May/June Discussion!

June 19th recap

At the Kiriakis mansion, Brady received an unexpected visit from John, who had just returned from a trip to Paris. Assuming that John had heard about Nick's death and was looking for Maggie, Brady started to explain that she wasn't at home, but John interrupted and clarified that he had something to show Brady.

"It took me months, kid, and I had to call in a lot of favors at the ISA," John vaguely stated as he handed a folded document to Brady. Brady took the document but didn't inspect it, instead asking John to elaborate. John remained cryptic, excitedly summarizing that Brady was ready for the next step because Brady had stopped drinking and had pulled himself together. John said that Brady could read all of the details on the jet, which was fueled and ready for takeoff. Brady impatiently interrupted and demanded to know what John was talking about.

"Kristen DiMera. Everything we need to track her down is right there in your hands," John explained. Somewhat intrigued, Brady flipped through the documents as he wondered if John really knew where Kristen was. "I know where she's been, and that is the key to finding her. We figure out the pattern, we figure out where she's headed next," John clarified. John told Brady that the search would be good for both of them, since it would give Brady the opportunity to finally move on with his life.

Brady told John to give the information to the Salem Police Department so that they could find Kristen, lock her up, and throw away the key. "I don't want to spend one more second of my life thinking about that bitch Kristen DiMera!" Brady angrily added. John protested that he and Brady couldn't risk losing what might be their only chance to locate Kristen and make her pay for what she had done to them. Brady objected to John's continued implications that they were somehow on the same team. John argued that Kristen had victimized him and Brady, and he insisted that Brady would never recover unless Kristen was apprehended.

Brady asserted that he had moved on from Kristen and John. John protested that he would always be Brady's father. "Yeah, and that -- that would have been a -- a good thing to have -- a dad -- back then, when I was younger. But that -- that -- that's beside the point, Dad. You know what? The fact is, I am fine now. I'm getting along fine without you now, just like I got along fine without you then," Brady bitterly replied before storming out of the mansion.

As J.J. and Paige neared the entrance to Club TBD, she received a phone call from her mother. Paige excused herself so that she could answer the call, urging J.J. to go ahead and find a table for them inside. J.J. entered the club and called out for Sonny at the bar. "Isn't it past your bedtime?" Theresa asked as she approached J.J. from behind.

When J.J. turned to face Theresa, she warned that he had five seconds to wipe the judgmental look off of his face. J.J. clarified that he wasn't judging Theresa and that he didn't want to start anything with her, since life was too short. Theresa wondered if J.J. had something better to do, and before he could respond, she peeked outside and spotted Paige.

As J.J. pulled Theresa back inside the club, she laughed and deduced that he was on a date with the girl. Theresa observed that the girl looked like a clean-cut, strait-laced person. J.J. suggested that Theresa needed to mind her own business, but she ignored the suggestion and rubbed his shoulders as she wondered if the girl had met the real J.J. yet.

J.J. suggested that he and Theresa could just pretend that they hadn't seen each other that night, but she wasn't interested in doing that. Theresa observed that J.J. looked kind of clean-cut himself at that particular moment, and she wondered if he believed that he could simply cover up his past with some nice clothes. J.J. insisted that he wasn't trying to hide his past, but he added that he wasn't the same person he had once been. J.J. stressed that he no longer used drugs or fought with people. J.J. added that he was no longer interested in hanging out or hooking up with people like Theresa.

"No, that doesn't change you, J.J. -- who you are, what you are. You know, you can't keep up this act forever," Theresa warned J.J., who insisted that it wasn't an act. Unconvinced, Theresa cautioned J.J. that Paige would soon figure out who he really was. J.J. clarified that Paige already knew who he was -- and who he had been in the past. J.J. confidently declared that Theresa couldn't do anything to mess up his relationship with Paige, prompting Theresa to counter that she wouldn't have to, since he would eventually mess it up himself.

