"Syd, can I come in?" Sami asked, as she knocked on her daughter's bedroom door.
"Yes, mom." Sydney answered and Sami entered the room, sitting down on the bed facing her daughter. Sydney put down her phone.
"Are you, okay?" Sami asked her, caressing her hair and moving some loose strands behind her ear.
Sydney looked at her mother, deciding to be honest, just like she had been taught. "Honestly, mom. I've been really worried about you."
"I know, I'm sorry." Sami apologized quickly, getting angry at herself for not being able to hide her troubles from her children.
"Don't apologize. It's not your fault." Sydney replied firmly.
"It might not all be my fault but I started the horrible chain of events of the last few years by having an affair with Lucas." Sami disagreed.
"You were looking for some comfort because dad couldn't love you at that point, not like he used to." Sydney pointed out and Sami looked away, realizing her daughter was right. "That's why I get worried when people say things like uncle Brady did tonight."
Sami shot her daughter a confused look. "What do you mean?"
"Uncle Brady said that dad still wants you." Sydney started. "And I know you never stopped loving him." She added, looking at her mother expectedly. Hoping she would be honest.
Sami sighed softly. "Both those things are probably true." She admitted.
"So on one side I know you'll never be truly happy without each other but on the other side I'm really worried about you two completely destroying each other's hearts if you ever get back together." Sydney explained, looking down sadly, thinking this could only end badly.
Sami swallowed away the tears that were threatening to fall. "God, when did you get so smart?" She asked with a sad smile and Sydney just shrugged. "Look, I know both options seem terrible…but your dad has been happy with Nicole in the past and I've been happy with other men too so who knows…" She offered, trying to be hopeful but she could see Sydney wasn't really falling for it.
"I heard grandma and grandpa talking about some guy in a hotel room. Who was he?" Sydney asked and Sami flashed back to her last evening in Italy.
"Hmm, that was really good." Sami sighed contently while moving off the guy she just had sex with and pulling the covers over her body. What was his name again? Jace, Jason, Jackson? Something with a J. It didn't really matter, he knew how to get the job done.
"It was." Jason smiled, while he reached for the cigarettes on the nightstand. "Do you mind?" He asked, nodding towards the cigarettes.
"No, it's fine." Sami answered. She used to think that cigarettes were a disgusting habit but she no longer worried about things like that.
Jason stood up for a second to quickly pull on his boxers before sitting back down on the bed and lighting a cigarette. "I'm so addicted to this shit I can't even fall asleep without one last cigarette." He admitted, a little ashamed.
"Yeah, I know all about that…" Sami said before taking her purse from the nightstand and taking a bottle of pills out of there, holding them up for him to see.
"Valium, huh?" He asked, surprised. They had both been drinking quite a lot down at the hotel bar that night but he didn't expect her to be the kind of girl that would also take pills.
Sami put two pills in her mouth and swallowed them with a sip of vodka. The man that was currently next to her in the bed had asked her up to his room for a nightcap but that had turned into something else real quick, hence the full glass of vodka still sitting on the nightstand. "Can't fall asleep without them." She admitted.
"How come?" He asked, seriously.
"How come?" Sami repeated, surprised that he wanted to talk about that now. "Believe me you don't wanna know." She answered, trying to stop the conversation that was about to take place.
"Try me." Jason replied simply. "Your name is on the bottle so I'm sure you don't just take them for fun." He added, when he saw her reluctance.
"No." Sami agreed. "A while ago my ex husband kidnapped me and locked me in a cabin for several months to keep me away from my current husband, whom I loved." Jason looked at her shocked but didn't say anything so she continued. "After I was freed he framed my then current husband for the kidnapping and got me to marry him again."
"What the hell…" Jason managed to say, scratching his head. This actually sounded like something that would happen on a soap opera.
"I found out the truth on our wedding day so I stopped the wedding and immediately went to my other ex-husband, the one I really loved, to tell him…but I found him in bed with my little sister." Sami explained, not showing any emotion.
"Wow." Jason said, looking at her with sympathy. "I guess I would need valium too if that happened to me." Sami didn't respond and just kept staring out in front of her. "So you were never able to make things right with the husband you loved?"
Sami shook her head. "No, I moved to Italy and he moved on and married someone else." She answered, trying to keep the hurt from showing in her voice.
"Do you still love him?" Jason asked, carefully.
"Yes." Sami admitted, with a grim smile. "But the alcohol and valium help me forget about that and the other bad stuff." It actually felt really nice to finally be honest with someone instead of pretending to be fine like she did with her children and the rest of her family.
