THE CHALLENGE
"Well that's my cue to leave." Lucas says. Sami chuckles. "See you tonight. Karaoke!" Lucas says on his way out. Rafe closes the door. "So how did Arianna's arraignment go?" Sami asks. "Don't change the subject." Rafe says as he walks closer to Sami. "From what?" Sami smiles. "You're making a date with your ex?" Rafe questions. "Relax you're coming too." Sami tells him. "Well I don't want to be the third wheel." Rafe responds. "You won't it's a double date." Sami says. "Okay so who's my date?" Rafe asks. Sami laughs. "Me silly. I set Lucas up with Alex." Sami smiles.
Alex is at the gym running on the treadmill. Lucas walks in with his water bottle and towel. He stops her. "Hey Alex." He says. "Lucas." Alex looks at him then turns away. He walks closer to her. "So my buddy Dell tells me you have a date with him tonight." Lucas says. "Yeah so." She replies. "It's kinda messed up that you would date my friend you haven't seen, but won't give me the time of day." Lucas tells her. "Well he sounds a lot more interesting than you." Alex gets off the treadmill and drinks from her water bottle. Lucas starts to lift weights. Alex watches him. "Yeah whatever. You're going to want me after one night with Dell." Lucas says. "I highly doubt that." Alex says. Lucas puts down the weighs. "We'll you're see." Lucas tells her. Alex picks the ones he had and lifts them up then puts them down. "Wow you're pretty strong." Lucas points out. "Yep I am. Next challenge." She says. Lucas smiles.
Melanie and Philip walk outside of the Pub holding hands. "I'm so glad that we could have late lunch together." Melanie says to Philip. "Me too. Late, but great." Philip smiles. They walk in. They see Brady and Arianna talking. "That doesn't look good." Melanie says.
"Who I talk to is none of your damn business." Brady tells her as he stands up. "Silly me for wanting to have a conversation without Nicole interrupting. "What's there to talk about? You said we're over then we're over." Brady says. He grabs his phone and takes off pass Melanie and Philip. "Brady wait." Melanie says. Philip stops her. "Just let it go." He says. Melanie looks at Arianna who starts to cry.
"Oh so you were playing cupid while I was gone?" Rafe asks. "That I was." Sami smiles. They kiss. "So what about the picnic?" Rafe asks. "It's at the Pub probably ready. Oh you didn't answer me about Arianna." Sami tells him. "She's out on bail." Rafe says.
"That's great." Sami says with a smile. "Thanks to EJ." Rafe frowns. "And you're not happy about that?" She asks confusedly. "Why would I be?" Rafe sits down on the couch. "Because your sister's out." Sami reminds him. "I hate that she's so trusting of EJ. He's just helping her to get back at Nicole." He suspects. "And how is that?" Sami sits down on the couch next to him. "He knows something she did probably frame Arianna and she has something on him, but neither wants to admit it." He explains. "Interesting." She says.
Johnny walks from the back. "Rafe's home so we can go on the picnic?" He asks.
Sami and Rafe turn around and laugh. "Yep buddy we can." Rafe answers. Johnny smiles.
"Challenge? What like asking Brady Black out last night?" Lucas laughs. "A fair challenge this time." Alex says. "Oh you mean one that's easy for you to win, but you'll lose because I'm that damn good?" Lucas says. Alex rolls her eyes. "Can you run?" She asks. "Can you blow smoke?" He asks. "First person around the track first wins." Alex says. "So what do I win?" Lucas smiles. "If you win, I'll blow off Dell and go out with you tonight." Alex says. Lucas smiles. "So what do I get?" Alex asks. "I'll leave you alone." Lucas says. "The best award I could ask for." She says. They head outside to the track.
"I'm opened to suggestions on how I should help Arianna." EJ tells Nicole. "Well it's simple we get Baker to out his partner then pay him off to leave town and leave the chick to hang. I mean she's the one that's going around whacking guys in the head. Baker's really not getting anything out of this deal." Nicole says. "That's not going to work. What makes you think that this woman will just let Baker off. Let you off?" EJ asks. "Well do you have a better idea?" Nicole asks. "Let's talk to Baker first then will find a way." EJ suggests. They head down to the DiMera dungeon.
