Dixie opens the door and finds a smiling Tad on the other side. Shocked to see him, she slams the door in her face.
Tad: (confused) Dixie, what are you doing?!
Dixie: (panicking, she locks the door)Go away!
Tad: It's me, Tad! Open the door.
Dixie: Leave me alone!! (begins to barricade the door)
Tad: Look, I know it's a shock, but it's me, I swear. I'm alive. Look, I promise everything is going to be okay.
Dixie: (getting upset) Look, I know who you are. I know why you're doing this. Adam's paying you off.
Tad: (getting frustrated) I wouldn't take a dime from Adam Chandler!
Dixie: Yeah right!
Tad: I hate his guts! You know that! He screwed us up so many times before. What would I have to do with him?
Dixie: Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!
Tad: Look, the only decent thing Adam has ever done in his entire life is to drop this custody suit. It's over, don't you see? It's okay. You can keep Junior. You can come home!
Dixie: If you were really Tad, you'd know how I feel about Adam, okay.
Tad: All right, all right, then don't believe Adam. Believe me!
Dixie: Believe you?! I know who you are, okay! (freaking out, she tries to climb out the window) I have seen you before. You're Ted Orsini.
Tad: I know, I know. On the bridge. I saw you too, but I didn't . . .
Dixie: Your mother was a very sweet woman. She would be rolling over in her grave if she knew you were doing this!
Tad: Dixie, my mother knew everything. She wanted me to be here. She wanted us to be together.
Dixie: Look, just forget about it! I am not going back to Pine Valley!
Tad: Dixie, come on!!! There's no time for this! Dammit, by now Brian and Junior are already at the airport.
Dixie: (stopping dead in her tracks) How do you know that?
Tad: It doesn't matter. Charlie and Hayley have gone there to find them.
Dixie: You don't know what you're talking about!
Tad: I do. If you'll just come back with me, come home. Everybody in Pine Valley will back me up.
Dixie: Good-bye Mr. Orsini! (trying to climb out the window again)
Tad: (getting even more upset) Dixie!! Come on!! Don't do this!! I'm right here!! On the other side of this door. All you have to do is open it. It's me, I swear it!!! Dixie, come on!!!! What ever happened to us? Don't you remember? . . . Together forever. (Suddenly beginning to doubt herself, she stops dead in her tracks and listens to what Tad is saying) Dixie, I love you! I know I made you that promise. I'm sorry I couldn't keep my word.
Dixie: Don't say that!
Tad: Why not? It's true! I do love you, it's the only reason I came back.
Dixie: You don't know me! You're Ted Orsini.
Tad: No, I'm not. I'm not who you think I am. Hell, I'm not who I thought I was. Dixie, don't you remember the bridge? What happened? The accident? I lost my memory, that's why I was gone so long. I showed up in town by accident. The minute I set foot in Pine Valley I started to remember things. I started to remember you.
Dixie: Well then why didn't you do anything? Why didn't you try and find me?
Tad: Because I could only remember bits and pieces . . .even now. I remembered your face, your voice, but I couldn't remember who you were, what your name was. I remembered how much I loved you. I can't believe I ever forgot. I remembered the chicken fingers in the park, or the lullaby, the way you used to sing . . . "You are My Sunshine" to Junior all the time.
Dixie: Adam told you those things. Anybody knows that.
Tad: What about the bridge? I remember the accident, where I fell, and where I saw you.
Dixie: You could have read that in the newspaper.
Tad: All right, Dixie. Dixie, listen to me. Ask me a question. One question. Something personal, something, . . .something intimate, something that only Tad Martin could have known. Dixie, please!! Please! Ask me a question!
Dixie: (thinking for a moment) The day Tad died, . . .the day before he died, I gave him a present, wedding present. What was it? What did it say? Tell me! Tell me!
Tad: (trying very hard to remember) I don't remember.
Dixie: Adam couldn't tell you what I got you as a wedding gift, could he?
Tad: I told you, I don't remember everything.
Dixie: I don't know why you're doing this, Mr. Orsini, but I hope you rot in hell for it.
