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But so does another hospital staff member. Ali's been very patient with Mike," says Lisa (Ali). "She's had some expectations, but she's still hopeful."

Rose, the current head nurse, tells Mike she's compiling a list of possible succesors for her position as Craig and Nancy listen. Craig takes Rose aside and tells her that Ali would make a wonderful head nurse. Rose is impressed with Craig's enthusiasm, but explains that the final decision is made by the Chief of Staff, Mike.

Meanwhile, Nancy tries to ease Carrie's tension about Mike and Ali, who have a date that night "Right now she's saying that Mike and Ali are probably just a casual relationship and that Mike probably won't be taken in by Ali, even though she's beautiful," says Clark. And I'm like, 'Yeah, you're right. He's too smart."'

Later, when Carrie and Mike are going over his speech, the feelings between them are electric. "It's Mike's first big presentation to the hospital board," explains Roark Critchiow (Mike). "He sat in his officefor half an hour, needing to see Carrie. So I walk in and say 'I have something really important to tell you.' And I ask her to help me out with the speech."

"He's leaning over me, and you can feel the sexual tension," adds Clark. "I just want to kiss him again. I can't get it out of my head."

'At the end I tell her, 'You shouldn't raise Will just for Austin. You should both agree,"' says Critchlow. "So
I'm planting strange seeds of doubt in her mind and my own.,' Carrie also asks Mike if he has anyone in mind to be head nurse. He insists that he doesn't, but says he's pretty sure he'll go along with who ever Rose recommends.

Nancy accidentally bumps into Ali at Salem Place and tells her to make the most of her evening with Dr. Horton. The dastardly duo make sure Mike doesn't see Rose's list of possible successors before he goes on his date with Ali, but they're thrilled when they sneak a peek and see that she's made the final cut. While Ali thinks being head nurse would be a wonderful opportunity, her main concern is working on her relationship with Mike.

Mike arrives at Ali's apartment and she's prepared an amazing dinner for them. Alu answers the phone - and it's Dr. Craig Wesley "He tells me that I'm on the list and I think it's then that I change gears," says Linde, who adds that Craig urges Ali to use her time with Mike to her best advantage. When Ali hangs up, she and Mike begin to dance. He pulls her close and they kiss passionately.

"Mike doesn't know what the heck he wants to do," shrugs Critchlow. "His feelings for Ali aren't love
- he's not kidding himself about that. Could it be love? He doubts it. Is he attracted to her? Yes. But he's really attracted to Carrie. When he's with Ali he can sometimes forget about Carrie, but I think a lot of that has to do with testosterone buildup."

Meanwhile, Carrie must decide whether to accept the responsibility of raising Will, and wishes Mike were there for her right now. "Mike thinks we should keep Will, but he also sees where I'm coming from," says Clark. "It's a big responsibility to keep a kid, and I'm not ready to have kids or take care of one at the moment. So he says we both have to be ready and I agree:"
At the hospital, Carrie knows Mike is with Ali, and she doesn't trust the young nurse one bit. But Mike is enjoying Ah's attention. He thinks he should check in with the hospital, but Ali begins to give him a back rub. "I'm really good at giving massages - you know, I'm trained," jokes Linde.

In the afterglow, Mike jokes to Ali that if she keeps this up, he might have to make her head nurse. Is he serious? "It doesn't enter my tiny cranium," says Critchlow. "That's Rose's deal. What ever she says is good. I can't even do the administrative crap I have to do. The irony is, Craig would love to do the politcal and administrative bull that I hate, and I'd love to do the straight-up doctor work he's bored with."

But Ali takes this comment more seriously than he intended. She strokes Mike's chest and they make love again. "It's very important to her," says Linde of the new position (head nurse, not in bed with Mike). "It's a shame that she'd let that come before her personal feelings."

Afterwards, noting what time it is, Mike softly tells Ali that he needs to go to the hospital but promises to make another "house call" very soon. And before leaving, he suggests that Ali keep their relationship under wraps since the hospital is a hotbed of gossip.

Meanwhile, Craig and Nancy are preparing for a little intimacy of their own when Craig gets a call about a patient He's mostly disturbed when he hears the nurse greet Mike as he enters the hospital. The pair are nervous something went wrong, but when Craig calls Ali, she tells him things went better than she ever could've expected.

"I'm curious about how the fans will react," Critchlow says of his character's deeply conflicted state. In fact, Critchlow says he's been having a hard time playing his character lately. "This is in no way a corm plaint or condemnation of Days of Our Lives," he prefaces. "I've spent years trying to establish a connection between Tom Horton and Mike Horton. Tom was a man of integrity, and I've tried to make Mike a man of integrity, too."

 While Critchlow says Mike's refusal to give in to his feelings about Carrie is admirable, he finds it
perplexing that he'd go to bed with someone he doesn't love in order to forget about the woman he truly has feelings for. "The writers have gone to lengths to establish that I'm not saying I love Ali nor am I saying I'm gonna or that I'm not gonna," says Critchlow. The problem is, after making love to 'Ali, he thinks about Carrie. "That puts Mike in a position where he's lying a lot, although people may not view it as lying.

"My question is: Would Tom Horton do that? I know Tom lived in a different time, but I assume he would've found a different way to deal with the situation. So whatever integrity Roark Critchlow has, has bled over into Mike. I care about the character. I'm a little concerned because I don't think Mike can delude himself so completely that he believes he's in love with Ali. I'm grappling with how to play this situation."

But now John and Marlena are together! "I know," sighs Clark. "So there's that side, too. Mike could be the one for me and I don't know it" Stay tuned!

By Jefifrey Photography by Ledey Bohm