Bedroom Confessions
Chapter One
"Hey, Sami, what's red, has blonde hair and definitely can't fly?"
Lucas looked up at the sadistic smile on the tall, slender blonde's face. His eyes shot warning daggers into Nicole, which she promptly ignored. Instead, she kept her eyes trained on Sami, who was hunched over her untouched plate of salad, not even bothering to respond to the way Nicole was provoking her.
"It's your mom, Sami. How could you not know the answer to that? It was too easy."
"Nicole......" Lucas' eyes moved from Nicole to the exit door of the Brady Pub. His message was clear but Nicole had never been one to listen to anyone.
"It's a bird. It's a plane. No, wait, it's just good old Marlena throwing herself off balconies again." Nicole chuckled at her own joke.
Lucas slammed down his fork, "That is enough. Just get the hell out of here or I will not hesitate to throw you out."
Nicole was taken aback by the intense display of anger she got from Lucas. She had been expecting it from Sami but not him. The look of contempt and hatred in his eyes was so strong that it evoked something in her that felt very similar to fear. He looked like he wanted to tear her apart for what she had just said. Deciding not to push him any further, she turned on her heel and hurried out of the restaurant.
Lucas exhaled quietly as he watched Nicole leave, his anger slowly turning to sympathy for Sami. He couldn't even imagine everything she was feeling but he did know that the last thing she needed was people like Nicole acting like her mother's death had been nothing more than a joke. He knew that every time she was laughed at, she broke down a little bit more.
Sami was leaning forward, her hair covering her face as if she was trying to shield herself from everything around her. Lucas softly brushed the hair out of her eyes, taking in the blank expression on her face. The lack of emotion caused a pang of distress but didn't surprise him. She seemed to be bottling all her emotions up inside, pushing them beneath the surface. He hadn't seen her cry over Marlena's death once.
"Just forget about what she said, Sami. Nicole is sick, she just wanted to make you feel worse." Lucas murmured, watching her push the lettuce leaves around her plate with her fork.
"How could she make me feel worse? I mean, everything she said was true." Sami muttered. Lucas stared at her in silence for a moment. She was scaring him with this mask of indifference she was putting up, it wasn't like her. The only emotion she ever showed anymore was guilt. And sometimes, it felt like that was worse than her not showing any emotion at all. Sami, how do I make you see that what happened isn't your fault? He wondered, wrapping one arm around her shoulders. At that moment, he realized that he really hated Marlena for doing this to Sami. And to Will.
It had been a week since Marlena's funeral and ten days since Marlena had been found lying beneath the balcony of her home. Since no one had heard Marlena scream and since it looked like no one had been in the apartment at the time of her death, everyone had written off Marlena's death as a suicide. Lucas barely remembered the funeral service, there was only one thing that had really stood out for him. He remembered Sami's reaction to seeing John more clearly than anything else. He thought about the way John had regarded her warily, like he was afraid she was going to lash out and accuse him of pushing Marlena off the balcony. Actually, Lucas had almost been expecting that himself. But instead of lashing out, Sami had lowered her eyes guiltily and told John she was sorry for his loss. Then she had proceeded to allow him to hug her.
It was like she was giving up, like all the fight that had been in her was slowly dying. Sometimes he wanted to scream at her not to give up, not to be like Marlena. But after losing her grandmother, her father and her mother all in the course of six months, he didn't know how much more heartache she was going to be able to endure. She wouldn't even let herself grieve anymore, it was like she wouldn't let herself cry or be sad over her mother's death.
"Sami, you have to eat." he chided gently, rubbing her shoulder with one hand, "I never see you eat anything anymore. By not eating you're killing yourself." he winced at the choice of words.
Sami laughed humourlessly, "Sometimes, I feel like I'm already dead." she replied and he thought he saw a flicker of sadness in her eyes for a split second, "They're gone, Lucas. And I miss them."
