Part 23- Two Mothers

Nancy Wesley loved her husband more than she could express. Their phenomenally successful marriage had given them two brilliant daughters; a bright career for Craig; more wealth and power than they had dared hope for; and the daily blessing of a partner in life, crime, or passion as the moment demanded.

Nancy and Craig rarely fought.

But today was one of those rare occasions.

Craig glared at Nancy over his paper cup of subpar coffee. "He was kissing her," Craig said, as if that explained everything.

Nancy rolled her eyes. "Well, let's lock him up and throw away the key, then."

"He is a resident in this hospital. He is a resident I trusted with the development of our best young talent, including Joy. And what did he do? He kissed her."

"As I recall, you didn't get through your entire residency without kissing anyone."

"You weren't my student."

"Joy isn't Will's student, either."

"I'm sorry," said Craig, sarcasm dripping from every word. "I didn't realize that you were the Chief of Staff here."

"Well, you should have," said Nancy tartly. "Do I need to remind you how many seats Will Horton's family controls on the Board? Do I need to remind you that his family BUILT this hospital? And from what I've heard you say, he inherited his great-grandfather's talent. Of course, his parents are a drawback—though no one deserves what poor Sami went through—but Will seems perfectly stable. Handsome, too. He'd be a perfect match for Joy. The right connections and she seems to like him—it's a win-win, Craigy."

Craig muttered something unintelligible.

"Do you have any real objection to Will, or do you just not want anyone kissing your little girl?"

"Her career means everything to her. She doesn't need an extra complication while she's just starting out."

Nancy scoffed. "You don't even believe that yourself."

"Not really," Craig conceded. He slumped back in his desk chair. "When did she get old enough to date?"

"Ten years ago?"

Craig glared. Nancy smiled sweetly. "Never mind, I'll fix this today. You can get me permission to see Sami?"

"She's recovering from experimental surgery. She needs rest and physical therapy."

Half mockingly, Nancy clasped her hands over her heart. "It's always good therapy for a mother to know that her son is dating a beautiful, successful young woman."

Sami wasn't having a good day. She couldn't remember the last time she'd had a good day. Probably, she wouldn't recognize a good day if it hit her over the head.

She winced, and managed to move her hand to the bandage over her head where her hair had once been. If a good day hit her over the head, she would need more surgery, and then it would no longer be a good day.

Her memory of her last fight with EJ—her horror at seeing his hand on Allie's thigh, his anger as he shoved her away—was remarkably clear. She had already shared her recollections with the police and the ISA. They hadn't told her much in exchange, and she couldn't bring herself to care. She knew that EJ would never be brought to justice. She had spent her whole life watching Stefano evade the grasp of the authorities time and time again. His son was no different.

She wasn't allowed to have visitors other than her doctors and her therapists and the detectives who wanted to know everything she'd ever heard EJ say about his businesses and properties. The doctors assured her that her family wanted to see her, but were firm about waiting until Sami was stronger.

There was an upside to not being allowed to see anyone she loved, and that was that they couldn't see her, either. She had been appalled when she'd first caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. Her skin was rough and sallow; her hair was gone; her arms and legs were too weak to move properly; her breasts drooped; her neck barely supported her head.

Maybe that was why Lucas wouldn't say he loved her, too. Maybe once she had recovered he would think she was beautiful again.

She clung to that idea. The alternative, that Lucas just didn't love her, was too painful.

She was able to stand the ache of physical therapists yanking her arms and legs this way and that because she knew that each jolt of pain brought her closer to being someone that Lucas and their children could bear to love.

"One," the therapist counted, and that twinge was for Lucas.

"Two," was for Will.

"Three," for Allie.

"Four," for Johnny.

"Five," and that was Lucas again.

The therapists said she was making good progress. She could move a little, now, and her speech was much better—at least when she wasn't gritting her teeth in agony.

There was a knock on her door.

"You already tortured me today!" she called out, but she knew that she would welcome another session if it would get her back to Lucas and their children any sooner. Perhaps she could request extra therapy? Tell her tormentors that she wasn't getting tired out at all on their current program, even though she rarely did anything but sleep when they weren't with her?

But her visitor, although familiar, wasn't one of the therapists.

"I'm Nancy Wesley. I don't know if you remember me."

"Of course, Nancy," Sami said, while wondering why a woman who had been on the jury that had sent her to death row was allowed to visit her when her son the doctor was not.

"I think you've spent some time with my daughter Joy. She did your surgery. Well, she wasn't the lead surgeon of course—she's so young—"

"She's younger than Will," Sami remembered with some dismay. Children were performing complex medical procedures and she had only just relearned how to grab things with her hands.

Nancy grinned like a cat that had eaten at least half a dozen canaries. "It's funny that you should mention Will when I was discussing Joy."

"Why is that funny?"

Nancy didn't answer. She was fumbling in the pocket of her ridiculous candy-striper apron for a cell phone.

