Part 7
To celebrate the wedding many people, including the bride and groom thought would never take place, the wedding party and their guests adjourned to a soon to be opened club in Salem, under the joint ownership of Billie Reed and Liz Chandler Curtis. Kate, John, Tony and others were providing backing for this new venture and the place was brought up to specs under the watchful eyes of its co owners. The only thing still lacking was a mutually agreed upon name. And they needed one soon, The grand opening was planned for New Year's Eve, appropriately enough, but the chance to enjoy themselves in relative privacy had greatly appealed to both Sami and Lucas.
Tonight though, setting aside the usual Thanksgiving festivities, a crowd of current and previous Salemites was dancing, singing, feasting and toasting today's wedding in grand style. Tired but considerably more relaxed, the couple couldn't seem to stop grinning as their friends and family wished them only the best, over and over again.
"How many people did you say were at St Mark's?" Sami asked her brand new husband. The recieving line was finally over and her feet were aching all the way to her knees before she sat down.
"Four hundred and seventy two guests, two bridesmaids, one maid of honor, two ring bearers, one flower girl, one best man, three groomsmen and three parental units altogether. That brings us up to four hundred and eighty five, not counting the priest, the choir leader, twenty five choir members, three servers during the mass, about 90 various security people and the five of us." Lucas replied, patting Sami's gown just above her stomach.
"So we obviously topped 500." Sami continued, enjoying the way he let his hands lazily slide up and down her shoulders and arms.
"Easily. Maybe even closer to 600. Why?"
"Because if I know how many people were supposed to be there, and how many came on to the reception, I'll know when there's one too many."
"Sami, you said you were going to trust me, in fact you just got done taking a vow to that effect. And I told you, between Tony, John, Ops, Hope and the rest of them, we're covered. Relax, okay?"
"Yes, General." she laughed. "And just how do you know there are already five of us?"
"Cos I remember what you looked like when you came back to Salem, only a few months pregnant with Will. And that's the way you look right now. All kinda lit from inside."
" Are you implying that I would drink anything that would risk our daughters health? No? Oh, I get it, now I'm a candlelaria. Lucas, those are for Christmas, not Thanksgiving."
"Oh, yeah. And you said there was a reason you wanted me to marry you on Thanksgiving of all days. What was that?" Lucas asked,
"So I could do this if you got too silly." Sami said and politely popped a cranberry into his mouth.
"I can think of a better ... no, make that much better way to keep me quiet," Lucas winked at his bride of two hours. Then pulled her close for a kiss and won the applause, cheers, laughter and clinking glasses of the whole room.
"Encore, Encore!" Billie called out, only to be distracted by Mike who seemed to think she was talking to him.
Tony, sitting on Kate's right, now stood up and waited for the uproar to lessen.
"In my capacity as Lucas' best man, I feel it incumbent on myself to offer the first toast to the bride and groom." he said, smiling. "Fortunately the task is an easy and a happy one, as I have known the bride most of her life and the groom, well ... only a little while longer. To Samantha and Lucas, then, may you find only smooth roads and peaceful days, generous friends and loyal hearts as you begin another part of your journey together. May you know nothing but laughter and loving, and length of days in which to properly enjoy them. May any griefs you find be short and bittersweet, and may every happiness be yours and your children's, for many, many years to come. To the bride and groom!"
"To the bride and groom!" everyone echoed, and drank the toast.
And one after another, the people who loved them stood up to wish Lucas and Sami all the best and only the best. It was long after Tony's speech that Kate stood up to add her part.
