After waking up with quite the hangover Sami walked into her living room and looked at her phone. She noticed Johnny had called a few times and texted her. "Mom, please call me back. I'm worried about you." She sighed and pressed the call button, calling him back.
Johnny picked up the phone after one ring. "Mom! Are you okay?" He asked.
"I'm fine, Sweetie. Sorry I didn't call you back right away…I was just busy." She lied, rubbing her temple to try and lessen her headache. She had been drinking a lot yesterday and didn"t realize she had not looked at her phone in 24 hours.
"Are you sure? I couldn't reach you for hours and Grandma Marlena says you haven't answered any of her calls since you left Salem…" Johnny said.
Sami flashed back to the last conversation she had with her mother, over 3 months ago, when she had told her that Belle was sleeping with EJ.
"No." Marlena was shaking her head.
"Don't defend her, mother. Please don't make excuses for her to me right now." Sami pleaded.
"No..I…I'm just aching for her and I'm aching for you." Marlena said and Sami shook her head in disbelief. "This shouldn't happen to anyone on their wedding day…but please don't take your anger and your upset out on your sister because you won't just be hurting her…you'll be hurting yourself as well."
"Johnny, you don't have to worry about me. I'm fine…I promise." Sami said, trying to reassure her son.
"Then why are you on the other side of the world all by yourself not in contact with anyone?" Johnny asked, upset, being done with his mother avoiding everyone and everything. He was starting to really get worried.
"I'm not here by myself…Sydney is here." Sami replied but she was indeed by herself most of the time and she liked it that way. At least no one could hurt her again that way.
"Come on, mom. I know Sydney is in school most of the time and only comes home a few weekends a month." Johnny countered.
"Yes and I want to be here for her on those weekends." Sami said honestly. She felt a little guilty about her and EJ going back and forth between Italy and Salem in the last few years while Sydney stayed behind in school. So she made a real effort to be the best mom she could in the weekends Sydney came home. The other weekends she basically survived by drinking and hooking up with Maxi, the owner of a bar nearby.
"I get that but being in Italy doesn't mean you have to ignore everyone in Salem, there's this thing called video calling..." Johnny said, not letting his mom off the hook.
"I'm not ignoring everyone. I speak to you and Allie all the time." Sami answered.
"What about dad and your parents and uncle Eric?" Johnny asked, still not relenting on the subject.
Sami sighed. "Look Johnny… It's complicated and I don't want to fight about this with you…I'll just talk to you in a few days, okay?" Sami said, preparing to hang up the phone.
"Mom, wait, don't hang up please. There's something I have to tell you." Johnny said in a serious tone. He was not looking forward to having to tell his mother the news.
"Oh god, did you get married again?" Sami guessed from Johnny's serious tone. He could be just as impulsive as she was.
"No, it's not about me. It's about dad. He wanted to tell you himself but since you haven't called him back I guess I should…" Johnny explained.
"Johnny, I don't want to talk about your father." Sami replied stubbornly.
"Mom, you're going to have to hear this and I'd rather you hear it from me than anyone else." Johnny started and his mother didn't voice any more objections so he went on. "Aunt Belle is pregnant and dad might be the father." He blurted out.
For a second Sami had been a little worried EJ might have health issues again but when Johnny told her Belle was pregnant she felt like someone kicked her in the stomach repeatedly. Her ears started ringing and she felt sick to her stomach. Images of EJ and Belle being a family with their child ran through her mind.
"Mom, are you okay?" Johnny asked worriedly after his mother didn't speak for a few seconds.
"Yeah...I-I have to go, Johnny." Sami managed to get out before she let the phone drop out of her hand. She made her way to the kitchen sink and emptied her stomach there because she knew she wouldn't make it to the bathroom. Her legs felt heavy all of the sudden and they couldn't hold her up any longer. She slid down to the kitchen floor. Still all she could see were the images of EJ and Belle together. Him caressing her baby bump and them standing over a crib while proudly smiling at their child. She spotted a kitchen knife on the floor next to her which she must have knocked over on her way down. She took it in her hand and she realized the object could make all of her pain go away. No more bad memories, no more fighting with her family, no more having to change for them and no more having to live without EJ. She put the knife against her wrist but when she thought about what she was about to do the images of Belle and EJ were replaced by memories of her children. She was standing on a beach in LA with Ari in her arms and Will right beside her. Johnny, Sydney and Allie were running around, having a water fight while squealing with laughter. She then thought back to Allie and Johnny's first driving lesson and to the day EJ had woken up from his coma. The first day in years where she had felt truly happy again. They had al been overjoyed, tears of joy running down all of their faces. She realized she couldn't leave her kids, at least not yet. Will had his own family and his life pretty much together but Johnny, Allie and Sydney were still so young and her willingly leaving them right now would probably ruin their lives forever. She let the knife fall from her hand and it dropped to the floor. She would just have to be strong for her children.
