Chapter 26

Three Months Later

Saturday, October 3rd 2015

"Nicole? Where are you," Xander shouted in a voice tailored to be loud enough that it could be heard from any room of the majestic, completely renovated, Victorian mansion they were currently touring. It was their third consecutive weekend of house-hunting and, up until today, neither of them had been impressed by the homes-for-sale that they had seen. However, judging by the way Nicole's eyes had lit up when they first pulled into the drive and the zealous looks she constantly shot him during the guided portion of the tour, he believed that they had finally found their future home.

"Nicole Walker, come out, come out wherever you are?" From the main hall, he strode toward the kitchen to further investigate. It couldn't have been more than ten minutes since their realtor retreated to her car so they could explore the home by themselves and already she was lost. He had thought she was right behind him when he entered the huge left-side parlor, yammering on about how he thought it would be the perfect place for their Christmas tree, but when he turned around to seek her approval, she was nowhere in sight.

The kitchen was empty and the entire first level of the three-floor mansion seemed to be deserted aside from his own presence. When he finally took a moment to actually assess where she might have run off to, he shook his head at his own stupidity, for he knew now exactly where to find her. He crept quietly as he could up the wooden staircase, fully aware that the steps were still subject to some creakiness due to the age of the wood that was original to the 1878 mansion. He was hoping that she wouldn't hear him coming so that he could sneak a peek at what she was up to. She had the most adorable habit of talking aloud to herself when she believed no one was listening, and if she was indeed where he imagined she would be, it was going to be an enjoyable show. He had already caught her on several occasions having conversations with their future children.

He saw that his suspicions about her location were right when he spied her from the doorway of the room that the current family was using as their nursery. What he didn't expect to find was her sitting in the rocking chair by the window, elbows on knees and face in hands, crying her eyes out. He immediately ran to her side and dropped to his knees beside her.

"Sweetheart, what is it," he inquired, growing somewhat panicky from sheer concern. He guessed that her breakdown was baby-related in some way, but it was the first time that she'd reacted this way during their house-hunting adventures, where making sure that the home had the perfect space for a nursery and enough bedrooms for at least three children to have their own rooms was pretty much the main objective.

"Oh, hey...I'm sorry," she said, immediately jumping from her seat and wiping away tears that still continued to fall despite her efforts to instantly shut them off. "I didn't hear you coming."

Her apologetic behavior and forced smile was painful to watch. He imagined she had carried on through most of her life like that, much as he had, hiding her pain from others as if her suffering was some major inconvenience to anyone who might bear witness to it. He wasn't about to let her get away with that with him though, and she knew it. Her old habits were dying hard but the important thing was that they were in fact dying. When he rose to his feet to join her and pulled her to him with one arm around her waist and the other lovingly coaxing her head to his chest, she broke down into a fresh round of uncontrollable sobbing.

He allowed her to get in a good cry and simply held her and kissed the top of her head until her tears began to subside on their own before pressing her to reveal the source of the breakdown. He understood how difficult it could be for one to share when they felt pressured, especially at a time when they were already overwhelmed with emotion.

"Why are you crying, Love? What set you off?"

His voice was so soft and soothing that it was hard to believe this was the same man whose angry shouts once directed at her had been so loud that they actually made walls vibrate. In fact, in the three months that they'd officially been a couple, that Xander seemed to have up and disappeared altogether. These last three months had also been the happiest of her life, even surpassing that precious time when she and EJ were together and Sydney was as good as hers before what she had done with the baby switch had been revealed. But it had all been a lie. Well, most of it was anyway. The only part that wasn't was that she truly loved EJ and Sydney with all her heart. It was believing that he loved her as much and Sydney would be hers forever that had nearly destroyed her when it all fell apart. Now, for the first time in a long time, she finally had another chance to secure her happily-ever-after and this time, her prince was indeed very much in love with her and only her and her best shot of having a healthy baby that was actually hers was so close to being within her reach that she could taste it. But even the excitement of finally having a child would never stop her from grieving for the ones that she had lost, and on days like today it was especially difficult to celebrate. Although the actual date of the anniversary of the incident was still two days away, it was almost three years ago now that she'd given birth to her stillborn son.

"On Monday it'll be three years since I lost my baby boy," she spoke softly and coherently though her voice was still a bit shaky and nasally as one would expect after a good cry. "Seeing all those signs for that dumb harvest festival on the way over here started the whole thing. I remember that was going on when it happened."

"I'm sorry, Love. I didn't realize we were encroaching on the date it happened," he said, followed by a kiss to her forehead while his strong arms tightened their comforting embrace around her.

"It's OK. Actually, I don't think I even told you exactly when it was so I wasn't expecting you to know. Ugh, it's just that stupid poster of that ridiculous pumpkin in the over-alls and straw hat that gets me every time. Right before I found out I had lost him, I was picturing myself bringing him to the festival the next year, pushing him around in the stroller wearing his own little pumpkin costume. I thought for sure he was going to make it. I was so close."

Even though the recollection of that terrible time was no doubt painful for her to revisit, she was smiling her way through the tears. His own heart was throbbing within his chest, grieving for her, with her, but while his heart was busy empathizing, his mind was facing a different challenge.

