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Nicole has been through the ringer and back over the past six months of Days of Our Lives. And while Holly and her coma have been a big part of the stress, much of it’s had to do with Nicole losing her baby to Sloan. Fans have been waiting a long time for her to find out her son isn’t dead and that Eric and Sloan are raising him, but now, as Jude’s christening draws near, it looks like the truth may finally be about to burst out into the open.

The thing is, in the grand scheme of soap operas and Days of Our Lives — a show that’s been on nearly 60 years — we really haven’t been waiting all that long for Nicole to learn the truth about Jude. So maybe what the show should do is not give Nicole her baby back. At least not for awhile. Let Eric and Sloan raise little Jude and put the return on the backburner… for a few years!

We know, we know, just reading that has likely gotten folks ticked off at us. Fans want Nicole to get her baby back now. And that’s even more true knowing that Arianne Zucker will soon be leaving the role. We certainly don’t blame anyone for wanting her to finish out such an important story in Nicole’s life

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Once upon time, though, soap operas had the audacity to not just run through stories as fast as possible. But as they’ve moved away from that, viewers have come to expect tales to be wrapped up in a timely manner. It’s been months and viewers are up in arms: How dare they keep doing this to Nicole!

The thing is, there isn’t much appetite to draw out reveals as long as Phillip Spaulding’s true parentage on Guiding Light. And remember Nina’s son over on The Young and the Restless? He was born in 1986, then stolen as an infant and we didn’t find out his fate until a grown Ronan showed up 24 years later in 2010! Talk about playing the long game.

Yes, there are definitely positives to say about keeping the shows and their stories moving briskly along. But not resolving something within a month or two doesn’t mean just spinning around wasting time with filler. Rather than teasing us with constant almost reveals and rehashing what happened until we’re all sick to our stomachs, the story could just… move on.

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Nicole would come to accept that she lost her baby, Sloan would ease into motherhood and she and Eric would raise Jude as their own. Maybe someday they’d divorce, but by then, it would be far too late for Sloan to speak up. Even after they were separated, she wouldn’t tell anyone the truth.

Imagine the payoff if, after that breakup, Nicole and Eric got back together. They could fall back in love, remarry and Nicole would end up as Jude’s step-mom. And that would be the perfect time for the truth to come out!

It wouldn’t need to go on quite as long as Philip’s saga on Guiding Light when he was sent to live with “Aunt Jackie” and “Uncle Justin” who, he would learn years later were his real parents. But it could still create a whole host of pathos that could be played for years if it happened when Jude was old enough to know Sloan as his “mommy” only to have to adjust to Nicole being his true mom.

But if he’s returned as an infant, then we’ll get little more than Ashley Puzemis and Paul Telfer catching up on that time Xander kidnapped Holly as an infant. And while the actors’ chat was incredibly amusing, their story was little more than a footnote of Holly’s life, rather than a formative experience.

Still, as we said at the beginning, it looks like Jude’s christening could lead to some downright explosive revelations — like the truth coming out! We’ll have to wait and see if it really does happen then, but one thing’s for certain: The days of playing the long game with stories are all but over.