Melanie walks over to Arianna. Philip follows. "What happened?" Melanie asks. "We broke up." Arianna cries. "Why?" Melanie asks. "Because of Nicole." Arianna says. "Forget Nicole, do you really want Brady?" Melanie asks. "I'm going to get us a table and order." Philip says. "Okay." Melanie says. "Of course I do." Arianna says. "Then fight for him." Melanie suggests. "I can't. Not when I'm fighting for me freedom because of Nicole. She just ruins everything. I hate her." Arianna says. "Well I hate her two for you. And we will get Brady back and make her wish she never messed with you." Melanie says. "Okay enough of Nicole talk. I should get something to eat." Arianna says. "Why don't you join Philip and I." Melanie suggests. "I don't want to intrude." Arianna says. "You're not right Philip?" Melanie looks at Philip who's sitting at a table nearby looking at the menu. "Of course." Philip says. "See" Melanie says. "I think I should go somewhere else. I'll talk to you later." Arianna says. "Okay. Later." Melanie says. Arianna walks out of the Pub. "Was it something I said?" Philip asks. "Nope she just didn't want to intrude. She rather cry alone I guess." Melanie sits down at the table and starts to look at her menu. "I want to help them get back together." Melanie says. "You wanna play matchmaker with them like you did me and Stephanie?" Philip asks. "There's a difference. Brady and Arianna are meant to be together. You and Stephanie simply were not." Melanie smiles. Philip smiles back.
Nathan's looking though charts at the hospital. Stephanie walks up behind him. "Hey Nathan you're off tonight right?" She asks. "Yep. I'm off in another hour. Why?" He wonders. "My aunt Adrienne is having karaoke night at Cheatin' Heart tonight and wonder if you wanted to go." Stephanie suggests. "That sounds like a blast." Nathan says. "Alright. Pick me up at 7?" Stephanie asks. "I will." Nathan smiles. Stephanie smiles and walks away.
Rafe, Sami, Johnny, and Sydney enter the Pub. Caroline has the picnic basket on the counter. Johnny rushes over to her. "Grandma!" He yells. "Johnny, hey." She says they hug. Sami, Sydney, and Rafe walk over. "Your picnic is already." Caroline says. Rafe grabs the basket. "Thanks Caroline." Rafe says. "You're quite welcome." Caroline says with a smile. "Thanks Grandma, we better get going." Sami says. "One moment, Can I talk to you for a second alone Sami?" Caroline asks. "Sure." Sami says. "I'll put the food and the kids in the car." Rafe offers. "Thanks." Sami smiles. She watches them leave. "So what's up Grandma?" Sami asks. "Nothing. I just wanted to say that I'm so happy for you and Rafe. I'm glad you two are back together." Caroline says. "Thanks Grandma." Sami says. They hug. "Now go have fun." Caroline says. "We will. Bye" Sami smiles as she walks away.
EJ and Nicole walk through the DiMera dungeon. They walk up to Baker's cell and notice it's empty. "Damn it!" EJ yells. "How did he get out?" Nicole questions. "I don't know maybe his partner in crime." EJ says. "No doubt so what do we do now?" Nicole asks.
Lucas and Alex are on the track. They look at one another. "On 3." Lucas says. "Fine with me." Alex says. "1…2…" Lucas starts. "3"Alex yells then runs off. Lucas runs after her. He catches up to her, they're neck and neck now. They almost make it to the finish line when Lucas starts to slow down to take a breath. Alex finishes the race. "I won! She yells as she jumps up and down. Lucas looks up then walks over to her. "Congratulations." Lucas smiles. "Why thank you. Now leave me alone." Alex says as she brushes passed Lucas. Lucas smiles. "We'll see about that." Lucas says to himself as he watches her walk away.
