Breaking Ties: An Ensemble Story (Read 240,946 times)

[André DiMera]

It is rather ironic that Sami now has a daughter that’s giving her as much trouble as she gave Roman and Marlena. Johnny’s plan is not smart.

Makes sense that J.J. is concerned for Paige. Hopefully both of them will be able to get through to their respective bosses.

Glad Aiden agreed to continue the search into his family. And that he listened to Hope.

Wonder how Rafe’s gonna respond to that!

Great chapter, heroicmuse!

[krw627]

Hmmm, nauseous and lightheaded in the morning...could this be different than what either Paige and JJ are thinking? And could it be wonderful news!?!

[heroicmuse]

Week 321 - 5
David was breathing heavily as he came into the kitchen. There was still no power, but it was light enough outside that he could see where he was going without his flashlight, thanks to the same window that Darren had tried to shoot Hannah through.

“A lot of snow out there,” he said, “but at least it’s not coming down anymore.”

“We were supposed to get ten inches,” Valerie said. She frowned, watching David trying to catch his breath. “Please tell me you didn’t try to move it all by yourself.”

“Not all of it,” David said. “Just enough to dig the car out, not that there was a point.” He paused to catch his breath, then added, “Plows haven’t come through here yet at all. The roads look like a winter wonderland. No way we can drive across town in that.”

“Don’t hold your breath waiting for them,” Hannah said. “East Salem’s always the last to get plowed, if they come at all.”

Valerie’s eyes narrowed as David gasped for breath again. “I don’t like how you’re sounding. Sit down and let me listen to your heart and lungs.”

“I’m fine,” David insisted. “I was just working hard, that’s all.”

Valerie turned toward Hannah. “Get me my medical bag and a baby aspirin.”

Hannah’s eyes widened. “Is Daddy having a heart attack?”

“Let’s hope not. Go!”

Hannah hurried to get the medical bag. Valerie said to David, “Any chest pain, baby?” David shook his head and Valerie added, “What about discomfort, like something’s squeezing the middle of your chest?”

“I’m fine,” David said again. “My chest hurt for a minute while I was shoveling but it went away again, so I’m sure it’s nothing.”

“Any pain in your back or neck? Or in your jaw?”

“Valerie,” David said firmly, “just cause you’re a heart doctor doesn’t mean - “ He winced and rubbed his chest. “That’s the same as before,” he said. “I feel a little pressure and then it stops.”

“Hannah?” Valerie called. “Hurry up with that bag!”

Hannah came running back in. “What’s wrong? Is Daddy - “

“Give us space,” Valerie said, grabbing the bag and the aspirin. “Take this,” she told David. “It might help.” Then she got her stethoscope out and listened to David’s heart, frowning.

Valerie reached for her phone, but it was dead. “Is your phone working?” she asked Hannah.

“No,” Hannah said, her voice cracking. “It’s still saying out of service. Oh God, Daddy…”

Valerie patted her hand. “Should still be able to call 911 even if nothing else works. I need you to try, all right?”

Hannah nodded. She bit her lip to stop the tears as she dialed. It took a long time connecting but then the dispatcher came on and asked what her emergency was.

“We need an ambulance,” Hannah said. “My mom thinks my dad’s having a heart attack. No, he’s conscious. He’s just sweating a lot and not breathing good, and my mom listened to his chest and told me to call.” She turned her head over her shoulder. “How old are you, Daddy?”

“53,” David said, “and I feel fine, this is unnecessary.”

“Just a precaution, baby,” Valerie said while Hannah gave the 911 operator their address. “We’re not losing you, not today.”

“They’ll be here soon as they can,” Hannah said. “Which means I don’t know what with the roads like this.”

David nodded. Hannah could see he was sweating. “I don’t feel good,” he said. “Maybe Mom’s right.”

Hannah blinked back tears, staring at him. She had no doubt in her mind that her dad was having a heart attack. “Please, God,” she whispered, “let my dad be okay. Please don’t take him from me…”


Claire watched while Vicki ran water over her dish. “Can I show you something?” she asked Vicki.

