Chapter 33
"No, no," Sami said lightly pounding on E.J.'s chest with her fists. "Don't give up. I think it's romantic. Here, I can be sentimental, too."
Sami walked over to the corner and pulled out a dingy, old blanket, waving it around to clear off the dust before laying it flat on the floor.
"What's this?" E.J. asked with a curious smile.
"A bed of rose petals," Sami said biting her lip.
"Really?" E.J. asked. "Looks like a blanket to me."
"Well if I can pretend that you, Mr. Wells, are not a bastard but actually the love of my life then you can pretend this blanket is a bed of rose petals," Sami said with a grin.
"I suppose so," E.J. laughed before scooping up Sami in his arms to her delight and delicately laying her on the floor where the two of them shared slow, soft and deep passionate kisses and an experience even more sensual and perfect than E.J. had dreamed it would be.
For both of them, being in each other's arms was so enthralling it was as if they were two incomplete souls coming together as one and it was as if no one else existed in the world.
Perhaps that explains how the two of them failed to notice the door to their cinderblock room open and Marlena peek inside before shutting the door again and disappearing.
"Mmmmm, E.J.," Sami cooed as E.J. left what seemed to be thousands of soft kisses on her neck as the two of them glistened with sweat and cuddled. "Wait. Wait a second. Did you hear something a couple moments ago?"
"You mean besides the earth shaking when…?" E.J. asked before Sami cut him off.
"I'm not talking about THAT, E.J.," Sami said punching him on the shoulder.
"Ow!" E.J. said with a grin as he rubbed his shoulder. "Is that any way to repay me for…"
"Shhhhhh," Sami said pressing her index finger to E.J.'s lips.
Sami looked around the room and wondered how long they had been trapped and how long her children had been with Lucas.
"Oh God, E.J.," Sami sighed in horror looking down at their naked bodies and holding her arms to her chest with embarrassment. "What am I doing? My twins are missing and all I can think about is sleeping with you? What kind of mother am I?"
"You're a great mother, Samantha," E.J. said kissing her shoulder and collarbone. "The best one there is."
"Thanks, E.J.," Sami said rolling her eyes. "But why do I have a feeling you would say anything right now to keep me in your arms?"
"Because I would," E.J. said with a smile before pulling her toward him so the two of them could share one more passionate kiss before they got up and dressed. "Come on, darling, we've got to find a way of here. Hmmmm."
As Sami and E.J. tried to scan the room to try to find something that would help them escape, a screwdriver in the corner of the room caught E.J.'s eye and he picked it up.
"A screwdriver?" Sami asked. "What are you going to do with that?"
"Well, not screw," E.J. said with a wink as he stuck the screwdriver into a crease between the door and its frame. "I'm going to try to use this as a lever… to see if… now I can just… there we go."
E.J. pulled back on the door and grinned wide as it opened into the hallway.
"Wow. That wasn't difficult at all," E.J. said proudly.
"That's because the door wasn't locked, E.J.," Sami said rolling her eyes.
"Minor details," E.J. said. "Now be quiet. We don't know who or what we'll find out here. Stay close."
But E.J. didn't have to tell Sami to stay close to him as she instinctively clung to him in the darkness and they made their way down the hallway toward the passage to her room.
"So this is how Andre took you from me?" E.J. whispered as they made their way down the hall, kissing the top of Sami's head after she nodded. "I'm so sorry, sweetheart. I'm so sorry for everything."
As E.J. went to open the passage door he asked Sami to stand behind her in case Andre or someone in his employ was standing guard. Sami squinted her eyes shut as she braced herself for the worst when E.J. burst through the door, but to her surprise all she found when she opened them was two blonde women, Anna DiMera and her mother, just as surprised as she was to see the two of them climb through the wall.
"Mom, you came looking for me?" Sami asked as she ran over to her mother for a tearful hug.
"Yes, Sami," Marlena said, stroking her daughter's hair. "I'm glad Andre didn't hurt you."
"Well Andre is going to be the one hurting for what he's done to Samantha," E.J. said, prompting a strange look of horror and disgust from Marlena he failed to notice. "But first we have to get Samantha's twins back. Have either of you seen Lucas?"