"So you are not really here on business, are you?" Jason asked, realizing Sami might have lied to him earlier that night.
"Nope, just here to drown my sorrows and forget about my problems I guess." Sami admitted, taking another sip of her drink. "Sorry, I lied…" She added, feeling bad.
"That's okay." Jason replied with a forgiving smile.
"I should actually get back to my own room." Sami said, starting to feel awkward. She looked around the room to see where she left her underwear and dress.
Before Jason could reply there was a knock on the door. "That's weird." He said, confused. "Why would someone be knocking at my door this late?"
Sami shrugged her shoulders. "Maybe it's the hotel staff?"
When the knocking didn't stop Jason walked to the door and opened it to find 4 people staring back at him confused. "Can I help you?" He asked, thinking they must have the wrong room. They looked like nice enough people to him.
There was a moment of silence before the oldest man of the group cleared his throat and spoke up. "We are looking for Samantha Brady, my stepdaughter." He explained.
"Oh fuck." Everyone heard Sami say from the room.
Jason turned around to look at Sami. "So you know these people?"
"They're my family. From the States." Sami explained awkwardly, resting her head in the palm of her hand.
"Right." Jason replied just as awkwardly as he moved aside to let them in. After closing the door he quickly went to open the balcony door hoping to quickly get rid of the smell of sex, alcohol and cigarettes.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Sami asked her mother, stepfather and brothers in an annoyed tone before realizing why they might be there. "Wait, are the kids okay?" She added quickly, her annoyance turning into worry.
"The children are fine, Sami." Marlena told her, with a look Sami couldn't quite read.
"Ehm I'm going to take a quick shower." Jason interrupted, while trying to discreetly throw Sami her bra, thong and dress which were on the floor.
"I'm really sorry about this." Sami said, shooting him an apologetic look, while trying to get dressed underneath the covers. "We'll leave as soon as possible."
"Don't worry about it, take your time." Jason said, before disappearing in the bathroom and locking the door.
While still struggling to get dressed without giving her family a show Sami once again addressed them. "If not for the children, why are you here? How did you even know where I was?" She asked, confused, her family had been calling her for weeks but she hadn't been in the mood to talk to them.
"I tracked your phone." John admitted immediately, holding up some sort of tracking device.
"That's fucking great." Sami mumbled under her breath before getting out of the bed, looking for her shoes.
"Looking for these?" Her brother Eric awkwardly asked her, before handing her the nude coloured Louboutin heels.
Sami snatched them from his hands. "Why are you here?" Sami gritted through her teeth, tired of waiting for an answer.
"Sami, are you okay? Did you take something?" Her mother asked her worriedly, while holding up her chin to make her look at her. "Why are you acting so defensive?"
Sami pulled away from her mothers grip. "I'm fine. At least I was fine until you showed up and ruined my evening. So please mind your own business and at least tell me why you are here."
"Samantha, we are here for a very good reason." John said calmly, putting a comforting arm around his wife, who was getting quite upset with her daughter.
"Great, how about you finally tell me what that reason is." Sami replied, sarcastically.
"We are here because of Tate." Brady spoke up for the first time.
Sami shot him a confused look. "Tate, why? Isn't he in California with Theresa?"
"No, they have been in Salem for a while but he's in trouble. EJ is trying to convict him of a crime. Dealing drugs to be exact." Brady explained.
Sami sensed where this was going so she turned her back towards her family, gathering her things and putting them in her purse. "I'm sorry to hear that but that doesn't have anything to do with me."
"I know it doesn't." Brady said softly. "But I need your help."
Sami turned around to look at her brother confused. "What do you want me to do?"
"I want you to fly back to Salem with us and convince EJ to drop the charges." Brady explained, calmly.
Sami scoffed and shook her head. "Right, I haven't heard from you in two years and now you want me to drop everything to help your son who is dealing drugs."
"He didn't deal drugs, Sami." Eric stepped in. "EJ is just angry because his step daughter is in a coma because of the drugs and he's trying to take it out on Tate."
"And how do you know that's the truth?" Sami asked her twin brother, knowing Eric wouldn't lie about this.
"Because that's what Tate told me and I believe him." Eric answered simply.
"We all do, Samantha." John added.
"EJ is trying to convict Tate as an adult. This means he could go to jail for years if we don't stop this." Brady added, giving her a pleading look. "His life will never be the same."
