Marlena smiled at John. Marlena had cancelled their last session because she was still healing after the incident with Frank Delany. She'd wanted the bruising to be less unsightly before she returned to work, but it seemed to be healing slowly. It didn't help that she was also plagued with nightmares. Dreams of Frank's face in a sneer, or his sour breath wafting along her neck. Dreams where Frank's face morphed into Stefano's face, or Frank's face somehow became Kellam's face. Frank's image turning into Stefano or morphing into Kellam had actually made it so that Marlena almost feared going to sleep.
She woken the night before with a scream on her lips, and Roman had simply grunted, and rolled over in bed, so that he was no longer facing her. She'd been covered in sweat, having to shower and change before she could lie back down and attempt to get a few more hours of sleep. Talking to Roman about her nightmares had been unsuccessful. She had hoped that he might understand how what happened in her office with Frank had somehow triggered other unresolved trauma, making it nearly impossible to sleep, but he seemed unconcerned, telling her, "Give it time, Doc. It will pass."
John smiled at Marlena from his end of the plaid couch in her office. She seemed so sad, and tired. Reaching for her, he said softly, "Come here, Doc."
She wanted to go to him. She wanted to so badly, but instead, she pushed herself back further into her end of the couch, and she said softly, "I'm fine. This is your session, and we need to discuss some things."
She couldn't get too close, and allow herself to sink into his warmth. She was married to Roman, and John was getting ready to marry Isabella. She needed to stay professional, because interspersed with her nightmares of Kellam and Stefano, were dreams of John. Dreams of John licking his way along her body, John's hand buried between her legs, while he sucked at her breast, and she trembled with orgasm, and John pushing her against the shower wall in her bathroom, and fucking her from behind while she moaned his name.
She couldn't get the images out of her mind, and after Roman had left for work that morning, her fingers had made quick work of bringing her to climax, as the hot water of her shower sluiced over her naked flesh, while she relived the dream that had woken her just minutes earlier. Marlena felt like she was in limbo. She was unable to move forward with Roman because of her continued attachment to John. Plus, Roman was emotionally distant. He had returned from his time with Stefano a changed man, and she wasn't sure she could love the man that he'd become.
John watched her carefully from where he sat, his eyes glancing over her form in silent appreciation, and he noted how she seemed to get lost in her own mind for a moment. He curiously took in her accelerated breathing, flushed cheeks, and her slightly dilated pupils. He felt his own body reacting to her signals. His cock twitched, and his own breathing picked up. When she looked up, she seemed almost surprised to see him sitting there studying her, and she cleared her throat shakily, saying, "We need to discuss if you've made a decision about Lawrence, and if you wanted to undergo an x-ray to verify what you remembered under hypnosis about a microchip."
His body was tense. The sexual tension in the room was thick, and neither one of them would acknowledge it, so he said, "I'd like you to be there when I speak with Lawrence."
"When would you like to do that?"
"Next week? I'd like to get it done before the wedding, and the wedding is in a few weeks," John said softly, trying to ignore the tightness in his chest.
"Are you excited?" Marlena asked him. "About the wedding?"
He's silent for a long moment, before he says, "I'm not sure. With the hypnosis, and everything else, I just feel...overwhelmed."
Another long pause ensued, before Marlena said, "I see." Both of them saying so much, without actually saying anything. She didn't know what else to say, so she said, "What about the x-ray?"
"Yeah, yeah," John said absently. "I'd like to get that done as well."
"I could call Marcus. We might be able to get it done today, if you'd like," Marlena said
John looked at Marlena in surprise, "I thought Marcus was out of town."
"He returned a few days ago," Marlena said. "He finished his research early, and he's back at the hospital. It's nice having him back."
"I thought he would have called Isabella," he replied.
"He's probably swamped with paper work. Let me give him call," Marlena said, standing up quickly, and walking towards her desk.
Forty minutes later, Marlena, John, and Marcus stood in front of the light box that contained the x-ray of John's neck, all of them wearing expressions of disbelief. When Marcus had first heard why Marlena wanted an x-ray of John's skull, he been doubtful, but he'd heard wild stories of Stefano DiMera, and honestly, he'd been curious. The microchip was there, just as John remembered, a small square at the base of the skull, where one should not be.
Fear rose up inside Marlena, and she touched John's arm gently, "I think we need to contact Shane."
He looked at her, so grateful in that moment to have her with him, and he replied, "I think you're right, Doc. Marcus...I need someone to take that thing out of me. You willing?"
"Yeah, John...I could do it, but we don't even know what it is," Marcus told him.
"I've got my suspicions, and I need someone I trust to do the surgery."
