CHAPTER SIX

After Mac told her which room was Maxie's, Sam went up slowly, trying to gather her nerves together for the showdown she knew she was probably coming. It was an odd jumble of feelings that went with her because before now, it had never been in her nature to worry about what other people thought of what she said or what she did. In her profession, that had been a luxury she hadn't ever been able to ever afford. But now, everything was different.

She was different.

Had been since she'd hit Port Charles. She'd lost her heart - or had found it - depending on how she looked at it. And because of all of what had happened to her, because of her finding love so deep and true and having to suffer the agony of losing it and not even really understanding how it happened, and finding a love with the people she had come to think of as family, and learning that that kind of love couldn't ever be lost or thrown away by her own chance or circumstances or even by her own foolishness, now...now she couldn't find it in herself to blame Maxie for her reaction; if she had been in Maxie's shoes, if she had been the one finding out the news Sam had brought to her doorstep, then she might have reacted the same way - or worse. Both she and Maxie were both capable of so much worse. It was one of the things that had led them to bond - recognition of the take-no-prisoners and burn the place down if they had to- attitude they had towards the world. Without it being said, they had recognized a kindred spirit in each other.

And now it turned out, not only were they kindred spirits, they were actually kin. Funny, wasn't it that now there was a concrete reason as to why they were more alike than they had ever guessed.

That realization brought a reluctant smile crossed her face, one that she quickly wiped away before she reached Maxie's door. Sam knocked once lightly, but didn't get an answer. She sighed aloud. Ignoring her wasn't going to make Sam go away and Maxie needed to know that. The deed was done, the secret was out and now it was time for all of them to learn how to deal with it. So Sam took a deep breath, knocked again, harder this time and when she still didn't get an answer, took a chance and opened the door.

Just in time to see Maxie perched on the windowsill, with one leg halfway over it and halfway gone.

Maxie didn't blink at being caught. Instead, her gaze was bright and defiant as she stared at Sam. "So you've got no manners on top of everything else? Or do you feel suddenly entitled to roam through our house at will?"

"Why, is that some sort of family trait?" Sam answered; she leaned against the doorway, displaying nonchalance and a calmness she certainly wasn't feeling. She was walking across a minefield and knew it. And the last thing she wanted to do was set off another explosion. Surprising herself with her self-control, she paused, trying to choose her words carefully. "I didn't know this news was so traumatizing to you that it made you want to jump."

"Don't flatter yourself." Maxie shot Sam a sharp and still-angry glance, but made no move to go any further out of the window. "I've been climbing out this window and down the pecan tree since I was thirteen."

"I believe it." Sam walked further into the room to face her. "But running away now isn't going to solve anything, you know. I'm not lying - but you know that too.... after all, it takes one..."

"..to know one?" Maxie finished the line for her, the sarcasm heavy in her voice. "Yeah, so we both know how to lie and scheme when it suits us. And with dear old daddy being some kind of international super sleuth, I guess that's supposed to be yet another family trait coming into play?"

"If you say so." Sam shrugged, trying for nonchalance even though she was doing her best to tip-toe around Maxie's feelings - even if the other woman didn't realize it. "Either way, you know I was telling the truth. I don't have any agenda in mind - except to share the truth that I learned with the people who deserve to know. And even if you run tonight, the fact that Frisco Jones is my father isn't going away." She was very careful not to refer to the fact that this made them sisters. She had the idea that that would only remind Maxie of the sister she had lost and that would only reignite Maxie's fury. "That's a fact that is still going to be here whenever you decide to come home."

"Yeah, but you and your truth won't be here getting in my face when I do, right? Unless you were planning on moving in?" Maxie's didn't bother to hide the resentment in her voice. " Although I'd guess our homey little brownstone would be a huge step down from your fancy high-rise apartment."

Sam shook her head; this time a tiny smile did creep across her face. "No, I like my "fancy" apartment just fine, but thanks for the offer."

Maxie hesitated and then pulled her leg back in from over the window sill. "Okay, so now you're making jokes, trying to set me at ease, yadda, yadda. But what you really came up here to do is talk. And you're not going to quit until you get what you want. So fine. Talk. And you can start off by telling me how you figured all of this out by your lonesome."

