PART TWO

We jump ahead several months in the story to find Sami still captive at Maison Blanche and now 8 and a half months pregnant.

Chapter 1

Sami sighed with contentment as she cuddled with E.J. in the Jacobean four poster bed and nestled the crown of her head beneath his chin before then tilting her head back to look up at him.

"Good morning," E.J. said as he leaned in to kiss her forehead and Sami shut her eyes.

Yet when Sami opened her eyes E.J. was gone. She pushed the pillows in her arms away in frustration. It had been another dream. Just like the others.

Slowly and warily she sat up in bed, holding her large stomach with her right hand and tried to wipe the sleep out of her eyes with her left. She couldn't however, wipe away thoughts of E.J. and the passionate night the two of them shared five months earlier and all the lonely nights since.

She still didn't understand it as many hours as she had spent crying over it. After the night they shared, Sami was in ecstasy but E.J. told her the next morning it could never happen again. That he would never make love to her again. She was married and he respected her vows too much to allow her to break them again, he said.

Sami laughed as a tear trickled down her cheek as she thought about it. E.J. never cared about those wedding vows before. She was certain he didn't care about her marriage to Lucas even if he still had no memory of it. She decided E.J. just wasn't interested in her that way any more.

But the strange thing was E.J. hadn't totally shut her out. In fact, in most ways he was more attentive than ever. He held her hand and beamed with pride as if he knew the baby was his when Lexie performed the sonogram in the home's makeshift medical room.

He never stopped spending time with her during those months he continued as her "guard" and they shared childhood stories and read books together and he spent many, many hours trying to teach her how to play chess. He was so patient with her as he attempted to impart basic chess strategy even if he would tease her that the way she played chess was much like the way she lived her life, emotionally and recklessly.

As Sami thought about that playful taunt, she decided it was time to prove E.J. wrong. She had stayed at Maison Blanche long enough hoping that E.J. would remember her and remember his love for her, but if he wasn't going to be there for her completely she needed to develop a rational, calculated scheme to escape so she could get back to Salem. Even if Lucas wouldn't forgive her or understand or support her raising this child, she knew her mother would.

Sami immediately thought of Stefano's diary she had found. Tony had not returned to Maison Blanche in the months since Lucas was there so Sami had not had an opportunity to show him the truth about E.J.'s paternity.

She was also more afraid of revealing the truth to E.J. than ever after getting an up close look at the unbelievably close relationship between Stefano and E.J. that she had witnessed as Stefano's remarkable recovery from the kidney transplant had allowed him to move about the house on his own and spend many hours a day among them, reading books, listening to music and telling stories, even as he waited for her baby's umbilical cord blood to be fully restored to health.

Bart and Rolf would not care about the secrets contained in the book, she thought, and they might even destroy it without Tony ever seeing it if Stefano asked them to. She sighed in frustration.

But just then a strange idea popped in her head. It was risky, but she had exhausted all other options. She would have to go to Lexie with the diary and ask her help in escaping Maison Blanche, she thought.

Sure, her relationship with Lexie was just as icy as ever, but Sami had perceived a growing softness in her heart toward E.J. in the months she watched the two of them get to know each other and work together in caring for Stefano. And if Lexie knew about this diary, she could get in contact with Tony, who would be so furious with his father that he would allow both of them to return to their husbands and children in Salem even if it meant Stefano would die.

Sami excitedly opened the trunk and retrieved the diary and hugged it to her chest and smiled to herself.

"I'm sorry this is going to hurt you, E.J., but I need to do what's best for our baby," Sami said staring into space.

"Just what is going to hurt me, Samantha?" E.J. asked to Sami's surprise.

Chapter 2

"Just what is going to hurt me, Samantha?" E.J. asked to Sami's surprise.

"E.J. I… well…" Sami stammered as she concealed the diary by cradling it in her arms as if she had a chill.

"You what? And something about the baby?" E.J. asked as he set her breakfast tray on a table and then turned around to close the attic door.

Seeing the opening, Sami quickly shoved the diary under the mattress of the bed and pulled the bedspread to cover it before E.J. turned back around.

"E.J., so nice of you to bring me breakfast, again," Sami said, stalling to try to devise a lie to placate him about what he overheard.

