympathetic look before turning to glare at the back of her boyfriend's head. "No one meant for Sami to get hurt, Rex," she said gently, but not without reprimand. "She was thrown out so that she wouldn't ruin your parents' wedding, remember? Lucas had no way of knowing what would happen, and neither did Shawn."
Rex looked up at that, giving Shawn a pained glance. "Sorry, man," he said quietly, and Shawn could practically see the frustration swirling within the other man. He knew the feeling, he hated being helpless to do anything, too. "I didn't mean... it's not your fault."
"It's not Lucas' fault, either, you know," Mimi pointed out.
A soft snort, barely audible, came from Rex, but he had the common sense not to open his mouth. Shawn wasn't sure whether or not Rex actually blamed Lucas for what had happened to Sami, or if he was just venting his inner turmoil and using his dislike for his half-brother as an outlet.
Considering that Shawn had played just as large a role in locking Sami out of Tuscany and Rex didn't seem to blame him, he was guessing that it was most likely the latter.
Still, that didn't mean that Shawn blamed himself any less. His parents had assured him it wasn't his fault at the hospital, but he couldn't help feeling responsible for what had happened to Sami. After all, he'd helped Lucas every step of the way, from hoisting her chair into the air to shoving a Christmas tree in front of the back tree to keep her out.
If they hadn't gone to such extremes, maybe Sami wouldn't be fighting for her life right now.
"You know, what?" Mimi said suddenly, with forced cheerfulness that made it clear she was trying to cheer them up. "I don't know why we're all worrying ourselves crazy anyway. It's not like Sami's never been in this position before, and she always pulls through stronger than ever. She survived a lethal injection and more than one car accident, remember, Shawn?"
"Yeah," Shawn nodded, feeling a faint surge of hope swell within him. "And she survived that Titan helicopter crash a few years back, too."
"And falling through the glass doors," Rex added quietly, a troubled look on his face.
Not wanting to give Rex's thoughts the chance to start churning over that bleak incident again, Shawn pressed on quickly. "And don't forget that she outmaneuvered the serial killer that night behind Salem Place. If she can thwart the killer once, she can do it again."
"Right," Mimi agreed with confidence that Shawn knew wasn't entirely sincere. "See? There's nothing to worry about, Sami's going to be fine."
I hope so, anyway, Shawn thought grimly, but wisely kept that thought to himself. In truth, he had doubts about whether or not Sami was going to survive this time, and it made him sad. Despite his differences with Sami, and there were times when they were too numerous to count, he had always admired her strength. She had become a single mother at eighteen, too young according to some people in town, and while she wasn't perfect, she had never failed Will when it counted.
Having grown up with Sami, he knew that there was more to her than the ruthless exterior she displayed, because he could still remember the pretty little blond girl who had included him when Eric and Max had insisted he was too young to play with them. Back then she had been a regular, well-adjusted kid, whom everyone had expected to grow up into a perfectly normal and well-adjusted adult, but things hadn't quite worked out that way. Her life had been irrevocably changed the day that she learned John Black was not her father, and the way he saw it things had just gone downhill from there.
Why hadn't anyone ever suggested that Marlena get the twins into therapy after that whole mess? Finding out that your father was not your father would be enough to traumatize anyone, especially at that age.
Sometimes Shawn wondered if any of the adults in town had any common sense at all.
A flicker of movement caught his eye, and he blinked, shaking off his reverie, to see Rex flexing his arm, staring down at the bandage where the doctors had drawn blood at the hospital. Mimi glanced over at her boyfriend and rose to her feet to lay a hand on his arm.
"I'm really proud of you for giving blood for Sami, you know," she said softly. "And I'm sure Roman and Marlena really appreciate it."
"I know they do," Shawn nodded his agreement. "And so does the rest of our family." It occurred to him after he spoke that 'our family' didn't only apply to his, Roman and Sami's family, but to Rex's, as well. "I bet it will mean a lot to Sami, too."
"Don't count on it," Rex snorted, rolling his eyes, but the gesture seemed halfhearted, almost as if he hoped that Shawn was right.
"You never know," Mimi shrugged simply. "She may surprise you."
Rex grunted to himself, but remained silent.
"I wonder how Belle is holding up right now," Mimi murmured, and glanced at Shawn inquisitively.
"I tried calling her cell phone, but she didn't answer," Shawn replied with a sigh, dropping down into the chair across from the couch. "I guess she forgot to take it off of silence after leaving the hospital."
"At least she's with her parents and Brady," Mimi responded with a weak smile. "A girl needs her family at a time like this."