Lucas struggled to speak as a lump formed in his throat. Roman, Caroline and Marlena had never meant anywhere near as much to him as they had to Sami. But he was so close to Sami and he was hurting for her so much that the deaths had not only shattered a piece of Sami's life but a piece of his own life as well.
"I miss them too." he whispered. And I miss you, he added silently. He extracted the fork from her hand and speared some of the salad with it. Holding the fork up to her mouth, he looked at her expectantly.
"Please?" he asked, feeling relieved when she reluctantly opened her mouth and allowed him to feed her. He watched her chew slowly as he piled some more salad onto the fork. The bells on the door to the Brady Pub jingled just as Lucas brought the second bite of salad up to Sami's lips. High heels clicked smartly on the floor of the Brady Pub and in seconds, Kate was standing in front of Lucas and Sami, her face pinched with anger. Lucas' felt his heart begin beating more rapidly at the sight of his mother's irate face but he refused to take his arm off Sami's shoulder. He didn't care what his mother had to say, Sami needed him and he was going to do everything he could to be there for her, no matter what his mother said.
"What is going on?" Kate demanded, her voice shrill as she scowled at Sami, "If you think for a second that I am going to let you sink your claws into my son by making him pity you, then you are sadly mistaken!"
"Mom!" Lucas said reproachfully, "Sami does not need this from you right now. She's been going through a really hard time. Why don't you lay off?"
"Don't give me that tone of look, young man." Kate realized what she had just said and frowned, "Tone of look? Look how upset that little trollop has gotten me now, I can't even talk properly. And I honestly don't care if she is going through a hard time or not. She can't be having that hard a time dealing with this if she is using it to her advantage to make a fool out of you. I cannot believe you are letting yourself get sucked in like this!"
"Mom, how can you say that?" Phillip spoke up. He was sitting a few tables away with Shawn, Rex, Mimi and Patrick. Kate's voice had carried all the way over to their table and now all of them were watching the scene at Lucas and Sami's table intently, "Did it ever occur to you that they might actually care about each other and don't want you getting involved?"
"Phillip!" Kate's nostrils flared indignantly, "If you understood the lengths Sami is going through to hurt your brother, you wouldn't be talking to me like that." she turned back to Sami, "You have no right to act like Marlena's death is hurting you that badly. Not when you can bounce back and start trying to seduce my son right away."
"That's an awful thing to say." Rex jumped in, too disgusted with his biological mother to stay silent. He wasn't that fond of Sami but the way Kate was talking to her was too much, even for him, "What gives you the right to judge them? Maybe you should leave them alone and let them sort out their feelings for each other without interfering."
"Stop taking Sami's side!" Kate yelped angrily, glaring at the blonde woman who sat stiffly in the booth beside Lucas, "You may have fooled everyone else but you haven't fooled me. I see right through you and I know what you're up to."
Lucas stood up and shook his head, sickened by his mother's heartless words, "Are you the one that just lost your mother?" he practically shouted, causing everyone in the restaurant to look at him. Kate was too stunned by the outburst to speak, "I didn't think so. So, you don't have clue what Sami is going through. I may not either but at least I am not passing judgements on her and acting like a fucking hypocrite!" Sami stood up and touched his arm lightly.
"It's okay, Lucas. She isn't worth it." Kate's jaw dropped open at the remark. Sami wasn't even going to try and pick a fight with her? What was wrong with this picture?
Lucas nodded and cast another dark glance at his mother, "You're right, she isn't. Are you ready to leave?" he asked Sami politely, now completely ignoring his mother.
"Where are you going?" Kate shrilled.
Lucas sighed impatiently, "I'm going to go to the grocery store. Then I have to go over to the Kiriakas Mansion to see Brady."
"Why do we have to see Brady?" Sami asked curiously.
Lucas gave her a small smile, "I'll tell you in the car."
