Mirror Image – By Nicole R

It’s a strange sensation looking at my husband from the safety of my dressing table mirror.   John doesn’t know that I watch, as he gets ready for the umpteenth party for Titan. There’s something in his movements that are undeniably male and that in response sends me into overdrive.   But lately, since I got that pillow.. Its silly and the thought of it makes me smile, sending a glance my way from my handsome husband. “What’s so funny?” Watching him come up behind me, his hands sliding around my waist send shivers down my spine as I tilt my head to study the contrast of light and dark.   His head leans forward, his teeth catching my earlobe. “I asked you a question Doc.” I turn in his arms and smile. “Its funny that you can be several people away from me or as you were now, clear across the room and I can SWEAR I feel your hands on me. … on my body.” I raised an eyebrow. “Promise that you don’t have a voodoo doll of me on you?”   His response was to smile and claim my lips with his, his tongue dancing as it traced the outline of my lips. My body as it always did under his ministrations moulded to his every touch. “Don’t start something you can’t finish bright eyes.” The challenge was evident as he dipped me and his blue eyes turned black. “Want to try me?” His hand slipped under my full skirt and roamed over my skin, earning goose bumps as he went along.

 

“Anytime.” His eyes shone. “But not now, we have to be at this party.”   It was pure frustrated reluctance that shone now from his blue eyes. “You’re going to be the death of me.”   I couldn’t help but simply grin back. “But what a way to go.” *~*~*~* The party was in full swing when we arrived to flashbulbs.   I’d been married to John for almost a year and still couldn’t get used to the attention. As I posed prettily at John’s side, I had the weird sensation of being watched.   John had felt my shift in mood and so pulled me more protectively closer to him. I looked at the assorted photographers and could swear that I saw a ghost. Blinking, it was gone and I shivered.   “Want me to warm you up?” I smirked. “Oh that would be quite the front page picture.” I grinned. “Multimillionaire seduces wife in public.” John led me inside as I peeked back over my shoulder, trying to place my ghost.  

 

 It had been a few days since the party of Victor’s and I found myself jumping at the slightest thing and nearly biting the head of John, who found me utterly bewildering.   Holding up his hands, he pleaded for mercy. Smiling, I stood up from the couch. “Its not you, it’s….” I paused. I mean how do I tell him of what’s got me this way when I don’t know it myself?   “It’s, it’s what Doc?” Pursing my lip, I shrugged. “I was wondering after watching Bo and Hope with Zach, just how would you feel about another baby?” “Ba..” He couldn’t even get the words out without a grin.   “Why not, I mean John Belle and Brady are almost 9 and 10. I think it would be nice to have the patter of little feet here. New symbols for a new start, so to speak.”

I smiled and began to play my favourite game, which was part of my right that I had claimed on our wedding night, my first night as John Blacks adoring spouse.   The game was a simple one with rules that I had made up on sight, to simply describe it for you. I would try to figure out what the wheels clicking in John’s mind meant for the decision and me by the flashing change of colour in John’s eyes.   “That’s the best idea I think you’ve ever had.” Any other train of thought was swept away by his lips claiming ownership of mine as he spun me around so that the room was a blur. *~*~*~* Luigi’s is a little known Italian restaurant on the riverfront that is incredible for two things.   The first thing is the food, I swear you gain 25 pounds on smell alone and the second is the lack of speed to bring you the food. This is fine for John because the lack of speed allows him to get to play HIS favourite game, which is to grope the wife. Not that you hear me complaining … much. As I let John lead me to the dance floor, that unsettling sensation hit again.

My hand slipped from his as I searched around.

“Doc?”

I focused back on John. “It’s weird.”

“What is?”

He came to stand protectively beside me and I felt almost five years old.

“I felt it at Victor’s and again now. Someone’s watching me.”

His hands slid around my waist, pulling me to him.

“Why wouldn’t anyone watch you?”

The sentiment was clear but he ruined it by waggling his eyebrows at me.

“Oh yeah, THAT will work.” I turned to face him and placed his face between my hands.

“Seducing a woman means candlelight.”

He nodded. “Check.”

“Wine.”

John glanced at our table. “Check.”

“Good music.” I raised an eyebrow.

My husband who despite his coming with me to the opera couldn’t tell you the difference between octave and an octopus grinned and swayed.

“The only music we need is you and me, baby.”

I winced. “Nowhere in the girls guide to dating does it say ANYTHING about bad pickup lines and 70’s comedy.”

As I turned around, I swear on my little girl’s head that I saw him again.

But that wasn’t possible … there was just NO way that there could be …

There weren’t two of them.  

 

I let go of John’s hand, not caring I was in heels as I kicked them off and ran after the ghost.

John’s cries of “Marlena” grew fainter as I went charging down the street.

As I ran, I had the unsettling sense of having done this before and it made me more determined to find this ghost.

Turning the corner, I found myself in front of the Pub.

And as quickly as I had seen him, he was gone.

But John came to wrap his arms around me, scolding me like I was our little girl.

Scooping me up, he led me back to the car.

 

*~*~*~*

 

“Marlena, what were you doing?”

I lifted my head from the back of the couch and studied him as he proceeded to clean my road torn feet up with bandages and some ointment.

“I don’t know.” My hand came to rest at the back of my neck as he looked up with intensely dark eyes.

“John, I don’t know.”

Watching the range of emotions that seem to go across his face, I threw up my hands.

“I’m sorry I DON’T KNOW!”

Wincing at the tone of my voice, he was icily cool. “Keep it down, the children are asleep.”

I tilted my head. “Sorry there Daddy, their not here. The kids are at Shawn and Caroline’s.”

John sat back on his heels. “There’s no reason to yell at me.”

Clamping my hands to my eyes as I drop my head back down, I merely sigh.

“Déjà vu.”

His eyebrow shot up. “Excuse me?”

“When the situation was reversed, you did a lot of yelling and denying.”

“What?”

I uncovered my eyes. “I think my past is coming for me as yours did for you.”

I tried to stand up, buckling as the soles of my feet rebelled.

“Problem is, I don’t know have any clue of my missing years.”

*~*~*~*

The dark was unusually comforting as I lay in bed.

But it was John’s breathing that drove me nuts, had me reaching for the bedside lamp.

“Okay, I can’t do this anymore.”

Shifting, I faced him. “What is it?”

He looked at me. “You know what it is.”

Knowing him as well as I do, I still found myself shaking my head. “No I don’t.”

He pounded the mattress. “This isn’t like you, I can’t tell you how scared I was that something had happened to you.”

I shook my head, my hair falling around my face. “Like you and Hope.”

“What’s that mean?”

Getting out of bed, I carefully and very gingerly made to the chaise lounge.

“I don’t like this feeling of chasing ghosts and the fact we’re like this isn’t helping me.”

Curling up on the chaise, I rested my head on my arms.

“I don’t understand this. Why now?”

John came to sit with me. “It’s going to be alright, we’ll figure this Doc.”

*~*~*~*~*

To have her was to hold quicksilver.

She was everything I wasn’t and that was why I had to have her.

For so long I lived in the darkness of his world and she was a light that made it bearable.

To find that she felt the same for me was like warmth that penetrated my very bones, like a fine brandy after dinner slowly settling into every crevice.

The first night I took her, it was explosive and the memories are still vivid like a tapestry of Stefano’s, as I tasted every inch of her.

I used to laugh at those silly romance novels I’d see the servant women read, all of soulmates and true love.

I don’t anymore and haven’t since her, since the night I learnt of just who she was.

I haven’t since the day I began to search for her.

I don’t care what the fuck that son of a bitch told me.

Marlena is mine.

 

*~*~*~*

 

The four walls of my office were painted especially for me in delicate peach, almost cream.

The four walls were now getting on my nerves in the worst possible way.

“Cynthia, do I have any appointments for the rest of the day?”

Her voice was tinny in its reply. “No Dr. Evans.”

I reached for my purse. “Great, you have my cell number if I’m needed.”

 

*~*~*~*

 

Walking along the now popular waterfront with its various little shops and art galleries, I enjoyed my ice cream and paused in front of one and studied the paintings in its window.

Marc Anthony softly and plaintively mourned his lost love from the shop’s open door as I gazed at the vivid seascapes and modern art.

“Their lovely aren’t they?”

I have traveled over many miles to find a home there’s that little place inside of me that I never thought could take control of everything

That voice was too familiar and I smiled.

“Yes they are, but honey you’re not much into art.”

‘Cause I only feel alive when I dream at night even though she’s not real it’s all right ’cause I only feel alive when I dream at night every move that she makes holds my eyes and I fall for her every time

It was like a shot to my gut hearing her say those words.

I wanted to reach for her but something made me stop and wait.

I’ve so many things I want to say I’ll be ready when the perfect moment comes my way

“John?”

Not getting a response from him, I turned around and audibly gasped.

“Who are you?”

’cause I only feel alive when I dream at night every move that she makes holds my eyes

I pulled her to me. “The man who loves you.”

 

“The man who loves you.”

I felt an icicle of fear run up the back of my neck as I look into the eyes that normally would be full of light. MY John.

This was someone who wore the face but certainly wasn’t.

“Who are you?”

He let go and I swear that I saw hurt flash for a moment in his eyes.

“You really don’t remember me?”

It was so real and so vivid that I wanted to comfort him.

“No, I’m sorry.”

To watch the emotions that played out on his face broke my heart, never in any of John’s darkest moments did I see this light extinguish as I did in him.

It was like a curtain.

As he turned to go, I cursed him out for making me have to run after him.

“God damn you, will you wait …” My voice drowned out by the blaring of the horn.

*~*~*~*

I woke up in darkness, my head throbbing enough to discourage any movement that would require it being lifted.

Listening hard, I could hear I wasn’t alone.

“Who’s there?”

His hand was warm as it came to rest on my wrist.

“A friend.”

Squinting in the early evening dimness, I caught his hand with my free one.

“Friends tell other friends their name.”

He came closer into view. “I’m Jareth. Now please lay still.”

Sitting up, I bit the inside of my cheek rather than prove him right. “No.”

His eyes widened. “No?”

“I want answers.”

With a lazy smile, he crossed his arms over his chest. “If I can answer them.”

Sitting forward for a moment, I allowed my hair to curtain me away from him. It was totally unnerving to have him so close, looking so much like John.

“Why do you look like my husband?”

His answer was as deep as a Salem mud puddle. “Everyone looks like everyone.”

“Nice try Confucius.” I peered up. “Try it again.”

He checked his watch. “You need to rest. Doctor said with a bump like you took, you should lay down for a little while.”

Sensing that I wasn’t getting out of here for a while, I shrugged. “Where am I?”

Jareth smiled, irritating me. It was wrong for another man to have John’s smile.

“Your in my home.”

*~*~*~*

It wasn’t like Marlena not to phone me to say she’d be running late or there had been a change in her plans.

That diversion in her habit unsettled me as I hung up from leaving yet another message on her voice mail and moved to the French doors.

Stepping out on our balcony and breathing in some fresh air only served to remind me of the lateness of the hour.

Rubbing the back of my neck, I tried to calm down and went back inside to grab some paperwork to read.

Coming in, my eyes strayed to the wedding photo that Marlena had recently had enlarged.

I couldn’t help it and broke out into a grin at the expression on our faces.

Picking it up, I traced the too still image of her. “I owe you the world lady.”

 

*~*~*~*

 

“I feel better, I want to go home.”

Standing in the doorway, I watched him as he continued to read his papers in front of the fire.

“Hello … I said.”

He held up his hand. “I heard you, but you can’t.”

“Pardon me, I CAN’T?” Jareth turned around. “Because you haven’t eaten.”

