After watching last week's reveal episodes and seeing how close Maxine and Dodger got to their happy ending, I had all sorts of ideas about how it could eventually happen – in as realistic a way as possible after everything she's been through. I don't know how many Maxine/Dodger fans there are out there, but thought I'd post this anyway. If you read it I'd love an honest opinion on what you thought. Thank you.

To The Ends Of The Earth

Mark 'Dodger' Savage was on his way out to a house clearing when his phone rang.

"Yeah?" he answered, not bothering to look for a name on the screen. He had recently stopped caring about the everyday goings on in life. These days all he had the energy for was existing.

"Hello, Dodger?" He stopped still, one hand on the door of the van. He knew the voice, but felt sure it had been a while since he'd last heard it.

"That's me. Who's this?"

"It's Mitzeee," the woman said, then, after a pause: "With three 'e's. Remember me?"

Instantly his thoughts went to Maxine, but he kept his voice calm and neutral, managing a genuine chuckle in recognition of her old catchphrase.

"'Course I do. Er, how are you?" he asked, wishing he could be asking her sister that question instead.

"Well, I'll cut to the chase, I'm worried. That's why I'm calling you - a bloke I used to live down the road from but barely ever spoke to, I know. It's about Maxine."

His heart stopped. "Is she okay? I mean...nothing's happened, has it?"

Mitzeee sighed. "No, physically she's fine. It's everything else that's wrong, and with the baby due in a few weeks..."

Dodger could take no more. "Please, just tell me."

"I think she needs more than I can give her. She needs you. She talks about you all the time. Wakes up screaming from a nightmare and calling out for you."

Taking a deep breath, Dodger abandoned his van and went back inside the emporium. His every instinct was to run to the boat, hunt down his passport and board the first plane to America, but the memory of that terrified look on Maxine's face the last time he'd seen her held him back.

"Did Maxine...did she tell you what happened with us before she left?"

"You mean about you beating that scumbag to a pulp when he tried to hurt her again? Wish I'd been there to see it. I'd have got a few decent kicks in myself."

Mitzeee sounded deadly serious, but Dodger had the hindsight to know the effects of what he'd done that day.

"I scared the hell out of her, no wonder she thought I was as bad as Patrick. There was a moment when I didn't think I could stop. I wanted him dead for what he'd done to her."

"You and me both, sweetheart," Mitzeee replied. "But there's a big difference between you and him. And Max knows that really. You did stop yourself. You stopped when you heard how scared she was."

"The damage was already done though."

The woman on the other end of the phone was in no mood to give up.

"Look Dodger, I'm not sure this is healthy for her, jumping into another relationship so soon after escaping that monster. And the fact that you're his son makes the situation even weirder. But the state she's in now is no healthier for her."

He didn't know what to say. Was she simply requesting his presence, as if that would magically cure her sister? Dodger didn't want to be a temporary fix in Maxine's life; he wanted to be permanent. After everything that had happened, he'd been certain that his only chance of that was to wait it out while she recovered.

Mitzeee's voice cut into their lapsed silence. "You do love her, don't you?"

"More than anything," he said without hesitation.

"And she loves you. And if you don't get yourself over here and prove it to her soon, I'm seriously worried that Maxine might spend the rest of her life thinking she's worth nothing more that the twisted sort of love Patrick subjected her to."

Now the concern was really coming through in her tone, and Dodger asked himself if Mitzeee's reasoning was enough of an excuse for him to be selfish and go straight to Maxine's side.

"Marco, I say this with the greatest love and respect, mate – you have got to calm down. You've made it, haven't you? To be honest I'm surprised they even let you on the plane, the state you're in."

Dodger sat in an American airport, on the phone to Dennis. There was a hastily packed bag of clothes by his feet, and a piece of paper with Mitzeee Minniver's address on it in his other hand.

"What if she won't see me? I should have called first. This was a stupid idea."

"No, you staying in this village forever and turning into a lonely old man is a stupid idea," Dennis replied. "Now grow a pair will you, and go and be with Maxine."

Before he could say anything, his cousin hung up on him.

With nothing else to lose, Dodger picked up his things and wandered aimlessly outside, stopping only when he spotted an idle yellow taxi. He knocked on the driver's window, read out the Minnivers' address, and hopped in the backseat.

Half an hour later his jaw dropped when they stopped outside the biggest house he had ever seen. He was so distracted by it that he almost forgot to pay the taxi driver.

As he walked up the path to the front door he felt ridiculous all over again for turning up with a bag. What if the bloke who actually owned the place answered? Carl something? What would he say when he saw Dodger standing there looking as though he fully expected to be staying around?