Phillip, Rex, Mimi, Shawn and Patrick watched as Lucas and Sami left the Brady Pub without even saying good-bye to Kate. Phillip tossed another displeased stare in his mother's direction, who had slid into a booth and was looking over a menu. She was obviously angry at him for taking Lucas and Sami's side.
"I can't believe my mom." Phillip said quietly, so Kate couldn't hear him, "I might not be the biggest fan of Sami Brady but no one deserves to be treated like that after their mom just died."
Mimi let out a sympathetic murmur of agreement, "And I feel so bad for your brother. You can tell Lucas has feelings for Sami but your mom just keeps complicating things for them. I don't think he's going to have a chance with her unless someone does something to give them a push in the right direction."
Shawn watched his cousin and Lucas get into Lucas' car, "You could be right, Mimi."
Inside Lucas' car, Sami looked over at Lucas questioningly, "Why are we going to the grocery store?"
"When was the last time you went grocery shopping?" Lucas inquired, watching as Sami flushed and looked away, "We're just going to get you some groceries." his voice was low and concerned, "Sami, if you keep starving yourself, you're letting people like Nicole and my mom win. You're strong and I know you can get through this. And I'm going to do everything I can to help you."
Sami looked like she was going to make an objection, then closed her mouth. It seemed like she was too drained of her energy to even argue with him about anything anymore, Lucas noted. He remembered the phone call he had gotten from Brady that morning and changed the subject.
"Then, we have to go to the Kiriakas Mansion because Brady was going through Victor's desk drawers looking for the will and he found the tape Victor was blackmailing you with. He called me because he said he thought I should be the one who decided what to do with it."
"What are you going to do with it?" Sami asked in a small voice.
"I'm going to destroy it." Lucas smiled faintly at her, "I don't want to make you miserable anymore. I just want you to be okay."
Sami bit her lip and it seemed like she was struggling to contain her emotions, "Thank you. For everything." she added, her voice thick. She fell silent as she stared out the window of the car but when Lucas reached over to take her hand in his, she didn't try to pull away.
Chapter One
"Hey, Sami, what's red, has blonde hair and definitely can't fly?"
Lucas looked up at the sadistic smile on the tall, slender blonde's face. His eyes shot warning daggers into Nicole, which she promptly ignored. Instead, she kept her eyes trained on Sami, who was hunched over her untouched plate of salad, not even bothering to respond to the way Nicole was provoking her.
"It's your mom, Sami. How could you not know the answer to that? It was too easy."
"Nicole......" Lucas' eyes moved from Nicole to the exit door of the Brady Pub. His message was clear but Nicole had never been one to listen to anyone.
"It's a bird. It's a plane. No, wait, it's just good old Marlena throwing herself off balconies again." Nicole chuckled at her own joke.
Lucas slammed down his fork, "That is enough. Just get the hell out of here or I will not hesitate to throw you out."
Nicole was taken aback by the intense display of anger she got from Lucas. She had been expecting it from Sami but not him. The look of contempt and hatred in his eyes was so strong that it evoked something in her that felt very similar to fear. He looked like he wanted to tear her apart for what she had just said. Deciding not to push him any further, she turned on her heel and hurried out of the restaurant.
Lucas exhaled quietly as he watched Nicole leave, his anger slowly turning to sympathy for Sami. He couldn't even imagine everything she was feeling but he did know that the last thing she needed was people like Nicole acting like her mother's death had been nothing more than a joke. He knew that every time she was laughed at, she broke down a little bit more.
Sami was leaning forward, her hair covering her face as if she was trying to shield herself from everything around her. Lucas softly brushed the hair out of her eyes, taking in the blank expression on her face. The lack of emotion caused a pang of distress but didn't surprise him. She seemed to be bottling all her emotions up inside, pushing them beneath the surface. He hadn't seen her cry over Marlena's death once.
"Just forget about what she said, Sami. Nicole is sick, she just wanted to make you feel worse." Lucas murmured, watching her push the lettuce leaves around her plate with her fork.
