AUTHOR'S NOTE: And here we are at the end of this trilogy, guys. Thank you so much for reading and thank you to all of those who commented. I loved reading your reviews (not unsurprisingly LOL ) and hope you had as much fun reading this story as I did writing it. It was a very emotionally intense story, but I hope I did the amazing chemistry of EJami at least some kind of justice. It's a big job to try and translate what is on screen between the actors onto the page.

Hope you'll join me for my new fic, "An Unkindness of Ravens". I'll be posting that one soon and it's another AU fic set in Kentucky. For those who read the "Patience is a Virtue..." series, Uncle John and Joseph are back and as fun as ever. ;)

Hope to see you then.

And now, on with the show...

EPILOGUE

"Special occasion?"

EJ looked over the top of the large bouquet of flowers he'd just purchased from the woman at the florist and smiled back at her.

"It's my birthday," he told her.

"Oh happy birthday," said the woman chirpily, "But shouldn't you be the one getting the flowers if it's your birthday?"

"I like to bring my wife flowers," he said with a grin, "I love watching her face when she sees them so I guess you could call this a birthday treat for me as well."

"Well aren't you the catch?" laughed the woman who looked to be in her mid fifties, "I wish my husband was as enamoured. Let me guess – newlyweds?"

"We've just had our first anniversary a month ago," EJ confirmed.

"Ah, young love," sighed the woman, "Is there any sweeter thing?"

"Growing old with the woman you absolutely adore?" posed EJ with an impish grin.

"Oh," sighed the woman and rolled her eyes, "You'd better get going there you otherwise I might have to keep you for myself."

"I'm sorry…" EJ paused to find out the other woman's name.

"Petunia," she supplied dutifully and both of their lips quirked.

"Ah now, with a delightful name like that of course you'd have to be a florist," said EJ teasingly.

"It gets better," Petunia informed him, "I married a Gerald Posey."

"So you're Petunia Posey then?" asked EJ around a big smile, "Well… that really is something now, isn't it?"

"Yes, it is," admitted Petunia with a laugh.

"Well I'm sorry, Petunia Posey," continued on EJ cheerfully, "It's been a real delight but I must be getting home. My wife is cooking me dinner and I don't like to keep her waiting."

"I hope she knows how lucky she is having you," said Petunia knowingly.

"Trust me, Petunia," smiled EJ as he headed towards the door, bouquet in hand. "I'm the lucky one."

Petunia just shook her head at that and watched the younger man leave her shop.

"It seems to me you're both lucky," she noted to the now empty shop and then smiled, being a romantic at heart.

oooOOOOooo

EJ bounded up the stairs of the home he shared with Sami. It had taken just over two months for her divorce to be final to Lucas and the wait had near killed him, especially as she'd insisted that she wouldn't be moving in with him until they were legally married. The ink was literally still drying on her divorce paper when EJ made Sami his lawfully wedded wife. It was a small, intimate ceremony with the friends they'd made in New York and it had been a world away from the huge society wedding he'd had with Nicole and EJ couldn't have been happier about that fact. It had been personal and heartfelt and something he'd carry the memory of in his heart forever.

The past year of marriage had been the happiest time of EJ's life and it boggled his mind to imagine that he'd ever thought he'd had any kind of life before Sami was in it. His life now was a world away from the playboy, gambling skirt chasing cad that he'd once been and EJ gave Sami all the credit for his transformation. Every day she made him want to be a better man and EJ would be forever grateful for that gift. He pushed open the door and walked through into the hallway, the smell of his favourite meal, beef wellington, assailing his senses. Samantha as it turned out was an excellent cook. It was one skill her amnesia hadn't taken from her and bought Sami a great deal of pleasure.

The only vague sadness in their lives was that Sami's memories still hadn't returned which EJ had mixed feelings about. On one hand he was so grateful that she had no memory of that awful day and what Nicole had done to her. However he couldn't help but somewhat lament the loss of being able to share memories of the first four months of their relationship with Sami. That sadness was fading for EJ though because he and Sami were making so many new memories every day that he didn't feel the loss as keenly anymore. EJ was just so very grateful for their life together now he couldn't really be down about that for long.

