The rest of the day was uneventful, in terms of crisis and drama, until around the Kelly's dinner rush that night. Georgie went with Spinelli to buy a car. Cabs could get expensive and he couldn't ask his friends to drive him everywhere, especially once the baby came. He bought an SUV, knowing that would provide plenty of room for the baby's things. He also signed up for self-defense and parenting classes. He had been planning for weeks to take the parenting classes, but last night's events, and the fact that he had thought he was going to have to defend Georgie against Scott that morning, prompted him to take the self-defense classes, too.

"What do you think about The Jackal becoming a private Investigator?" he asked Georgie, driving back to his apartment in his new car.

From the passenger's seat, she looked at him in surprise. That question had come out of the blue.

"I think it's a great idea; you'd make a great PI."

She saw him beam over at her and gave him what he'd become to think of as his look, the smile she gave only him.

He had a wireless connection at his apartment and Georgie had said she needed to register for her classes. Understandably, she was worried about her grades for last semester, too, which would be in today. Maxie's death had made it impossible for her to concentrate at the end of the semester. She had been in a fog, and sometimes still was, and she worried that she would have to take some classes over again.

While Georgie tended to her college business on her laptop, Spinelli used his to sign up for an online PI course. He also received a few alerts having to do with some projects for Stone Cold, including some information on Moreau and the police report on Stan's death. It was definitely being ruled as a homicide. Epiphany would be receiving his personal effects soon.

The information on Moreau didn't sit right with Spinelli; it seemed off. He was learning to trust his instincts, so he filed away his reservations to bring up with Stone Cold later. He couldn't put his finger on why it felt wrong; he supposed it was because it was too detailed, the background too perfect, to be anything but a fake.

"I passed," Georgie said, sounding surprised. "I passed everything."

He smiled at her.

"That surprises you? I mean, it would have been understandable if you hadn't."

"I know; I just hate repeating classes. I had to do it once when I was little and I felt like I was failing my parents. They never said I did, of course, and they probably didn't even think it, but I felt awful. It wasn't even because I didn't know the material either; I just didn't like the class. Actually, it was the teacher I didn't like. My parents just looked so disappointed when they saw that F on my report card."

"Parental figures have looking disappointed down to an art form," he said, thinking of the times his Granny had given him the same look, the last time being when she thought he'd gotten Lulu pregnant and then fled back to Oakfield to avoid his responsibilities.

They spent a few more hours together before Georgie had to take her shift at Kelly's. After she left, Spinelli called Jason and gave him Moreau's background and explained his gut feeling that Moreau was not real, that he was definitely an alias. Jason agreed and they met up at Casa De Stone Cold to look over the info and try to figure out who Moreau really was.

Coop was panicking. He knew his DNA was in this report; it was the autopsy report, the one that would show his skin under Maxie's fingernails. Sometimes he felt guilty about killing her; he really had loved her, but when she had slept with Logan, the guy who was supposed to be his best friend, he had lost it. The thought of it still made him see red; it was that thought that made him glad he'd killed her. It did make him feel bad to see Georgie and Mack suffering because of her death, though. They didn't deserve to suffer for Maxie's actions.

But he couldn't go to jail, not for Maxie and Logan. He couldn't work for Sonny from a jail cell. He couldn't search for his mother either. All he knew was her name, Brenda Barrett. He had thought a few times of asking Spinelli to help him search; the kid really knew his way around Cyberspace. But he was afraid Spinelli would feel obligated to tell Jason who Coop was looking for and Cooper didn't want that until he caught up with her and got some answers, the number one question being why she'd left him with his father's cousin and never come back.

"Is that Maxie's autopsy report?" Mack asked from behind him.

"Yes, Sir," Cooper said, hoping he didn't look as anxious as he felt.

Mack took the report from him and went into the office. Coop's shift was over, so he left the station and headed back to Kelly's, still trying to figure out what to do.

