Unspoken

Chapter 9

October 1, 1992

Isabella found Marlena reading on the couch in the library at two in the morning. She carried with her a pillow and a blanket. Marlena looked up in surprise as Isabella entered the room on bare feet. The fire in the hearth was dying, and she was concerned that the room might not be warm enough for Isabella. She folded the corner of the page she was reading, pushed her glasses up on her head, and sat her book down on the small table beside her. "Are you okay?"

"I didn't realize you were awake," Isabella said quietly. "I couldn't sleep, and I felt like all of my tossing, and turning might keep John up. He needs his sleep."

"You need your sleep too," Marlena said gently. "Do you need something to help with that?"

"Maybe," she replied, making her way towards the couch. She gestured towards the opposite end. "Do you mind?"

"Mind?" Marlena repeated. "Why would I mind?"

Isabella shrugged, and settled herself onto the leather couch. Marlena stood up, reaching for the pillow, and then she helped get it wedged behind John's wife. "Thank you," Isabella whispered.

With the blanket spread over Isabella, Marlena sat back down, saying, "I haven't been sleeping very well either."

"John mentioned you were having nightmares about your time with Stefano," Isabella said gently. "He didn't tell me too much, he just mentioned it."

"I don't mind him telling you. I find them confusing. They aren't chronological, and since they're dreams... I don't know if they're real or not." She sighed, and then met Isabella's gaze. "I tell myself that, and then–"

" –the Pagoda though," Isabella said. She'd been thinking about it a lot since John had mentioned it. If Stefano hadn't tricked John during that time, he might never have fallen in love with Isabella, or had Brady. "You dreamt that, but John verified it. It wasn't simply a dream."

"I know, and that's what scares me the most," Marlena whispered. She sat back against the arm of the couch, and pulled her legs up. It was odd, having a quiet moment with Isabella, just the two of them. Their relationship had always had so many undercurrents of tension, but on this trip there hadn't been any. Something had changed, and while the most obvious would be Isabella's impending death, Marlena felt like there was something else she didn't fully understand.

"Are you dreaming of other things?" Isabella asked her. "Things from when you were missing?"

"I think so, but as I said, I have no way to know–"

" –let's say they aren't dreams. Just assume they are memories." Isabella allowed her head to rest on the pillow behind her as she slid a little lower onto the couch. "Does that change anything?"

"I find that frightening." Marlena sighed softly. It was frightening because it created more questions than answers. "Tonight I woke up– you know what? Never mind. It doesn't matter."

"I have nothing more to do than spend time with John and Brady and ponder the mysteries of life." Isabella smiled, saying, "So tell me. I need a distraction."

"Stefano was taunting me," Marlena said. She left out the details of her hand on her rounded abdomen. She'd been pregnant in her dream. "He found my desire to get home to Roman and the children humorous. I understand why now. John isn't Roman, but in my dream–"

" –memory," Isabella interrupted. "I think you're having memories. You should think of them that way."

"In my memory... he found such glee in my pain. All I wanted was my family... my husband." Wiping the tears from her eyes, she said quietly, "That's all I wanted when I woke up in San Cristobal – to come home, and I didn't even realize how much time had passed until I saw a calendar. Five years of my life were gone, and I couldn't recall any of them. I assumed at first that I'd been in a coma the whole time, but I know that can't be true. No one wakes from a five year coma, and escapes an island during a storm. My body would have collapsed. My muscles would have been atrophied."