"Surprise!"

Mimi stood shocked as she registered all the people that were standing in her backyard to celebrate her birthday. It looked like nearly everyone she knew from school plus her entire family. Well, her entire family except Connor. Where was that little shrimp?

Belle, as usual, was full of excitement as she asked, "Well, Mimi, are you surprised? Did we really surprise you?"

"Yeah, I'm totally shocked. I actually thought all you guys had forgotten all about my birthday."

"Now, how could we possibly forget your birthday, Meems?" Shawn asked as he threw one of his arms around Mimi's shoulders - an action not overlooked by Belle.

Mimi, using her well-known naive voice, responded happily, "Oh, Shawn, I should have known that you would remember. You are such a sweetheart."

Stepping up from behind Shawn, Philip pretended to be hurt as he asked, "What about me? I remembered your birthday. Don't you think that I'm a sweetheart?"

Throwing her hands up in the air, Belle stated, "All right, enough. Let's get to the presents."

"I am completely with Belle on this one guys. Let's go," said Mimi as she lead her friends over to the table her mother had set up to house the presents. Mimi found herself slightly surprised by all the gifts that were there just for her. From large boxes that looked big enough to fit her brother in to small boxes that couldn't possibly hold more than a pair of earrings, they were all waiting - just for Mimi.

As Mimi gleefully opened her gifts, Philip pulled Shawn to the side. There had been something bothering him for several months and he knew that if he approached Chloe about it, they would both lose their tempers and nothing would be accomplished.

Glancing around to make sure no one was within listening distance, Philip began, "I need to ask you something. No matter what, man, you have to give me an honest answer."

"All right," agreed Shawn slightly nervous. There was a somewhat urgent look in Philip's eyes that made Shawn fear answering whatever Philip had to ask him.

Grinning just a little, Philip said, "I know you're far from being an expert on love, but you do know Chloe really well, so you may be able to help me here. Here's my question. Do you believe that Chloe and I have some type of connection?"

"What? Phil, do you even know how crazy that question is? I mean, you guys have been dating for more than a year now. Of course you have some type of connection."

Philip shook his head in frustration as he said, "Shawn, you know what I mean." Making sure that no one was approaching them, Philip prepared to tell Shawn just why he was having doubts. "You know that Chloe and I haven't been getting along as well as we use to - not that we ever got along perfectly, but that's beside the point. She's mad at me because she thinks I'm too jealous. Maybe I am. And, I know it's not always justified, but sometimes it is. You know that, Shawn. That brings me back to what's bothering me. Is the connection I have with Chloe stronger that whatever force it is that ties her to Brady Black?"

Shawn could only stare blankly at Philip as his mind tried to prompt his mouth to say something - anything. Finally, he found his voice and uncertainly said, "All I can tell you is that Chloe obviously cares about you. As for Brady, I wouldn't know. Sometimes when I see him with her, I think they must totally hate each other. Then, I look closer and decided that they must be the closest of friends. I just don't know what to tell you."

Walking away from Shawn and the rest of the crowd, Philip muttered, "Yeah, thanks."

~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~

"It's official, Chloe, you've finally gone over the edge. Of course, that shouldn't surprise me. I've always known you were a few bricks short of a load," wryly remarked Brady as he and Chloe walked along the streets going to whatever destination it was that Chloe was determined to find.

"Once again, Brady, you're amazing me with all these compliments. You know that, don't you?"

"Why, of course. Haven't you heard? I know everything."

Chloe took a moment to look at Brady - to really look at him. She wandered how much of his self-assurance was true and how much was simply a charade to mask the real Brady Black.

Without taking his eyes off the sidewalk in front of him, Brady dryly commented, "You're staring."

Chloe quickly averted her glance and mumbled, "I am not."

"Whatever," said Brady. After a slight pause, he asked, "Where exactly are we going anyway?"

"If you must know, we're going to the carnival."

Brady stopped dead in his tracks. More loudly than he intended, he demanded, "We're going where?"

Grabbing Brady's hand and dragging him behind her, Chloe sarcastically remarked very slowly, "The carnival." Rolling her fiery eyes, she continued, "You know that place with games and rides and candy."

Brady, not even bothering to pull his hand away from Chloe's, continued to follow the younger woman. "Why are we going to the carnival? I mean, sure, everyone in Salem thinks that we are each a walking freak show, but do you really want to prove them right?"

"Shut-up, Brady."

~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~

Jennifer Horton was completely engrossed in the latest issue of Ladies Home Journal. She wondered if maybe she and Hope, with lots of help from Gran, could actually pull off one of the recipes. The marinated chicken looked absolutely marvelous. Flipping the page, she found an article on parenting. Sighing, she realized just how much she could use the help. Little did she know that her parenting skills were about to be tested even more.