"Now I know there are many people here who would have thought before a few months ago, that the last place I would be on the night my son Lucas married his son's mother, Sami, would be here, wishing them well and happy. But the truth is, someone many of us dearly loved began changing my attitude over a year ago. And he's here with us tonight as surely as I am. So what I'm going to say now, to our newlyweds doesn't only come from my heart, it comes from a man who made a place there despite my best, and my worst efforts to the contrary. I'm talking about Sami and Carrie's father, Roman Brady. And this is what I think he'd say if he were standing here with us tonight :
What the heck are you all sitting here with such long faces for? This has to be the best reason for partying anyone in Salem has had since G-d was a corporal! Lucas, you'd better believe me when I say nothing has ever made me happier than the look on your face while Sami was saying her vows to you and to G-d. Nothing in my life, ever. And Sami, girl, if I didn't get this through to you, well, I'm just going to have to try again. Seeing you smile like that, and hold to the man you truly love and want is the best thing I've seen since you were knee high to a peanut, Peanut. And knowing you've kept Ma and Da's Pub going for them, makes my heart sing. I mean it. I love you, Sami. I always will. You just have to know that. You ..." Kate broke down, even though she'd gotten the whole room ringing with laughter at her pitch perfect impersonation of Roman. And as Tony led her back to her place between himself and Lucas, Sami touched her mother in law's arm and mouthed a single, heartfelt 'thanks'.
"Just don't name one of your girls Kathy." Kate smiled tearily. "I always hated that nickname."
"Well, we could name one Beth." Sami answered, her eyes still shining.
"Beth Brady-Roberts?" Lucas piped in. "Not bad, But Will and I are holding out for Michael and David. Biblical, you know."
"What were you saying about a better way to keep you quiet?" Sami asked, turning her groom's face back to her own and warmly planting a kiss on his smiling mouth.
Glasses clinked merrily throughout the crowd, and then a gasp of pleasure was heard as Rivka led two of her brothers in, carrying the wedding cake. This marvel of the baker's art was not in the least traditional. Instead of multiple layers, It had two equal ones, one carrot cake, one apricot flavored. Instead of a plastic bride and groom on top, it had icing flowers in perfect sugary copies of Sami's bouquet. And around the sides rather than on top were icing letters which could only be read close up. They said: November 23rd, 2004, Sami and Lucas, at long last! This drew giggles from all sides, even the newly marrieds, and all the fun of cutting and eating as much cake as possible took up the next few minutes.
But what surprised Lucas and Sami most, was what they found hidden under the cake cutting tools carried out for that pleasant, messy duty. It turned out to be a small airmail box, with a return address of Knossos, Crete. And inside were a miniature audio tape and a sworn avadavat, signed by Victor Kiriakis and witnessed by not only a notary but his son and grandson. The statement purported to be the only existing copy of something Victor had held over Sami and indirectly Lucas,
"He said he wanted you to have the only wedding gift he alone could give you." Brady said, standing up and walking over to the bridal table. "Freedom. He'd wanted to give the same gift to Nicole, before she died. And I think that really turned my grandfather's head around. He and I and Phillip all hope you will accept it."
"Since it was cleared by our security team." John said, "I'm willing to take it at face value."
"But I'm not," Tony argued "Until my security chief gives his approval. That device could be packed with explosives. And we've already had one attempt on our lives today. I have no desire to be generous or careless regarding the supposed gift of a man who hates our combined families."
Ops had been a step behind Brady, and Shane Donovan a step behind them. Now the agent who had partnered John spoke up.: "Count Dimera, I'm fine with your team checking this out completely. Every test I could run shows its nothing more than what the avadavit claims. But if I didn't believe we're better safe than sorry, I'd be lousy at my job. So, lets take it out of here and everyone can relax."
"I agree with you, dear Ops." a young woman's deep voice called out. "There's no threat in what the old Greek sent. And it may even be a genuine gesture of good will on his part. I don't know and I couldn't care less. It served its purpose in distracting most of you fine Salemites while I made my way in."
John Black turned and swallowed a gasp of surprise. The woman walking towards them was a younger, slimmer, and much angrier version of a woman he'd only met briefly before her death years ago. There was no mistaking in her dark hair, Mediterranean features and nearly-black eyes that this was Rosa Adrianna, Orpheus' daughter. "Rosa..." he started to say.
