Maxie's Condo, the next day; 9am…
Maxie sat at her kitchen table looking at a dozen roses and a card she found at her door, the night before. She was so tired she didn't ever bother opening the card and looking at it. She figured it was from her father, since every year he would send each of his girls' roses and a card. Georgie, her mother, robin, and her, they all got them. This morning when she woke up, she went into the kitchen and opened the card.
Now five minutes later she sat starring at the card that lay in front of her. She just kept reading it over and over, trying to make sense if what it meant.
The card read:
To the only woman in the world that can make you smile when everyone else has given up on you.
To the woman who sparkles like the stars,
Shines like the sun,
And glows like the moon.
To the woman who, unlike any other, can make a lasting impression just by walking into a room,
You are beautiful,
You are the most special and amazing woman in the universe.
This day is for you and only you,
Happy Valentines Day, my love
The card was not signed; she was trying to figure out who would send her something as beautiful as that.
"DUH! It was Jesse." Maxie blurted out loud as if a light bulb just went on.
Maxie got up to go call Jesse when she heard a knock on the door.
To Maxie's surprise, when she opened the door, Jesse was standing on the other side.
"Oh, hi Jesse. I was just about to call you, come in." Maxie said to Jesse.
Jesse stepped inside the door. "Why were you going to call me?"
"Because…"
"Wait before you say anything, I have something for you." Jesse took his hands out from behind his back to reveal a single white rose, a small box of chocolate, and a card. "I was going to bring by last night and give it to you, but then I remembered you were out with Aidan, so I thought I would bring it by this morning."
"Thank you Jesse, the rose is beautiful. How did you know, white roses are me favorite." Maxie said taking the stuff from Jesse. She set it down on the table and with out thinking, she hugged Jesse.
"You're welcome. I heard you, a long time ago talking with Georgie, and I remember you seeing red and white roses were your favorite." Jesse hugged Maxie back.
"Well, thank you very much, and I can't believe you would remember that."
"I remember everything you say."
Maxie picked up her flower and went into the kitchen, and Jesse followed her. "So how was your date last night. Did you have…Wow, that is a lot of flowers." Jesse was surprised to see so many flowers.
"Yeah I know. The yellow ones are from Aidan, but I don't know whom the red are from, they were at my door last night when I got home. They had a card, but it wasn't signed." Maxie explained to Jesse.
"So you have a secret admirer." Jesse said jokingly.
"I guess so." Maxie smiled as she added the white rose to the other ones. "There…Perfect." Maxie stepped back to look at the flowers.
"I agree. So I thought if you had time maybe we could get some breakfast…"
"I don't…"
"Wait let me finish. I mean as friends and parents to be. I was hoping we could talk about the baby. She is going to be here before we know it."
"You know what…okay. Just let me get dressed and we can get some breakfast."
"Okay good. Would you mind if I went and looked at the nursery. I need to get an idea of how to do her room in my place?"
"Yeah sure, go ahead." Maxie yelled back to him as she walked to her room.
"Thanks." Jesse walked down the hall and to the nursery. The door was closed. One the door was a hand painted sign that read Maddie in pale pink. The sign had butterflies painted in pale pastel colors. "Hey Maxie, who painted this sign on the door?"
"My friend Shelly. Actually she just gave it to me yesterday morning when she stopped by, she said it was an early baby gift." Maxie yelled out to him.
"Well it's beautiful."
"I'll make sure I let her know when we hang out tonight."
Jesse opened the door and was taken back by how beautiful the room looked. The crib was centered in the room. Floor length curtains to hide the closet. In one corner was a shelving unit with draws, baskets, and books. A rocking chair sat extending out from another corner towards the middle, on an angle. On the wall where the door is, the changing table. A beautiful area rug placed centered in the room, under the crib. A bouncy chair near the closet on the wall the door was on. The room was beautiful, it really was. Jesse stood looking; he hadn't even noticed Maxie come up behind him.
"You ready to go?" Maxie asked.
"Oh shit, you scared the crap out of me." Jesse jumped.
"Sorry." Maxie laughed.
"It's okay, yeah we can go. This room is beautiful." Jesse turned towards Maxie.
"Thank you, Liz, Emily, Georgie, my mom, and I did it. We had a lot of fun." Maxie couldn't help but be pleased that Jesse liked the room.
"Well you ladies did a wonderful job, I love it." Jesse smiled at Maxie.
