Maggie walked self consciously towards Buck's house, Angel going on about this and that beside her. Her hands shook as she wrung them in front of her. She still couldn't believe Angel had gotten her into this tiny black skirt and this boob hugging shirt! She was in shock of it all.

Not to mention...Well, you know when they say you'll do anything for love? It was one of those situations. And it was scary for Maggie. Was this really love? And would she really do anything for it?

Her stomach tossed at the thought of it. The only person she had actually done anything for in the last couple of years had been Dally. And look how that had turned out. But then again, its not like she actually loved Dally either. Well, maybe as a brother...she still wasn't sure where she stood on that situation. She shook her head and groaned as her stomach gave another toss.

"Do I have to?" she whined to Angel, stopping right in front of the door to Buck's.

"Yes you have to." Angel snapped back as she grabbed the door handle and wrenched the door open. The night air filled with smoke and the sound of blasting music and Maggie's stomach gave another unwanted toss. She felt like she could throw up at any minute and she hadn't even had anything to drink yet. This was a bad sign...a very bad sign!

Angel shoved her unexpectedly and she stumbled forward, landing with a thump against someone just inside the door.

"Sorry." she apologized unemotionally before turning around to glare at Angel.

She giggled and Maggie's glare only deepened.

"Let's get a drink." Angel pleaded as she pulled Maggie towards the kitchen.

"I don't want to drink." Maggie protested, knowing that it would only make her upset stomach even worse.

"Fine. I'll be back in a second." Angel said in a huff as she crossed her arms over her chest and took off towards the kitchen. The only problem was that Maggie knew Angel wouldn't be back. She'd find some guy to have fun with and leave Maggie all by herself.

"Ah." a voice sighed from behind her about 5 minutes later. "Let's go." Maggie turned around to come face to face with...Tim's chest!

"Hey...Tim." Maggie greeted him slowly, not sure why he wasn't already partying like usual.

"You looked a little lost." he explained as she wrapped an arm around her shoulders and started to lead her over towards the poker tables. Maggie gave him a questioning look but let him lead her anyway. She really was lost. She had come here to make Val mad, but now she just wasn't sure what she wanted to do. Angel had left her after all and she hardly had enough courage to do it anymore.

She sat down with a thud in a near by chair and stared at the group of boys in front of her. A few seconds later Tim pulled her back up again and then pulled her back down again, this time on top of his lap. She had known this position for a while now. Tim always liked to be on the bottom.

She crossed her arms and leaned onto the green velvety table, her eyes staring at each guy, sizing them up as she had been taught. It was Steve of course who had taught her and he always said to look into their eyes, that way you know if they have the courage and the guilt complex to lie. Which most greasers did. So, almost every time she never really did find anything in their eyes. Unless she was playing Pony or Soda or something. That was about it.

Maggie sighed, deciding to give up on her staring match and leaned back against Tim's chest, her stomach was still pounding and threatening to spew its contents all over the table but she shrugged it off. She knew, or was hoping, that it was just nerves.

She ignored the shatter of the table as she scanned the room, waving to the occasional person she caught a glimpse of. She had even found Steve in the middle of the room, dancing with some girl she didn't even know. Her stomach gave a toss and she groaned to herself and looked away.

"You ok?" Tim asked as he placed a hand on her back and rubbed gently. She nodded her head and leaned back a little more to see his cards. Tim had always been a decent card player, always. Well, at least since Maggie had known him anyway.

"Nice cards." she whispered in his ear as she scanned the room once more. Her stomach gave another unwanted toss as her eyes landed on just the person she had been wanting to see tonight. Now she could definitely throw up!

He was staring right at her with those cold eyes of his, not even flinching. It was kind of un-nerving, knowing that her jealousy plan was working and at the same time that she felt triumphant she felt guilt as well.

Maggie made a move to get up but was stopped by Tim's firm grip on her waist.

"Don't even think about moving!" he had told her playfully before pulling her back down to his lap. She smiled and held up her hands in mock surrender. She groaned mentally, knowing she would have to put up with stares all night if she staid seated on Tim's lap. She had no idea what to do now. She was stuck with feeling guilty and feeling glad at the same time. She wanted to get up and walk right over to him, apologize and pull him into a tight, passionate kiss. But she also wanted to stay on Tim's lap and milk this jealousy plan for all it was worth.

"Maggie!" someone yelled. Her head snapped in the other direction and her eyes landed on Steve. He was still in the middle of the dance floor but was making his way over now, a wide, cold smile on his face. She smiled back at him hesitantly and waited till he was in front of her to speak.

"What's up?" she asked him with a slightly raised eyebrow.

"Let's dance." he said simply, grabbing for her hand.

"I thought you weren't a dancer." Tim said in mock protectiveness.

