Altered Reality

Chapter Seven:

Sitting in the black leather chair of the visiting room, Marlena tapped her fingers on the arms of the chair anxiously, glancing over at the clock on the wall for what seemed like the hundredth time.

The small room, though painted a calming tan with various pictures of Salem landmarks adorning the walls, was starting to feel confining the longer she waited. Thanks to her own former profession as a psychiatrist, she knew that Lexie was probably watching her through the mirror on the back wall, which was really a one-way window.

I feel like a lab-rat, she thought with a sigh.

She resisted the temptation to look at the clock again, knowing it hadn't even been more than thirty seconds, and placed her head in her hands wearily. Waiting was not something she was very good at, especially not when she was such a nervous wreck.

Her day had been long and full of frustration. Since John had work at the station, she had spent the morning in Lexie's office with the young doctor, discussing the various treatments that they'd tried with her in the past and the history of her illness, how it has first manifested and the extremes to which it had gone before she was committed.

But the part of that conversation that she cared about most was the part about her family, about her friends, about Salem, and about her life. With only the memories created by her illness available to her, Marlena hungered for answers.

In her situation, knowledge was not only power, but security and sanity, as well.

Lexie hadn't been willing to give her too many details, saying that it wasn't her place to divulge the secrets of others' lives, but what she had told her had left her stunned, especially the fact that Abe was Lexie's father-in-law, not husband, and that Theo was Brandon's son.

More importantly, she had once been involved with Tony, Lexie's half-brother. They'd never married, but they had been together for several years before he died in a car accident, leaving her alone with their twin children, Rex and Cassie, who were just infants at the time. It was going to take some getting used to in order to picture herself in love with Tony DiMera, at least the Tony she knew, but even more incredible was the fact that Stefano was not only alive and well, but very close to John and her kids.

And, apparently, he'd helped foot the bill for her treatment.

Unable to resist, she glanced up at the clock again, wondering what was taking so long.

The sound of footsteps outside filtered in under the door, and she straightened in her chair, smoothing out her clothes and swallowing hard, hoping that she looked okay.

John was the first one through the door, offering her a small smile of silent support, understanding, as he always did, what she was thinking. He knew that this was a big moment for her, the start of trying to get her life back together, and he had made sure to arrive at the sanitarium a few minutes early so that he could talk to her before they arrived.

All of his supportive words of comfort fell away, though, as Marlena caught sight of the young woman entering the room behind her husband.

Sami was dressed in a sleek black business outfit that made her look remarkably sophistacated, her long golden hair pulled up into a twist at the crown of her head. Her strappy high heels clacked on the tiled floor as she walked, her slender hips swaying slightly, and a designer purse draped across her shoulder.

She looked, Marlena noted with mixed emotions, like a young, blond Kate Roberts.

Or was that Kate Kirakis? Hadn't John told her that Kate and Victor were still together and married?

Behind her daughter was Lucas Roberts, dressed in what was clearly an expensive suit, his gold Rolex gleaming as the overhead light danced across it. They looked like the epitome of a young, wealthy, successful couple, and from the way Lucas had his hand on the small of Sami's back in support, they were obviously very much in love.

"Doc," John said gently, placing a hand on Sami's arm. "I brought you some visitors."

Marlena swallowed, unable to speak, and Sami was carefully avoiding meeting her gaze, which wasn't much of a surprise. She still had her psychiatrist training, and she knew that this couldn't be easy for her eldest child.

It was Lucas who broke the silence, bless his heart, by clearing his throat and lifting a hand in greeting. "Hi, Marlena."

"Hello, Lucas," she said quietly, giving him a faint smile. "It's nice to see you again."

"I could say the same to you," Lucas replied. "You look lovely."

"I doubt that," Marlena admitted honestly. "But thank you."

"Anything for my favorite mother-in-law," Lucas remarked with a charming wink.

"She's your only mother-in-law, General," Sami muttered, speaking for the first time. She took a deep breath and then lifted her gaze to meet Marlena's. "Hi, Mom."

That's my girl, Marlena thought with a flicker of pride as she rose from her chair. Stubborn and strong, no matter what.

"Hi, sweetheart," she choked out, blinking back the tears welling in her eyes. "You look beautiful."

"After the morning I had at work, I don't think so," Sami snorted, then purposefully strode across the space between them and hugged her. "But thank you for saying it."

"That's a mother's job," Marlena reminded her hoarsely, her attempt to hold back her tears failing miserably as she held her daughter in her arms again, for the first time in three years apparently. "And it's true, Sami, you're so beautiful..."

"I must have gotten that from you, Mom," Sami murmured, her own voice shaking slightly, though she tried to hide it. She sniffled, and Marlena felt a few teardrops fall onto her shoulder, but she pretended not to notice for Sami's sake.

