I've Loved You Before

Chapter 11 - Seven Years

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Spinning, laughing

Dancing to her favorite song

A little girl with nothing wrong

Is all alone

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Marlena sat in her office, staring at the pen in her hand. Nothing more than a nondescript ink pen to most people, but it had been a gift from John, when he was Roman. He'd given it to her when she'd marked her tenth year at Salem University Hospital, and he'd saved it when she'd disappeared, and everyone had presumed her dead. Upon their return from Mexico, when he was trying to learn the truth of his past, and she was attempting to get her license back, he'd appeared in her office. She could clearly remember him pulling it from his pocket with soft whispered words, "I thought you might need this."

The navy barrel with gold embellishment was one of her most treasured possessions. Roman had asked her about it a few months earlier, and she'd simply told him it was a gift. She didn't elaborate, and he hadn't asked.

She glanced up when there was a knock on her door. Her secretary was out for the day, and she had been managing her appointments on her own. It had been a hectic day, and she was sure she had missed calls, but there was nothing to be done for it. She couldn't do both jobs. "Come in," she said, standing up, and smoothing her skirt. She was rounding her desk when John poked his head in looking slightly frazzled. "John! What are you doing here?"

"Hey, Doc. We've got a bit of a situation, but I've got it handled. Sami's school called me, I guess they couldn't reach you or Roman, and I was never taken off of the emergency contact list. Sami hurt herself at school. Apparently she was on the merry-go-round, and–"

"--she jumped off?" Marlena interjected. She had just had a conversation with Sami a few days earlier about her escapades on the playground equipment. She was jumping off of swings, and catapulting herself off of the merry-go-round.

John shrugged because he wasn't sure how Sami had broken her arm. "Don't worry," he said. "I picked her up from school, and she's in with Dr. Horton now. She knows I popped out real quick to track you down, but I think she's broken her arm."

"Thank you!" she gasped, rushing forward. She grabbed John's face, "Thank you! Thank you!"

John reached for her hand, lacing his fingers through hers. "Let's go."

Marlena followed him from her office, down the hall, and onto the elevator. "Is she okay otherwise?"

"She's in pain, a little scraped up, but she'll be fine," he reassured her. "I ran into Carrie, and asked her to keep trying to reach Roman at the station, and I left another message for him, but they said he's in a meeting."

Once they reached the ground floor emergency room, John stopped Marlena just before she went into the curtained area he'd indicated, "Whoa! Whoa, Doc. Hold on." Pulling her off to the side, he wiped at her eyes, and then fixed her hair, and her jacket. "There. No need to go upsetting Sami anymore than she already is."

"Thank you," she whispered.

"No problem." He smiled, and then grabbing her shoulders, he turned her towards the curtain. A quick swat on her backside, and he pushed her forward, "Now go."

Marlena laughed, "John!" but then, she stepped around the curtain to find Sami sitting on a gurney with a popsicle in her hand, and Dr. Horton wrapping her arm. Sami's hair was a mess, her ponytail somehow on the side of her head with clumps of hair sticking up. She was dirty, and her hands were scraped, but otherwise she was well. "Oh, Sami! Darling!"