Great new story on FF.net called Full Circle. Let's unite all PF fanfiction writers!


"What do you mean?," Kenny asked carefully, "Yeah, we were going to hang out, and maybe watch a movie or something."

"Or something? What does that mean? No more secrets Kenny, you know that. Rachel saw you two the other night, and we saw you and Max necking on her porch last night. So level with me here."

Shit, Kenny thought, "You saw us? Shit, Rachel saw us? Where the hell was she?"

"You'll have to ask Jill," Jimmy responded, "Apparently she went to, uh surprise you after you two split, and, well yeah."

"Shit," Kenny repeated, "Jimmy . . . I don't really know what to say. Max and me, it just happened, and we're trying to figure out where to go from here. We didn't want anyone to get hurt."

"These things just don't happen! Do you two have any idea what you're doing?"

"I think so."

Jimmy cut him off, "You think so? You break up with a woman twice your age, then bed your partner? Max? Do you think that this is a good thing? Have you two actually thought this thing through?"

"It's not a rebound thing," Kenny said, repeating what he told Max earlier, "There has always been something between the two of us, and it just happened. And now that it has . . . we're not going to take anything back."

Jimmy paused, and studied his deputy closely for a moment, "How long have you been in love with her for?"



Max closed the door behind her quickly, and collapsed onto the sofa. Rachel knows, she thought, oh god. What you must have thought when she saw us . . . how couldn't we have seen her? How do I tell Kenny that? He cared about her, and didn't want her to get hurt through all of this.



"What?," Kenny asked, dumbfounded, "What are you talking about?"

"Does she know?"

"No!," Kenny sputtered, wondering how the hell Jimmy knew all of this, "Of course not. At least I don't think so. I don't think that we're ready for that part yet."

Jimmy nodded, "Uh, huh. Are you planning on telling her?"

"I can't tell her that . . . She doesn't know. It's only been a few days, actually not even two."

"How do you know that she doesn't feel the same way?"

Kenny shook his head, "Why would she? She's my best friend, but we're really different. We come from different places, and . . . I'll take her any way that I can have her."

Jimmy paused at Kenny's confession, "That's not fair, to either of you. If you do love her, you owe her that much."

"I thought you were against this."

Jimmy sighed, "This is going to complicate stuff at work, but if you two are serious about this . . . we'll see how it goes."



"Jill, uh, hi," Max said hesitantly, somewhat shocked to see her, "What are you doing here?"

"Looking for you? Are you alone?"

"Yeah. What's going on? Do you want to come in?"

"Yes. I need to talk to you about something," Jill replied, walking into the living room, "I talked to Rachel yesterday."

Shit, Max, thought, before replying, "Okay. I talked to her today, or at least I tried too."

"I take it that she wasn't too receptive. Do you blame her?"

"Jill. It just happened. We didn't know that she was there."

"Would you have cared? She loves him Max. Despite the fact that he doesn't feel the same way. What do you think that the two of you screwing around is going to do to her?"

Max sunk onto the sofa as Jill continued her tirade, "And last night! The two of you were making out on your porch for the whole world to see! And you don't want to hurt her? How long have you two been doing this?"

Max shook her head, "Not until after they broke up . . . Were you spying on us?"

"We wanted to know for sure before we said anything to either of you."

"Who is we?"

"Jimmy and me . . . and Skeeter and Littleton. You two put on quite a show."

"You watched us . . . oh god. This wasn't how we wanted to tell everybody. It's so new, and stuff."

"New? You and Kenny have been circling each other for as long as I've known you both. I never thought that either of you would act on it.

"Neither did I. Please Jill, you have to believe me when I tell you that we didn't plan on it. Though, it feels so right. Natural even."

"You're in love with him."

"What?," Max stammered, "Jill! What?"

"And he's in love with you," Jill sighed, feeling some of the fight go out of her, "You know that right?"

Max shook her head, "What? Maybe . . . well, yeah I am."

"Does he know how you feel?"

"No . . . what do you mean he's in love with me? He hasn't said anything."

"Have you?"

"No. It's too soon, isn't it? It hasn't even been 48 hours yet."

"How long have you two known each other for?"



"Hey," called softly, "What are you doing out here all alone in the dark?"

"It's a nice night, and I like looking at the stars," Max replied distantly, "It makes me wonder what else is out there."

"You sound like Carter."

"Yeah. Do you ever wonder about stuff like that? Like how small we really are compared to everything else out there?"

"Hey Max, what's going on?"

"Nothing," she sighed, before turning to face him, "Um, I ran into Rachel at the grocery store."

"She saw us that night."

"You knew! I thought she was going to tear my head off! Then Jill shows up here too, and says a lot of the same stuff.. Did you see her that night?"

"I didn't see her . . . I was pretty well occupied with you," Kenny said softly, "What the hell do I say to her? She shouldn't of had to find out that way."

"No she shouldn't have," Max agreed, "And apparently a lot of other people know too."

"Guess that saves us the trouble. Jimmy knows, I ran into him leaving my apartment. Jill too? Who else?"

"Skeeter and Littleton. Apparently they saw us kissing out here last night."

"What? Like this?," he asked, leaning in and kissing her quickly, "They couldn't have enjoyed it as much as I did."

"You think that this is funny?"

"Did you only enjoy it when it was our secret?"

"What?"

"You don't want everyone knowing you're doing the village idiot? I guess it doesn't look good from where you come from."

"What?"

"C'mon Max. What do we really have in common besides what we do to each other in bed. Maybe this was a mistake."

"What?"

"I should go. We can just forget this all happened," he said coldly, rising to his feet.

"Kenny!," Max cried jumping up, and taking his hand in hers, "How can you even think that? We knew that this was going to be complicated! You really just want to give up? Look at me."

Kenny swallowed, as he gazed down at her, "Max, I . . . what do you want to be with me for? I never finished college. My family still lives in the same four room walk up in Chicago, and I can never talk to you about stuff like the stars and intellectual stuff like that."

"Hey, you think I care about that? I told you before that you don't have to impress me. I love you Kenny."

Kenny wrapped his arms around her, as she stood there in shock after admission, "I love you to Max."



To be continued.