Thursday - 2/24
PENTHOUSE
John waited a moment after he had hung up. He didn’t have to wait very long, as his phone rang again.
JOHN: John Black.
ISA HQ
Shane had returned to his office.
SHANE: John, I know you aren’t happy about this-
SIDE-BY-SIDE: PENTHOUSE/ISA HQ
JOHN: You’re damn right I’m not! Now I know you, Shane, you’re a smart man. I know you’re my boss, but I’ve gotta ask, what the hell are you thinking giving in to André DiMera’s demands?
SHANE: Believe me, I’m not happy about this, either. However, as I said earlier, this was the quickest way to get information, information that we need. Besides, we haven’t given him free reign. There are some very specific conditions to André’s current situation.
JOHN: Such as?
SHANE: The phone we provided him, we’ve used special technology so that it can only call two numbers. Yours and mine. If he tries to call any other numbers, he’ll be immediately redirected to my phone.
John sighed.
JOHN: I still don’t like this. We both know that André is clever.
SHANE: He’s also being heavily surveyed. Not a moment goes by where there’s not at least one pair of eyes on him.
JOHN: Hm. So, what about his other demand?
SHANE: The radio? Oh, that’s an easy fix. We had a spare radio lying around that we were able to give him. He gets access to it for one hour a day. As you know, the place he’s being held is underground, meaning there’s only so many radio stations that he can access.
JOHN: Well at least there’s that. I still don’t know how I feel about this, but at least we were able to get some information from that phone call just now.
SHANE: And hopefully we’ll get more as time goes by.
JOHN: Exactly my thought. Oh, and my apologies for questioning your judgment, boss.
SHANE: Think nothing of it. I’m actually rather glad when my agents occasionally question me, so long as it’s the right time and place. If anything, it helps me be more introspective, and gives me an opportunity to explain my motives more clearly. Plus, it should, or at least I hope it does, help prove that it’s really me that you’re speaking to, which is always important to be sure of.
JOHN: That’s a fact. We don’t need any more run ins with Drew.
SHANE: No indeed.
JOHN: All right, well thanks for clearing things up, boss. I appreciate it.
SHANE: Of course. If there’s anything else that comes up, I’ll let you know.
JOHN: Same here.
PENTHOUSE
John hung up the phone and shook his head.
JOHN (thinking): I get your reasoning, Shane. I just hope you know what you’re doing.
He pocketed his phone and walked downstairs. Don and Marlena were standing up again.
MARLENA: Everything alright, hun?
JOHN: It will be. I’ll go into it more later, there was just something that Shane wanted to clear up with me.
MARLENA: All right.
DON: John, thank you so much for bringing me to Salem. I really appreciate it!
Don and John shook hands.
JOHN: No problem. I’m always happy to help somebody return home, particularly if they’re a friend of Doc’s, here.
DON: Well, your help is greatly appreciated. Now, my cab should be arriving any moment now.
MARLENA: Where are you staying tonight, Don?
DON: Oh, I’m going to be getting a room at the Salem Inn. The Salem Inn is still open, isn’t it?
JOHN: That it is.
DON: Excellent. I’ll stay there for a couple nights while I find something more permanent. But before I do, I’m going to call Donna, then get a bite to eat.
MARLENA: I’m so glad to hear that you and Donna have been reunited. I know things between you two were sometimes difficult.
DON: That they were. But, Donna is my daughter, and since the ISA found me last year, we’ve been working on our relationship. I think part of it’s that we’re just so glad to see each other after so long, but we’ve also had a lot of time to think about how things went.
MARLENA: I’m so glad to hear that. She’ll have to come visit Salem sometime.
DON: I’ll see if I can get her to come down. I know I’d certainly love it if she did. Well, thank you both again for everything. I’m sure I’ll be seeing you around real soon.
JOHN: I’m sure you will. Have a good night, Don.
DON: You too.
Don shook hands with John and hugged Marlena one last time, then left.
MARLENA: Wow. Don Craig, can you believe it?
JOHN: It certainly was a surprise when Shane took Steve and I to see him. You two have a good time catching up?
MARLENA: We did. It’s been so long since we’ve seen each other. In fact, it’s rather hard to believe that it’s been as long as it has.
Marlena looked concerned. John raised an eyebrow.
JOHN: Something on your mind, Doc?
MARLENA: There is. Until you showed up with Don, I hadn’t thought about him in years. I don’t mean in the way that you don’t think of a friend you haven’t talked to in a long time, I mean it’s like I literally completely forgot about him, and only just remembered when you and he showed up here.
JOHN: Well, that’s strange.
MARLENA: Not as strange as this, I don’t remember him leaving.
JOHN: That’s not a surprise. From what Don said, he’d been kidnapped by Stefano’s men.
MARLENA: No, I know. I mean I don’t remember reacting at all to him disappearing. Before today, the last I’d heard about Don was that he had gone out to mail a tax return. That was nearly 37 years ago. From that day until today, it’s like he was completely erased from my memory. And when he showed up, all of it came flooding back.
JOHN: Well, we know that Stefano and André have both done their fair share of brainwashing on you over the years. Maybe it’s a side-effect of that.
MARLENA: I think there’s something more to it than that. It’s not just forgetting about him, it’s as if he didn’t exist from that time until this. Nobody looked for him, nobody even so much as mentioned him after he left, ever. Something is very wrong with this, John. Somehow, the DiMeras not only had Don kidnapped, but they made the entire town forget that he had ever been here in the first place.
JOHN: Well, whatever is going on, we’ll figure it out.