"I had help." Sam sighed before beginning. Alexis and her family connections had confirmed what she'd discovered, but if it hadn't been for Spinelli and his skills that had actually dug deep into her DNA files and set up a cross check that had put her on the right path, she would have never know where to begin. "But first off, let me say that I'm sorry if what I said downstairs came out wrong; I never meant to imply in any way that my showing up here meant that I wanted to take Georgie's place in your family."

"Good, because you can't." Maxie said fiercely.

Sam took a deep breath and squashed the heated words that rose to her lips even while her hands clenched themselves into fists. She had been trying to be patient, but that had never been a virtue of hers any more than it had been one of Maxie's. But still, she swallowed her anger and forced herself to relax. This wasn't just about her hurt and her need and she tried her best to keep her focus on that. She'd just dropped a bombshell into Maxie Jones' life and there was bound to be some collateral damage. " Do you think you can manage to listen to me for a minute without smashing anything else - and actually listening?"

"You've got fifteen minutes. After that, I have other things to do." Maxie said. "I did have a life before you decided to drop this little news flash on Mac and me. Contrary to what you might think, the world didn't stop spinning when you had our great revelation."

Now that Maxie had given her the chance, Sam started pacing a little, trying to find the words to explain all that she was feeling. But how could she, when she barely understood all the different emotions flooding through her all at once. But she was determined to try. "Alexis never seemed to be able to find the right time to tell me who my father was. When I first found out that she was my mother, I was so full of hate and pent-up resentment against the woman that I believed threw me away that I never even stopped to ask who my father was. But eventually, after Alexis and I got to a good place, I started thinking about it. And then I began to wonder why she never told me herself." Sam stopped for a moment, remembering how she had felt about that.

"There had to be a reason why she never told me, I figured. And it couldn't be good. My first thought was that maybe she'd been raped when she was a teenager and gave me away. Or maybe her family had forced her. In either case, the last thing I wanted to do was bring that memory back into her life. So I went to my friendly neighborhood computer genius..."

"Spinelli." Maxie said.

"Exactly. And long story short, he created a program that could sift through and match DNA samples. It was an accident that Frisco's name ever came up. He was running a test on the program and he accessed the General Hospital records just to run them as a comparison check. He told me later that he had purposely hacked into a database with little to no recent activity and was shocked to see a match come up with Frisco Jones' name on it.

"After that, we ran a DNA analysis against Alexis and me, and that's when I learned that Alexis wasn't my mother. We had plenty of the same genetic markers, but there were a few vital ones that just didn't match up." She didn't tell Maxie that Alexis had actually cried when she found out that Sam wasn't hers, but her heart ached with the memory.

"So you had this great revelation. Now what? What do you want?" Maxie asked.

"I don't know." Sam admitted. "I really don't have a clue. Look, Maxie, I'm not asking for hearts and flowers, just some understanding. You don't know what it's been like for me all these years; you have no real idea of what it is not to be wanted." She started off...

"Don't be so sure. Look around, Sam - do you see mommy dearest or dear old dad anywhere in sight?" Maxie said. "You've been in Port Charles for a while now, so ask yourself - in all the time you've known me, have you ever? Nope, it's been me, Mac...Georgie.." her voice faltered for just a minute. "And even my cousin Robin since she came back from Paris, but sorry, no mommy and no daddy. So you don't have the monopoly on abandonment. Try again."

"But still - you had a Mac in your life. And you had Georgie. And Robin. Me, I had nobody. A mother - and the one of the few things good that came out of this was learning that that witch was not my mother - who made it very clear that she didn't want me, and a father who saw me as just another tool to be used in his cons. The only person that I knew that loved me was my brother Danny, and I was the one who he depended on. Me, I didn't have anyone to depend on to be there for me when the chips were down and I learned that lesson practically from the day I was born - or at least as far back as I can remember. That made me what I am - and that's one reason why we're so much alike.

"But that changed after I found out that Alexis was my mother. It wasn't until then that I found what you had - even if you didn't have your parents."

Sam walked over to Maxie's dresser, trailing thoughtful fingers across the line of framed photographs; pictures of Maxie's life: she and Georgie as little girls standing next to a lopsided snowman; graduation pictures with a beaming Mac with his arms around the both of them, pictures of a life that Sam had only dreamed of. Her eyes prickled with unwanted tears and she blinked them angrily away. "You have a family that loves you. I didn't have that ... not until I found out that Alexis was my mother. And by the time I found out about her, so much had happened in my life that like an idiot, I turned around and I took it all out on her."

