Logan glared as Johnny and Lulu left Kelly's. What did she see in that guy? He had tried everything to keep them apart and all it had gotten him was a stay in General Hospital after Lulu had hit him over the head with a wrench. Then she'd broken up with him just to be with Johnny. He suddenly felt a pang of empathy for Spinelli. Lulu had also given him the "let's be friends" speech. Now she virtually ignored them both.
But he still couldn't help hating Spinelli. Aside from the guy's overall behavior, he had wanted Logan and Lulu apart more than anyone. Spinelli didn't want her with Johnny either, but that was the one area where Logan agreed with him. He hated Spinelli and resented Lulu. He wondered now if there was a way to get back at both of them. He couldn't use his new job to do it, although that would upset Lulu and it did upset Johnny. As far as Logan knew, Johnny hadn't told Lulu about his father's new body guard.
As Maxie walked in, Logan suddenly had a brilliant idea. He waited for her to sit down, then gave her a few extra minutes to make sure Spinelli wasn't going to come in after her for some reason; the two seemed to be together frequently over the last few months. When he decided Spinelli wasn't coming, he stood up and approached her.
"What do you want?" she asked coldly.
"Did you know Lulu broke up with me?"
"Why should I care?"
"She broke up with me so she could be with Johnny Zacchara."
"I told you that would happen," she said smugly.
"Yeah, well, you were right and now I wanna get back at her and I know you hate her, so I think you can help me."
"What's in it for me?"
"You get the satisfaction of knowing you stuck it to Lulu again."
Maxie smiled slightly, determined not to show how interested she was.
"What did you have in mind?"
He grinned.
"Well, I noticed you've been spending a lot of time with Spinelli. Wouldn't it serve her right if her best friend ended up with her worst enemy?"
She looked at him, starting to feel suspicious, but trying to keep her expression neutral.
"You could play up to him when Lulu's around. Kiss him, put your arm around him, flirt with him, you know. Then I can start competing with him for you and-"
"Then I end up hurting someone who's been a really good friend to me lately and you get to watch Lulu squirm."
"Come on, Maxie, the guy didn't even notice that your sister was in love with him; he's clueless! He'll fall for it and you can get back at Lulu for everything she did to her and him for not loving your sister. Georgie might still be alive if-"
Maxie picked up her cup of Luke warm coffee, threw it in his face and stormed out of Kelly's. She brushed past Spinelli as the door banged open; he was just about to open it to walk in. He looked at her face, intending to greet her, but saw that she was upset.
"Maxie, wait!"
He ran after her. When he caught up, he put his hand on her shoulder, trying to make her stop and turn to face him.
"Let me go, Spinelli, please!"
She was in tears.
"What's wrong? What happened? Please, I'm your friend; let me help you."
She stopped and hugged him.
"I'll tell you later, but I really need to be alone right now, OK?"
He nodded, concerned for her but relieved that he didn't seem to be the one who had upset her.
"Call me later?"
She nodded and ran off again. He went back to Kelly's, wondering if he should call Mack. He decided against it. She would go to her father if she thought he was the one who could help her. No matter how good his intentions were, he didn't think she'd appreciate him calling her dad to tell him she was upset.
He walked into Kelly's to see Logan standing against the counter with a roll of paper towels, trying to wipe what looked like coffee out of his face and hair. Mike was laughing and The Crabby Commando looked, well, crabby.
"Have an accident?" Spinelli asked with a grin.
"I think he already had one," Mike chuckled.
Spinelli couldn't help giving The Senior Sir a "that's so corny" look as Logan glared murderously at both of them. Throwing the paper towels on the counter, The Knuckle Scraper stalked out the door.
"I don't know what he said to Maxie," Mike said as Spinelli sat at the counter, "but she got mad and threw her coffee in his face."
Spinelli frowned.
"He upset her. She was crying when I saw her leaving here. I tried to get her to tell me what was wrong, but she said she needed to be alone and that she'd call me later."
"You two have become pretty close since Georgie died, haven't you?"
Spinelli nodded.
"the Jackal cares perhaps more than he should."