Sami stressfully let her hand go through her hair and she started pacing around the room. "Okay, so theoretically speaking, let's say Tate is innocent, how the hell am I supposed to get EJ to drop the charges?"
Everyone in her family shot her knowing looks. "Sami, you are the only person that ever gets through to EJ when he's like this." Her mother spoke up.
"Nicole's his wife." Sami said, thinking she should be the one to deal with EJ.
"Yes but her daughter is in a coma and she thinks that Tate is responsible for that." Eric explained.
"Why does she think that?" Sami asked.
"Because that's what EJ's been telling her. That Tate gave her the drugs." Brady answered.
"But it's not true?" Sami asked, double checking before she made any big decisions.
"No, Sami. I swear on both my kids. Tate didn't do this." Brady replied, honestly.
Sami sighed but conceded. "Fine, I'll go with you to talk to EJ." She heard everyone letting out relieved breaths. "But I'm not making any promises, I'm giving it one shot and I'm flying back right after talking to EJ."
"Sami, why are you acting like this?" Marlena asked, a hurt and confused look on her face. "We missed you, we haven't seen you in years…"
"How am I supposed to act? Should I be happy about the 4 of you barging into my life and trying to pull me back into the life I've been fighting so hard to forget?" Sami asked, incredulously.
"I thought you would at least be happy to see your family after all this time." Marlena told her sadly.
Sami felt a ping of guilt go through her chest. "I'm just trying to move on and start over, okay?" She explained, softly. "Now I'm going to my room to shower and pack. Can you guys wait for me in the lobby?"
"Mom, are you okay?!" Sydney asked, very loudly, as her mother didn't respond to the first two times she asked.
Sami was jolted from her memory and saw daughter looking at her with worried eyes. "Yes, I'm okay." She said quickly.
"Where did you go?" Sydney asked, the worry still edged on her face.
"I was just thinking about my last night in Italy." Sami explained.
"So you did meet a guy there?" Sydney tried again.
"Yeah, I was with someone when your grandparents found me there." Sami admitted and Sydney looked hopeful for the first since their conversation started.
"Someone you liked?" Sydney asked, carefully. Her mother was never one to engage in casual sex without love as far as she knew but then again she had basically given up on love now.
"He was nice enough." Sami answered. "But honestly he was just a guy I met in a bar. I sneaked out when he was in the bathroom. Where he was hiding. Feeling too ashamed to face your grandparents and uncles again." She added, only now realizing how funny that situation actually was and it made her laugh.
Sydney laughed with her. "Wow, that's awkward."
Sami pulled a face. "Yup, it really was."
"But you know, mom, there's nothing wrong with having some fun." Sydney told her. "And who knows maybe you'll meet someone worth spending more time with."
"Yeah, who knows." Sami smiled. "So can you do me a favor?" She asked, while her daughter was in a light mood and not being a moody, angry teenager.
"What is it?" Sydney asked, suspiciously.
"Can you try and cut your father some slack?" Sami asked, thinking it was important for Sydney to have her father in life.
Sydney groaned. "Mom, are you serious right now?"
"Look, I know he made a lot of mistakes and that he hasn't been there for you but I can see that he is trying to do better." Sami tried convincing her.
"Why are you suddenly sticking up for him? You haven't wanted to talk about him for a very long time." Sydney confronted her.
Sami sighed. "I know but that was because I was hurt and that wasn't fair to you. Him being a good husband to me and a father to you are two separate issues."
"Well he hasn't been a good husband or father." Sydney stated. "Not to you or me at least, maybe to Nicole and Holly."
"Holly is not his daughter." Sami replied, firmly. "You are."
Sydney sighed. "I know."
"Look, I know you can't just forgive and forget but if you don't try to build a relationship with him you might regret that later on." Sami tried.
"Right and is that how you feel about grandpa Roman?" Sydney asked, shooting her a knowing look.
Now it was Sami's turn to sigh, sometimes she wanted to strangle that girl. "It's different, I'm not 18 years old. I don't need a father as much as you do."
"No, you are in your forties and that means grandpa Roman is, like, ancient and basically has one foot in his grave." Sydney disagreed. "Maybe you shouldn't spend your time being mad at him."
"I'm not mad at him." Sami defended herself. "I just think it's better for us to have some distance while he is living with my kidnapper and his equally criminal mother."
"Well, I can't disagree with that, I guess." Sydney told her. "And I'll try to be a little nicer to dad, okay?"
Sami smiled at her daughter. "Thank you, baby. I love you."
Sydney hugged her mother. "I love you too, mom."