It was a week later, when John decided he couldn't wait anymore. Marlena hadn't called him, and when he fished for information with Carrie, she said both of her parents were being tight lipped about what had happened. So, as a robe clad Marlena answered the door, John came walking in saying, "You waited too long again, Doc. Why didn't you call me?"
"I-I, well, I thought it might be better to wait until Roman had moved all of his things out," she said.
"Too long," he said kissing her lips soundly, and walking towards the kitchen. "I'm here to make pancakes."
"I don't know if I have any—"
"—You do. I had Carrie check."
"I do? Huh..." she said following him into the kitchen with a small smile. "I have been wanting some pancakes."
"So, let's talk. How did everything go with Roman?" John asked her, as he began moving around the kitchen, getting what he needed together for the pancakes.
While John and Marlena talked in the kitchen, they were unaware that Roman had entered the house to gather up the last of his things. Hearing voices, Roman intended to announce his presence, until he realized it was Marlena and John. He felt that old twinge of jealousy, and pushed it down. His conversation with Marlena a week ago had left him feeling as if he didn't even know her. His wife was a stranger that he had never even bothered to get to know, simply because he'd expected her to be the same woman he'd been taken from seven years earlier. His refusal to learn who she became was one of the reasons he'd lost her.
Marlena looked at John for a moment, and told him, "He said he'd been having an affair. For two months...with Taylor McCall. She's the one he was doing the undercover case with."
"Shit, Doc. Really?"
"I was surprised, at first, because it seemed so out of character for him, but you know what? Me having an affair seems really out of character, too," she said quietly. "I was hurt, but not for the reason you might think. I was hurt, partly because he doesn't even care for her...not the way I care for you. I want him to be happy, to find someone, but the way he explained it...well it hurt," she said as a tear slid down her cheek.
"What did he say to you?" John asked her, as he felt himself getting angry.
"Nothing really malicious, John. It was more of an insinuation," Marlena said, while she remembered Roman's words, 'exciting', 'new', 'different'.
"Doc?"
"Well, um, he implied that our sex life had always been rather, um...mundane," she said quietly.
"Mundane? Doc! Are you fucking kidding me?" John practically roared. He moved to where she sat, and kneeled down before her. "Baby, sex with you...making love to you, well, that's anything but mundane." John runs his hands up her legs, finally reaching the tie to her robe, slowly undoing the knot. "Do you remember that time in Stockholm. I had you pushed against the window in the hotel room, eight floors up? It turned you on. You were so fucking wet for me, even though you were worried someone might see. Baby, you were dripping down your thighs," John told her as he pushed her knees apart, and pulled her nightgown up over her legs.
"G-d, John...stop! We can't do this...someone could walk in..." Marlena gasped, even as her body betrayed her, and wanted more.
"What about that time in your office bathroom? Against the sink?" He said roughly, pushing her thighs wide. "Was that mundane? Watching your breasts swing in the mirror while you tried not to scream? I don't think so, Doc."
Roman was so confused. The person John was describing was not the Marlena he knew, and it had him questioning how he had lived his whole life, making assumptions without all of the facts. He stood at the kitchen door listening to Marlena's soft gasps, and pants, and even without the visual input...he knew John was doing something sexual to her. Then he heard John say, "Get up on the table, and open your legs for me...wide. I want to see your pussy...wider, Doc...yeah, just like that."
"Oh, G-d, John! What if someone comes home?" she gasped, her eyes looking drowsy with arousal. John moved across the kitchen, grabbing the maple syrup, and Marlena's eyes opened a bit more in apprehension, "John...what are you doing?"
"Doc, I'm about to prove that sex with you, making love to you...is not mundane," he stood over her, staring at her open legs, and her wet, glistening core. "I want to taste you so bad...but first..."
Marlena moaned loudly as warm syrup dribbled over her pussy. "Oh...you're...oh...what a mess..." she moaned as warm, sticky syrup ran down over her clit.
John laughed softly, running his finger over her clit and bringing it to his mouth. "I fucking love it when you're all prim and proper," he said, sucking the syrup from his digit, right before he dove into her pussy like he was a starving man.
Marlena threw her head back, and shouted, "Oh, fuck!"
Roman, his own dick throbbing, left the house in shock. Who was that woman in the kitchen? Because, while it certainly sounded like Marlena, Roman could not seem to reconcile her, with the Marlena he thought he knew. If she was capable of that, why had their sex never been that? Not that he wanted to think on it too deeply, but Roman was able to acknowledge that John pushed her boundaries. He sounded forceful, demanding. John made her do things that made her uncomfortable, but still turned her on. Roman had always treated her like she was fragile, breakable. Maybe it's because when he first came into her life she was fragile. She was breakable...but she certainly wasn't anymore.
~ ~ ~ ~
John took Marlena and Carrie to Colorado to get the twinners the first week of June. They returned just in time for a summer full of baseball, and softball. Marlena was happy that they could start Third Grade back in Salem. She had her children back, and the rest would fall into place.
Their adjustment with Roman took some time, and while Marlena noticed that Roman sometimes got frustrated with their attachment to John, he seemed to be working through it. Roman had reluctantly accepted that the twins still called John, 'Dad'. Carrie did too, sometimes. Eric and Sami started calling Roman, 'Pop'. Towards the end of the summer, Roman had forged enough of a relationship with them to start taking them for occasional overnights, and eventually, every other weekend. Sometimes when Roman took the twins for dinner, or a trip to the zoo, he ended up taking Brady too, simply because Brady wanted to go with Pop, just like Sami and Eric did. Marlena sometimes reflected on the odd nature of their blended family, but they somehow made it work. John wasn't the jealous type, and if Brady liked Roman and wanted to spend time with him, then he was fine with that. John refused to allow Stefano to disrupt his family further.
Roman had briefly mentioned to Marlena, once in passing, that he had started therapy, but he never mentioned it again. She didn't pry, but she did notice changes in how he spoke to people, and the types of questions he asked. He seemed calmer, more at peace with himself. He was less judgmental, and spent more time listening. He'd allowed Marlena to keep the house. It was easier that way, since she had primary custody of the twins, and uprooting them again would do more harm for them, serving only as a petty move on his part.
Once her divorce was finalized from Roman, Marlena and John had a small backyard wedding ceremony with the kids, and a small gathering of friends. They didn't need a large church wedding to demonstrate their love for one another, that was already evident in the way they looked at each other, their gestures, and their softly spoken conversations. By the time they were married, Marlena was nearing eight months pregnant, and she felt like she was huge, but John had a way of making her feel beautiful all of the time, constantly caressing her belly and talking to the baby.
On Tuesday, October 19, 1993, while they celebrated Sami and Eric's ninth birthday at the Brady Pub...Marlena's water broke, and the Brady family descended on the hospital en mass. Almost five hours later they all got to meet Isabella Caroline Black, the newest sister to Carrie, Sami, Eric, and Brady.
