"WHAT?" Hope stares at Marlena in utter shock.
"Oh *Jesus*, Marlena!" John spins away from his wife and his close friends with a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach.
Hope turns her frightened eyes from Marlena to John and then flicks them back to Marlena. "No... there must be some mistake. This baby is Bo's." She looks up at Bo with desperate eyes. "Tell her, Bo!"
Bo can't say anything as he watches John sink into the closest chair, his head in his hands.
"You all wanted to know what it was that I found out that was enough to destroy my marriage," Grace says loudly. "Well, now you know. My husband fucked Hope, or Gina or whatever she was calling herself at the time. On our *honeymoon*, while I thought he was *dead*. When you came to help me Bo, while we worried ourselves *sick*, he was off carrying on his sordid little affair with *your* fiancée."
"Bo," Hope grips his arm with tears in her eyes. "It's not true. I wouldn't do that, not with John. This baby is *yours*. You know it is."
"It's not mine, Hope," Bo says quietly. "We hadn't slept together in *years* before you came back to Salem from Paris."
"If you don't believe *me*," Grace says coldly as she crosses her arms, "why don't you ask the proud papa. He remembers it *all*. Don't you, John?"
Bo and Hope both look over at John and the horrible truth begins to dawn on them as he stares at Marlena in complete mortification.
"Christ, Marlena, don't you think this family has had enough bad news?" he asks her, ignoring the horrified gaze of his family. "Why the hell did you do it? Today of all days?"
"What, you wanted to include me in your nasty little web of lies?" Grace demands angrily. "It wasn't enough that you lied to me for months, you want to perpetuate the lies with the very people that are concerned?" She looks across at Bo, who's face has gone ashen with the revelations. "Surely Bo deserves to know that his intended *wife* cheated on him with a man that once claimed to be his brother. Who were you trying to protect John, your family, or yourself and your floozy?"
"That's *enough* Marlena!" John stands up, knocking the chair over as he does so.
"Oh, so now I finally get a reaction," she smiles icily. "Nice to know that you're so valiant in defence of the mother of your latest *brat*."
"Bo," Hope turns to him desperately. "I didn?t know, I swear I didn't know. I don't remember *anything"!"
"Well, isn't that *just* convenient," Grace's sugar sweet tone doesn't hide the bitterness underneath. "Would you like to know how you went to such *extraordinary* lengths as to get my husband onboard a submarine so that you could have your wicked way with him?" Her face hardens and she narrows her eyes. "You see Hope, I just find myself questioning how hard you actually *fought* Gina when it came to fucking my husband. Because it seems to me that if you hadn't *wanted* to, you would have fought tooth and nail to get back to your *beloved* Bo."
"I couldn't," Hope says faintly. "I didn't know...."
"And yet, you knew when Doug sang you a song..." Grace replies with stinging acidity. "Forgive me if I find that just a *little* hard to swallow, *Hope*." She looks across at a devastated John and sneers. "About as hard as I find it to believe that John couldn't fight for *our* love if he'd really wanted to..."
There is silence in the pub as they all try to absorb this latest revelation and Grace looks at Hope with scornful eyes before she turns to John. "You know what honey? You're quite welcome to her. Though why you'd want to choose that scrawny whore over me, I don't think I'll ever understand."
"I don't," John is too distraught to even call her on her censure of Hope. "God Marlena, you *know* that I've only *ever* wanted you. You *know* that you're my whole world, why can't you accept that I made a *terrible* mistake but that I didn't mean to?"
"It's too little, too late," Grace replies crisply. "And besides, since I found out you lied to me for *how* many months was it, I can't trust *anything* you say." She looks at the assembled family. "And if I was any of the rest of you, I'd think twice about what I believe too..." she shrugs, "after all, he was *so* very eager to explain why it was that I've left him, wasn't he?"
"Mom," Sami's voice is hoarse as she pushes herself up from her. "I... I'm sorry, I had no idea..."
"No..." Grace looks unimpressed, "I don't suppose you did."
