Chapter 13

"E.J., you're not going to let them do this are you?" Sami said pounding his chest.

"I'm sorry, Samantha," he said dragging her into the hallway of the secret passage way of Maison Blanche. "Truly sorry."

Defeated and resigned to her fate, Sami didn't even bother struggling as E.J. linked arms with her to escort her out of the medical room. She didn't cry either. There were no tears left.

But as they walked past his old room toward the fireplace passageway suddenly E.J.'s demeanor changed.

"Don't worry, Samantha. There is no way in hell I'm letting Rolf get his hands on our baby," he whispered.

"What did you say?" Sami asked.

"Shhhh," E.J. whispered in her ear as he gently covered her mouth before they stepped through the passageway.

"Ahhhh E.J.," Rolf said greeting them on the other side and taking a sip from a cup of tea. "It appears you found the missing patient and we can begin the surgery."

"Actually Rolf, I was just back visiting with my father and Lexie and it appears my father changed his mind about the surgery tonight," E.J. lied. "He just wanted to visit with his daughter a little and catch some rest. You are NOT to disturb him."

"But…" Rolf said before E.J. quickly interrupted him.

"Rolf," E.J. said putting his hand on Rolf's shoulder. "Lexie is a doctor. If his condition worsens she will tell us, but until she does why don't you get some rest? You're looking a little worn out yourself."

"Well… I…." Rolf stammered.

"I insist," E.J. said. "I appreciate you caring for my father around the clock, but I worry if you don't get some rest soon you might do the umbilical cord blood transfusion wrong or something. Come on. I can see those eyelids drooping. You deserve a night off."

Rolf eyed him suspiciously but as E.J. smiled a wide open mouth smile Rolf let out a sudden yawn.

"See, I told you," E.J. said pushing Rolf toward the couch and onto it. "Now don't worry about Samantha. I'll keep an eye on her and the baby. She's in good hands with me."

Sami looked back and saw Rolf slump over unconscious as E.J. ushered her up the stairs.

"What'd you do to him?" Sami asked nervously.

"He's just sleeping and will be for a couple hours. Don't worry. I just made him a nice, relaxing cup of tea before I went back and got you," E.J. said smiling.

"From your nanny's recipe?" Sami asked

"No, my pharmacist's," E.J. said. "Come on. We need to get upstairs where we can talk and plan how we're going to get you the hell out of here."

E.J. shut the door of the attic behind them and locked it and Sami nearly suffocated him with her tight embrace.

"E.J., I'm so glad you got your memory back," Sami said pulling back from the hug to look up at him and clutch his face with her right hand. "When did you start to remember everything?"

"Well, Samantha," E.J. said pulling her hand off his face. "The thing is I don't remember everything. I started to remember after the night we spent together…"

"Really?" Sami said excitedly before confusion set in. "But if you've had your memory back since then why have you acted this way?"

"I've acted this way because Samantha I remembered the night our child was conceived and I haven't wanted to try to remember anything else," E.J. said. "I just didn't want to remember hurting you the way I did, the night I… I… I forced you to have sex with me to save Lucas's life… and I didn't know how to tell you. I didn't understand how you couldn't hate me when I've so hated myself."

E.J. went and sat on the bed and sighed and held his face with his hands.

"E.J., I did hate you for a long time," Sami said sitting down next to him and grabbing his hand. "But you've proven to me both before you lost your memory and now that you do care about me and this baby. I know it doesn't make a lot of sense. I can't really understand it either, but I just know that I need you."

Sami stood up and started pacing.

"I also know, E.J., that a lot of the things you did that hurt me were because of your family, just like the things I did that hurt you were because of mine," Sami said.

E.J. stood up behind her and pulled her back into his gaze.

"Whatever you may have done to me, I'm sure I deserved it," E.J. said.

"Well kind of," Sami said laughing.

"And I'm sure whatever it was you did to me, it couldn't have been that bad anyway," E.J. said smiling.

Sami laughed nervously as she remembered standing over E.J. as he was doused in gasoline and she held a lit match.