"Well, it's getting late, sweetheart," E.J. said, smiling even as he recognized her tactic. "I figured you would be pretty hungry by now. Both of you."

E.J. sighed as he saw Sami touch her large stomach at those words. The past several months had been excruciating for E.J. as he tried to reconcile the past with the present and his divided loyalties between Sami and his family.

E.J. still remembered very little beyond the grainy memory of the night their child was conceived. He didn't want to remember more. He didn't understand how or why some of his memories had been erased, but it did enter his thoughts that it was within the realm of possibility for his father to erase his memories if he thought it was for his son's own good. If he had been the one to cause Sami the pain that led her to try to kill herself burning down the cabin as Rolf had said, he didn't ever want to reclaim those memories. At times over the months since they made love, E.J. would resolve to help Sami escape from this place and ask her to never see him again, but at the same time he couldn't bear the thought of letting Sami go and knew she was the only hope his father had for survival so he would always give up the idea before he acted.

Sami sensed E.J.'s distance so she pounced on the chance to change the subject.

"E.J. I just want to thank you again for getting these new maternity dresses for me," Sami said holding a shopping bag and stepping behind the bathroom curtain to dress. "I only hope I have enough time to wear all of them before the baby is born."

"Oh, those," E.J. said still distant. "Lexie picked them out. She thought you could use something to pick up your spirits a little."

"Well, I'll just have to thank Lexie then," Sami said stepping from behind the curtain, a little miffed.

E.J. sensed her frustration but his mouth dropped when he saw her in the gown sparkling nearly as bright blue as her eyes in the morning light.

"I shall have to thank her, too, Samantha," E.J. said sincerely. "You just glow in that dress, darling. I doubt there's ever been a mother more beautiful than you."

Inside, Sami melted at the words, while E.J. turned his head in embarrassment.

He still loved her. As hard as he tried to stop for her sake, he still wanted her and wanted to be with her. But he didn't think himself worthy of her love at all.

"Anyway, when I came in you were saying something about me?" E.J. said trying to distract himself from his own angst.

"I was?" Sami said pretending not to remember.

"Yes, sweetheart," E.J. said biting his lip. "You were…"

But before E.J. could finish Lexie was at the door.

"E.J., I need to talk you right now," Lexie said sounding concerned and completely ignoring Sami.

"Good morning to you, too, Lexie," Sami said snidely.

Lexie glared while E.J. walked off with his sister.

"Enjoy your breakfast, Samantha," E.J. said before exiting and shutting the door.

Sami let out a sigh of relief that she had dodged this catastrophe and sat down to eat her breakfast.

Then, while buttering her toast she paused to wonder just what would have been so bad had she told E.J. the truth.

"Oh so Stefano would lock me up and prevent me from ever again seeing my loved ones in Salem?" Sami said with a sardonic laugh before the expression on her face became serious. "Or Stefano will just let E.J. get hurt again. Ugh. I have to convince Lexie to help make this right."

Sami slammed the knife down in frustration.

Chapter 3

"Listen, Abraham. I've already told you," Celeste said as she stood inside the doorway of Lexie and Abe's home where she had lived since Lexie's disappearance as she helped Abe raise Theo and nursed Abe through recovery of his latest eye surgery.

"I don't like missing out on it either, but I've got many errands to run today so you and Theo will just have to have a fantastic time at the zoo without me," Celeste said patting Theo on the head.

"Well, all right," Abe said kissing Celeste on the cheek before turning his attention to Theo and heading out. "Guess we'll just have to make the most of guys day out."

"I'm sure you will. Good bye," Celeste said shutting the door behind them and leaning against it sighing with relief that they were finally gone.

Celeste had been dying for a moment like this for months – a moment alone to collect her thoughts. But Celeste had never had that chance between all the hours spent caring for Theo with Lexie gone and then also looking out for Abe during his recent corneal transplant.

Recently she began to suspect that Abe may have mistaken her motherly nurturing for something else. Or even worse, she thought, was that Abe might not be mistaken about why she agreed to spend so much time caring for him. There were all these passing glances between them that turned into stares. Or a friendly touch of the shoulder that lasted a little too long. The night before he had even brought her flowers and cooked her dinner. Abe said it was just to thank her for all she had done to care for him and Theo, but Celeste was so relieved when he had to leave to go on a police call before they opened the bottle of wine he brought.