"Look!" she said proudly, pushing a button so a photograph of her younger daughter appeared on the screen. "Isn't Joy just gorgeous and adorable at the same time? I love that her hair is so red, and she doesn't dye it, either. You mostly see her when she's working—so dedicated to her job—and scrubs and lab coats don't really flatter anyone, do they? But she's a wonderful surgeon. I don't need to tell you that, she helped save your life, and she doesn't take any favors just because she's the daughter of the chief of staff. She wants to do it all on her own."

"She's beautiful," Sami said, more to shut Nancy up than because she was particularly impressed with the picture. Joy was prettier in person; she was obviously more comfortable in lab coats than in evening gowns.

"That was taken after one of my daughter Chloe's performances last year," Nancy said as she put the phone away.

"That explains why Joy looked like she was in pain," Sami said before she could stop herself.

Suddenly, Nancy didn't look so friendly.

"I mean—because the music must have been so incredible, so moving it was almost painful," Sami corrected.

Nancy's eyes remained narrow, but she pretended to accept Sami's excuse. "I didn't come here to talk about Chloe."

"You came here to talk about Joy."

"Joy. Joy and Will."

"Joy and Will?" Suddenly, the pieces dropped into place for Sami. She sat bolt upright, not caring that her muscles screamed in protest. "You mean, Joy and Will are JoyandWill?" For the first time since she'd awoken to the sight of Lucas, Sami felt an overwhelming desire to smile. The grin felt unfamiliar on her face.

Nancy returned the smile conspiratorially, temporarily forgetting the insult to her elder daughter. "They were moving in the right direction, but then my husband—I love him dearly, but you know how men can be about their daughters—voiced his disapproval at an inopportune moment." She raised her hand to stop Sami from rising to Will's defense. "Now, you and I both know that my Joy is lucky to have your Will." Sami nodded firmly. "I was hoping for a little help in correcting the situation."

"I'm not in a position to be of much help to anyone," Sami grimaced.

"I'm not asking you to turn cartwheels. I'm asking for more of a bait and switch. I need to get them into the same room alone so Joy can tell Will that Craig would never really retaliate against him and Will can assure Joy that he doesn't hate her because her father decided to behave like an idiot for no discernable reason."

"What did you have in mind?"

But the specifics of Nancy's plan were doomed to remain secret a little while longer.

"Mom, what are you doing in here?" Joy's eyes flashed with barely-controlled anger, and Sami couldn't help but be amused at the thought of her cool, collected son involved with this fiery young woman.

"There's no need to be upset, sweetheart. Sami and I are old friends, and we were just catching up—"

"Ms. Brady isn't allowed to see her own family, and you never even mentioned knowing her until I started spending time with Will—"

Sami heard the ten thousand conflicting emotions in the way Joy said Will's name, and she approved. She beamed at the young woman. This was not lost on Joy.

"Oh my God," Joy groaned. "You were in here talking about Will and me?" Her attention bounded between her mother and her patient. "You could have killed her, Mom! What if her blood pressure had spiked?" She reached for the phone beside the bed and furiously pounded in a few numbers. "Dad? No, I'm not speaking to you, I'm speaking to the chief of staff. Did you know Mom was in Ms. Brady's room?"

"You can call me Sami," said Sami innocently. Joy ignored her.

"Don't bother your father, Joy. He's very busy," said Nancy. Joy ignored her, too.

Nancy made a great show of patting Sami's hand and wishing her well before she escorted herself out the door. Joy, still flushed and angry, followed.

Sami put her physical therapy to use in picking up the cell phone Nancy had slipped under her sheet beside her hand. She read:

Sami—

This is Will's phone number. Please call him and convince him to meet you in the small room behind the chapel at 6:00 tonight. When he gets there, he will find Joy and a candlelit dinner. The door will mysteriously lock from the outside for an hour.

Nancy

It wasn't a bad plan, Sami had to admit. It was bound to work, and she would get to talk to Will. Her fingers itched to press the phone's SEND button.

But then she stopped. She knew Will. She knew that Will wouldn't dump a woman he really liked because her father was his boss. If he was avoiding Joy, it was because he didn't like Joy… or because his experience with his parents had finally convinced him that love was a destructive illusion.

The last thing she wanted to do, when Will had barely forgiven her for divorcing his father, was lie to him.

She pushed SEND.

He answered almost immediately. Her breath caught at the sound of his voice.

"Hi, Will. It's Mom."

"Mom? What are you doing?" His words so echoed Joy's that Sami stifled a giggle. They were rubbing off on each other already.

"I'm calling my son to talk to him. That's allowed."

"No, Mom, actually, it isn't. Where are you and how did you get—the caller ID says that you're calling from Nancy Wesley's phone."

"She loaned it to me. Don't be angry at her, Will, she just wanted to try to make up for Craig coming between you and Joy."

"By risking my mother's life? And I don't know what she told you, but there is no me and Joy." She could hear Will's breathing. She suspected that he had started to run.

"Would you like there to be?" she asked as gently as she could, and she could feel Will give in. His steps and his breathing slowed, and his words were less certain.

"I don't know. I thought I didn't, and then I thought I did, and now…"

"Maybe you could meet her for dinner tonight at six? There's a room behind the chapel?"