Theresa guessed that there had to be something that J.J. hadn't shared with Paige, such as the fact that he had once broken the terms of his plea bargain in order to go to Theresa's apartment and have sex with Theresa. J.J. reminded Theresa that they had never actually slept together, but she playfully countered that he had wanted to have sex with her and that it hadn't been his choice to end things prematurely. "It's a good thing that I grew up, 'cause now, you couldn't pay me," J.J. disgustedly replied.

Theresa scoffed and summarized that J.J. hadn't changed -- he had simply taken a bath. Theresa confidently predicted that the real J.J. would eventually emerge again. J.J. angrily called Theresa a "pathetic loser," and she countered that he needed to look in a mirror. Theresa suggested that she had always been able to get J.J. "hot and bothered" because he was just like her. "All right, bitch, you need to shut your mouth!" J.J. snapped through gritted teeth as he tightly clenched his fists and glared at Theresa. Satisfied, Theresa smiled and said that was the J.J. she wanted his "sweet little girlfriend" to see.

J.J. exited the club without saying another word to Theresa. Outside, Paige was just ending her phone call, and J.J. quickly escorted her away from the club, suggesting that they could go somewhere else instead. J.J. took Paige to the Brady Pub, where she told him about the classes she was planning to take during her first semester of college. Paige seemed particularly excited about a psychology class, so J.J. wondered if she liked the subject. Paige confirmed that she liked knowing what made people tick "behind the pose."

"Well, maybe there's no pose. Maybe it's just the way it looks," J.J. suggested, but Paige asserted that there was always more to the story. Changing the subject, Paige observed that J.J. had been edgy since they had left the club earlier, and she encouraged him to tell her what was wrong. J.J. claimed that nothing was wrong, but Paige wasn't convinced, since he had been excited about introducing her to Sonny earlier but had abruptly changed his mind for some reason during her phone conversation.

J.J. shrugged and claimed that he simply liked the Brady Pub more than Club TBD, but Paige could tell that something else was going on. "It's like you're a different person than you were an hour ago," Paige observed. J.J. wondered if he and Paige could just have a good time without getting "all analytical or whatever" with each other. Paige clarified that she hadn't been trying to psychoanalyze J.J., and she added that it was kind of hard to have a good time with him when he was acting moody. Paige conceded that she couldn't force J.J. to discuss the matter if he didn't want to do so, but she urged him to at least admit that something was wrong.

J.J. maintained that nothing was wrong, but Paige still wasn't convinced. Paige stood to leave, and J.J. rushed to stop her. Paige assured J.J. that she could find her own way home, and she told him that she was going to leave him alone because that was clearly what he wanted. J.J. tried to object, but Paige ignored his protests and exited the pub.

Brady entered Club TBD and found Theresa sitting at the bar. Brady approached Theresa and drained her glass of whiskey without saying a word to her. "Wow. I wasn't thirsty, anyway," Theresa flirtatiously assured Brady. Theresa tried to engage in a round of small talk with Brady, but he wasn't interested, so she eventually abandoned the idea and encouraged him to tell her what was on his mind. "Us," Brady replied.

Brady and Theresa ordered another round of drinks and took them to an empty table so they could continue their conversation. Theresa teasingly wondered if Brady wanted to chastise her again for being innocent for once. Realizing that Theresa was referring to what had happened with Liam, Brady pointed out that she had lied about what she had known about Liam. Brady added that there could have easily been a more tragic ending to the ordeal, and Theresa conceded that he was right.

Theresa claimed that she had simply been unable to see any other way out of that particular situation. Brady knew the feeling and summarized that Theresa had been scared. Theresa reminded Brady that she was also "kind of a selfish bitch," but he reasoned that she deserved credit for owning that character flaw. After draining his glass, Brady excused himself and exited the club, but Theresa rushed after him and seized his keys, insisting that he was in no shape to drive. Theresa offered to take Brady back to her place, and he backed her against a wall of the club as he started to kiss her.