Celeste knew Lexie was still alive. She felt it in her bones. She just had to find a way to prove that her daughter was alive and bring her back to Salem soon, before she and Abe betrayed her. Celeste sighed again.

Looking out the window, she saw that Abe's car was gone so the coast was clear and she shut the blinds, locked the door and dimmed the lights. Abe had forbid her from practicing her "dark arts" as he called them in his home, because he said they gave him the creeps. Celeste respected that opinion as she knew this dabbling in the occult had many times brought pain for her and her family, but she also knew it was the only hope she had to try to track Lexie down with all the police leads gone cold. She walked over to the closet and retrieved a shopping bag she had stowed away a few weeks earlier for just a moment like this.

Celeste walked over to the table and lit a red candle at its center before she reached in the bag and pulled out a folded piece of purple cloth. As Celeste unwrapped the handkerchief to retrieve her worn and faded tarot cards, she marveled at how she thought she could still catch a light whiff of Stefano's cologne.

She shook her head as she tried to put thoughts of that man out of her mind and grabbed a picture of Lexie out of a desk drawer and laid it in front of the candle and sat down at the table bowing her head and shuffling the cards three times before she spoke.

"Oh spirit world, I come to you in need of an answer about the whereabouts of my daughter, Alexandra," Celeste said. "Has she joined you or does she remain among the living? Please give her mother the peace of knowing."

Celeste turned over the first card to reveal the Queen of Swords, a card Celeste knew did not just represent a woman sitting on a throne holding a sword upright but also the abstract concepts of personal emotional loss and separation.

"This is Lexie. She's alive!" Celeste said excitedly. "Thank you, spirits, for your help, but I have more questions if you have the answers. Tell me, why has my Alexandra not come back to me if she is alive?"

As soon as Celeste said the words she knew her answer instinctively, but still she turned over the next card to confirm it as she looked at The Devil card in front of her.

"Stefano!" she said clenching her fist. Celeste knew he was what the card meant not just because of the evil associated with the devil, but also because she knew the card contained so much paternal energy and represented bondage with the man and woman kept in chains at the devil's feet.

"Oh, I bet Stefano ordered E.J. to kidnap Lexie so she could take care of him," Celeste said. "Damn those Dimeras."

Celeste tried to set aside some of her rage to try to get more information.

"Spirits, please tell me, is my Alexandra alone?" Celeste asked.

The next two cards were stuck together so she overturned them both to reveal The Emperor and The Empress. Celeste tapped her fingers on the table to try to make sense of the cards depicting on their basic level: man and woman, Aries and Taurus, Mars and Venus, a warrior king and a beautiful mother.

"Mother." Celeste said aloud. "Samantha! This must mean Samantha and E.J."

Celeste had heard about the strange disappearance of Sami and E.J. after Sami's honeymoon, but she had just figured that E.J. kidnapped her or the foolish girl had run away with him. Now she wondered if the two of them were with Lexie.

"Thank you spirits, for your patience, but can you tell me what is going to happen? I must know," Celeste said trembling as she turned over the next card.

It was The Tower – the card she feared the most. The picture itself was disturbing enough with the lightning bolt striking the tower causing its crown to pop off, a fire to erupt and showing two men tumbling face first to their deaths. But even more troubling was what the card stood for: forever life-changing chaos and destruction.

Celeste had to find Lexie before her life was ruined or worse, she was killed. But how?

"Spirits, I appreciate all you have done for me, but I need something more – someone to help me make sense of this and help me find my daughter. Who in this world can help me figure out where Lexie is?"

After Celeste finished her question, the candle wick burnt itself out. Celeste knew the spirits had done all they would do to help her as she turned over the next card.

"The Fool?" Celeste scoffed as she looked at the young man depicted treading blissfully unaware that he is about to step off a cliff. "Is this some kind of joke?"

But Celeste knew the card had to have a purpose. She believed the card held the answer to her question. She paused for a moment to try to make sense of it, before a knowing smile wrapped around her face.