"Close your mouth, you murderer." she cried.
"Rosa, I didn't kill your mother, and in fact, even though I thought it was true, it turns out I didn't kill your father, either."
"You are a liar and a murderer. I was there. Did that simple fact of history slip your mind? You came there, posing as the man who killed my mother, You said it had grieved you for years. You said you understood my father's drive for vengeance better than you wanted to. And then you shot him to death. And we were taken far away by strangers, separated and lost to one another, my brothers and I. They're dead too, and their blood is as much on your hands as my parents."
"Sami, no!" Lucas screamed as his bride walked around their table to face the dark stranger. But she wasn't going to be dissuaded, not even by the man she'd married only a few hours before.
"And their blood" she said quietly to the woman who was only a year or so younger than herself. "The blood that you believe is on my stepfather's hands, that is why you tried to kill everyone I love?"
"I nearly did just that. And I will do it again, and again until everyone who drove my father to his death has paid the price in full." the dark girl shouted, and pulled a knife off the cake plate. "Then you'll have to kill me, my dear. Your father worked for my father you see, until his madness overwhelmed his reason. We haven't met, my name is Antony Dimera. And I shot your father to put an end to at least one madman's reign of terror." Tony said, earning cries of protest from Lucas, Kate, Sami, Rex, Cassie and John. "And even if you did kill me now, my operatives would not think twice about returning the favor. So, unless you are tired of living, I suggest you give up the game now. You see in my family, we don't take kindly to threats against our children, not at all. It may indeed be my only similarity to the Phoenix that I don't mind admitting to. Now, stop this foolish vendetta. Give me that knife or use it, now."
"What makes you think I won't?" Rosa demanded. "What?"
"Because you would have done so already. And because if you'd wanted to die so much, you would have remained in Salem this summer after poisoning half the town. You could have been the fifty ninth fatality and no one would have known who you were. You would have been just another victim of that mutant virus, and no one would ever have caught on. And I know that's not what you want. Now, is it?"
"I want the people who murdered my parents to pay!" Rosa shrilled.
"We already have." Tony snarled, dropping his quiet tone. "My sister, Lucas' and Sami's brothers, Victor's wife, John's wife, Laura's daughter, granddaughter and husband, Michael's sister, niece and grandmother, Sami's uncle and grandparents, and forty three other innocents died before your virus was defeated. And I think that was fifty-eight too many for anyone's imagined grievance. You're a child! You're hardly older than my daughter and her half sisters! And you are the one standing here with their blood on your hands. So if you have such hatred for murderers, I suggest you turn that damned blade on yourself."
"What makes you think I won't once I've rid the world of all of you?" the mad girl demanded.
"Because," Lucas walked over. "Like the man said, you would have done it already. But you're a coward, aren't you? You're a filthy, sneaking coward, attacking people you've never seen and never known, except for Marlena who cared for you as a child, and John whose real name you didn't even know. You killed babies, and little kids, emergency workers and doctors, nurses and techs, and worst of all, you murdered the kindest, gentlest woman who ever walked the earth. And you don't even know who I'm talking about so let me explain.
I'm talking about a woman who sheltered and fed and helped everyone in this town, and whose heart was big enough to hold all of them in her love and her prayers. I'm talking about a woman who knew for years that I was no blood to her and never changed her feelings or her actions towards me. And for you to stand there and compare killing Alice Horton and all those kids and their parents and their friends to what Tony or John or Roman may have done to rid the world of the lunatic who fathered you? Well it makes me a little bit crazy myself."
"Then you kill me." Rosa demanded, gesturing as if she would hand the knife to Lucas.
"Lucas, please don't go any closer!" Sami cried. "She is crazy. We know that. And taking her life is too good for her, and too much for me to take after you promised to stay with me ... not four hours ago! Lucas, are you going to make me say it again?"
