At Maggie's, Mia was leaving a message for Chad when Will knocked on the back door. He planted a huge kiss on her, and then explained, beaming, that Sydney was back home. Mia was thrilled for Will and his family. Will thanked her for being there for him through the ordeal, and declared that she was the most important person in the world to him.

Later, Will and Mia walked to the Java Café together. As they stopped out front, he gave her a St. Christopher medal. He explained that it was supposed to protect her, adding, "I was kind of hoping that the medal could also mean that you and I are exclusive." Mia smiled halfheartedly, but a happy Will didn't even notice as he embraced her.

In their hotel room, Brady got down on one knee before Arianna. "Arianna Hernandez, will you marry me?" he asked, grinning, as he opened the ring box. "No!" she blurted, seeming to stun even herself. Stammering, Arianna tried to explain why she was turning him down, but Brady's ringing cell phone interrupted them, and he left the room to take the call. Gabi called Arianna just then to ask about a problem she was having at the pub. Arianna thrilled her sister with the news that Brady had just proposed-but then Arianna informed Gabi that she had said no.

When Brady returned, he tried to make light of the situation, to no avail. "Obviously, I'm not really good at saying how I feel, so I'm just going to show you," Arianna said, and then grabbed Brady and kissed him deeply. Brady kissed her back, but then pushed her away. "What was that?" he demanded.

Arianna tried to reassure him, "Just because I'm not ready to marry you doesn't mean I don't want to be with you." She explained that before she got married, she wanted to be sure it was going to last forever, because she knew that the longevity of a marriage wasn't solely about love. "I do understand; I even agree," conceded Brady. "But I reserve the right to make future offers." Smiling, Arianna replied that she hoped he would, and then suggested mischievously that she knew how they could pass the time until they were both ready.

Maggie lost her balance and stumbled outside the Java Café. As she steadied herself, she thought back to the times she'd dropped things around the house. "Don't overreact," she told herself. "Get your medication adjusted and you'll be just fine." Maggie was barely composed again when Nathan arrived to meet her.

After they'd gotten a table, Maggie acknowledged that she shouldn't have called Nathan, but he was eager to hear what she had wanted to discuss. Maggie observed that Nathan seemed distracted, and he confessed that he'd recently realized that he wasn't over Melanie. "Melanie is married," Maggie reminded him firmly.

Nathan wasn't completely convinced that Melanie loved Philip, because she'd been really upset when she learned that Nathan hadn't read the letter she'd written to him before the wedding. "I should have stopped that wedding when I had the chance!" Nathan declared. It appalled Maggie to learn that only Chloe had kept Nathan from interrupting the ceremony.

"You have clearly done a great deal of thinking about Melanie, and about yourself," Maggie mused. "But have you even thought at all about Philip-or Stephanie?" Nathan sheepishly insisted that he really liked Stephanie, and they'd had a great time on their ski trip, but he hadn't known then how Melanie felt. Maggie urged him to move on-like Melanie had. Just then, Nathan's pager beeped, and he reluctantly left for the hospital.

Maggie arrived at home and called out to Mia, but got no answer. Suddenly she reeled as if she were dizzy, and then collapsed on the floor. When she awakened later, she pulled herself into a kitchen chair with obvious pain, and let out a troubled sigh.

As he walked along the pier, Nathan told himself that he had to talk to Melanie, to find out what was in the letter.

Stephanie perched on the edge of Melanie's hospital bed and asked how Melanie was doing. "How do you think I'm doing, you bitch?" Melanie retorted. "You didn't give Nathan that letter because you would do anything to get him in bed with you." Stephanie accused Melanie of writing love letters to an old boyfriend while her fiancé was waiting at the altar, and of loving every second of being engaged to one man while stringing the other along.

"Nathan had a right to know how I felt," Melanie argued. "So did Philip!" countered Stephanie, adding that Melanie should have told Philip she couldn't go through with the wedding if she still had feelings for Nathan. Melanie calmly observed that Stephanie wasn't nearly as sweet as everyone seemed to think. Stephanie pointed out that she could ruin Melanie's marriage, so Melanie should be careful not to get on Stephanie's bad side.

Melanie wondered what Nathan would think when he found out that Stephanie kept the letter from him. Stephanie asserted that Nathan had been too excited about going away with her to care about a letter from Melanie. Melanie pronounced Nathan's relationship with Stephanie merely a "rebound." Stephanie divulged that the two of them had been seeing each other for a while, but they had kept it quiet out of respect for Melanie.