Rafe, Sami, Johnny, and Sydney sit by the lake eating and laughing. "Can I go put my feet in the water?" Johnny asks. "Of course sweetie, but only your feet. I don't want a repeat of last time." Sami says. "Okay." Johnny takes off. "What happened last time?" Rafe asks. "Johnny dunked his whole head in the water and before he could come back up the current started to take him out EJ had to run out there and catch him." Sami says. "That had to be scary. "It was for 2 seconds then Johnny comes running on the beach saying it was fun and he wanted to do it again. I told him no he couldn't never again." Sami tells him. Rafe and Sami look over at Johnny who's collecting shells. "So what's the deal with Lucas and Alex?" Rafe asks. "Well Lucas asked Alex out, but she refused because she thought he was offering her a job which he was, but he still wanted to go out with her so they started flirighting." Sami says. "Wait, what's Flirighting?" Rafe asks. "Flirting and fighting. Flrighting." Sami smiles. Rafe laughs. "Okay so then I met her at the Pub when I was helping Caroline out. Lucas shows up and they're flirghting again. He challenges her to ask Brady out and of course Brady shuts her down and she gets made and leaves." Sami explains. "Sounds like they're doing more fighting than flirting." Rafe points out. "You haven't seen them in the same room as I have. You'll see the sparks tonight." Sami says. "By the way, how did you get Alex to go on a date with Lucas?" Rafe asks. Sami look at her watch. "Oh my gosh! Look at the time. We better get the kids to Grandmas so we can go on our double date." She says. She starts packing up their stuff.
Philip and Melanie drink out of the same milk shake at the Pub. "Oh brain freeze." Melanie says as she hold her head. They laugh. "So what do you want to do tonight?" Philip asks. "Well I don't know maybe some karaoke." Melanie suggests. "Karaoke?" Philip questions. "Yeah I saw it in the paper. It's going to be at the Cheatin' Heart. Come on it'll be fun." Melanie says. "Okay, okay we can karaoke." Philip gives in. "Yay! Well that's good so now I won't have to be the third wheel." Melanie says. "Third wheel? To who?" Philip asks. "Daniel and Chloe. I asked Daniel this morning after reading the paper and he said yes. So finally I get to hear that amazing voice of Chloe's." Melanie responds. Philip's worried. "Yeah she has an amazing voice." Philip adds. "Maybe we can do a duet." Melanie smiles. Philip smiles a little. "Now I need to invite Brady and Arianna." Melanie says. "If you must. This evening should be interesting." Philip says. "Yep." Melanie says as picks up her phone to call Brady and Arianna.
Rafe and Sami return home after their picnic. Sami puts the basket on the table. Rafe sits down on the couch. "Come on Rafe we need to get ready for karaoke night." Sami says. "Now?" Rafe asks. "Uh yeah." Sami says. "Okay I will once you tell me how you got Alex to go out with Lucas." Rafe says. "Okay fine. I told her what a great guy Lucas was and she had a change of heart." Sami lies. "Oh yeah just like that. Sami the truth. I need to know what I'm walking into." Rafe tells her. "And I told her his name was Dell." Sami admits. "This should be interesting." Rafe says. "I know it seemed good at the time. I hope it doesn't backfire." Sami says. "Oh it will." Rafe says. "No it won't. I'll work out. I want to be optimistic about it." Sami says. "Okay optimistic Sami. Can we get ready for karaoke now?" Rafe asks. Rafe standing up. "Oh so now you want to go?" Sami asks. "Yeah to watch your plan backfire. Oh yeah baby." Rafe says as he walks to the back. "It's not going to fail Rafe. It's just not." Sami says to herself.
EJ gets on the phone with Marco. "Marco, we have a problem. Baker is out. You need to find him ASAP and bring him back here." EJ says then hangs up the phone. "This is just great." EJ yells. "Well with Baker gone there's no reason for me to keep my mouth shut. With any luck he's already out of town." Nicole says. "I doubt it. He's still here and once I find him, it's over for you." EJ says. "Well then it'll be over for you too." Nicole says. EJ thinks. "Fine, we'll go with your plan for now." EJ says. "Good choice." Nicole says. "Okay so we need to put our heads together and figure out where Baker could be hiding." EJ says.
On the next episode:
Karaoke night starts
EJ and Nicole search for Baker
Hope sees Bo and Carly together
Philip calls Chloe
Cast
Ally as Alex Miller
Molly Burnett as Melanie Layton-Kiriakis
Bryan Dattilo as Lucas Horton
Galen Gering as Rafe Hernandez
Mark Hapka as Dr. Nathan Horton
Shelley Hennig as Stephanie Johnson
Lindsay Hartley as Arianna Hernandez
Jay Kenneth Johnson as Philip Kiriakis
Eric Martsolf as Brady Black
Peggy McCay as Caroline Brady
James Scott as EJ DiMera
Alison Sweeney as Sami Brady
Arianne Zucker as Nicole DiMera