Breathe

Chapter 1 - Prologue

June 1992

John's world had collapsed around him a year ago. The day he'd opened his front door to find Shane Donovan and Chief Tarrington standing there with equal looks of dread, he'd known something was wrong. All he could do was be grateful for the fact that the children weren't home when his world came crashing down. Carrie had driven the twins to school, and then driven herself to the high school. It had started as a normal day, but a few hours later, John was a broken man, with no idea who he was. He lost everything in the span of three hours, his home, his children, his family, and his job. All of it was gone, because according to the ISA, he wasn't Roman Brady, and they had the DNA to prove it. He was back to square one, and the real Roman Brady took back everything.

A court battle ensued, with John spending most of his savings on legal fees, while he fought to have contact with the children. He lost. Even with the support of Kim, Bo, and Kayla, he'd lost. They had tried to explain to Roman that taking the children away from the only father they'd ever known would be detrimental, especially after losing their mother four years earlier. It hadn't changed Roman's mind. He'd returned to Salem angry, furious really. A raging inferno that directed all of his pain and all of his trauma at John, because there was no one else he could take it out on.

According to Roman's attorney, John had been knowingly masquerading as Roman Brady since late May of 1986, but in truth no one knew who he really was, or even where he came from. Roman argued that John was a mercenary trained by Stefano DiMera, and he could, at any moment, be triggered. Roman used the horrors of his own trauma to back up that claim. He also argued that John was unsafe for the children to be around, and while John was vilified, Roman's attorney turned him into a martyr. Roman was portrayed as a man who'd had his life stolen from him, by Stefano, and by John. Falsely imprisoned with only one thing to keep him alive... the hope of returning to his family. Roman had been the victim, one who came home to find a stranger playing daddy to his children, and his wife dead. John had been a co-conspirator of Stefano DiMera.

Roman had moved back into the house with the twins, and Carrie. John had moved in with Isabella. But John struggled with it all. Losing Marlena twice had almost killed him. He'd lived for Carrie and the twins. They were the steady constant in his life, and without them, he was lost again. Even with Isabella, he'd been lost. In the year since Roman's return, John had married Isabella, and he'd held her hand as she died of cancer eight months later. If losing Marlena had destroyed him, and losing the children had made him feel lost, adding Isabella to the list of losses almost destroyed him. John was literally a man who was broken.

Victor checked on him every few days, and encouraged him to see a therapist, but John couldn't even think of therapy without feeling himself sink even deeper into a depressive abyss full of memories of Marlena. His first wife, the one who had died and left him behind. The one who had been the light leading him home. John tried to stay focused on the PI business Isabella and Bo had built up, doing side jobs for Bo to help him out, but the day to day part of living was incredibly difficult. The loft was dark without Isabella, and his life was even darker. All he had was the occasional visit with Carrie, the daughter who refused to give up on him. In truth, Carrie and the twins were the only reason he was still in Salem.

John slid into the booth at the diner on the far side of town, and waited for Carrie. He was a few minutes early. Meeting with her, and the rare occasions he saw the twinners was incredibly important. He'd never been completely comfortable with the way Roman forced his way back into their lives. There would be lasting effects to what they'd been through. What they had all been through, and Carrie had been the one to keep his relationship with her, Eric, and Sami alive, because Roman did his damndest to squash them.

John looked up with a smile, when Carrie slid into the seat across from him, "Hey, Punkin'." She seemed slightly out of breath, and as John stared at her oversized backpack, he knew why.