Vicki shrugged.

Claire said, “If you use this side of the sponge it’s easier.” She showed her. “See how it’s kind of rough? It’s meant for scraping food off plates.”

“Oh,” Vicki said. She looked away, embarrassed. “I should know that,” she said. “But when it comes to chores I’m almost as clueless as when it comes to people.” She bit her lip. “Last year it was supposed to be my job to cook half the time and do the dishes the rest, but more often than not my brother ended up doing everything cause I lost track of time and never got to my chores.”

“At least you have a nice brother,” Allie said. “If I did that even once, Johnny would make sure Mom knew it just to get me in trouble.”

“Oh, Ken told plenty,” Vicki said. “Not all the time, but after a while he’d get mad about doing my stuff on top of his and as soon as my mom heard, that was it. She’d lock my guitar in the closet and I’d get grounded too. Not that I had anyplace I wanted to go, not in the Capitol.”

Allie frowned. “You didn’t have anyone to do fun things with up there?”

Vicki blinked back tears. “I told you. The last time I had a friend was third grade.” She scrubbed the plate as hard as she could. “Bet my luck won’t be much better at Salem High either.”

“Of course it will,” Claire said. “You have us, remember?” Vicki shrugged and Claire said, “Speaking of which, we really need to talk about what happened last night.”

“Nope,” Vicki said. “You guys were talking about things that went right over my head, I went to sleep, and now today’s a new day.”

“Yeah, but we don’t want you to be mad at us,” Claire said. “We weren’t trying to upset you last night, Vicki. We really wanted to hang out with you. And then you just shut down and we didn’t know what we did wrong.”

Vicki pulled at one of her pigtails nervously. Her hands were wet from washing dishes and didn’t feel good in her hair at all. She shuddered and reached for a dishtowel. “You didn’t,” she said. “You guys were being normal. It was me who’s too weird to follow along.”

“You are not weird!” Allie said. “So what if you have different interests than us? That’s what makes it fun to have friends. Everyone’s different and we can all learn from each other.”

“Yeah,” Claire said. “It would be boring if we were all the same.”

“I guess that’s true.” Vicki bit her lip again. “I told you, I’m rusty at having friends. I’m used to people laughing at me. Being nice to me doesn’t fit the pattern.”

“Well, that’ll have to change,” Claire said. “But you can’t just shut us out every time you get upset. You have to tell us what’s bothering you so we can work it out.”

Vicki swallowed hard. “But whenever I say anything it’s always wrong. Like last year, I got in trouble cause the teacher asked me why I didn’t read the assignment and i told him it was stupid. He made me sit facing the wall all period long and after class he said I was rude and hurt his feelings. I didn’t mean to! But it always comes out that way.”

“That’s different, though,” Claire said. “You have to talk a certain way to teachers. But we’re your friends and we’d rather know why you’re upset than have to guess.”

“Yeah,” Allie said. “We thought we offended you and we didn’t know why.”

“But I did tell you I felt like I couldn’t follow along,” Vicki said. “And then I really did want to just go to sleep.”

“That’s true,” Claire said. “But it was the going to sleep instead of letting us respond that bothered us. Were you afraid we might get in a fight?”

Vicki shrugged. “I guess.”

“We’re not like that,” Allie said. “We don’t like drama, we’re not going to have a major fight just because you’re upset that you don’t have celebrity crushes or whatever it was we were talking about. But even if you mess up and hurt our feelings, it’ll be all right.”

“Yeah,” Claire said. “We’re still your friends, even if sometimes we get frustrated. The worst that can happen is that we tell you we don’t like how you said that or whatever. It doesn’t mean we don’t want anything to do with you anymore.”

“Good to know,” Vicki said weakly. She dried the dish she was working on and put it in the rack.

“Let’s hurry up and get these dishes done,” Allie said. “If we all work together we can do it quickly, and then maybe Grandpa will let us go out and make snow angels.”

“I don’t know why you’d want to do that,” Vicki said. “The snow’s so deep we won’t be able to get up if we lie down in it.”

