All disclaimers in part 1

Only love can set us free
Only love can bear the truth
Only love can bring us peace
Only love can save me and you
Only love can purify
Only love can conquer fear
-'Only Love': Sophie B Hawkins

"Well I'd say you did a great job, she seems ok now."

Kendall shook her head, disagreeing with me. I'm glad she's gotten to know Maggie so well.

"No, she's not ok. You just can't see it. She's been slowly dying inside for the last year. The Maggie Stone before my sister's death would never put up with Jonathon's behavior. She'd have dealt with him long ago. But she just doesn't care anymore."

I'm glad she brought Jonathon Lavery up. I wonder just how much my sister knows about his involvement that night. "So what's the deal with him anyway?"

"You know him?"

"Know of him lets say."

"How's that?"

Ever the inquisitive one. I was hoping I could side step the twenty questions. "Well apparently he didn't take too kindly to me asking Maggie for directions earlier today."

I saw the same look of fear come over Kendall's face at the idea of an angry Jonathon that I knew had to have been on mine earlier. "Oh God, what did he do?"

"Tried to pop the back tire of my bike." I motioned over to the parked motorcycle a few feet away from where we sat. "And he scared her enough to make her rescind her offer to show me just how to get up here."

Kendall shook her head, cursing under her breath. "He's just so damn possessive of her."

I had to ask. "Why did she start dating him in the first place? I mean, she certainly wasn't happy to see him, so why not just break it off?" It has to be more than her just not caring anymore. Maggie, no matter how much she's changed, would never date a guy like Jonathon, knowing what a jerk he is, for no reason whatsoever.

"That's the whole point. They're NOT dating. At least she's not dating him."

Well then what the hell is she doing with him? Him, of all people on this earth. Why him?
"Ok, I think you've lost me somewhere Kendall. They're not dating?"

"Billie, you don't know what kind of man Jonathon Lavery is." Little does Kendall know.

"Well then fill me in."

Kendall cast a weary gaze in my direction, suddenly not feeling nearly as forthcoming with the total stranger she figures me to be. "Why do you care so much anyway? I mean you just met Maggie after all, why bother yourself with all of this drama?" Good, she's protective of Maggie too.

Not that it solves my problem of getting her to fill in the blanks for me. "Look, she seems like a sweet girl, who's had a really rough time of it. And she was nice to me from the get go, which isn't something that I run across all that often. Maybe I can help."

Kendall continues to stare into my eyes, almost like she's looking for something. Whether she found it or not, I don't know, but she finally breaks our locked gaze. She glances over at Maggie again, contemplating I'm sure, how much she wants to tell me. "It all started a couple of weeks after my sister's funeral. Maggie completely shut down. She almost got fired from BJ's, she was knocking off from school, came within a hair's breath of getting expelled because of it."

I'm beginning to wish I hadn't asked. The idea of Maggie in THAT much pain, because of me, is something I never wanted to happen.

"Jonathon had been dating Frankie." Kendall stopped, shaking her head, realizing that I wouldn't have any idea who Frankie was. I need to be more careful actually, I should have asked her myself before she had a chance to even think twice. "Frankie was Maggie's twin sister. She died in a car accident two years ago, almost to the date of when Bianca died. I think that actually had something to do with how badly Maggie took it. First she loses her sister, and then Bianca."

I turn sympathetic eyes to Kendall. "Something you can relate to."

She nodded, a few silver tears escaping from her lashes.

"That doesn't exactly explain how she's NOT dating Jonathon though." I nudged a bit.

Kendall glanced over to Maggie fondly for a moment before turning serious back in my direction. "I have no proof at all, except for what spreads around the gossip mills. But aside from the fact that it can be downright nasty, the gossip circle seems to always be pretty right on. From what I can gather, Jon basically threatened my family. Bianca's family. I figure he knew that Maggie would do anything to protect us because of our link to Bianca, and he played on her guilt about her death."

I was torn between being incredibly proud of Maggie for looking out for my family and wanting to shake her until she finally got it through her loveable thick skull that she had absolutely no reason to feel guilty. She wasn't the one that took a seven inch piece of razor sharp steel and sliced it through my chest, over and over again. I looked at Kendall, shaking my head, baffled. "What in the world does she have to feel guilty about?"

"She was there that night, they were together. I think she feels she should have been able to protect Bianca. Or do something at least."

I shake my head, trying to make sense of how Maggie could be feeling that way. After all, I was the one that had taken us out to the cabin in the first place. I've often wondered if that night had been a mistake. But the image of Maggie staring adoringly up into my eyes as we made love by the candlelight is enough to make the pain of a thousand deaths worth it.

"They never even caught the guys who did it. Maggie was in bad shape for a while, so I don't know if she just blocked it all out or if she really never did see who they were." Kendall glanced up the hill behind Maggie to where Jonathon still stood, his brother on his right with Brian and Tony, his two cronies, flanking his left. "I don't need proof though, I KNOW who killed my sister."

Kendall has always been very intuitive, and she almost always listens to her gut instinct. And she's dead on. Without proof, justice can't be served, she's right. But revenge, that can be dished out in spades. I'll make sure of it. Maggie will be free of whatever hold Jonathon Lavery has on her, once and for all.