It’s Christmas Eve in Salem; Kayla, Steve and
Roman, sit with Joey at a table at the diner; it’s tradition for them to open
one present there before going to the kid’s party at the hospital. Jade walks in and asks if she’s intruding;
Joey said he invited her. Steve steps
forward and tells her she is part of the family now, lucky her, he says. Joey gives Jade a gift; a pair of crystal
earrings he didn’t steal.
They agree they both need to change, for the baby. Hope’s appeal has been denied; Justin makes
a phone call, vowing to go as high as the Supreme Court if necessary. Adrian sits down on the couch with him -
Sonny is off to meet Gabi and Ari at the hospital Christmas party; he says
goodbye. Adrian asks if she looks
alright; thinks she might have overdone the blush… she’s just so “washed out”
from the chemo, she says. She starts to
talk, then gets nauseous and runs to the bathroom. She tries to excuse herself to go home afterward, but Justin asks her to stay there
and let him take care of her tonight.
She says okay. He makes her some
warm cider and she sips it, as they laugh about how much trouble he used to
have putting together toys for Santa, and the Christmas Day trips to the
emergency room. He says the thing he
remembers the most how he used to sit on their couch, staring at her and
watching them, thinking to himself that it “is a wonderful life.” He grabs her hand. She thanks him for everything.
She falls asleep with her head on his lap; a nice fire roars in the
fireplace.
At the hospital, Paul,
dressed as an elf, leads a parade of the children staying in the children’s
ward through the hallway and into the room where everyone is waiting. Gabi asks her brother to be nice to Sonny
and to keep their business disputes outside of this party for the children; the
agree, although Dario finds it difficult, especially after Paul enters the
room. Dario gives Gabi another gift; a
new purse, a real one this time, he says.
He couldn’t stand the thought of her having a knock off; although she
professes she loves the first one, he insists and she switches purses. He takes the old one into a back room and
cuts out the microchip, stuffing it in his pocket; Sonny steps in the doorway
and sees him (although his back is turned to the door so he couldn't have seen everything).
Chad starts to cry when he sees Abigail; he
says he doesn’t understand and asks how she is alive. She can’t say anything; she lays Thomas down in his crib. Chad steps closer to her, he reaches out,
and touches her face – then grabs both sides of her head and pulls her closer
to him and hugs her; they both start to cry.
He says he doesn’t want to let go of her because he’s afraid if he does,
she might disappear… he asks if she is even real. She shakes her head yes; he pulls away, and say, “wait a minute,
you were dead; where have you been?”
She just looks at him and he asks why she isn’t saying anything. I’m wondering that myself. He takes her back into ‘their’ room; she is
surprised to see that nothing has changed – he points out the baby monitor and
the fact that they could hear Thomas if he fusses. He asks her to please tell him where she’s been this past year;
she asks if it couldn’t just be enough that she is there now.
She is very nervous as she starts to tell
him about why she escaped from the hospital and what she was thinking; she says
she left the letter with Andre and tells him that he is the one who convinced
her that Chad needed to think she was dead.
Chad then becomes angry, not only that his brother lied to him, but that
she would let him think that she was dead and just abandon him and their son
like that for a year... he asks how she
could do that to them; and how she could let Andre help her – she tries to
explain how she stayed with her grandma, and got her meds straightened out. She says they just didn’t know, for so long, if she was ever going to be
normal. She admits that she didn’t even
come back to see them, really; it was because JJ had been shot. Chad yells, that
was months ago and asks where she’s been staying. She won’t tell him; she says maybe he’s still better off without
her there and starts to walk past him; he grabs her arm and says she can’t
leave now, tears still running down his face. She tells
him he’s better off without her, that she saw him take off his ring and she saw
him with Gabi; he gets very angry and asks if she didn’t notice when he took
off his ring, he was an emotional wreck, trying not to fall apart in front of
their son. He says he was moving on
because she wasn’t there; he thought that’s what he was supposed to do.
Abigail apologizes and says she sees that she
has just made things worse; she sits down on the bed and says she wishes she
would actually die. He kneels down and
grabs her; he tells her never to say that again… he cries; he says if she goes
away now, then Ben wins. He begs her
not to let Ben win; she tells him she just doesn’t think she can be the wife he
needs her to be. He jumps up in frustration; just then, Thomas starts crying. He asks her if
she thinks she can be the mother that baby needs her to be; she looks at
him…then goes to get Thomas. Chad
watches her as she carefully picks him up, and cradles him in her arms.
