Author's Note: This is my own take on Maxie's reaction to Coop and Georgie's deaths, and her and Spinelli's relationship, before they start to search for the real TMK.
They were all mystified by her. They couldn't even begin to understand exactly what she was going through, but they didn't know how she was able to keep going. It was as if she was in a whole different reality. One where her sister wasn't murdered; and her boyfriend wasn't the murderer. It was as if, in her mind, they were still both alive and innocent of all blame.
Mac, the closest thing she ever had to a father, watched her while she was at home. Sometimes he'd catch her when she slipped up. When he heard her say things that she didn't even realize she'd said.
He watched her from the doorway as she lies on her bed, listening to music from her iPod. She seems serene, peaceful. She's smiling, her eyes are closed, and it appears as though she's fantasizing about something.
He doesn't want to break the tranquility he's watching. It's the most at ease he's seen her since her sister's died.
"Maxie," he says. She doesn't seem to hear him, "Maxie," he calls to her again.
She opens her eyes and takes the headphones from her ears. "Hmm?"
"Do you want some spaghetti?" Mac asks her, "I just made it."
"No," she replies with a smile. "Did you ask Georgie? She loves your spaghetti."
Her eyes change as soon as she realizes what she said. They become less vibrant, less sparkling. They take on a darker color. Tears threaten to fall from her eyes, and when Mac sees this, he walks over to her and kneels by her bed.
"He didn't do it, Daddy." She says. "I know he didn't do it."
Despite the evidence, despite his personal beliefs, he can't tell her that he thinks Cooper Barrett killed her sister. "I know," he says.
Lainey Winters was asked by Mac after Cooper's death if it was normal for Maxie to be acting the way she was. He didn't understand how she could possibly go on believing the best in her deceased boyfriend despite the overwhelming evidence proving that he was indeed the Text Message Killer.
"She often forgets that Georgie is dead. She'll say things to everyone, as if she's still alive, and she often goes and says that she's going to tell Georgie something, if something makes her smile. And then she remembers, and the smile's no longer on her face." Mac confesses to Lainey.
"I hate to break it to you, but that's not all that uncommon. Sometimes it takes people awhile to realize that a loved one is no longer with us. Sometimes it's too hard for them to face their death, so they just pretend as if it never happened, and that eventually they'll come back."
"How long?" Mac asks, "How long until it stops?"
"I can't say."
"What about Coop?"
"What about him?"
"Maxie refuses to believe—despite evidence and testimony to the contrary—that Cooper Barrett is the Text Message Killer. She tells anyone who mistakenly brings up the subject that he didn't do it. Why can't she accept it?"
"Sometimes people can't take the emotional responses they start to feel when they realize that people they've loved and trusted have hurt people. Sometimes they have to believe that they couldn't have done it. They start to make excuses for them, even if the excuses are out of the realm of possibility, and they know it. Sometimes they revert to a world seemingly inside themselves. The best way to describe it is that they make a glass cover around their lives.
"They will do anything to keep the illusion around them that their world has not just changed. They'll continue to talk about them like they're a good presence in their lives. They'll continue to talk about them in the present, and they'll pretend as if nothing's changed.
"Maxie's going to be like this for as long as it takes her to realize that Georgie's gone and that Cooper Barrett killed her. But once she realizes that, the glass cover around her will start to crack, and then it will shatter."
Lucky Spencer also saw the change. He saw how fragile she was when Georgie died. He knew that day at Kelly's that one more death would put her in grave danger of losing her sanity. After Cooper was announced the text message killer, he saw her out at the docks. He would have gone by her—she was the reason Elizabeth and him weren't together—but she was crying, and he couldn't just leave her there.
"Maxie?" he asks. He knows it's her; he's just testing the waters. Seeing how she is; if she's angry, sad, crazy, or all three.
She doesn't respond. He hears her sobs, though. So he gets closer to her. "Go away, Lucky," she whispers, he voice barely audible. She sits down on the bench, her head in her hands, and doesn't look at him.
He sits down next to her. "Talk to me, Maxie." He demands of her.
She shakes her head. "Just leave me alone. You don't like me anyway."
"That's not—" he starts, but she interrupts him, finally looking up at him.
"Don't lie to me. I've had enough people lie to me recently; I don't need you to do it too. The only person who didn't lie to me was the person who was just trying to protect me. But she wasn't right. He didn't do it."
Lucky understood. Despite her vagueness, he understood exactly what she was talking about. But he also knew that she was wrong. Cooper did do it. He was guilty. "They have evidence, Maxie." He says softly.
She glares at him, anger evident in her eyes. She gets off the bench as if being there with him could harm her. "No, he didn't do it. He wouldn't do that to me. He loved me. No matter what people say, I know that he would never have taken my sister from me. He wouldn't. He loved me, Lucky." The last sentence a whisper, Lucky moves to catch her, as her strength gives out.
But as soon as she regains her composure, she pushes out of his grasp and runs off.
But it was Spinelli who understood. He was probably the only one who could have possibly understood how she was feeling. And he was probably, looking back, the one who helped Maxie out the most after Georgie and Cooper died. After Maxie ran from lucky, it was Spinelli who found her.
Since Georgie's death, everyday, Spinelli goes to the park and lights a small candle where he found Georgie. Georgie was the only people who even bothered to try to befriend him, let alone understand him. Georgie loved him. As hard as that has been for him to understand; he starts to realize that, in time, he might have felt the same for her. But she's gone now, and he's not so sure what he feels.
And the eerie circumstances of Cooper's death—the hanging and the phone call to Jason soon before his death—cause Spinelli to become suspicious of Cooper being the one who killed Georgie.
Spinelli watches the small candle burn, contemplating everything. Upon hearing soft sobs, Spinelli looks up and sees Maxie standing there; watching him.
"Maxie?" he whispers, surprising even himself at the use of her name.
"What?" she asks, even through her tears, a smile forms. "No Bad Blonde One, no Evil Blonde One, or Hostile One?" She goes over to him and sits next to him, watching the candle he lit.
"Right now," he tells her softly, "You don't seem to fit any of those."
"So what am I?" she wonders.
He seems to give it some thought. "You're confused. Unsure what to believe and who to trust. You're hurt. Wounded." He offers her a smile. "You're The Wounded Blonde One."
She nods. "I think that's fitting." Neither says anything for awhile. Neither knows what to say. Then Maxie speaks up. "Do you think he did it?"
Spinelli, who had been looking at her, looks back to the candle. Not able to face her. Even Spinelli, as oblivious to most things as he was, knows what she's talking about. He doesn't know what to tell her. What he's starting to believe, because of Jason; or what he's supposed to believe, what the police think.
"Tell me the truth, Spinelli." She commands him.
"No," he announces, not looking at her. "I don't think he did it."
When he finally looks at her, he sees the evil smile, and wishes he hadn't looked up. "So help me find out who did do it."
Author's Note: Please review and tell me what you think. Did I do Maxie well enough? Did Spinelli's reaction seem appropriate? What about Mac's and Lainey's and Lucky's? Someday, this might become a twoshot. I don't know. I guess it depends on the reviews.