In Hope's office at the police station, Lucas defensively answered one of Hope's questions -- which had already been asked and answered multiple times -- and wondered why she was being particularly hard on him. "You have to ask? You really don't know why you wouldn't get a second or third look? Lucas, you did time for shooting E.J. DiMera," Hope reminded Lucas.

Lucas protested that the circumstances surrounding Nick's shooting had been completely different than the circumstances surrounding E.J.'s shooting, but Hope disagreed, succinctly summarizing that, in both cases, the victim had been giving Lucas trouble. "You were the only one in the square with a criminal record involving use of deadly force and a firearm," Hope added, and she warned that Lucas' defensiveness was only making him look guiltier. Meanwhile, Hope's office phone rang, and after a brief conversation, she turned off her recording device and abruptly excused herself.

While Hope was gone, Lucas paced the floor. Lucas tried to read Nick's case file, which Hope had left open on her desk, but before he could get more than a glance at it, the office door swung open. Lucas quickly returned to his seat and tried to act casual as Hope reentered the room, carrying a folder. Hope apologized for the interruption and resumed the interview, asking Lucas to describe the last time he'd had contact with Nick.

Lucas claimed that he had last been in contact with Nick a few months earlier, when they had spoken briefly in the town square during a meeting Nick had been having with a fellow Mad World employee. Hope folded her arms and stared at Lucas skeptically, so he added that, while he and Nick had worked at the same company, they had worked in different divisions and had therefore rarely interacted with each other.

Hope turned off the recording device and warned that lying to her wasn't a good plan. Hope turned the device back on and repeated her earlier question, but Lucas maintained that he hadn't been in contact with Nick since the chance encounter he had detailed earlier. Hope turned her attention to the folder she had carried into the room earlier. "Nick Fallon was shot at 8:45 p.m. on the night of the murder. At 8:35 p.m. on the same evening, you and Nick had a text exchange," Hope summarized as she read one of the enclosed documents.

"Wait a minute -- you call that 'contact'?" Lucas innocently asked. Hope didn't seem to buy the innocent act, but she nevertheless impatiently confirmed that written communication counted as contact for the purposes of the investigation. Lucas admitted that he and Nick had exchanged text messages on the night of Nick's death, but when Hope asked for a summary of the conversation, Lucas claimed that he couldn't remember what he and Nick had said to each other.

"Well, your service provider does. Should I start reading the messages? Text from Lucas Horton to Nick Fallon, time-stamped 8:33 p.m., reads, 'Where are you?' Reply from Nick Fallon to Lucas Horton, time-stamped 8:34 p.m. -- 'The park.' We have determined that the park is where Nick Fallon was shot. Nick's phone was discovered by a jogger in the park. Lost and Found turned it over to us. That's how we know about the text. So, Lucas, for the last time, for the record...tell me exactly what happened between you and Nick when you went to the park," Hope asked as Lucas squirmed in his chair.

Lucas claimed that he had wanted to go to the park to give Nick a piece of his mind but had decided against doing so because he had known that he had been too angry to confront Nick at that particular time. Lucas claimed that he had avoided the park entirely and had instead gone straight to the town square to pick up Allie. Hope impatiently ordered Lucas to hand over his cell phone, and after a few objections, he reluctantly complied after confirming that she had already obtained a warrant to search the phone.

Hope was unable to locate the text messages on Lucas' cell phone, so he shrugged and admitted that he had probably deleted them. Lucas claimed that he regularly deleted text messages that weren't important, but Hope skeptically inspected his inbox and found trivial text messages from Will and Sami that were months old. Lucas argued that it wasn't fair to compare those messages to his exchange with Nick, since Will was Lucas' son and Sami was the mother of Lucas' children.

"Oh, come on, Lucas, cut the bull! You deliberately erased the text messages with Nick after he turned up dead! Isn't that true?" Hope impatiently demanded to know. Lucas claimed that he couldn't remember when he had deleted the text messages, but Hope warned that his service provider would be able to tell her exactly when the messages had been deleted. "I did not kill Nick. I didn't do it. I didn't!" Lucas insisted, prompting Hope to wonder why he was going out of his way to make himself look guilty.

