Moonlit Wishes
Book III, Part XIX

When Eric arrived he looked more than a bit harried and frankly he was downright worried because when his twin sister called stating it was an emergency that he needed to come over as soon as possible, he wasn't exactly sure what was going on with Sami. For them to twins, they were as different as day and night.

Speaking of night, it must be something awful for Sami to have him come over in the predawn hours of Christmas morning no less. First off he was tired from performing the midnight mass, which of course his sister didn't attend, while he knew he was more devout in his religious views than she, she still should have made an attempt to be there since the rest of the family had come out for the ceremony.

"Thank goodness you're finally here," Sami said as she opened the door, a goofy smile plastered on her face which immediately didn't figure in with his thoughts that his sister was distraught and needed some brotherly advice from him. Then again when did Sami ever make much sense to him? Most times she completely mystified him with her take on life in general.

"Yes, I'm here," Eric stated as Sami held out her hand to take his coat from him.

"So you don't wear that white collar all the time now," Sami remarked as she led Eric into the kitchen where the coffee maker was already brewing a pot of coffee.

"I was in a rush to get over here. Surely you didn't call me over here to take notice of my clothing," Eric started to get peeved at his sister; he was exhausted while it appeared Sami was in a happy go lucky mood.

Sami pulled out a chair for him and they both sat down together at the table after she poured them both a cup of coffee.

"No, I was just merely stating a fact that it's nice to see my brother in something other than priestly robes because sometimes it feels like I'm going to confessional when we talk and right now I just need to talk to my brother first, the priest second."

"You get me worried that something is wrong when you call in the middle of the night and then won't tell me what's going on until I get over here," Eric took a sip of his coffee, noting that Sami always got it right, just a tad of cream in his, no sugar, then again that is how she drank hers too.

"Why do you always think the worst when it comes to me?" Sami asked as she placed her coffee mug back down on the table.

Eric didn't reply at first only raised an eyebrow in her direction. "Do I really need to go there this early in the morning?"

Sami rolled her eyes; sometimes her brother could be so infuriating. "No, you don't need to go there, for once this is something good, but I need your help."

Sami needing help could be a precursor to something else besides goodness Eric thought to himself, although he didn't voice that opinion out loud. Instead he took another direction with her, "So you need my help in something good, yet you felt the need to get me out of my bed and over here stat."

"Hey you're still young, lack of sleep isn't going to kill you, but I'm going to if you don't help me out," Sami stated matter of fact.

Yes, he was familiar with this side of Sami; the one who liked to boss her brother around, maybe everything was all right with her.

"This help you need, is it brotherly help or priestly help?" Eric asked picking up his coffee mug and taking another sip of his coffee.

"A bit of both," she replied cryptically with a mischievous twinkle in her eye. "You see Eric I need for you to marry EJ and I as soon as possible."

Eric quickly put down his coffee mug before he accidentally spilled it all over the kitchen table. Now it was all starting to make sense, his sister calling him over stating she needed his help because it was an emergency "Sami please don't tell me you are pregnant again."

She began to laugh and it was in at the exact moment EJ had walked into the kitchen when she told her brother the reason behind her request. "I'm not pregnant Eric, but EJ won't have sex with me if we aren't married."

Eric almost spit out his coffee, his sister had officially lost her mind and he could see EJ out of the corner of his eye trying to quietly escape the room after he heard Sami's declaration to her brother.

"Get back in here EJ," Sami and Eric said simultaneously, albeit for different reasons.

EJ thought it was really too early in the morning for this conversation and wished he had stayed out of the room for a few minutes longer so that he could avoid this, but curiosity had gotten the best of him and now he guessed he was stuck in here with the woman he loved and what he could only consider to be his soon to be brother in law if Samantha had any say in the matter. He pulled out a chair and sat down facing them both while awaiting for the round of questions Eric was sure to have for him.

