Sami's mind raced as she heard some shuffling outside her door and then it opened once again. It was EJ!

Sami's heart leapt with joy that he was being returned to the room, but it sank when she saw the disheveled condition he was in as his chin faced the ground, his eyes barely opened, his shirt was ripped open exposing chiseled abs glistening with sweat while Bart and Rolf steadied his shoulders as he slunk across the room to collapse in the bed.

Sami's sadness turned to rage when she saw the burn marks on his neck, presumably from the electrodes that had been attached there by Rolf or one of his goons. She ran at Rolf and pounded his chest with her fists but Bart quickly pulled her away and restrained her.

"Are you interested in spending the night tied to this chair?" Rolf asked pointing to the wooden chair in the corner.

Sami nodded in the negative.

"Then are you going to cooperate? Can you learn something from your friend over there?" Rolf asked pointing to E.J. writhing on the bed.

Sami grimaced but nodded in the affirmative.

"Good. Then I suggest you get some rest," Rolf said.

"Yeah, Blondie. No more tricks." Bart added as he once more pointed a gun at Sami and the two of them exited the room.

The door slammed and Sami ran over to E.J. to try to talk to him but he was unresponsive making unintelligible groaning noises as she knelt down to comfort him, helping him to remove his shoes and helping him pull the bed covers on top of him.

"What are we going to do?" she sobbed as she caressed his face and held his 5 o'clock shadow in the palm of her hand.

Sami felt his forehead with the back of her hand and watched with concern as the sweat dripped from his temples.

"Oh, E.J., you're burning up!"

Sami quickly retrieved a dingy white cloth from a cabinet above the room's wash basin and wet it in cool water from the faucet. She squeezed the cloth a few times and found the splash of the water soothing after what had been such a dreadful night.

Once the dripping had ceased to her satisfaction, Sami walked over to E.J. and placed the cloth on his forehead and then tried to stifle a yawn with her left hand.

She looked around the room to try to figure out where she might sleep. The room only had the twin bed and there was no way she was moving E.J.

"What the hell?" she finally muttered to herself. " It's not like E.J. will mind."

Sami kicked off her shoes and slid off her jeans, folding them and placing them on the dresser. Next she slowly unbuttoned her shirt while staring at E.J. as he continued to groan and she wondered what exactly the Dimeras had done to him and why.

She folded the shirt and set it on top of her jeans before tiptoeing across the room and lifting the covers.

At first she tried turning away from E.J. with her back to him, nearly falling off the bed a few times, but finally gave up knowing that she would never be comfortable that way.

She turned toward him and lifted up his arm so she could use it as a pillow as she rested her arm across his chest.

Somehow her troubles and fears quickly faded away there and her mind stopped racing so she was finally able to drift away to unconsciousness.

E.J. was dreaming too, much less pleasant dreams, but if she had stayed awake and listened closely to all the jibberish and grunts he spoke in his sleep, eventually she would have been able to make out the one word he was still able to say, "Samantha."

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