Chapter 25

Stefano's eyes fluttered as he regained consciousness and began surveying the hospital room around him as he tried to make sense of where he was.

At first Stefano was relieved to realize he was alive but that feeling was short-lived as another wave of panic set in as he noticed the face of the man sitting next to him light up alerted to the fact that he was now awake and as the man's hand reached out to hold his.

"Andre, no!" Stefano screamed as he frantically tried to reach for the call button. "Get your hands off me! Don't drug me again. No, Andre. You can't do this. Not to me."

"Stefano, what are you talking about?" Tony said with surprise. "It's me, Tony. Were you having a bad dream?"

Stefano's silence at the question gave him his answer even if Stefano did not.

"So it wasn't a bad dream?" Tony asked. "Andre did this to you. He's alive and he's the one who drugged you."

"Yes, Tony," Stefano said with a sigh. "Andre is alive and he is more dangerous than ever. I think he has E.J. and Sami hidden away somewhere, maybe even back at the mansion."

"Well that is his M.O., isn't it Stefano?" Tony asked bitterly. "But why would he go after them? Why now?

"Andre's upset with me that I want to leave you and E.J. my legacy and now he will stop at nothing to get that for himself," Stefano said. "He won't even think of shrinking from ending the lives of anyone who gets in his way."

"Well, you are lucky he didn't start with your life, Stefano," Tony said. "Thankfully, Dr. Rolf happened to be looking for you shortly after your run-in with Andre and so he was able to resuscitate you before whatever Andre injected you with stopped your heart completely. It's a shame he got away without anyone noticing, though. You know, Rolf is waiting outside in the lounge worried sick about you, I should tell him you're all right."

But Stefano's frantic gasping for air as he tried to keep Tony from leaving succeeded in bringing his bastard son back from the door.

"What is it, Stefano?" Tony asked coming back to sit down at his bedside.

"Before you leave, before something else happens to me, I have to come clean so that someone knows," Stefano said beginning his confession.

"I take it you had an idea Andre was alive before he decided to play Nurse Ratched with you?" Tony asked with a sigh.

"Yes," Stefano admitted. "I wanted to help Elvis with Samantha and I thought I could use Andre to do that. When Elvis shot him, Andre was wearing a bulletproof vest. He left that folio for Samantha to find it on purpose."

"And E.J. went along with this since winning Sami, whatever the costs, is the most important thing to him?" Tony asked.

"No," Stefano said shaking his head in the negative. "Elvis doesn't know about that. He doesn't know about any of this."

"Any of this?" Tony asked curiously. "What else is there?"

Stefano gulped as he was not accustomed to either sharing his secrets or admitting his mistakes.

"The twins," Stefano said with a sigh. "Elvis is the father of the twins. I kept this from him because I was afraid if he knew they were his children there might come a time that he would keep them from me and keep me from helping to make them true DiMeras."

"True DiMeras?" Tony said getting out of his chair appalled at what he was hearing. "Can you hear yourself and how ridiculous that sounds? You thought you could make them true DiMeras by keeping their true father from them? How could you do this to E.J. and Samantha, Stefano? Didn't you learn anything from the mistakes you made with me?"

"Apparently not," Stefano said with a heavy heart as his eyes began blinking and his strength began failing once more. "And to make matters worse I have lost these children just the same as that idiot Lucas Roberts has come to claim them with Sami missing."

"This is unbelievable, Stefano," Tony said, rubbing his face and wondering what to do with this information. "What are we going to do?"

"Tony, you have to stop him. It's up to you to stop Andre," Stefano said finally before he slipped back into sleep.

Tony sighed as he stepped out of Stefano's hospital room and turned off the light to allow the man who had raised him to get some much needed rest.

He wasn't sure exactly what to do about Andre, but knowing now that he was alive there was one phone call in particular he had to make.

"Hello, Anna," Tony said after listening to the prompt in his wife's voice mail. "Anna, please call me back when you get this. I need to warn you that Andre is alive and he is on the loose and as you know, he seems to get quite a thrill out of impersonating me so I just want you especially to be extra careful. I love you, Contessa."