"Uh-oh," Mike said quietly. "Have you told her?"
He shook his head.
"She'll never love The Jackal. Besides, a few months ago we hated each other. Our friendship is still-" he paused, searching for the right word. "There are times when she reverts back to The Bad Blonde One. She can be domineering at times now and we're just friends. How would it be if we were romantically involved?"
He had a mental image of one of those old TV shows with the so-called hen-pecked husband saying "yes dear" and "no dear," not daring to contradict his wife on any matter, unless it was too important to ignore.
"Maybe you should give it a little more time, then," Mike said. "See if she mellows out a little to the point where you can talk to her without getting nervous and tell her how you feel. Maybe she'll surprise you."
"There's also Fair Lulu to consider. She's my friend and she hates The Wounded Blonde One."
"It's your life, Spinelli. Lulu can't tell you who to be with any more than you could tell her not to be with Logan."
"But what if she thinks I'm getting involved with Maxie just to get back at her for choosing The Unworthy One."
"If she's your friend she should know you better than that by now."
Spinelli smiled. The Senior Sir had some very good points. He would follow the sage advice of The Father of Mr. Corinthos, Sir, and give it a little more time. If he thought there might be a chance, he would risk his heart again by telling The Wounded Blonde One how he felt. She had told him once that The Wounded Blonde one didn't want to be wounded anymore. Maybe he could help her heal her wounds.
Kneeling in front of Georgie's grave, Maxie couldn't get Logan's last words out of her head. "Georgie might still be alive." How many times since her death had she thrown Georgie's feelings for Spinelli in his face just to try to make him feel worse than she did? It hadn't been fair; he grieved for Georgie every bit as much as she did. Georgie had been his best friend. She had treated him better than Lulu ever had, and certainly better than Maxie did even now that she had begun to see in him what Georgie had. She understood now why Georgie and Lulu considered him their friend and was honored that he now counted her among his friends.
She still mistreated him at times; there were still times when The Bad Blonde One came slithering like a snake out of her hiding place to say or do something that hurt him. She hated The Bad Blonde One; she wanted to try to fill in for Georgie. She knew she couldn't replace her for him any more than someone else could replace Georgie for her. No one could ever replace her sister because there was no one else like her. But after all the grief Maxie had given both of them, she felt she owed it to them both to be Spinelli's friend and confidant, just as Georgie had been. It was her way of making up to Spinelli all the times she'd insulted or ridiculed him just to make him feel bad, and to Georgie for calling him a total loser and accusing her of being jealous because she had lost Dillon and then couldn't get Spinelli to notice her and Maxie had Coop. As he had said at the hospital when Michael was in surgery, they had managed to help each other. Maxie wanted to continue that relationship. aside from Sam, Spinelli was the only true friend she had.
Logan's last comment had thrown her into a rage, not only at him because he had used her dead sister as a tool to manipulate her, but at herself because she had done the same thing to Spinelli several times. The rage at herself was magnified by the fact that part of her was still considering his suggestion, even though she knew it would hurt her new friend if she used him like that, especially since she would be using him to hurt his friend. Maxie ending up with Spinelli would be a great way to get back at Lulu. In fact, it would serve her right if she lost Spinelli to Maxie after the way she'd been treating him since she'd chosen Logan.
Lulu had mistreated him even after she'd found out about the bet Maxie and Logan had made. Spinelli had invited her to move in with him and Jason when Lulu had no real home and she still disregarded him. She had still taken Logan back. Now Logan was in Spinelli's position and didn't like it. He was trying to punish Spinelli for Lulu's actions and it wasn't fair. Maxie hated Lulu and wanted to hurt her, but no longer at the expense of Spinelli's feelings.
"Georgie might still be alive," Logan repeated in her head.
"What could it hurt?" The Bad Blonde One asked the rest of her. "He did hurt Georgie every time he went on about Lulu and didn't notice her feelings. He may be your friend now, but that doesn't change what he did then."