"Oh, Sami," she whispered, her voice catching on a sob as she touched her hand to her daughter's hair reverently. "My sweet girl."

"I missed you, Mom," Sami rasped, the two of them still clutching one another desperately. "I missed you so much."

Closing her eyes, Marlena just held her, feeling something familiar for the first time since waking up in the sanitarium, now that she had her child in her arms. No matter how strange and frightening things were, she still had her children, and with their love and support, she was certain that she could get better.

After a long moment, Sami pulled back, wiping at her eyes, and gave a short laugh. "God, my makeup is probably running all over the place."

"You look fine," Marlena promised her softly. "You're perfect."

Sami snorted, shaking her head so that her hair fell behind her shoulders, slowly regaining her composure. "Carrie is perfect," she corrected, and Marlena's heart dropped, fearing that the girls had a nasty rivalry here, as well, but her fears were put to rest when Sami offered her a small smirk. "I'm just close to it."

"And modest, too," John quipped, but he was looking at Sami in a way that clearly said that he thought she was perfect as could be. "Lucas and I are going to step outside for a bit, give you two some time to sit down and talk... is that okay?"

His question was mostly directed at Sami, Marlena noted, but her daughter- their daughter- nodded her agreement. "Yeah, go on," she instructed them with a weak smile. "We'll be fine, won't we, Mom?"

"Yes," Marlena said quietly, impressed with how grown-up and in control Sami was now, with not even a trace of the old bitterness and pain that used to haunt her. It made her proud and sad all at once to see what a capable woman she had become.

"Okay," Lucas replied, stepping forward to kiss Sami's cheek, the back of his hand grzing her cheek tenderly. "Good luck, baby."

"Thanks," Sami murmured, giving him a grateful smile.

"We'll be right outside, princess," John told her, leaning over to kiss the top of her hair, then gave Marlena an encouraging smile before opening the door and gesturing for Lucas to follow him out into the hallway.

Lucas winked at Sami, then closed the door behind him, leaving the two women alone.

Marlena glanced over at Sami, who was looking at the door with a faint smile, her pale blue eyes bright and soft, and she knew it was because of Lucas.

"You really love him, don't you?" she asked.

"He's the only man I've ever loved," Sami replied evenly, a gentle rebuke attached to her words, as if to say how dare you think I would be with Austin or Brandon or Franco?

"John... your father," Marlena corrected herself. "Tells me that the two of you have been married since Will was born."

"Before he was born, actually," Sami responded, taking a seat in one of the leather chairs, so Marlena sat back down in the one she had been waiting in earlier. "I found out I was pregnant when I was only about a month along, and we got married two months later."

"So soon?" Marlena asked, startled. John had explained to her that Sami and Lucas had been best friends growing up, but they hadn't been romantically involved until the night they conceived Will, so to get married only three months later must have been quite an adjustment for them.

"Daddy wanted things to happen quickly," Sami explained with a rueful smile. "If Lucas hadn't wanted to marry me anyway, I think we might have ended up with a genuine shotgun wedding- with Daddy and Uncle Bo holding their guns on Lucas and ready to handcuff him to the altar so he couldn't get away."

"Oh my," Marlena said, amused by the picture that put in her head. "I imagine that your father didn't take the news that he was going to be a grandfather so young very well?"

Sami shrugged. "Well, he never shot Lucas or tried to arrest him for statutory rape or anything, so I think he took it pretty well, all things considered. Of course, you had to calm him down when I first told you guys, I was afraid Daddy was going to rush over to the Kiriakis mansion and kill Lucas."

"I was... understanding then?" Marlena inquired hesitantly. "About you getting pregnant?"

"You were very supportive, Mom," Sami assured her, reaching across the small coffee table between them to lay her hand on top of hers. "I don't know how I would have gotten through my pregnancy without you and Carrie."

"You and Carrie get along, then?" Marlena asked.

For a moment Sami looked irritated, probably at the assumption, but she nodded. "Yeah, Mom, we do. We always have. In fact, when I first realized my period was late, Carrie was the first person I went to. I drove over to her dorm and told her, and she went with me to get a pregnancy test. She was great, she always has been."

"I'm sorry," Marlena sighed miserably, knowing now that the reaction Sami had just demonstrated had been because of her delusions. "I wish that none of this had happened, that I'd never gotten sick. I know it must have been so hard for you and Belle, Eric, Carrie and Brady..."

"And Rex and Cassie," Sami reminded her quietly.

"Right," Marlena agreed with a stab of guilt for forgetting the twins. "And Rex and Cassie. I know this must have been so horrible for you all to deal with, and it's not any easier now that I'm getting better and you have to explain every little thing to me over and over again."