"No, but Roman found out some information about his whereabouts," Anna said, sharing some of the details from their recent phone conversation.
"Dad has been looking for me?" Sami said with a beaming smile as she looked at E.J. "What did he find out about my twins?"
"He said something about Italy," Anna said. "I guess Kate gave him the information on some villa where Lucas was taking the twins."
"Kate?" Sami said with her eyebrow raised. "Kate helped him help me get my twins back? Guess something good did come from my dad dating that monster after all."
"Oh, I bet I know just where Andre sent him. There's this old villa in Tuscany near the sea. Belonged to my family for generations," E.J. said excitedly. "Samantha, I'm going to go call down to the air strip and have the pilot get my father's jet ready so we can head for Italy right now and bring your twins home as soon as possible."
"Before you do, E.J., you should know about your father…" Marlena said with a pause that caused E.J.'s heart to jump in his throat.
"What about him?" E.J. asked with concern. "Is he? Don't tell me. Is he dead?"
"Well, are you trying to kill the poor boy with suspense, Marlena? No, Stefano's not dead," Anna said to E.J.'s relief. "He just had a pretty close call thanks to Andre and is staying in the hospital overnight for observation."
"That's a relief," E.J. said with a smile. "Hopefully, we can get the twins back home safe and sound by the time he's released."
E.J. reached his arm around Sami's shoulder and nodded as if to say goodbye to Marlena and Anna, but Sami brushed his hand away.
"No, E.J.," Sami said with a sigh. "The twins are my problem. You go be with your father."
"Sweetheart, your problems are my problems and it's my fault the twins got into the hands of Lucas in the first place," E.J. said. "We're going to bring them back home together."
"But E.J…" Sami said before she was interrupted.
"Actually, Sami, he is right in this case that your problems are his problems," Marlena finally blurted out, unable to watch them bicker any longer.
"What, Mom?" Sami asked, her eyes as wide as saucers.
"E.J. is the father of the twins," Marlena said, trying to mask her bitterness the best she could.
"Well that's fantastic!" Anna said cheerily, though everyone else in the room was too stunned (EJ and Sami) or apoplectic (Marlena) to share in the joy.
"But… but… I don't understand," E.J. said waving his finger in the air as if he could somehow physically point to an explanation for this chain of events. "The tests said that Lucas was the father."
"Apparently those tests were ordered doctored by Stefano DiMera," Marlena said coldly. "All part of his chess game. It's just that his supposed favorite son and grandchildren were the chess pieces this time."
Sami reached to E.J. to put her hand on his shoulder, but he brushed it away.
"My father kept the fact the twins were mine a secret from me?" E.J. said, his brow furrowed. "But why? Why would he manipulate me that way, manipulate us that way?"
"That's something you'll have to ask him," Marlena said flatly.
"Well, that can wait," E.J. said with a sigh. "Come on, let's go, darling. Let's go get our twins back."
As E.J. and Sami left the room and were far out of earshot, Anna asked Marlena if she was finally going to tell her what was wrong.
"Oh Anna, I… I… before you got up here I was looking for Sami and though she doesn't know that I saw her… I found her… with E.J.," Marlena sniffled.
"With E.J.?" Anna said, her eyebrow askew to indicate they both knew what that meant.
"Yes," Marlena sighed. "I opened the door to the room where Andre had kept them and I found them. Together. I guess that must have sort of been like what Sami must've felt walking in on me and John fifteen years ago."
Anna gave her friend a hug as Marlena began to sob, though Anna couldn't say she was surprised at all to hear that E.J. and Sami had finally acted on their feelings. She had noticed the two of them trying to deny it and hide it for so long already.
"Oh, John, what would he think if he was here to see this?" Marlena asked. "How can Sami have feelings for this man after what he's done to John, what he's done to all of us, what he's done to HER?"
"I wish I knew what to tell you, Marlena," Anna said with a sigh. "All I know is love is a complicated thing, especially when it involves a DiMera man."
"Not to mention when it involves a strong-willed, spoiled and selfish blonde," Tony chimed in as he entered the bedroom and put his arm around his wife, his touch telling her it was the real Tony.
Anna glared and feigned being offended, but Tony saw right through it and planted a passionate kiss on her lips so steamy and sublime that it would erase any doubt anyone might have had about whether the real Tony DiMera was before them.