"I can prep an OR, and be ready within the hour," Marcus said.
John looked at him with a wide grin, "That's what I'm talking about. Let me...let me check in with Isabella first. She's been having a lot of Braxton Hicks contractions, and I want to make sure she's okay."
Marcus looked at John quizzically, almost surprised, "Isabella's pregnant?"
John smiled. With everything up in the air with his life, his son was the one solid thing he could cling to, "That's right, you've been gone for quite awhile. Yeah...yeah, she is. We're having a boy."
"She's due soon?" Marcus asked.
"She's due in a few weeks actually," John told him. "You should give her a call. I'm sure she misses you."
Marcus turned around, glancing over John's x-ray again, saying, "I'll do that."
"John," Marlena said softly, stepping so close he could feel the heat from her body, and feel her softness against him. "You can call Isabella from my office, if you want, and then we can call Shane."
Hearing John on the phone with Isabella, asking after the baby, and telling her, he loved her, shouldn't have been as hard for Marlena, as it was. When John hung up the phone, and before she could school her features, he saw the raw pain in her eyes, and it left him confused. It left him wanting something that was over, something in the past. He forced himself to smile, and said, "Isabella is coming. I asked her not to. She needs to rest, but she insisted."
The ache in Marlena's chest grew, and she felt like it was harder to breath. "It's fine. I would do the same... if it was Roman," she said looking through her rolodex. Finding the card with Shane's number on it, she pulled it out, and handed it to John.
John reached for her hand, holding it tightly in his, "Are we really doing this?"
"I support you one hundred percent, John. I'll stay with you the whole time," Marlena said. "If you want me too."
"You'd do that? Come into surgery, and just be there?"
"I'll admit, I'm curious as to what Marcus will find, but, John, I won't leave your side for one moment," she whispered. "Not if you want me there..."
John stepped closer, showing her, his vulnerability and his fear, and he whispered, "Thank you, Doc."
She couldn't resist touching him. The ache inside her was too much to hold back. Stroking over his face softly, she whispered, "Anything for you, John. Anything. Anything."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Isabella seemed exhausted when Marlena exited the operating room, and said, "The microchip is out. Marcus was able to find it, and extract it. It was somehow sewn into his nervous system."
"But it's out?" Isabella asked. "And he's safe?"
"He's safe," Marlena said, feeling her own sense of relief. "He might not wake up for a few hours. They'll move him to a room soon."
Isabella hated that she now found herself in Marlena's debt, but she said, "Thank you...for helping him through this. I wanted him to forget it all, just focus on our relationship, and the baby, but I can see...well, I've been able to see, over the last few months, that knowing his past helps him move forward."
"John wants to know who he is. He wants to know where he comes from, and without that knowledge, he will always feel like he's missing something...even if he has everything he wants," Marlena said.
Marcus came out of the operating room, and stopped short when he saw Isabella. She was beautiful, and her pregnancy seemed to add to her soft glow. He took off his surgical cap, and said, "Isabella...it's good to see you."
She stared at him for a moment, quickly glancing over at Marlena, and said, "Marcus. How have you been?"
Isabella seemed stiff, almost formal, with someone who was supposed to be one of her best friends, but Marlena shrugged it off. It was nearly three in the morning, and she was absolutely exhausted. "Marcus," Marlena said. "I'm going to head home, shower, and check on the children. I'll be back in a few hours."
"That will be fine. He may not even be awake yet," Marcus told her. "I have the microchip sealed in the evidence bag. I'll keep it on me. You said—"
"—Shane promised to be here by ten," Marlena said.
"The ISA? Why is Shane coming?" Isabella wanted to know.
Marlena thought the answer would be obvious, but she sighed softly, and said, "The microchip was planted by Stefano and a doctor that John refers to as Rolf. Shane is coming to get the chip, and have it examined by the forensics lab at the ISA."
"This is why I wanted him to forget about his past...just move on," Isabella said with her voice raising slightly.
"I can't believe that you'd be fine with John living his life with a computer chip in his head. We don't even know what it does. What if he didn't have amnesia? What if his memories were being suppressed?"
"What if he has another life, and he leaves me?" Isabella said loudly. "What then?"
"That's a chance John has to take, Isabella. He won't rest until he knows," Marlena told her. Looking at Marcus, she says, "I'll be back."
Marcus watches as Marlena walks down the brightly lit, vacant hallway. Turning to Isabella he says quietly, "When are you due?"
"In a few weeks," she whispers.
"Is is mine? Or is it Johns?" Marcus asked her, tipping her face up to his.
Isabella had tears in her eyes when she responded, "I don't know."