She walked back across the room to face Maxie who was still perched in the window. "I told myself I hated her, made sure she knew it and to top it all off, I didn't miss an opportunity to show it. But Alexis didn't care, for the longest time, she did her best to be a mother, to show me that unconditional love that parents have for their children. But I didn't know how to handle it, because I'd never had it before. And don't tell me about Felicia and Frisco..." she said, seeing the look in Maxie's eyes and guessing at the words that were hovering on her tongue. She held up a hand to stop her words. "You had Mac in your corner, and just looking around this house, I can tell that his love more than made up for anything that you thought you didn't get from the two of them. Or am I wrong?"

Reluctantly, Maxie had to admit that Sam was right.

"I'll never be able to make it up to Alexis, how horrible I was to her. And then to find out that she isn't my mother after all... I mean, not by blood. But in every other way that counts, she's always going to be my mother. She's made it clear – she's not going anywhere. I think Alexis is going to be my Mac. Blood doesn't matter to her, any more than it meant for Mac." Sam smiled a funny little smile, full of love and wonderment and regrets all rolled up into one. "She must be crazy, but she's willing to be stuck with me. What is she thinking, right? "

Sam paused, took a guess and took a chance. "And I bet you've said the same about Mac, right? What is wrong with the both of them?" Another little grin followed her words.

"They must be certifiably crazy to put up with either one of us." Maxie admitted. A reluctant smile of her own hovered at the edges of her lips.

"That's what I'm thinking." Sam said, grateful that she'd managed to find common ground for them to agree on something - anything - on. "I'm just trying to find out who I am. I'm sorry that that led me to your door, especially at a time like this, but I had to know. And as soon as I found out, it was just something inside of me that wouldn't let me put it off... finding out that there are people out there that are of the same blood... " Sam shook her head helplessly. "It's too hard to put into words."

Unwillingly, Maxie felt some of Sam's need. Even though she had her own laundry list of mistakes behind her, she had always known in her heart of hearts, that Mac was always there to catch her when she fell. "Look, I get it, about needing to find out who you are. I mean, I think I do. It's not something I've had to grow up with. But I have to tell you that Frisco Jones is no prize as a dad. If this is all true, and not just another mistaken case of misplaced DNA - then you're just another casualty of his selfishness. Just like me. He'd rather go off and save the world, rather than save his kids. So what do you want - a welcome to the lonely hearts club? Are you planning on sending him a postcard for Father's Day saying "surprise?" Assuming you could figure out where to send it."

Sam looked out the window, seeing something beyond the view. Maxie could see the memories shifting behind her gaze and knew she was elsewhere in her mind.

"He's in Casablanca..." Sam gazed past Maxie, her eyes taking on a thoughtful look. A smile of remembrance drifted across her face. Despite what Maxie had told her of Frisco Jones, and what her own knowledge had told her, the fact that she and the man who was her father had crossed the same paths on the other side of the world brought her some odd sense of union. Maybe that's who had given her her sense of wanderlust. Maybe he was the reason why she had never felt the need to settle down - until she had come to Port Charles, the same as him.... that thought lent her voice a kind of dreaminess.."...Morocco, in North Africa. I've been there, a couple of years ago. He just arrived a few days ago.... I wonder if the Blue Night bar is still there and if he ever went there. If you're looking for information - to buy or sell - that's the place to go."

Maxie felt Sam's emotions and inexplicably, she felt a hot flash of jealousy sear through her as she sensed Sam reaching for a connection with Frisco that she herself could never in a million years have. Her eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Wait a minute, how do you know he's there? My mother told me he was on his way to some assignment overseas, but she was waiting for confirmation of his arrival. He was supposed to try and call us when he got where he was going." Not that he had managed to find the time... she couldn't help but think bitterly. Duty , danger and excitement came first. And she came last - as always. "Have you talked to him?"

"No...no.. why would you think that?" Sam was puzzled.

"It doesn't matter." Maxie snapped. It was stupid and totally irrational of her to feel jealous just because Sam had been somewhere that Frisco - she refused to call him Dad - was. Somewhere far-off and exotic - somewhere that gave Sam a claim to her father that she, Maxie didn't have. "It's just like you to assume that my actions are all about you. This was all very nice, you sharing your feelings and all... but like I said before - I've got other things to do."

"Really... like what? Sam asked.

"I'm going to find my sister's murderer."