"You know it's not true," Georgie's voice said in her head. "You know there was nothing Spinelli could have done to stop Diego from killing me. It's not his fault. You also know I wouldn't want you to hurt him. As for his feelings for Lulu making him unable to see my feelings for him, he couldn't just stop loving her and I would never expect him to do that. There's no way I could respect a guy who could just go from one girl to another without feeling bad about losing the first girl. I forgave Lulu. Why can't you just let it go? Spinelli and Lulu are friends, even if Lulu doesn't always act like it. She's very important to Spinelli and if you want to be his friend you'll have to accept that sooner or later. He won't give up his friendship with either of you just because the other wants him to."
She missed Georgie. She'd been so mean to her before she died. Since she'd thrown her coffee in Logan's face, the voices had been arguing with her, but the loudest was hers during her last conversation with her sister.
"You're just jealous because I have Coop," she had said viciously. "First there was Dillon and now you can't even get a total loser like Spinelli to notice you."
How could she have said something so cruel? Georgie had been trying to protect her. Spinelli was not a loser; Maxie knew that now. Part of her had always known it, but she'd been so eager to hate him and everyone else that she'd never bothered to see him for who he really was. After Georgie died she'd been so intent on resenting him that she hadn't really seen his good qualities until they'd been in the sewers and she'd asked him what was wrong with Georgie, why he didn't love her.
It hadn't been her, he'd explained. When he gave himself, heart, body and soul, to someone, they would belong to that person until they wished to hand them back to him. He considered himself flawed, not Georgie. He'd been rejected so many times that he thought no one could love him. He had thought Georgie was too good for him and still did. In the case of him and Georgie, he considered himself The Unworthy One.
A mental image popped into her head, Lulu's face if Spinelli and Maxie became a couple. Her reaction was priceless, even only in Maxie's imagination. She ranted and raved at both of them, tried to convince Spinelli not to be with Maxie, threatened to end their friendship if he didn't break it off with her, everything she could think of. She saw Lulu storming out of Kelly's in tears, having lost the one person who would put up with anything she did to him. Her best friend had chosen her worst enemy over her. In this fantasy, Lulu was now in the same position Spinelli had been in when she'd picked Logan over him, twice.
She heard footsteps and looked up to see Spinelli walking toward her, looking serious.
"I'm sorry," he said quietly. "I was worried about you and I- I just- had a feeling you'd come here. I saw what you did to the Simian One."
A new image replaced Lulu's lost, devastated expression as she ran out of Kelly's. This one was of Spinelli's face after Lulu ran away; hurt, lost, devastated. He had lost Georgie. Maxie couldn't cost him another friend, even if it was Lulu. He had come to her just now because he was worried about her. He had become a true friend to her and she could do no less for him. She sent a mental thank you to Georgie for sending him to find her; the two of them had made up her mind.
She stood up and hugged him.
"I miss her, too," he said softly as he returned the hug.
"I know," she said against his chest.
"Forgive me for disturbing you; I-"
She put her fingers against his lips and gently pinched them closed.
"You didn't, and thank you for caring enough to come and find me. Actually, you're part of the reason I came here."
"Did I do something to-"
"No, it wasn't what you did; it was- How do I explain?"
"Did it have something to do with why the Crabby Commando ended up with The Wounded Blonde One's coffee in his face?"
She nodded.
"Let's go back to Kelly's and I'll explain on the way."
She told him about Logan's proposition.
"He wants to hurt Lulu again?" he asked angrily.
"And he wanted to use me and you to do it. Actually, he wanted me to use you to do it. I may hate Lulu, but I don't hate you anymore. Actually, I never hated you personally, just your devotion to Lulu."
"Because my obsession with her kept me from seeing how your sweet sister felt about me."
"That and because every guy she meets falls all over themselves for her."
Spinelli couldn't argue with that. He'd never met a guy who didn't like Fair Lulu.
"But while I was kneeling at her grave just now I realized Georgie couldn't be with someone who could just go from one girl to the other without feeling a loss for the first one. You needed to get over Lulu before you could choose Georgie or anyone else. It's Diego's fault you never had a chance with Georgie, not yours."
"Thank you," he said, feeling a huge weight lift off his shoulders.