"Good morning Eric," EJ began with a slight smile on his face, but as he looked at Eric he could tell that he wasn't smiling at all, no his face looked rather perplexed.

For once his manners left him, "EJ are you forcing my sister to marry you again?"

EJ looked to Sami wondering what else she had said to Eric before he had walked into the room, of course Sami wasn't offering up anything to help him as she shrugged her shoulders a tiny bit, letting him answer for himself.

"No Eric, I asked Samantha to marry me because I love her and she loves me…"

"And he won't have sex with me until we're married. He's really adamant about it Eric and while I can see his reasoning I don't want to wait for months before we…"

Eric held up his hand to stop his sister from saying more, "I don't need the intimate details Sami."

"You're a priest for god's sake; who now is over the parish in Salem, so this can't be the worst you'll hear because I'm telling you the people in this town really do some crazy ass things…"

"Please don't take god's name in vain and language please…"

"Do you want your twin sister to live in sin? For once I'm trying to do the right thing, but if you don't marry us soon, I'm just going to use my feminine wiles to break EJ down."

"Feminine wiles on me?" EJ asked thinking that while it might be extremely fun to see what Samantha might try to use to convince him he was going to stand firm on this issue.

Eric shook his head, these two were both crazy, but as he looked at them both he could tell things had changed between them, this was something both of them wanted, but there wasn't any way he could marry them today.

"Of course I don't want you to live in sin, but I assumed you two had already…"

"Nope," Sami shook her head sadly. "EJ won't budge on the issue and believe me I've tried very hard ever since I began my Get EJ to fall in Love with Me Again plan."

"Wait you had an actual plan? All those times you were barely clothed around me were staged?" EJ asked and now it was all making sense to him when he thought back to it.

"It worked, didn't it," Sami stated and then frowned. "Well it almost worked for me to get you in bed, but you are really stubborn."

Eric wanted to place his hands over his ears, the things his sister blurted out sometimes were a bit much for him to handle.

"I can't do it today and you both should go through the counseling sessions…"

"Seriously Eric? I told you this was an emergency."

"What about our family? What about EJ's family? Don't you want them to be involved with the wedding?"

"No," EJ and Sami answered at the same time.

"I don't want my father involved at all," EJ stated with a shake of his head.

"Mine either Eric," Sami added which caused Eric to look at her questioningly.

"You don't want dad to give you away?" Eric asked.

"Eric, you know dad has been done with me ever since I told him I was going to divorce Rafe. He still thinks I've made a huge mistake by living here and the last time I saw him he was furious that EJ had come back to town and was living here with us even though this is EJ's house."

"It's our house Samantha," EJ reached out his hand across the table to touch hers. "I bought this house with the intention to give it to you for a wedding gift the last time we were supposed to get married."

Sami smiled although a bit sadly thinking of how much time they had wasted already, but from now on things were going to be different for them all as a family, "I had thought so when Justin told me when you had bought the house, but I didn't want to ask."

"Dad will be hurt," Eric said, but he wasn't going to push the issue with Sami because he knew exactly what their father thought of EJ DiMera, he put him in the same category with Stefano, yet even Eric could tell EJ wasn't like his father.

"He may, but until he can accept that EJ is going to be a part of my life from now on then I guess it will just take time and I'm not letting what my family thinks I should do dictate how I live the rest of my life. I've done that for far too long already and it never made me happy. Eric being with EJ makes me happy."

"Okay, but for you both to be married in the church," Eric started again to list the reasons why an impromptu wedding was bordering on the near impossible.

"If it is all right with Samantha, I'd really rather forgo a wedding in the church."

"That's more than fine with me," Sami agreed thinking she didn't want EJ ending up in the hospital with a bullet lodged in his back and she didn't even want to contemplate how scary getting married to her again might be for him considering how terribly things had turned out during their non-wedding, but before she got into a full blown hysteria mood she inwardly reassured herself that this time around there weren't hidden agendas or terrible secrets between them. No this time they were both being open and honest so things had to go right for them. She looked over to EJ and could see the same things must be going through his mind as well and she squeezed his hand.