“Maybe not snow angels then,” Claire said. “But something fun. Come on. Move over so we can all get to the sink.”

Vicki moved over a little. She stared out the window as she and her friends began washing dishes together, grateful tears welling up in her eyes.
“

[André DiMera]

Oh man! Hopefully David will be okay!

So glad Claire and Allie talked to Vicki about what happened last night. Hopefully Vicki listened to them and we don’t have another incident like last night.

Can we please have previews, heroicmuse?

[krw627]

I hope David is ok.

I love the friendship the girls are building. This is part of what is missing on the show. If women aren't fighting with each other, or scheming together, they aren't on screen together.

[Kpatch]

Claire is being a really good friend to Vicki. I hope Vicki learns how to accept it and be a friend back.

[lumiforeverandalways]

great chaps

[heroicmuse]

Thanks André DiMera, Kpatch, krw627, and lumiforeverandalways for your comments this week.

I'm so excited about what's going on next week. Check out the spoilers below.

Coming Up on Breaking Ties...


It may have stopped snowing in Salem, but the fallout from the storm is far from over.

Hannah is frustrated and scared when the ambulance takes a long time getting to her father. According to 911, the snow is making it impossible to get there any sooner and even dropping Julie’s name seems to make no difference, leaving Hannah terrified that her father will die with so much unsaid between them.

However, the paramedics come much more quickly than the 911 operator said they would after Hannah’s frantic call and they take David to East Salem Med… where Henry Shah, the man who Valerie cheated on him with, is put in charge of his care.

Hannah continues to fret while waiting for news about David, sure that Henry isn’t going to put his best effort into David’s care given their history and annoying Valerie with her constant negativity.

After Henry finally updates Hannah and Valerie, they are eager to see David, who is still downplaying his condition. Hannah has an emotional reunion with her father, while Valerie is more focused on the causes of his problem and tells him she’s determined to make sure he takes care of his health from now on… but will that cause problems in their marriage?

Meanwhile, David isn’t the only one who is having a medical issue, as Paige consults Kayla about her nausea and related symptoms when she checks in with her about her internship. And to her shock, Kayla suggests that Paige take a pregnancy test. A nervous Paige tells JJ, who immediately goes into protective mode, insisting on driving to the drugstore to get a home pregnancy kit by himself because of the storm, which Paige doesn’t like. Will Kayla’s diagnosis turn out to be right, and how will the soon-to-be-married couple handle it if so?

Elsewhere in Salem, Nicole continually butts into Kate and Rafe’s conversation, annoying both of them, though Kate grudgingly admits that Nicole has a point when she shoots down Rafe’s suggestion about their cover story. And when Kate leaves to meet with Trask, Nicole can’t help feeling insecure and worried that Rafe might be into his old friend.

Finally, Kenneth’s conversation with Malcolm proves that he is still not okay, VIcki makes a mistake in front of Sami that Allie asks her not to repeat, and Hope and Aiden might get more of a lead than they expected when they continue researching Aiden’s family history.

[André DiMera]

Hopefully David will be okay! Interesting that Shah is the doctor assigned to take care of him. Glad Valerie is looking into the causes of David’s medical issues.

I’m not entirely sure that Paige is pregnant, but I’m also not sure what other diagnosis she may have. Hopefully J.J. won’t do something stupid because he’s impatient to find out.

I ver seriously doubt that Rafe is interested in Kate in that way. Surprised that Kate would admit that Nicole is right.

Makes sense that Kenneth isn’t okay. Wonder what Vicki does. Curious about this lead Hope and Aiden get.

Thanks for the previews, heroicmuse!

[lumiforeverandalways]

Cant wait.
Thanks for previews.

[heroicmuse]

Week 322 - 1
Hannah paced back and forth in front of the chair David was sitting in. He was conscious and awake, but he was sweating profusely and breathing hard.

“What’s taking the ambulance so long to get here?” Hannah said. “Daddy could die before they get here and they don’t care!”

Valerie’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t talk like that, especially not in front of him. The ambulance has snow and ice to get through, that’s all.”