Chapter 26

"Samantha, you're free!" E.J. said excitedly noticing Sami had freed herself to walk around the room. "If I haven't told you this lately, I'm sorry, because you're bloody amazing, sweetheart. I simply don't know how you did it."

"Well, here's how, E.J.," Sami said holding up E.J.'s pocketknife with the blade extended. "Luckily, when you dropped that knife when Andre came in the room it fell right into my hand."

"That's great, Samantha," E.J. said smiling. "Now you can cut me free and we can get out of here."

"Cut you free?" Sami asked bitterly. "I should just cut you, period, for handing over the twins to Lucas."

"Samantha, come on," E.J. said pleading with Sami as she began banging on the door and trying to figure out how to escape on her own. "Let me help you, darling."

"I don't want your help," Sami said crying as she turned away from the door and leaned against it feeling defeated. "Surely my dad will come and help. He'll figure out a way to get in here and save us."

E.J. didn't have the heart to dissuade Sami from that pipe dream, at least not until Sami sensed his hesitation.

"O.K., E.J., tell me what's up with my father," Sami said angrily. "Did Andre kill him? Is that why you're so quiet?"

"No, Samantha," E.J. said sighing. "Thankfully, it's not as bad as all that it's just…"

"Just what, huh?" Sami said impatiently with her arms folded across her chest. "Come on. Spit it out."

"My dear, it's just that I don't think you should count on Roman to come riding to your rescue because when I called him after finding your note he didn't believe me when I told him that you couldn't have run away," E.J. said quickly, trying to make the truth as painless as possible.

"How could he think I would abandon my twins that way?" Sami asked as her lips quivered. "How could he think I could abandon my promise to my family that way? I did this for them. I gave myself to you and your family in this sham of a marriage to save their lives and ensure their safety and happiness."

"I know," E.J. said flatly, trying to ignore the hurt he felt being reminded that Sami was his wife because of circumstance rather than choice. "But you shouldn't be mad at Roman for his reaction. It's my fault for being such a bastard to you all these months that he would jump to the conclusions he did."

"No, E.J., that doesn't forgive it," Sami said bitterly. "He should know. He should know his daughter better than that. Did you show him the letter? Did he come to the house? Tell me."

"Yes, I showed him the letter and gave it to him to take to the police station when he came to the house," E.J. sighed. "Unfortunately his paying a visit to your bedroom and seeing the broken vase and tissues all over the floor only reinforced his belief that you ran away to escape your life with me."

Sami was stunned and said nothing for a moment as her cheeks flushed as she remembered the previous night with E.J.

"So you didn't tell him what happened?" Sami asked curiously.

E.J. smiled.

"Like he would have believed me," E.J. snickered. "And besides, I didn't think you'd much enjoy me embarrassing you by advertising to your father your alcohol-induced ardor for me. I told him and your mother the truth, well part of it anyway, that we had an argument, but I didn't think you had run away because of it."

Sami paused for a moment to think about how the situation must have looked to her parents given how much she'd proclaimed her hatred for E.J. in the past. Then she remembered something that brought her a ray of hope.

"But my father has the note, right?" Sami asked anxiously.

"Yes, I asked him to check it for fingerprints," E.J. said. "He was going to take it to the station. Do you remember Andre handling it?"

"Well, no," Sami said shaking her head. "Andre put a gun to my head and forced me to write it but he never touched it."

E.J. shut his eyes and hung his head.

"But thankfully Andre didn't read the postscript I left," Sami said. "Did you notice it, E.J.? I actually left it for you."

E.J. recalled the phrase because it had seemed so strange to him, but he still had no clue exactly what his wife had meant by it.

"Oh yes," E.J. said it back to her. "P.S. Always Notice DeaR EJ How Acting Sorry Means Everything. Very philosophical of you, sweetheart. Although, I have to say I've acted quite sorry for my actions to you for quite some time, but that doesn't seem to…"

"No, E.J.!" Sami said with exasperation. "You don't get it. Did you notice the capitalization of everything? I was leaving you a message. Always Notice DeaR EJ How Acting Sorry Means Everything. A-N-D-R-E H-A-S M-E. Andre has me. Get it?"

"Well, I do now," E.J. said with a laugh. "Let's just hope someone at the Salem Police Department has the brain power to crack the code without having you there to spell it out for them."

