Blurred Lines

Chapter 30 - Need You Now

January 18, 1993

Pier 29

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Picture perfect memories scattered all around the floor

Reaching for the phone 'cause I can't fight it anymore

And I wonder if I ever cross your mind

For me, it happens all the time

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The cold air blowing in off of the river, cooled the hot tears that ran over Marlena's cheeks. She brushed at them absently with the back of her hand, and stared out over the water. She felt like she'd been crying on and off for hours. She closed her eyes remembering the night she reunited with John on this very pier. The fog. The echo and clang of the buoys. The splash of water against the wooden pilings. Taking a deep breath, she thought about how closely related scent and memory were. All she had to do was stand there in the darkness, and allow her sense of smell, and her ears to transport her to another time... another place.

She smelled John's cologne before she heard his footsteps descending the stairs. They would never be able to explain their connection, but she'd left her home just after eight o'clock with a feeling that she would somehow see him tonight. She'd last seen John on Wednesday when Eric's cast was removed. Since then, she'd seen Mike three times. He'd taken her to lunch on Friday, and then dinner Sunday night. She'd just left him after running into him at the pub when she was dropping off the twins for a sleepover with Shawn and Caroline. Tonight, he'd kissed her softly, and she found herself wishing it was John. Trying to move on was feeling impossible. That was why she found herself at the pier. Pier 29 was where she felt closest to John, even when he wasn't with her. And he'd somehow found her.

He stepped onto the pier, and slowly approached Marlena. He couldn't say definitively what had drawn him to this particular pier, especially since he'd been actively avoiding it for weeks. But after Brady was down for the night, John had told Isabella he was going for a walk, and left the loft. Marlena stood in the light fog, with her coat wrapped tightly around her. She was a vision. He thought she looked angelic, the way the lamps sparkled off of the soft tendrils of hair as the breeze blew them across her cheeks like whispers in the night.

His footsteps slowed, and she turned towards him. He seemed so unsure, as if he questioned whether he should be there at all. She knew he didn't trust himself to be alone with her, and yet they both had somehow found their way to that exact spot, at that exact time. When he was standing beside her, his hands tucked deeply into his black leather jacket, Marlena smiled, saying softly, "Real or not real? The last time we were here together was the night the DNA test came back for Roman?"

John's voice choked, as he said, "Real."

"It's odd, you know." She stared at him with soft eyes, "I don't remember anything from that night except the way you looked in the rain. What I know is from what I've been told. But the feelings and the way you looked that night... I remember that. Sadness, and you were... you were so lost that night. It's been a long time since the two of us were on this pier together."

"It has," he said, watching her warily.

Marlena didn't approach him. She was afraid he would run. He looked as if he might in that moment. She smiled at him softly, before looking out over the river, "After all those years of believing I was dead... this pier is where we saw each other for the first time."

John felt himself being pulled in by the soft cadence of her voice, "When you first came back to Salem, after all those years, some mysterious force was directing me here."