It was that stupid poster of that ridiculous pumpkin in the over-alls and straw hat that was plaguing him too. He had seen the posters throughout the town too and just like it had done for Nicole, it served as a link to a significant memory of his own. He had only been to Salem a handful of times in his life since most of his dealings with Victor had been overseas, but there were a few times that he'd stopped by on his own accord just to say hello while passing through, even though his uncle frowned upon it, and one isolated incident when his assistance had actually been requested there. It was a time he would never forget. The fact that Victor had trusted him with such a top-secret mission had meant the world to him, and the fact that it involved helping to protect Philip made him feel especially honored, even if he didn't quite understand Victor's reasoning.

It didn't make sense that Victor would want to keep Philip from his son, even if the boy's mother was nothing more than a two-bit floozy he'd picked up at a bar for a one-night stand. He clearly remembered the date of his visit there being October 6th, thanks to the poster which explained the ridiculous amount of traffic he'd battled getting into town by stating October 6th was the first day for the festival. The year was 2012, three years ago, for sure because he remembered the conversation he'd had with Victor about it being fifteen years since his mother had passed. That meant he was in Salem the day after Nicole delivered her baby and he had left Salem later that night with the baby he believed was Philip's, born the previous day. But why would Victor keep Philip from the baby, and still to this day? It made no sense to him then and it made even less sense now. But of course it wouldn't make sense if it had all been a lie. What if? No...no, it's only coincidence. There's just no way. I mean, he hates her, yes, but could he hate her enough to...

"Xan?"

His brain was most thankful for the interruption of it's thought process, especially considering the absurdities it had managed to conjure up.

"Sweetheart, what? I'm sorry. I just can't even imagine how awful that must have been." He was well aware that she must have asked him something that didn't quite register, but he was much too ashamed to admit he hadn't been listening.

"It was, but let's not talk about it any more for now, ok? I'd much rather talk about this house. What do you think?"

"I think it's bloody damn near perfect," he gushed enthusiastically, eager to discuss and ponder more pleasant topics. "It's got all that old charm that you and I both like so much yet it's got all of the modern conveniences we realistically need. And six bedrooms in addition to the master suite? That leaves plenty of room for our family to grow."

"Really," Nicole exclaimed excitedly as she began hopping in place. "Does that mean we're going to make an offer?"

"Not only are we going to make an offer, we're going to make them one they can't possibly refuse because may I remind you, Miss Walker, our wedding is only two months away. When I pick you up to carry you over the threshold, it's going to be here in this house."

"Yay! I'm so excited! And I can't believe our wedding is only two months away!"

"Mmmm hmmm, and then we can focus on having our baby. Just think," he began as he stepped behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist and pressed his lips to her ear, speaking sweetly. "By this time next year, you and I could be standing in this room watching our brand new little girl or boy sleep."

Nicole felt as if her face wasn't nearly wide enough to accommodate the resulting smile brought on by the lovely picture he painted. "Doctor Novak says we're good to go as soon as we find our surrogate, and if we really want to be pregnant by New Year's, we've got to find her soon so we can get all the paperwork and preliminary stuff squared away."

"Then I'll get right on it first thing Monday morning and make us appointments with the agencies she recommended. We'll go as soon as they can squeeze us in. There isn't anything work-related coming up this week for either one of us that can't be rescheduled."

"I can't wait to tell Brady about all the baby stuff at the dinner tonight. You don't mind, do you? I just feel like I'm gonna bust if I don't share it with someone and he's pretty much the only one who's come around to accepting you and me together."

"Of course I don't mind just, please, darling, do me a favor and don't let Uncle Victor catch wind of it. You know I don't give a damn what he thinks about us, but at the same rate I really don't want to hear it either. Bedsides, I haven't seen Philip in ages and I'd like to visit with him a bit before we both end up getting thrown out on our asses for telling Victor where to shove it."

"Believe me, today's not a good day for Victor to start pulling his crap with me. My plan from the get-go was to just avoid him as much as possible, cuz I really want to see Philip too and I'm especially curious about this lady friend he's bringing."

"Good. She'll have someone to talk to while I grill him for info." Such as determining if he was even in Salem to impregnate someone in the first place. Didn't Brady mention that Philip hadn't been back since he left in the spring of 2011? If that was true, then there was no way that baby could have been his unless the woman had met him wherever he happened to be at the time. Given Victor's description of the girl, it was somewhat of a stretch to believe Philip had some sort of previous encounter with the woman or that he would bother to summon her. Again, it never did make sense, none of it, and Xander was anxious to find out if Philip could shed more light on the subject. Not that he really believed that baby had any ties at all to Nicole's baby. Again, ridiculous. Mere coincidence. Victor may hate Nicole but he'd have no reason to want to take her baby away from her. Except that he hates her with a passion and had been heard on several occasions proclaiming his desire to see her suffer. Oh, and the baby is also half DiMera. Oh, and apparently there was already some kind of plan in play where he'd found a way to stick it to the DiMeras good as payback for a laundry list full of things. Fuck. Oh holy fuck. Please God, just let me be wrong about this one little thing.

But God never did seem to listen to him. At least that's what he thought for most of his life until he'd met Nicole. Up until just an hour or so ago he'd actually believed that God took mercy on him and forgave him for his sins and that's how Nicole came into his life. Now, he was beginning to realize that it was all nothing but a cruel joke on him for she had been handed to him only long enough for him to fall in love with her before she would be ripped away, leaving him completely broken. That's exactly how it was going to happen because as much as he wanted to be wrong, he had a terrible feeling that in this case, he wasn't.