—
"Sami…Sami, wake up." Sami could faintly hear someone calling her and it felt like someone was shaking her but she really didn't want to wake up. She felt exhausted and didn"'t have the strength to open her eyes, her eyelids feeling too heavy. Maybe the person trying to wake her would go away.
"Maybe we should call an ambulance?" She heard another familiar voice ask. Shit she thought, were they talking about her? She forced herself to open her eyes but quickly closed them again when the sunlight blinded her. Where the hell was she?
Marlena breathed a sigh of relief when she saw her daughter was starting to come too. "Sami, Honey, you're okay. Open your eyes." Marlena encouraged, stroking her daughter's face softly.
Sami opened her eyes again and this time someone was blocking the sunlight. Oh no that someone was her father looking down at her very worried. She turned to the right and saw that her mother was sitting beside her on her knees, also looking very worried. John was walking towards her with a glass of water in his hands. "Shit." She groaned, grabbing her head to try and stop it from spinning. "What happened?"
"We found you passed out on your lounge set, we've been trying to wake you up for a few minutes." Marlena explained. She took a hold of Sami's wrist to check if her pulse was steady again, which it was.
"Right…" Sami answered confused. She tried to sit up but immediately a wave of nausea came over her so she quickly layed back down.
"Honey, take it easy. Sit up more slowly." Marlena said, helping her daughter sit up straight and then sitting down beside her.
Once Sami was sitting up she could see that she was at her own lake house in Italy. She remembered going out the night before and that she and her drinking buddy, Maxi, got pretty wasted. Once she got back to the house she must have passed out outside on her lounge set. That didn't explain why her parents were there though. "Wait, what are you doing here?" She asked them, confused.
Marlena took the glass of water from John and held it up in front of Sami's mouth forcing her to drink some before answering her. "We are here because we are worried about you." She answered softly, the worry showing in her eyes.
"And rightly so, it turns out." Roman added, nodding towards the empty whiskey bottle at Sami's feet.
Besides the dizziness Sami now felt a headache coming up. Partly from her parents being there and partly from her hangover. "How did you even get in here?" She asked, rubbing her temple to try and relieve her headache.
"We rang your doorbell and called you but no one answered…then we saw that the gate towards the back of the house was wide open." John explained and Sami looked at him for the first time they got there. He hadn't seen her for months and now seeing her in the state she was in really hurt him.
"So you let yourselves in." Sami sighed. If she would have just closed the gate she might have been able to ignore her parents a little while longer.
"Yes, because we figured that you are not doing okay right now and might need some help." Marlena replied. She was not at all sorry for entering her daughter's home without her permission. God knows what would have happened if they hadn't.
Sami let out a laugh. "I do not need help. I'm just living my best life and enjoying my freedom."
"Sami, you drank so much we were barely able to wake you up and you look like you haven 't eaten anything in weeks." Marlena said, looking over Sami's body. She must have lost at least 10 pounds.
"That's really nice, thank you." Sami answered sarcastically, standing up slowly. "I'm telling you I'm fine…you can leave…I hereby release you of your parental duties." She ignored the dizziness and walked inside the house trying not to sway because that would worry her parents even more.
"Sami, we are not leaving you like this." Roman said, following her into the house. John and Marlena shared a worried look and then walked inside as well.
"We love you so much, Honey." Marlena added, hoping to get through to her daughter with some love but all she got back was a blank look.
"I want to be by myself...that's why I moved here." Sami said. She wasn't sure how much more clear she could be about wanting her parents to leave without getting really hurtful.
"You are running away from your problems and your emotions." Marlena said.
"Actually when I'm here I don't have any problems or emotions." Sami replied.
"So that's your plan? Stay here for the rest of your life and not let anyone in so you can't get hurt?" Marlena asked.
"Basically." Sami answered, shrugging her shoulders.
"I know what happened with Lucas and EJ really hurt you…" Marlena started and Sami flashed back to Belle coming out of EJ's bathroom in his rope. For a second Marlena could see the hurt on her daughter's face but it was quickly replaced by another emotionless look. "But that doesn't mean you just give up on everything."
"I don't want to talk about Lucas or EJ…in fact I'm tired...I'm going to bed." Sami said avoiding a deeper conversation. She was exhausted even though it was eleven in the morning. "Please just respect my wishes and leave me be." She pleaded, before going upstairs. Her parents let her go with worried looks on their faces.
Marlena sat down on the couch. "She's not herself…the whole time we were talking to her she didn't call me mom once."
"Come on, Doc." John said, sitting down next to his wife and grabbing her hand. "Samantha just has her walls up really high right now but we'll get through to her." He tried to reassure her even though he was worried himself.
"John's right, we won't give up on our girl." Roman agreed.