Chapter 18 The Wedding Rehearsal


It's the night before John and Marlena's wedding. Jesse's running around her apartment trying to find her missing shoe. "Maddie, honey are you ready to go? Mike's going to be here soon." Jesse's looking under the couch for her shoe. "But mommy I have to finish feeding my babies before we doe." "Maddie that can wait until we get home." "NO IT CAN'T!" Jesse has her entire arm under the sofa. Finally she reaches the shoe and pulls it out. "Honey if we're late Marlena's going to be mad." Jesse pulls herself up from the floor. "Grandma won't be mad!"

There's a knock at the door. As Jesse's walking to the door she tries to put her shoe on. She's having trouble getting it on. She opens the door without looking who it is. She's bent over trying to fix her shoe. "Mike, I'm almost ready." She looks up and sees it's not Mike. "I'm sorry I was expecting someone else. Can I help you?" "Are you Jesse Hayes?" Jesse knows that she's seen this man before but she can't place where. "Yes I am." It finally occurs to Jesse who this man is. "You're Don Craig." "Yes I am." "Come in please." Don enters the apartment.

"Please sit down. What are you doing in town?" "I'm here for Marlena's wedding." "Marlena's wedding? Who invited you?" "Sami Brady called to invite me. She also told me something else that I found very interesting. She told me that you are claiming to be my daughter. I don't know what you're up to young lady but I'm telling you right now that you're not going to get away with it. I am not your father." "Could you please lower your voice? My daughter is in the next room. I'm 26 years old and I don't need or want anything from you. My birth certificate has you listed as my father. I wasn't going to tell you." "Then why did Samantha tell me that you were intending on calling me to demand a paternity test be run." "Little witch. I never intended to tell you that you were my father." "Then why would Samantha call me and tell me that you were." "Let's just say that Sami isn't like her mother at all. She loves to hurt people who cross her. She did this to cause trouble for me."

"I would like to get this straightened out while I'm in town. Could we go over to University Hospital and get the tests taken today?" "Well I was just on my way to John and Marlena's wedding rehearsal. Both Maddie and myself are in the wedding." "It won't take long." Jesse is a bit annoyed. "Maybe I could catch Mike before he leaves." "Mike Horton?" "Yes he and I are dating." Jesse goes over to the phone. Before she can dial the number there's a knock at the door. "Please excuse me."

Jesse answers the door. Mike walks in. "Mike you remember Don Craig." "Yes I do." Don and Mike shake hands. "It's been a while Mike." "Yes it has." Jesse speaks. "We were wondering if we could have a paternity test run today." "I don't see why not. I'll call ahead and have a lab technician waiting for us at the hospital." Mike picks up the phone. "I'll head over to the hospital." Jesse walks Don to the door. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow." "Yes you will. Goodbye Jesse." "Goodbye."

Jesse waits until Don is out of sight and she slams the door. "URGH! What a jerk?" Mike hangs up the phone. "Everything's ready at the hospital." "You know what a part of me is actually hoping that man isn't my father!" Mike takes Jesse into his arms. "I think it's just the shock of finding out about having a daughter he never knew about. This probably brought back a lot of bad memories for him." "I'm not exactly thrilled at how I was conceived but that's no reason to take it out on me. I never did anything to him." "He'll come around once he takes it all in." "I hope so." Jesse looks at her watch. "Oh my god! We're really late!" Maddie comes out of her room. "I'm READY!" Jesse quickly puts on Maddie's coat on and the three of them dash out of the room.

Everyone's at the church waiting for Jesse, Mike, and Maddie. Marlena's talking to Carrie. "I wonder where they could be." "Mike was bringing them. Maybe he was called into the hospital." John comes over to join in the conversation. "I just called Jesse's apartment and there was no answer. They must be on their way." Lucas comes over to Marlena with Will in his arms. "I'm so glad that you're going to allow Will to be in our wedding. I can't thank you enough Lucas." "I know how much you love Will and I want you to spend more time with him." Marlena smiles at Will and takes his hand. "Oh my I would love that!" "Marlena, I'm thinking of suing for sole custody of Will. I wanted to know if you would testify for me." "Lucas, Sami's my daughter I don't think I could betray her like that." "Sami needs help. She's so obsessed with Austin nothing else matters. She even uses Will in her little games with Austin. I don't want that for my son. I want her to get help and I think that if Will was taken away from her she would finally get the help she needs. So will you please help me?" "I'll think about it."

Jesse, Mike, and Maddie walk into the church. Marlena walks over to Jesse. Maddie runs into Marlena's arms. Marlena picks her up and gives her a kiss. Marlena can sense that there is something bothering Jesse. "Is everything okay?" "Yes I'm fine. Why?" "You look upset. Did you and Mike have a fight?" "No nothing like that. I was late getting home from work. Then I was having trouble getting Maddie ready and to top it all off I got a surprise visitor." "Who?" Father Jansen interrupts. "Now that everyone's here we can start the rehearsal." Father Jansen goes through the entire ceremony. Once he's done everyone goes their separate ways.

Marlena's getting ready for bed. As soon as she's changed and she's starts taking the spread off of the bed. John comes into the room. "Well all of the kids are in bed and asleep. Finally! It took five stories and a glass of water for each of them to get them to conk out." "They're really excited about tomorrow." "They sure are." Marlena has the bed open and John jumps in. "Where are you going to sleep tonight?" John pats the empty side of the bed. "Right here next to you." "Oh no you're not! It's bad luck to sleep with the bride before the wedding." "Doc we adhered to that the last time and look what happened. No way. I'm not leaving your side. We will be together until you walk down that aisle. I just thought of something. We could walk down the aisle together." "Don't you think you're carrying this a little too far." "No. I'm not going to have a repeat of last time. I don't want another one of your ex's coming to the bride's room to claim you." "That will never happen again. The only other ex-husband I have is Don and I'm sure he isn't going to be there. I don't want you to see my dress before I walk down that isle." John gives her the puppy dog eyes. "Oh come on Doc. Please let me at least sleep with you tonight." Marlena lets out a laugh. "All right you win. You can sleep with me tonight but you after we get up you will not see me again until I walk down that aisle. Is it a deal?" "I guess so. Now will you get into bed."

To be continued...

Back to A Love So True