With all the horrible lies she had told and awful things she had done, Maxie Jones had been haunted by many ghosts in her lifetime. There was the cousin who had to die to give Maxie her heart so that she could live. There had been the detective boyfriend who had died in the line of duty, the first man who had ever truly believed in her goodness other than Mac. There was the psychopath who had posted horrible pictures of her online and then came back from the dead only to try to strangle her in her own living room. There was the former soldier and current police cadet who had been killed when he got too close to the truth. There were a lot of people who had came into her life only to leave again, but they weren't the ones that kept Maxie up at night. That special talent was reserved for two people who had changed her life like no others.
The two ghosts that haunted Maxie represented the very best and very worst of her. They stayed with her endlessly, relentlessly, sitting on her shoulder like an angel and a devil to remind her of the things she had done. She didn't like to think about them much. It hurt too much to remember. However, she would inevitably find one or the other occupying her every thought despite her greatest efforts. Sometimes she managed to bury them deeper in her heart beneath all the other things she had done and wanted to forget about. However, in the way that the people who truly change are capable of, they would end up finding a way to remind her all over again eventually.
The two of them were walking beside her today as she wandered aimlessly on the docks toward her final destination. She had plans to meet Spinelli later at Kelly's for dinner so that they could over some work she needed him to do for Crimson, but it was still early and she had time to kill. Maxie looked over the water and tried to ignore the whispers in her ear, imploring her to stay and remember with them. Brushing the thoughts away, she tiptoed to the edge of the pier and looked down at the dark water. It would be so easy to plunge and sink into the darkness. At least then she would be with her ghosts.
It would take a brave girl to pull off such a feat, and no one had ever called Maxie a coward. She slid her tiny feet out of the designer heels she'd just picked up at Wyndham's and allowed her bare toes to skim the glassy surface of the bay waters. She could hear the faint cry of a ship's horn as it came into the harbor. The sound beckoned her, calling her toward the cold water and the safe haven that lay beneath the darkness. This made sense. This was the answer she was looking for, the only way she could forget. Closing her eyes, Maxie stepped back to the edge of the pier and closer her soft blue eyes. No one would miss her except maybe Mac, Robin and Spinelli, but they would find a way to move on. Soon enough, Robin's baby would be here and that would give the family something to focus on. Spinelli would meet another blonde girl to fawn over. Maxie wouldn't come back to haunt them; she would let them forget that she even existed.
With a deep breath, Maxie stepped off the pier and plunged into the cold waters below. Her gauzy white dress floated up around her waist as she lazily sank to the bottom. A born fighter, her first instinct was to tread water and make her way back to the surface. However, a moment later, she remembered her intention and allowed the natural descent to take over. She opened her eyes briefly and tried to look around her before closing them again. It was the last thing she remembered until she lost consciousness and a white light called her forward.
When Maxie finally came to, she was surprised to find that she was able to breathe easily. Her hair was bone dry and she looked just as beautiful as she had before she had stepped off the pier. She didn't recognize her surroundings and was slightly shocked when she didn't feel panicked. Maxie usually liked to have her bearings about her and know what was going on, even when she was acting recklessly. However, as she wandered along a deserted street, she was filled with curiosity. Finally, she came upon a white picket fence with a gate. She hesitated for a moment before coming through. The peaceful meadow brought a sense of contentment to her before she navigated her way through the ivy and trees. When she came to a clearing on the other side, Maxie felt all breath leave her body. There, standing before her together with their hands clasped, were her two ghosts. There were the two people she wanted to see most in the world but knew she would never get to again.
She was light on her feet as she took off in a full sprint, determined to reach one of them before they evaporated in front of her eyes. When she came to them and they were both still there, she could only stop and stare at each of them. "It's you," she whispered, stepping forward slowly. Both of them smiled brightly and nodded silently, never letting go of one another to reach for her. Maxie was scared to reach out for them, wondering if they would slip through her fingertips like air. Swallowing her fear, she finally opened her arms to the figure standing on the left and felt relief flood her as the person walked willingly into her arms.
"I can't believe it's you," Georgie murmured as she wrapped her older sister lovingly into her arms. The maternal baby of the Jones family cradled the weeping blonde just as she had many times during their childhood. After every bad breakup or fight with Felicia or disappointment in general, Georgie had been there to take care of Maxie. She had also been her devil's advocate, her saving grace and her biggest fan. "I'm really glad that you could come here with us. We've been trying to get you to come for so long."
Maxie wiped at the tears with the back of her hand as she pulled away to look up at her sister. "I can't believe I'm really here," she mused. She had considered the possibility the moment before she walked off the pier, but she hadn't believed that she would end up here. She had done too many bad things in her life to deserve a place in heaven. Looking over her sister's shoulder, she met the familiar gaze of a certain brooding blonde. If he could be here, then she supposed she could, too. "I can't believe you're here together."