"It is easier," Sami insisted, most likely out of loyalty. "Having you back makes it easier, even if it is going to take a lot of hard work, on all of our parts. Mom, we've all missed you, so much. You have no idea how many times we've all wished for you to have some miraculous recovery. And now you have."

"You're right," Marlena murmured, shaking her head in frustration. "I don't have any idea. I don't have any idea about anything. I keep forgetting that John is really Roman, that Lexie is married to Brandon and not Abe, that I have five children instead of three, that you and Kate aren't trying to kill each other..."

"Hey, it's okay," Sami said softly, squeezing her hand. "We'll help you get through this, Mom. You'll start to remember, I know you will. It's just going to take time, you know that, but if we're all patient and we all work at it, things will eventually go back to normal again. Well, as normal as our family can be, anyway- the Brady men can be a little weird at times."

Despite herself, Marlena smiled faintly, touched by her daughter's attempt to reassure her, especially when she was quite certain that Sami wasn't sure of very much herself right now.

"You've grown up into quite the woman, sweetie-girl," she told her, her smile tinged with regret at the knowledge that she had missed out on a whole three years of not only Sami's life, but of all of her children's lives, and she couldn't even remember anything of the past, of their childhoods or her life with John.

What kind of mother could forget her own children? Marlena wondered bitterly.

As if sensing the direction her thoughts had taken, Sami squeezed her hand again comfortingly. "Lexie thinks that telling you things about your life and about ours might help you pick up on some things, maybe even help you start to remember bits and pieces on your own. So what do you want to know?"

Marlena was silent for a moment, deep in thought, and then she smiled weakly. "Tell me about your life. About your brothers and sisters and their lives, and what our family is like. I don't want to face them when they come on Thursday without knowing at least something about them."

"If you want, I'll come back on Thursday," Sami offered. "That way I can act as a buffer between you guys if things don't go smoothly."

"I'd appreciate that, sweetie," Marlena replied. "But I don't want you to miss work."

"Oh, don't worry about that," Sami said with a grin. "There are advantages to being the boss' daughter-in-law, not to mention the Vice President of the company, I can take as many sick days as I need. Besides, Kate already told me to take off as much time as I wanted for family stuff right now, so it's not a problem."

"You and Kate... you're close?" Marlena asked.

"Yeah," Sami confirmed, nodding. "She's always been sort of a second mother to me, I guess. She's always been great to me, ever since Lucas and I were kids, and when we got together, she was probably the only one not surprised. I couldn't ask for a better mother-in-law, or a better business partnet. Everything I've learned about the business world, I learned from her and Victor."

"I'm not sure why I thought..." Marlena trailed off, shaking her head. She had been so convinced that Kate and Sami hated one another, that they were ought to destroy each other's lives any way possible, no matter the cost.

Then again, until recently she'd thought the same of Sami and Lucas, and clearly that just wasn't the case. Even her delusions had begun to show traces of their love these past few months... maybe that was a sign that her subconscious was trying to remember?

"Lexie said that it could have been jealousy," Sami told her quietly, looking down at her hands. "That you resented the closeness Kate and I shared, and your illness created a solution to that."

"I suppose that could be it," Marlena conceded, unable to argue with Lexie's logic. "I, um, I guess Kate has been even more important in your life while I was sick, huh?"

"Yes, she has," Sami admitted evenly. "She's been there for me, and for Belle since she's dating Philip, but she could never replace you, Mom, don't even think that, okay? You're the only mother I have, and no one could ever take your place."

Blinking back tears, Marlena squeezed Sami's hand tightly. "Thank you, sweetie-girl," she said, her voice thick with emotion.

Sami just smiled in reply.

"Now, um," Marlena steadied her voice. "You were going to tell me about your life, right? Tell me about Will, how's my grandson?"

"He's good," Sami answered with a proud, motherly smile. "He just got an A on his math test this week because Rex tutored him. He's growing up so fast, it's incredible. It seems like just yesterday that Bill was handing him to me at the hospital."

"Bill Horton?" Marlena said in surprise. "Bill delivered Will?"

"Mmm-hmm," Sami replied. "I was out with Jenn, she and I grew close during my pregnancy since she'd just had Abby a few months before I got pregnant, new mothers bonding and all that. I went into labor at Salem Place and Lucas was in a merger negotiation meeting, so Jenn called her mother and Laura rushed us over to the hospital and-"

"Laura and Bill are together still?"

"Yeah, they never split up," Sami explained. "Lucas grew up spending half his time with Kate and Victor and the other half with Bill, so he has a pretty good relationship with his stepmom. She and Bill moved to Africa a few years ago because he wanted to do voulenteer work at the field hospitals over there, we actually went to visit them last summer, but I'm getting off track, aren't I?"

"Just a bit," Marlena conceded with a smile.