Marlena decided she would leave the two of them alone and head to the hospital to look for Roman. As she shut Sami's bedroom door behind her and began walking out of the mansion she sighed with the realization that she would have to accept Sami's feelings for E.J., just as Sami had accepted her feelings for John.
Chapter 34
"You're so quiet, E.J." Sami said as she watched her husband stare out of the window of the DiMera jet solemnly and pensively. "Are you O.K.? I thought you would be happier to know that you are the father to Sofia and Eric John."
"Oh, Samantha," E.J. said turning away from the window and taking her hand in his. "You have no idea what it means to me to know that we are parents together, to have this family with you. I mean, I loved the twins as my own before and could have always loved them whether they shared my blood or not, but to know that I share this with you means everything to me."
"It means a lot to me too, E.J.," Sami said, wiping a tear from E.J.'s cheek with her thumb and caressing his face.
"So this was news to you, too?" E.J. asked, although the hurt in Sami's eyes at the question made him wish he hadn't posed it.
"E.J., I found out the truth about the twins the same time you did!" Sami said bitterly as tears began to fill her eyes. "I had no idea and am just as much a victim of your father's lies as you are! Not that I'm surprised he did this to me, but to you? When he knew how much you wanted to be a father? What kind of a monster would do such a thing? I swear, E.J."
E.J. sighed as he was wondering the exact same thing about his father, but Sami didn't seem to notice as she continued her rant.
"You know, what's crazy is I think I always wished the twins were yours, even when I was still with Lucas and even if I was too much of a hypocrite to admit it then," Sami said clucking her tongue. "Because I knew… I knew even then if I stayed married to Lucas I could still have you in my life if you were the father of my babies. And yet right now I don't know why I would wish that when you apparently think so little of me that you think I could do something so cruel as to keep your own children from you…"
Sami's voice trailed off as she remembered the fake amnio report she had doctored up to convince E.J. was the father and the hurt she had caused him that didn't look too much different than the way he looked now knowing his father had kept the truth from him.
"What am I talking about?" Sami said throwing her hands in the air. "Of course, you would assume I would do that. I did it to you once before with the amnio report. Not to mention the way I kept the truth from Lucas when he was Will's father. I guess I'm just as big of a monster as Stefano…"
"Shhhhhh," E.J. said trying to soothe his wife. "You're much too beautiful to be a monster."
"No, E.J." Sami said shaking her head. "It's the truth. I've done so many horrible things to people. Ever since I can remember I've been nothing but trouble to the people who cared about me."
"Well, it just so happens, I love trouble," E.J. said with a smile as he placed a soft, sweet kiss on his wife's lips.
Despite Sami's best intentions of staying hurt and upset, she couldn't suppress a grin from spreading across her face.
"Sweetheart, I don't know how many times I have to tell you, but I love you, all of you - the good and the bad – the liar and the flirt and the lover and the friend. I adore you, Samantha," E.J. said with a smile as he pushed a strand of hair behind Sami's ear. "And besides, I think we both know I'm in no position to judge anyone else's transgressions."
"Even so, E.J., I'm sorry," Sami said. "And I'm sorry that Stefano could be so cruel to keep the truth from you now."
"Thank you, my dear," E.J. said with a bittersweet smile.
Sami grabbed E.J.'s arm as he paused to look out the window wistfully.
"I would be lying if I said that it didn't hurt me," E.J. said turning his head back toward Sami. "And you know what? I don't ever want to lie to you. Let's make a promise to each other right now. That the two of us, no matter what, from here on out we'll always be honest to each other no matter what."
"I promise," Sami said kissing E.J.'s cheek.
"Good," E.J. said with a smile. "Because the only way we can be sure that we don't hurt each other is that we don't lie to each other about anything, even if we lie to everyone else about everything, we need to promise to tell each other the truth. I just wish Father had been honest with me, but no, like always he had to put his schemes ahead of his children. Samantha, even if I am Stefano's son I promise you I won't make the same mistakes. I'm going to always put you and the twins first. Always."