"How could she make me feel worse? I mean, everything she said was true." Sami muttered. Lucas stared at her in silence for a moment. She was scaring him with this mask of indifference she was putting up, it wasn't like her. The only emotion she ever showed anymore was guilt. And sometimes, it felt like that was worse than her not showing any emotion at all. Sami, how do I make you see that what happened isn't your fault? He wondered, wrapping one arm around her shoulders. At that moment, he realized that he really hated Marlena for doing this to Sami. And to Will.
It had been a week since Marlena's funeral and ten days since Marlena had been found lying beneath the balcony of her home. Since no one had heard Marlena scream and since it looked like no one had been in the apartment at the time of her death, everyone had written off Marlena's death as a suicide. Lucas barely remembered the funeral service, there was only one thing that had really stood out for him. He remembered Sami's reaction to seeing John more clearly than anything else. He thought about the way John had regarded her warily, like he was afraid she was going to lash out and accuse him of pushing Marlena off the balcony. Actually, Lucas had almost been expecting that himself. But instead of lashing out, Sami had lowered her eyes guiltily and told John she was sorry for his loss. Then she had proceeded to allow him to hug her.
It was like she was giving up, like all the fight that had been in her was slowly dying. Sometimes he wanted to scream at her not to give up, not to be like Marlena. But after losing her grandmother, her father and her mother all in the course of six months, he didn't know how much more heartache she was going to be able to endure. She wouldn't even let herself grieve anymore, it was like she wouldn't let herself cry or be sad over her mother's death.
"Sami, you have to eat." he chided gently, rubbing her shoulder with one hand, "I never see you eat anything anymore. By not eating you're killing yourself." he winced at the choice of words.
Sami laughed humourlessly, "Sometimes, I feel like I'm already dead." she replied and he thought he saw a flicker of sadness in her eyes for a split second, "They're gone, Lucas. And I miss them."
Lucas struggled to speak as a lump formed in his throat. Roman, Caroline and Marlena had never meant anywhere near as much to him as they had to Sami. But he was so close to Sami and he was hurting for her so much that the deaths had not only shattered a piece of Sami's life but a piece of his own life as well.
"I miss them too." he whispered. And I miss you, he added silently. He extracted the fork from her hand and speared some of the salad with it. Holding the fork up to her mouth, he looked at her expectantly.
"Please?" he asked, feeling relieved when she reluctantly opened her mouth and allowed him to feed her. He watched her chew slowly as he piled some more salad onto the fork. The bells on the door to the Brady Pub jingled just as Lucas brought the second bite of salad up to Sami's lips. High heels clicked smartly on the floor of the Brady Pub and in seconds, Kate was standing in front of Lucas and Sami, her face pinched with anger. Lucas' felt his heart begin beating more rapidly at the sight of his mother's irate face but he refused to take his arm off Sami's shoulder. He didn't care what his mother had to say, Sami needed him and he was going to do everything he could to be there for her, no matter what his mother said.
"What is going on?" Kate demanded, her voice shrill as she scowled at Sami, "If you think for a second that I am going to let you sink your claws into my son by making him pity you, then you are sadly mistaken!"
"Mom!" Lucas said reproachfully, "Sami does not need this from you right now. She's been going through a really hard time. Why don't you lay off?"
"Don't give me that tone of look, young man." Kate realized what she had just said and frowned, "Tone of look? Look how upset that little trollop has gotten me now, I can't even talk properly. And I honestly don't care if she is going through a hard time or not. She can't be having that hard a time dealing with this if she is using it to her advantage to make a fool out of you. I cannot believe you are letting yourself get sucked in like this!"
"Mom, how can you say that?" Phillip spoke up. He was sitting a few tables away with Shawn, Rex, Mimi and Patrick. Kate's voice had carried all the way over to their table and now all of them were watching the scene at Lucas and Sami's table intently, "Did it ever occur to you that they might actually care about each other and don't want you getting involved?"