Georgie stepped away from her sister and returned to her companion's side. Maxie noted the affectionate look in her eyes as she looked happily up at the man. They had been antagonists and enemies in life, but here, they seemed to make sense. Maxie could see the appeal of one to the other. Where he was bad, she was good. Where she was innocent, he was rebellious. They were a perfect paradox and opposites in every way. While she would have never matched them in real life, even Maxie had to admit that Georgie and Logan in this lifetime were absolutely glowing.
"Well, Doll, things just don't matter as much here as they seemed to back there," Logan drawled. Maxie was glad that he still had that same slow Texas accent. She stared at him for a moment, remembering every hot and passionate moment of their dangerously seductive interlude. They had been fire and ice, destined to destroy one another before they even began. They had ruined each other that first time they kissed and kept wrecking each other over and over again until there was finally nothing left. She had lost Cooper, he had lost Lulu, and they had hated each other. Only in the end, after Logan had turned into someone that she didn't realize, did Maxie realize how much she missed him. "Your sister here is the best thing about these parts."
Maxie looked at her sister questioningly, but Georgie only nodded. "Sometimes you have to move on literally before you can figure things out," the young girl professed wisely. "I would have never seen Logan in that realm, but he is the only thing that makes sense in this world." Logan seemed to like the sentiment as he wrapped his arm around Georgie again and pulled her flush to him. It almost made Maxie uncomfortable to see her former lover acting so intimately with her baby sister. However, more than that, it reminded her of her own strange connection with a certain someone.
"So, have you seen anyone else here?" Maxie asked finally as she looked around. She hoped to catch a glimpse of B.J. or Coop or Jesse, if only to know that they were alright Maxie was disappointed with the silence, knowing that it meant that she wouldn't be seeing anyone. "Oh, well, I supposed it's for the best. I only hurt most of them when they were here."
"Well, that's certainly something that hasn't changed about you since we left," Georgie commented as she glanced up at an agreeing Logan. "You never knew how to recognize a good thing while you had it, did you? I thought maybe losing me would teach you a lesson, but it hasn't. You're still the same stubborn girl who refuses to see what is right in front of you. You really messed up this time."
The vivacious blonde started to protest when she realized that she didn't know what the younger Jones was even talking about. Logan smiled at her obvious lack of understanding. "She means Spinelli," he announced as Georgie jabbed him in the side. He caught her hand as she pulled away and threaded their fingers together. "That weirdo is completely in love with you, we're talking head over heels. I personally don't get what he sees in you when he completely missed out on this one over here, but he obviously seems something he thinks is worth loving. And of course, in typical Maxie fashion, you used him. You do that to people, you know."
"I know," Maxie mumbled angrily, wanting to remind him that she hadn't been alone in their disaster. He had used her just as much as she had used him. It's not like she had forced him to make that bet. He had been a willing and eager participant if she remembered right. In fact, he hadn't protested once when they were hot and sweaty beneath his thrift store sheets. "But Spinelli is my best friend and that's all. He just comforted me after, well, you know. He doesn't see me like that. We agreed to just be there for each other."
Georgie stuck out her chin defiantly and glared at her sister. "Come on, Maxie, you know that's not true," she protested saucily with her hands resting on her hips. "You know that Spinelli is in love with you. You know that he cares about you so much and that scares you. You know what that kind of thing has gotten you in the past. We're here to tell you that it doesn't have to be that way. You don't have to push him away so that you won't lose him. Actually, if you keep pushing him, that's exactly what you are going to get. You're going to end up all alone. Spinelli is strong enough to stick by your side if you will just let him. He won't leave you."
Maxie turned away from them and closed her eyes so that she wouldn't break down in tears again. Too many people had promised her that they would never leave her, but here she was, standing all alone. She had lost her sister, her cousin, two men that loved her and someone that quite possibly could have if she had given him the chance. That was a lot to lose in a short twentysomething years and the thought of losing even one more person was too much to bare. She cared about Spinelli too much to risk it. Even if it meant keeping him at arm's length, she was determined to protect him from her curse.
"You don't understand," she informed Georgie. How could she? She had always done everything right. She had fallen in love with good men. She had lived her life wanting to change the world. Caring for the sick, serving the hungry, teaching the youth and loving the loveless was an everyday thing for the infamous Georgie Jones. "I have lost everything and everyone. Other than Mac and Robin, I have no family to really speak of. And Spinelli, well, he's my only friend. It's not like I'm exactly popular. I have a grand total of three people in the world that will care that I died, but I promise you that it will hurt Spinelli a lot less than the damage I would have done to his heart if we had been together."
