Chapter SEVEN

"Thanks again Mr DiMera," said the man as he shook EJ's hand enthusiastically, "I didn't think we stood a chance against such a big company."

"Might isn't always might Mr Craig," said EJ with a little smile, "And I'm happy that we proved that today."

The man continued to thank EJ for his services and then offered to buy him a celebratory drink which EJ politely declined. When he drank nowadays he preferred to do it alone and wasn't exactly one for small talk nowadays. He wished his client well and then the two parted ways. EJ stood in the corridor of the courthouse where his court case had just let out, looking but not seeing all the people walking back and forth the hallowed halls. His hand went to his breast coat pocket and he pulled out an official looking envelope and looked down at it. It had arrived today and EJ didn't have to open it to know what it was - the paper work finalising his and Nicole's divorce.

It hadn't been strictly necessary seeing as Nicole was in prison nowadays but EJ couldn't bear the thought of her having anything of his anymore and especially not his name. He'd wanted to give that to Sami and Sami alone but Nicole had cheated him of ever being able to do that. The same wave of bitterness rose up in EJ that always came when he thought of Nicole and how she had been allowed to keep on breathing when Sami never would again. He'd meant every word he'd said to Nicole when he'd visited her that last day. One way or the other she was going to pay for what she'd done to Samantha and some days it was only his need for revenge that saw him through the day.

The door to Judge Reeds chambers opened over across the crowded hall and EJ looked up just in time to catch a glimpse of blonde hair disappear around the corner as the woman exited the room. Blonde hair always caught his attention because despite the voice of reason shouting at him relentlessly EJ couldn't help but always be looking for Samantha. It had been that way from the first day he'd met her. EJ had looked for her in every street, every restaurant or shop that he walked into, ever hopeful that their paths may cross at some point in his day. He had always been eager to be near her no matter how much time they would spend in their hotel room together. He just wanted to walk on the same street as her, breath the same air and when that had happened he'd been deliriously happy from such a simple pleasure. Nowadays though Sami haunted his every moment in a different way and every blonde head he saw gave him a flash of desperate hope but they were always quickly dashed of course because the harsh, unflinching reality was that Sami was dead.

Despite that though EJ found himself starting to head down the same corridor the blonde woman had just disappeared down. He caught sight of her up ahead, walking with the crowd of people heading out of the courthouse and out onto the street. It was the end of the day so most people were leaving for the day so there were a lot of people around. EJ stood at the top of the court room stairs then and looked down. He could see the blonde woman hurrying up the street with all the other people and there was just something in the way she walked that seemed all too familiar to EJ. Before he knew what he was doing EJ had headed down the stairs and started to follow the woman. It was an impulsive act of vain desperation he knew but EJ couldn't seem to help himself.

EJ walked along the crowded streets, his eyes fixed on the blonde head way up ahead of him. He called himself seven kinds of fools for doing this but his footsteps never slowed. He was steadily making ground on her through the rush hour pedestrian traffic but then she disappeared suddenly and EJ's heart leapt into his mouth. He pushed through the crowds, getting a few dirty looks in the process but was oblivious, fixated on the spot he'd last seen the back of that blonde head. When he got to that point EJ saw it was at an entrance to a subway and knew that was where she must have gone. He hurried down the stairs, the people jostling in around him as more and more people tried to fit into the limited space of the New York subway.

EJ looked around frantically, very grateful all of a sudden for his height that usually put him head and shoulders above most people as he scanned the overflowing subway for the blonde head he'd followed for five blocks now. It was a near impossible task though because the subway was overflowing with people on their way home from work and in the end EJ had to admit defeat as he realised he was never going to find her now. He felt a ridiculous sense of loss at that prospect seeing as he didn't even know the woman he'd been chasing down. She was just an echo, a phantom of the only person he'd ever loved in this world, nothing more. EJ shook his head for being so foolish and turned to head back up the stairs and as he did he caught something out of the corner of his eye in one of the carriage to EJ's left.

A man had moved to one side inside the carriage and revealed the woman EJ had been following standing there, holding onto a pole. Her back was still to him but EJ couldn't help himself as he began to determinedly pushing his way to the doors of the carriage she was in, never taking his eyes off her.