“Can’t you do something?” Hannah demanded. “You’re a heart doctor and Daddy’s having a heart attack!”

“I don’t have any equipment here except my stethoscope, baby,” Valerie said. "He needs the hospital." She squatted by David and held his hand. “Don’t you give up on us, you understand? You stay with us, you hang on until the ambulance gets here.”

David said, “I’m so tired…”

“I know,” Valerie said, tears in her eyes. “I know.”

Hannah grabbed her phone and called 911 again, wishing the rest of the phone worked. “Yes, you can help me,” she said. “I called before and my dad is still having a heart attack but there’s no ambulance in sight. Where is it?”

“Calm down, ma’am,” the 911 operator said. “We’re doing the best we can with the snow. Now let me see.” There was a pause and the operator said, “We’re backed up with calls because of the storm. It’s going to be another 20 minutes.”

“20 minutes?” Hannah said. “What if he doesn’t have 20 minutes? Then what? We just sit here and watch him die because you can’t get it together?”

“Ma’am,” the operator said. “You are not the only person in Salem who needs help.”

“No, but I live in the wrong zip code for it to matter, right?” Hannah’s eyes narrowed. “You know Julie Williams? It’s her son whose heart’s giving out. Does that get you moving quicker?”

“Ma’am. I can’t do anything more than what I can do.” The 911 operator hung up.

Hannah began to sob. “They’re saying 20 minutes and they won’t budge not even when I gave them Julie’s name.”

Valerie hugged her. “Ssh… God’s got your daddy. I’m sure of it.”

“I’m not,” Hannah said, “and there’s so much unsaid between him and me and he could die not knowing that I love him more than I’m mad at him.”

Valerie stroked her hair. “He knows. He knows.” She held her til finally there was a knock on the door.

“Finally!” Hannah went and answered the door. “He’s in there. First he just said he was tired and then he wasn’t breathing good and he had chest pains and now he looks like he's gonna pass out.”

The EMTs nodded but otherwise didn’t acknowledge her as they pushed past. Hannah watched them load David onto a gurney.


Kenneth came in from outside. “Walk’s all shoveled,” he told Malcolm. “Now we just need the power to come back on.”

“That may take a few days,” Malcolm said. “Most of Salem has lost power, with only a few exceptions. But at least the snow has stopped and once the plows come through we will most likely be able to go get your sister.”

“That’s good,” Kenneth said. He squeezed his hands together. “You given any more thought to what I said?”

“You mean about you getting a gun for protection? Absolutely not,” Malcolm told him. “I want you to stop fixating on this.”

Kenneth crossed his arms. “Dad would have wanted me to - “

“The answer is no,” Malcolm said firmly. “And I suggest that as soon as phone service is restored, you call your advisor at school and find out what work you can be doing to stay caught up instead of going around in circles about this.” He walked away.

“That’s one idea,” Kenneth said to himself. “But first I gotta find a way to make sure my family’s safe.”


“Get your stories straight?” Nicole said. “The first thing you’d better get straight is that - “

“I should have known she’d have something to say,” Kate said calmly. “I think the first thing we need to get straight is who is on your side here and who needs to go.”

“Oh, he has that straight,” Nicole said. “Just because you don’t - “

“All right,” Rafe said. “All right. That’s enough, both of you. Now, Nicole knows what we’re up against and I trust her to be at my side. But…” He gave Nicole a look. “Like it or not, Kate and I are in this together. So you’re gonna have to cut this out cause if Kate goes down, I do too. You got that?”

“Sorry,” Nicole said. “I just don’t trust this viper not to drag you down with her on purpose.”

“Well you’re going to have to suck it up,” Kate said, “because if you don’t want to see the man you love go to jail for no good reason, you’re going to have to let me help him.” She turned toward Rafe. “Now, as I was saying, I have an hour… well, really 38 minutes now since Nicole insisted on wasting so much of my time… so what on Earth do you think I should say to that poor excuse for a federal prosecutor to get her off both our backs?”


In their room, Paige had her tablet propped up on the desk and was talking to Kayla. “I’m all right,” she said. “I just feel bad that I can’t make it to the hospital to help out.”