Shrugging, I blinked. “And that has to do with what?”

“You’ve been a guest and I can’t send you out without food.”

I made to go past him. “Make an exception.”

Having lived so long with John, my body was tuned into his. I could guess movements and flow with him in time.

Jareth pinned me against the wall like a butterfly.

“Damn it!”

A lazy smile flashed across his face. “Such language.”

I started to wiggle and squirm, cursing myself out for having started this discussion with my shoes off so I couldn’t do much with my feet.

“Let go.”

His hand caressed my cheek. “Uh huh. Not till you say the magic word.”

Crinkling up my nose, I shoved. “NOW!”

He caught ahold of me and came to sit on the couch.

“Now that is NO way to talk to your husband Doc.”

Of the many ways to make me stop and be still, that had to be the one I never thought of.

He seized the moment and kissed me.

Then he did something totally even more unexpected.

He shut off the lights.

“Put them back on.”

“Ssh, I just want you to feel. If you can’t remember with looks, maybe you’ll remember me with touch.”

His fingers were butterfly light but the shiver at contact lingered.

“I don’t know you.”

His face came to rest against mine. The stubble on his cheek rubbed against mine as I heard him sigh.

“You do and you will again.”

There was something familiar and hypnotic about him that seemed to make me stop questioning.

It was his scent.

John was into very clean smelling colognes, but Jareth seemed much more.

It was of paint and soap and musk, weird combinations but on him it felt right.

“How … how do?” Words failed me as his lips continued to travel down my neck.

He paused and whispered. “Tell me you want this.” His undoing my buttons was making me shiver as he repeated himself. “Tell me what you want serenissima.”

That word.

It was as if a light went on in my head and I felt weak as I buckled against him in protest of the vividness..

*~*~*~*

I could feel the coolness of the cotton sheets as he laid me on them.

Sitting up, I trailed my hand up his arm and along his jaw line before claiming his lips.

My hands moved to the hem of his sweater, pulling it up over his head.

He smiled and laid me back against the pillows. “My turn.”

“It’s time that I give you back your memories of me.”

His hands were everywhere and nowhere at the same time as he moved to remove the last pieces of clothing from me.

“The last time we were together, I took and never gave back. I’ll do that now.”

I was drowning in him as he moulded me with his hands, words and his tongue.

 

*~*~*~*

 

I woke with a jolt as I realized the phone rang.

Reaching for it, I tried to clear my sleep addled mind. “Hello?”

“John, it’s Bo.”

Sitting up, I ran a hand through my messed hair. “What’s up?”

“I hate to do this.”

A sudden bright thought raced through my mind. “Doc?”

 

*~*~*~*

 

Lying in his arms, I listened to him speak.

“That last time was just like this. I didn’t know that I was going to never see you again.”

I turned my head in time to see his hand lace with mine.

“This can’t happen again.”

I closed my eyes as his lips stopped roaming the space between my neck and shoulder.

“Uh do you want to try that again, yes it will. You’re MY wife.”

I shifted in bed. “I’m John Black’s wife.”

*~*~*~*

Police stations are my second home or so Marlena jokingly would say.

But I didn’t want to be here now, not listening to the kid telling me about her car found abandoned in the River art district.

“She’s not gone.”

Bo nodded. “John, did you know of any cases she had been working on with difficult clients?”

Thinking about it, I could only shake my head. “No.”

She was all right, there was no bad man reaching for her under the bed, I’ll wake up and she’ll be in my arms.   Somehow I don’t feel comforted with the repeating of that thought.

*~*~*~*

“I’m married to John Black … you’re not him and stop trying to convince me of that. What I did was wrong.”

He lazily ran his hand over my bare breast. “It was right and you know it.”

I lunged out of bed. “I just did to him what he did with Hope.”

Feeling the shakes, I stumbled to the railing of his bedroom and looked down to his living room.

“This shouldn’t have happened and I’m so sorry and oh hell, I don’t know what’s wrong with me!”

Fleeing down the stairs, I dressed quickly and fled. *~*~*~*

I let her go.

I had her, felt her in my arms and yet when it was all said and done, I let her go out into the darkness alone.

Climbing out of the now way too big bed, I came downstairs and stoked the fire that I had started earlier on.

This wasn’t how I wanted her to see me, to know that I was alive. Especially when she didn’t even remember me.

Running my hands through my sleep messed hair, I moved to the painting easel and lifted the cover off what I had been working on earlier in the day.

It had been from memory and just staring at it reminded me of the day I painted the original.

Marlena was every inch as beautiful now as she was then.

 

*~*~*~*

 

Sitting on the park bench, I gathered my coat around me and began to cry.

It had been desperate and unthinking and I felt so …

Straightening up, I remembered when I had last felt this way.

The night on the plane when I had to do anything to get him to stay with me that I allowed him to see inside my heart and soul.

Crumpling up into sobs, I felt the hand on my shoulder. “Dr. Evans?”

I turned to find the policeman staring worriedly at me, noticing the huge bruise on the side of my forehead as he reached for his walkie talkie to call in that he found me.

“We’re going to take you to the hospital.”   

*~*~*~*

I felt that I had aged ten years as I ran down the hospital emergency room hallway.

I saw Bo standing at the desk and came to him. “Where is she?”

Bo gestured to the door. “Craig’s with her.”

I started to go past him but Bo planted a hand in the middle of my chest.

“She’s got a concussion and is pretty messed up.”

Now I know he’s not my brother, but at times like this I feel the bond still there as I step past him. “I need to see her … NOW!”

 

*~*~*~*

 

“She’s sleeping.”

I looked at the nurse as if she was a moron. Anyone could see that Marlena was sleeping. “I just want to see her, I wont wake her.”

Sitting down beside her bed, I reach out to lightly touch the bandage they put over the bruise.

“What happened to you?”

 

*~*~*~*

 

“Hello, I was wondering if I could speak to Dr. Evans?”

The receptionist was totally professional as she replied. “I’m sorry sir, but Dr. Evans won’t be in the office for the rest of the week.”

Hanging up the phone, I looked out the window at the lunch crowd below.

“Where are you?”

Coming away from the window, I went downstairs to the main floor of my apartment and came to sit at my computer.

Typing quickly, I brought up the file that I had started from the moment that I learnt she was alive and married to my worst nightmare.

Stefano and the DiMera’s wouldn’t win this time.

This soldier would be the one to bring them down, unlike the one who wore my face.

 

 

“You’re supposed to be sleeping. Craig said.”

Marlena was standing by the balcony doors dressed warmly in her pyjamas and robe with her arms wrapped tightly around her.

“Screw Craig. If I stayed in bed any longer I’d scream.”

Laying the tray that I had made for her on the table, I came to stand behind her.

“Honey?”

She stepped away from me and went to sit on the sofa.

Remembering what Craig said about giving her a chance to get resettled, I let her listlessly move around.

“Doc?”

She reached for the blanket and snuggled on the couch. “I’m tired.”

Coming to lean over the side of the sofa, I kissed her cheek. “I’ll go to the office and let you rest.”

 

*~*~*~*~*

 

It was irrational and yet I wanted him to leave only to find myself wanting John back with me once he did.

I wanted everything as it was before Jareth came into my life.

Sitting up, I waited till my head stopped sloshing around before trying to get up.

I felt like a shaken up soft drink, just waiting for someone to open me.

So many thoughts were in my head.

He said I was his wife …

Leaning my head back against the couch, I remembered hearing Stefano’s lawyer reading the will.

“And now to the beautiful and dramatic Marlena Evans Black. I say ‘dramatic’ referring to the many roles you have played — some of them against your will, I’m afraid. However, your days of role-playing are not entirely ended.”

Sitting up, I looked around the living room and found it on a shelf in the bookcase going towards the kitchen.

Remembering the pinprick that I had gotten from it the first time, I shook it on its side as I brought it back with me.

Sitting cross-legged on the couch, I ran my fingers over the embroidered saying. “The sleeping beauty in the woods.”

Turning it over, I remember the translation. “Une beauté qui dort dans le bois.”

Laying the pillow down, I studied the constellation on the back of it.

“Against my will…role playing not entirely ended.”

Glancing at the clock on the desk, I decide that what I really needed to feel better was to get some fresh air and so upstairs I went to get dressed.

*~*~*~*

Time was a commodity that I lost track of as I sat in front of my computer re-reading for the umpteenth time the file that at the request of my contact at the ISA I had been accumulating.

“I had first come into the organization at the age of 22. Officially it had been when I was a child, but as I grew, I had no way of learning that all the opportunities that I was given in terms of the education and trips were for a reason.

That ended on the day I was introduced to my patron.

“The old man had merely studied me with a calculating eye and asked him a few questions to hear me show my talent for many languages.”

Closing my eyes, I could see it all so clearly.

The pain, the brainwashing and being chained as I repeated the mantra Stefano insisted that I learnt.

“Questions lead to doubt. Doubt leads to betrayal. Death before disloyalty.”

Opening my eyes, I resumed typing my story.

“I rose quickly through the ranks of the company and soon found myself staring into the eyes that were disturbingly familiar.

Stefano thought it would be a huge joke and a chance to study twins separated.

I had no way of knowing that the joke would soon be on me.”

 

*~*~*~*

 

Pulling up to the library, I park and grab my notebook and purse.

Coming inside, I allow the quiet to wash over me before I head to the information desk.

“I was wondering if you could point me to your Mythology section?”

 

*~*~*~*

 

“Hey Doc?”

Closing the door, I see that the couch is empty with the blanket slung over the side of it.

Lying my keys on the desk I couldn’t help but notice the pillow on the floor.

Reaching down to pick it up, I hear the old man in my head.

“Questions lead to doubt. Doubt leads to betrayal. Death before disloyalty.”

Giving my head a shake, I place the pillow on the desk and go check upstairs for her.

 

*~*~*~*

 

“The Gemini Twins were the name given to Castor and Pollux.”

Jotting a few notes, I continue to read.

Twins … Gemini … Sleeping Beauty.

Grabbing my things, I close the book and leave.

 

*~*~*~*

 

There was something about the twilight that I loved.

I don’t know if it was that it was the end of the day or the fact that I was free to work on my painting, but it calms me like no other.

Standing in front of my easel, I look objectively at the new creation.

It showed a woman, her back to me with her blonde curls blowing gently in the wind standing in front of the ocean, the waves lapping at her feet.

A smile escapes my lips as I realize that yet again, she invades my every thought.

She’s always managed to lift my spirits no matter what. But my mind wasn’t on painting anymore and so I cover up the painting for tonight.

As I begin to tidy up, there’s a knock at the door.

Wiping my hands, I go to answer it only to find her.

“We need to talk … NOW.”

 

*~*~*~*

 

“Bo, it’s not my fault that my wife can’t stay put or leave notes. Stop laughing Junior.”

After a few minutes of teasing, Bo promises me he’ll check it out and call me back.

That’s when I noticed the flashing on the machine.

“John, hi it’s me. I’m at the library, I wanted to do some research on my present. I’ll be home in a bit. Love you, don’t worry about me.”

I shook my head. “A bit late for that.”

“I’ll call you when I finish here.”

 

*~*~*~*

 

I step away from the door. “Come in.”

She did so brushing close enough to me that I caught a slight whiff of her perfume, a mix of vanilla and orange.

“I was worried about you, your receptionist.”

She turned around, determination in her eyes. “Stop tracking me down, stop playing games and just TELL me what you are here for.”

I gestured for her to walk into the living room.

“Just tell you, I SHOWED you what I was here for.”

Coming up behind her, I turned her to face me. “I came here for you.”

