Lucas sat in a chair, trying hard not to let his annoyance with Belle show. She had been whining for over an hour about how much Sami had hurt her by walking out. Maybe he should go find Sami. He didn't want to think of her crying somewhere alone. She may have overreacted a little bit, but Belle went too far with the John suggestion.
Unfortunately, without a better excuse his mother would find some way to keep him right where he was, like she had the first time he tried to leave. He wracked his brain for a plausible reason for his departure, but just as he decided that he would make a dash for the door as soon as his mother was preoccupied, Sami walked in with his sister in tow. Belle, who had been sulking on the couch, perked up a bit.
"Sami, did you come to apologize?"
Jen shook her head in dismay; she had never realized how little Belle ever thought of other people before. Sami let out a derisive snort.
"I have nothing to apologize for. I think you were being self-centered."
"Belle was trying to marry my son before he left for war, but she's being selfish," Kate sneered. Trying to cause more trouble she singled out the newest member of the group, "I mean really, Jennifer, don't you think Sami is completely off base."
"Sorry to disappoint you Kate, but I'm on Sami's side."
Kate was actually silenced for a minute by the loss of a potential ally. She had been sure Jennifer didn't like Sami. Conflict between his fiancé and his siblings might start to drive Lucas away from the little tramp, but it looked like Jen wasn't going to be useful to her in that department. Unfortunately, her silence didn't last long.
"It is so nice of you to try and get along with your brother's future wife, but we all know that all Sami cares about is herself. Don't defend her for Lucas's sake."
"Any woman would be livid if someone, especially her maid of honor and sister, no less, tried to cancel her wedding in favor of their own. Belle and Philip didn't even talk about this to Lucas and Sami first. I seriously doubt they exhausted every option before they chose this plan."
"You know, this is really none of your business, Jen, I think you should leave. It's more of a family matter. Anyway, you probably need to get back to being 'comforted' by Patrick Lockhart, while Jack's body hasn't even been found yet."
"Mom! Stop that, Jen really doesn't need this from you right now," Lucas gasped indignantly. He was still a little shocked that someone other than himself was defending Sami, but he wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth.
"No, I can handle Kate. For your information, Lucas is my family, and Patrick is just a friend. You have no room to talk. I saw the way you were cozying up to John at the opening of Alice's. Sami wasn't making up how you were acting. Marlena was barely cold in her grave and you were hitting on him."
"John and I are colle…"
"Ha, Kate, how does it feel to kn…"
"I want to talk about my wed…"
"Come on, you three cut it ou…"
Suddenly, a clear, loud whistle rang out, shutting everyone up. Philip lowered the two fingers he had brought to his mouth moments before, finally drawing everyone's attention to himself.
"Thank you. Now do you think we could get back to the problem at hand, the weddings?"
"Of course we can get back to the weddings. As I was saying, I think you were being insensitive and self-absorbed," here Philip and Belle moved to angrily cut Sami off, but she continued. The only indication that there had been an interruption was her slightly raised voice, "but I'm going to give you the date anyway. Hell, I'm feeling generous; you should take the church and the flowers. You might as well have the food and the music, too. We all know it is impossible to argue with all those delivery people, they wouldn't change the date they sent everything anyway. With the Kiriakis fortune, I'm sure Philip can reimburse Basic Black, we'll just have to start from scratch."
For a second, she was sure she saw fear flash in Belle's eyes, but it was quickly covered as she rushed to give Sami a hug.
"Oh, Sami, thank you. I know how you can still be involved. You can help me organize the little things, like invitations, I want to invite everyone in town. You can make any changes I want, it'll be perfect."
For a second, Sami considered forgetting the next phase in Jennifer's plan. She wasn't sure she wanted to loose Belle, butluckily her memory kicked in. She had made Belle her maid of honor, she practically gave her the entire wedding, but all she got in return was a thank you and some insignificant work to do. She looked across the room to catch Jen's eye. Jennifer gave a slight nod as a signal to stay on track.
"I'm sorry, sis, well not really, but I'm not coming to your wedding."
Belle looked absolutely flabbergasted, as if it was inconceivable that someone would refuse to go to her wedding, "What?"
"I'm not going to celebrate what you're doing to me, Lucas, and your only nephew, not to mention our wedding. I gave you the day, that's going to have to be enough, and if it isn't that's too bad."
"Oh, Belle, if 'everyone in town' includes me and Abby, we'll be busy that day. Sami and I will find a way to entertain ourselves," Jen added, relishing in the freedom of actually speaking her mind. With Sami around she felt liberated from her restricting nice girl reputation.
"Do you see what she's doing, Lucas? She's pretending to be gracious to look good, but she refuses to be happy for your siblings. And now she's corrupted your sister. You can't marry her!"
"Excuse me, Kate, I can think for myself. No one corrupted me, especially not Sami."
"That's what you think. Sami's like a snake, she slithers her way into your life and starts poisoning you. You don't even see it coming. I swe…"
"Mom, that's enough! Sami is making a big sacrifice for Belle and Phillip. You should be grateful. She has every right to refuse to come if that's what she wants. And if Jennifer doesn't want to come either then that is her decision. I am marrying Sami whether you like it or not, so back off."
"Lucas, she…"
"Stop! I mean it mom."
Belle watched the back and forth bewilderedly. She just didn't understand why they weren't talking about her. Her big sister had just refused to help her and wouldn't come to her wedding. Hello people, Belle Black was in pain! Forget that it had been Sami's wedding first, it was hers now and it was already ruined. Everyone really needed to start paying attention to her anguish right now.
"What about me!" she barely kept herself from stomping her foot, but tears of frustration were welling up in her eyes.
"Not everything's about you, Belle," Lucas snapped.
Belle recoiled as if she had been slapped, while Philip placed a protective arm around his fiancé.
"Lucas, Belle is in pain right now. How dare you speak to her like that!"
Kate immediately went over to the injured pair, switching into coddling mother-mode, "Your brother is just upset with Sami right now, sweetie. He's taking it out on you, he doesn't mean it. She has him so warped in the head he can't thi…"
"How many times do I have to tell you to stop?"
"Lucas, baby," Kate's voice had reached a new low on the sickeningly sweet scale, "I'm just trying to protect you."
"Oh my god," he sighed as he sank down onto the couch, realizing that the effort was pointless.
"Come on, Sami, let's go to the Java Café or maybe the pub. We can start working on the new wedding plans. You may just find me indispensable to your operation, back when we had In The House we did a segment on weddings. It'll be great."
"That sounds perfect," Sami turned and walked to open the door.
"You coming, little brother?"
Lucas didn't hesitate to follow them out of the loft, grateful to finally get away from Belle and his mother. Besides he was dieing to know how the woman he loved became such good friends with his sister. This could get interesting.
For the record, I don't know for a fact that Lucas is younger than Jen. It just seems that way to me, either that or they are really close to the same age. Oh and I forgot to mention that the date I gave in the last chapter was one I made up. The show didn't mention the real date as far as I know.