John lets himself into the penthouse and frowns when he realizes that the alarm is not set.
"Doc? Doc, are you here?"
There is no answer and his voice is swallowed up in the midday warmth of the closed apartment. He looks around him, drinking in the familiarity of the home that he shares with Marlena.
Correction John.... *shared* with Marlena.
He sighs as he picks up the wedding picture that rests on a sideboard. They were so happy on that day, so in love with each other and the possibilities of a life together. But with his infidelity, intended or not, and his lies, they had built their house of cards on a shifting foundation. And it had been *him* that had given Stefano the perfect opportunity to pull the rug out from underneath them.
He aches as he looks at her smile. That beautiful, heartfelt smile that she reserves just for him. Or used to. He would give *anything* to see that smile again, to hear the laughter in her voice as she tells him she loves him. He would give *anything* simply to know that he hasn't destroyed her completely with his weakness.
"Doc!?" He calls out again as he climbs the stairs. There is only silence as he moves down towards their bedroom and opens the door.
"What the-?" He stands in the entrance with his hand on the door-handle and looks around Marlena's inner sanctuary in disbelief. Marlena is not one for being compulsively neat, but this is ridiculous. There are clothes scattered from one end of the room to the other, the bed is unmade and there is a dirty martini glass on the dressing table.
He walks to her bed with a frown on his face and trails his hand over the satin sheets. His heart skips a beat as he sees her nightgown lying discarded on his side of the bed and he leans over and picks up the flimsy garment. Lifting the nearly transparent fabric to his face, he inhales deeply, wanting to take just a little part of her with him, even if it's only her scent.
Except that it doesn't smell of her scent.
He pulls back and looks at the nightgown as though it's a foreign object. She's there, Marlena's there but she's obviously been wearing a different perfume lately because this doesn't smell like the Marlena that he knows.
"Oh Doc," the pain in his chest intensifies as he drops the negligee on the bed and looks around the bedroom. It's like he's walked into a stranger's house, or maybe his own house in some weird alternate universe, because nothing about this is right. "Baby, where are you? Where are you and what have I done to you?"
~
"I asked you a question," Grace rounds Stefano and stands in front of him, her arms crossed in front of her chest. "Why *did* you send that asshole back to Salem as Roman Brady?"
Stefano looks at her determined face and sighs. "Why don't we go into the house, Grace?"
"You're not trying to avoid my question are you?" she raises one eyebrow suspiciously.
"I would simply rather not include the whole of Salem in this conversation," Stefano replies tersely before he starts for the house.
"Suit yourself," Grace mutters as she grabs her sweater and follows him into the house.
"A martini, my dear?" Stefano asks as she walks through the French doors.
"Make it a stiff one," she nods as she sinks to the sofa wearily. Stefano mixes her drink and fixes himself a Strega before he sits down beside her.
"I was angry," he says finally.
"With me?" Grace takes a sip of her martini, her expression giving away nothing of what she is thinking.
"With...." Stefano regards his drink steadily. "With you. With Marlena. With John Black...." He sighs. "You must understand my dear, after the accident, you were in a coma for almost eighteen months. I had the *best* doctors caring for you but there was nothing to be done. And when you *finally* came to," he shakes his head, heavy with regrets. "*You* were gone, and Marlena remembered *nothing*. I had lost you, I thought, *forever*."
He turns to look at her and Grace sees the loss that is etched in his face. "My beautiful Grace was gone, forever and in her place, Marlena wanted *nothing* to do with me. Her only loyalty was to the family that had so readily believed her dead." He scowls before he downs his drink in one searing mouthful. "Even when she returned to this miserable town, *John* could do nothing but keep her at arms length, for fear that he would hurt the woman to whom he was newly affianced."
"He was engaged?" Grace looks away, feeling oddly breathless. She is silent for a moment and then the anger steels her again. "Well, of *course* he was."
"Isabella Toscano," Stefano says harshly. "She was Brady's mother."
"Ah, yes," Grace nods thoughtfully. "The boy."
Stefano rises from the sofa and paces across the room to the liquor cabinet where he pours himself another Strega. He can still feel the pain of Grace's loss and the fury at Marlena's betrayal, as fresh as if the day was yesterday. It is raw and brutal and only the Strega can dull it. That and maybe Grace's touch.
"I had lost you. That was bad enough. But Marlena couldn't *wait* to get back to *him*. And he didn't even *want* her." He downs the second drink and slams the glass down onto the counter so hard that Grace flinches. "I despised them *both* and so I devised the reappearance of 'Roman Brady'."
"Quite the solution." Grace leans back in her seat, lifting her drink to her lips and taking a long, cool sip. Learning of John Black's reaction to Marlena's miraculous reappearance has only served to fan the flames of her loathing for the man and she needs time to digest this newest piece of information.
"It was." Stefano allows himself a smile at the success of his own deviousness. "If only they had known..."
"So, John married this *Isabella*," Grace says distastefully, "And Marlena lived her married life with Lamont?"
"He played the part very well," Stefano nodded. "Almost too well."
"He must have done, to fool her," Grace drains her glass and places it on the table. The thought of Lamont's hands on her body is making her skin crawl and all she wants to do is go home and step into a hot shower in order to wash away the knowledge of what has happened to her so unknowingly.
"He had what he wanted," Stefano shrugs dismissively. "But in the end Marlena's *passion* for John Black destroyed her and her 'marriage'."
"How ironic." Grace says icily as she pushes herself up and crosses to where Stefano stands. "I still don't *like* it Stefano."
"Grace," he catches her hands in his, "you *must* understand, I thought that you were gone. *Forever*. The doctors told me that there was absolutely no chance that you would return." His eyes expose his pain as he lifts her hands to his chest. "I was distraught. It was if you had died and the person responsible for your death was Marlena. At the time, it seemed like the ideal way to punish her for her crime."
"But you got over your fit of pique at Marlena?" Grace remains unmoved by Stefano's heartfelt admission and she pulls her hands away from his grip.
"I...." Stefano pauses, gathering his composure. He will not let Grace beat him into submission. He makes no apologies for his actions, not even to Grace. "Marlena is enchanting in her own way. If I could not have you, my beautiful Grace, then Marlena served as a very creditable second."
"Marlena *was* enchanting," Grace corrects, the warmth filtering back into her voice. "She's not coming back this time Stefano. If you're not used to that idea, then you had better *get* used to it."
"I do not *want* her back," Stefano shakes his head with utter certainty. "You Grace, are *all* that I desire. We make a formidable team and with you at my side," he smiles slyly, "there is *nothing* that we cannot achieve."
"Nothing?" she asks coyly, a small smile skirting around her lips.
"*Nothing*," he repeats with absolute conviction. "Absolutely nothing."
~
John looks at his watch and wonders, not for the first time, where on earth Marlena can be. He has tried her office three times and each time, an exasperated Cynthia has informed him that she is not at work today. Nobody else seems to have seen her and he is starting to get worried.
No, not starting.... He is already worried. He has been worried for a while now and the feeling is only growing stronger. He loves her so much and he knows her so well... There is something wrong, he knows it, he can feel it as though it is a fever in his own blood.
He knows he has hurt her, he has betrayed her and maybe that is the source of her uncharacteristic behaviour. Or maybe there is something else, something that he hasn't identified yet. He feels as though he's missing something, but he's just not sure what it is.
He needs to work out some way of helping her. Right now he doesn't quite know what that entails, he only knows he has to work out what to do before something irrevocable happens.