DAYS.....For Lucas,New Orleans becomes the big uneasy

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Sami and Lucas head for their honeymoon in New Orleans next week on "Days of Our Lives" with a plan to give back by rebuilding a hurricane-ravaged house. "Lucas wants to go to a beach and sit in the sun," says Bryan R. Dattilo, who plays Lucas. "But in Sami's demented, crazy mind, she feels that the karmic gods of weddings past will be appeased if she offers her services and helps lift up a community like New Orleans." So, Sami and Lucas head south and go to work. "They start working on this house, and Lucas is knocking down a wall," says Dattilo. "He stumbles upon a box hidden in the wall, and this box contains a letter. They can't make out the letter because I guess the letter is in Italian, but they can make out the last name signed on the letter: DiMera." The newlyweds confront the construction foreman, and he reveals that the house they've been repairing is actually the ancestral home of longtime Salem bad guy Stefano DiMera. "They freak out because they realize they're at what used to be Maison Blanche," says Dattilo. Before Sami and Lucas can digest this news, Stefano's son E.J. arrives, claiming that his father asked him to supervise the restoration. "Old Two-Story, as we call him," says Dattilo of James Scott, who plays the much-taller E.J. "He shows up and tells Sami and Lucas they stumbled onto what used to be his father's home. He can't wait for it to be rebuilt because it turned into low-rent housing for Katrina victims in the aftermath[of the storm]." And the letter? "Sami and Lucas are playing dumb," says the actor. "They're playing like they're totally preoccupied with each other, because of their honeymoon, and never saw the word DiMera. Lucas puts the box back in the wall, but Sami actually keeps the letter. I don't know how much Lucas knows about that." Not the most romantic honeymoon. "Yeah, Lucas doesn't get much. E.J. shows up and rains on his parade, and then Celeste shows up. He's like, 'What the hell? Can't a brother get a break on his honeymoon?' In fact, I have a line where I say, 'We've got to rent out a motel for all the people that followed us.'" Celeste and E.J. are actually after the baby Sami is carrying, which they believe is E.J.'s. They want to harvest the stem cells because it turns out Stefano (who returns next month, played again by Joseph Mascolo) is ill and needs them. "That comes to Lucas' attention when Celeste shows up at the Sami/Lucas apartment[later] and says she knows the baby is a DiMera. Lucas is like, 'How do you know? We didn't have the amnio.' She says there are other ways of finding out. Then I got the line of the day: 'Celeste, have you been playing with your Ouija board again?'" What if Sami's baby is E.J.'s, and therefore a DiMera? "Let's just say that that there's a big curve ball coming up about the baby," says Dattilo.