"The thing is now that I've told you the truth I think I can go to my father and tell him that I've started to get my memory back," E.J. said. "That I now know that he erased my memory to help me forget that night I raped you, but that you've forgiven me so everything is all right now. I can reason with him and we'll just wait until the baby is born and then we'll do the transfusion."

"No," Sami said. "E.J., you can't go to your father. And I'm not letting our baby help him. He's kept us trapped here all these months, me by his DiMera goons, and you trapped by your memory loss so we could be pawns on his chessboard for him to do with what he wishes. What we have to do is find a way to get to Tony."

"Tony?" E.J. scoffed.

"Yes, Tony. Your real father," Sami said.

Chapter 14

Tony walked up to the front door of Maison Blanche to find Bart ostensibly on guard out front but in reality guarding nothing except his private thoughts as he was totally engrossed by the nondescript glossy men's magazine in his hands and the pictures of the Brazilian centerfold inside.

"Bart, doing a bang up job as always I see," Tony said startling Bart.

Bart shoved the magazine behind his chair.

"Sorry boss," Bart said nervously. "I was just…"

"Save your excuses," Tony said tersely as he opened up the front door not giving Bart another look, walked inside and slammed the door shut. "I'm not in the mood."

Tony sighed as he entered, then frowned as he noticed the figure passed out on the couch. He walked over to the couch to find Rolf slumped over and started smacking his face around trying to see if he was conscious. Slowly, Rolf began to lift his head and awaken.

"What is going on here?" Tony said.

"Huh? I don't know what's going on. I'm sorry," Rolf said. "I don't know what came over me. I just needed to take a little nap and I…"

"Where's Sami?" Tony asked.

"Oh, she's upstairs with E.J., sir," Rolf said.

"Good," Tony said. "We need to make sure she stays out of sight because we're going to be having a visitor here very shortly."

"Who is coming?" Rolf asked.

"The half-wit Lucas Roberts is coming for his precious Sami. Finally. I guess after all these months of trying to numb the pain of life without her with booze he decided to try looking for her again because he'd rather endure the pain of life with her sober," Tony said. "We can't let that happen. We have to…"

But a rumbling car engine outside the mansion stopped Tony from finishing.

"Damn. He's already here," Tony said running over to the front door. "Bart, get the hell out of here. And don't let them see you."

"Sure thing, boss," Bart said running away in the direction of some woods behind the mansion.

Tony shut the door and sighed.

"What do you want to do, sir?" Rolf asked.

"Get in the fireplace," Tony said. "We're just going to have to wait this out and hope that Lucas gives up on his search for Sami just as quickly as last time. I hope that worthless brother of mine can keep Sami occupied up in the attic until he leaves."

"What if Lucas finds them?" Rolf asked.

"Then we'll just have to hold him captive, too, until my father's blood transfusion can go through," Tony said. "I'm not going to let anything or anyone stand in the way of my father's health being restored. He's all I have left."

Chapter 15

"Tony?" E.J. said in shock. "My father?"

"Listen, E.J., I am so sorry that I've been keeping a secret from you, too, these months," Sami said. "I found Stefano's diary and I found out that you are Tony's son. I was afraid to tell you before because you didn't have your memory and I didn't know if I could trust you to tell you. I wanted to tell you so many times."

"What exactly did you think you find that you wanted to tell me?" E.J. asked.

"All your memories of life as Elvis Jr. are memories planted their by Stefano so he could use you to get his revenge on all his enemies in Salem and so he could mold you into the perfect DiMera heir," Sami said. "I guess when you were born to Tony and Anna,"

"Anna DiMera is my mother?" E.J. said as his eyes widened.

"Yes, E.J. I guess Stefano and Tony weren't getting along very well back when you were born and Stefano was worried that Tony would keep you, his grandson, away from him and so he came up with this big scheme to tell Tony and Anna that their baby died when Anna was taken to the hospital thinking she miscarried," Sami said.

"That's impossible," E.J. said gasping as he contemplated the fact of having seen the ruthlessness of Stefano DiMera up close, it was possible.