The rest of the family are simply too shell-shocked to say anything and Abe and Lexie can do nothing but stare at their good friends in astonishment. Grace waits for a moment longer and then casts her eyes across the faces of Marlena's family.
"Well," she shrugs, "your sympathy simply astounds me. I guess I should have expected as much."
"Marlena... dear..." Caroline tries to get up, but her legs seem to be unable to carry her.
"Oh, save it Caroline," Grace snaps angrily. "Don't bother wasting your energy. I have better places to be anyway." With that, she pushes past Hope and stomps from the pub, her coat flowing in her wake like the black clouds of some incredibly destructive storm.
"Oh God." Hope stares at the ground, her face burning with the humiliation and anger of finding out the truth in such a manner. "Oh God, it can't be true." She looks at John again and she flinches when he meets her eyes with what can only be described as disgust. Whether it is with her or with the situation, she cannot tell.
"It's true, Hope," he replies, his skin crawling with the knowledge of the turmoil this is inflicting on his family. "God help us all because it *is* true." He looks over at Bo and his heart sinks as he sees the confusion and anger that settle in Bo's eyes. "Bo... we didn't know. Neither of us knew."
Hope turns to Bo, horrified by what she is hearing. "Bo...."
"Marlena has a good point," Bo says coldly. "Doesn't seem like either of you fought it very hard."
"*Bo*!" Caroline interrupts from the previously quiet table in the centre of the pub. "Can you honestly believe that Hope and John would *willingly*-"
"I don't know *what* to believe any more, Ma!" Bo spins away and thumps the strut of the booth behind him.
"Bo, I was on my goddamn *honeymoon*," John's voice is strained as he faces his one-time brother. "You think I *wanted* this to happen? That I *wanted* to hurt Marlena like this? Jesus, that woman is my whole *world*. Why would I risk my marriage for a night of cheap sex? Why would I *choose* to do that Bo?"
"I don't know," Bo's lips thin as he looks at John. "But then I always wondered why you chose to be with Kristen when Marlena was so in love with you. Just because I don't understand it, doesn't mean it didn't happen, John."
"You really think we did this on purpose, don't you?" Hope is shaking as she stares at Bo. "You're buying her twisted bullshit. You think we met up on John's honeymoon for some kind of freaked out affair and conceived a child because we *wanted* to?"
"Look, I don't know *what* I think right now." Bo holds his hands out in front of him before he turns and walks towards the bar, putting some distance between him and John and Hope.
"Great," Hope presses her fingers to the middle of her forehead, trying to will away her newborn headache. "This is just *great*."
"Hope," John says stiffly. "You should know that I'm not *sure* that your baby is mine."
"Well, who else's could it...?" Hope's eyes narrow as she turns to Bo. "You *knew* this baby wasn't yours, Brady, didn't you?"
"I..." Bo shakes his head. He is too stunned to be able to think clearly and he is torn between wanting to throttle John and wanting to just get out of the pub and get some fresh air. "I knew it wasn't."
"And you didn't *tell* me?" Hope feels ill as the baby squirms uncomfortably inside of her. "You let me think this was *your* baby??"
"I thought...." Bo chokes over his words as he faces her. "I thought it was Stefano's. I was trying to protect you from knowing...."
"You thought I'd *slept* with *Stefano*?" The pub is starting to spin and Hope grips the back of a chair with white knuckled hands.
"I didn't think it was your choice Fancy-face," Bo says faintly. "I thought that if you slept with Stefano then you had no choice. I didn't want you to have to relive that...."
"Oh, but if I slept with John, then I *did* have a choice right?" Hope demands in disgust. "And who the *hell* gave you the right to decide what I should and shouldn't know *anyway*?"
"I was trying to do the right thing, Hope," Bo exclaims angrily. "Look, maybe I was wrong, but right now I'm having a pretty hard time trying to get my head around the fact that you... that Gina slept with John so I'm sorry if I don't have the right answers for you."
"You think this is *easy* for me?" Hope screams at him, tears sweeping down her cheeks. "You think I'm secretly thrilled by the fact that I slept with John? *JOHN*, who's always been like a fucking *brother* to me? I can't even let myself *think* about it, I find the idea so abhorrent."