Eric took notice of how even though he was in the room with them, it was like they were silently communicating between themselves and for the first time he was glad Sami had EJ by her side. He decided it was useless for him to keep put up arguments for them to wait to get married.

"Can you wait at least one day? I've got a ton of things to do today between church and family obligations that I've already agreed to do."

Sami looked to EJ and he nodded his head. "One day Eric or it's on your head if I start living in sin with EJ."

At least EJ had the decency to look embarrassed over Sami's statement even if Eric could see plainly that Sami wasn't embarrassed in the least. When his sister was determined to get something she usually found a way to get it.

"All right Sami, so where do you want to get married instead?"

"Well I was thinking we could do it here," Sami began and then proceeded to outline exactly what she needed her brother to do.

EJ tried his best to keep from laughing, Samantha had Eric wrapped around her little finger and she talked non-stop for the next thirty minutes until the children burst into the kitchen.

"Uncle Eric what are you doing here? Did Santa bring you something too?" Allie asked as Johnny and Sydney were waiting impatiently behind her, they wanted to go open their Christmas presents.

"Well not exactly," Eric began only to have Sami interrupt him.

"Eric came over because he is going to marry your daddy and I tomorrow if that is okay with you guys."

"Cool, can we go open presents now?" Johnny asked hoping he wasn't going to have to get all dressed up, but knowing his mom she'd make him.

"Is that all you've got to say?" Sami asked looking around to all of her children with the exception of Will whom was supposed to be here in a few minutes to be with his brother and sisters to open up presents.

"Can Sydney and I be flower girls?" Allie asked thinking her twin was missing the big picture here. They were all going to be a real family and she was so happy because she had asked Santa that for Christmas. He really was real even though Johnny had told her he wasn't.

"Most definitely," EJ answered as they begin to tug on him to go with them into the living room.

"I guess I'm too little to be best man huh?" Johnny asked.

"How about we ask Uncle Chad if he'll stand up with me because I'll need you to do something really important and that is to keep mommy's wedding ring for me until I can place it on her finger, because it's not official until I do that…"

"And kiss her," Allie added with a smile, only to have her brother make a face.

"Yuck," Johnny exclaimed.

"Not yuck Johnny," Sydney said as she went to Eric to climb up in his lap so that she could see all the grownups better.

"Can we stop all this mushy talk and go open presents?" Johnny asked thinking they were all crazy, it was Christmas morning and they had waited forever for it to get here.

"When Will gets here," Sami answered and as if by magic Will appeared in the doorway.

"Did someone say my name?" Will asked as the kids all scrambled to get to him first, but before he let them drag him into the living room he looked up at Eric with a confused look upon his face.

"Your mother needed me over here for some priestly advice," Eric began only to have Sami swat him on the arm.

"Brotherly advice," she moved back before Eric could hit her back. "Will, EJ asked me to marry him and I said yes."

"Well it's about time," was all Will could get out before the kids drug him out of the room with shouts for the rest of them to get in there with them.

"I guess that means William is all right with us getting married," EJ scooted his chair back and then held out his hand for her to join him.

"Will had talked to me about his feelings on several things a few weeks back and without going into it further without his permission to tell you, I can say he has come to terms with you both being together and wanting you all to be family one day," Eric stated not wanting to reveal anymore to them since he didn't want Will to think he would tell anyone things he had told him in confidence.

Sami smiled as she leaned back into EJ's embrace, "Well then it's a go because if Will is okay with it and the rest of the kids are happy about it then nothing is stopping us from getting married."

"I guess tomorrow it is then," Eric concurred thinking maybe this time his sister was going to get her happily ever after and from the looks of things EJ was going to too.

The smile on both their faces was answer enough as they joined the children in the living room and they began celebrating Christmas together while Eric thought to himself tomorrow would be an interesting day for them all.