Chapter 17 The Wedding Preparations

It's the next day at the DiMera mansion; John and Marlena are in the living room having tea. Marlena's staring into her cup. "Doc, are you all right?" Marlena breaks her stare. "I'm fine. I was just thinking about what happened last night. I hope Roman's okay." "He's fine Doc. Shawn and Caroline are going to help him."

There's a knock at the door. John gets up to answer it. "Hey Doc look whose back in town!" Bo and Hope come walking into the room hand in hand. Hope speaks first. "Hi Marlena." Marlena gets up from the couch to hug the both of them. "When did the two of you get back into town?" "We got in last night. We've straightened everything out and we are back together." "That's wonderful I'm so happy for the both of you."

"We just came from the pub. Ma and Pop filled us in on what's been going on here. You two have had your hands full. They told us that you went to the Caribbean to get the cure for Roman and while you were there you found out that you have a daughter you never knew about." "It's true Bo. The DNA tests proved that Megan is our daughter." "Megan?" "Yes Stefano named the child Megan. I guess it was after the daughter he lost." "Where was she all these years?" "I was pregnant when Orpheus kidnapped me. Then while Stefano held me captive I gave birth to a daughter. Around the time I was coming out of the coma Stefano gave my daughter to two of his servants to raise until she was of use him. She became useful when he came up with his plan for Maison Blanche. The plan was to kidnap John and me. Then once he had the two of us he would kill John and take me to one of his islands. Then he would introduce me to Megan so that I would stay on his island with him." Marlena can sense that Hope is becoming very uncomfortable taking about Maison Blanche.

Megan comes bounding into the living room in her pajamas. "Hi mom…dad what's for breakfast?" Megan doesn't notice Hope and Bo at first. "Gina!" Hope has a puzzled look on her face. "Do I know you?" "It's me, Megan. We met at Maison Blanche." "I'm sorry but I don't remember you." "You have to. There are secrets to Maison Blanche that I have to know." Marlena interrupts her. "Megan, why don't you go and get something to eat?" "But MOM!" "Megan, we'll straighten this out later. Now I want you to go and get something to eat." Megan reluctantly leaves the room. "I'm sorry Marlena. I don't remember everything about Maison Blanche." "I understand Hope. Would you consider hypnosis to try and recover those memories?" "I don't know. What makes you think that it would work now? It didn't help before." "Well there are some more advanced techniques out there that I could use. We won't know until we try. Would you consider it?" "I'll think it over."

John speaks up. "Enough about Maison Blanche. Bo I have a favor to ask you." "Just name it." "I want you to be a groomsman in our wedding." "Of course I'll be in your wedding." "I was wondering if you could come with me to the tux shop to pick out the tuxes today. We could go down to the station and pick up Abe on the way." "Sounds good to me. Hope, are you going to go with us?" "Could you drop me off at Grans? I want to see Shawn-D." All four of them move into the foyer. Marlena hugs Bo and then Hope. "I'm so happy to see the two of you back together." Marlena puts her arms around John's waist. "We could say the same for the two of you." Marlena smiles. "We'll see you soon, Marlena. I'll let you know when I decide about the hypnosis." Bo and Hope leave. John kisses Marlena. "I'm going to run some errands after we're done at the tux shop. I should be back later today." "Don't be gone too long." "I won't." John kisses Marlena again.

Marlena goes back into the living room. Megan comes into the room and sits on the couch with her mother. "Is Gina…I mean Hope gone?" "Yes." "She doesn't remember anything from Maison Blanche, does she?" "No but she's agreed to consider being put under hypnosis to uncover those memories." "Do you think it will work?" "We'll see. Now why don't you go upstairs and get dressed. Everyone's going to be here soon." "All right." Marlena can see that Megan is still upset. She hugs Megan and gives her a kiss on the forehead. "Everything is going to be fine. I promise you."

Megan walks into the foyer and she runs into Jesse and Maddie. Jesse's trying to take Maddie's coat off. "Hi Megan. Could you take Maddie upstairs with you?" Megan takes Maddie's hand. "Come on Maddie." "Is your mom in the living room?" "Yes, she's in there waiting for you." Jesse walks into the living room. Marlena's sitting on the couch finishing her tea. "Hi Jesse! Where's Maddie?" "Megan took her upstairs with Belle and Brady. How did it go last night?" Marlena gets up from the couch. "It didn't go well at all." "Were you expecting it to go differently?" "No. It's just that I said some things that I probably shouldn't have." "Did you tell Roman the truth?" "Yes." "That's all that matters." "Jesse what I said hurt him so bad." "Marlena, you're his Ex-wife. You have done more for him than any other Ex-wife would have done. The day he signed those divorce papers he stopped being your concern."

Carrie and Laura walk into the living room. Jesse can tell that Marlena wants to talk to Carrie alone. "Laura, would you like some tea?" "Yes, I think we could all use some. I'll help you get it." Laura and Jesse leave the room. "Have you talked to your father today?" "Yes, I talked to him today. He told me what happened last night." "Did he tell you what I said?" "Yes he did." "Are you mad at me?" "Why should I be mad at you? I couldn't say it to my dad but I agreed with everything you said to him." Carrie can tell that Marlena is still unsure if she's angry with her. "Marlena I feel like my parents are getting back together. I consider you and John more my parents than Roman and Anna." This brings tears to Marlena's eyes. "Anna didn't have a maternal bone in her body. Roman well he's just never been there for me like John has been over the years. I know that if Roman could have been there he would have. Unlike Sami I just can't ignore all the love that John gave to me when I was growing up. I think of the two of you as my parents and I think you two should be together." Jesse and Laura come back into the room. Jesse's carrying a tray with a pot of tea on it. She sets the tray down on the coffee table. Laura can tell that they walked in the middle of the conversation. "Do you want us to leave so you could finish your conversation?" Both Carrie and Marlena wipe the tears from their eyes. "No Laura, we're finished."