Lucas claimed that he had deleted the messages because he had known how they would have looked to others. Lucas apologized and admitted that he hadn't been thinking clearly at that particular time, but Hope informed him that it was too late. Lucas wondered if Hope was planning to arrest him. Hope clarified that she wasn't planning to arrest Lucas yet, but she warned that she had obtained a warrant to search his house, car, and personal effects. Hope added that the warrant allowed her to seize the clothes Lucas had been wearing the previous night, as well as any weapons he owned and any other evidence that might pertain to the investigation.

Lucas maintained his innocence, so Hope urged him to hand over his passport as a sign of good faith.

In the park, the hit man asked Sami if she knew who he was, and she confirmed that she did. "Then you know it's in your best interest to do what I say," the hit man summarized. The hit man handed Sami a piece of paper as he explained that he needed to see E.J. right away. Sami protested that it was too soon for E.J. and the hit man to be seen together in public after what had happened the previous day, but the hit man ignored her objection. "Half an hour. Tell him not to be late," the hit man instructed Sami before walking away.

At the DiMera mansion, E.J. and Marlena comforted Allie as she told them about her nightmare. E.J. assured Allie that she was safe at the mansion, and he urged her to go back to sleep. "No! No sleep! I'll just see it all again," Allie fearfully protested, but she eventually fell asleep on the living room couch -- just as Sami returned home and somewhat loudly slammed the front door behind her.

E.J. silently signaled for Sami to be quiet, and she nervously wondered what had happened to Allie. Marlena assured Sami that everything was fine, explaining that Allie had simply had a nightmare. Marlena said that was Allie's way of processing the traumatic event she had witnessed. Marlena added that it was better for Allie to experience nightmares than to repress the ordeal entirely.

Marlena received a phone call from someone, so Sami encouraged her to answer it. Marlena guessed that Rafe was calling to talk to her about meeting with Gabi in the near future. As Marlena retrieved her cell phone, Sami cleared her throat and gave E.J. a meaningful look to let him know that something was wrong. After thanking Marlena for helping out with Allie, Sami urged her mother to go ahead and deal with Gabi right away.

After Marlena left, Sami told E.J. that they were in "big trouble." Before Sami could elaborate, Johnny descended the staircase and interrupted the conversation. Johnny announced that he was done with his homework and that he and Sydney wanted Allie to play with them. E.J. started to explain that Allie was sleeping, but she emerged from the living room and dispelled that belief. Allie asked if she could play with her siblings, and a surprised Sami happily granted the request. Allie rushed upstairs, and Johnny followed her after assuring E.J. and Sami that he and Sydney would take care of their sister.

E.J. followed Sami into the living room and closed the doors behind him. Sami told E.J. about her earlier encounter with the hit man, and she handed over the hit man's note. As E.J. read the note, Sami guessed that the hit man was planning to ask for more money. E.J. retrieved a gun from the hidden wall compartment near the fireplace as he muttered that if he allowed the hit man to blackmail him a single time, it would never stop. "You can't do this yourself, though. I mean, can't you just send someone else?" Sami asked, but E.J. insisted that he had to take care of the matter himself.

E.J. met with the hit man in a secluded section of the park. When E.J. revealed his gun, the hit man protested that E.J. had jumped to the wrong conclusion. Ignoring the hit man's objections, E.J. aimed the gun at the man's head and warned that the man had made a very big mistake.

When E.J. returned to the DiMera mansion later that night, he poured himself a drink and assured Sami that they were safe. E.J. returned the gun to its hiding place, and Sami was surprised when he also revealed that he had recovered all of the money that he had paid the hit man. E.J. clarified that the hit man had returned the money because he had known better than to cross the DiMera family. "He didn't do the job I paid him to. Someone else killed Nick," E.J. announced.