Despite these doubts he rang the doorbell, and when he heard what he assumed to be a porch door opening on the inside, the delighted squeals and shouts of kids filled his ears. And then he heard Maxine's voice. Well, the first thing he heard was her laugh. It was a beautiful sound; and something he once thought he would never hear again, for several reasons.

"Go and take Phoenix back to the garden, Bobby, Auntie Max will be back in a minute," she said gently, and although he couldn't see through the glass he could practically hear the smile in her voice. He hoped more than anything not to be a reason for it to disappear.

Finally she opened the front door, and Dodger froze at the sight of her. In the month since they'd been apart, her baby bump had grown to the point where she looked about ready to drop. Her dark hair was pinned up high on her head, and her face was make-up free. He could see the signs of a restless sleep in the marks under her eyes, but other than that there was a renewed sparkle in them that had been missing during the time in which she had been with Patrick.

Maxine stared over at him and, instead of speaking, suddenly clutched hold of the door frame, as if afraid she would keel over without the support. He was desperate to reach out to her, to keep her steady, but knew that this would be off-limits after what she'd been through. He had to remember that after what she had seen him do with his fists back in the village, she might well still be afraid of him. The very idea of that being true pained him, but he only had himself to blame.

"I'm sorry I didn't try calling first," he began carefully. "I'm sorry I didn't call you at all. I didn't know how to...I just didn't know what to say."

"Nobody does," she replied after a minute. "Why did you think turning up here would make it any easier?"

Her voice wasn't cold, but it wasn't exactly warm and welcoming either. Dodger didn't know how to answer her without bringing up Mitzeee's interference, but luckily for him the woman herself appeared behind her sister.

"Actually, I called him," she announced, voice breezy and bright. "Come in then, Dodger. Plenty of nosy neighbours just waiting to listen in on this conversation, you know!"

Anne 'Mitzeee' Minniver had that same confident air about her, but as he followed the two women inside the house, the youngest of two toddlers made his way up to her, stretching his arms out for her to pick him up. In an instant her business-like manner disappeared as she chattered away to her son.

"You did this?" Maxine asked, finally reacting as she sank slowly down onto one of the sofas. She was looking at her sister with a mixture of anger and bemusement in her features.

"Oh don't pretend you're not even a little bit pleased to see him," Mitzeee said coyly, bouncing Phoenix up and down on her knee. Continuing to take charge of the situation, she ushered Dodger over to the chair opposite hers. "Max, you're not happy, and we both know it."

"That's not true. I'm happier than I've been in a long time."

"Well of course you're happier than you were. It's not hard to be. But you can't tell me you're living the dream here. Couple of screaming kids..." she looked down at a smiling Phoenix in her arms and gave him a kiss on the nose. "Alright: beautiful, not-always-screaming kids. But come on, living the American dream while I raise my son, that was my plan, it doesn't have to be yours."

Dodger felt lke he was intruding on a private conversation, so he stood up. Not to leave; just to give them some time alone. But Mitzeee was having none of it. "Don't go anywhere, you," she ordered, pointing at him until he dropped back into his seat.

"Do you not want me here anymore, is that it?" Maxine demanded, wiping a tear from her cheek.

Mitzeee got up and sent her son off to play with his big brother, who had come in from the garden and was now happily absorbed in the many toys scattered on the floor behind the adults.

"Of course I want you here, don't be daft," she replied firmly, taking the space next to Maxine and putting an arm around her. "I'd love it if you stayed forever, personally. But that's not going to make my big sister happy, is it? It's not going to bring her back to her brilliant, bubbly self. So you just...talk to Dodger. That's all I'm saying for the moment."

And with that, she went back to the kids, taking them back outside and leaving a stunned Maxine and speechless Dodger in her wake.

It was a good few minutes before a very flustered Maxine found herself able to speak.

"What does she think, that I can just run back to Chester with you and everything will just be fixed? Like Patrick won't bat an eyelid, and me and my baby will be perfectly safe?"

Dodger brought a hand to his face, his eyes closed in thought. What he really wanted to do was take this woman's hand and tell her everything was going to be alright, but that reminder stuck with him.

"No one's saying you have to go back there, Max," he replied. "That's not why I've come here. But if you do, he won't be getting anywhere near you."

She turned her head away, unable to look at him. "Why, because next time he tries you'll have another go at half-killing him?"

"That's not what I-"

"Yes it is."

"No. What I mean is, I would look after you. Both of you, you and the little one. And I know you won't be able to feel safe with me if I go around attacking people but I promise you, that's not who I am. I should never have...I just need you to know that I am nothing like him. He might be my dad by blood but I'm not the same as him, Maxine. I have to believe that. I have to believe that I won't turn out like Patrick."