"Turn around," he whispered to the phantom, "Turn around… look at me."

The blonde woman kept her back resolutely to him and just before EJ got to the doors of the carriage they slammed shut with a hiss and the brakes could be heard releasing and he realised he was too late. The carriage jerked as it began to move and then it was pulling away and EJ shook his head in frustration.

"Look at me!" he pleaded with her even though she was too far away to hear and being inside the carriage guaranteed that she wouldn't respond.

Nevertheless, at the last moment as the carriage began to pick up a little speed the woman turned around and looked out the window to the platform of the subway and the breath left EJ's body in a painful rush. Sami stood there, almost completely obscured amongst the broad shouldered business men and their suits but between the gaps EJ had a clear view of her face and the world tilted for him. He knew Samantha's face better than his own. Had traced it a thousand times with his fingers, he knew every curve and dip, every line and angle and EJ knew he was looking at Samantha's. The carriage was picking up speed as it pulled away now and as EJ stood there, the shock still rolling over him, their eyes met for the briefest of seconds before the metal beast whisked her away from him. He watched it thunder off down the track, still reeling from what had just happened.

"She's alive."

The words were no more than a rasp from his too dry mouth and he tried to make those words make sense. It was everything he'd hoped for since the moment he'd found out what Nicole had done. That there had been some kind of terrible mistake and that Sami wasn't dead at all. As the days had turned into weeks and the weeks into months that hope had slowly died inside EJ's chest as he tried to accept the fact that Sami was really gone. But there had still been some obstinate flicker of hope inside of him for a miracle. There must have been otherwise why did he follow a blonde head of hair into a subway. It was like he'd been compelled to do it, like he had no free will of his own and that had been how it was for him from the first moment he'd laid eyes on Sami. She captivated and enchanted him so utterly that he was helplessly in her thrall and her power over him still lived because it had led him to finding her again.

The next tube pulled up and EJ was beginning to be jostled heavily by people trying to get on board so he forced his shaking legs to remember how to word and got out of the way, walking over to a more out of the way area and leaning back heavily on the wall, completely oblivious to all the hurly burly going on around him, his shell shocked brain trying to work out what was going on. So many questions crowed EJ's mind - if she'd been alive this whole time why hadn't Sami contacted him? She must have known he'd be beside himself with grief. What was she doing in New York, had she seen him standing there at all? EJ thought their eyes had met but she'd flashed by him so quickly it was hard to tell. More immediate questions began to crowd him now. Where was she going? How was he going to get in contact with her again? As the shock slowly wore off EJ realised he had to come up with a way of tracking Sami down. He needed to see her, touch her, know that she really was alright and that it wasn't some fevered imagining of his brain that his grief had conjured up to torment him with.

EJ pushed himself away from the wall, his brain starting to go into overdrive. The best idea seemed to be to go back to where he'd last seen Sami, at the courthouse and ask around there. EJ began to hurry back up the stairs of the subway and out on the street again. He'd seen her coming out of a courtroom that he knew George Hughson had a case in that day. EJ was back at the courthouse now and he hoped against hope that he'd catch the fellow lawyer. As luck would have it George had gotten tied up with another client and EJ found him on the steps of the courthouse.

"Ah DiMera," he greeted the younger man jovially, "I hear you wiped the floor with your opponent today with some fancy foot work by the sounds of it. You're the talk of the chambers."

"I was just doing my job," said EJ calmly, not taking much stock of the compliment.

He didn't have much time for the likes of George Hughson. He was a man in his mid fifties that had grown fat and prosperous off the misfortune of others and he reminded EJ too much of the defence lawyers of Sami's trail to ever take to the man. He found him to be ill mannered, boorish and rather dull but right now none of that mattered to EJ as this man might be his only tenuous link to tracking down Sami.

"You're too modest," guffawed Hughson, "That attitude isn't going to get you far you know my boy. You have to sell yourself! Nowadays people don't want a lawyer they want an image. That's how you get ahead in this business - take it from someone who knows."

"I was rather hoping to get ahead in this business simply by being a good lawyer," said EJ dryly.

"And that kind of thinking is going to see you remain small potatoes," said Hughson in a rather grandiose manner and it was as though he was handing out pearls of wisdom to the younger man and that he should be grateful for such sage advice.