"Well, when we got to the hospital, Mike was on duty, so he got me all set up and Bill came in to check on me, while Laura called Titan and told Kate what was going on," Sami continued. "God, I was going crazy, my contractions were killing me and Lucas wasn't there yet... but you were at the hospital with a patient, so you came right up stayed with me through the whole thing, even after Lucas rushed in right before things got really intense."

"I stayed?" Marlena echoed. "Through your entire delivery?"

Sami actually blushed, looking a bit sheepish. "I wanted my Mommy, I guess, I wouldn't let you leave. It wasn't enough to have Lucas there, I needed you to hold my hand, too."

"Oh, sweetie-girl," Marlena breathed, choked up. "I..."

A scream of agony echoed through the delivery room, dying out into labored, gasping breaths.

"You're doing good, sweetie-girl," Marlena promised, brushing hair out of her daughter's eyes. "It's almost over, you're almost done."

"God, it hurts!" Sami wailed, tears streaming down her face as her face twisted into a heartwrenching grimace of pain. "Mom, I can't do this... I can't... it hurts too much!"

"You can do this, Sami," Lucas assured her from the other side of the bed, squeezing his wife's hand in his and kissing her knuckles. His face was pale and haggard, and he didn't look like he was doing much better than Sami, but at least he was still conscious, which was more than Bo had been during Hope's delivery with Zack.

"He's halfway out, Sami," Mike called encouragingly. "Keep pushin, you're doing great."

Sami clenched her eyes shut, gritting her teeth to try and muffle her scream as another bolt of pain tore through her, and Marlena swallowed, hating to see her child in such agony, even when she knew that it would all be worth it once Sami got to hold that precious baby boy in her arms.

"One more push, Sami," Bill's voice rang out from the foot of the bed. "Just one more push and we're done. On three, okay? One... two... three!"

Marlena blinked, startled, her lips parting in surprise as the scene flooded into her mind, fuzzy and a bit blurry, but clear enough for her to recognize it as a memory, not a delusion brought on by her illness.

But if that was a memory, if what she'd just seen was real and not just wishful thinking, did that mean that Lexie was right? Was she starting to remember her past on her own already?

"Mom?"

Shaking her head to clear it, Marlena looked up to find Sami watching her with concern. "Hmm?"

"You sort of spaced out on me for a second," Sami told her worriedly.

"Oh, I'm alright, honey," Marlena promised. "I was just... thinking. About you and Will. It's been so long since I saw him, I wonder if he'll even recognize me."

"He will," Sami assured her. "He was five when you got sick and that's old enough to remember, plus he's seen plenty of pictures and home movies over the past three years. He hasn't forgotten you, I promise. Lucas and I would never let that happen."

"I know, sweetie-girl," Marlena replied with a small smile. "Now, tell me more about our family while you were growing up. I want to know all about what it was like for you and your brothers and sisters, what sports the boys played and who made the honor roll and all of that."

"Well, Rex always made the honor roll, because he's a genius," Sami said, rolling her eyes. "As I'm sure he'll tell you himself, he likes to brag about his brains, but that's okay because when were kids I could always beat him up."

"Did you all fight a lot?" Marlena asked.

"Not really," Sami replied with a shrug. "Rex, Cassie, Eric and I had a special bond because we're all twins, and Carrie was the best big sister a girl could ask for. Brady was great, too, even if he did like to annoy me when he was little, and well, Belle's always been a sweetheart."

"So you were happy?" Marlena mused aloud, relieved to know that she had at least been a better mother than she'd been in her head.

"Very," Sami assured her. "We all were, you and Daddy made sure of it."

"Good, I'm glad," Marlena sighed.

"Although it would have been nice if I hadn't had to share a bathroom with Eric, Brady and Rex," Sami said with a grimace. "They were always leaving the toilet seat up, and one night Belle fell into the toilet when she was six."

Marlena put a hand to her mouth, trying not to laugh. "She didn't!"

"Oh, she did," Sami replied, grinning. "It was hysterical, none of us could stop laughing. I think we've got it on tape somewhere, because Eric and Brady grabbed the video camera from downstairs."

"Oh, they were terrible," Marlena cried, unable to keep from laughing a little. "Poor Belle."

"Yeah," Sami agreed. "But we girls stick together, so we got them back a week later when they were camping out in the backyard and we snuck outside to throw sticks at their tent and scare the living daylights out of them."

Marlena sat back in her chair, listening as Sami regaled her with tales of her youth, and half an hour later when John and Lucas returned, neither of them noticed, they were so caught up in their conversation. When Marlena finally looked up and saw them, though, she locked gazes with John, who was shaking his head at Sami's story about how he and Bo had tried to build the kids a snowfort only to have it collapse on top of them.

For just a moment, it hadn't felt like she was an outsider looking in on their lives.

It had felt, if only for that single moment, like she'd never left them.