Everything in their lives had been going from strength to strength. EJ's law practice was booming and they'd even had to hire a junior secretary for Sami to train as the work load became too much for one person. Carol was a sweet little thing who was eager to please and worked hard at her job. EJ had no complaints about her except that he had to be a bit more cunning about stealing kisses from his wife at the office but he always had enjoyed a challenge. Every day EJ woke up to the utter deliriousness of having Samantha lying in the bed beside him and he'd long since run out of words to describe the feelings that welled up inside him to see her there.

He walked into the kitchen to find Sami cutting up some vegetables. She looked up at him and smiled, her cheeks flushed from the heat of the kitchen and EJ felt his stomach flip flopping at seeing her as it always did but today there was an extra reason for his butterflies. EJ took a couple of tentative steps into the kitchen and Sami just looked back at him and neither spoke until EJ couldn't take it any longer, the anticipation was killing him.

"Samantha?" he prompted her, his voice sounding strained and foreign to his own ears.

Sami didn't answer him with her words but a huge smile split her face and she nodded her head emphatically at him.

"Yes?" asked EJ weakly, his hopes soaring but he wouldn't quite let himself believe it yet, "Yes?"

"Yes, EJ," she nodded again, biting her bottom lips as tears of happiness stung her eyes.

"Yes," repeated EJ sounding utterly stunned although it was what they'd both been hoping for so desperately.

He looked at Sami, an incredible joy spreading across his face as he let the information sink in.

"Yes, EJ," said Sami with a tremulous smile, "you're going to be a daddy."

"I'm going to be a daddy," repeated EJ slowly and his own tears of happiness were making his eyes bright. "I'm going to be a daddy."

EJ couldn't contain himself and with the bouquet of flowers still in hand he launched himself across the room, closing the distance between and lifting Sami off her feet as he swung her around and around. Sami squealed and laughed, begging him to stop when she started to get dizzy. EJ promptly did as she asked then looking down at her with utter adoration.

"Oh, Samantha," he choked out, "no man has a right to be this happy. I love you so much, sweetheart."

"I love you too, EJ," she beamed up at him. "You're going to make such an amazing father."

"If I do it's only because I've got such an amazing woman by my side, my darling," he said to her huskily. "This is the best possible birthday present I could ever dream of."

"This isn't your only birthday gift, you know," she said coyly.

"It isn't?" asked EJ, still feeling like he was ten feet off the ground.

"Aha," said Sami with a nod of her head as she put her arms around EJ's neck,."Dinner is about an hour away... why don't you come upstairs with me and I'll give you the rest of your gift, honey?"

A smile split EJ's face at the seductive look in his wife's eyes and bent down, scooping her up in his arms.

"I think that sounds like a wonderful idea, Mrs DiMera," grinned EJ, heading towards the stairway up to the second floor.

"I like your flowers, by the way," giggled Sami as her husband took the stairs two at a time, eagerly anticipating his next gift from her.

"There is a cute story about the woman who sold them to me," EJ informed her as they got to the top of the stairs.

"Really?" asked Sami curiously. "Tell me."

Later," said EJ huskily carrying Sami into the bedroom that they shared, "much, much later."

oooOOOOooo

Samantha and EJ's twins were welcomed into the world seven months later to the day by their ecstatic parents. Jonathon and Alice DiMera were born seven minutes apart and just over one week before their due date. Johnny and Ali were instantly the apples of their father's eye and doted on them endlessly. It was at the twin's first birthday party that Sami asked EJ if they'd ever gone dancing together and if she'd worn a green dress when they had. It was the first memory she'd had of anything before losing her memory and it turned out to be the first of many. Slowly her memories trickled back to her, not all of them, but to EJ's great delight, Sami remembered their first kiss and the first time they'd made love. Sami never regained her memories of that fateful day in the hotel with Nicole and was glad of it. But she was so happy to be able to share that first part of their relationship with EJ, even if it wasn't totally complete.

It was enough.

It was more than enough.

And both Samantha and EJ never stopped being thankful all the days of their lives that they'd found each other, not once, but twice, in this world.

Real love stories never have endings.
~Richard Bach~