"You know," he said conversationally, tapping EJ on the shoulder in a rather condescending fashion - a feat he could only manage because EJ was standing two steps below him on the courthouse stairs, "I'm looking for some fresh blood for my firm. You could do a lot worse than hitching your wagon to Hughson's and Co. law firm you know?"

EJ wanted to say that he would rather have all of his toenails ripped out with pliers rather than join a firm that had so little scruples to the way they conducted business but he bit his tongue, needing to know about the woman he'd seen leaving Hughson's courtroom more than telling this blow hard where he could stick his job offer.

"I'll certainly consider that Hughson," said EJ smoothly and then put a charming smile on his face, "But I had a quick question that I thought you might be able to help me out with."

"Fire away," said Hughson, obviously in a good mood today for some reason.

"You were in chambers today with Judge Reed weren't you?" EJ asked.

"Aha," nodded Hughson, "We had a bit of problem with some evidence not being disclosed. It was a hell of a thing, we were sitting pretty and suddenly the prosecution blind sides us with…"

"I won't hold you up more than I have to Hughson," interjected EJ, interrupting what was clearly going to be a long story, "I just noticed there was a woman in chambers with you, the stenographer perhaps - I saw her leave?"

"Oh she was with me," said Hughson blithely, "I needed to have the meeting recorded so I bought in my girl to take notes."

"Isn't Estelle normally your secretary?" asked EJ with a bit of a frown.

He'd met the older woman on several occasions and had found her to be a bit severe but fiercely loyal to her employer. She'd never married nor had children so her job with Hughson was her whole world. She was like a tigress when it came to protecting Hughson's interests, not that he deserved or acknowledged her devotion in any way of course.

"Oh yes," said Hughson, wrinkling up his nose in annoyance, "The accursed woman has deserted me just when I've got cases backed up to Christmas. Something about her mother breaking a hip and having to go and care for her. That's all well and good but what am I meant to do in the meantime? She left me totally in the lurch and that's why I went to the temp agency and got the girl."

"What's her name?" asked EJ and held his breath, waiting for him to answer him.

"Her name?" repeated Hughson and seemed to give that some thought, "You know she's the third one I've had in two weeks, and I don't really bother with their names."

Hughson slipped another few notches down in EJ's estimation with that little comment but tried to remain calm.

"It ends in a 'y'," said Hughson, obviously thinking hard about it now, "Mary… Ruby… no, that's not it."

"Sami?" offered up EJ, his heart beating painfully hard in his chest.

"No," he said with a shake of his head, "Let me think… hmm… Betty! That's it, her name is Betty."

Hughson looked pleased with himself for remembering that piece of information and then looked at EJ curiously.

"Why do you want to know?" he asked and gave EJ a lecherous grin, "Looking for a little diversion are we? Well she's easy enough on the eyes to be sure, quiet little thing - can't see her giving you too much trouble if you know what I mean."

Hughson gave him a leering wink then and EJ resisted the urge not to just punch that knowing expression of his face right there on the courthouse steps… just.

"She looked like the wife of an old friend of mine," EJ lied easily and kept his voice even, "I wanted to catch up with him but her name wasn't Betty so it couldn't have been her."

"This one isn't married either," Hughson informed him, "No ring. I like em when they're not married - less chance they're going to go and get pregnant and leave me with no secretary although in this day and age just about anything goes eh?"

"Mm," said EJ distractedly, not caring to hear this man's social commentary and focused on a way to track Sami down and find out what exactly was going on with her, "What was the name of the agency that you got her from? My workload is expanding daily and I'm really at the point of needing some help."

"The Adele Neuberman Temp Agency on Fifth," Hughson informed him, "I've never had any complaints about any of her girls."

"Thank you," said EJ, glancing at his watch and wondering if he still had time to catch them before they closed for the day.

EJ nodded at the older man and gave him a little smile.

"I'd better be going and thanks again for your help," he said tightly, already halfway down the street in his head.

"Think about my offer!" called out Hughson as EJ hurried down the steps, "Big law firms are the wave of the future - trust me!"