By the time he'd finished, there were tears in his own eyes. What had started out as a declaration to the woman he loved had somehow turned into an outpouring of unconscious worry over genetic traits. What he had never allowed himself to think about was the fact that almost every member of his biological family had lost the plot in some way or another. And that was putting it mildly.

Maxine had shuffled up to the end of the sofa during his emotional outburst, and now she was close enough to touch. To Dodger's complete disbelief, she placed a hand on his.

"I know," she replied quietly.

"What?"

"I know you're not like him. I was just scared; my head was all over the place and I didn't know what to think."

"Of course you didn't, and of course you were scared. I don't blame you for wanting to get as far away from me as possible."

Abruptly she rested her other hand on her bump, and when he gave her a concerned look she smiled at him. "She's kicking," she explained, bringing the hand she'd claimed to her stomach so he could feel it for himself. She watched in awe as he gasped in genuine delight at the sensation of her unborn daughter kicking away inside of her.

When the moment had passed and she had settled back down in her seat, she took a deep breath and finished a train of thought from minutes before.

"I did want to leave you behind at first. I wanted to forget all about you, try and get over you properly. That idea only lasted for about five minutes. I waited for you at the airport. Stood there at the gate for ages hoping I'd see you running towards me."

"I'm so sorry, Max."

"Dennis told me you got arrested instead."

He got up to approach the sofa, needing to be by her side. Still, he waited to check this was alright by her first. When she gave him a nod, he sat down tentatively. "Sienna called the police on me for what I did to Patrick." Her eyes widened at this, but neither one of them had the time or energy to think about what went on in Sienna's mixed up mind. "I should have left you a message to explain, I was so worried you'd think I'd changed my mind about being with you. But when Den said he'd talked to you I just...bottled it I guess. I thought I should leave you alone to try and get over everything."

Maxine looked down at her lap. Her hands were folded there, but her eyes were unfocused as they blinked back tears. "But I haven't got over it, Dodger," she told him in a broken voice. "Every night I'm too scared to fall asleep in case he comes for me, and when I do sleep I'm waking up from nightmares. I thought if I came here, to Anne, that I'd feel like the old me again but I don't. When I'm with them," she looked over at her sister, Bobby and Phoenix and he followed her line of sight. "I can forget sometimes that I came here to escape Patrick, but then it always comes back. It never goes away."

He felt so helpless as she poured her heart out to him, but knowing that she was trusting him enough to confide in him gave him a bit of strength. "Max," he managed to say after a minute to recover himself. "Have you had any counselling since you've been here?"

The look she gave him – total fear and panic-stricken – told him that no, she hadn't.

"I can't," she replied, so quietly that he nearly didn't hear her.

"You can. Do you know why? Because I'll come with you."

This time, when her eyes met his, there was a tiny flicker of hope there. Her words were still hesitant, though. "It'll be a stranger asking me all these questions..."

"I know. But they'll be trained to help you get through this. You can talk to me, or Dennis or Anne whenever you need to and we'll always be there, but we haven't been through what you have. We might not be able to help you on our own because we'll never understand exactly how you felt. There are support groups out there somewhere, Max. People who have been through hell just like you and come out the other side, just like you're going to."

She was crying now, and Dodger decided that for all his sensitivity earlier, he just had to put an arm around her in this moment. He had to let her know that she deserved to be held again, to be loved in the right way. And to his relief Maxine leaned into his touch, rested her head against his chest as she wept.

"I love you," he whispered against her hair. "You will get through this."

Eventually she rose from his arms and wiped her eyes, turning to face him. "I love you too. But I don't know if I can do us right now. I'm a mess, Dodger, and I'm not capable of being anyone's girlfriend yet. I might not be ready for a long time."

"Hey," he soothed. "You don't have to explain. I said I'm going to be here and I will, whether I'm with you or not."

"But it's not fair on you," Maxine argued. "I'd be depending on you all the time. I can't be in a relationship but I still need you. I want you there when I have the baby; I can't imagine a day when I won't want you with me. It'd be too selfish."

Dodger smiled throughout her speech, and shook his head at her worries. "I don't care. As long as you want me around, I'll be around. So you'd better call me selfish as well, because I can't stand to be without you for a second longer."

She cracked a wide smile at his promise, and as cheesy as it was it felt like the sun had come out to Dodger. "Even if I decided to move to China?"

"Maxine, I'd follow you to Mars if that's where you wanted to be."

She giggled, rolling her eyes at the absolute seriousness of his tone. "I'm not moving to China."

"Thank god for that," he sighed mock-dramatically, and Maxine laughed again as she swatted him playfully on the shoulder.

For the first time in what seemed like an eternity, it felt like a life stretched out before her; long, vibrant and full of hope and possibility.