Nicole was sitting in the driver's seat of Kate's car, speeding towards Jan's country home after Kate, Sami, Bart and Hattie had managed to stir up a huge commotion among the remaining police officers left at the police station. To Nicole's knowledge, Hattie and Bart were still causing trouble for the officers, trying to distract Bo and his men for as long as possible. Kate sat in the backseat of the car while Sami rode next to Nicole, gnawing at her lower lip anxiously.
"Are you sure this Crystal person is behind everything?" Sami asked in between the spaces of Kate's complaints about how awful it was seducing Bo and how Hope would never forgive her for it.
"I'm positive," Nicole answered, "She overheard us talking at the Java Café and decided to throw the Salem PD off track and get me out of the way by getting me put in jail for something she did. That little slut is going to pay. Both of them are. Of course, it's not really Jan's fault. Jan's so vulnerable and crazy, she could be persuaded to do so many things, even if she didn't want to. I think this definitely has to be mostly Crystal's doing." By the time Nicole finished, her words were more directed at herself than at Sami and Kate. The three women lapsed into silence while Nicole continued to drive way over the speed limit, wanting to reach the country home as fast as possible.
Finally, Nicole reached the familiar road and parked the car behind some trees bordering the driveway of the house. She then turned to Sami and Kate, her face flushed with anger.
"Okay, I'm going to go in there and distract Jan and Crystal and you guys can sneak inside and start freeing the guys. Once I get Jan and Crystal out of the front room, you two can come inside and go sneak upstairs. All the guys will be in the rooms on the second floor. You won't need anything too major to pick the locks, just a hair clip or something. I'm pretty sure Jan just got a bunch of handcuffs and chains for Sex Toys 'R Us or something so they shouldn't be that hard to break through.
Sami looked over at Nicole suspiciously, "You certainly know a lot of details. You were in on this, weren't you?"
Nicole swallowed hard, deciding that it wasn't the best to admit that she had stood by silently while Sami's sister's boyfriend had been chained to a bed by Jan Spears, "Of course not. I'm just as surprised and pissed off as you are. But Jan's shared all her deepest, darkest fantasies with me- ew, Kate, don't give me that look, not like that! I don't do anything with Jan! Anyways, she was always so specific about everything. I really should have seen this coming. God, I'm an idiot."
"Well, you can make up for it by going in there and helping us save all of those men." Kate prompted her, "Now go!"
Nicole got out of the car and walked up the driveway to the front door. Sami and Kate also got out and crept along the hedges, making sure to stay out of sight. They peeked through the hedges and saw a curly-haired brunette answer the door. Even from their positions, they could see the shock in her face when she saw Nicole. The two women at the door began a conversational exchange that Sami and Kate weren't close enough to hear. Sami sighed and turned to Kate.
"Kate?" Sami began and Kate turned to look at her, "I'll admit, I wasn't serious about our last truce. I still wanted to hurt you. But I've realized that Lucas means a lot more to me than my need to hurt you does and I want to stop for real. Once this is all over, I don't want to be your friend but I don't want to be your enemy anymore either. I think we should do our best to get along, for Lucas, Will and for ourselves. Because no matter what you think, I am in love with your son."
Kate didn't respond for a few moments and Sami thought she was going to refuse but Kate finally nodded and extended her hand. When they finished shaking hands, they looked up to see that Nicole and the other woman had disappeared. They both instinctively began advancing on the house until they reached the door. Quietly and slowly, Sami opened the front door and peered inside. When she saw no one around, she looked directly at the flight of stairs and began tiptoeing towards it. Kate followed her and they quickly made their up the stairs. Sami was a few feet ahead of Kate and opened the first door in the hallway.
John had heard the sound of the door opening and lifted his head to see Sami, who was staring at him, wide-eyed. She hadn't known whether or not to believe Nicole completely until this point but now she realized that this meant that Lucas really must be here. She turned around and left John's room.
"Sami," he croaked, "Come back! I need to get out of here!"
"That's nice," Sami muttered to herself, "Kate can save you. I have more important people to worry about." She opened the door across from John's and saw a brown-haired man she had seen on the news whose name was Patrick. She left that room and continued down the line of the hallway while Kate went inside John's room to free him. Sami looked inside each of the rooms. After checking two more rooms, Rex and the man who worked for the police force named Tek or something were accounted for. Then she opened another door and her eyes met Brady's. He was also chained up and next to him was a small doll. Brady broke into a big, insane grin when he saw Sami.
"Look, Kewpie, it's Sami!" he yelled loudly, "What's up, Sami? Are you here to play with us?"
Sami motioned for Brady to be quiet, wondering what had gotten into him. He wasn't acting like he was completely in his right mind and it was scaring her. But Brady just kept talking, his voice raising with every word that came out of his mouth.
