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Chapter 3

She pulled her still mangled car up in front of the hospital and took a long, deep breath before climbing out. Morning light was beginning to just crest on the horizon and she realized with a jolt that it had been literally hours since she had caught Matt and the Homewrecker together. Hours since she had run out of there like hell itself was on her heels and driven down some poor unfortunate guy on crutches. Her life had been forever changed tonight in ways she couldn't even begin to comprehend, in ways she couldn't begin to foresee.

She opened her purse and pulled out her compact. God, she looked like hell ran over. No, don't think about running things or people over, she chided herself. She did look like hell though. Her hair was unnaturally frizzy and mussed and her makeup was smeared from cheek to cheek. She quickly took a tissue out of her purse and began cleaning off all of her makeup. She would have to go au natural for the moment though she firmly believed a woman shouldn't leave her house without at least foundation... Oh well, she didn't have time to reapply it and besides, she would look as devastated and wary as she felt. Just what she was going for.

She finally closed her purse and walked towards the entrance of GH. She rode up in the elevator to the sixth floor and then stepped off of it. She spotted Nurse Regina what's-her-name standing at the Nurse's Station talking on the phone and she moved over to the mocha-skinned woman. Regina held up a hand before Maxie could speak and Maxie fumed. "Excuse you, I need some assistance here," she said and Regina finally hung up the phone.

"Are you hurt? Injured?"

"Not physically but –"

"Well as you can see we are very busy here this morning so-" She broke off as she gestured to the waiting room that was indeed full of people in all stages of illness and fragility.

"But I need to talk to Monica Quartermaine stat! It's important. It cannot wait."

"I am sorry, Dr. Quartermaine is in surgery –"

"Well pull her out of there. This can't wait. She has a traitorous bi – I mean, staff member working here and the patients could all very well be in grave danger!"

Regina studied Maxie closely. "I can give her the message if you just –"

"That won't be necessary, Nurse Thompson," a familiar, brusque voice said from behind her. "I can handle this."

Maxie shook her head as Matt suddenly grasped her by the arm and pulled her down the hall. "Dammit, Matt, let me go. I'll scream! I'll scream bloody murder and then everyone will come running and then I'll tell them exactly what little Nurse Webber is up to and –"

Matt continued pulling her down the hallway and finally they ended up in a small exam room. Matt pushed her inside and shut the door after them. She tried to jump around him but he held her firmly in place.

"Maxie, I know, I know you're mad and hurt and –"

"Damn right I am!"

He sighed. "But that still doesn't give you the right to come to Elizabeth's and my place of employment and start raising hell."

Maxie sniffed. "I am doing the public a service by outing Elizabeth as the lying bitch she is!"

Matt shook his head. "I am sorry that you're hurting right now but what is ratting on Elizabeth about some imagined wrong going to accomplish?"

Maxie shook her head. "'Imagined wrong'? Are you kidding me, Matt? She has done plenty of 'wrong' to me and –" She shot up a hand to stop him before he could interrupt. "Yeah I did some pretty rotten things to her too but I've admitted all of them and yet everyone held them over my head for years. When does she have to pay for her sins?"

"She didn't do anything to intentionally hurt you. Neither did I for that matter. We just, we fell –"

"Don't say it, Matt! Don't say you're in love with her because I don't want to hear it. Besides, you're not. What you are is a man so of course you're going to take the cheap whore to bed if she's offering. But you don't love her. You don't. You can't because you love me. Deep down, you know that you do."

Matt rubbed his grizzly beard. "I do love you, Maxie, but I'm –"

"Please, please don't say it…"

Matt reached out and grasped her by the shoulders. "I am being honest with you here like I should have been all along. I love you, Maxie, but I'm in love with Elizabeth."

Maxie shook her head vehemently, her flaxen hair whipping her across the face in the process. "No. No way in hell, Matt."

"It's true. We didn't set out to hurt you but –"

"But you did. You totally did. Fuck you, Matt Hunter!" She shoved past him then and he sighed.

"Maxie, be mad at me, take it out on me, please, but not Elizabeth. She's pregnant."

"Oh I know, don't I know it? You made that perfectly clear before. You want your pregnant bitch so badly? Have her. I am done with you. And her. You're right – I am not going to bother ratting out Elizabeth because neither of you are worth it!"

XoXoXo

She made it back to the waiting room before she was collapsing into a chair. She had never thought of herself as weak but at that moment, she couldn't bring herself to keep walking. She was hurting far too much. Every little revenge scheme she thought of didn't seem harsh enough of a punishment for the two people who had betrayed her so badly. And then there was Spinelli. He didn't want her either. Damn them all!

Big, fat, pathetic tears rolled down her face as she sat there, her knees fairly knocking together as she tried willing herself not to be a crybaby loser. But it wasn't working.

She dabbed at her eyes but it was no use. They just kept spilling over. She had lost her man tonight, her best friend and almost husband Spinelli, and had nearly killed someone to boot. Hell, maybe that poor guy was already dead. On top of everything, she would be going to prison for manslaughter as Mac had put it.

"Maxie," a voice called her from across the room. She looked up to see none other than Mac approaching her, concern etched on his face.

"Maxie, what's wrong?" Her adoptive father asked as he slid into the chair next to her. "Is this about the accident or something else?"

She could tell him the truth. She could tell him everything but as much as she wanted to run Elizabeth's "saintly" reputation through the mud, she suddenly didn't have the words. For someone who was accused of being a Chatty Cathy or whatever she just couldn't speak. She just rested her head on Mac's shoulder and cried into his shirt.

"Maxie, whatever's bothering you… Come on. Talk to me."

Maxie couldn't find the words. "Alright, I'll talk then," Mac said. "The guy you hit with your car– he just got out of surgery. Matt performed it actually. He thinks the guy will be just fine though I am told he is still unconscious in recovery."

Maxie cringed. So Matt had saved her victim unknowingly. Probably if he had known the truth, he would have let the guy die on the table just to spite her…

Okay, maybe that wasn't true but she was so upset. She wasn't even really thinking clearly anymore. All she knew was that she had to get to her victim's room and the moment he woke up, she had try to convince him not to press charges.

Maxie finally found her voice. "What room is – what room is the guy in?"

"451," Mac said. "But I want you to leave him alone, okay? He took a beating tonight –"

"Because of me," Maxie said sorrowfully. "Everything I do always gets so messed up somehow."

"That's not true, Maxie."

"Yes it is. Let's just be frank here, Mac. I am a royal screw up and it's no wonder everyone hates me."

"No one hates you."

"Yeah right," Maxie said and then straightened. "Look I need to use the restroom."

"You're not going to bother our John Doe…"

"His name is John?" Maxie said.

"Actually we don't know his name or why he was on the road tonight or where he even came from. We'll have to ask when he wakes up."

"Oh okay…" Maxie said. "And of course I'm not going to bother him. Like I want to admit to anyone what I did."

She kissed Mac's cheek and then stood on still wobbly knees, headed for the restroom. She felt Mac's eyes following her suspiciously so she went into the ladies' room and then poked her head out again. Mac was no longer watching her but was now talking to Patrick. Good. Maxie could finally confront the man she had run down. She wasn't ready to go to prison – not for someone she didn't even know. She would make him see it was an accident. She would.

TBC