Moonlit Wishes
Book III, Part XVI

"Samantha?" EJ looked at her dubiously, cautiously moving to an upright position as tiny rivulets of water ran down his face.

"EJ, are you okay?" Sami scooted a slight bit away to give him some room, but not far enough away when the towel slid dangerously down a few inches.

"What did you do to me?" His voice immediately accusatory instead of being grateful she had come to see what had happened to him.

"I didn't do anything," Sami began to explain only to have EJ cut her off before she could finish.

"Of course you didn't," EJ scoffed as he looked at himself and then back to her.

Sami's eyes narrowed, he could be such a jerk sometimes. "You know what? Forget that I came in here because I was worried that something had happened to you when I heard you crash unto the floor."

"How did you hear that? Were you skulking outside my door?"

"Look I already have four children to raise; I don't need a fifth…"

"Which is why you immediately turned away from me when I told you I didn't have any condoms with me tonight, I know you don't ever want to have another child with me."

Where in the world had EJ come up with that conclusion? Not that she wanted to get pregnant anytime soon, she'd had a hard enough time trying to be a good mother as it was without adding another child into the mix.

"I was being sarcastic, not hurtful," Sami started then stopped when it was plain EJ didn't believe a word she was saying.

"Really what is the difference between those two actions because those are two things I can readily expect from you?"

"You're an ungrateful jackass, all I was doing was checking to make sure you weren't hurt…"

"The only thing that hurts right now is my head and your screeching isn't helping one bit."

He was trying to pick a fight with her to get her to leave. Had he found her playbook on how to deal with men and was using reverse psychology on her?

Well she wasn't going to leave because he was being a jerk. He'd have to do more than that to get her to stomp out of his room now. Instead she reached out her hand to place it against his forehead before he could move away from her.

"EJ you have a fever. I'm going to get you a glass of water and some aspirin."

"Are you going to toss it on my head this time around too?"

"I was trying to wake you up. You must have passed out earlier" she stood up so that she could go. "Don't move and I'll be right back."

She started to scurry away and then he spoke, "Get me some bourbon instead."

"No, I'm going to get you some food too. When was the last time you have eaten? I know you didn't eat any supper."

"You can't make me eat anything. I'm not hungry."

Sami placed her hands on her hips immediately equating this statement with something Johnny would tell her and wondered why EJ thought she was the stubborn one. She decided to change direction with him, "I guess I could call Lexie then if you aren't going to let me help you."

"Samantha, for god's sake it is Christmas Eve. Lexie is at home with her family. I'll be fine. Just leave me alone."

"You're so fine that I come in here to find you passed out on the floor and when I touch your forehead you feel like you are burning up with a fever."

EJ glared at her, but wouldn't respond to her statement.

"The way I see it you have three options you can either let me look after you tonight or I'll call Lexie to come over or if I have to go to extreme measures I will drag you to the ER.",

"Bloody hell, you can't pick me up."

Sami eyed him up and down as if she were trying to gauge the best way to start pulling him out of the room if she had to do so.

"You can't do it."

"EJ, do you really want to try me? I can do anything if I put my mind to it."

EJ leant back against the bed contemplating that she could and would do anything if she truly thought she needed to do it.

"If you don't want to eat and apparently it looked like you were headed to the shower. Do you want me to help you take a shower?"

"Samantha there is no way you can hold me up in the shower."

"I could draw you a bath instead," she offered up. "It might break your fever."

"Sponge bath?" EJ inquired hoping this might deter her from attempting any such thing for him.

"Whatever it takes, I just don't want our first Christmas together in our home ruined."

"Our home?"

"That's right I forgot this is your home, not mine. Stupid me." It stung realizing that no matter how hard she had worked in this house, it wasn't her home, it was EJ's.

She turned ready to leave the room, tears stinging her eyes she was so full of disappointment when EJ's voice stopped her. She turned around, determined not to cry in front of him, what he had said was the truth, this was his house, he bought it, it wasn't as if they had gotten married and decided upon living there together as husband and wife with their family.

She needed to accept that cold hard fact among many others, but right now she was worried about him even though she was so tired herself that she felt like she could fall asleep where she stood.

"Samantha, don't go. You're not stupid; please don't think that of yourself ever. I'm cranky because I'm not feeling well, that's all. I'll go take a bath and if you still will I would really appreciate it if you would bring me some food instead."

She looked at him not really sure what to think of his sudden change of heart when he began to get up, but she averted her eyes before she could see him naked again.

"You know for someone who was volunteering to help me in the shower or give me a sponge bath, you sure are acting jumpy because I'll have to remove this towel…"

"Shut up, it's not like I haven't seen a naked man before and by the way the sponge bath was your idea, not mine."

EJ cut his eyes her way as he lowered the towel a tiny bit, making her blush although he didn't know if it was from the fact he was nearly naked or that she had blurted out her vast knowledge of the male anatomy.

She pushed past him, heading into the bathroom, leaned down to turn on the faucets and started to draw him a bath. She tried her best not to think about him standing only a few feet away from her.

She didn't dare look at him at all while she ran the water, checking it to make sure it wasn't too hot or too cold like she would if she were doing this for one of her children, but when she turned off the faucets she wasn't prepared to see him standing right behind her and especially when he was certain that he caught her eye, he unceremoniously dropped his towel right in front of her.

"Here's your damn bath," she uttered as she tried to escape the room without drooling, sick or not EJ was hot in the other sense of the word as her sister Belle had reminded her a few weeks ago instead of just temperature wise.

She could hear him chuckle after offering up his thanks to her as she went to go fix him some food.

She stomped down the hallway thinking EJ DiMera was such a jackass sometimes.