Knowing the limitations of the police force despite her family's presence in the department and perhaps because of it, Sami didn't think the dearth of brain power on the Salem P.D. was such a laughing matter.

"Everything is a joke with you, isn't it?" Sami said with frustration.

"Samantha, I'm just thinking of you and thought you might appreciate me lightening the mood with a little levity," E.J. said with a wink.

"Well, stop it, O.K.," Sami said emphatically. "Because I'm not in the mood. Oh, don't you dare smirk at that!"

"Smirk at what?" E.J. asked with a mischievous grin on his face.

"I saw that look on your face when I mentioned that I wasn't in the mood. Urgggggh!" Sami said throwing her hands in the air. "E.J., sometimes… sometimes I just can't help but hate myself for the way that I…"

"The way that what?" E.J. interrupted as his grin spread wide across his face. "The way that you're hopelessly, helplessly attracted to me?"

Chapter 27

Lucas paused for a moment as he stood outside his mother's office at Titan. It amazed him the way that his mother had so quickly gone from under the SEC's thumb for her dealings at Mythic to having an executive position at yet another Fortune 500 company thanks to Phillip.

A part of him was envious of Kate for her success in the corporate world that he knew he would never obtain, while another part of him was envious of Phillip for being able to help his mother get that while Lucas did nothing but bring her down. But Lucas tried to put that out of his mind as he sighed and approached the slightly open door.

"You busy, Mom?" Lucas asked as he knocked on the door of his mother's office at Titan.

"I'm never too busy for you, Lucas," Kate said hanging up the phone on her desk. "Come in."

Just as Lucas stepped in the room, Anna DiMera came to the door to ask Kate a question about the design proposal Kate was seeking for the Basic Black revamp project. Anna was just about to knock on the door when she decided not to announce her presence as eavesdropping on the two of them without them knowing was much more tactful, as was turning her phone on vibrate so they wouldn't be able to hear it if it rang.

"Well, don't just stand there, Lucas," Kate said, urging her son to come closer to her. "I can see you look like hell from here if that is what you're trying to hide from me."

"Gee, thanks, Mom," Lucas muttered bitterly.

"I'm sorry, Lucas, but I worry about you," Kate said with a sigh. "I know you've taken this breakup with Sami extra hard and I understand that you need time to grieve and if that involves you taking a drink or two to get through it, well I'm not going to judge you for that even if I still don't understand what you ever saw in that sneaky, trampy, blonde bitch…"

"Dammit, Mom," Lucas said interrupting and slamming his hand on the desk. "I didn't come here to talk about Sami!"

"Well, Lucas, what did you come here to talk about? Do you need money?" Kate asked as she reached into her purse to find her checkbook.

"No, I didn't come here for money," Lucas said in frustration. "I don't want anything from you. I just want to say goodbye."

"Goodbye?" Kate asked, as her brow furrowed with confusion. "You're leaving Salem? Well, what about your twins?"

"They're coming with me," Lucas said.

"How'd you manage that?" Kate asked as her eyebrow raised. "I expected Sami to fight you tooth and nail for those kids and especially with the DiMeras paying for her lawyers I didn't think she'd…"

"Sami didn't give me the kids," Lucas said.

"Oh, Lucas, don't tell me you're planning on trying to kidnap them," Kate scoffed.

"Hey, I'm not kidnapping them," Lucas said defensively. "Sami abandoned them. She ran away and so now I'm taking care of them."

"And you have no idea where she ran away to?" Kate asked skeptically. "Come on, Lucas, level with me."

"Maybe I do know where she is all right," Lucas said finally. "Maybe I do know that Andre is holding her hostage."

Anna gasped and reached for her phone while Lucas and Kate continued their conversation unaware that someone had been listening to them.

"But dammit she deserves it," Lucas said bitterly. "Sami deserves to lose these kids. She walked out on me to be with that British bastard and I have no intention of letting her get away with it. That's why I'm leaving for Italy tonight with the twins and I'm never coming back."

"Italy?" Kate asked. "Why Italy? And how can you afford that? Is someone helping you with this?"

