Thursday - 7/29
SAMI & LUCAS’ APARTMENT
Sydney sat at her desk in the room she and Allie shared. She had her laptop open and was watching a video on it. She heard the door to the room open and quickly shut the laptop and took out her earphones. She looked up to see Allie walk in.
ALLIE: Hey.
SYDNEY: Oh, hi.
ALLIE: Didn’t mean to startle you, just needed to get my backpack. There’s an open house at Salem U today for incoming freshmen. Manny’s coming over and she and I are gonna check it out.
SYDNEY: That’s nice.
Allie picked up her backpack.
ALLIE: Is everything okay, Syd?
SYDNEY: Yeah, totally. Why?
ALLIE: No reason, just asking.
SYDNEY: I’m good.
ALLIE: Good. What’re you watching?
SYDNEY: Nothing, just a music video by this new singer named Wallis.
ALLIE: Oh, cool. You’ll have to show me that sometime. Well, Manny’ll be here in a minute or two. I’ll see you tonight.
Allie hugged Sydney from behind.
SYDNEY: Have fun.
ALLIE: Thanks.
Allie left the room. Sydney sighed, got up, and shut the door to her room again. She put her earphones back in, opened her laptop and pressed play on the video she had been watching.
SALEM UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL
Hawk knocked on the door of Steve’s room and walked in.
HAWK: Good to see you with that eye open.
STEVE: Steven?
HAWK: Yep, it’s me.
STEVE: Get over here, dude! Good to see you!
Hawk and Steve hugged.
HAWK: You too.
STEVE: So, what’re you doin’ here, dude? Wait, let me guess, Shane sent you to help out while I was knocked out?
HAWK: You got it.
STEVE: I’m sure Sonia was thrilled about that.
HAWK: Yeah, she doesn’t have many fond memories of Salem, except for you guys, which is understandable.
Steve nodded.
HAWK: But, Mom understands that it’s my job, and that I love doing it.
STEVE: Any chance she’d be willing to come out here? Kay and I’d love to see her again.
HAWK: I don’t know. Hopefully around the holidays, maybe. If my sister has her way, both of them’ll come, eventually.
STEVE: How’s she doin’, by the way?
HAWK: Good. She’s about to start college in the fall.
STEVE: That’s good, dude.
HAWK: In other news, John, Jett and I caught Drew Donovan.
STEVE: You nabbed the Anti-Guv’nor? That’s fantastic!
HAWK: Thanks! Just caught him yesterday. Director Donovan and Assistant Director von Dyne came and got him late last night.
STEVE: That’s great to hear!
HAWK: Yeah. Now, we’ve gotta get you out of this bed so you can rejoin the fight.
STEVE: That’s the plan, dude. The docs say my back’s mostly healed thanks to all the work they were able to do during my extended snooze. Now I gotta do some therapy, make sure I can walk and build up my strength again. I’m sure not giving up, I’ll tell you that.
HAWK: I wouldn’t expect anything less. I’m just glad to have you back with us.
STEVE: Me too, man.
DIMERA MANSION
André paced the floor of the lab. Luna and E.J. watched.
ANDRE: And then there were three…
E.J.: Four, if you count Johnny. Even more than that, if you include Bart and Rolf.
André shot him a look, and E.J. bowed his head. André stopped pacing and rubbed his chin.
ANDRE: I can’t say that the loss of Drew saddens me greatly. He was a pain, at the best of times. However, his likeness of the Director of the ISA was an asset.
LUNA: We don’t need him.
André looked at Luna.
ANDRE: Pardon?
LUNA: We don’t need Drew Donovan, or Mitch, Thomas Banks, or the twins. Think about it, cousins, we are DiMeras. I did not wish to bring this up while all of them were around, but as they’re not, I feel it’s now safe to do so. We don’t need them. We should have kept this in the family to start with. If the DiMera Empire is to survive, it should have been kept in the family to begin with. The three of us together, plus young Johnny, we’re more than enough to handle this ourselves.
André walked over to Luna and put a hand on her cheek.
ANDRE: Powerful words, dear Luna. I do believe the part of you that was once your sister Gemma is showing.
Luna smiled.
LUNA: As you said to me after Dr. Rolf performed the operation to combine us, my sisters are always with me. I figured it was about time I started using some of their intuition.
ANDRE: Good girl.
André chuckled and moved so that he was in front of both E.J. and Luna.
ANDRE: Quite right, as well. I have often found that others are likely to slow us down. From now on, this side of the fight is for true DiMeras only. Now come, we have much work to do.
OUTSIDE THE KIRIAKIS MANSION
The man in the hoodie, his face still covered by the hood, stood in a nearby bush.
MAN: The Mansion’s still looking pretty good. I wonder…
His thoughts were interrupted, and he ducked out of sight as Brady came outside. He was talking on the phone.
BRADY: Yeah, I know, I’m excited, too! I can’t wait to see you guys again! How soon can you come out there?
He sighed.
BRADY: That makes sense, I guess. All right, I’ll see you in a few days, then. I know. I’m just glad this whole nightmare is over. Hey, I gotta get to work, but we’ll talk soon. I love you, too. Give Tate a hug from me. Bye.
Brady hung up. He reached into his other pocket, and frowned slightly.
BRADY: Now where did my keys go?
He turned and walked back inside. The man stood up again, and opened his hand, revealing a key card. He closed his hand around the card, which he put in the pocket of his hoodie, then walked away.