Logan stepped forward and dropped Georgie's hand to reach out for Maxie. "Speaking from experience, I can tell you definitively that is not true," he argued. Regret danced in his eyes as he looked at her. "No matter what I said when I was alive, I don't regret what happened with us, Maxie. I couldn't because you changed me. For better or for worse, you found your way into my heart and carved out a place all your own. And once you got in there, I knew there was no way you would ever crawl out. You made an impact."
"I only hurt you, Logan," she shouted, whirling away so that she could avoid his penetrating gaze. She'd always hated how he could see past the surface and into her soul. They were too much alike in the way their minds worked. Their first instinct was to always go for the kill. "I changed your life when I ruined it. We did it to each other. Don't you see that I didn't want to do that with Spinelli? I wanted something better for us, I wanted something more."
Logan smiled at her as if to say, now she gets it. "I see it clearly, Maxie, we both do," he reminded her as he stepped back beside Georgie. "That's why we have followed you, haunting you until you could figure this out. You wanted something more with Spinelli, but I'm here to tell you that there is nothing bigger or better than what you already have, Maxie. What you found with him is real."
Georgie nodded in agreement before chiming in. "However it happened, the thing between you and Spinelli is it. It's so much greater than anything than I could have ever hoped to have with him," she said. "You have seen the way his eyes light up when you walk into a room. You've noticed the way he actually becomes semi-coherent when you're around. Spinelli loves you, Maxie, he loves you. He doesn't want you to change. He accepts you exactly as you are. No one has ever done that, and I know that you've felt it too."
Dozens of images come flooding back to Maxie all at once. She remembers their first kiss the night of the stakeout when the cop had come upon them. She remembers being trapped with him in the sewer and how angry and completely excited she had been on their adventure. She remembers sitting with him for hours at Kelly's while he finished his online investigation classes and daydreamed about all the cases they would solve. She remembers the countless cups of coffee she'd sipped while reading a fashion magazine at Jason's office as Spinelli downed orange soda after orange soda and tapped away at his beloved computer. She remembers the secrets she had told him in confidence and the advice and comfort she had sought in him. She remembers hanging out with him in her bedroom the night he got his concussion or on Jason's couch when she was too exhausted or upset to go home. Most of all, she remembers what it was like to really kiss him and be kissed by him. She remembers what it's like to be in his arms.
"Oh my gosh," Maxie whispered as the overwhelming realization hit her. She scrubbed at her face in disbelief at how blind she had been. She had fallen hopelessly in love with her best friend without even knowing it, and she had been blessed enough to have him love her back. Stupidly, though, she had thrown that all away though. Without really and truly giving it any thought, she had stepped off the pier and given all of it up. "What did I do?"
"You made a mistake, you're Maxie," Georgie laughed. "It's what you do best. Luckily for you, you get to undo it this time. You get to go back. You didn't lose your opportunity to be with him. You just got a little lost on the way."
Completely confused, Maxie raised her eyebrow and gave her sister her signature scowl. "I'm dead, Georgie. I can't undo this. There are no second chances. Spinelli's is just another heart I've broken."
Logan and Georgie exchanged a long look. "You're not dead, Maxie. You have another chance to make this work," Logan revealed. "You hit your head when you jumped into the harbor, but someone saved you. This is just a dream, and when you wake up, you won't remember for sure if this was real or not. You're going to go back and right all your wrongs. Be there for him and let him be there for you. You get another chance, something that neither of us will ever have."
Out of all the people she had ever known, the last person she would have expected to have as a guardian angel was Logan Hayes, but Maxie was certainly glad that he was. Silently, she hugged each of them, holding onto Georgie for a long moment. "Is there anything you want me to tell anyone?"
Logan shook his head. "They know all they need to know," he told her before hugging her one last time. They stared at each other again as he pulled away, and Maxie felt herself starting to go toward the darkness again.
She reached out her hand, wanting to feel him again, but came up empty. "Georgie?"
Her sister's sweet smile was barely visible as everything became blacker around her. "Just tell Mac that I'm okay," she said before squeezing her sister's hand for a final time. "By the way, you'll name your first child after me. I think that Georgianna Spinelli has an interesting ring to it. Be happy, Maxie, and no matter what happens, remember that I love you and I will always be with you."
Georgie's parting words echoed in Maxie's ears as she felt herself to come to. The bright fluorescent lights hanging over head blinded her as her azure eyes came back into focus again. She knew immediately that she was in the hospital by the unforgiving sterile smell in the air and the uncomfortable paper gown clinging to her aching body. Turning to her side, she was relieved to see a sleeping Spinelli at her side, his head resting on her abdomen as he held onto her hand tightly. Trying not to jar him from his sleep, she brushed her thumb over his palm thankfully. She could actually feel him. She was with him.