When the front door opened and then quietly shut, Jennifer did not bother to look up, assuming that it was merely her annoying ex-husband/housemate. However, she quickly came to realize that the person who entered her home was anyone but Jack Deveraux.

Jennifer immediately stopped flipping the pages of the magazine as she heard a masculine, yet young voice. "Why, Aunt Jennifer, you look as beautiful as ever."

Her mouth agape, Jennifer could simply stare as her nephew stood in front of her, a smile lighting up his handsome face.

Regaining her voice, Jennifer hugged her nephew while asking, "Jeremy, when did you get to Salem? Why didn't you tell me you were coming?"

Pulling away, Jeremy meekly answered, "I wanted to surprise you. And, it looks like I did. I can't believe how much I've missed Salem and all my family here."

Jennifer, still overwhelmed with emotion, pulled Jeremy into yet another tight embrace. With Mike in Israel, her father in Africa and Lucas comatose in the hospital, Jennifer was ecstatic to have any relative close to her. However, Jennifer was not so distracted by her feelings that she lost her journalistic edge. Walking Jeremy to the couch, Jennifer continued her line of questions, "Jeremy, why did you come back to Salem? Was something wrong in Israel?"

Jeremy's eyes saddened for a moment. Despite the fact that he was eighteen years old, he had a significantly hard time concealing his feelings. He had always been a very sensitive person and had never really been able to hide that sensitivity from the outside world. Because of this, Jennifer was easily able to read the young man.

"Something is wrong, isn't it?"

"No, at least not in the way that you think. It's just that I've never really felt happy in Israel. I know that Mom, and Dad, and Carrie love it there, but it was never really the place for me. I just stayed because I wanted to make my parents happy. But, I finally got tired of it and wanted to come home- to Salem. I've spent so much of my life in a foreign country away from my aunts and uncles and cousins, that I just wanted the chance to live a life like everyone else. To go to a school in the States and watch American movies at a real American theater."

Smiling at her oldest nephew, Jennifer replied, "In that case, welcome home."

~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~

Mimi's birthday party was finally beginning to wind down. The only teenagers left besides Mimi were Shawn Brady, Belle Black, Jan Spears, and Philip Kiriakis. No one had even seen Jason since before the party began.

As the five remaining teens sat leisurely at the picnic table, they debated what to do for the rest of the day. Periodically, Belle would let out a high-pitch squeal as Shawn attempted to push her off the table's bench, saying that was the price for having the outside seat and leaving him stuck between her and lovesick Philip. Mimi, however, would have killed to be the one sitting next to Shawn. As luck would have it, she was stuck sitting next to Jan who seemed only able to complain about how bored she was.

Belle, noticing Shawn looking around the yard as though he were searching for someone, curiously asked, "Shawn, what are you doing? You look like you're trying to find someone."

Shawn, continuously a man of few words, simply replied, "I am."

As always, Shawn knew exactly what to do to completely exasperate Belle. Who, other than Shawn Brady, would answer a question with 'I am.' Belle thought that had to be the absolute most idiotic answer she had ever heard. The least he could do would be to tell her who it was he was looking for.

Her curiosity getting the better of her yet again, Belle asked, "Shawn, who are you looking for?"

"Jason."

Mimi, who had been blatantly eavesdropping on the conversation, blurted, "Why on earth would you be looking for him in my backyard?"

Like an echo, Belle questioned, "Yeah?"

Though Philip had been completely, as usual, lost in his thoughts of Chloe, he turned his head as to be facing Belle and answered the girls, "Jason was here earlier. I'm not sure but I think his mom dragged him here or something."

"What?" shrieked Mimi. "That jerk had the nerve to show up at my birthday party and then leave before I even got here? That is so completely rude!"

Shawn and Philip were forced to avoid eye contact with one another for the fear of bursting out laughing at Mimi's dramatics.

At that moment, Jason himself plopped down at the picnic table beside Jan, who promptly ignored his very existence. However, there were four other sets of eyes that were glued to him. Taking a moment to actually notice that the others were staring at him, Jason guilelessly asked, "What? Why is everyone staring at me? Oh, and what happened to the party?"

Belle dropped her head to the table out of shear embarrassment of knowing Jason, while Shawn and Philip openly snickered at their off-and-on buddy. Jan merely continued to ignore him. After all, she had nearly perfected it. Not to mention the fact that she was still mad at him for defending Mimi the other night on the pier. Mimi, on the other hand, was definitely not content to just sit by and let Jason get away with missing her party. Rising to her feet, Mimi walked around to the end of the table where Jason was sitting and roughly pulled him to his feet, using his ear as the pulling device.