Her eyes held mine then broke away.

“Twins. There was a reason that Stefano gave me the pillow of Sleeping Beauty with the Gemini Island.”

She moved from my reach.

“You and John …”

I marvelled at the mind that was able to start reaching the conclusions in such a short time.

“Twins.”

Nodding at the look of surprise in her eyes, I gestured for her to sit down.

“Stefano had us both since we were children. Separated us so that he could see what we were each capable of.”

Going to sit down on the ottoman, I looked at her.

“I didn’t know of him until I was 22 and it was too late to form any bonds.”

Marlena, bless her heart stayed silent.

“John was the perfect assassin.”

“What are you?”

I didn’t mean to speak, to break the train of thought for him.

Jareth didn’t blink but just spoke.

“I’m me.”

Marlena’s whole demeanour changed with my answer.

It was interesting to watch the psychiatrist take over.

“If John was the assassin, then Jareth what are you good at?”

I smiled. “I’m good at animals, art and computers. But I’m sure if I had to.”

Standing up, I came to her.

“If I HAD to, I could be just as lethal as him.”

She blinked and looked up. “I’m sure.”

Getting up, she stared me in the eyes. “How do I come into this?”

 

*~*~*~*

 

I was reading when there was a knock on the door.

Putting the Clancy novel down, I went to answer it and found a deliveryman standing there.

“Is a Dr. Marlena Evans or a John Black home?”

I nodded. “I’m John Black.”

Signing off for the package, I tipped the guy and closed the door.

Settling it on the desk, I open the wrappings and found a heavy silver frame.

There was a card that said only

“Some gifts were given so that others may be taken.”

Turning over the picture, my eyes widened.

“Questions lead to doubt. Doubt leads to betrayal. Death before disloyalty.”

In the corner was a tiny 1987 and it left me no doubt.

“Oh Doc, that was why you were sure it was me with you.”

Grabbing my jacket, I went to find her. “You came into this because of a trick that Stefano played on us both.”

Marlena shook her head. “And what was that?”

“I was to have been the one to be with you, I had been taught everything that he knows.”

Turning away, she began to pace the room. “So then, how did John?”

“As punishment for his betrayal with Gina, he was given the choice to be put back into the field, into Stefano’s graces.”

“But if I was the assignment, what happened to you?”

Jareth shrugged. “John happened to me. You were the prize in a brawl to the death.”

Her eyes widened. “But you didn’t…”

He shook his head. “No but came very close. When I woke up from the coma, I was told that he had come to Salem.”

Glancing down, I saw her hands were in fists.

Reaching for one of her hands, she took it away from me. “When did I meet you?”

“I met you on Gemini Island after you were brought to the old man.”

It was my turn to walk away from her.

“It was just after the plane crash. You were so utterly broken.”

When I got no response from her, I turned to find her standing very still and her eyes were closed, but her hands were still in those blasted fists.

“Don’t be scared. There’s no reason to be.”

Those eyes opened and looked at me. “You must be joking. I don’t know you, you know me and there’s a connection here that’s scaring me. Why do I know you?”

Coming to her, I cradled her cheek in her hand. “Because when we were on the island, we grew closer than close. We fell in love there.”

She started to shake her head. “Marlena, I wouldn’t lie to you.”

Her left hand rose to cradle mine. “Then why was I sent home, why don’t I have memories of this …” Her voice softened. “Of you?”

“Because I was made to believe a lie by Stefano.”

“And that was?”

“That you had died.”

   

“That I had died?”

Jareth closed his eyes and exhaled a deep body-shaking sigh.

“I had gone to do one final job for Stef …” He couldn’t finish his sentence.

“You did something for Stefano?”

He looked up and nodded. “I did, he promised that as long as he had the other one, we would be safe.”

In the short time since he had begun this conversation, he seemed to have gotten older. The pain was obvious in his voice.

“What happened John?”

I froze and his head shot up. “I’m NOT my brother!”

Clamping my eyes shut, I held out my hands in a plea for calm.

“I never meant it. You look like him.”

Jareth ran his hand over his beard. “I do NOT!”

Opening my eyes, I nodded. “We were…”

Shaking my head. “I’m sorry.”

He came for me, pinning my hands in his own. “You were WHAT?”

Closing my eyes, his voice was too close. “Marlena, answer me. You started to say something.”

“John and I were locked in a dungeon at an estate called Maison Blanche, he had chained John up and nearly starved him among other things to try and break his will and spirit.”

“Who’s he?”

Biting the inside of my lip seemed to send him over the edge as he lunged out and cradled my face in his hands.

“WHO IS HE!”

Shaking my head away with a wrench, I spat back in reply. “Stefano!”

The staring stalemate went on for a moment longer before he sat back down.

“Finish what you were saying.”

“John was so thin and had grown a beard.”

I came to stand in between his legs and studied his face.

“How?”

Blinking I parroted back. “How what?”

“How did he break him?”

A tear trickled down my cheek before I could will it back. “He … He broke when Stefano threatened my life.”

Jareth was about to speak when the phone rang.

“I’ll let the machine get it.”

I shook my head. “I’m not going anywhere right now. Go answer it.”

Jareth missed the last ring, the call going to the machine and a stream of Italian began to spill out over the speaker.

“Il signore, sono cosí dolente telefonare, ma suo è il poco un.”

I turned away, trying to fade into the woodwork as Jareth ran for the phone but one phrase stuck into my head.

“The little one?”

I was trying to picture him with a child but his next word took my breath away.

“Rapito?” My hands flew to my mouth, the little Italian that John had taught me left my mind with that one.

“Kidnapped?”

Turning around, I saw him crumble into a nearby chair.

“Jareth?”

“She’s so small…”

Kneeling down in front of him, I hesitantly ask an obvious question. “Who is?”

He looked tearful. “My Evenstar.”

“Who?”

It was like watching John as he began to talk of Belle. That magic response of a father speaking of his little daughter.

“I called her that because she was all I had, she kept my focus where it needed to be. I went about my business knowing that when it was over, I had her to come home to.”

I watched Marlena as I described my little daughter. “Ariadne is my light and my hope.”

Getting up, I went to my desk and got a picture.

“This is Evenstar when she was 6.”

I saw him smile and melted. There was something so wonderful about a proud parent.

Taking the frame from him though, my smile faded and I let out a soft gasp.

“Marlena?”

It was my turn to sit down on the couch, my hand coming to cover my mouth.

“What, what kind of sick joke is this?”

Jareth took the frame from me. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

I felt bad for him, no parent should have to undergo this kind of a loss but this was not funny.

“That’s Belle!”

 

*~*~*~*

 

Tony sat in the living room with a smile as the little girl played at the table in front of him.

“Piccolo un, come vecchio lo sono adesso?”

Ari turned to look at him and smiled a very familiar smile. “9”

He smiled. “You lied. I know you just turned 8.”

With her hands on her hips, she smiled. “Didn’t lie. I was just testing you.”

“That you were.”

Getting up, he called for the maid to come and help the little lady get ready for bed.

“Where’s Daddy?”

Tony paused and turned to face the child who he had watched grow up.

“He’s with your Mommy I would think.”

Smiling with the noises of an excited little girl, Tony went to his study.

 

*~*~*~*

 

I held out the frame with a hand that surprised me by not shaking as badly as I was inside.

“Admit it. This is OUR child!”

Jareth shook his head, annoying me with his calm demeanour.

“She’s not ours, I’m John’s brother and therefore Belle is Ari’s cousin and they would look somewhat alike.”

The glare in her eyes had usually stopped the men in her life cold; Jareth chuckled as he remembered the times it had done it to him.

”Don’t lie to me. There’s something between you and I that I can’t explain yet and you seem unable to tell me. This is proof of the past and I want answers.”

Jareth shook his head, making me want to strangle him with no remorse. “I need to make some calls, to get started on finding Ari.”

I took a deep breath, realizing that he was right. She was the goal here.

Coming to me, he laid his hand on my cheek and smiled as I swatted it away.

“I’ll explain everything later. You need to go home.”

 

*~*~*~*

 

Tony walked down the hallway and came to a stop in front of a locked room.

Punching in a series of numbers soon found him standing in the room examining toys that hadn’t been played with in 8 years.

He remembered the glee of Stefano in foiling Hope’s curiosity as to whom they belonged to.

“If only John knew of his connection to Jareth’s little girl and the little boy who left us far too soon.”

Closing his eyes, Tony could hear the screams of pain the night they lost Evan.

Marlena mourned so terribly that the servants had gone about their business with cotton in their ears.

Which is why they held Ariadne’s arrival with such joy.

Till Stefano decided that Jareth wouldn’t be allowed to have his happiness.

Like John and Gina so many years before, Jareth and Marlena lost theirs the moment that Stefano learnt of Jareth’s discovery.

Once he learnt, the decision was final and it was swift.

“Questions lead to doubt. Doubt leads to betrayal. Death before disloyalty.”

Tony turned to leave the room; shaking his head at the lesson he himself had learnt at Stefano’s knee.

It was a hard lesson to learn but the ultimate creed of the DiMera Empire.

It was a lesson Jareth and John would learn again as well.   

 

   

After getting promises from Jareth that he would phone me with any word on Ari, I returned home and found the house in total darkness.

I had punched in the security codes before placing my bag and the books on the desk.

I had just turned to go upstairs when I heard “You lied.”

Hand to my heart, I squinted and called out. “John is that you?”

Turning on the light, I saw him sitting on the step leading to the balcony.

“You said that you had gone to the library.”

Wordlessly I nodded. “Lies.”

Blinking, I gestured to the pile of books. “Uh, then where did I get these?”

“I tried your cell phone after you left the message.”

“Uh that’s because somewhere between the third and fourth library.” Reaching for my purse, I pulled out and handed him the cell phone. “It died.”

Examining it, he looked at me. “You’ve been jumpier than a cat with an electrical current and now disappearing. Doc, don’t lie to me.”

“Lie about what?” I gestured to the phone in his hand. “That IS dead.” I pointed to the books. “I WAS at the library, researching the Gemini constellation and fugue states.”

Considering what had gone on in the past couple of days and now knowing about Ari, my head was not really with him and so I spat back.

“Lying to a loving spouse, no that would be something YOU’RE known for.”

Looking to the step where he had been, I noticed the beer bottle.

“You know that when you drink, I truly don’t like the man that seeps out of you.”

He came to stand beside me. “And I don’t like the fact that you’re cheating on me.”

I went red, I felt my cheeks go red and yet I spat back. “You mistook me for you. I swear you did that on our honeymoon.”

That hit its mark and it hit hard. “That wasn’t me.”

“No, just like screwing Kristen in the cellar wasn’t you either huh big guy?”

I turned away, feeling like an idiot as I continued to get him.

“It’s always about the libido with you and the moment that there’s an issue that affects someone other than you, its who cares.” “That’s NOT true.”

I spun around. “Oh really, does what you told me the night of your big revelation to me ring ANY bells?”

“I haven’t done ANYTHING to you that hasn’t been done to me first.”

John reached for my arm. “What is that supposed to mean?”

Wrenching my arm away, I shrugged. “I don’t know, figure it out once the booze wears off.”

 

*~*~*~*

 

I watched her go upstairs and realized that she was right. I’m truly a miserable person when I’m drunk and right now, I’m drunk.

Looking around our living room, I focus on my reflection in the mirror and realize that Karmic justice truly did exsist.

I made her suck it up and go on with the news JT was mine, now I look at her every move with the taint of my actions.

They weren’t even MY actions.

 

*~*~*~*

 

I was just coming out from my shower when John came into the room.

