Chapter Six


Author's Note: When I started writing this fic, I had no idea they were going to make Marlena fall off the balcony on the show. It was just a very strange coincidence. Someone else thought I had based my story on spoilers, so I thought I would just make it clear that I didn't know Marlena was going to fall off the balcony until about a week ago. Sorry for making this chapter so long, I'll try and keep the rest of the chapters shorter.


Jan squirmed around uncomfortably underneath the seat of the van. Once she had found out Shawn and Nicole were going to be leaving Salem for a night, she had snuck underneath the back seat in the van so that she could follow Shawn. She really loved Shawn. She would follow him anywhere. She was a little annoyed with Nicole though, Nicole was her best friend, Nicole should have invited her to come on the trip. If Nicole had invited her, she wouldn't be squished against the floor of the van and squished by a bunch of overnight bags.

Not to mention that Lucas had been swinging his legs back and forth and kicking her in the face for the first half an hour of the trip. That kind of hurt. But if Lucas hadn't been kicking her and if he hadn't been making fun of her and Nicole earlier, she might have liked him. He had nice feet, almost as nice as Shawn's. Jan had a serious foot fetish.


Shawn had only been driving for about an hour and everyone except Mimi and Nicole were already asleep. But Nicole had a feeling that Brady, Lucas and Sami probably hadn't slept very well last night, so it made sense that they were sleeping. She hadn't slept well either but she didn't feel like sleeping. She was sitting in the second row of the van, in between Brady and Mimi. She smiled when Brady rolled his head over to the other side so it was resting on her shoulder. She noticed Mimi watching her and patted Brady on the head.

"Isn't he the cutest thing you've ever seen?" Nicole asked.

"Not as cute as my Rexipoo." Mimi responded, eyeing the back of Rex's head. He, Phillip and Patrick were sitting in the first row of the van while Belle sat in the passenger seat and Shawn drove. Phillip had rented one of those big vans with three rows of seats and after Lucas had fought with Nicole for an extensive amount of time, he and Sami had ended up getting to go in the back seat. This had annoyed Nicole greatly, since she had wanted to go in the back seat with Brady.

"Lucas, however, is not cute at all." Nicole added, using one hand to try and push Lucas' feet off of the seat. Before Lucas had went to sleep, he had propped his feet up on the back of her seat, right behind her head and Nicole could not get him to budge, "As a matter of fact, he is an infuriating bastard."

Mimi rolled her eyes, "I'm glad at least one of you is asleep. If we had to listen to you two go at each other's throats the entire time, we would have all gone crazy." before Lucas had ended up falling asleep, he had picked a fight with Nicole when Mimi had casually said something about seeing Jan in town. Lucas had then mentioned seeing Jan and Nicole together and had made some insinuations about the Jan and Nicole being a little more than friends.

Nicole scowled, "It was his fault. He's the one who accused me of having romantic feelings for Jan, which is the farthest thing from the truth."

"Right. Then you went and said he had been drooling over Patrick for the entire trip." Mimi retorted, "That was really mature, wasn't it?"

"Yeah, well you're the one who spent a good five minutes trying to convince us all that your brother was really a transexual before he managed to stop you." Nicole reminded her.

Mimi looked offended, "Hey, we're siblings and we haven't seen each other in a long time. We have a lot of catching up to do."

Lucas suddenly bumped Nicole in the head with his feet and Nicole sighed petulantly. She couldn't turn all the way around because she was enjoying the fact that Brady's head was on her shoulder so she had to settle for scooting as far away from Lucas' feet as possible.

Mimi whirled around and her eyes lit up triumphantly when she saw Lucas and Sami. They were both sleeping, Lucas had his legs on the back of Nicole's seat and Sami's legs were tucked underneath her body, her head resting on Lucas' chest. His arm was wrapped securely around her and their fingers were laced together. They already looked like they were in love. It looked like Kate hadn't been that successful in her attempt to stop Lucas and Sami from falling for each other.

"Hey, Shawn, can I drive the hobo-van now?" Nicole called up to Shawn, who eyed her in the review mirror and shook his head. Nicole huffed loudly and turned to Mimi.

"Do you want to play the license plate game or something? I'm incredibly bored." Nicole stated.

Mimi frowned, "I hate that game. It's boring." suddenly, she grinned, "But I have an idea. We should start telling a story."

"A story?" Nicole didn't look too interested.

"Yeah, when Patrick and I were kids, we would always make up stories when we were going on really long drives. You tell a few sentences of the story and then I add to it. Come on, it's not like we have anything better to do." Mimi urged her.