"Bo, don't take this out on Hope. It's not fair." John interrupts the escalating fight. "For God's sake, don't let this tear you apart like it's torn Marlena and I apart."
"Maybe you should have thought about that before you *lied* to your wife." Bo returns nastily. "Maybe you should have thought about that before you *cheated* on her with Hope."
"Uncle Bo-" Sami takes a step towards John but John waves her back.
"It's okay Samantha, Bo has every right to be upset."
"The *hell* he does!" Hope interjects. "If *anyone* should be upset, it's *me*. *I'm* the one who's involved, who's been *violated* and everyone is fucking well lying to me."
"This isn't *all* about you Hope," John snaps back irritably. "You're not the only one who has suffered here."
"Just because you slept with her John, doesn't mean you can talk to her like she's a piece of trash," Bo is furious now as he storms towards John. "Why the hell did you do it? You've destroyed Marlena and now you're trying to destroy us. Why in the *hell* did you do it?"
"You really think I had a choice in this?" John's face is red with anger. "I can't believe you, *any* of you, think I would do this to Marlena if I had a choice in the matter."
"I think you just like taking what you can get." Bo's nostrils are flaring with righteous rage. "Especially when it's not yours to take. You screwed up Roman and Marlena's marriage and now you're doing your damndest to screw up things between Hope and me."
"Oh yeah, and Hope had nothing to do with this, right?"" John demands furiously. "Bo, man, I love you like you were truly my brother. The last thing I want to do is to hurt you. *Any* of you." His shoulders sag as he looks at the accusing faces that surround him. "Look, I know I screwed up. But I *didn't* *know*."
"Yeah, but you didn't exactly rush to tell us when you *did* remember, did you," Bo needles, his face livid with resentment.
"Oh, for fucks sake!" John slams his fist on the table beside him. His patience is exhausted and the last thing he wants to be doing is fighting with the Brady's. As important as they are to him, nothing is more important than Marlena and he needs to make things right with her before he does anything else. But for now, he can no longer contain his temper and the droning fills his head again, buzzing at the edges of his consciousness, undoing his self-control. "If you're going to be like that, you can take your self-righteous double standards and *shove* them!!"
"You *selfish* bastard!" Bo shouts as he launches himself at John, rage clouding his rationality and judgement. All he can think of is how he wants to punish John, even if he is not quite exactly why it is that he wants to make the man suffer.
"*Bo*!" Hope screams as she sees him go for John's throat, his thick fingers itching to wrap around his one-time brother's neck. But there is no response from Bo, only the sound of grunting and scuffling for a moment as John tries to defend himself. Bo takes a swing at John and connects neatly with his right eye. John reels for a moment and then lets fly with a hook that meets with Bo's jaw.
For an instant, John is suddenly transported fourteen years into the past, to a mountaintop in West Virginia. To a time when Bo had been protecting his family from the man he thought was Stefano. And John feels the ache well in his chest for all he and the Brady's have suffered in those fourteen years. And to come to this, to have their history, their loving family torn apart by a freakish act wrought by the master of manipulation himself, Stefano DiMera. It can't happen. He can't let it happen...
Bo's fist lands squarely in his sternum and he staggers back, gasping for breath as the room around him explodes with noise. Abe and Shawn both drag Bo back as he sees the tears glinting on Caroline's face. And the pallor of Sami's skin as she stares at him leaves him burning with shame.
He doesn't know how to make this right, not with Hope standing there ready to drop a child that could be his. A child that is a mockery of real love and honesty. He doesn't know anything but that he has to get away from this, from the noise that makes his head feel as though it's on fire, from the accusations that burrow like a buzz-saw under his skin. He can't do this... not now...
Grabbing his jacket, he turns and sprints from the pub, oblivious to the cries from his adoptive mother and step-daughter. He doesn't know where he is going, only that he has to get out now. That he has to find her. That he has to stop the darkness that is beginning to seep through his mind. That he has to fight....