Luckily I was in a robe and pajamas because the chill between us was Siberian chill at its best.

“Doc?”   

Not wanting to admit anything at this point until I figured where my head was at, I simply sat down after getting out of my robe. “Goodnight John.”

*~*~*~*

The next morning found me up earlier than normal and down at the desk with a notepad, pen and books cracked open.

Two from different fathers, one gifted with strength while the other was in tune with animals and the arts described John and Jareth to a T.

While reading, everything seemed to blur and laying the book down, I began to rub the bridge of my nose.

Feeling sick, I went to lie down on the couch.

 

*~*~*~*

 

“I don’t care what he’s doing, kindly remind him please just who the hell it is that is paying his salary!” Counting to ten, I calm down.

“If he hadn’t of been scratching his ass, my daughter would still be in her room dreaming little girl dreams and putting her nanny through her paces. Phone me back once he gets in touch thanks!”

Jareth hung up the phone and found himself wondering what Marlena was doing.

“Stay away from her, your going to cause her more harm.”

 

*~*~*~*

 

Kneeling down beside his sleeping wife, John stroked her cheek.

“Doc, how many libraries did you visit last night?”

She looked so peaceful. “3.”

His hand suddenly lay flat on her head. “I thought you said 4.”

Her hazel eyes widened. “John.”

Staring at each other face to face, John shook his head. “Where did you go Doc?”

Swinging her feet to the floor. “I went to see someone about my past.”

“Who?”

She winced at his tone. “Someone who knows you very well.”

Getting up to move past him, Marlena was caught in John’s grip.

He looked at her out of the corner of his eye. “Who Doc.”

She twisted in his arms and spat back. “An artist.”

Glaring at him like a wounded bear, she grabbed her jacket. “Grow up John, it’s NOT all about you.”

 

*~*~*~*

 

I watched her go and didn’t do a thing.

As the door slammed, I went to the desk to take out the picture frame.

Staring at it for a moment, I reared my arm back and let it sail across the room.

 

*~*~*~*

 

After cleaning up the mess I made with my tantrum, I decided to get myself under control.

Sitting down at the desk, I began to go through our mail.

Various bills were up first and were put aside but it was the lilac envelope that caught my eye.

“Grand Opening.” Was all it said on the front in flowing script like writing.

Opening it, I found that John Black and Dr. Evans were invited to the grand opening of the Art Gallery “Ambassadors”

He looked at her out of the corner of his eye. “Who Doc.”

She twisted in his arms and spat back. “An artist.”

Closing my eyes, I breathed in and out several times before looking at it again.

“I wonder.”

Getting up, I grabbed my coat and headed out.

 

*~*~*~*

 

“Hi, its me.”

I laid the bouquet down in front of the tombstone and adjusted the older blooms.

“I’m hoping everything is okay and you’re happy watching over us all. But right now, I really think we need your help.”

A smile escaped my lips. “Okay Tom, more like I really need your help. Watch over all those I love. I really think we’re going to be needing it soon.”

 

*~*~*~*

 

Jareth was painting when he heard the first commotion in the gallery.

“Sir you can’t go in there. I mean it we’re closed you can’t go in there!”

He turned to come to the door to check it out when the door suddenly swung open and he was tackled by a solid and very angrily unforgiving mass.

Jareth looked into the eyes of his brother for a moment before John’s fist sent him out for the count.

Chapter 8: Rivalries

“John, are you here?”

Coming in, I lay my purse on the table and take in the shambles of the desk.

Rolling my eyes, I spouted off something to the effect of John channelling Brady and began to tidy up.

Reaching over to put the torn paper into the basket, I see a shattered picture frame.

Leaning in, I pick it up and bring out to examine.

As I turn it over, I can hear myself as clear as a bell.

“Roman, I know it was you. I SAW you.”

Putting the picture down, I blink tears away. “Now I know why I did. Jareth this was you.”

Tears flow despite that and as my fingers mindlessly drawn them away, I see an invitation on the desk and it was torn.

Putting them together, I let out a cry. “Oh god not like this.”

Grabbing my keys, I run back out.

 

*~*~*~*

 

The crack of bone was clearly heard as Marlena arrived.

“You don’t want to go in there. Their insane.”

Marlena glanced at the younger woman. “You have NO idea.”

Coming closer to the door, she could hear them arguing.

“How many times has this been brother mine that you fucked up royally huh? 4, 5, 999th? Admit it, you have NO clue how to love her.”

Closing her eyes, she felt sick listening to the insults flying back and forth.

“So the only way you’d got close to her was by her being sick.”

“She came willingly to me…especially after you denied her.”

Marlena could only imagine the easels breaking at that moment as John replied back.

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“That day. Surely you remember with that mind like a steel trap you have. You chose your whore over your wife.”

Tears threatened to choke Marlena as she opened the door softly.

“You LIE!”

Jareth was standing away from John, wiping his mouth of the gobs of blood.

“Do I … I was there the night she heard the triumph in Stefano’s voice that was it finally clear to her. That you didn’t mourn her.”

John swung his left fist. “You selfish son of a bitch!”

Jareth caught it easily in his own and swung it back. “I don’t lie.”

Dropping to the floor, Jareth swung his leg and dropped John like a stone.

Straddling his brother, he raised his fist.

“Stefano’s greatest killer and you chose to deny the greatest gift a man could have. An adoring wife and a child.”

“Ccchild?”

Jareth nodded. “Marlena was pregnant and that was why the decoy was sent to you in the fake house. He didn’t want you to have any obligations weighing on you or to see what you COULD have had.”

He slammed his fist into the floor, making John and Marlena jump.

“Could have HAD because you see, that night was the night she lost your baby.”

Doubling over, Marlena forced herself not to cry.

“You chose to go away and pretend. TO forget everything that Stefano taught you about reconnessence. YOU left her and the baby to that madman.”

He allowed John to sit up. “You have NO idea what her screams were like. Nothing could come close to the unearthly wails that she made when she was told she lost the last tie to your sorry excuse for an ass.”

John closed his eyes.

For weeks after the explosion and then after the plane crash, John had dreamt of what their life together was to have been like, and it was always with them having a child that he would wake up sobbing for her.

This wasn’t fair.

He turned stormy grey eyes on his brother. “Does she know?”

“Does she know what?”

He stood up on rubber legs. “Does Marlena know that she lost a baby … Our Child?”

Jareth was about to speak when John cut him off.

”She can’t know. Marlena’s lost one baby after birth and to know this would …”

“This would do what?”

The men turned to find Marlena standing in the doorway, eyes reddened.

“Come on, answer me!”

 

*~*~*~*

 

John saw her standing there and felt his heart break as she stepped closer to the two of them.

With a shake of her blonde head, she gazed at them both.

”Boy do I know how to pick them. On this hand, a liar.” She glared at Jareth who looked down. “And then there’s you my love. A fighter… who’s little son is more grown up than you could ever hope to be.”

John went to reach for her but she sidestepped him.

“Touch me and I’ll make this little brawl look like a Sunday school picnic.”

Her hazel eyes shone with unshed tears. “You both make me sick and I hope to god that I can figure out what it is about you two tortured souls that makes me every time come to your aid. To make sure that you’re all right.”

She saw John trying to speak and she stepped forward. “Suck it up.”

His eyes widened and she stepped away again. “You told me that the night you proudly announced to me that you screwed Hope and she had your son.”

Shaking her head she looked at Jareth. “What was it?”

He didn’t answer.

“I asked you a question and by god you’ll answer it. What would the baby have been?”

Jareth lifted pain filled eyes. “It was a little boy. You insisted that his name was to be Brady.”

John’s eyes widened as Jareth continued. “You were in such pain and so it was hard to understand that you actually had said Evan Thomas Brady.”

Marlena nodded and softly spoke. “Evan Brady.”

She turned to look at John. “The two of us.”

Walking around the ruins of the studio, she addressed them and the air that seemed to be still, waiting for a sign to break. “No wonder that little mishandling of yours hit me so hard. I must have known somewhere about this.”

She turned again, her hand tapping against her lip. “I hate you both.”

Before they could stop her, she ran out of the studio.

*~*~*~*

I didn’t know where I was going and to be really honest I didn’t care.

Luckily the kids were at Shawn and Caroline’s and I quickly called them asking their forgiveness if they could stay a day or two longer.

“Of course lass, their more than welcome to stay.” Shawn’s warmth seeped through the phone lines as did his worry.

“Is everything alright?”

Fidgeting for a moment, I couldn’t speak.

“No Shawn, right now I don’t think it will ever be alright again.”

 

*~*~*~*

 

John came in and found the Penthouse empty.

Calling her name frantically, he bolted up the stairs two at a time and headed for their bedroom.

It too was empty and the only clue that she had even been there were the overturned dresser drawers.

John sank onto the edge of their bed and clamped his hands over his ears, the times they had laid in it and quietly laughed over the joy of each other were haunting him.

“Doc, I’m so sorry baby.”

He had a sudden thought that it would be like a children’s nightmare. Open your eyes and it would all be sunny and bright.

As he did so, his foot hit something in the pile rug.

Looking down, he knew it wasn’t a dream and it wasn’t a nightmare.

In the glow of his wife’s yellow diamond, John understood.

With all the broken promises and wrong choices in the name of keeping their life safe, it was all so much more worse.

It was real.   

Chapter 9

Bo came into the Pub and found his little neice and nephew demolishing peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

“Hello.”

Brady turned and smiled, while Belle lunged at him. “UNCLE BO!”

“How come you two are here, where’s your Mom and Dad?”

Caroline appeared with their milk, as she handed it off to them, she gestured to Bo.

“What’s up Ma?”

She waited till they were out of earshot and spoke quietly.

“Marlena’s left John and has asked if they could stay here for a little longer.”

Bo’s eyes widened. “She’s LEFT him?”

Caroline nodded. “Bo, going by her voice. It’s bad.”

He nodded. “Well time for a little former brotherly intervention. I’m going to go find him.”

Kissing his mother’s cheek, Bo waved goodbye to the kids and headed back out.

 

*~*~*~*

 

“Let me tell you about a Princess.”

Tony smiled as Ari snuggled closer to him.

“She was hurt and taken in by another kingdom who had a Prince who had gone and fell in love with the Princess, who was pregnant with a tiny baby.”

“What happened?”

Tony looked distant. “What happened indeed is a story for another time.”

Ari looked up, her little face contorted. “Uncle Tony?”

He smiled. “Yes?”

She patted his chest. “Next time, read the book.”   

 

*~*~*~*

 

“You look like shit.”

I peered up at the man I thought like a brother. “Go away Junior.”

Cheerfully he sat down, ignoring the daggers in my eyes. “Nope don’t think so. Marlena would kill me if I left you like this.” He paused. “Where is the wife?”

I downed another beer with one hand, signalling with the other for a refill.

“Who knows and right now that’s the best place for her.”

Bo shook his head. “Lost me there.”

John smiled a death shroud smile. “I’ve hurt her for the final time and the kicker is … we never knew it until today.”

Bo waited till the beer was brought to John before speaking. “Still lost.”

John wadded up his napkin. “Do you remember the island, with Diana where I had to choose?”

Bo thought for a moment and then nodded. “When you had to choose between Diana and the fake Marlena?”

John nodded as he remembered the anger in his wife’s eyes.

“It wasn’t a fake. Bo, Marlena WAS alive and at that compound.”

Bo’s eyes widened. “What?”

John pursed his lips. “Uh huh, but wait it gets better.”

Draining yet another beer, John was about to signal for another when Bo reached out to stop him. “No, be sober and tell this.”

John yanked his hand away. “No, I need this to tell the punch line.”