Sami could tell E.J. wanted to believe it was true, but sensed his self-doubt that he could escape the DiMera blood that ran through his veins. Instinctively, she reached out her hand to link with his to reassure him that she had faith in him and just as instinctively E.J. pulled the back of her hand to his lips and kissed it.
Chapter 35
Roman gave his final orders to the last of his men as they headed back down to police headquarters and he climbed underneath the yellow police tape to pull up a chair and drink a cup of coffee as he sat alone looking at the crime scene in front of him in the hospital lounge.
He had freed Tony hours earlier, Rolf's body had long been moved and all the evidence had been taken to the lab, yet still Roman couldn't shake a feeling of dread as he sat there with that crumpled piece of paper Kate had given him in his fist. He was frustrated that his job required him to look for Andre while he wanted nothing more than to go looking for his daughter and grandchildren who were still missing. He had passed along the information about the Italian villa to the ISA, but for now his police duties kept him in Salem.
Just as he was about to get up and head back to police headquarters to pore over the evidence for clues of Andre's whereabouts, Andre made that answer apparent in the form of a gun pressed into the back of Roman's head.
"Don't move a muscle," Andre sneered. "Don't turn around. Don't make a move. Or you die."
"You don't want to do this, Andre," Roman reasoned.
"Like hell I don't!" Andre screamed. "Damn you Bradys always foiling my plans. Now Tony is free, Rolf is dead and everything is ruined."
"Andre, just tell me what you did with Sami and I'll let you go," Roman said. "It will be like we never saw each other."
"And then what?" Andre asked. "I help you get your daughter back so she can play DiMera princess with that lovesick puppy husband of hers while I'm exiled from the family by Stefano? No thank you. And to think what a good son I've been to him. Always faithful and obedient and putting the family first and yet he still honors that golden boy before me. I've spent my whole life coming up with ways of torturing you Bradys as he wanted me to and expected me to and now I find out it's all for nothing."
"Well, what do you want, Andre?" Roman asked. "If you kill me now aren't you just as under the thumb of Stefano DiMera as you've ever been."
"Watch your tongue," Andre said tightening his hand around Roman's throat. "I'm under the thumb of no man."
"So… I… I… stand corrected," Roman struggled to say.
"But you know, you're right?" Andre said with a crazed laugh and removing his hand from Roman's neck. "You're not the man I need to kill. Killing you won't help me get control of the DiMera dynasty. I need to kill… Stef… uh… nooooo."
Afraid but curious, Roman stood up and turned around slowly after hearing the thud of Andre's body on the floor and smelling the spilling fresh blood behind him.
To Roman's surprise, a red-faced Stefano stood in his hospital gown clutching a bloody scalpel staring angrily at Andre's dead body and its slit throat still oozing ruby liquid onto the floor.
Shocked, Roman said nothing for a moment before Stefano finally broke the silence between them.
"I should have done this after he killed Renee," Stefano said looking up at Roman with resignation. "But I didn't cut him out of my life then like I should have. I knew he was a monster but he was my monster, the one I had made, and so I kept using him. And now that he is of no use to me, I kill him. What a ruin I have made of my life and of the lives of my children."
Stefano dropped the scalpel to the ground and began to sob.
"Stefano, you did the right thing," Roman said.
"And you Bradys know all about righteousness don't you," Stefano said with a bitter laugh through his pain.
"Dammit Stefano, can you give your Brady hatred a rest already?" Roman said angrily. "What da hell do you want from us? My daughter agreed to your terms to end this stupid vendetta, didn't she? She gave herself to a marriage to a man she doesn't love and moved in with your sick family. And what did she get in return? Kidnapped and her twins stolen from her?"
Stefano sighed.
"For that I am truly sorry," Stefano said. "I do care a great deal for Samantha."
"Yeah you DiMeras sure have a funny way of showing you care about her," Roman said. "And you know what, Stefano? For some reason I have a hard time believing you much care for a couple of twin babies Sami shares with a man that isn't your son."
"But don't you know?" Stefano asked.
"Know what?" Roman asked.
"Those are my missing grandchildren as well," Stefano said.
"What da hell?" Roman asked as Marlena entered the hospital lounge.
"Oh dear, what happened?" Marlena asked as she saw the dead body on the floor and ran over to hug Roman.
