I'm coming home, this time I'm gonna stay
I'm coming home, and I ain't never goin' away
~ "Goin' Home", Elvis Presley
Marlena snuggled into Roman's side in the early morning hours, grateful to have some time with him before the children woke up. She ran her fingers through the hair on his chest, and sighed into him softly, breathing in the scent of his skin and the soap he showered with the evening before.
"Are you okay, Doc?" he asked her, smoothing his palm over the blonde hair spread out on his shoulder.
"Are you okay?" she asked him, tentatively. "I know we talked briefly last night, but there was so much to talk about, and it was exhausting. I don't even know where to start..."
"I Know. G-d, do I know," he sighed.
"Do you want me to call you John...or Roman?" she asked him, rubbing her cheek along his skin.
"It's all so confusing. I knew, Doc. When the ISA did the DNA test, and they told me I wasn't Roman...it felt so wrong. I knew, I was Roman, even if I lacked the memories to back it up. Do you remember when Caroline tricked me?" he said.
"The memory about the birthday party. I remember."
"That hurt so much. I wanted to remember, and when I didn't, she and Shawn took that to mean that I wasn't Roman. Finding out that Stefano intentionally manipulated all of us isn't surprising at all, but it still hurts," he told her. "It felt like everyone turned on me so quickly, and accepted the new Roman, as if they had always doubted me. I understand that choices were made based on the situation at hand. Isabella was pregnant, and you were married to "Roman". We made choices, but I lost everything. Every fucking thing I had was taken away from me because of a falsified DNA test done by ISA. I kept saying the ISA couldn't be trusted, and no one listened to me."
"You have a right to be sad, to be hurt. You're right. We blindly accepted the word of an agency that you had repeatedly told us was corrupt. Not only that, we never checked the validity of it, even after Shane told us later, that Chief Tarrington was corrupt. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. We went through so much, fighting our feelings for each other. Thinking they were wrong, and it nearly destroyed us. It's going to take time to work through all of this, but I will always be there for you...and so will your family."
"I'm Roman Brady. I have always been Roman Brady."
"Roman..." she said quietly, letting the name roll off of her tongue again. "It doesn't matter what name you carry, John or Roman...I love you with my entire being. My heart, and soul belong to you," she told him, propping herself up on her elbow so that she could look at him.
Looking into her golden colored eyes, he said quietly, "Yeah, Roman."
Marlena leaned forward, kissing him gently on his lips. "You know, we have another problem," she said with a small chuckle. "We can't have a child named Brady Brady."
Roman started laughing, "Brady Brady...I can see how that could be a complication. We can do a name change, and still call him Brady."
"You know, he's nearly five. We could ask him what name he might like," Marlena suggested.
"As long as we keep Victor as part of his name, because Isabella would want that," he said, remembering Isabella's promise to Victor.
"Do you have any ideas about John Jr.?" she asked him, laying her head back down on Roman's shoulder.