"I think we should go now." Maxie quickly turned and walked out of the room. His smile still got to her. It was so gorgeous and sweet.
"Alright." Jesse turned to follow Maxie. He turned and looked in the room one more time before he closed the door and met Maxie in the living room.
"So Kelly's?" Maxie asked as she put her coat on.
"Okay, that's fine with me. You want to take one car?"
"Um…sure why not. Do you want me to drive?"
"No, I will, but thanks for offering."
"Okay, well I'm ready."
"Okay, lets go." Jesse opened the door for Maxie.
"Let me lock the door and we can go." Maxie said as Jesse closed the door.
"Okay."
Maxie locked the door and they left.
Kelly's…
"Lady's first." Jesse opened the door for Maxie. He followed her in and to a table. When they reached a table, Jesse pulled the chair out for Maxie.
"Thank you." Maxie said sitting down.
"You're welcome." Jesse sat across the table from Maxie.
They sat looking at the menus. There was an awkward silence between the two of them.
"So…" Maxie said breaking the silence.
"So…" Jesse repeated.
"Is it me, or is it extremely awkward right now?"
"It's not just you, but lets talk about Maddie, she'll be here before we know it." Jesse said trying to break the awkwardness.
"Yeah, 3 months."
"WOW!"
"Yeah I know, real soon."
"Very, but I can't wait to finally meet her. I love her so much already."
"I know what you mean. Look Jesse, I was wondering if you, maybe, would want or like to come to my next doctors appointment with me." Maxie asked Jesse.
"Are you serious…"
"Look if you don't…"
"No, I do. I would love to go with you to your next appointment. I am honored you asked. This means a lot to me. Thank you so much."
"You're welcome, and I think you should get to see your child. Jesse I need you to know something about this pregnancy and what might happen these next few months."
"Maxie is there something wrong with the baby? Are you okay?" Jesse panicked a little.
"Jesse, breathe. The baby is fine, and so am I, but with my heart and now being in my third trimester and the baby getting so big, the doctors are worried it will out to much strain on my heart."
"What will happen? You are going to be okay right? You are a strong person, we are not going to have to worry about that."
"Your right Jesse, I am a very strong person and I am sure everything is going to be fine. But they are going to monitor me more closely now until she's born. Every two weeks I am going to have a check up just to make sure everything is okay."
"What will happen if its not?"
"That's what we are going to find out when we go to the doctor appointment today."
"Okay, so when is the appointment. I mean I have the entire day off so it doesn't really matter."
"Lets see, it's 10:30 now, the appointment is at 12 noon."
"Noon, okay. Then if you are up to it, I would like to take you to lunch."
"Okay, we can get lunch. It's really nice having you back here."
"It's great being back here." Jesse smiled at Maxie as they looked into each other's eyes.
After about a minute, Maxie quickly looked away. Chills went down her spine, "Let's get some food."
"Yeah, lets get some food." Jesse smiled again. He still got to her, and he couldn't help but be happy about that.
12 Noon; General Hospital…
"Hey Liz, I'm here to see Dr. Lee." Maxie greeted Liz as she and Jesse stood at the nurses' station.
"Hi Maxie, hi Jesse, I wasn't expecting to see you here." Liz said surprised to see Jesse with Maxie.
"I asked him this morning is he wanted to be here. This is his child too, and he should get to see her."
"Well it's very nice to see you both. I'll go tell Dr. Lee that you are here." Liz said walking out from behind the nurses' station.
"Thank you." Jesse and Maxie said in unison.
"Thank you again for letting me be here for this." Jesse thanked Maxie again for letting him be here for her doctor's appointment.
"You're welcome. Like I told Liz, this is your child too, you should get to see her."
"Well thank you for giving me this opportunity."
"Of course."
"Maxie, I will take you to see Dr. Lee now, Jesse, I'll come back and get you when they are ready for you." Liz said as she took Maxie to Dr. Lee's Office.
"Okay."
Jesse sat waiting patiently while Maxie was being checked over by Dr. Lee. He couldn't wait to see his little girl.
"Jesse, they're ready for you now. You ready to go?" Liz asked standing in front of Jesse.
"Yeah I am." Jesse stood up and followed Liz to the examining room where Maxie was.
"Here you go. It's nice seeing you here with Maxie." Liz told Jesse.
"Thank you, and I'm glad I'm here." Jesse walked into the room.