"Sami ... " Lucas began and then smiled quietly. "I really like it when you do. But its your wedding day and the last thing I want to do is shed blood, believe me. So, if you feel like telling everyone just how you feel about me, go ahead. I'm sure they'd be glad to know there's some hope for a guy like me, after all."
"Lucas Desmond Roberts," Kate interjected. "What kind of nonsense are you talking? Get away from that lunatic. Please, haven't you given me enough grey hair?"
"It's okay, Kate." Billie piped in, "Lucas is risking himself for his family and I think it might be a good, hopeful thing if Sami let this nutcase know what people who love each other are willing to do or say. How about it, sis?"
"Well, sis, with your encouragement. I sure Hope this helps." Sami took another step and stood beside Lucas, grasping his hand. "Rosa, we've never met, but we kinda have something in common. Our parents are dead, and so are a lot of our families. I never knew how much I could hurt until the day I knew my dad was gone. You must have felt the same and if I'm right, you were only four or five at the time.
My name is Sami, Samantha Gene Brady Roberts. I just married this crazy man this afternoon, so that explains why I'm acting a bit nutty myself. Right? But you see it took us a long, long time to get here. And some of it was worth every minute, and some wasn't. But you see, there's something else not everyone in the room was going to get to know today. We are pretty sure, we don't know yet, but we're hoping that we're expecting. Twins. Great, huh? Weren't your brothers, Theo and Vincente twins?"
"No! You idiot!" Rosa screamed. "Theo had just turned six when our father was killed. Vincente was nearly seven! And why should I care who died here this summer? As far as I'm concerned it wasn't nearly enough!"
"I was expecting you to say something like that." Hope Williams Brady commented, walking up beside Rosa and knocking the younger woman to
the floor, while kicking the knife out of her reach. "But you see, you picked on the wrong town, for all the wrong reasons. You endangered us all, including our kids, and if that wasn't bad enough, you murdered my grandmother, her second oldest son, two of her granddaughters and one great granddaughter, And as if that wasn't enough, you murdered some of my best friends, and you murdered my guy. I don't take that kind of thing lightly. So I'm not going to let any of my family and friends here give you the quick, easy death you say you want. No, I'm going to help them make sure that
you have a long, unhappy life behind the bars of a prison or the gates of a mental hospital. Got it?"
"No. Why do you want me to stay alive?" their common enemy asked. "Why?"
"So that you can spend the rest of your life learning the worth, the gifts and the light you snuffed out of our lives. And if it takes you till you're older than my Gran was, that's just fine by me."
Then Hope looked up at the wedding party and sighed. "I'm sorry guys, I was tracking her every minute, and somehow at the last minute she gave me the slip. Not that it was any stretch to guess she'd come here. Shawn, you can quit covering the doorway, now. She's down."
Hope's older son walked in and shook his head at his mother's solo. "You never let me have any of the fun!" he protested, but with a grin reminiscent of his dad's plastered across his face. Until the woman who had done them all such harm was taken away, cursing and screaming hysterically, celebrants were quiet, even subdued. Then the music started up and Cassie, Belle, Phillip and Andrew ran around the tables, with one suggestion
for everyone.
"First dance!" the whole room was suddenly calling out. "First dance!"
At that point, Billie Reed rushed to the stage, grabbed the mic and began to hum and then to sing a Rodgers and Hart ballad.
"I won't tell of my love to the red, red rose,
or the running brook where the sweet magnolia grows,
I won't tell of my love to evry little star,
or the whippoorwill on the hill, afar:
I'll tell the man in the street,
And everyone I meet,
that you and I are sweet hearts,
I'll shout it out from the roofs
And give the papers proof
that we two are complete hearts,
I want the world to know
I'll use the radio!
And when I've had all my say,
you may be old and gray,
But you won't run away, from me."
And before they quite knew what was happening, the bride and groom were in each other's arms, dancing and whirling around the floor,
and grinning at each other like a pair of mischievous brats.