Tad: It's true!! Dixie, if I weren't and I'd been alive, why else would I have stayed away for so long?
Dixie: You really expect me to believe this?
Tad: If you don't believe it then please, just. . .please open the door. Look at my face . . . (suddenly, something comes to him). . . Ozzie!!!
Dixie: What?!?!?
Tad: Ozzie and Harriet!! Ozzie and Harriet!! Ozzie and Harriet?? What the . . . I don't know! It just popped into my mind, don't ask me why. I don't know what it means. Does it mean anything, Dixie?
~~~~~flashback to when they exchanged wedding gifts~~~~~~
Tad: Watch, you and I are going to be two of the greats in the hall of fame of romantic couples.
Dixie: Oh, come on!
Tad: No, no. I'm not kidding. Romeo and Juliet and then you and me.
Dixie: Ugh, bad ending.
Tad: Antony and Cleopatra.
Dixie: Try again.
Tad: No? Sean and Madonna? eeewwww. . .
Dixie: (smiling) eeewwwwww . . .
Tad: Ozzie and Harriet.
Dixie: (laughing) Ozzie and Harriet? Oh, no, no, no. Stop!
Tad: Mickey and Minnie, Kermit and Miss Piggy, (in Kermit's voice)yaaaaaaaa!
~~~~~~~~~~~end of flashback~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tad: All right. Forget Ozzie and Harriet, forget the Nelsons. It doesn't matter. The only thing that's important is you and me. Dixie, please. I can't make my, . . .I can't make the memories come back. I'd do anything for you. I'd lay down my life for you or Junior. But, I can't make myself remember. I'm sure you gave me the world's most perfect wedding gift when we got married, whatever it was. I just wish I knew what it was, but I don't.
Dixie is pretty convinced by now, and finally gives in.
Dixie: (mumbles) Stupid idiot. (loud) I gave you a watch!!
~~~~~~flashback to the Dixie giving him the watch)~~~~~~~
Tad: Oooo.
Dixie: Oooo, tension. (taking a box out of the end table drawer, she walks over to where Tad is sitting on the couch and hands him the box) For you.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~end of flashback~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tad: (totally frustrated, grasping for something, anything, meaningful) Gray!! Gray!!
Dixie: What???!
Tad: You were wearing something gray! . . .It was a white and gray knit sweater. (looking down at the watch on his wrist, Tad flashes back to when he opened the present and sees the watch) A watch!!!! It was a gold watch!!! You had it inscribed, . . . it said . . .time. . .
Dixie, starting to laugh and cry at the same time, mouths the inscription as Tad says it.
Tad: "Yours 'till the end of time."
Dixie: (totally convinced now, she’s not sure whether to laugh or cry, and ends up doing both, as she tears down the barricade she built and throws open the door) TAD!!!!!! Oh, God!!!!
Tad: (standing on the other side of the door, looking drained) I gave you a music box. It said "Yours Forever."
Dixie laughs and nods, and then throws herself into his arms. Tad then proceeds to kiss her face.
Tad: Long time no see?
Dixie: (laughing and crying, still unable to truly believe it) It's really you.
Tad: Damn right.
Dixie: (laughing/crying) I can touch you again. (Tad takes her hand and places it over his heart.) Oh.
Tad: See, it's me. (smiling down at her) I'm really here.
Dixie, unable to deal with all these emotions, starts to cry again, and Tad takes her in his arms.
Dixie: (laughing) No. When they told me that you died, I wouldn't believe it. I said "no, no way." And I waited and I looked and I looked. I couldn't stand thinking that I wasn't going to see you or feel you again (Tad strokes her hair as she talks) or hear your voice. Day after day I prayed and I waited but I just couldn't do it anymore. It was too painful. So, I had to stop the waiting, sitting and waiting, and waiting for a miracle. . . this.
Tad: A miracle, why not? Nola always believed in miracles.
Dixie: (smiling a smile so huge that it takes up her whole face) Well, I just think that she must be doing enough praying for both of us.
Ahhh…another fabulous T&D scene!
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