"Ouch, Meems, what are you doing?" gruffly demanded Jason as the smaller young woman continued to pull him away from the table.

Finally acknowledging the fact that Jason had rejoined the group, Jan cattily remarked, "Ooh, this should be good."

"Jason Masters, you are the most selfish, conceded jerk I have ever met!"

Still trying to free his ear from Mimi's grasp, Jason questioned, "What is your problem?"

Mimi tightened her grip on Jason's ear as she began to pull him in circles. "My problem? You want to know what my problem is?"

"That would be what I asked."

Giving an extra hard pull on his ear before releasing it, Mimi screamed, "You missed my party! Where were you? Shawn and Philip said they saw you earlier. What? Did you get bored and leave? Where were you?"

In a low and muffled voice, Jason hurriedly answered, "playinggameswithyourbrother."

"What?" questioned Mimi as she once again advanced toward Jason's now reddened ear.

Taking a step away from his potential attacker, Jason replied, "I said I was playing games with your brother."

Laughing deeply, Philip remarked, "You mean your were upstairs playing video games with Connor for the past two hours?"

Jason, followed by Mimi, walked back to the picnic table to have a seat. As they sat down, Shawn said with false innocence, "You know, Jason, you really should do something for Mimi to make up for missing her party." Pretending to ponder the topic, Shawn suddenly exclaimed, "Oh, gee, I just had a thought."

"That's a first," commented Belle with a smile.

"Ha, ha, very funny," replied Shawn before he continued. "Mimi, didn't you say that you were wanting to go to the carnival?"

Hesitantly Mimi nodded her head.

"Well, then, it's settled."

Simultaneously, Jason and Mimi asked, "What's settled?"

With a grin that stretched from ear to ear, Shawn answered, "We are all going to the carnival. And, Jason, you are going to pay Mimi's way as a sort of apology."

~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~ * * ~

As Brady and Chloe wandered aimlessly through the crowd at the carnival, Brady voiced a question that had been haunting him for quite some time, "Do you really love him?"

The look Chloe gave him assured Brady that she was completely unaware of what he was talking about. Trying his best to smile, Brady clarified, "Philip? Do you really love Philip?"

Chloe's eyes turned from Brady's almost accusing stare and focused on the ground. It almost appeared as if she was looking at the ground trying to find the answer to a question only her heart could know.

Clearing her throat, Chloe softly answered, "You could not ever understand what Philip and I share. Sometimes, I'm not even sure I understand." Chloe paused, working up the courage to look at Brady. She was surprised when she saw genuine interest in his eyes.

"Philip is the most important person in my life. I never thought I could depend on someone as much as I depend on him. I know that he and I don't always get along and that we very seldom agree on things, but that doesn't change what's between us. Before I met Philip, I was a completely different person. I never knew what it was like to have someone adore you so completely."

Laughing softly, Chloe added, "You wouldn't believe some of the things he's done for me. He actually tried to learn to like opera. Of course, that didn't work. Then, there was the time he serenaded me. That had to be one of the greatest moments of my life. I couldn't believe someone would do that for me."

Using a great deal of willpower, Brady managed to not frown as he listened to Chloe talk about her boyfriend. Though he kept telling himself that he had absolutely no feelings for Chloe, there was some very deep part of Brady that knew he did. He may not know exactly how strong they were or how deep they ran, but Brady did have feelings for Chloe. He just feared the day when he wouldn't be able to deny that to himself.

However, Brady was more than aware of one very simple fact. Despite all of her talk about Philip and his wonderful nature and their relationship, Chloe never once attempted to answer his question. Chloe did not say she loved Philip. Though he was not sure exactly what, Brady knew that had to mean something.

Maybe it meant she loved Philip so much she couldn't say the words. Maybe that was how strong their love was. Maybe she was just overpowered by her love for Philip and wasn't sure how to handle feelings that strong. Anyone who had seen the two together would know that was more than a possibility. The two obviously cared quite deeply for one another.

Or, Brady hoped, the reason Chloe never said she loved Philip was that she didn't. Maybe she did care for him, but had never actually fallen in love with him. Maybe, just maybe, Chloe cared for Philip, but he had never captured her free, butterfly soul. Maybe it was simply written in the stars that Philip and Chloe would love and lose and then be free to find their true soul mates.

Whatever the reason for Chloe's not answering the question, Brady knew that what she and Philip shared was special and that it would take a lot for her to turn away from it. He just wondered if she would find enough reasons to leave Philip on her own, or if he would be forced to take a more active role in their break-up. Heaven help him, Brady didn't want to hurt her, but he had a feeling that it wouldn't matter if he stepped in or not.

She and Philip were falling apart all on their own - and she knew it.