Stories: Nick Fallon & Gabi Hernandez

Nick Fallon & Gabi Hernandez

Nick Fallon (Blake Berris) &
Gabi Hernandez (Camilla Banus)

In late 2013, Nick Fallon had been plotting to win Gabi Hernandez back and coerce her into taking off with him to New York, and away from Ari’s father, Will Horton. This was fuelled partially due to Nick’s lingering homophobia against Will, but also due to Nick’s lingering obsession with Gabi.

When she refused, he attempted to rape her, resulting in Gabi hitting him over the head with a rock, knocking him out cold. Sami Brady arrived upon the scene, and mistakenly believed Nick was dead. She, Gabi, and Kate Roberts, in an attempt to help Gabi, dragged Nick to the nearby river and threw him in, nearly drowning him.

Nick was saved by a reclusive British expat named Percy Ruggles, who lived in the woods. Percy had snapped photos of Gabi, Kate, and Sami attempting to dump Nick’s body into the river, and Nick was using this to keep Gabi, Sami, and Kate in line.

Petrified of a rehash of Nick’s threatening behaviour prior to his drowning, Gabi plays nice with Nick, but makes it clear to Will and Sonny (Will’s partner) that she’s uninterested in getting back together with Nick.

When Nick’s continued fixation on her doesn’t lessen, and threats against her family carry on, Gabi becomes desperate. She meets with Sami’s fiancé, EJ DiMera, and he puts her in touch with Liam Frasier, a pharmaceutical rep who is secretly on the DiMera payroll. He gives Gabi the same pain medication Nick had become addicted to years earlier that led him to spiral out of control, culminating in Nick kidnapping Melanie Jonas and killing her adopted father. The plan being for Gabi to agree to a date with Nick, get him drunk, then offer him the pills (disguised as simple Aspirin) to relieve his hangover. Then, Gabi would plant the pills in Nick’s room and contact the police, hoping to get Nick’s parole reversed.

EJ DiMera (James Scott)

Unfortunately, the police turn up nothing (the pills fell into a hidden corner of Nick's bathroom), and Gabi tries again, this time having Liam steal Marlena Evans’ prescription pad to add a little extra evidence against Nick. This time, Hope Brady tells Gabi, in no uncertain terms, that she won’t pursue Gabi’s leads on Nick, seeing them as a witch hunt against Hope’s cousin.

With Nick now hooked back on his old medication, Nick’s behaviour not only becomes more erratic, but the head injury he incurred from Gabi hitting him in the head with a rock begins to affect him, causing dizzy spells and blinding headaches. The medication also causing Nick to have high blood pressure, all coming together to cause Nick to pass out a number of times, and causing some wildly erratic behaviour, once nearly attacking Abby Deveraux at Salem U.

Sensing Nick is increasingly out of control, EJ then makes a fateful decision: he gives Gabi a gun to protect herself from Nick. Will is skeptical of this decision, and Sonny, in particular, is enraged by this gift. However, EJ manages to convince Sonny to go along with the plan, noting that Nick is now so unpredictable that the situation may become one where Gabi and her daughter Arianna’s lives may be put at risk.

While on a date with Gabi, Nick asks Gabi to move into the Kiriakis Mansion with him, as he has now been named owner and CEO of Titan Industries after a coup orchestrated by Nick, Stefano, and Stefano's business partner, Anjelica Deveraux. Gabi finds evidence that loosely connects Nick to Anjelica, and EJ convinces Gabi to move into the Kiriakis mansion in order to find out more. Gabi reluctantly agrees, but is caught in the act of snooping around Nick's room almost immediately by Nick's partner-in-crime, Percy.

Later, Gabi attempts once again to find the connecting evidence, and stumbles upon the pictures of Gabi, Kate, and Sami trying to drown Nick in the river. But she also finds, while flipping through the pictures, shots of EJ and Abigail in a steamy liplock at the Smith Island cabin. She's so stunned by her accidental discovery, she fails to notice Nick has returned and is spying on her as she pilfers his bedroom. Now clear about what her real intentions were in moving in with him, Nick has a mind for revenge.