Bo blinked and sat back in his chair.

“Apparently Stefano had been at her for weeks telling her that I never loved her and when I saw the fake, obviously I chose Diana.”

Bo nodded. “Of course.”

“He used it to prove to her that I didn’t and never had loved her.”

Bo grimaced “Aw no.”

John’s expression grew distant. “There’s more.”

“More?”

“She was pregnant.”

Bo blinked. “Pregnant, how … when … where’s the?”

“Um lets see, me before she was kidnapped apparently and oh yeah.”

John sunk his face into his hands. “Dead.”

“Dead as in Stefano’s brand or as official six feet under?”

John glared at him. “Bo!”

Holding up his hands, Bo spoke quickly. “I’m serious. What better way than to get at YOU with a baby raised away from you and Marlena.”

John shook his head. “Stefano was after Marlena in Paris to give him a child, if he had have had ours, he wouldn’t have wanted another child.”

Bo grew solemn.

“What are you going to do now John?”

He sat up. “I have no clue other than I have to find her.”

 

*~*~*~*

 

Marlena felt the chill seeping into her despite the hot water being nearly beyond endurance.

So much pain and lies had been hidden by her subconscious as she felt herself slumping against the shower tiles.

Through her sobs, she could hear the radio playing.

Well it would be great to be so strong. Never needed anybody else to get along. But we’re so scared of the silence, and the tricks that we use. Oh we’re careful and we’re cunning, but we’re easily bruised. I don’t want to lie about it, I’m not bulletproof

She hated Blue Rodeo and especially that song for the simple reason it was hitting way too close to home. It was sounding very much like her mind on never ending play loop.

Pulling her hands up to cover her ears, she stayed in place for hours.

 

*~*~*~*

 

Jareth had silently watched first her go and then in no uncertain terms after watching his brother slump into defeat, told him to get out.

If this was how the reaction was to be for Evan, he couldn’t dream of imagining Ari.

 

*~*~*~*

 

Bo got John home and settled on the couch.

“John man you have GOT to sober up.”

“What for?” He rolled over and looked his friend square in the face.

”The John that I’ve known has gone and fought Heaven and Hell to keep her with him. He hasn’t curled up and died. Yes I am not going to lie to you; this is pretty bad John. You’ve both lost a child. But you know what? You’re going to have to swallow this as you made her with what we all thought on Hope and JT and all the other women that you had while apart.”

“No its worse.” He sat up. “It’s not just her and I Bo. I caused her to lose a baby.” He shook his head. “Not just any baby, OUR baby.”

Bo sat on his haunches. “How do you know that, you’re taking the word of a man who you’ve only known how long? For all we know, she could have had complications. I mean lord only knows that Stefano is on a strong person a certain stress inducers. Imagine the strain on someone very pregnant?”

John nodded hope sneaking into his heart. “You’re right.”

Bo grinned back. “Of course I am. You have to sober up your sorry ass and put that famous brain of yours into gear and you find the girl and think of a way to patch this all up… Again.”

John pointed at the door. “Get out smart ass.”

 

*~*~*~*

 

I hadn’t been the most clearly thinking individual, but here seemed the safest and furthest away from them I could get.

Sitting on the sand, I feel the sun beaming down on me while I hear his voice in my head.

“How do I love thee?”

Maybe this just was not the best idea in the planet.

Looking at my bare hands, I feel very alone.

 

*~*~*~*

 

John was lying in the darkness when it hit him.

Dazzlingly bright and sharp, it made him sit up and glance around the room.

“As this ring encircles your finger, my love encircles your heart.”

A smile crossed his face. “Hawaii.”

 

Marlena sat quietly on the beach as she listened to the Walkman she had bought on her travels around the island.

Sarah McLachlan wailed mournfully about being not good enough and all Marlena could see was the last time she had been here and all the if only’s began again in her mind.

They started all the way back from the night of the house explosion. IF ONLY she had left the light on, she’d never been in the house when Orpheus grabbed her, tripping the photo cube explosive on his way out.

IF ONLY John had gotten to the airport sooner, the plane wouldn’t have been allowed to leave because HE would have gotten to her before she was stashed aboard.

IF ONLY they had chosen to be together, Roman and Isabella notwithstanding or her personal favourite of the day, IF ONLY he had chosen to ignore the drowning victim and called for help instead of diving in…

Clamping her hands to her face, she started to shake and mentally told herself to stop it.

Getting up off the beach, she began to walk along the shore.

“I had a son and never knew of him… how can fate be this cruel to take another baby from me and leave me with NO memories of him. I have nothing but an empty heart, empty mind and now a broken soul.”

Marlena heard laughter and broke her inner dialogue to see a mother with a little boy, no more than 2 going by the unsteady wobbling of his waddling on the sand.

“I don’t even have a grave for you Evan.”

Taking a deep breath and willing her tears to stay away, she turned and walked back to the hotel.

 

*~*~*~*

 

“Hello Ambassadors.”

Marlena took a deep breath. “I need to speak to Jareth.”

Twisting the telephone cord around her fingers, she waited while the receptionist went to find him.

“I’m sorry, he’s with a supplier right now.”

Marlena clamped her eyes shut with a groan. “I forgot that the opening is tonight.”

The young woman chirped back. “That’s right. Could I at least let him know who was on the phone?”

Marlena was about to say Dr Evans, but instead raised the stake.

“Tell him Serenissma called.” John pulled up to the hotel and thanked god that his private investigator was able to get in and locate Marlena while he was in the air.

Giving his keys to the valet, he thought about the last time that they had come to this hotel.

“Ever make love to your wife in the back of the limo?”

He stopped kissing her neck. “Uh no, because …”

She looked absolutely hysterical trying not to laugh. “Yeah uh because why?”

While trying to think of a reason, she launched herself at him.

Things would have gotten more heated except for the timing of the doorman of the hotel opening the limousine door.

Coming inside, he took a deep breath as he stood by the water fountain and said a quick prayer.

“Please let me find her in time.”

*~*~*~*

“Oh Jareth!”

He turned and saw his assistant Liz come flying at him. Holding out his hands, he caught her as she nearly skidded into him.

Raising an eyebrow, he smiled at the overly dramatic at times girl. “What is it?”

“With all the fuss from today, I forgot to give you a message.”

He shrugged. “Okay what is it?”

“It was a woman, rather nice sounding lady.”

He closed his eyes and made a mental note to see about tranquilizers for her. When she started out rambling, it was going to be hell to get her to get to the point.

“Lizzie, a name?”

She paused. “What?” She thought for a moment then grinned. “I told her that you were busy with Carlo so she said only to let you know that Serenissma called.”

Jareth’s eyes widened. “Did she leave a telephone number?”

“No.”

He let out a sigh, but Liz redeemed herself.

“But the number should still be on the phone ID display. The monitor keeps all the incoming call numbers.” He grinned, calming Liz. “You’re right!”

She nodded. “So you keep telling me.”

As he flew past her, she threw up her hands. “Artists.”

 

*~*~*~*

 

John found through a few well-placed “tips” with the hotel staff that Marlena hadn’t been back to her room all day and so decided to go outside.

It had only been a couple of years since they had been there, but the memories were still so vivid.

Coming down to the boardwalk, he remembered her smile as she hung herself over him and proudly joked about how he was hers now. “My husband.”

John strolled down a few feet and realized something.

Everything he was at this point was thanks to her, she focused him when he would go off on tangents, reminded him of what was important at the end of the day. She gave him her heart, a family of his own to protect, a beautiful daughter …

The thought of Belle reminded him of the child that had been lost.

He had always wondered what a son of his and Marlena’s would have been like and now.

Looking at his wedding band, he made a promise.

“When this is all over, I swear I will find out where you’re buried and I’ll bring you home to be beside your big brother DJ. Your mother shouldn’t have had to go through this a second time.”

“Excuse me?”

John felt the tap on his arm and turned to look at a young boy around 9, with blonde hair and hazel eyes.

“What’s up Slugger?”

He smiled, showing a gap where he was missing a tooth.

“I’m to give you a message.”

John knelt down. “Okay, what’s the message?”

The youngster crossed his arms. “She said you’d pay me.”

John chuckled. “This message better be good. How much?”

“Five.”

John’s eyes widened. “For that you best be telling me I won the lottery.”

The boy held out his hand. “No money no tells.”

Handing over the bill, John knelt down. “Okay, now what’s the message?”

Before he could speak, a very familiar voice came out of seemingly nowhere.

“Why the hell wouldn’t you leave me alone?”

John turned around to see his wife, dressed in a skimpy bikini and her hands on her hips standing inches from him. But in her anger, was millions of miles away.

They watched the boy go. “You know, that could have been our son.”

John turned back around to Marlena with a pained expression. “Doc.”

She adjusted her sarong before holding up a hand in protest.

“Whatever. You never could take leave me alone seriously could you?”

Not allowing him to respond, she spun on her heel and started to walk.

 

*~*~*~*

 

It had been so long since I let out frustration or anger that I bet John forgot that I even HAD a temper, but by god or whoever’s sense of humour got us into this mess, there was NO way I was breaking down.

For so long, it was always John and now it was going to be ME.

“Doc, come on stop will you please?”

“Lady you can’t keep running from me or the idea of us.”

He reached for my arm and I’m not lying when I say that I have no clue where it came from, but as I spun around to face him somehow I managed to shove him so he landed on the sand.

“No, I don’t want to. I kind of liked being worried about ME for once. I don’t remember anything and to learn from a stranger with YOUR face that not only was I pregnant, that I could have had some TINY little piece of you with me to love and pour my heart into, but I lost that chance. Thanks to YOU!”

Rolling onto his side, he reached out and what came out of his mouth had me wishing for him to be on a slow spit over an open fire.

“It’s NOT just YOU!”

“No, it’s about the fact that yet again you chose wrong!”

“I did what?”

“You didn’t have to go running into the waves that day, you could have stayed with me and called for help. You didn’t have to lie to me about that blasted baby, you didn’t have to be so damned utterly noble and stayed with Isabella.”

John blinked. “Where the hell is this coming from?”

“I’m tired of being hurt and you keep doing it to me.”

She stormed away.

“Doc, did you ever stop to think of just why you lost that baby?”

Her eyes flashed fire. “Not that baby. OUR baby and yes on the flight here I did NOTHING but sit and think.”

“What if there were complications?”

Her sob turned into a laugh. “John, who had me? Stefano. The ONE man outside of you that would probably move heaven and earth to keep me healthy, to keep OUR baby and me healthy. If I had complications, there probably would be the very best physicians on hand to ensure the baby of the Queen of the night and his number 1 foot soldier had nothing but the best.”

He looked defeated. “I never knew.”

She shrugged. “That’s the one thing that I keep coming back to. You NEVER knew.”

Lifting his head, he didn’t know how to take that remark.

“It’s all as if someone picks you and I up and shakes us like dice then throws us back down. Problem is with this …” she shrugged “is that nobody ever gave us the rules to play this game.”

John felt the hand of ice clutch at him. “Doc what are you saying?”

Marlena turned around and brushed a stray hair out of her face.

“Oh I’m not divorcing you if that’s what you’re thinking.”

Coming closer to him, she laid a hand on his cheek as she stared at his face.

“And that’s exactly what you’re thinking.”

He covered her hand with his. “I can’t lose you.”

“Can’t lose what you swore to god to love and protect always.”

She raised herself up on tiptoe, gently pressing her lips to his and she felt heat come back to her as it deepened with his tongue slowly teasing its way into her mouth.

“Doc, let me love you please?”

She let him pull her to him as his hands slid around, one hand lazily running up her back.