"Ah yes," Celeste said getting up to find a phone book to look up the listing for Mythic Communications.

She dialed the phone and put it up to her ear.

"Hi, can I speak with Lucas Roberts please? Tell him this is Celeste. It's important."

Chapter 4

Up in the attic, Sami finished her breakfast and pouted. She walked across the room to take out the diary and as she sensed its power in her hands, she decided she had to take action now. It had been several weeks earlier that during the long, boring hours she spent in the attic that she had figured out how to use an old bobby pin to pry open the lock on the old attic door. Now was the time to put that knowledge into action, before it was too late, she thought.

Sami figured Bart would be posted outside Maison Blanche's front door and that Rolf, Lexie, E.J. and Stefano would all be downstairs. But she had to get down there somehow, either to find an escape or find a way to Lexie. She grabbed one of the luxurious robes that hung in the attic's closet and put it on and stuffed the diary into its large front pocket. Sami headed downstairs slowly but swiftly, at least as swiftly as a pregnant woman could.

Out of sight, but within earshot of E.J. and Lexie, Sami hid in the stairway and listened as they talked.

"So Lexie, are you going to tell me what's going on or not?" E.J. asked as he and Lexie walked down the last steps of the grand staircase and walked into the large front room of the mansion.

"Yes, E.J. I will tell you, but you aren't going to like hearing this," Lexie said with trepidation. "Despite the improved spirits Father has been demonstrating the past several months as he recovered from the kidney transplant, I'm afraid he's not going to make it much longer unless…"

"Unless what?" E.J. asked with concern.

"Well, Rolf says that we need to induce labor now," Lexie said. "He needs that umbilical cord blood now to develop the cure for Father's condition, if he is to live."

"But Samantha is so close to giving birth already. I don't see how it's necessary to risk her life or the life of her child," E.J. said throwing his hands up in disgust.

"It's quite necessary," Rolf said, stepping out of the fireplace passageway to join their conversation.

E.J. glared at Rolf in disbelief while Lexie looked at them with obvious discomfort.

"I'm going to go check on Father," Lexie said disappearing into the fireplace passageway.

"Dammit," Sami whispered to herself as she saw Lexie disappear.

Sami took a few steps up the stairs to head back to her room, but then reconsidered and decided to listen to what Rolf had to say.

"E.J., I understand you and Samantha have become quite close these months she's spent here as the hired surrogate mother to Stefano's child, but this is what she was paid to do and it is time to get that umbilical cord blood," Rolf said. "The child was never going to be hers to raise anyway, so why does it matter if we let her carry it to full term? Now if you don't mind, I need to get up stairs and bring Samantha down to surgery so we can begin the procedure. Tony has sent these orders and I intend to carry them out."

Sami gasped. She ran and hid in a second floor closet while she tried to think of what to do next.

Downstairs, E.J. seethed beneath the surface, but tried to maintain a cool demeanor so he could continue the pretense that he had no idea the child Sami was carrying was his and potentially protect Sami through reasoning with Rolf.

"There's a way to do this without being cruel," E.J. said standing in front of Rolf.

"What is cruel about making a deal and expecting the other party to hold up their end of the bargain after they agree to it?" Rolf asked, sidestepping E.J. and heading up the stairs with E.J. trailing closely behind and pleading with him to reconsider.

Sami heard them slowly walking up the steps and sobbed with fear. She realized that E.J. was powerless to stop what had already been set in motion. Even if he wanted to help her, Rolf was now dead set on getting her child and she would have to find a way out herself.

As they were ascending the flight of stairs up toward the attic, Sami could hear E.J. arguing more and more forcefully against Tony's plans even as she slithered out of the closet and hurried down the grand staircase toward the front door.

Once there, she looked out the window and to her disappointment, but not her surprise, she saw Bart standing there on the front porch, armed. She knew similar Dimera goons would be posted outside all the exits. She would need some other way out. Someone else to help her get out. She brushed her hand across the pocket of her robe and felt the diary and remembered the secrets it contained. She would have to find Lexie even if it meant she might have to face Stefano, too.

Shaking, she fiddled with the fireplace to open the secret passageway and stepped inside.