I loved how Johnny saved Maxie from the mugger and this was going to be a short story but then halfway through this chapter I decided that it was going to be a long on and in this one Maxie is not faking a mugging to get Spinelli to save her, she is just on the docks and it happens. Here we go, I hope that you enjoy it and comment!

Chapter 1

It Happens

Maxie was sitting on the bench on the pier, just watching the water and calming down after another day as Kate Howard's assistant. Maxie sighed and got up, thinking that she had been there for a while and that it was time to go home. She saw a man walk by and gave him a brief glance and continued walking when she felt herself being spun around and before she knew it, slammed against the wall. The guy pinned her there with an arm by her throat. "Hey! What the hell do you think you're doing? Let go of me!" Maxie yelled. The man just got right in her face and glared at her. "Shut up. I was just gonna take your money, but now I'm thinking we can have a little fun too." Then he laughed as Maxie felt nothing but terror flow through her body and she began to tremble with fear. "Please. Just let me go. You can have all my money and I wont say a word. Just let me go." "I told you to shut up!" The man struck Maxie in the face and she cried out in pain. This made the man laugh harder and he did it again, then Maxie saw her chance and took it. She kneed him in the groin and began to run, but he grabbed her by the hair and began to pull her back and she screamed. This seemed to piss the man off even more and he slammed her to the ground and Maxie hit her head, hard, and began to see black on the edges of her vision. She felt him get on top of her and began to cry.

Johnny had been walking for a while in order to clear his head when he realized that he was walking by the pier. He and Lulu had decided that they were officially done with each other and moving on and Johnny felt guilty that he was relieved about the decision. He knew that it was because he was attracted to Maxie and felt as though he wanted to be with her. He just hoped that he could convince her to be with him, he knew that she was just as attracted to him. Johnny was pulled from his thoughts at the sound of a woman's scream coming from the pier and he sprinted to see what was going on. When he got there he saw a man get on top of Maxie, who was on the ground and not moving. Then all that Johnny saw was a red haze of vision because he was so angry. He jumped over the railing of the pier and tackled the man off of Maxie and started hitting him over and over. The man shoved Johnny off of him hard enough that Johnny was stunned for a couple of moments. When he had gotten his breath back and stood up again, them man was running and Johnny instantly began to chase after him. He almost got to the corner of the pier when he decided that making sure Maxie was all right was much more important than chasing the man. He could track the bastard down later, and he definitely would. He ran back to Maxie's side and gently rolled her onto her back and stroked her cheek and spoke quietly to her. He noticed that Maxie already had a bruise on her face and was once again overcome with rage. "Maxie. Come on sweetheart wake up. You're okay now, it's over." Maxie's eyes began to open slowly and Johnny breathed a sigh of relief.

Maxie woke up to Johnny's face and realized that he had saved her life once again.

"Johnny? What are you doing here?"

"I was walking by the pier when I heard you scream, so I came running and saw that guy on top of you."

"Thank God you came. That guy was going to-" Maxie broke off as she began to cry thinking about how scared she had been.

"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, thanks to you."
"Do you think that you can get up?" Johnny asked in concern.

Maxie nodded her head and Johnny quickly got up and went behind her and put his hands underneath her arms and pulled her to her feet. As soon as he let her go, Maxie began to sway on her feet and Johnny anchored her by the waist to steady her.
"You're not okay. What did that son of a bitch do to you Maxie?"

She told him what happened and how the man had come out of nowhere.

"Oh, Johnny, I was so scared, I thought -" Once again Maxie could not finish her sentence and Johnny pulled her into his arms. "Hey, hey. Nobody's going to hurt you, I wont let them. You're safe now Maxie, I promise." Maxie began to cry and Johnny just held her and then he pulled away and stated feeling around the back of her head underneath her hair. He found a large bump and told Maxie that she needed to go to the emergency room. Of course, being Maxie she refused on doing that and insisted that she was fine.

"Maxie, please, I'm worried about you. Do it for me, please?"
"Fine. For you, but I really am fine."
"Yeah. Well we'll leave that one up to the doctors. Come on." Johnny put a steadying arm around Maxie's waist and led her to her car. He drove her to the emergency room and waited for 30 minutes before Patrick came out and said that Maxie had a mild concussion and that if she took it easy she would be fine in a couple of days.

"Thanks Patrick. When can she go home?"
"I would like to keep her overnight for observation, but she insists on going home now. I should call her father but Maxie refused and since she is over 18 I have to follow her wishes. So as long as you promise me that you are going to take care of her, I will let her leave."
Johnny didn't even hesitate. "Yeah, I'll take care of her. Is there anything special that I should do?" Patrick explained everything to Johnny and had him fill out the remaining release papers before allowing him to go in to see Maxie.

When Johnny walked into the room, Maxie was trying to get out of bed and would have fallen if Johnny hadn't caught her.

"Are you alright?"
"I'm fine."

"Jesus, Maxie. I know Patrick told you about your concussion so why the hell are you trying to get out of bed on your own?"
"Because I am not some helpless child or invalid."
"Nobody said that. You were just attacked and you need to take it easy."
"I'm fine and I want to go home."
"You are. To my place so that I can take care of you. I will feel better knowing that you're with me. I'm tired of thinking about what that guy could have done to you."
"I know. Me too." Maxie started to cry again and Johnny became concerned for her.

"Come here." Maxie stepped into Johnny's open arms and he wrapped them around her tightly and just held her as she cried.