Laughing, Melanie asked sarcastically, "So, the night before the wedding, when Nathan came over to tell me he wanted me, it was to throw me off the trail?" Stephanie pointed out that Melanie had just become Mrs. Philip Kiriakis. "And you want to hurt the guy who's done everything for you? You really want to blow his world apart?" When Melanie shook her head, Stephanie urged her to stay away from Nathan. Philip called Melanie just then to wish her a good night, so Stephanie left.

After Melanie hung up from saying goodnight to Philip, she admitted, "Stephanie was right; I can't hurt him." Nathan arrived right after Melanie had closed her eyes to sleep, and his cell phone rang as he watched her through the window. It was Stephanie, who declared that they needed to talk. "Yeah, you're right," Nathan agreed. "We do."

At the hospital, as E.J. was telling Sami, "I'd like to stay the night with you," Rafe walked in. "Someone care to tell me what the hell's going on here?" Rafe demanded. E.J. acknowledged that it was asking a lot, but after everything that had happened with Sydney, he just wanted to be there when his children went to bed, and when they got up the next morning. Sami and Rafe were a bit taken aback, especially when E.J. confessed that he also wanted to be with Samantha, because, he maintained, only the two of them truly understood what the other was going through.

Rafe suggested that E.J. give his statement to Agent Clark while Rafe spoke to Sami privately. E.J. agreed, but first made a snide remark about Rafe's being at fault in the bungled ransom drop. Sami assured Rafe that she wanted him-and only him-to share Sydney's first night home with her and the kids, but she didn't think she could exclude E.J.

E.J. then answered Agent Clark's questions, while Rafe listened. E.J. described the ransom letters, and the website where they had watched a ransom demand scroll across a video of Sydney. E.J. claimed that he had kept the information to himself because of what had happened the previous time. The kidnappers had called E.J. later to say that the video had been a hoax, at which point he'd told Samantha that Sydney was dead. A couple of hours later, the kidnappers had called with the final ransom demand, and ordered E.J. not to involve the authorities.

Rafe wondered why E.J. hadn't questioned the kidnappers' reasons for lying about Sydney being dead. E.J. guessed that it had been to make them feel vulnerable. Rafe speculated that when they figured out what was going on during those phone calls, it would lead them right to the kidnappers. E.J. pointed out that Rafe seemed more concerned with making an arrest than celebrating Sydney's safe return.

Rafe was suspicious because E.J. seemed not to care about ensuring that the kidnapper was caught and punished-and prevented from doing it to someone else. E.J. didn't think they would do it again. "Why is that?" Rafe asked. "What is this insight that you have into the kidnapper that I don't have?" After E.J. left to get Sydney, Rafe asked Agent Clark for a copy of her recording of the interview.

Meanwhile, Abe questioned Sami, who tried to justify her and E.J.'s actions in keeping the ransom demands a secret. When Abe left to talk to Agent Clark, Sami told Rafe that she felt terrible about keeping things from him, but he reassured her that he understood. Rafe then asked if he could let the lab examine the video on her laptop, and Sami consented.

E.J. returned, carrying Sydney, and Lexie was right behind them. As Sami happily took her daughter from E.J., Lexie informed them that Sydney was fine. E.J. pulled Rafe aside and repeated his request to spend the night at the townhouse. Rafe conceded that it was all right, "If that's what Samantha wants." Lexie was dubious when E.J. insisted to her that he wanted to stay at Sami's because of the kids, and that it had nothing to do with Sami. "Oh, E.J., you just keep telling yourself that," Lexie muttered, chuckling skeptically, as she watched her brother leave.

After they got back to the townhouse, Rafe put the twins to bed, and Sami noted with a laugh that Sydney was still wide awake. When E.J. arrived, Rafe immediately pulled on his coat, reminded Sami that he had to take her laptop in to be examined, and left.

E.J. was quick to find fault with Rafe's actions, but Sami shut him down. "I'm not interested in your opinions," she declared. "And in fact, I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't give him those snarky, snippy, obnoxious little things that annoy him!" E.J. burst out laughing, which just irked Sami. "I didn't just get Sydney back," E.J. noted, grinning. "I got you back." Smiling in spite of herself, Sami admitted, "You're right; I am back. And don't you forget it."

Later, E.J. returned to the living room from checking in on the twins, and found Sami asleep in a chair, with Sydney in her lap. He kissed Sydney on the head, gently covered Sami with a blanket, and sat down near them on the couch.

At the police station, Rafe instructed Agent Clark to find out everything possible about the video on Sami's laptop, and to pull the records for all of E.J.'s phone lines. Agent Clark returned shortly with E.J.'s cell phone records, which Rafe quickly reviewed. "So right there, that's right when he called Sami," Rafe noted. "I was with her when she got that call. So right before then, that's when the kidnapper must have called E.J. We're closing in on you, sucker."