Chapter Two

Maxie found herself on Logan's doorstep nearly two weeks later.

She had heard he was released from the hospital today and though she told herself there was absolutely no reason to see him, still here she was twisting the handle and strolling inside like she owned the place.

"Knock, knoc-" she calls out in a fake cheery tone but the second word dies on her tongue because he's standing there in a nearly empty apartment, shoving things into a box.

"Just walk right in, why don't you."

"Thanks. I think I will." She slams the door. Suddenly she couldn't be angrier if she tried. He's leaving. He's walking right out of this town and her life.

He hasn't said a word to her since the night he woke up and now he's just leaving. Would anyone ever stay? Would she ever be smart enough to not care if the people she let close left town or hated her or died?

Caring about anything at all in this messed up world was completely overrated.

He asks, without looking at her, "What do you want?"

"You moving or something?"

"Yeah, something."

"What something, Logan?" Her words are so brittle they should make his head snap up, if he cared about her at all, she thinks. But he looks away instead.

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He hasn't looked at her since she came in, and Logan figures, if he just keeps not looking at her then he won't be tempted to change all his plans. Because if Maxie is anything for him, she is and has always been, pure walking and talking, kissing and teasing, yelling and threatening to ruin him temptation.

He busies himself with going into the kitchen where he opens the fridge and pulls out a beer. The doctors told him to take it easy for a while, if he didn't want to end up back in the hospital but he really doesn't care if that happens.

The hospital is one step closer to the grave and he hasn't decided if he wants to live for sure, not yet. That day may come or it may not when he does want to again, he isn't really worried about it. After hearing that Lulu, Scott and Maxie believed he was the Text Message Killer, he doesn't see much point in being alive, and he sure saw no point in living in Port Charles.

No one really knew him here. He would not look at Maxie and because then he would start to believe she was the only one who did get him. He had to hold on to his disillusionment. It was the one safe thing he had to count on right now.

He takes a chug of his beer. He leans against the counter, with his back toward her.

"Drinking. That's smart," she sneered. "Is this big dramatic scene-you packing up everything and moping around here-overthat silly tease Lulu? She doesn't want to go steady anymore and so there's no reason to go on?"

He ignores her question and asks "What are you doing here?"

"Well you don't have a friend in the world so I thought, out of pity and a sense of duty to Cooper, I would check on your sorry ass. I see I got here just in time. Let me tell you something, Logan, whatever you think you felt for that...child...you didn't. She was nothing more than a distraction for you anyway."

Smiling, he asks "Really? Why's that? Because I couldn't have you?"

He says it as a joke. But somewhere in the back of his brain is a whisper that taunts him saying there is more truth than lie in her words. And everybody knows it. He hadn't fooled Maxie or Lulu or Cooper. He only fooled himself...trying to make Lulu fill in the empty spaces, trying to make her fix him, when she never had it in her to pull it off, to fit. Maxie is the only one who has ever fit, and she only did for the span of a few minutes while they grasped each other desperately and rolled around his bed. Then he felt like someone got him.

But then changes nothing now.

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Because I couldn't have you? Maxie hears the question repeat in her mind.

She had given a part of herself to him, but not the biggest part. Still giving that little piece is what caused such havoc for all of them. It is what made her feel shame filled and dirty. Not having sex with him, not even cheating with him, it was the giving. How could she had given some of herself away when she had a man like Cooper in love with her?

That was the unforgivable sin that lay between Maxie and Logan. It had made it hard to face him afterwards, knowing he knew so much she had never said aloud, but with Cooper and Georgie gone, with her so empty inside, she had to face Logan now. She had to see that person who knew her.

But if he knew her, and knew how she was barely hanging on, how could he leave?

Maxie threw back at Logan "You said it, not me. The whole thing is actually sad. But nothing to flip out over. You don't have to leave town because Lulu isn't into you this week. Don't be that pathetic, Logan."

"I'm going, Maxie." Each word is low and final.

I'm going I'm going I'm going I'm going she hears in her head. He's already gone. Logan is gone.

It is all over.

Somehow she never thought, when he walked into the Metro Court last year, that this is how it would end. With Georgie and Cooper buried; Maxie and Logan wishing they were, too.

Slowly he turns around. His light eyes flick with a mixture of lust, regrets and pain. The way he only looks when looking at her. The way she only looks when looking at him.

He says "I'm taking a bus to Texas tomorrow morning."

"Can't handle sticking around to see how this plays out?"

"I know how it does. Scott will never see me as more than a criminal. He never introduced me to his folks, to my sisters. I'm the black sheep in that family and won't ever be anything else. I don't have a job here. No friends. Nothing. What is there to stay for?"

Maxie knew she hadn't been close with him in a while. But that didn't stop it from hurting that he could walk out of her life like it was no big deal. There was no way she would say that to him though. "I guess nothing."

She turns and heads for the door. Her face crumples and she hates that. It's ridiculous to care. She should make that a rule to live by.

Never care again.

Her hand closes around the handle just as Logan whispers her name. The last thing she wants to hear is him say the word good-bye but she stops anyway.