“Your safety is more important,” Kayla said. “I have plenty of coverage and I’m just glad that you’re not out in this storm.”

“Me too,” Paige said, fidgeting. “Um, is there anything I can do remotely to help? I really want to get started again.”

“I appreciate your enthusiasm,” Kayla said, “but we’re really fine. If we get overwhelmed with patients, I’ll see what I can do about getting you set up remotely, but otherwise just relax, enjoy your extra time off with JJ, and then we’ll pick this up when you’re able to get back, okay?”

“Okay,” Paige said. “If you’re sure.”

“Positive,” Kayla said. “Take it easy, sweetie.”

“Wait,” Paige said, looking over her shoulder to make sure JJ wasn’t listening. “There’s something else I need to talk to you about,” she whispered.

“Go for it,” Kayla said.

Paige wriggled. “When I said I was all right, I wasn’t exactly telling the truth. I’ve been super anxious throughout the storm.”

“Of course you have,” Kayla said, her voice soft. “You’re stranded in a strange city during a storm where a lot of people lost power. Anyone would be anxious.”

“It’s not just that,” Paige said. “I ran into Elizabeth and she helped me calm down but ever since…” She swallowed hard. “I was feeling lightheaded and nauseated this morning and ever since breakfast I seem to need to pee all the time, like at least once an hour if not more. And I mean feeling like I need the bathroom right this second.”

Kayla frowned. “That could be a lot of things,” she said. “I might want to check your A1C1 levels to make sure you’re not diabetic, but I don’t have a feeling that’s what it is. So before I go that route, let me ask you something. When was your last period?”

Paige swallowed hard. “Four and a half weeks ago,” she said. “I know because I’m almost out of the placebo pills. But I was so stressed out I though that’s why it was delayed. Besides, how can I be pregnant when I’m on the pill?”

“Paige.” Kayla’s voice was soft. “The pill isn’t 100% effective. You know that. It provides the best protection but once in a while it fails.”

“I know,” Paige said, ‘but I thought it did that other time and it didn’t. Do you really think…”

“Everything you told me is a symptom of pregnancy,” Kayla said gently, “though some women have increased urination when they’re premenstrual. And given that your period is late while you’re on the pill -- which doesn’t usually happen -- I think the chances are high that you’re pregnant.” Paige blinked hard and Kayla said, “Hey. You and JJ are in a good place, right? You’re planning on getting married anyway, so if it turns out you’re having a baby sooner than you expected…”

“Right,” Paige said. She sighed. “I wanted to do it the right way,” she said. “Get married first and then have a baby, not the other way around.”

“Well, first things first,” Kayla told her. “You haven’t even had a pregnancy test yet.”

“It’s too early, isn’t it?” Paige asked. “It’s only like five days late.”

“It’s a little early,” Kayla said. “It’s best to wait a week after you miss your period. But if you conceived two weeks ago, which you probably did if your period is supposed to be now, that’s enough time for your body to start producing pregnancy hormones. So, first step, can you get a home pregnancy test somewhere nearby?”

“If the snow isn’t too deep to get down the block,” Paige said. “It’s Chicago, it’s not like we’re in the middle of nowhere.”

Kayla nodded. “Get one as soon as you can, and then when you get back to Salem, I’ll run an official test on you. But Paige, if you don’t have an answer by the time you finish your placebos, don’t take your birth control pills. If you are pregnant it could hurt the baby. So you’ll have to refrain from sex until you know for sure, okay?”

“Okay,” Paige said. “Thanks.” She hung up and said to herself, “Now I just have to figure out how to tell JJ.” She rubbed her temples, feeling a headache coming on.

[André DiMera]

20 minutes seems like a long time, especially when David’s having a heart attack, and I understand Hannah is worried and upset, but it’s not as if the dispatcher can really do anything about the snow or road conditions. Glad the EMTs finally got there! Hopefully David will be okay!

While I get wanting to protect ones family, Malcolm’s right, Kenneth needs to stop fixating on this gun thing.

Interested to see what Rafe and Kate come up with.