He'd been feeling guilty for months for not seeing Georgie's feelings. Maxie had said once that she might still be alive if he'd had the brains to see how Georgie had felt about him. Her statement just now had been an apology as much as an offer of comfort.
Maxie looked at him, dreading his reaction to what she was about to tell him.
Spinelli, I-" She took a deep breath, knowing she was risking his hatred, but needing to be honest with her friend. She stopped walking and gently took his shoulders, turning him to face her. "I actually considered it," she said in a soft, small voice. "Logan tried to tell me Georgie might still be alive if- but that was when I threw the coffee in his face because it only reminded me of when I said that to you that day at Kelly's when I broke the dishes. Even then I knew it wasn't true; I only said it because I wanted to hurt you worse than I was hurting. I wanted to make you feel worse than you already did because I was so filled with anger and hatred for everyone because they were alive and my sister was dead."
"Maxie, if you're trying to apologize, don't. I forgave you a long time ago."
"But you don't understand. When Logan said that it took me forever to get his voice out of my head. I've been arguing with myself a lot lately, every time The Bad Blonde One wants to do something mean. Sometimes she wins, like when I blackmailed you into giving me that permanent back door to Couture. I'm sorry about that; I hate to admit it, but that's one of the things Logan and I have in common. We're both opportunists and will step on anyone to get what we want, even our friends."
"Apology accepted."
"Thank you. But back to what I was saying; I considered using you to get back at Lulu. Part of me thought since we were friends that- Well, who's to say we won't end up together eventually? Stranger things have happened."
"Would you, um-" he licked his lips, gulped and took a deep breath. "Would you ever consider-" He was afraid to finish.
She looked at him thoughtfully. Why would he ask her that when she was confessing to being tempted to use him to hurt his friend? More to the point at this moment, how could she respond? He was her friend, but she didn't know if she thought they could ever be a couple.
"Now that I know you for who you really are instead of who I wanted to believe you were, I think any girl would be lucky to have you."
He beamed at her. He would still follow The Senior Sir's advice and give it a little more time, but maybe he had a chance after all. Then he went back to their original conversation. She had said she'd considered it, but not that she would take Logan up on his offer.
"You obviously decided against it. What decided you?"
"Two totally opposite mental images- well, not so opposite, but one was Lulu and the other was you, so the feelings they gave me were opposite. Then you came and you were worried about me. Well, actually, the image of Lulu came first, then you did, then the image of you." She realized she was rambling and clarified. "I honestly didn't know what to do. I wanted to hurt Lulu; she broke up Georgie and Dillon and The Bad Blonde One in me wants to blame her for Georgie's death because she might have been with Dillon at the time. She might not even have been in Port Charles. But I realized that's as unfair as blaming you for not seeing that Georgie loved you. No matter what you did or didn't do, Diego would have killed her. I knew that even as I told you she might still be alive if you'd seen how she felt. I saw Lulu's face in my head. I saw her reacting to the news that you and I were together and it gave me a really intense feeling of satisfaction. Then you came and said you were worried about me and had a feeling I'd be here and it was like Georgie sent you to me. Then I pictured your face once you found out how Lulu reacted and that I wasn't really interested in you romantically."
She didn't notice the disappointment in his face. Maybe he didn't have a chance after all.
"It was the exact same look I saw in my mental picture of Lulu; you were crushed. I couldn't do that to you. I care about you too much now and Georgie wouldn't want me to hurt you like that either. Hurting Lulu is not worth hurting a good friend like you. You're my friend even when I don't deserve it, Spinelli, and I don't wanna do anything to risk our friendship. Using you to hurt Lulu would only end up hurting all three of us; the only one who wouldn't be hurt would be Logan."
He put an arm loosely around her shoulders and they began walking again.
"thank you for your honesty. But why were you crying?"
"I was ashamed of myself for even considering using you now that we're friends. Plus, Logan's comment about Georgie made me think of my last conversation with her. We'd had an argument and I threw you in her face; I made a point of rubbing her nose in the fact that I had Coop and you didn't know how she felt."
"You know she would forgive you, don't you?"