"This is what you and her mother were talking about?"

"Yes. I was supposed to tell you to meet me there, but I want you to have a choice. After everything that's happened between us, I don't want to manipulate you even a little bit."

There was a knock on her door, and a second later Will entered, face flushed, phone in hand. Sami felt a thrill of delight and a pang of shame. Here was her beautiful son; she could stare at him for the rest of her life and it would never be enough. But she had frightened him into breaking the rules, and Will didn't like to break rules. (Sami had no idea where Will had gotten that, because it wasn't from her or Lucas.)

And when she'd last seen him, she'd had no idea what he was seeing. She was no longer beautiful. She barely even looked human. But Will didn't seem to notice. He looked her in the eyes, as if all he saw was his mother. It was enough to make her want to cry, but she couldn't cry. She couldn't upset Will any more. This was about Will. This was about her first chance in thirteen years to affect Will's happiness.

"So you don't want to manipulate me," Will said, and it was definitely Will rather than Dr. Horton.

"All I want is for you to meet Joy for dinner if you're interested." She eyed the jeans Will was wearing under his lab coat. "And put on something nicer than that if you go."

Will rolled his eyes. "Any other instructions?"

Sami was fairly certain that there was real vulnerability under the sarcasm, so she kept her answer straightforward and mild. "Nancy plans to lock you in the room for an hour, so be sure you're prepared for that. I doubt that she's telling Joy the truth about what's going on—I doubt Joy's speaking to her at the moment—so expect that. Have you and Joy been out together before? Nancy said something about Craig interrupting you."

Will lowered his head and mumbled something.

"What was that?"

"We were just kissing."

It took real skill to keep herself from smiling. A grown man Will might be, but he had never been secure about this sort of thing. He'd put his head down and mumbled the same way when he'd refused to go to the middle school dance because there would be slow dancing, and what did he know about slow dancing?

"Well, if you've already kissed her, maybe you should bring her flowers."

"To this ambush date that I don't know about?"

Sami shrugged as best as she could. "You were a boy scout. They taught you to be prepared, didn't they?"

"For this? No, they didn't cover crazy moms getting together to lock up their adult children against their will."

"Well, they should have. When I'm feeling better, I think I'll demand our money back."

"Same old Mom." Will almost smiled.

"I love you, Will. I don't want you to go if you don't want to. But if you think you might be interested, if you think you might like Joy, it's one hour out of your life."

Will closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair. "You're so much better at this than Dad is."

Yeah, well, Mr. I-lost-my-virginity-at-14 never took these things as seriously as you do, Sami thought but didn't say. He's probably stringing along six different girls now, too. "What's he been saying?"

Will groaned. "I don't want to talk about it. You've met Joy?"

"She's one of about thirty people who pokes me on a daily basis, yes. And today she came in to throw her mother out. She really likes you."

"You could tell by the way she threw her mother out of a room her mother broke about fifty rules by going into?"

"As a matter of fact, yes."

Will's eyes swept over the monitors. "It doesn't seem to have done you any harm," he said begrudgingly. "Maybe they can speed up letting the family in here. Some of the family. Grandma Marlena and Aunt Belle have medical training. They're low risk, we could start with them."

"I'd love to see them," Sami said, even though her mother and sister were a poor substitute for Lucas and the twins. But the twins were probably terrified of her, and Lucas… well, for Lucas she needed to be beautiful. She needed to knock his sluts—she was sure he had them—out of his mind.

She closed her eyes for a moment, and when she awoke it was night and Will was gone.

Will hastily rearranged his schedule and ran home to change. The twins were sitting at the kitchen table doing their homework. Allie called out a sweet hello; Johnny pretended that Will didn't exist.

He could barely remember the last time he'd been on a date. Work was one long grind that never let up, and the sudden appearance of his parents and siblings had taken up any energy he'd had left. Whatever his excuses, though, he wasn't sure what to wear. He thought about it while he was in the shower and decided that the dark blue sweater Aunt Maggie had gotten him for Christmas would do.

When he ran back down the stairs, Allie greeted him with a wolf whistle. "Hot date?" she asked.

"None of your business," he said, because hadn't she once dragged him into her therapy session to tell him not to treat her gently?

"I really like Joy Wesley!" she shouted after him as he slammed the door.

He bought the flowers and stuffed them into a book bag, although he wasn't sure that that wouldn't kill them.

He was back at work fifteen minutes before the appointed time. At the nurses' station, he learned that Joy should be completing her rounds. He found her easily.

She jumped a little when she noticed him. Her eyes might have swept over him, or he might have imagined that.

"You should know," he told her, "that your mother and my mother have a secret plan to lock us up together so we can have a candlelit dinner."

Joy gaped. "It's not a very secret secret plan, is it?"

"Not really, no. So I was thinking, we don't have to show up. Or we could show up and fight and scare them a little."

"We could do that," said Joy, but her face fell slightly.

"But then I thought, if you wanted, dinner would be good." He unzipped the book bag and handed her the flowers. "If you wanted," he repeated.

"I do," said Joy, and they set off together to await their ambush.

TBC