No one in Port Charles knew that Cooper was depressed, or that he'd been off his meds since he'd found out Logan had slept with Maxie. That might not have been enough to make him stop taking his meds, but a few days later he'd found out his mother had been in Port Charles briefly and had never bothered to contact him. Apparently she'd been brought into the hospital for food poisoning, but had been the patient caught in the exploding ambulance, the one Jason had saved. She hadn't wanted anyone to know she was in town; Cooper's more questionable contacts had been spying on the hospital for months for their own reasons, some of them having to do with MedCam, and had informed him after she'd left. Cooper had been enraged that his incompetent sources hadn't found out who she was until after she'd left.

Now, in the grip of panic and terror, off his meds for months, Cooper took the only option he felt was opened to him. He had strangled Maxie; it seemed only fitting that he die the same way. He carefully made a noose in the rafters of his room and stood on a chair. It would all be over soon.

Everyone who worked at Kelly's knew Coop's routine. When he didn't come down for dinner, Mike went up to go check on him. He came downstairs almost immediately, looking as white as a sheet.

"Mike, what's wrong?" Georgie asked.

"Coop's dead," he said flatly, picking up the phone to call the police.

Georgie stared at him in disbelief as she listened to what Mike told the dispatcher. Coop had committed suicide? He had hung himself? Why would he do that?

The police answered all those questions with one statement. Cooper's suicide note was a confession to killing Maxie and to being one of the gunmen in the hostage crisis, but a denial of killing the other Text Message Killer victims. He said he would confess to killing Maxie because he had, but that he didn't want to die with people thinking he'd done something he hadn't. He had been looking for clues, though, and had put them in a safe deposit box. He left the key in the envelope with his suicide note.

"Honey, why don't you go home?" Mike asked gently. "I'll call Lulu and ask her to take the rest of your shift."

Georgie agreed, but didn't go directly home. There were two other places she needed to go first.

Mike gave Georgie enough time to get home, then called her house to make sure she got home safely. She had been through so much lately and he worried about her driving. He had tried to convince her to let him, or someone else, drive her, but she had insisted on taking her own car. Felicia said Georgie hadn't been home since that morning. Beginning to worry, she called Mack, who called Spinelli.

"You knew, didn't you?" Georgie asked, standing beside Maxie's grave. "You knew he was in the hostage crisis; you knew he was one of the people who held you and everyone in that lobby. How could you bring someone like that into our lives, Maxie?"

She began to cry. She was angry and she missed her sister. She also felt cheated because Cooper wouldn't pay for what he did to Maxie.

Spinelli stared at his laptop after hanging up with Mack. He hadn't seen Georgie since she'd left for her shift at Kelly's that afternoon. Mack had given him all the details of Cooper's suicide. They were both relieved that Georgie hadn't been the one to find him. On top of finding Maxie's body and not being able to save her, that would have been too much. But where could she be? Spinelli hacked into the security cameras around Kelly's and knew instinctively, when he saw the direction Georgie's car headed in, where she'd gone. He picked up his cell phone and called hers, but it went straight to the voicemail; she had turned her phone off. He left a message, then waited expectantly, trying not to worry about what could happen to her out there alone with the Text Message Killer still on the loose. Also, she was upset. He didn't like her driving when she was upset; it was too easy to get into an accident that way.

Georgie wiped her eyes as she started her car. Then she remembered that her phone was turned off and that Mike thought she was going home. She knew he cared about her and might have called to see if she got home safely. He did things like that; he was a good boss and a good person.

There was a message from Mike, one from Felicia and one from Mack. The last one was from Spinelli.

"Georgie, your father just called me looking for you. He told me what happened."

His voice was anxious and he was stammering a little, the way he always did when he was upset or worried.

"Can you please call me, or better yet come over? I- I'm worried about you."

That last part sounded like a confession. She smiled, wiping her eyes again. She had needed to see him, anyway; she needed to have him hold her and put things into perspective. She needed him to help her get rid of this anger towards her dead sister.

Spinelli's living room window looked out on the parking lot. He was glad for that because he could see Georgie's car if she pulled in. When he finally saw it, he jumped up and opened the door. He lived on the second floor, so it didn't take long before she was there.

"I'm sorry," she said, hugging him tightly. "I didn't mean to worry you and Mack."