"Jesse, hi. Come over here and look." Maxie waved for Jesse to come next tot her and pointed to the screen." That's Maddie, that's your daughter, isn't she beautiful."
Jesse's face lit up as he watched his daughter on the screen. "She's beautiful. My daughter, that's my daughter." Jesse was incomplete aw.
"Yeah that's your daughter." Maxie watched Jesse as he watched the screen. She couldn't believe she was going to keep this from him. He was so happy; you could see it on his face. He loved this child more the she ever thought he could.
"Maxie, Jesse, I am going to freeze the picture on the screen and let you look at your daughter a little longer. I am going to go get you the pictures I printed of her. Then we can talk about the next three months of your pregnancy. Maxie, you can get dressed also."
"Okay."
Dr. Lee left the room as Jesse continued to look at his daughter on the screen.
Maxie got up off the examining table and went over to her clothes. "You don't mind if I get dressed, do you?"
Jesse looked away from the screen and to Maxie, "No, go right ahead."
"Thanks…Jesse isn't she gorgeous?" Maxie said as she put on her clothes.
"Yes, she is, just like her mom. I can't wait to finally meet her." Jesse said, trying to keep himself from watching Maxie get dressed.
"Thank you, and I know the feeling. Since the moment I found out I was pregnant, after the initial shock wore off, I started counting do the days to when I will finally get to hold her."
"Look, Maxie, you know I would have been…"
"Jesse quick come here, she's kicking." Maxie quite cut Jesse off. She knew what he was going to say and didn't wait to hear it all again.
Maxie took Jesse's hand and placed it on her stomach, so Jesse could feel the baby kick.
"OH MY GOD! I felt that." Jesse smiled at Maxie as Maxie smiled at Jesse.
Slowly Jesse and Maxie moved closer. Jesse's Lips' moving toward Maxie's as Maxie's moved toward Jesse's. Maxie tried to fight it, but she couldn't. Their lips about to touch, something he wanted for so long. He could feel her breath on his lips. Maxie could his breath on hers. Centimeters apart. Closer and closer them came…
"You ready to go?" Dr. Lee asked opening the door.
Jesse and Maxie pulled apart and looked away from one another, the moment gone.
Dr. Lee could feel the tension in the room. She looked between Jesse and Maxie then contained, "You ready to go over what I want you to do over the next three months?"
"Yes."
"Okay, why don't we go across the hall to my office, and we an talk there." Dr. Lee told them.
"Sure, Okay." Maxie said moving towards the door.
Dr. Lee, Maxie, and Jesse walked across the hall and all sat to talk about the baby.
"Okay, so Maxie you have a heart condition and up to this point we didn't have to worry about it. With this baby getting bigger, however, more strain is being put on your heart, which is not good. We are going to be monitoring you closely, having you come in every two weeks for a check up. Now, I know you have school and work but I want you to take it easy. The less you do the better. You can go to class, but I would like you to stop working all together, if that is possible. Just until the baby is born, and if that is not possible, no more then 2...3 days tops. Is that going to be a problem?" Dr. Lee explained.
"I can talk to Mike, I don't see a problem in the work situation. I'm sure he will understand. So, no I don't think it will be a problem." Maxie told Dr. Lee.
"Now Jesse, I want you to make this as easy on Maxie as possible. All I ask is no stress, so if you could make it stress free, that would be great." Dr. Lee told Jesse.
"Stress free, got it." Jesse nodded.
"As long as you follow these guidelines, I don't see why you can't carry this baby to term with out complications. You need me to go over anything else? Do you have any questions?" Dr. Lee asked them.
"Is it okay for me to go out every once in a while?" Maxie wanted to know.
"Of course, just don't over do it and I would recommend not dancing. Movie and things like that would be best." Dr. Lee explained.
"Okay, thank you. I think I'm good." Maxie smiled.
"Alright…Jesse do you have any questions?"
"Not that I can think of right now." Jesse said to Dr. Lee.
"Well if you do have any questions, you can call or stop by. Now why don't we step up your next appointment, Maxie." Dr. Lee suggested.
"Okay."
After Dr. Lee and Maxie set up her next appointment, Jesse and Maxie headed to the elevator.
"Look Maxie, about what happened in…"
"Nothing happened, lets just leave it at that. So lets talk about something else." Maxie cut Jesse off.
"Okay…Do you still want to get lunch?" Jesse asked.
"Yeah sure…Pizza?"
"Sure, Pizza sounds great."