I wonder if Paige really is pregnant, or if it’s something else. Kayla’s right, though, all of the symptoms are there.

Great chapter, heroicmuse!

[heroicmuse]

Week 322 - 2
“I miss you too, sweetheart,” Hope said into the phone. “I hope you haven’t been giving Jennifer too hard a time.”

“Mom!” Ciara’s voice was so loud Aiden could hear her as he was getting his tie on. “I’m fifteen, not five. When are you going to learn that?”

“That response doesn’t give me a lot of confidence,” Hope said. “Anyway, we’re coming home the day after tomorrow so that gives you 48 hours to get your act together.”

“My act IS together,” Ciara said. “”Not like Allie and Claire. I heard they didn’t have the sense to stay home during the storm and ended up stranded. Now they’re stuck with that weirdo Vicki.” She laughed.

“Ciara Alice,” Hope said, her voice holding a warning note. “You know better than to laugh at people for being different. And we both know the only reason you weren’t stranded right alongside Claire is because you’re grounded for that stunt you pulled with Shawn’s tequila. So like I said, 48 hours to clean up your act or whatever Jennifer made you do is going to look like a walk in the park.”

“Whatever,” Ciara said. “Maybe it’ll snow again and you’ll get stranded.” She hung up.

Hope rubbed her temples. “It looks like we have our work cut out for us when we get home.”

“Yep.” Aiden sat down on the bed next to her. “I’m gonna miss Wales,” he said. “I’m gonna miss this hotel and all the sights we saw, and especially all the alone time I had with you.” He stroked her cheek.

“Me too,” Hope said, putting her hand gently over his. “But we don’t have to pack for another day and a half. Which begs the question… are we going to try one last time to find out the rest of your family history or not?”

Aiden hesitated. “Not like we can’t research from home.”

“No, but it’s a lot easier when we have access to people and places right here,” Hope argued. “And yes, we can get together with people on Zoom, but it’s not the same.” She reached for Aiden’s hand. “When we made our plans for our honeymoon, you told me you wanted to look into your family’s history.”

“And I did that,” Aiden said, his voice thick with pain. “Turns out Thomas’ story ended in an asylum that doesn’t exist anymore after his parents threw him away.”

Hope squeezed his hand. “And that was heartbreaking. But what about his brother and sister? What if Brendan and Elisabeth had children? What if some of their great-grandchildren and great-great grandchildren are still living right here in Cardiff? If you find out later that you had the chance to meet them and you didn’t take it, can you really live with that?”

Aiden thought about it for a minute. “I wanna say I can, but…” He shook his head. “No. I couldn’t. If they’re here and we’re here at least I can talk to them.”

“I thought you’d say that,” Hope said. “Which is why I looked up the address on that census where we learned Thomas was missing. The house is still standing and people are still living in it. Let’s go see if they’re your cousins.”


In the ER waiting room at East Salem Med, Hannah sat on the edge of her chair. “How long has it been?” she asked. “Should I ask the nurses for an update on Daddy?”

“Not when it’s only been five minutes,” Valerie said. She put her arm around Hannah. “Daddy’ll be fine. I know it looked bad, but believe me, I’ve seen a lot worse. And even though I can’t work on him myself…” Her voice shook and she made herself breathe. “I know he’s in good hands.”

“Sure about that?” Hannah crossed her arms. “Henry Shah’s not in charge of his case, is he? He hates Daddy for making him miss his chance with you.”

“Don’t you dare!” Valerie’s eyes were narrow. “Henry may be jealous of your father, but he is a good man, and there isn’t a day that goes by that I’m not sorry I broke his heart. And even in East Salem, there are protocols. A doctor can’t just fail to treat someone. There’s consequences.”

“Doubt that,” Hannah said under her breath.

Valerie glared at her. “We need to make some calls,” she said. “Grandma Julie and Grandpa Doug need to know that your father’s in the hospital, and I’m sure they’ll have a list of other people they’ll want us to share the news with. So go tell the nurse that Dr. Martin said to let you borrow the landline and go do it.”