"Hey," came his sleepy greeting as he slowly sat up and adjusted his bleary-eyed gaze on her. She could read the concern in his eyes as he stood up to stroke her hair gently before pushing the call button to let a nurse know that she was awake. "You really had the Jackal worried, Maxamista. Whatever drew you into the water, you can't do that again."
Maxie tried to open her mouth to talk but was unable to speak above a whisper. She must have had a breathing tube down her throat at some point. "I won't," she promised as she squeezed his hand. He pressed a soft kiss to her forehead. "How did I get out? What happened?"
Spinelli hesitated for a moment before telling her the story. "Stone Cold came upon your floating body when he was on his way to the warehouse. He pulled you to safety and brought you here," explained. "Robin was on duty when you came into the emergency room, and Patrick took care of you. You were touch and go for awhile, but you pulled through. Your father has been here the entire time. In fact, he's sleeping in a room nearby. I can go get him if you want."
Shaking her head, Maxie pulled Spinelli down to her so that his face was inches from her face. Staring into his eyes, Maxie reached up and pulled his face all the ways down to hers and captured his mouth with hers. Her throat might have ached and her every muscle was sore, but she forgot everything but his kiss in that moment. Spinelli reacted instinctively and tangled his fingers in her matted hair. When he finally pulled away, he simply pressed his forehead to hers and looked at her in amazement. "I guess that means I want you to stay," she giggled. "I'm always going to want you to stay."
"Maxamista," he sighed happily, brushing the hair back from her face. His fingertips traced her cheek and tilted her chin up. "I was scared that I lost you."
"No, but I almost lost you," she confessed before leaning up to kiss him again. For a girl who had almost just drowned, she had never felt more alive. "I love you, Spinelli. You are more than just my best friend, you're my everything."
Their private moment was soon interrupted as a team of nurses and doctors flooded into the room led by Patrick Drake. A relieved Mac stood in the doorway and watched as they looked over his daughter, checking her vitals and taking her blood. A concerned Spinelli watched from the comfort of a corner, his eyes never moving away from his beloved blonde. Patrick eventually excused himself to talk to Mac privately while Nadine Crowell stayed behind to explain everything to Maxie. As the blonde nurse dived into her lengthy explanation, Maxie called over Spinelli to listen with her. He asked all the right questions in all the right places while holding her hand supportively. The prognosis was fairly positive with few complications expected in the long run. They were still worried about the impact her prolonged submersion had had on her heart, so she would have to be in the hospital for a few nights.
It was the middle of the night by then, and an exhausted Maxie felt herself inevitably drifting back toward sleep soon. She tried to stay awake as Mac talked to her at her bedside, but her eyes were heavy and kept falling shut. Her father eventually agreed to head home and left his sleeping daughter with a kiss to her forehead. When her room was vacant, Spinelli crept back in and sat back in his chair by her side. Maxie stirred from her sleep when he took her hand again and smiled gratefully down at him. Sliding over in the bed, she patted the mattress for him to join her. Spinelli looked at her questioningly before she pulled him down into the bed. He slid beneath the sheets and wrapped his arm around her so that they lay like spoons. His chin rested on her shoulder while she entwined their fingers on her abdomen.
"Hey," he whispered after they had been quiet for several minutes. Maxie shifted slightly to look at him over her shoulder in the dark. "What you said earlier? I love you, too."
It had taken nearly dying before Maxie Jones realized that she had found the love of her life in her best friend, but waking up had truly been a dream come true. The road ahead would be bumpy for them because as much as she had changed, she was still Maxie after all. However, each time she felt like running, she would think about the ghosts that would come back to haunt her if she were to run. She had been given a second chance, and now she had everything she could ever want.
Despite all the mistruths she had said and harm she had brought to other people, Maxie was no longer haunted by the ghosts of her past. She was grateful that her cousin's death hadn't been in vain and that she could carry on her memory in this world. She was happy she had known the love of Jesse and what it was like to be seen through his eyes. She was proud that she had survived all the things Diego had tried to do to her, never once giving in. She was blessed that Cooper had come into her life at a time when there was no one else to love her. There were a lot of people who had left her life far too soon, and she remembered each of them for the impact they had made on who she'd become. Most of all, she remembered the two people who had once changed her life more than anyone. She was special because she got to be the person that Georgie loved most and she was redeemed because Logan had forgiven her. They had shown her the error of her ways and brought her to the place she truly belonged. Maxie would always be thankful to them for that and so much more. Someday she would get to tell them that, but the two ghosts that had haunted Maxie haunted her no more.