Yet again they recommitted to each other, but instead of words this time it was with kisses and by touch.

“Not here.” She broke the kiss and looked around only to find that they were on the deserted part of the beach.

Kneeling down, he held out his hand. “Here is the most perfect spot to…”

She paused. “Recite poetry?”

He caught hold of her hand. “No, for this.”

Tugging her to the ground, he reached out and caressed her cheek.

“I love you Marlena.”

She stayed very still as he undid her bikini top, allowing her breasts to spring free.

Cradling them with his hands, his lips began to graze each spot that he knew would get her to moan softly for him.

Lying her down on the sand, his hands reacquaint themselves with her bare skin now kissed with gold from her few days in the sun.

Sliding his hands down, he removed the bottom of her bathing suit with a dexterity that has him hearing a low growl from his wife.

She smiled. “I want you.”

John shook his head. “Ssh not yet.”

His tongue slowly skimmed here and there, pausing to come back and tease her with a kiss.

His ministrations had her whimpering by the time he blew on her curls and teased her with his mouth and fingers.

She shook her head as the sensations washed over her. “Jjjohn?”

He peeked up at her. “What … tell me what you want Doc?”

Feeling boneless, she lifted her head. “You, in me please?”

Stalking her, he crept up and played with a curl that had escaped her braid.

“What is it they say about girls with curls?”

She reached down and caught him, slowly teasing him with her hand.

“I don’t know, I don’t care and I want you now!” He drew her earlobe in his mouth, skinning it with his teeth.

“You want it hard and fast or sweet and slow baby?”

She raised up, grinding against him. “You’re the leader, I’m the band.”

Taking that as his cue, he dove in hard, setting a rhythm that had her writhing under him, her nails scoring lines in his back.

With each thrust that had her convinced that he was going to be splitting her into two distinct souls, he wanted her to have no doubt of his intent.

Which was that she was his as he was hers.

 

*~*~*~*

 

Walking back to the hotel hand in hand, John found that he couldn’t stop pausing to kiss his wife, who was laughing for the first time in days.

About five minutes from their destination, he stopped and the look in his eyes had her turn in puzzlement.

“John?”

He cradled her cheek. “When we go home, I want us to go to Jareth and find out if.”

She nodded, knowing what he was going to say. “I already am one step ahead. That was the first thing I was planning to do when I came home. Next to fixing things with you and me.”

His blue eyes grew soulless black. “Are they? Fixed I mean?”

She stepped to his side and locked hazel to blue.

“I won’t lie to you, we both have said some things in the past few days that hurt. But I love you enough to accept that my heart, soul and destiny are with you.”

He laced his hands into her hair. “Say that again.”

“I belong to you.”

He broke into a smile and winked. “As I do you.”

She stepped on his toe as she nudged him. “Try not to make it sound that much fun k?”

They burst out laughing. “Going to kiss my toe better?”

She snorted. “Buster, keep dreaming.”

 

 

I rolled over, expecting to have my hand land on soft skin that would sweetly spoon herself into my embrace.

Instead, I found my wife nowhere to be seen.

Sitting up, drowsily I called out. “Doc?”

Getting no response had me getting up out of bed and flipping on a nearby lamp.

Searching the suite had me face to face with a tiny envelope on which was written simply.

“John.”

 

*~*~*~*

 

I didn’t mean to do this; I mean who would think that I’d eventually have to write a Dear John letter to my husband.

But I did and by my watch, I’d figure he was reading it by now.

Turning around in my chair, I came face to face with his shadow.

“Took you long enough to figure out my clue.”

Jareth sat down. “Does this mean?”

I shook my head. “No, it doesn’t. It means though, that I’m willing to bluff to get your daughter home.”

He was going to speak, but I leaned across the table. “Don’t even say it okay?”

“He’ll hate me but I can ….” I shrugged, unable to find the words as I sat back in my chair. “Turn about is fair play.”

Jareth squinted. “Somehow, I really don’t see my brother seeing it that way.”

I lowered my eyes.

“Somehow, I think you’re right. Let’s go.”

 

*~*~*~*

 

Well I trashed the room and as I sat in the middle of the destruction, I surprisingly still held that letter in my hand.

It wasn’t even crumpled as I lifted it to read again.

“Please forgive me, for this lapse in my judgment.”

She fucked him and the visions of her in his arms threatened to cut me worse than any sharp razor ever could.

It wasn’t love, it couldn’t have been.

As I sat in the middle of this, there was a knock on the door.

Thinking it was her and that somehow it was a dream, I stood up and came to the door.

Opening it, I found instead that it was my worst nightmare.

“What the hell do you want?”

Tony grinned back in return. “Hello there.”

Swinging away from the door, I started to swear under my breath.

“Ah and do we kiss the lovely Marlena with that mouth?”

It was like a blasphemy from an angel, just somehow totally wrong to hear her name from his lips and my radar went up as quickly as my hands for his throat.

“WHERE IS SHE!”

 

*~*~*~*

 

Jareth came across the plane and laid the throw over me.

I was asleep but not quite. In that state where you’re not awake but enough of asleep to not make any attempt to open your eyes.

“It was too easy, making you trust me.”

I felt a cold drop slide down my spine.

“All it took was a little torture of the real Jareth and his memories were a snap.”

“What the?” was all that my mind registered in reply to him.

I felt his hand caress my cheek and I dug my nails into my palm to fight the nausea.

“Of course, I had to kill him. I couldn’t have two of me walking around.”

I felt him leave the sofa.

“So once we knew for certain that the surgery took, I simply took a surgical scalpel and slit his throat.”

I saw the shadow of him reappear behind my eyelids.

“Marlena, I know that you’re awake and so my darling friend. I have one more little bombshell for your delicate ears.” He chuckled. “Well at least for tonight.”

My eyes shot open and he grinned. “I’m not who you think I am.”

Sitting up, I threw off the blanket. “No, really?”

“That’s what I love so much about you. The sense of righteous anger.”

I did something totally out of the ordinary, I flipped him the finger.

“Oooh, that’s really going to hurt. But somehow I think not nearly enough as you’re sleeping with me did to John.”

“Who are you!”

My jaw hurt from gritting my teeth at him.

“Well lets see how fast that psychiatrist’s mind is.”

He held up a finger to start. “A pretty psychiatrist on a plane.”

“Stefano?”

He shook his head and put up a second finger. “A frantic and devastated husband.”

My eyes widened and I looked up. “Oh no.”

He grinned and held up a third. “Wife’s little unknown secret, she’s pregnant.”

“Pregnant? … Oh dear god … John said he killed him … please let this be a joke.”

His grabbing my jaw made me open my eyes to his glare.

“That’s right, I’m back and this time it’s going to end differently.”

“How so.” My eyes were watering from the pain.

His eyes grew dreamy. “You’re carrying my child.”

“I’m NOT pregnant.”

He yanked on the collar of my shirt so that my face was inches from his own. “No, but you soon will be.”

Orpheus let go and walked around the plane cabin.

“I have you, the baby to be and of course Ari.”

He turned. “Evan’s twin.”

Sinking into a chair opposite me, he smiled. “I hold the cards and I control you.”   

   

“What is Serenissma?”

Orpheus chuckled and I felt a chill up my spine. “Why, that’s you.”

Looking down at my tied hands, I shook my head. “What’s the significance and why the hell didn’t you have the sense to die when he killed you?”

“Serenissma was for a beauty that loved me.”

I bit my lip. “If I loved you, there had to be a reason that I didn’t remember who I was.”

His eyes squinted. “Why’s that?”

“Because there’s no known reason WHY I would have betrayed him.”

“John.” He sat back in the chair and chuckled. “Say his name Marlena.”

I dug my nails into my palm to focus. “You’re not fit to hear it you son of a bitch.”

“Now, now. Such use of language.”

He got up and laid a hand on my stomach. “And our child has to hear its angel mother with a mouth like a trucker.”

I raised my foot and pushed him away. “I’m NOT pregnant and if I WAS, it would be John’s baby.”

Blinking fast to avoid tears, I look at him. “Where’s my son buried?”

Straightening up, he smirked. “You’ll never know.”

He moved to the door. “Your son is all alone and has no one to take care of him.”

“Goodnight Marlena.”

As the door closed, I screamed till I was hoarse and prayed that John would find me.

*~*~*~*

I hadn’t felt like this since the plane ride home in 87, when I had been so sure that I would have her with me, only to find that I had lost her to the sea.

That ride home had been so empty and if wishes were horses, I would have wished to never feel that level of devastation again.

But here I was on the plane, alone with my thoughts and my wife.

All I was left with of her was a letter.

 

*~*~*~*

 

I came home to find that Shawn and Caroline still had the kids and a package that was addressed to me.

Along with a letter in familiar writing…

 

*~*~*~*

 

“You really should have checked to make sure that I was dead.”

Orpheus sat in his chair, watching the monitor displaying John standing by their desk with the envelope in his hands.

“Let’s see if you catch the clues.”

 

*~*~*~*

 

The first photo was of two boys.

At least that’s what I thought once I put the two halves of the torn photo together.

Laying them on the table, I pulled out the next shot and winced.

It was a shot taken at the scene of a death.

The victim lay on the ground; eyes still open and frozen forever in death.

Her dark hair was spilled around her on the cobblestones…

Cobblestones?

The next were of two men who looked to have been submerged in water for some amount of time, their faces contorted into a death scream.

Water and the third shot was of …

“What the hell!”

*~*~*~*

”Yes, John. What the hell is correct. There’s my dead wife, the two guards who thought they could take me alive and one shot of your sleeping wife. Just what do those three things have in common?”

Leaning over, he flipped on the other monitor and found Marlena staring into space still seated where he had left her hours before.

 

*~*~*~*

 

Cobblestones, drowned guards and Marlena.

Getting up from the desk, I had only gotten five steps away from it when I realized the link.

Grabbing the cordless phone, I punch in a few numbers.

“Hi it’s me, I need your help. Can I come see you?”

Noticing a hangnail on my thumb, I bit it while I was waiting for him to finish talking.

“Shane, I’ll explain when I see you.”

 

*~*~*~*

 

“Now that was quicker than I thought you’d be.”

Leaning reflectively back in his chair, Orpheus grinned.

“And now, the game begins.”

   

Shane had only moved back to Salem that very day, but was always ready to help a friend.

Greeting me at the door, he gestured me in with a smile. “What’s the problem?”

Noticing the boxes at various stages of unpack, I walked into the living room and turned around to face my old friend, a look of puzzlement on my face.

“Did I really kill Orpheus?”

Shane stopped in mid stride and blinked. “What brought that on?”

I slipped out of my jacket and didn’t know where to begin. “Some strange things have been happening, including the arrival of my apparent twin and now tonight, I received a package of photos.”

Shane paused. “When did you discover you had a twin?”

I stopped and looked at him. “Why do you not look surprised at that?”

Shane gestured for me to sit down. “I’ve been doing some investigating on you old friend, trying to get information to give to you as to your history.”

I nodded, wondering when he would have told me this. “Okay.”

“I didn’t want to say anything in case it never panned out. But what I had managed to find was that you did have a twin, his name was Jareth.”

“Okay, so that part matched.” I scratched my ear. “Go on.”

Shane grimaced. “I wish that I could, from what I learnt from my source was that you had been separated at birth and trained by the DiMera operatives.”

“Had been?”

Shane nodded. “Jareth died when you two were in your early 20’s.”

I had a brother and lost him all in the same sentence. “Then who’s the doppelganger?”

Shane shrugged. “I don’t know who it is, but I know who it’s not. We dug up the remains to be sure. The grave is Jareth’s.”