"Go ahead and arrest me, Commander Brady," Stefano said extending his wrists toward Roman as if he was ready to be cuffed.
"In a minute," Roman said turning his attention to Marlena. "What are you doing here? I told you to stay the hell away from this hospital. I thought you were going to stay in my office at the police station."
"Well, Roman, that was the plan, but then I got a call from Tony and I thought it a good idea to check out the mansion and that's where Anna and I found Sami and E.J., in this secret room at the mansion," Marlena said trying to block out the memory of exactly how Sami and E.J. appeared to her as she found them. "Andre had locked them up."
"A secret room?" Roman snickered. "An Andre DiMera specialty. Well, where are they? Is Sami, O.K.? Did she come here to the hospital?"
"Oh, she's fine, Roman," Marlena said. "But she and E.J. are on a jet to Italy right now looking for their twins."
"Their twins?" Roman asked. "So it's true?"
"I'm afraid so," Marlena said hugging Roman and glaring at Stefano.
"Oh come on," Stefano said with a smile. "It's not so bad, is it? I mean, did you really want more spawn of Lucas Rrrrrrrrrrrroberts showing up in your family portraits? E.J. and Samantha's children will grow up beautiful and strong. And if the two of them bond over the search for the twins, well, I'm sure they'll give us all many more grandchildren during the course of their marriage."
"We'll just see about that, Stefano," Roman bragged. "Apparently your son has a little more honor than you give him credit for because he told me that he was going to give Sami a divorce just as soon as she returned safe and sound and I have no doubt in my mind that Sami will take him up on the offer."
"If you say so," Stefano said with a laugh, again extending his hands again to be cuffed, while Marlena made a funny face with the knowledge that Sami and E.J. would most certainly not be divorcing any time soon.
"Oh get out of here, old man," Roman said annoyed with Stefano's jovial mood. "We both know it was self-defense. There's nothing to charge you with and even if there was your lawyers would get you off anyway. Just go back to your room and dream about my family's demise some more."
Stefano honored Roman's order to leave the room, but not before kissing the back of Marlena's hand.
"Good evening, Marlena," Stefano said. "I am so happy that Samantha was not hurt by this ordeal and I hope there is word about our grandchildren soon."
Stunned at the phrase, "our grandchildren," Marlena just stared with her hand still hanging in the air and her mouth agape as Stefano walked out of the lounge.
"Doc, did you hear me?" Roman asked. "Is John's jet still in Salem? Do you think we could use it to make a quick trip to Italy just as soon as my boys get down here to clean this mess up?"
"Sure, Roman," Marlena said, still a little dazed. "I'll call the pilot right now."
Chapter 36
E.J. held Sami's hand as they walked up the dark path to the palatial villa that E.J. suspected was where Andre had sent Lucas to live. So as not to be spotted and give Lucas time to escape, they had parked their car back in the village and walked the few miles to the estate.
Sami worried E.J. wouldn't be able to find it in the dark as E.J. had only visited the estate once when he was a small boy, but he stubbornly swore he could never forget the place as it had been staying there that offered the only time he ever met his grandfather.
As the two of them passed by a bluff where they could see the moon's reflection shimmer and dance over the Mediterranean, Sami wished the two of them were visiting this place under different circumstances, on a vacation rather than a rescue mission. It had been so long since Sami had taken a real vacation and now that she was a DiMera she had the money to go anywhere on earth.
"Sweetheart, I promise I'll take you sightseeing when this is all over," E.J. said as if he could read her mind.
"Can we go to Venice, E.J.? Florence? Rome? The Leaning Tower of Pisa?" Sami asked.
"Why limit the trip to just Italy?" E.J. asked with a smile and a wink. "Sweetheart, when this is all over whether you want to or not I'm taking you on a grand tour of Europe and by the time we're through you'll have visited the world's greatest opera houses, seen the world's most exquisite works of art, eaten in the world's most fabulous restaurants and stayed in the world's most luxurious hotels."
"Well, that sounds great, E.J.," Sami said excitedly. "And when we're done I'll take you on a grand tour of America."
E.J. tried to suppress a laugh at that statement but failed so Sami punched him in the shoulder.
"Hey, what's so funny? We have culture in America too, you know," Sami said defensively walking briskly to speed ahead of him.