Hannah’s face trembled. “Don’t make me tell Grandma,” she said. “It’s going to break her heart so much that Daddy’s gave out.”

“Someone has to do it, baby,” Valerie said softly, “And it’s better than sitting here driving yourself crazy.”

“I guess,” Hannah said. She stood.

Just then, Henry came out. Hannah turned toward him and Valerie got up.

“You have news about my dad?” Hannah asked.

Henry nodded. “Come to my office,” he said. “Let’s not talk about him where anyone can see.”



“Well, that was exhausting,” Allie said, throwing herself into a chair in Eric’s apartment. “I guess Uncle Roman’s saving a lot of money, using us for free labor.”

“Volunteering can be its own reward,” Eric told her. “Instead of thinking of it as working for free, consider the positive difference you’re making in the lives of people who were required to shelter in the Pub during the storm. It does their hearts good to see young people putting all their energy into making the situation easier for them.” He glanced at Vicki, who was tuning a guitar she’d found in her room. “Are you going to give us some music?”

“I guess,” Vicki said. “I haven’t been able to practice all week and my fingers are cold.” She plucked a string. “JJ’s been giving me lessons but I guess that’s not happening this week.”

“I didn’t know you played,” Allie said, her mood suddenly brightening. “Chase does too.” She sighed again. “I hope he doesn’t think I’m ignoring him. I don’t have a tablet and anyway, the Internet’s either been super slow or non-existent.”

“I am sure he understands that,” Eric said. “And phone service may be spotty, but it should be restored soon. With God’s help, you will be able to be in touch with him by this evening.” He turned toward Vicki. “Show us what you’ve got.”

“Here goes nothing,” Vicki said. “This is a little something I was messing around with for Theo when I get to see him again.” She began to play. It was an all instrumental piece that left everyone speechless.

“Did you write that yourself?” Eric asked.

Vicki shrugged. “LIke I said, I was just messing around.”

“God has blessed you with quite a talent,” Eric said, “and modesty to go with it.”

Vicki snorted. “Modest isn’t a word anyone has ever said about me before. My mom says I’m too full of myself.”

“I must disagree,” Eric said. He rubbed his hands together. “I have an idea. To pass the time until you can go home, perhaps you girls could all practice music together. I know that Claire has a fine singing voice and I would wager that Allie does too. In fact, if you can perfect a few songs, I bet that would cheer the crowd up downstairs considerably. So what do you all say? Would you be willing to work on putting together a performance?”


“Feeling better, baby?” JJ asked, coming back into the bedroom.

“I guess.” Paige hugged herself. “Can you sit with me a minute? There’s something I need to tell you.”

“Uh oh.” JJ sat down next to Paige and took her hand. “I know you talked to Aunt Kayla. She didn’t think it was anything serious, did she?”

“Depends on your definition of serious.” Paige swallowed hard. “It’s not cancer or anything like that, don’t freak out. But…” She sighed. “You remember when I thought I was pregnant that time because I skipped my pill when I was out of it?”

“I could never forget it,” JJ said. “It was like, the worst possible time but if it had happened that way I totally would have been the best daddy I could be.”

“Right.” Paige squeezed his hand. “Well, you might get that chance after all. I know we were planning on waiting a few years after we got married, at least til we’re both out of school, and the wedding isn’t for another few months. But, um, Kayla thinks the pill might have failed for real this time. She… she said my symptoms add up and she wants me to get a pregnancy test as soon as possible.”

JJ’s mouth dropped open.

[Kpatch]

Vicki has a hidden talent!

I'm so worried about David.

I really hope Paige is not pregnant. She's not emotionally stable yet and it's so not the right time for her to become a mother.

[André DiMera]

Sounds like Hope and Aiden will have their work cut out for them when they get home. So glad they’re gonna look into the house Aiden’s family used to live in!

Valerie’s right, doctors can’t just not treat patients. Wonder what Henry’s gonna say.

Vicki’s quite good on that guitar! Eric’s idea sounds great!

Wonder how J.J.’s gonna react to this news!

Great chapter, heroicmuse!