Lucas kicked Nicole in the head again, "Fine. I'll start the story." Nicole said, "Once upon a time, there was a llama. His name was Lucas. Lucas had a very long neck. The other llamas shunned him. He was upset, so he befriended a sheep named Sami."

Mimi looked behind her, "His neck isn't that long." she observed, "And as far as I can tell, her bears no resemblance to a llama what-so-ever."

Nicole exhaled impatiently, "Look, I know the whole point of this was to kidnap Lucas, Sami, Belle and Brady, take them on a vacation and go out of our way to amuse them. But all of them are asleep so there is no reason we can't amuse ourselves. And I want to make Lucas a llama in my story."

"Okay, then." Mimi began adding to the story, "Sami the sheep didn't like Lucas and she had very sharp teeth. So, she bit him around his..." Mimi considered her options and then decided to keep the story G-rated for the time being, "Ear. Then, Lucas the llama got the farmer, Nicole, to shave Sami. Sami was cold so Lucas kept her warm using his..."

"Mouth." Nicole finished for her, "Sami and Lucas plotted against the farmer to get her fur back. But Lucas secretly didn't want Sami to get her fur back, he was just having fun. And why the hell am I in this story? Oh well, at least I'm not a farm animal."

Mimi was really enjoying telling this story now, "So, Lucas used his long neck to attack Nicole, ran off with the fur and burned it. Sami found out and almost killed Lucas."

"But Lucas confessed his undying love for Sami. So, Sami agreed to marry him and they had wild monkey... dinner every night." Nicole dead-panned, finding it very hard to keep a straight face.

Mimi looked a little grossed out, "Wow, a sheep and a llama getting married and having wild monkey dinner. If that's not creepy, I don't know what is." suddenly, she smiled evilly at Nicole, "But Nicole seduced Lucas into having... dinner with her. She made him... spaghetti, even though most normal llamas don't like spaghetti. Then, using an incredibly complicated technique she had learned at hooker-farmer camp, Nicole tricked Lucas into choking on her... meatball." Mimi couldn't take it anymore and burst out laughing.

"All right, I'm never eating spaghetti ever again." Nicole commented, "So, Lucas died and the meatball was still caught in his incredibly long neck. Sami was hungry and she ran into Lucas and realized he was dead and that there was a meatball in his throat. But she was hungry so she performed the Heimlich Maneuver to get it out and eat it."

"Then Sami also choked on the meatball and died. When she died, she fell over and hit a fork. The fork flew up in the air and ended up stabbing Nicole in the heart. Nicole died slowly and painfully. The end." Mimi finished proudly.

Shawn finally spoke, "You two are in need of serious help."

"I agree." Patrick spoke up. Mimi frowned at her brother.

"You were awake?" she asked in surprise.

"Yup." Patrick smirked at her, "And it's time for me to make a story. Once upon a time, Lucas and Mimi decided to have dinner in a dumpster. They were having a lot of fun. But a rabid rat named Bonnie lived in the dumpster. She didn't like the fact that Lucas and Mimi were having dinner in her dumpster. She bit them and they both died of rabies. The end."

Mimi looked exasperated, "Can you tell he doesn't like my mom very much? And I think he's still a little upset with me for saying he was a transexual."

"What I don't understand is, why am I always added into these twisted stories?" Mimi flushed and spun around to look at Lucas.

"How much of that did you hear?" she asked.

Lucas shook his head, "I heard the whole llama story and I also heard Patrick's story. I mean, there's no way I'm going to be able to sleep when you and Nicole won't shut up."

Mimi couldn't believe Lucas had heard the entire story she and Nicole had made. Sinking low in her seat with embarrassment, she promptly decided it was time to take a nap.


After everyone had left their bags at their cabins, they decided to take a walk down to the lake. Phillip had been unloading the van and had found Jan hiding under the seat. She had immediately jumped out of the van and tried to attack Lucas for making fun of her. They had run away from Jan.

Shawn was the first one to step onto the dock, "Look, ducks!" he said excitedly, "This is so cool, we should go swimming."

"We should go get changed first then." Rex reasoned, wondering when Shawn had started getting so worked up over seeing ducks.

"But that's going to take so loooonng." part of the dock was wet and Shawn was too busy eyeing the ducks to watch where he was going. He slipped on the dock and his arms spiraled around dramatically. Before falling into the water, he grabbed the arm of the person closest to him, who happened to be Sami, and pulled her into the lake with him.

It was only early spring, so the water was still pretty cold. Sami sputtered in outrage, "Shawn, you asshole!" she tried splashing him but he dog-paddled out of her reach. He then noticed that the water was only up to his waist. His eyes lit up when he saw the pair of ducks that had caught his attention earlier.