"Of course you do, darling," E.J. said tugging on her arm in front of him. "I just quite like getting a rise out of you. But I promise after Europe you can drag me to every tourist trap known to man if you want. You know I'd follow you anywhere."
"So I've noticed," Sami said looking back with a sly smile.
E.J. grabbed Sami's hand and the two of them walked holding hands the rest of the way until E.J. whispered in Sami's ear that they were getting close. E.J. tried telling Sami to hide behind a fence until he gave her an all clear signal, but Sami stubbornly insisted she was going with him and E.J. knew better than to waste more than a second trying to convince his wife to do something she didn't want to do.
As E.J. and Sami tried to sneakily slink up to the front door, just as they were about to break in a window a voice told them to halt. When they turned around they saw it was an Italian guard with a gun pointed at them.
"Emilio, put that gun away," E.J. said. "It's me. E.J. Stefano's son. And this is my wife, Samantha."
"Stefano's son?" the man said nervously.
"Yes, now just give me the gun and go and I won't tell him that you pulled a gun on me," E.J. said as the man handed him the weapon. "Go!"
As Sami watched the man run away she wondered what E.J. was up to.
"Trust me," he whispered, again reading her mind, and because she did she wrapped her arms around his sturdy torso as he pushed open the door with the gun outstretched ready to fire on anyone who tried to hurt them.
Yet when they entered the living room they found the place dark and strangely silent. Then Sami walked over to the couch and noticed the figure there with dark splotches all over his white shirt that shown in the moonlight through the glass patio doors.
"Oh, God, it's Lucas," Sami said as E.J. turned on the light and Sami ran her fingers over the dark red stains on his shirt. "I think he's been shot! Lucas is gone, E.J."
E.J. hurried over to her, but on the way nearly tripped over a pair of empty wine bottles.
"Lucas is gone, all right, Samantha, but I don't think he's been shot," E.J. said holding up the bottle. "Unless you think these bottles of Merlot pulled the trigger. I think someone got a little sloppy."
"You're right, E.J.," Sami said. "But if Lucas is here passed out, where are the twins?"
Almost as if on cue, a yelp from the back bedroom gave Sami her answer.
"Oh thank God!" Sami yelled. "Mommy's coming, Sofia and Eric John. I'm here!"
E.J. smiled as he watched Sami run to their children, but he didn't follow her. Instead he pulled his gun back out and pointed the gun in front of Lucas's face as he noticed him start to wake up at the sound of Sami's voice.
"Morning, sunshine," E.J. said with a sinister smile on his face.
Meanwhile, Sami found both Sofia and Eric John in their own cribs, healthy and happy to her great relief. She didn't know how long Lucas had been passed out, but luckily it hadn't been that long as the children were still well fed and simply in need of diaper changes. After Sami attended to the babies and placed them back in their cribs for more rest she wondered why E.J. hadn't followed her into the bedroom and so she walked back out to the living room.
Horrified, Sami stood in the hallway as she saw Lucas beg for his life as E.J. hovered over him menacingly with a gun pointed in his face, once more the terrifying and unforgiving man she hoped she'd never see again.
But then something strange happened.
"Lucas, how could you do it?!" E.J. screamed. "You tortured Samantha FOR YEARS, you justified attempting to kill her, letting her nearly die for a crime you committed and just generally treating her like crap all because she had briefly kept the truth from you that Will was your son? And yet you do the same thing to her as soon as you get the chance? You think nothing of keeping the truth from another man and running off with his children as if they were yours? You think nothing of these children and their rights that you would deny them a chance to know me as their father? Why should I let a hypocrite like you live?"
But as E.J. saw Lucas's lip quiver and he began to drunkenly sob at the revelation that Sofia and Eric John were E.J.'s kids and not his, E.J. got his answer. Lucas was not worth killing. And a part of him pitied him as he saw the same helpless look in Lucas's eyes that he imagined he himself had when Nick had revealed he was being blackmailed and made them all think Lucas was the father.
"So I take it you didn't know then before you teamed up with Andre in this," E.J. said.
Lucas shook his head no.
