John and Marlena (Finally) Get a Q!

Chapter 43 - Explanations and Other Weird Things

John was shaking with rage. He couldn't believe Kristen had done this to him. Of all of the things she could have done, nothing could surpass this. He tried to calm himself with several deep breaths. The only thing that made this whole thing bearable was that obviously and somewhat ironically, somehow her plan had backfired. Biting his lip till it hurt, he lifted himself out of the chair and went to stand by the window, hoping futilely that he could escape Q's searching gaze. To be deceived in such a way and then to be exposed in front of a man like Q was something he could not deal with.

It was a useless exercise to hold the tears back as he stared unseeingly from the window. He had never felt quite so empty and so violated.

"How could she do that to me?" His voice was little more than a strangled whisper.

"I'm sorry John." Q's voice came softly, surprisingly accented with compassion. "I felt you deserved to know the truth about what happened. I realize it can't be very pleasant for you."

"Pleasant?!" John turned on his feet, his face red, his fists clenched so tight that they were shaking. "Pleasant? I trusted that women. Hell, I thought I loved her, but I didn't even know her. All the time, she was making a fool of me." He swallowed convulsively as the bile rose in his throat. "She.... what she did..." He couldn't even say the words. What she had done was worse than taking advantage of him. She had hypnotized him and then she had slept with him without his knowledge, or even his consent.

The feeling of nausea was suddenly replaced with an overwhelming sense of rage.

"I'll kill her!" His whole body was shaking now as he tried to contain the anger boiling inside him. There was nothing that had ever made him quite so furious, and he knew that if he could see Kristen at this moment, he would have to struggle to stop from throttling her with his bare hands.

"I don't think that is a particularly good idea, John." John jumped visibly as Q's voice came from just behind his shoulder. "After all, she is carrying your child."

"I'm not likely to forget that in a hurry." John snarled through gritted teeth. "And it's just as well for her." He stormed away from Q irritably.

Mike's office suddenly seemed far too small a place to be having a conversation like this. He leaned on the back of the chair, his head between his arms, trying to maintain some semblance of control. "I never understood how truly evil she was. Even after I read what she had done to Doc, even after....." he swallowed heavily, trying to mask the burning hatred he felt for the woman he had once loved. "I always believed that being brought up with Stefano hadn't affected her." He sighed. "I've been so stupid. All that time and I never saw her for what she really was. I saw what I wanted to see. What would appease my own guilty conscience." His face again wore the mask of self-hatred that afflicted him from time to time. "I never wanted to see the truth. That she could never be anything but what she was brought up to be. A DiMera." He spat out the name like it was poison on his tongue.

Q looked at John quizzically, his eyebrows raised in mild amusement at John's self-recriminations. "Well John, you'd better start figuring out how you are going to convince this DiMera to carry Marlena's child."

******

Marlena tucked Belle's blanket into the small bed and kissed the tiny tot on the forehead. She smiled as the child reached out sleepily to her.

"Where you goin' Mommy?" the little girl's voice was blurred with drowsiness as her mother took her tiny hand and sat on the edge of her bed.

"I have to go out and see your Daddy, sweetie girl." Marlena told her in a hushed voice. "Your Granma is coming over to look after you." She smiled again and brushed Belle's bangs from her blue eyes, so like her daddy's. "So, I'll see you in the morning, okay?"