Nicole was downstairs, talking to Crystal and Jan, who still looked as if they weren't sure how to react to seeing Nicole here instead of in jail, when the loud shouts could be heard. The voice was definitely Brady's and Jan and Crystal's backs went rigid when they heard his voice.
"Er, that's just Shawn." Jan tried to tell Nicole, "He's very-" Suddenly, Jan went quiet and listened to what Brady was saying.
"Sami, why are you trying to take off my chains? I like them." Brady said in a faraway voice and Crystal and Jan seemed to know what was going on after hearing that.
"You tricked us," Crystal's eyes glittered with accusation, "You're trying to take all of our men away, aren't you? How did you get out jail? This isn't supposed to be happening."
"Come on, let's go get the guns," Jan whispered to Crystal, then shoved Nicole as hard as she could. Nicole was taken aback and ended up landing on her bac k on the tile floor of the kitchen, "And you stay here, you traitorous bitch!"
"I wouldn't talk!" Nicole screamed, "You framed me for a crime you committed. And I am going to get you back." But by the time she was on her feet again, both women had already rushed off. Pressing a hand into her back and wincing a little, Nicole hurried after them.
Jan and Crystal had quickly retrieved their guns from the upstairs closet and stuffed their pockets full of tranquilizer darts. Jan was grateful that she had already taught Crystal how to use the guns. It was definitely paying off now.
Crystal noticed John standing up and free of his chains through the open doorway and bit her lip uncertainly as she aimed the gun at John. The man finished putting on his shirt, which Crystal had left hanging from the bars after kidnapping him and turned around. Biting her lip so hard it almost drew blood and trying not to notice the horrified look on John's face, she fired the gun. The dart hit John in the stomach and he let out a strangled cry and sunk down on the floor, blood beginning to stain his pale blue shirt almost immediately. Crystal winced and moved on, checking to see which men were still chained. She took the side of the hallway opposite Jan and began making her way down. Tek was still good. But in the room that held Phillip, the old granny from the Blue Note was bending over Phillip, working intently on something.
"What do you think you're doing?" Crystal snapped and the woman looked up angrily. She snapped open the last chain that held Phillip in place and started towards Crystal so quickly that Crystal didn't have time to react. Kate lunged at her, pulling on her hair and slapping her.
"You stole my children," Kate cried angrily, "You stole them from me! You deserve to die for that." Crystal tried helplessly to aim her gun at Kate but Kate kept shaking her and making getting a good shot impossible. Phillip was trying to find a way to come between the two women but Crystal finally had enough. She dodged away from Kate and brought the butt of the gun down over Kate's head. Kate crumpled onto the ground and Phillip gasped, kneeling down over her.
"How could you-" to stop him from speaking, Crystal raised the gun and fired another dart at Phillip. Once it hit him, she then turned and left the room.
Meanwhile, Nicole had found Brady's room and hurried over to unchain him. He noticed Nicole and his eyes lit up.
"What took you so long?" he asked, "I thought you would have found me a long time ago."
"I'm sorry," Nicole said, breaking one of the chains open, "But now I'm going to free you and then everyone is going to get to leave."
"Can I take Kewpie doll back with me?" Brady asked with complete seriousness, "We've become really good friends."
Nicole frowned and another chain broke apart under Nicole's prying with her hair pin, "Sure." Impulsively, she reached down to kiss him on the cheek, "God, it's good to have you back, even if you are obsessed with that doll." she said before turning her attention to the chains on Brady's ankles.
Sami had ended up making it to Lucas' room but before she had the chance to do anything, she had been interrupted by loud screeching behind her.
"I knew you'd be here, trying to take my second favourite away from me." Jan's eyes were dark and infuriated as she stepped towards Sami, her gun pointed right at the blonde woman, "I'm not going to let you do it. You can't take Lucas away."
Sami felt rage boil up inside her, wiping away all fear she felt at the sight of Jan pointing that gun at her, "Oh, just try and stop me." Remembering how much she had worried about Lucas for the past few weeks and how scared she was of what was happening to him made her even angrier with Jan and before Jan could so much as move her finger to pull the trigger, Sami filled in the space between the two of them and wrapped her arms around Jan's neck, bringing her to the floor. The gun flew out of Jan's hands as Sami clenched her hands tighter around Jan's neck.
Seeing that she had the upper hand, Sami withdrew her hands from Jan's neck and smacked her as hard as she could across the face. Jan squealed in pain and tried to get up but Sami held her down and smacked her again. She would have continued attacking Jan but someone pushed her away and she tumbled to the floor.
"Geez, Jan, can't you do anything for yourself," Crystal asked while stepping up next to Sami. Sami rolled over and kicked Crystal's legs out from under her and Crystal fell on the floor too. Sami fisted a handful of Crystal's hair and tugged hard, causing Crystal to screech loudly and claw at Sami's arms. By this time, Jan had gotten to her feet and grabbed her gun. With shaking hands, she aimed at the two women struggling on the floor, took a deep breath and shot at Sami.