"Phillip!" Kate's nostrils flared indignantly, "If you understood the lengths Sami is going through to hurt your brother, you wouldn't be talking to me like that." she turned back to Sami, "You have no right to act like Marlena's death is hurting you that badly. Not when you can bounce back and start trying to seduce my son right away."
"That's an awful thing to say." Rex jumped in, too disgusted with his biological mother to stay silent. He wasn't that fond of Sami but the way Kate was talking to her was too much, even for him, "What gives you the right to judge them? Maybe you should leave them alone and let them sort out their feelings for each other without interfering."
"Stop taking Sami's side!" Kate yelped angrily, glaring at the blonde woman who sat stiffly in the booth beside Lucas, "You may have fooled everyone else but you haven't fooled me. I see right through you and I know what you're up to."
Lucas stood up and shook his head, sickened by his mother's heartless words, "Are you the one that just lost your mother?" he practically shouted, causing everyone in the restaurant to look at him. Kate was too stunned by the outburst to speak, "I didn't think so. So, you don't have clue what Sami is going through. I may not either but at least I am not passing judgements on her and acting like a fucking hypocrite!" Sami stood up and touched his arm lightly.
"It's okay, Lucas. She isn't worth it." Kate's jaw dropped open at the remark. Sami wasn't even going to try and pick a fight with her? What was wrong with this picture?
Lucas nodded and cast another dark glance at his mother, "You're right, she isn't. Are you ready to leave?" he asked Sami politely, now completely ignoring his mother.
"Where are you going?" Kate shrilled.
Lucas sighed impatiently, "I'm going to go to the grocery store. Then I have to go over to the Kiriakas Mansion to see Brady."
"Why do we have to see Brady?" Sami asked curiously.
Lucas gave her a small smile, "I'll tell you in the car."
Phillip, Rex, Mimi, Shawn and Patrick watched as Lucas and Sami left the Brady Pub without even saying good-bye to Kate. Phillip tossed another displeased stare in his mother's direction, who had slid into a booth and was looking over a menu. She was obviously angry at him for taking Lucas and Sami's side.
"I can't believe my mom." Phillip said quietly, so Kate couldn't hear him, "I might not be the biggest fan of Sami Brady but no one deserves to be treated like that after their mom just died."
Mimi let out a sympathetic murmur of agreement, "And I feel so bad for your brother. You can tell Lucas has feelings for Sami but your mom just keeps complicating things for them. I don't think he's going to have a chance with her unless someone does something to give them a push in the right direction."
Shawn watched his cousin and Lucas get into Lucas' car, "You could be right, Mimi."
Inside Lucas' car, Sami looked over at Lucas questioningly, "Why are we going to the grocery store?"
"When was the last time you went grocery shopping?" Lucas inquired, watching as Sami flushed and looked away, "We're just going to get you some groceries." his voice was low and concerned, "Sami, if you keep starving yourself, you're letting people like Nicole and my mom win. You're strong and I know you can get through this. And I'm going to do everything I can to help you."
Sami looked like she was going to make an objection, then closed her mouth. It seemed like she was too drained of her energy to even argue with him about anything anymore, Lucas noted. He remembered the phone call he had gotten from Brady that morning and changed the subject.
"Then, we have to go to the Kiriakas Mansion because Brady was going through Victor's desk drawers looking for the will and he found the tape Victor was blackmailing you with. He called me because he said he thought I should be the one who decided what to do with it."
"What are you going to do with it?" Sami asked in a small voice.
"I'm going to destroy it." Lucas smiled faintly at her, "I don't want to make you miserable anymore. I just want you to be okay."
Sami bit her lip and it seemed like she was struggling to contain her emotions, "Thank you. For everything." she added, her voice thick. She fell silent as she stared out the window of the car but when Lucas reached over to take her hand in his, she didn't try to pull away.