"Maybe," Lucas said defensively. "All right, Mom, I'll tell you. Andre set me up with some first class tickets to leave tonight and I'm planning to stay at a villa owned by a friend of his."

"Andre? DiMera? But I thought Andre was dead," Kate said, confused.

"Does anyone in that family ever stay dead?" Lucas asked.

"Good point," Kate sighed. "But working with Andre? That madman? What does he get out of this?"

"Revenge on E.J., I guess," Lucas said. "But what does it matter?"

"Lucas, I guess I could understand how taking Sami out of the picture would let Andre get back at E.J., but what does that have to do with helping you get your children back?" Kate asked.

"I don't know," Lucas said, not wanting to think about the valid question raised by his mother. "Maybe he felt sorry for me. Maybe he had a soft spot for me from when I used to work with him. It doesn't matter."

"Lucas, I know getting those twins is important to you, but are you sure this is what you want to do?" Kate asked.

"I'm sure, Mom," Lucas said. "Sure as anything I've ever been sure of in my life."

After several rings, Anna finally got through to Roman's cell phone and stepped away from the door to tell him the news she had heard from Lucas.

Meanwhile, Roman and Marlena had been standing around his desk at the police station staring over Sami's note in the vain attempt to find a clue contained within it after the forensic test of the letter had turned up no fingerprints or any other information.

"Listen, Roman," Marlena said. "You can't really believe our daughter ran away. As horrible as E.J. is, I don't believe that he did something so horrible that Sami would leave him without telling us and without her children."

"Why don't you call John up and see if he can take time away from his visit to Brady and Chloe in the midst of our daughter's latest crisis to see if he can remind you of the horrible things E.J. Wells is capable of?" Roman asked.

"That's not fair," Marlena said bitterly. "I don't need a reminder of the heartache and devastation that E.J. can cause. And I did talk to John earlier, thank you very much, but he agreed with me that Sami did not run away."

"Well, you and John always did stick together," Roman said bitterly.

"Excuse me?" Marlena asked. "I'm going to pretend like I didn't hear that. We are not fighting about the past. We need to stick together now to find our daughter."

"Well, Doc, how in da hell are we supposed to do that when all we have is this piece of paper?" Roman asked as he laid the paper on the table in front of them.

Marlena sighed as she ran her fingers over the note imagining the fear and sadness her daughter must have felt while writing it.

"Hold on, I need to take this," Roman said as he picked up his cell phone. "Now what's this about Lucas and Kate, Anna?"

Marlena didn't listen to her ex-husband while he chatted with one of his other ex-wives as something in the letter finally caught her eye.

p.s. Always Notice DeaR EJ How Acting Sorry Means Everything.

"Well that was Anna," Roman said flipping the cell phone shut. "You're never going to guess what she found out about Sami."

"Andre has her!" Marlena said.

"Yes, as a matter of fact it seems he does," Roman said. "I guess Anna overheard Kate and Lucas talking about it. But how did you know that?"

"Look at the end of the letter. The capital letters. A-N-D-R-E H-A-S M-E! Andre has me!" Marlena said. "Sami was sending us a message after all. Oh we've got to find her."

"Unfortunately not just her," Roman said wearily. "Lucas is using this opportunity to run off with the twins."

"Well, we can't let him get away with that," Marlena said emphatically. "I'm going to head over to Stefano's hospital room right now to see if I can get some answers."

"Oh, no you don't, Marlena," Roman said. "Not with Andre on the loose. You stay here out of the way where you're safe. Promise me you'll stay away from that hospital room of Stefano's while I'm going to go pay a visit to Kate to see if I can get some more information about what Andre and Lucas are up to. Promise me, Doc."

"I promise," Marlena sighed.

"I'll be back soon," Roman said giving his ex-wife a kiss on the cheek.

Marlena rolled her eyes behind Roman's back while the door slammed shut behind him as he hurried out of his office.

"Hmmmmm, I promised I'd stay away from Stefano's hospital room, but I didn't promise I'd stay away from his mansion," Marlena said to herself as she walked out of the room.

Chapter 28

"Dammit, E.J.," Sami said stomping her feet. "Do you always have to be so arrogant and egotistical?"

"I'm afraid so darling," E.J. said furrowing his brow. "I know how much you love that about me."