EJ gave a vague wave in his direction to acknowledge having heard him but didn't bother turning around.

oooOOOOooo

EJ stood on the front doorstep of The Adele Neuberman Temp Agency and blew out a frustrated breath. He'd managed to get there before the doors had closed but it had been only to be informed that the agency did not give out personal information about their girls. EJ had tried the story about being the wife of a friend of his but the woman in charge wouldn't budge. In the end EJ had to give up and leave before he created a scene and arouse the woman's suspicions even more. EJ was beside himself. He needed to find Sami, needed it more than his next breath. As he stood there trying to think what to do next he saw a young woman approaching from down the hallway on the other side of the door. He opened the glass door for her out of habit and she smiled up at him for his courtesy. She went to move past him then but stopped and turned back round.

"I heard you asking Miss Williams about Betty," she offered up and instantly the young brunette had EJ's full attention.

"Ah yes," he nodded, taking a step closer to her in his eagerness, "Do you know her?"

"Sure," nodded the young woman, "We have lunch together all the time. I heard what you said to Miss Williams…"

She blushed then, looking a bit shame faced.

"Not that I was listenin in or nuthin'!" she clarified hurriedly.

"Of course you weren't," said EJ smoothly with a charming smile, determined to keep on this woman's good side if it meant he had a lead to finding out about Sami, "Miss…?"

"Arnold," she supplied, "But you can call me Eunice if you like."

Eunice smiled shyly up at the good looking older man. She'd never seen anyone more handsome she decided and that accent was to die for.

"Eunice," repeated EJ warmly, "I'm EJ."

The two shook hands and Eunice hoped her hands didn't feel as sweaty as they felt to her, feeling a little flustered at being the subject of that dark brown gaze.

"You shouldn't mind Old Maid Minsker," she told EJ with a grin, talking about the woman EJ had just had dealings with, "She's a bit of a dragon but underneath she's not a bad stick. I mean, you can just ask Betty that."

"What do you mean?" asked EJ curiously.

"Well…" said Eunice animatedly, clearing dying to tell him a story and EJ was a more than willing audience , "The old girl was in hospital a while back, at least six months I'd say, probably more…"

Eunice leaned in towards EJ and EJ looked a little uncertain and bent down as she seemed to be about to tell him something private.

"… lady problems," she said in a stage whisper and nodded knowingly, "You know you get to a certain age and well… you know, things stop working."

EJ kept a polite smile on his face, not really caring about Miss Minsker's 'lady problems' and more interested in who this tied in with Sami but it seemed that Eunice was going to take her time in telling her story. EJ ground his teeth in frustration and forced himself to remain calm. A part of him just wanted to shake this young woman and demand she tell him where he could find Sami but he knew that wasn't going to get him far. To know though that after eight months apart he might actually be able to see her again that very day was causing EJ no end of distraction.

"So while she was there she met Betty," continued on Eunice.

"Betty was in hospital?" EJ frowned, his heart lurching at the unwelcome news.

"Oh yeah," nodded Eunice her eyes going wide, "You are not going to believe this story - I tell ya, it's like somethin' from one of those Humphrey Bogart flicks!"

It was clear Eunice was dying to tell the story, obviously thinking it a pretty juicy one and EJ was just as desperate for her to tell it.

"Do tell," he said and forced himself to appear politely interested rather than rabidly frantic for her to continue.

"Well Miss Minsker was sharing a room with Betty and they got to chatting and it turns out that Betty was found wandering around the docks, covered in blood and all disorientated like. She collapsed and a good Samaritan bought her to hospital where the doctors fixed her up. She was in a real bad way apparently, badly beaten and cut up pretty bad."

EJ felt the nausea well up inside of him and he had to swallow hard a couple of times to stop himself losing the contents of his stomach. The thought of Sami in pain and alone almost undid him completely but Eunice didn't seem to notice, continuing on blithely with her story.

"Did she say what happened to her?" asked EJ, clearing his throat as his voice cracked a little on the question.

"Well that's the thing," said Eunice dramatically, clearly enjoying her roll of story teller, "She doesn't remember!"

"Doesn't remember?" EJ frowned, "What do you mean?"

"I mean she doesn't remember anything about anything," said Eunice, delivering the information with a flourish, "Not what happened, how she got there or even who she is!"

"Sa… Betty has amnesia?" asked EJ, drawing in a shocked breath and catching himself just in time to not call her by her proper name and give the game away.