"Ducks!" he shouted gleefully.

Standing on the dock, Nicole shouted to him, "You're going to scare the ducks away."

"Are you kidding? Ducks love me. I am one with the ducks." Shawn swam closer to the birds, which swam away from him.

"That's a little scary." Mimi mumbled, "Are you worried yet, Belle?"

Once Shawn reached the ducks, they squawked loudly and flew away. Shawn swam back over towards Sami, looking extrememly disappointed. He noticed Lucas holding his hand out he could help Sami out of the lake and quickly hurried over to the two of them.

"Lucas, what do you think you're doing?" he demanded, "That's my playmate you're trying to steal."

Phillip groaned, "She can't be your playmate. She's your cousin. That's wrong. Horribly wrong."

Before Lucas could pull Sami back onto the dock, Shawn caught him by surprise and pulled him into the lake along with himself and Sami. Once Phillip saw the look on his brother's face when he came out of the water, he burst out laughing.

Lucas gave Phillip a dirty look, "If we weren't related, I think I would really despise you."

Shawn jumped out of the water and back onto the dock, "Belle, I think it's your turn." he lunged at his girlfriend, who squealed and ran off the dock. Brady turned to Nicole, Phillip, Patrick, Mimi and Rex.

"I guess we should go find our bathing suits before we get pushed into the lake with all our clothes on."

"Hey, Mimi, have you ever went skinny-dipping?" Rex asked her.

Mimi blushed, "Only in my bathtub." she replied. The remaining six people left the dock, leaving Lucas and Sami alone in the lake.

Both of them paddled back up to the dock. Sami wrapped her arms around herself and shivered, "That water is so cold. They must be out of their minds to want to swim in it."

Lucas wrapped both arms around her, "It's not that cold once you get used to it." he countered. He brushed back the wet hair that had plastered itself to her face. Her clothes clung to her skin, outlining every curve of her body. He swallowed hard, unable to take his eyes off her.

"What are you staring at?" she asked him, confused.

"You. I can't stop thinking about how unbelievably beautiful you are." Lucas said honestly, even though he thought the words sounded incredibly corny. But Sami didn't look like she cared. Her entire face lit up in such a way that Lucas couldn't stop himself from leaning down and kissing her. He cradled her face tendly in his hands, tasting her for a few seconds before pulling away. Looking into her eyes, he could see affection, warmth, along with a mild sadness that tugged insistently on his heart.

"Why do you want to be with me?" she asked, her eyes burning into his questioningly.

"What?" Lucas was stunned by the sudden question.

Sami sighed, "I'm sorry. I just feel like I don't deserve you. I mean, I've always compared myself to my sisters and... my mom. They were always so beautiful and they always seemed to do everything right. I never felt like I would ever measure up to any of them, not Belle, not Carrie and not my mom. I always felt like I was the one left behind. Why would you want to be with someone like that?"

Lucas kissed her again, his lips lingering on hers a little bit longer this time, "You're perfectly everything, Sami. More than Belle, Carrie and Marlena will never be."

Sami shook her head, "But that's just it. I'm not and I know that. Why would you want you want to be with someone so flawed when you could easily find someone better?"

Lucas stroked the side of her face with his thumb, "All right, no one is perfect. I'm definitely not perfect. But when we're together... that's perfection. Love makes us perfect."

"Love?" Sami croaked, looking shocked at his words.

Lucas took a deep breath, "That's right. Sami, I love you."

He felt his heart sink when she stood up and started walking away. She slipped on the dock and he quickly took hold of her to keep her from ending up back in the water.

"Be careful, you're going to fall." Lucas said, trying to ignore the awful sense of rejection in the pit of his stomach. Then she looked at him and he noticed the shimmering tracks of tears sliding down her face.

"I think I already have fallen." she whispered as softly as possible.

Lucas frowned in confusion, "Did you hurt yourself?" he asked.

Sami was laughing and crying at the same time now, "Not like that. Great way to spoil the mood, Lucas."

Lucas realized what she meant and smiled, "You were the one who tried to run away from me."

She leaned against him, pressing her forehead to his, "I meant that I think that I've already fallen in love with you."

Lucas whispered her name with a quiet intensity before drawing her into his arms again. For a moment, she was scared because she knew that she had fallen so deeply in love with him that she would probably never be able to find her way back to the surface. But when he deepened the kiss, tangling his hands in her wet hair and allowing their tongues to blend together in a dance of passion, she realized that she didn't care.