"It's OK, he said, again moving towards the couch with her. They seemed to have a lot of their conversations on the couch, especially when she was upset. "I'm just relieved to see you."

"I went to Maxie's grave," she said softly.

"I thought so," he said gently, not wanting her to know he'd hacked into the security cameras to find out where she might have gone.

He wouldn't have done it under normal circumstances, but he and Mack had both been worried and for his own peace of mind, he had to know. But she was upset and he didn't want her to think he'd been spying on her. He knew being her boyfriend didn't give him the right to do that and he never would.

"I thought it would help," she said, and he could tell by the sound of her voice that she was crying again. Her head was buried in his chest. "It only made it worse."

She lifted her head to look up at him.

"I'm so angry with both of them!"

He looked confused.

'Cooper and-"

"Cooper and Maxie! She had to know he was involved in the hostage crisis and she got involved with him, anyway, and then she made that stupid bet with Logan! Coop escaped justice; I can't have justice for my sister because he decided to take the coward's way out!"

He pulled her closer, pulling her head to his shoulder.

"I don't wanna be angry with Maxie!" she sobbed.

"I know," he said quietly.

"I called Mack on the way over here. He said Coop had a prescription for depression. He'd been off his meds for months."

"Do you think Maxie knew any of that?"

"I don't know," she said tiredly. "All I know is the prescription was filled just before he and everyone else found out about her sleeping with Logan. Spinelli, what if she caused him to go off his medication? What if all this could have been avoided if-"

"What if questions will drive you crazy. We can't know any of this. If you need to understand Coop's condition better I can hack into his medical records for you, but no one can tell what he would or would not have done if Maxie had done things differently. I think it's better for you if you don't speculate."

"Yeah," she sighed, "I think maybe you're right."

They were silent for a few seconds.

"I don't know how I expected this to end," she said, "but Coop committing suicide? Him being on depression meds? I never expected this."

"I don't think anything ever happens the way we expect. I mean, I never expected any of what's happened to me since I came to Port Charles, from Evil Al to breaking the Knuckle Scraper's nose."

"Would you change any of it?" she asked, looking up at him again.

"No," he said. "It was those events that led me to you and the first real friendships I've ever had. I wouldn't trade my relationships with you, Stone Cold or the Blonde One for anything. I'm gonna have a baby soon; I never thought I'd be having children. I fantasized about it, but never thought it would happen. I never thought you or any other girl would choose me; I was just not someone anyone would choose, or at least that's what I thought. I know I'm rambling; my point is that something good has to come from this. Maybe Cooper's clues will lead us to the real Text Message Killer. Maybe we can stop him before he has the chance to kill again."

She gave him a tired smile.

"I like when you ramble; I find it soothing. You take me out of my own head for a while. You make me see things differently. I thought on the way over here that I needed you to get rid of my anger towards Maxie, but that wasn't what I needed. What I needed was what you just gave me, the opportunity to talk it out and then the distraction I needed to calm down."

He smiled.

"You and Stone cold have both taught me that it's always good to have a different perspective. Sometimes I get so focused on one thing that I exclude all others, like when I was trying to get Lulu to notice me. If I hadn't been so fixated on her, and then on Jolene, I might have noticed your feelings sooner. But then if I hadn't been trying to pursue Jolene I wouldn't be expecting this baby. I didn't plan on becoming a single father, but I wouldn't change it either. The conditions may not be ideal, but my innocent One is already one of my greatest blessings."

They talked for a long time. By the time Georgie left, she was smiling and he'd made her laugh a few times. She didn't feel so alone now. She still had Mack, Robin, Felicia and Spinelli. By the time she got home, she realized her anger with Maxie was not nearly as intense as it had been. Spinelli had listened intently, but had not tried to make her change her thinking; he knew that hadn't been what she needed before she had known. Most people considered his rambling thoughts and unique vocabulary annoying. Georgie considered it the best medicine she could have asked for tonight. They understood each other. He was the only one who could have given her the release she needed and still manage to validate her feelings without trying, intentionally or unintentionally, to force her to change them.