Megan comes into the living room. She can tell that Marlena and Carrie were crying. "What did I miss?" Marlena goes over to her and puts her arm around her. "You didn't miss anything sweetheart." Jesse speaks first. "Okay Marlena. We're all here. Now lets start planning this wedding." "John and I were looking at three weeks from today. We called the church and there's nothing going on there on that day." "Where's the reception going to be?" "We've booked the Penthouse Grill." "What about flowers?" "I all ready called the florist and I ordered the bouquets and the boutonnieres and the flowers for the church." "Now on to the most important question, what are you going to wear? No wait the most important question is what are WE going to wear?" "Well I was thinking of a pink taffeta dress with bows on the arms and the rear-end." Marlena laughs uncontrollably. "Very funny mom." "I thought it was. Seriously I saw a beautiful dress in a store window for the four of you. It's pale yellow with white lace covering it. The dress is cut very straight and it's floor length. They are going to look great on all of you." Carrie speaks up. "What are you going to wear Marlena? I would like to suggest a long white gown so that there's no doubt who the bride is this time." Marlena chuckles. Jesse makes a suggestion. "Why don't you wear the dress that you wore for your first wedding to John?" "I don't know." "Marlena I always loved that dress. Do you still have it?" "Yes of course I do. I think I even have it upstairs but…" "But what?" "I don't know if it will fit. Another thing is I don't think it would be very lucky if I wore it." "Why wouldn't it be lucky? Nothing happened to stop your wedding did it?" "No John and I were married without any interruptions." "Well there you go I think it's a very lucky dress. As for whether it's going to fit well we could find someone to do some alterations if you need them. So go upstairs and find that dress." "All right I'll try to find it."

Marlena leaves the room. Carrie turns to Laura. "Now that she's gone we wanted to talk to the two of you about the guest list. Now we are going to invite everyone that was to attend their wedding back in July but we are also going to try to get some people who were there for their first wedding. I made a list and I thought that we could split the list between us." Carrie pulls out a piece of paper from her purse. She rips it in three. She hands a piece to Laura and a piece to Jesse. "Hey were are my names?" "Megan, you could help me with my list," says Jesse. Megan smiles. Jesse looks at the list and she sees Don Craig's name. "Jesse is there something wrong?" "I noticed that Don Craig's name is on here. Would either of you mind if I didn't call him? I'm just not ready to face him." Before Laura or Carrie can answer Sami comes barging in. "What's all this?" "We're planning John and Marlena's wedding." "What about dad? He doesn't even know the truth about them yet and they're planning their wedding right underneath his nose." Jesse speaks up. "John and Marlena told Roman the truth last night." "How could they do this to my dad? He's not strong enough to handle the truth. I'm going up to see him." Jesse takes great pleasure in what she's about to tell Sami. "Sami, your dad's not here!" "You mean they kicked him out." "No Sami once again he left of his own free will." "Where is he?" Carrie speaks up. "He's at the pub." Sami leaves in a huff.

Marlena comes into the living room in her wedding gown. Everyone springs to their feet. "Marlena this gown looks just how I remembered it." Jesse is laughing. "The gown is gorgeous but that headpiece. Just how big was your hair in the 80s. I mean it had to be pretty big to hold that huge thing up." Everyone in the room laughs. "Stop that! I actually like the headpiece." "I'm sorry. The gown fits you perfectly. Eleven years and you can still fit into your wedding gown. I can't believe it." "I'm a little worried that in three weeks it will be a little snug." Laura's a little puzzled. "Marlena why are you worried about your weight?" Marlena doesn't know what to say. "I noticed that I have put on a few pounds since my accident and I'm worried about gaining any more weight. The gown fits now but will it in three weeks." Laura gets an idea. "What we could do is try the gown on you again in two weeks and if you need any alterations we could do them then." "Laura that's a wonderful idea. I shouldn't gain too much weight in a week."

"Oh man! I just thought of something!" "What?" "The invitations have to go out as soon as possible." "Don't worry Marlena we have that covered. We talked about this while you were finding your dress. I still have the guest list from your last wedding so we're going to divide the list up and get those invitations out by the end of the day." "I can't let all of you do all that work." Jesse speaks. "Would you please let us do this Marlena. You did almost everything yourself now let us do something." "Oh all right if you all insist."

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Sami knocks on her father's bedroom door at the pub. "Who is it?" "Daddy, its Sami." "Come on in peanut." Roman is finishing unpacking his suitcase. "I'm sorry peanut but I don't have a lot of time. I have a doctor's appointment that I have to get to." "That's all right. I was just wondering how you were." "I'm fine." "Daddy you don't have to lie to me. I know how much you still love mom. I can't believe they did this to you. I will never forgive her for hurting you again." "Sami this is between your mother and me." Roman looks at his watch. "Look at the time I have to go but I'll see you later." "Sure I'll see you later daddy." You're all going to pay for hurting my father! Sami picks up the phone and dials a number. "Hello, information? Yes, I would like the number for a Donald Jeremiah Craig in New Jersey. Thank you very much! Watch out mom and Jesse the two of you are about to get the surprise of a lifetime!"

To be continued...

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