"Oh, how could I forget?" Sami asked sarcastically as she rolled her eyes.

"Darling, seriously, I'm sorry for this, really I am," E.J. said as he tried to soothe his wife while he continued to struggle with the ropes binding his arms behind his back while he sat in the chair.

"I bet you're sorry," Sami said in exasperation. "Since it seems you only exist to frustrate me. When I want you to go to hell, you refuse to leave my side. And when I want you to…"

"Want me to what?" E.J. asked after waiting for Sami to continue while the words were stuck in her throat.

"When I wanted you to make love to me, you refused me, and if you hadn't we wouldn't be stuck here," Sami said bitterly. "You never give me what I want."

Now it was E.J.'s turn to roll his eyes.

"I can't win with you, Samantha, can I?" E.J. asked seriously. "Listen, I need you to know that I want you and I want to be with you and want to be wanted by you more than anything, but unless you start telling me what you want, I can't give it to you. When you came on to me last night, I didn't feel right giving you what you were asking for when it seems like every one of your sober words to me since we've been married have filled with nothing but at best cold indifference and at worst bitter hatred. But you are sober now. Tell me sweetheart, what do you want?"

Sami thought about the question for a moment and sighed.

"Honestly, E.J., I don't know what I want," Sami said finally.

"Well, let me know when you figure it out," E.J. scoffed. "I'll just be over here trying to free myself since you seem to have no interest in untying me and this conversation doesn't seem to be going anywhere. You're never going to tell me what you want."

Sami took E.J.'s words as a challenge and bit her lip before she walked over toward where E.J. was sitting and sat on his lap facing him, her legs wrapped around the chair. E.J. also bit his lip, but tried to hide his excitement at this development.

"The truth is E.J. sometimes I want you as much as you want me," Sami said running her hands over E.J.'s chest while his hands were still tied behind his back.

E.J. couldn't stifle the grin from spreading across his face as his wife's touch stretched up from his chest to his face and then she began running her fingers through his hair. E.J. wanted desperately to touch his wife and caress her and pull her in for a kiss as she sat in his lap so close to him, but with his hands tied behind his back there was nothing he could do. Finally, Sami leaned forward as if to kiss him, but at the last moment she redirected her lips toward his right ear as if she might blow in it.

"And sometimes, E.J., I just want to make you suffer the way you've made me suffer," Sami whispered before climbing off his lap and cackling devilishly.

E.J. was not amused to see his affections toyed with that way and Sami noticed this, but that only made her laugh harder as she looked at him as his face flushed with fury and he was still tied to the chair.

It didn't take long though for Sami's laughter to stop as she watched E.J.'s arms finally flex and break free of the rope that was binding him and he promptly got out of the chair to confront her.

Sami was nearly frozen by the intense, icy stare E.J. was giving her and without realizing it backed further and further against the wall until finally she was cornered against the door, which she leaned back against trembling when E.J. put the palms of his right and left hands against the door while his arms corralled her.

"What is it, Samantha? Are you scared?" E.J. asked with wildness in his eyes that terrified and thrilled his wife.

Sami nodded.

"Are you scared of me or are you scared of your feelings for me?" E.J. asked again.

"B-b-both," Sami admitted trembling.

To Sami's surprise, E.J. just smiled.

"Well you have nothing to fear from me," E.J. said leaning in to whisper in Sami's ear, his face lingering at her cheek and his breath pouring over the side of her neck. "Just tell me what you want… right now."

E.J. leaned back to observe the reaction on Sami's face.

At first Sami was in shock and her mouth spread agape at E.J.'s boldness and the strangeness of the moment. But then Sami's eyes squinted as her cheeks allowed a hint of a smile. That smile was reciprocated by E.J., who was pleased with Sami's response as she tightly grabbed his shirt collar and pulled him in for a deep, passionate, fiery kiss full of longing and desperation.

Finally breaking for air, the two of them paused to look at each other as they both tried to absorb the apparently life-changing moment they shared.

"I love you, Samantha," E.J. sighed. "I've always loved you and I always will."

"I love you, too, E.J. I want you to know that I want you," Sami blurted before pressing her lips against E.J.'s once more.