“Who gave the authority?”

“Tony did.”

“Tony?” I couldn’t have had more of a stunned expression.

“Apparently Stefano was the legal guardian on the two of you and so as his only living relative, Tony gave us the okay.”

Getting up, I begin to pace the room.

“Shane, this brings me back to the original question. Did I really kill Orpheus?”

I wanted badly to hear that I had, to hear Shane say yes.

I wasn’t prepared for his reply.

“No, no you didn’t.”

 

*~*~*~*

 

I waited till he came back with the coffee before beginning to ask questions.

“How didn’t I know, why wouldn’t you have told me, where is he now?”

Shane held up his hand. “With all that you went through with the aftermath, ISA felt that you didn’t need to know. You messed him up badly enough to ensure he wasn’t going to be troubling anyone.”

I threw up my hands. “Shane, he tried to keep Marlena from me. Her children lost all those years. I didn’t need to know?”

“By not telling you, you were able to move on after a time.”

I shook my head at that reply. “All the while Stefano had her and I never knew.”

“Never knew?”

Grimacing, I told him what I had told Bo.

“Oh John, mate I’m so sorry.”

“It’s a circle that seems to now start and stop with one cataclysmic point. Her plane crash at the hands of Orpheus.”

My expression changed as a thought hit me from nowhere. “How do you know he’s where he’s supposed to be?”

Shane smiled. “Because we have him under armed guard.”

Raising an eyebrow, I make the obvious point. “That’s going to stop him from leaving anytime he sees fit?”

“John, it’s been a long time.”

Counting to ten, I feel an anger growing in me for the man who destroyed me as he had promised all those years ago.

“I want to see him… NOW!”

 

*~*~*~*

 

Studying the photos on his fireplace, I hear Shane come in.

“When do we leave?”

I turned to see him shaking his head. “WE don’t.”

“What do you mean we don’t? Goddamn it Shane, he OWES me!”

Shane shook his head. “We don’t because he’s not there, hasn’t been in months.”

My mind went into overdrive.

“What do you mean hasn’t been in months?” I began to shake. “Shane, you’re one of the top officials. This wasn’t supposed to happen!”

Storming around the living room, it hit me.

“His wife, the guards, Marlena. Those photos were clues!”

“What?”

Turning around, I suddenly see clearer and the vision terrified me.

“It’s him … she’s with him and I let her go.”

Shane blinked. “What?”

“Marlena, she’s gone with him thinking that he’s my brother and she doesn’t know that it’s him.”

Running my hand through my hair, I start to shake.

“ISA didn’t feel the need to tell me, well guess what. They owe me this. They’re going to help me find my wife.”

 

She didn’t know when the screaming stopped, only that it did and it was a relief not to hear the keening mourning.

Getting to her feet, she moved to the broken pieces of glass that she had smashed in the rage of her first early hours of being with him.

It was only when she picked up a shard of glass that she recognized the screamer.

With a shake of her head, she pressed a finger to the lips of the reflection.

“It’s going to be alright Marlena.”

 

*~*~*~*

 

The knife pressed deeper into the fat neck of the uncooperative man, whose eyes shot pleas of help to a strangely quiet Shane.

He looked at me then back and shrugged. “I’d tell him.”

Fatso wriggled like a fish on a hook. “Come on guys, this isn’t funny.”

I put my mouth near his ear. “Neither is what I asked you. Now tell me!”

Rather than do it the easier way, he threw his head back, the top of which connected to my chin, making my teeth clang together.

“Summa bitch!”

As he ran past Shane, English looked at me and burst out laughing.

“Oh yeah, that’s going to get around faster now.”

“What?”

“You picked on the underworld’s biggest squealer.”

“Squealer? Well yeah not for nothing did he get the nickname Piggy.”

I rubbed my chin and raced after him, Shane hot on my heels.

 

*~*~*~*

 

I came to check on her after having reports from the servants that there had been a long stretch of quiet from Marlena’s room.

Unlocking her bedroom door, I find not really to my surprise that it’s a shambles and the hurricane is sound asleep in the middle of it.

Staring at her curled up takes my breath away as I kneel down and gently brush a stray hair from her cheek.

“Oh dear god.” Laying my hand flat against it for a moment had me soon reaching for her wrist. “Sir?”

Turning to the voice at the door, I quickly order her to fetch the doctor.

“You’re not leaving this way. You’re my key for revenge.”

Scooping her up in my arms, I head for another room.

It wouldn’t be good to have people see just what she was capable of in this state.

 

*~*~*~*

 

“John, maybe we should call it a day.”

I turn from trying to hack in to the computer that Bernie left. “You go right ahead buddy, I think I have it here.”

“John, have you even stopped to think that maybe it could be a trap. I mean how convenient is it that he’s got information on Marlena in a local weasel’s computer?”

I shrug. “Bernie is the best at what he does. Best at forging and right now, best at being so fucking stupid as to leave this behind in his dash and run.”

Banging in a few more keystrokes, I was rewarded with a screen full of files.

Working quickly, I rig up the laptop Shane had been carrying and began to transfer the files.

“John?”

“Shane, if this so much as can find her for me I don’t want to hear anything negative.”

97,98,99  … Out of frustration, I begin to beat my fist against the wood of the desk.

“John, unplug the cable and lets go!”

Spinning around, I glare at him. “What the hell is your problem?”

Shane pointed upwards. “Contrary to your temper tantrum right now, nothing. But apparently somebody DOES have a problem with us here.”

Turning to look, I saw a stream of smoke hissing out of the vent.

Looking at the monitor, I breathe a sigh of relief. “Lets go!”

We hit the stairs two at a time and just made it out with seconds before the building went up in the loudest explosion I had ever been in.

 

*~*~*~*

 

“Well?”

The doctor was annoying me with his intent on checking Marlena over.

“Is my wife alright?”

“In my opinion.” He turned around and shook his head. “She’s not alright.”

Standing up from her bedside, he faced me. “She has a pulse of 140 over 97. She should be dead with that type of reading, she’s suffering from some infection and I don’t know what to give her because I have never seen this type before.”

I shot him a glance. “You better find out. She’s the world to me and I can’t lose her.”

“She should be in the hospital.”

“No, she can’t be moved. If she’s that sick as you’re saying Doctor, wouldn’t you have her stay in her home?”

The doctor looked at him warily. “Ordinarily I would agree, but with that blood pressure reading, I want her where she can be monitored.”

I look past him to her and see that he is right.

Checking my watch, I spin on my heel. “You do what arrangements need to be done.”

If John had died in that explosion, then I wouldn’t have to worry. I’d have it all.

 

“It’s going to be alright. Just hang on a little longer.”

It was easy for him to say this; it wasn’t him who was feeling feverish to the point where everything hurt, where the lights were too bright and the sounds around him too sharp.

Curling up into a ball, I allowed myself to sink into the darkness and called to the one person who I knew would help me. He would make me feel better…

“John?”

I woke up and found Shane standing beside my chair. “Man you need to wear a bell or something.”

He shrugged in that annoying as hell British way of his. “You wouldn’t have heard it.”

Sitting up, I nod. “Well yes, being involved in a near bombing death will do that to you.”

Shane went back to the desk. “While you snored, I was able to get into some more of the more …” He grimaced. “How do I say this?”

“The more inaccessible files?”

He nodded. “Yes, those.”   Grabbing one of the table’s other chairs, I spin it around and sit on it bracing my arms on the back headrest.

“And we learnt?”

“When Marlena was kidnapped by the ISA years ago, the doctor wrote up a preliminary report. When it was “proven” that she had been faking, they disregarded it and stashed it away.”

I blinked. “And this relates how?”

“It relates because the doctor jotted down some potential reasons for this illness.”

“And what did he think?”

Shane closed the laptop and shook his head.

I knew that expression on his face well. Had seen it when he thought he had lost Kim and little Jeannie, when we had learnt that he sacrificed Roman for Drew.

It was the look of someone who had a burden and didn’t know how to do … how to say it.

“Shane?”

His eyes softened into compassion. “John, he thought that she could be pregnant.”

 

*~*~*~*

 

I watched the doctor fuss over Marlena in those last moments before the ambulance came to take her to the clinic.

Something about him had bothered me but I couldn’t put my finger to it.

He seemed professional enough, fussing as all old physicians would.

But it was a case of having the sensation of having known him before.

“How long do you think she’ll be in the clinic for?”

He finished taking her pulse, moving around the other side of the bed to change the compress on her forehead. “It depends if I can find the right combination of medications to get this fever down.”

“Doctor, how long have you been in the profession?”

“30 years, why?”

I forced a smile. “I just wondered. I don’t want just anyone taking care of my wife.”

He nodded. “Of course, it’s understandable that a loving husband would worry.”

As I watched, he reached into his vest and took out his pocket watch.

“They should be here any moment.”

 

*~*~*~*

 

“Pregnant?”

I shook my head. “No.”

Shane stood up. “Why would you find that so hard to believe?”

I shrugged. “It’s one thing to hear it from a man that I don’t trust. But another from ISA who never lies.”

He held up a hand. “John.”

“I’m not meaning you, I’m referring to your superiors.”

Shane nodded and went back to the laptop. “I’ve put in a call to get burial records for an infant around the islands during the time of Marlena’s captivity.”

“How do we know it’s our baby?”

Shane shrugged, punching a few buttons. “Trial and error?”

 

I watched them loading Marlena into the ambulance but again my gaze fell on the doctor.

It was becoming more and more pressing in the back of my head.

I KNEW this man.

 

“Now, remember what I have told you. Once I get in the back of the ambulance, we gun it. She’s not to be taken again.”

His driver and assistant nodded. “She’s to be taken off the island tonight.”

The driver nodded. “For the family.”

“Yes.” The doctor took out his watch again. “For the family.”

 

I heard the ambulance start up, going back to the window I saw the back doors close and it begin to pull away.

Turning away I begin to go back to my desk.

As I sit down, it came back to me and it hit hard.

Grabbing my gun and the radio I begin to fire.

 

I hear the gun fire and let out a curse. “He’s caught on faster than I thought.”

Checking on Marlena, I say a quick thank god that her fever is still keeping her out for the count.

Loading my gun, I tell my men to keep driving as I break the window in the back door and begin to fire back in response.

I accepted this as a way to pay back what I had done, not just to her but to my brother.

I came back from the dead to keep the living alive.

 

We were driving to the airport to head to our next destination when Shane’s cell rang.

“Hello, Donovan here.”

I continued to drive, snatching peeks here and there as his face went white and his fist began to hit the divider between the driver and passenger seats.

“How goddamned careless can one agency be? Wait … don’t answer that.”

That had me curious, so I kept one eye on Shane.

“First Commander Brady and now this. What’s bloody next, we’re going to have the wrong results on Jimmy fucking Hoffa?”

I turned into the airport parking lot in time with him swearing and slamming his phone shut.

“Shane?”

He looked at me and his expression changed into an apologetic one as he sighed.

“John, I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have ever figured the ISA to be the most honest. Especially now that I’m at the head of it.”

Confused, I got out as he followed me to the trunk. “What are you talking about?”

“Your brother.”

My hand stopped lifting the trunk open. “What about him?”

“He’s not dead.”

That had the effect of an elephant slamming down on my chest. “What are you talking about? You told me that …”

He cut me off. “I was wrong. I was misinformed.”

“Where is he?”

Shane hesitated. “He’s just led a rescue mission.”

I blinked. “Rescue mission?”

He nodded. “He’s gotten Marlena away from Orpheus.”

 

 

Upon landing at the airport, John saw from the plane window the Jeep waiting for them.