"I know," she sighed, "and somehow that makes me feel even more guilty. Can you forgive me for thinking about using you?"
"I can and I do. Thinking about something and actually doing it are two completely different things."
Logan had also come back to Kelly's. Maxie put her arm around Spinelli and the two of them walked over to his table and sat down without being asked, Spinelli following Maxie's lead, interested to find out what she was going to do. Logan smiled up at Maxie, thinking that maybe she'd decided to work with him.
"I told Spinelli what you wanted me to do," she said.
Logan gave her a "you're crazy" look.
"Friends are honest," Spinelli said, "not that The Knuckle Scraper would know anything about that, since he has absolutely no qualms about walking into his deceased friends room to take money."
Maxie nodded.
"Good point," she said to Spinelli. "Anyway, I told him the same thing I'm gonna tell you. Hurting my enemy is not worth hurting my friend. You wanna get back at Lulu for breaking up with you? Fine, but you're gonna do it without me or Spinelli."
"What about Georgie?" Logan asked in that oily tone he used to taunt people.
"Georgie would never forgive me if I hurt Spinelli, even if we weren't friends. As for her being alive if he'd known how she felt about him, that's not true and you know it. Diego would have killed her, anyway, and Spinelli would probably be feeling worse than he already does about losing her."
"Diego killed her because he was after you," Logan spat, furious that she was refusing him and even angrier that Spinelli knew what he'd planned.
Spinelli jumped to his feet even before he knew what he was doing. Maxie looked as if Logan had slapped her and Spinelli knew she would have preferred that to what The Simian had actually done.
"Spinelli," Mike said calmly from behind him.
Spinelli turned to face him, trying to straighten his face. He didn't want to direct his anger at The Senior Sir; he was not responsible for The Knuckle Scraper's actions.
"Let me handle him. I'd rather you not get blood all over the floor, not even his. Besides, Georgie wouldn't want you fighting Logan. I'm sure she'd be glad you defended Maxie, but she wouldn't want you to risk getting hurt."
Spinelli hesitated. How could he back down? He wanted to honor The Senior Sir's wishes, as well as Georgie's, but he couldn't let Logan think he was less of a man.
"Who cares what he thinks?" Georgie's voice asked in his head. "He knows nothing about you; he doesn't even wanna know about you. Mike's right; let it go."
"Logan's not worth it, Spinelli," Maxie said, having regained most of her composure. "Mike's right."
Spinelli hesitated a bit longer, then sat back down.
"Get out of here, Logan," Mike said furiously, "and don't come back in here until you can behave like a human being!"
"I'm not going anywhere!"
"Do I have to call the police?"
Logan sighed, giving Mike a look that would have vaporized him if it could, stood up and knocked the chair over before storming out of Kelly's for the second time that day.
As Maxie talked and laughed with Spinelli, she knew without a doubt that she'd made the right decision. As horrible as the past few months had been, they had made her friendship with him possible. She had told him the day he'd gone looking for Michael that she'd been trying to figure out what to do with her life, that she'd had some thinking to do. Her job with Kate was only one of the changes she wanted to make; she wanted to be a better person, too. She knew she had just come across a huge fork in the road of her life today and that with Georgie's help, as well as Spinelli's, she had taken the correct path. With his help, she thought she could finally be the kind of person she'd always wanted to be, the person she might have been all along if losing Jesse hadn't twisted her into The Bad Blonde One.
"I believe now," she said seriously.
"You believe what now?"
"Remember when you asked me if I didn't believe there was a place where Coop and Georgie looked down at us."
He nodded.
"I believe it now. You said you knew I'd be at her grave. I think she sent you there; I think your feeling was her telling you to come to me to help me make the right decision."
He smiled at her, feeling better about himself than he had in a long time. He hadn't been able to save Georgie and he knew intellectually, if not yet emotionally, that there was nothing he could have done, but he had managed to help his new friend. Whether or not they ever became a couple, he was happy for their friendship. It was now one of his most valued and treasured relationships and he would never take it for granted. Regardless of their romantic future, he wanted his friendship with Gentle Georgie's sister to last forever.