"Aha," nodded Eunice enthusiastically, loving the drama of it all, "The doc says it's from all the hits to the head she got - she doesn't remember nuthin' about nuthin'!"

EJ straightened up, trying to get his bearings as he reeled from this new piece of information. That would certainly explain why she hadn't been in contact with him in all this time. Thoughts of Sami no longer wanting anything to do with him after what had happened with Nicole had raced through his head when he realised it was her he'd been following in the subway. He'd hated the thought of it but he understood why Sami might want to keep EJ out of her life after what she'd been through. But now to find out that she might not even remember him or their love for one another at all, well EJ didn't know how to feel about that yet. What he did know though that this new information made him all the more desperate to find Sami than ever before.

"She picked the name Betty out because she liked it," continued on Eunice, "And Miss Minsker gave her the name Jones to go with it - I mean, ya gotta have a last name right?"

"What about the police?" asked EJ, still feeling a bit dazed by this new turn of events, "What did they say?"

"Well they tried to help but seein' as Betty didn't have any kind of story to tell them it was kind of a bust," shrugged Eunice, "No one came lookin' for her so in the end they kind of let it all drop until more evidence came up or Betty remembers what happened to her."

No one had come looking for Sami because everyone already thought she was dead but there was no way she could have known that EJ realised.

"I bet it was somethin' like she was a gangsters girlfriend and she witnessed a crime and they tried to off her to keep her quiet!" postulated Eunice and seemed quite enamoured of her dramatic idea.

EJ could just picture the young woman's excitement if she found out what the real story was but had no intention of sharing it with anyone other than Sami right then.

"Anyways, Miss Minsker took a shine to Betty I guess and helped her out," carried on Eunice when EJ didn't respond, "She set her up in a woman's halfway house and got her a job her at the agency. Turns out she's a real good little secretary despite you know…"

Eunice pointed to her head then and pulled a bit of a face.

"… all the brain damage and all," she in another stage whisper.

It seemed Eunice was in the habit of whispering loudly little facts that she deemed too awful to be spoken in a regular tone.

"She has brain damage?" asked EJ in dismay, a new wave of guilt washing over him that he hadn't been there to protect Sami from this entire trauma.

"Not so as you'd notice but she can't remember anything about her past and that's not right," said Eunice, "I mean she's real good at her job and all and a real sweetie - do anything for anyone she would but there are these kinds of weird gaps if you know what I mean?"

"Gaps?" queried EJ who didn't know what she meant.

"Yeah like she'll know weird stuff like… like she can point out Timbuktu on the map which I didn't even think was a real place," said Eunice and then gave EJ a surprised look, "Did you know it was in Africa?"

"I'd heard that yes," nodded EJ, his heart beginning to beat an excited tattoo at this news.

Sami remembered about Timbuktu and a burst of hope shot through EJ that she might remember far more than that, particularly when he saw her properly again.

"So she knows these strange little things but then I had to tell her who Joan Crawford is," said Eunice with a shake of her head, "I mean everyone knows who Joan Crawford is! I mean she's fine to talk to and all but like I said, there are gaps."

"That's quite the story Eunice," said EJ.

"Ain't it?" nodded Eunice knowingly, "And she is just such a sweetheart for somethin' like this to happen to her - it breaks ya heart you know?"

"I know," said EJ, feeling particularly heart broken right about then.

He thanks Eunice for all her help and Eunice seemed happy enough to have had his attention for that long and after telling him she was going to miss her bus at this rate she hurried off. So many emotions were coursing through EJ right then that he couldn't process it all. He was horrified at the thought of what Sami must have had to endure these last months, not knowing what had happened to her, her time in hospital and then having to rebuild her life. He was angry at himself for not having thought to check on nearby cities in case Sami should have turned up but the account that Nicole had given of what had happened that night had just about extinguished all hope of Sami being able to survive something like that for EJ. He was nervous about what their first meeting would be like, if she would hate him if she remembered what had happened. And raising above all that was a joy that was rapidly spreading throughout his whole body and causing EJ to start shaking.

Now that EJ knew that Samantha was out there in the world, he would stop at nothing to bring them back together again and so he began to make his plans…