In Will and Sonny's apartment, Gabi guessed that Rafe had asked Marlena to check on her. Marlena innocently denied the suspicion and stated that she was just as concerned about Gabi as everyone else was. Marlena started to point out that Gabi had really cared about Nick, but Gabi interrupted and asked if they could refrain from talking about him.

"I just feel like I keep bouncing around different emotions with Nick. I -- I just -- I feel like I don't even know what's normal anymore. You know, one day last summer, we were heading in this one direction, and then, all of a sudden, it changes, and I have a modeling career because of Nick, and I'm moving to New York, and then it changes again, and Nick's the one leaving town, and...going --" Gabi said, her voice trailing off for a moment. Marlena interjected that Nick was the one who had ended up moving to New York in the end, and Gabi played along with the suspicion.

"So...then everything's suddenly changing again, and I -- I feel like I'm getting my life on track, and things change again, and -- and -- and -- and everything's happening so fast, and I feel like I can't keep track," Gabi concluded. Marlena nodded and suggested that Nick's death might be a bit of a relief to Gabi. "It is. Um -- no, what -- um, it's not -- no, um -- God. No, wha -- I -- what it is is I'm -- I don't -- I don't know. I don't know," Gabi stammered.

Marlena assured Gabi that it was okay to feel relieved, since that was one of the many complicated emotions that a person might experience after the death of someone who had been close to that person. "Yeah, I feel -- I feel relief because I'm not gonna be fighting with everyone now. The truth? You know, instead of dwelling on the ways that Nick made my life difficult...all I could think about last night was...how much he loved me. You know, he could be so sweet...and so gentle...and he knew what people thought about him, but I believe -- you know, I believe that there really was a part of him that wanted to change," Gabi tearfully admitted. Marlena agreed and advised Gabi to continue to remember those happy times, since that would be a good way to move on.

After recalling Daniel's earlier ultimatum, Nicole took a deep breath and dried her eyes before opening the door to her hotel room. Eric greeted Nicole with a loving embrace and said that he had missed her. Nicole sadly replied that Eric never had to miss her, since she would always be there for him if he wanted her.

"'If'?" Eric asked with a nervous laugh. Eric raised Nicole's left hand to kiss it, and he quickly noticed that she wasn't wearing her engagement ring. Concerned, Eric reminded Nicole that she had previously sworn that she would never take the ring off. Nicole turned away from Eric and fought back tears as she claimed that her hands were slightly swollen. Unconvinced, Eric followed Nicole into the hotel room and closed the door behind him.

Eric asked Nicole to face him, and when she reluctantly complied, he noticed that she was crying. Assuming that Nicole was still beating herself up about what had happened on Smith Island, Eric reminded her that shooting Daniel had been an accident. Eric confidently asserted that Nicole would never intentionally hurt someone she cared about. Eric started to advise Nicole to stop dwelling on what had happened, but she interrupted him.

"Why wouldn't I dwell on it? I was impulsive! I didn't think things through like I should have! That's what happens when you're -- when you're afraid, and -- and you're desperate to do the right thing, and you're confused about what that is. And then you're left with...nothing but consequences. God, Eric, I wanted to do the right thing! I should have. I couldn't. I didn't," Nicole tearfully stated.

Eric said that he hated seeing Nicole in such a state of distress. Nicole assured Eric that she deserved to feel that way, but he disagreed. Nicole started to say something else, but Eric stopped her. "I know you have this thing...because that's how you used to be in the past -- it's how people still treat you -- but that's not you. That's not the you I see. Do you know how incredible you are to me? Do you know how precious you are to me? How much you mean to me? I want you to know that. I want you to believe it. I want you to feel it," Eric said before tenderly kissing Nicole.

Eric and Nicole continued to kiss as they moved to the bed and started to undress each other. Later, while Nicole and Eric were lying in bed together after having sex, Nicole reminded Eric that he had previously planned to wait to have sex with her until after they were married. Eric reasoned that it was no longer important for him to wait, since he and Nicole weren't going to be able to get married in the church, anyway. Eric added that he loved Nicole and had needed her earlier just as much as he had sensed that she had needed him.

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