"E.J. I'm so sorry," Sami said hugging him and crying. "I know what it's like to have Stefano keep your parents away from you when you're growing up and I guess that's why I've grown to feel so close to you all these months here."

E.J.'s sorrow turned to rage.

"I'm going to kill him," E.J. said. "I'm going to kill Stefano."

"No, E.J.," Sami said grabbing his hand. "You can't. That won't solve anything. And if you try and fail we could end up killed. We have to find another way. I think if we went to Tony and told him about this he would side with us. Against Stefano. And against Lexie..."

"Against Lexie?" E.J. asked, his eyebrow raised.

"Yeah," Sami said. "Unfortunately she has the diary now."

"You showed Lexie the diary and she still sided with Stefano?" E.J. asked in disbelief. "So nobody in my family loves me, eh?"

"I'm sorry, again, E.J.," Sami said hugging him tightly and then looking up at him. "I love you. And our baby will, too."

"You're amazing," E.J. said sighing and kissing her on the forehead. "You know that? Well, before anybody finds Rolf I guess we should head downstairs so I can call Tony."

But before he let go of her, the attic door swung open.

"Just what the hell is going on here?!" Lucas demanded to know.

Chapter 16

"Doc, you're finally here," Roman said getting out of the booth at the Brady Pub to hug Marlena.

"Yes, Roman, I'm here," Marlena said. "Although I wasn't expecting you to greet me so warmly after you stormed out of Chez Rouge."

"I'm sorry about that," Roman said. "I'm sorry about everything and not explaining myself over the phone…"

"Oh, don't worry about it Roman," Marlena said. "Just tell me what is so urgent that you had to see me again. Did you hear from Anna again?"

"Well, I did get a call from Anna," Roman said. "But not about my proposal. About Sami."

"Sami," Marlena said grabbing Roman's hand as tears filled her eyes.

Just then John cleared his throat as he stood over them and Marlena quickly let go of Roman's hand.

"It took me a while, but I finally found a parking space, Doc," John said as he sat down in the booth next to them. "Hi, Roman."

"Hi, John," Roman said. "I was just telling Marlena about some news we got about Sami's whereabouts. Anna overheard something about Sami when she was outside Tony DiMera's office earlier."

"What the hell was she doing at Tony DiMera's office?" John asked, before Marlena kicked his leg with her heel to let him know that it wasn't a very tactful thing to say. "I mean… what did Anna find out?"

Before Roman could answer Anna walked into the pub.

"Well, it looks like Anna is here so she can tell you herself," Roman said.

"Roman," Anna said kissing him on the cheek and sitting down in the booth next to him. "Hi Marlena and John. It's so nice to see you."

"Yes, it is, Anna, but if you don't mind I'd like it if we could save the pleasantries for a later time and you tell us what you know about where our daughter is," Marlena said.

"Of course. Umm… well… now I only heard bits and pieces, but I was outside Tony's office…" Anna said before self-consciously pausing as she looked at Roman.

"Go on," Roman said nodding.

"Anyway, I heard Tony say that Sami was being held captive in New Orleans," Anna said.

"New Orleans?" Marlena asked.

"Just like Maison Blanche," John said.

"Oh, I can't believe I didn't think of it when we were there before," Marlena said with astonishment. "John, you were in that coma and we were searching for Sami at this old mansion there, but we stopped because Belle called and said you were in trouble so we raced back to see you. I wonder if Sami's been at that place this whole time. Oh, I feel so guilty."

"I'm going to go call my pilot right now and get my jet fired up so we can head to New Orleans," John said as he got out of the booth to make the call.

"It's not your fault, Doc," Roman said comforting Marlena. "If she's there, we'll find her and we'll bring her home."

"Roman, if it's all right, I'd like to go with you and help you search," Anna said.

"But what about fashion week?" Roman asked. "You have that business trip."

"This business is more important," Anna said smiling.

John closed his flipphone shut and informed them that his jet would be ready by the time they got to the airstrip outside of Salem. The group was just about to walk out of the pub when a familiar face stopped them in their tracks.

"If the four of you are headed to New Orleans then I'm coming with you," Kate Roberts said.