Avenoir

Avenoir - John

John

"I know honey," she leans her forehead against mine. "That must really hurt. I know how much you love him already." Her fingers find mine and she squeezes them, and I feel a rush of gratitude. Marlena loves me. I may have lost the son I thought was mine, but I have the woman I love more than anything in the world and I have our children.

"It does," I tell her. "It hurts. But knowing I have you to comfort me, Doc, it makes it bearable."

"Oh, give me a break," Kristen says from behind me and makes a retching noise. "So, you finally got what you wanted, didn't you, you selfish bitch? You turned him against me."

I turn around to look at Kristen, not bothering to hide my loathing for her from my face.

"Marlena didn't turn me against you," I say, the anger and pain seeping through every word. "She didn't need to."

"She lied to you," Kristen tries to play victim. "I didn't know about any letter. I didn't help Stefano. All I wanted was a family. You and me and our baby."

"Our baby that you miscarried!" I scowl at her. "You didn't even have the decency to let me mourn my child. You ... what did you do, how did you pull it off?"

"She wore a pillow," Laura says suddenly, her eyes wide. "I remember seeing her adjust it after Peter's funeral when she was... Oh my God!" She looks at Kristen. "Peter is still alive."

"She's crazy," Kristen says dully. "She's crazy and Susan's crazy. She's trying to take my child and my family and you're letting her, John."

"If I'm crazy and we're lying then you won't object to Michael examining you," Laura says triumphantly. "To prove you just gave birth."

"I've already been examined, by Dr. Robbins," Kristen huffs angrily. "I don't have to prove anything to you, Laura."

"You have to prove that boy is your biological child if you want to take him home." Laura smirks. "A DNA test should prove who his real mother is. And I am pretty sure that John wants proof that you're telling the truth." She laughs but there's no humour in the sound. I can't say as I blame her. She must hate Kristen almost as much as Marlena does. These good, kind women have been manipulated and victimised endlessly by the DiMera's. They have every right to be furious. "Maybe you want to show your coochie to him. I think even John can tell the difference between a vagina that's just squeezed out a baby and one that's unblemished by the trauma of giving birth."

All eyes turn to Kristen. A series of emotions pass across her face, fury, rage, helpless frustration and finally, surrender.

"All right, yes, I lost our baby," from somewhere, Kristen summons up tears that spill from her lashes, down her reddened cheeks. "In Paris. The stress, the trauma of losing my mother, and I thought, my father. It was too much. I lost our baby, John. And I didn't know what to do."

"Your mother wouldn't have been there, you wouldn't have been there if you hadn't helped your father kidnap me," Marlena says angrily. "You knew your pregnancy was precarious and yet you insisted on going to Paris! Why? To throw John off the trail so he wouldn't find me?"

Marlena tugs on my hand and opens her mouth to speak to me but before I know it, Kristen has launched herself at Marlena, ripping her away from my grasp and shoving her back against the wall with an almighty thud. There is a flurry of movement, Kristen's hands first in her hair and then around Doc's neck, trying to strangle her as she did with Hillary.

I vaguely hear a commotion behind me, but I am on Kristen before a conscious thought even enters my brain. Marlena is trying to fend her off, but Kristen is endowed with the kind of super-strength that only a psychotic rage and revenge can provide.