"You know me." Steve answered back before pulling Maggie off of Tim's lap and then out to the dance floor. She laughed and shook her head at Tim before turning back towards Steve.

"You really want to dance or did you just not like me around Tim?" Maggie asked over the music. Steve shrugged, his signal that he wasn't going to answer. Maggie was going to guess that it was the latter one and couldn't help but feel proud that he was so protective.

Her smile widened as Steve pulled her close and started to dance to the beat of some stupid country song.

"What's up with the skirt?" he asked in her ear as they continued to dance.

"Angel made me do it!" she said a little too quickly. She could feel her face heating up. Just thinking about him telling Darry or something mad her fidget.

"Yeah, sure she did." Steve said with a laugh before spinning her a couple of times. Maggie laughed and swatted at him.

"What happened to that girl you were dancing with before?" she asked as she looked around the crowd. She was almost for sure that some girl was going to be charging her for "dancing with her man". It had happened before and she wouldn't take the chance of being caught off guard.

"I don't know. I left her." Steve answered with a serious face.

"You're mean." Maggie said simply as she looked around the crowd again. She waved and winked at Tim who was still occupied in his game before scanning the rest. Her eyes caught those familiar green ones again and she winced. His eyes burned holes through her skin but she couldn't pull away.

She didn't have to though, because Steve twirled her again and made her face the other direction.

"Don't you know your supposed to pay attention to your dance partner when dancing." he mocked. Maggie snapped out of her thoughts and looked at him, not fully comprehending what he had said.

"Oh..." she said finally and then trailed off. "Yeah." she agreed. Steve gave her an odd look and raised an eyebrow.

"Something wrong?" he asked, looking her over from head to two as if she had just been shot or something.

"No." she answered quickly with a shake of her head. Steve only snorted and shook his head as if to say he didn't believe her, but he dropped the subject quickly and went back to dancing.

"No!" Steve said suddenly. Maggie jumped and turned around to look at what had gotten Steve so uptight.

"No." Steve said again, shaking his head at Tim.

"Come on, Steve." Tim pleaded, holding his hand out to Maggie. Maggie laughed. The two were actually mock fighting over her.

"Get your own box." Steve joked, swatting Tim away.

"How about you share the box." Maggie snapped playfully with another laugh. "I'm sure you can find that girl around here somewhere Steve. But you have to share me."

Steve groaned but let her go anyway and Tim smiled before grabbing her hand. He swung her into him and she smiled.

"Did ya win?" she asked as he settled in close to her.

He nodded slowly, "Always."

She gave a snort and stuck her tounge out at the stupid Hank song playing.

This night was going a little bit better then she had hoped. She figured after Angel left her she would end up on the couch drinking alone or something. Obviously that hadn't been the case. She was happy about it, too. She seemed to be making Val jealous but that didn't really say much. He hadn't come over to check on her or anything. She couldn't exactly tell if that was a bad sign or a good sign. Or maybe he was keeping his distance so he didn't beat up Tim or something. The possibilities were endless and she didn't even know which one to believe. She sighed absent mindedly and gave Tim a small smile. He was talking, but she wasn't really listening. Her mind was on too many other things.

Now she felt bad. Tim had brightened her night up and she wasn't even paying attention to the guy.

"...but he go away ok. We're thinkin' about digging up a rumble between the new guys and us but were not so sure. They haven't jumped anybody since month." Tim finished. Maggie looked at him, curious now to what he was talking about before she tuned in.

"Wait. Now what?" he asked again. Tim sighed and shook his head knowingly.

"There's some gang from out of town that's been beatin' up on Tulsa greasers lately. Attacked a few of my guys last month. We might have a rumble comin' up."

"Huh." Maggie said. Her mind immediately snapping to what kind of outfit could actually beet up some of the Shepard hoods. This was just a little weird.

"How many guys do they use to jump?" Maggie asked, tightening her grip on Tim's white muscle shirt a bit.

"About 3." Tim answered in almost a growl. You could tell just talking about it pissed him off more and more by the minute and Maggie didn't know if she really wanted him to get into detail about it. She didn't want to deal with him while he was in a bad mood.

"You should talk to Darry about." she stated with a simple shrug, her calm attempt at cooling him down.

"I'm going to tomorrow." he answered with a firm nod.

"You're not going to like this." Tim said suddenly. Maggie gave him a questioning look.

"Like what?" she insisted.

"This." he said.

"Maggie." a strong voice said just a few seconds later. Maggie's eyes snapped shut and she found herself counting to five, wishing the voice would go away.

"Maggie!" the voice growled again. She gulped, knowing that she would have to open her eyes and face him.

"What?" she whispered. Her voice was shaky and she cursed herself for it. She hated showing weakness in front of Val.

"Can I talk to you?" he bit out venomously. Maggie stiffened and pulled Tim's arms away from her.