“I didn’t want us to be attracting the attention of certain…” Shane cleared his throat.

“Locals.”

I nod wordlessly, grabbing my backpack and Shane’s laptop. “Let’s go meet my enemy.”

“John, he’s not bad.”

I shake my head. “He’s not good either.”

 

I watched her sleep for what seemed like hours but had only been minutes. It was amazing to watch her and see her this way, so calm and yet, it was too eerie for she was normally like an electrical current.

I pause in that thought, correcting myself. “She was what you saw her at that time to be.”

I realized that I don’t really know Marlena Evans Black, even though out of her loneliness, she shared my bed that one time.

I didn’t realize that I had unconsciously put my hand to my head, as if trying to find the spot that Orpheus had taken my memories away so that she believed she had slept with him.

Watching as the doctors take her pulse, I remember reading the initial reports on how he had managed it. Placing a look-alike to spook her and then once he had her there …

Shaking my head, I remind myself to continue never to forget the madness that ran through his bones.

He had hired a driver to come out of nowhere and hit her, just enough to make her black out.

The chip he implanted into her head held the memories of mine. Of that brief time in Stefano’s clutches when I was able to see what a jewel she was.

She believed simply because there was no reason to otherwise doubt the facts as she saw them.

I heard the footsteps behind me. “Sir, they’re here.”

Turning around, I gave a quick nod of acknowledgement and follow my assistant.

 

“Commander Donovan, Mr. Black.”

The two men turned from their conversation to find the young woman standing in the doorway. “I’d like to introduce M…”

I came into the room before she was finished. “I’m Jareth.”

Shane knew all about me, knew how I was identical to John but yet still his eyes widened at the resemblance. He shook my hand. “Thank you for seeing us.”

I looked at my brother and studied him. “You’re awfully quiet.”

I don’t know what I was expecting as a reaction, but to see him simply ask to see his wife was not one of them.

“Nothing to say?”

He turned his stormy eyes at me and his voice was like thunder rumbling.

“Yeah, where’s my wife?”

Sensing his rage, I nodded. “She’s right this way.”

 

“Apparently from what I was able to figure out from her old records and from the initial results that we have gotten from the physicians I have gotten to help with this, it seems that there’s been a toxin introduced into her system.”

John I could see was about to snap. “What do you mean from her old records?”

Gesturing with them to follow me a little bit away from the bed, I explained.

“Before I was shall we say, “Sprung” from the DiMera Empire, I was able to sneak out some files of utmost importance to Stefano. One of which was named for a fairy tale.”

“Oh my god…” My brother’s eyes widened with some unknown revelation.

“Sleeping Beauty.”

I nodded. “You’ve seen the file?”

John shook his head. “No, but Marlena was given a pillow from Stefano with an inscription in French that translated into the Sleeping Beauty in the Woods.”

He snapped his fingers. “That was where it happened!”

“What?”

“Marlena got the pillow home and she pricked her finger. Apparently on a pin that was lodged just enough outside of the pillow that it wasn’t seen.”

I turned slightly to look at her. “Stefano’s little doll.”

Turning again to face my brother, I shook my head and tried to reach out and lay my hand on his arm.

“We need to talk. There are some things in Marlena’s past that you need to know about.”

John moved his arm away. “Like what?”

Not liking his tone, but understanding the need for it, I spoke quietly.

“Like the fact that your son isn’t dead to start and that his twin sister is very much alive.”

 

It was quicker than a blink but John was soon at his brother’s throat.

“What the hell do you mean he’s not dead and that he has a sister? Goddamn you, ANSWER ME!”

“Let go and I … I’ll tell you.”

 

“She thought that I was you.” I shrugged.

“The doctors said that it was best that I didn’t say anything to upset her. Being pregnant … it was a high risk pregnancy thanks to the plane injuries and Stefano insisted on keeping her calm.”

“So she never knew?”

I was about to speak when John hissed. “Seems mightily convenient.”

“If I was anything less than I am, I would have told her the truth and kept the children and her as mine. But you see.” I stepped in front of him. “I may be your twin, but I have honor. She was never mine.”

“But she slept with …” John couldn’t say it.

“She didn’t sleep with Orpheus. He planted a chip into her to make her believe. Sort of like the mind control chips that you and I had.”

John shook his head. “She was so sure.”

“Just as you were that you could do any number of things?” I threw my hands up.

“He knew that the best way to destroy you was to make you suffer. The best way to accomplish that was that she was unfaithful to you.”

Excusing myself, I left the room shaking at the lie I had told to him.

I had slept with her, we had that brief moment and it was something that I would never reveal to anyone.

Especially him.

 

*~*~*~*

 

I stood at her window, her monitors keeping me company as I drank in all that Jareth had told me hours before.

It was terrible of me, especially being married to a woman who was totally independent and self-supporting. But I thanked god that she hadn’t been unfaithful.

I didn’t want for her the guilt that I had with the mistake I had with Hope.

I had the guilt of that along with the guilt of having not looked harder.

No wonder she didn’t have nightmares, she believed she had me.

Shane called my name, making me come out of my reveries.

“Jareth needs to see you.”

 

*~*~*~*

 

Jareth was not alone in the living room.

With him was a little girl, with brown hair and the “Black” Blue eyes and a smile that showed a missing tooth and a little boy that seemed familiar.

He was blonde, with hazel eyes and an aura around him that left no doubt who he was, just who he belonged to.

“Jareth?”

He turned and smiled. “Ari, Dylan. I’d like to introduce you to the man I told you about.”

Dylan blinked. “He doesn’t look like you.”

I blinked. “I don’t?”

He grinned. “No, your hair is shorter and Uncle Jareth’s got a scar on his cheek.”

Without waiting for my response, he went to the other man and contorted him to show the mark. “See?”

I watched John from the corner of my eye. “Yeah see, I don’t look like you at all. Thank god.”

My brother cracked a smile at the youngster’s antics. “Yes, your right Dylan. I’m better looking than him.”

“I didn’t say that. But Uncle Jareth has told us so much about you and Mom, I feel like I …” He looked to his sister. “We’ve known you all along.”

The smile faded from my brother’s face. “But I haven’t known you.”

I stood up. “We can fix that soon enough. But first we need to eat.”

 

   

“These two are ours Marlena… so much so they’re scary as I watch them in sleep and see so much of you in them that my heart hurts.”

I smile at the memories quickly made over the past few days as Jareth and I worked on a cure and how to best arrest the illness that had taken you from me.

“Ari is you right down to the sunny smile you give when all is right in the world, while Dylan … Dylan is you when your figuring something out, A regular little firecracker.”

I lightly trace a finger over the so soft and cool skin of your hand.

“I understand now so much more the hurt you felt over me with Hope.”

“But you never … I did and I must have put my guilt on you, never thinking that you didn’t.”

Laying my head against yours on the pillow, I stop speaking and allow the tears to fall.

“I finally have you back and I could lose you. Doc, this isn’t fair.”

I allow myself the joy of memory as the knowledge that Jareth had continued to tell them the truth, that they were ours seeped through me.

“I won’t stop trying to find out how to fix this.”

*~*~*~*

I sat quietly watching as Ari and Dylan played their game of Rummy and saw John come outside.

He didn’t notice me and so that allowed me the luxury of being able to study him.

It was like looking at a labyrinth I discovered the other night peeking in on him staring at a sleeping Ari. The contrasts were striking and it was just when you thought you had him pegged, it took you right back to the beginning of the riddle of my brother.

My gaze fell back to Ari, who seemingly had no ill effects from her captivity but was under the monitoring of a pediatrician and apparently doing well.

“Have your people found anything?”

I had never heard him come up and so I sat silently, watching him as he sat down across from me.

“Their working on things.” I looked at the wedding band on his hand.

“Any change?”

John seemed to be fighting something as he began to twist the golden ring on his finger.

“No, she still sleeps.”

 

*~*~*~*

 

Ari escaped from her father and uncle’s gaze as Dylan went to them with a question.

Moving quietly, she went to her mother’s room and drew the door shut behind her.

Coming to the side of the bed, she stood still and studied the woman who she had dreamt about at night.

Biting on her lip, she reached for the still hand.

Covering it in her own, Ari looked to her mother and sighed.

“Please don’t leave us. Dylan and I need you.”

Marlena remained still as Ari continued to talk.

She had heard Uncle Jareth talking to Daddy about needing to keep Marlena with them and so she began to babble about things, trying to get her to know about the twins.

A soft sigh escaped Marlena, covered by the soft whistle of wind that played with the curtains in the room.

“Mummy, come back to us.”

Ari’s eyes widened as she heard a reply.

“Baby.”

 

Jareth watched Marlena carefully walking on the beach, Dylan merrily paddling ahead of her while Ari hovered closely at her side.

“We’re quite the dysfunctional family don’t you think?”

He turned to find John standing in the doorway, a look of concern on his face as he watched his family below.

“Do you really expect anything less from the upheaval of a Stefano plot?”

Jareth shook his head. “No, not really.” He smiled. “It’s wonderful to see her finally up and around.”

John nodded, the love in his eyes obvious as he watched Marlena.

“I still can’t believe that after all the negative comments and the nay-sayers, all it took was a kiss.”

Jareth smiled. “She still has a way to go in recovery, that I know. What I don’t is the power of a child’s love. Ari was able to bring her back while we could not.”

John watched his children for a moment. “There’s something that we need to speak about.”

He nodded. “What?”

“I spoke with Marlena this morning and we’ve come to an agreement.”

Jareth went to sit at the patio table. “What agreement?”

“I … WE want to share custody of the twins with you.”

Jareth didn’t know what to say. Well that was not quite true. He DID but it wasn’t feeling right and so he looked at his brother.

“What brought that about, if I may ask?”

John gestured to the young woman on the beach below them. “Marlena wanted it that way.”

 

*~*~*~*

 

“Are you okay?”

Marlena looked up from the sand and found her son, looking uncannily like Brady and John when they were concerned, looking at her.

“I’m fine, why do you ask sweetie?”

He tilted his head. “Because you seem quiet.”

Marlena grinned, trying to jostle her son out of his serious mood. “I’m fine. I’m … I’m just trying to think of how to tell you two something. I want to hear what you’d think.”

Ari came to sit with her on the log. “About what?”

She ran a hand over the sun kissed curls of her daughter. “About the two of you living with your uncle part of the time and your father and I part of the time.”

 

*~*~*~*

 

“Now in that time, I have no doubt that it was scandalous. We were living with Uncle Jareth part time and the other part with our parents. But that fit. We didn’t KNOW them, despite Uncle’s continual story telling.”

Ari looked at the assorted guests and smiled.

“But we soon realized that despite having the best of both worlds, it was only fair to everyone to chose and we did.”

She smiled at the couple sitting at the table.

“Mother … Dad, we are here tonight to celebrate the joy of your anniversary but it is also the chance for me on behalf of Dylan to say thank you. For giving us the chance to say goodbye to the past and for blending us into our rightful places in your lives.”

John studied his eldest daughter and smiled at the 20 year old, so lovely in blue.

“You’ve given not just us, but Brady and Belle and Eric and Sami such love and that will be with us throughout our lives. You’ve taught us all about sacrifice, duty, family and honor. You taught us to be human and to accept what life and our choices have to offer us along the way.”

“Here’s to another 20 years of togetherness for you and oh yeah, before I forget.”

She grinned. “Thank you two for being simply you.”

As their family and friends applauded, she added one more thing as she stepped to her father.

“We lied when we were little Dad. You and Uncle Jareth DID look identical.”

Marlena grinned at her daughter and leaned against John’s arm. “Mirror Image.”   

 

The End