"Looks like you were nothing more than a pawn of Andre's to get some DiMera heirs out of the picture," E.J. said with pity as he slid his gun back into his jacket pocket before catching a glimpse of Sami staring at him from the hallway out of the corner of his eye. "Samantha…"
"E.J., the twins are fine," Sami said with a smile walking toward him and giving him a big hug. "They're going to be O.K. Our family is going to be O.K."
E.J. bent down to give Sami a deep and passionate kiss yet to his chagrin she began pushing him away.
"What?" E.J. asked. "What is it?"
"He's getting away, E.J.!" Sami squealed.
"Oh, let him," E.J. said leaning in for another kiss. "He's harmless and pathetic and now that I have you and these twins he has nothing."
"Well, that's still not good enough, E.J.," Sami said reaching in E.J.'s coat for his gun and chasing Lucas out the door.
E.J. just laughed as he saw Lucas re-enter the villa with Sami pointing a gun in his back.
"Ever since we've known each other Lucas, you've gotten away with every single stunt you pulled and come up smelling like a rose while I had to crawl on my knees to get you to take me back because I was the town pariah," Sami said. "Well not this time, Lucas. Because I don't ever want you back. And it's time for you to pay for your crimes."
"Samantha, I don't think murder is the answer," E.J. said. "He's not worth it."
"Get some rope, E.J. Find an extension cord. Something," Sami commanded as she coldly stared down the man under the barrel of her gun.
"You're not planning to do the same thing to him you did to me when I was tied up, eh?" E.J. joked while he looked through a closet and finally turned up some rope.
"I just might if you don't stop cracking jokes," Sami said with exasperation.
With her gun Sami motioned for Lucas to take a seat in the dining room chair while she had E.J. tie Lucas up.
"That should hold you until the ISA arrives," Sami said with a proud smile on her face.
Sensing Lucas's agony and humiliation that Sami had won and he would soon be going to jail, Sami thought back on Lucas's treatment of her over the years, especially his marriage to her sister Carrie, and pulled E.J. in for an embrace after he had finished tightening the rope binding Lucas to the chair.
"I love you, E.J., more than I've ever loved any man," Sami said before leaning up on her tip toes hungrily to enjoy a deep and passionate kiss with her husband.
"Remind me never to get on your bad side," E.J. whispered in Sami's ear after they broke away from the kiss, completely aware of what she was doing.
"I thought you said you loved both my good and bad sides," Sami said with a wink as E.J. kissed her on the forehead. "Now go give our babies a kiss from their father already. They told me they missed you."
E.J. walked back toward the bedroom and then paused at the hallway to look back at his wife taunting Lucas and sighed with admiration before walking back to the bedroom to see the babies.
E.J. excitedly walked over to the crib expecting to feel something different as he looked on Eric John and Sofia with the knowledge they shared his blood, but to his surprise he felt exactly the same looking at them. Sure, he found them just as radiant and wonderful as ever, and sure his heart warmed with every breath he watched them take, but though everything should have changed, nothing had for him.
As E.J. picked up Sofia and Eric John in each of his long limbs and his head shifted attention between the two of them, he failed to notice their mother enter the room.
"I told you they missed you," Sami said with a smile as she entered the room and ran her hands on top of her babies' heads while she leaned in to give E.J. a quick kiss on the lips.
"So how does it feel, Dad?" Sami asked. "Holding our children in your arms."
"It feels good," E.J. said with a smile. "But it's funny. It doesn't feel that different than it did before. Maybe I knew all along I was the father. Or maybe I had just grown to love them so much it ceased to matter if I was the father or not."
"Well it matters to me," Sami said taking Sofia in her arms and rocking her gently. "I'm very glad you and your brother have E.J. for a father instead of that other guy."
"Speaking of that other guy…" E.J. said wondering what Lucas was doing.
"Oh, I just had to take a break from tormenting him," Sami said. "He was about to pass back out again anyway. Hey, I know what I'll do. I'll push his chair in here and then we can all be together while I can keep an eye on him."
"Are you sure that's a good idea?" E.J. asked. "I mean letting him be in here with us on our first night together as a family."
"Well he tried pretty damn hard to try to take this moment away from us, E.J., so I want to do whatever I can to make sure he remembers how spectacularly he failed," Sami said with a fierce smile.