"I guess..." she answered before trailing off again. Val reached out and grabbed her arm roughly, just as Tim lurched forward to tackle him.

"It's ok." Maggie insisted as she looked at Tim. Tim stiffened but nodded anyway.

Val's grip tightened on her arm as she lead her towards the kitchen, where she knew they were going to fight.

"What in the bloody hell are you doing?" he yelled as he dropped her arm roughly.

"Dancing." she bit out just as loud.

"Yeah with every god damn guy here." he countered, throwing his arms up in dramatic motions to prove his point.

"If you call Tim and Steve the only guys here then you have serious counting issues." Maggie screamed, stomping her foot. Val moved towards her and Maggie took a cautious step back.

"If this is about this afternoon-" he started but was cut off.

"Why does everything have to be about you?" she lied loudly. "Maybe I just like dancing with my friends!" she lowered her voice a bit, but not by much.

"They're all I've got and now I'm not even allowed to dance with them? What am I your property now?" Val's eyes looked like they could pop out of his head at any minute and Maggie was shaking inside. She was actually afraid he was going to try something but she hoped to good he wouldn't.

Val punched his fist into the wall next to him and Maggie jumped with a little scream of fright. Everyone else rushed out of the kitchen, not even bothering to pick up their drinks they had come in for.

"I'm done, Maggie." Val said, his voice softer now.

"Then I'm done, too. All you ever do is push me away anyway." she agreed, even though her heart was breaking slowly.

"Fine." he yelled.

"Fine." she countered, slapping her hand on the counter before heading out the kitchen door like the devil was on her heels.

"Get back here." Val howled, but Maggie ignored him, quickly drowning out his voice with her own thoughts.

She shook with rage as she walked on, curses flying from her mouth every 2 seconds or so.

The nerve of him, she thought as she walked in the general direction of the Curtis'. She was so mad she could barely see strait. She was so mad that she couldn't even stop think about what they had both just said to each other.

She screamed loudly and kicked her heeled shoe against nothing in particular.

"You just wait, Val." she cursed him under her breathe. "I'm gonna-" she stopped suddenly as the hair on the back of her neck started to stand up. She kept walking though, knowing that it was probably a soc hiding in the shadows or something. It wouldn't be the first time it had happened. She walked cautiously on, pacing herself to give her mind to digest what could happen and what she would need to do.

If they were socs, she could probably take them on. And they probably were. So there was really nothing to worry about...right?

Her stomach flipped and she pressed her hand to it on instinct. Her eyes darted around her surroundings, watching for movements in the shadows.

Her breath caught in her throat as she finally caught something moving up a head. About 3 somethings. She couldn't make them out too well but there was something definitely hiding in the shadows. She was surprised she had seen them at all.

Just socs, she told herself as she took a deep breath. Her heels clicked on the road and she took to counting her steps.

She was getting closer to them now, a little too close for comfort and her brain started to fire off warning signs.

Maggie took in a deep shaky breath and scanned the area for some kind of alley to slip into, some way out. She knew there wasn't one, but for some odd reason she just felt like she should check anyway.

She growled in anger and kicked at a rock. She could turn around, but they would probably follow her anyway. So either way she was going to have to deal with them. She sighed and walked on, folding her arms over her stomach as if to keep it from rumbling.

She cursed Angel for making her wear a skirt tonight. Skirts were even harder to run in then high heels...well almost. She barely held back a shriek as the three figures jumped out in front of her but she gulped it down and stood up straiter, hoping to show some kind of dignity.

These guys were no socs like she had hoped. If they had been socs she could take them. But these guys, these guys were greasers. But they weren't from around here. They were too big and too mean looking. Even meaner then some of the guys she had seen in New York. Boy she missed that place right about now. She gulped again and tried to hold back pleas for her life. She was in deep shit.

"You really shouldn't walk alone." the first one to speak was always the leader. Always. He was the smallest one out of the group but also the most buff.

God she was so in for it.

"Who says I am?" she asked dangerously. She stepped back when they stepped forward and the leader chuckled.

"That." he answered coolly. She cursed herself for making that tiny mistake and tried to devise a plan.

Maybe one of the guys had been following her. Maybe Tim was walking up on them or maybe even Val. Or maybe Dally. She didn't really care who it was as long as they were there.

"God I'm gonna hate this." one of the other ones said.

"Hate what?" Maggie asked, her voice shaky. She knew it was a mistake but she figured she had better keep them talking, keep them stalled.

"Ruinin' your pretty face." he answered, right before she heard the click of a blade being opened. Not only were they big and mean...they had blades as well. Maggie tried not to break down in sobs as she backed away. This night was just not going her way.

"Listen..." she started but was cut off by all three guys running towards her. She gulped and did the only thing she could think of.

She ran towards Buck's yelling at the top of her lungs.