"Yeah," Shawn agreed quietly, remembering how hysterical Belle had been outside of Tuscany. He hoped that Brady and John had been able to calm her down some, because she'd still been pretty worked out when they left the hospital. "I think that goes for just about the whole town right now."
"It's scary, huh?" Mimi asked quietly. "How many people we've lost, how long this killer has been on the loose?"
"The police are doing everything they can to catch him," Shawn promised. "And after tonight, I have a feeling that Uncle Roman and my parents won't rest until they find the killer. Our family has been under siege for too long."
Rex muttered something about the capabilities of the police force that Shawn pretended not to hear. Part of him agreed with Rex, even though he refused to admit it. How many people had to die at the hands of this maniac before they caught him? Abe, Jack, Maggie, Caroline and Cassie were all gone, and there was a good chance that Sami might be, too.
None of us are safe, Shawn realized with dread. The killer could strike anywhere, anytime, at anyone.
"I just hope that it's all over soon," Mimi said softly. "And I want Sami to just wake up."
"Me, too," Shawn murmured, and for a moment he could see the little girl he had grown up with again in his mind, blond curls falling over her shoulders and that grin that their grandmother had always insisted could melt an iceberg. "If she doesn't, I don't think my grandfather's heart can take it. Losing Grandma Caroline tore him apart, and to lose Sami, too..."
Rex turned away abruptly, glaring out the window with a clenched jaw, and Mimi looked after him with a sad, pained look on her face. After a moment of hesitation, she moved towards him, wrapping her arms around him from behind and resting her chin on his shoulder.
"How are you holding up?" she asked.
"I don't know," Rex admitted with a sigh of frustration. "I mean, Sami and I don't get along. At all. But she's still my sister and I... I just really want to kill this bastard, you know?"
"We all do, man," Shawn assured him grimly.
"It's just, this maniac already took away one of my sisters," Rex replied, his voice hoarse with anger, and something else that sounded suspiciously like sorrow. "I lost Cassie. I don't want..."
"You don't want to lose Sami, too," Mimi finished knowingly. "It's okay to say it, Rex, just because you and Sami have some issues to work out doesn't mean that you can't care about her. You two have more in common than just genetics, you know, maybe someday you'll be able to be friends."
"Maybe," Rex grunted, looking away towards the window.
Sensing that now might be a good time to leave the two of them alone for a bit, Shawn rose to his feet and stretched his arms a little. "It's been a long night," he said, running a hand through his hair. "I'm going to head in to bed."
"Okay," Mimi turned her head a little to flash him a grateful smile. "Goodnight, Shawn."
"Night, Meems," he replied with a nod, starting towards his room. "Night, Rex."
"Night," Rex murmured absently, without looking up.
When he reached the foot of the staircase, Shawn paused and glanced back into the living room. Mimi was still standing there with her arms wrapped around her boyfriend in a silent, comforting embrace, and Rex was still staring out the window.
He had just stepped onto the first step when he heard Rex speak in a low, almost fragile whisper. "Mimi?"
"Hmm?" she asked.
"Do you think Cassie's disappointed in me?" Rex asked. "For not being able to protect her?"
"Oh, Rex, baby," Mimi whispered, her heart clearly breaking for him. "No. Cassie loved you, and she knew you loved her. It wasn't your fault, there was nothing you could have done for her."
"Maybe," Rex agreed begrudgingly. "But..."
"There wasn't anything you could have done for Sami, either," Mimi responded, seeming to know precisely where his train of thought had turned. "I know you want vengeance, Rex, but, please, leave it to the police, okay? They'll find the real killer."
"They've already let the real killer go," Rex said in disgust. "Tony's free, remember?"
"Maybe he really didn't do it," Mimi said gently. "If they find the killer and it's not him, what are you going to do? Are you going to apologize and try to work things out with him?"
There was a long stretch of silence, and Shawn was about to start up the stairs again, figuring Rex wasn't going to answer, but then he heard a heavy sigh come from the living room.
"I don't know," Rex mumbled. "I'm not a DiMera, Mimi, how long have you been trying to get me to accept that? But I don't know if I'm ready to be a Brady, either. I don't really belong anywhere, now that Cassie's gone."
"That's not true," Mimi assured him. "You belong with me, Rex."
As he headed to his bedroom, Shawn made a mental note to try and get Rex to go with him to the hospital in the morning to check on Sami. He was pretty sure that Rex would agree to that without much prodding, and maybe, just maybe, he could get him to talk to Roman.
With the killer still on the loose, now wasn't the time to put things off, and he had a feeling that Rex needed the chance to figure out where he really belonged, before it was too late.
