Lucas knocked on the door to Jennifer's home, expecting Jennifer or Will to come to the door. But instead of Will or Jennifer, the door swung open to reveal a very anxious looking Kate. When she saw Lucas, her face brightened and she threw her arms around her son.
"Lucas, I'm so happy you're back." Kate gushed, pulling away from him, "I've missed you so much, the past few weeks have felt like an eternity."
Sami eyed Kate skeptically over Lucas' shoulder, "Aren't you overdoing it just a little?" Sami asked as Jennifer came out to stand next to Kate, her face apologetic.
"She knew you were coming." Jennifer began to explain Kate's presence, "She refused to leave because she said she had to see you right away, Lucas."
"Isn't that sweet?" Sami said sarcastically, she nose wrinkling in disgust, "Mommy can't bear to go too long without seeing her son. It would be way too difficult to leave him alone and let him have his own life, wouldn't it?"
"Well, well, well, if it isn't Lyric Wilson." Kate finally acknowledged Sami snidely, "Why don't you go write something and leave Lucas alone? Because God knows he never liked you. He was only in it for the money, which he now realizes you don't have since everyone realizes that you are a fraud."
"Yeah but it was fun while it lasted. And it sure fooled you, didn't it, Kate?" Sami shot back.
"Who cares if you fooled me? The bottom line is, you lost. Lucas and you were just playing a part and now the part you had to play is finished. So, everything can go back to the way it should be. You and Lucas keep your hands off each other and we're all happy, yes?"
"No." Lucas spoke up, "Mom, just because I'm back in Salem does not give you the right to tell me how to run my relationship with Sami. Just leave it alone, all right?"
Kate sniffed, "Lucas, don't talk to me like that. I'm just trying to do what's best for you. I can't for the life of me figure out why you decided to pretend to be engaged to Sami but it doesn't matter anymore. The point is, you don't love Sami and now you're free to let that be known to everyone."
"You're wrong." a small voice piped up from behind Jennifer and all four adults turned to see Will. Sami's eyes lit up and she extended her arms to Will.
"Will!" Sami exclaimed, giving him a hug, "It's so good to see you again. Did you have a good time with Abby and Jennifer?"
"I had fun." Will said slowly, still glaring at Kate, "Mom, tell grandma the truth. You and dad are in love, right? You're going to get married and we're all going to be a family, right?"
Sami froze, unsure of what to say in response to that. She turned to Lucas for support, who just looked at her hopefully. Kate huffed and crossed her arms over her chest, waiting for Sami to reply. Everyone was watching her and she was at a loss for words. When Sami went a few more seconds without saying anything, Kate spoke again.
"He doesn't love you, Sami." she said cruelly, "It was all a game and now it's over."
"Mom!" Lucas intervened sharply, looking over in Will's direction pointedly, "Stop talking like that. Sami and I are-"
Sami didn't want Lucas to finish the sentence. She couldn't deal with him or Kate right now, "I have to go see Belle." Sami made up a quick excuse, "I'll, um, see you later, Will. Lucas." she added quickly before turning around and leaving the house. Ignoring the protests from Lucas and Will and the taunts from Kate, she continued walking down the driveway, farther away from Jennifer's home. Once she was out of range of the house, she kicked at the concrete sidewalk, wondering why she had felt so unsure of herself lately. Things between Lucas and herself had been strained ever since Nicole had announced that they were all going back to Salem and she knew she only had herself to blame for that. This was one of the few times in her life where she didn't know what to say to Lucas. Usually, their conversations weren't strained at all but things had seemed to change overnight. Sami knew Lucas could tell something was wrong but every time he tried to bring up the issue, Sami had pushed him away.
Sami knew that she loved Lucas. She knew that she didn't want their relationship to end just because their role-playing game had, just because they were back in Salem. She just didn't know how to tell Lucas that or if it would even matter to him. Between Brady falling in love with Lucas and Nicole and Jan fighting over Shawn's cherry, things had gotten really out of hand. And Sami couldn't help wonder if Jan, Nicole, Shawn and Brady weren't the only ones who had gotten carried away. Was it possible that now that Lucas was back in Salem, he wouldn't want to continue being with Sami the way he had when she had pretended to be Lyric Wilson? Maybe he wanted their time together away from Salem to stay out of their everyday lives. It was possible that he had only been looking for a fling, something fun but brief, with no strings attached. Everything he had said to her- what if had just been part of the fling, part of the spontaneity of being together and pretending to be two people they weren't?
Sami knew she was jumping to conclusions and willed herself to stop. But the scared, insecure part of her kept thinking up new possibilities. She knew the best way to approach things was to talk to Lucas about it but the truth was, she was afraid of what he would say to her. Sighing, Sami continued down the sidewalk and wondered what Nicole was doing. The last she had heard, Nicole was running off to get a divorce with Victor and find a new place to live. Maybe she could talk to Nicole about her problems before talking to Lucas about them. Nicole already had to deal with the fact that Brady liked Lucas more than her, so Nicole would probably be kind of understanding. Not like Jan, who had been seemingly joined at the hips with Shawn for the past few days. Sami stopped for a moment, wondering which way she should go to find Nicole. She might be at the mansion but she could also be off looking for a new house or something. Sami finally decided to call Nicole but before she could reach into her purse for her cell phone, someone grabbed her arm. She turned around, expecting to see Lucas but her eyes widened with surprise when she saw who had been standing behind her.