Scorpio Household-

Maxie Jones looked at herself in the mirror, slowly stroking the brush through her long hair. She had pondered many times about cutting it. People just didn't understand the hassle that came with having long hair. Yes, it looked good, but that didn't mean that it was easy to maintain or deal with. If anything it was a huge pain… with the upkeep and the stylizing. Sometimes she would tell herself that it wasn't worth it, but it was a part of her. Georgie was the one with the shorter hair. That didn't mean that Georgie had a claim on the style, far from it, but Maxie had thought about what she would look like with Georgie's style and it didn't mesh. Long hair was her claim. Besides, she loved the way it felt when her boyfriend stroked her golden tresses in that soft way. The way that Kyle never did. He never paid any attention to anything about her, short of her face, her position at the hospital, and the sex.

Damian was different from any boy that she had ever fallen in love with. Unlike Lucky, he was attainable. Unlike Kyle, he was kind. Unlike Lucas, or so Georgie would have believed… he wasn't some sort of adopted cousin. That explained why she cared about him as much as she did. He was like something that she had never had before. Something that she didn't know she needed until she got it and saw just how much it changed her life. Without him… she didn't even want to know what she would have been doing without his love to anchor her. If she wouldn't have met him she would have imploded when Kyle died. She wouldn't have been able to lose him. It would have been impossible for her to cope.

Maxie looked in the corner of her mirror. It was where she often kept pictures. Mementos of the people that she loved. There were pictures of her and a few of her friends from high school, the ones who had managed to get out of Port Charles after graduating, the ones who hadn't made the mistakes that she did. There were pictures of Georgie, both alone and with Dillon. There were pictures of Mac. But there were no pictures of Damian. The two of them had never taken a picture together. She hadn't realized it until that moment, looking at everything that was right in front of her face, noticing that something was missing and knowing what it was.

They didn't have a relationship that she would have pictured herself having with someone. Anyone. They talked more than they did anything else. Damian was a virgin. He wanted to stay a virgin until he got married. It was a decision that Maxie respected, but struggled to understand. Even though he had the religious background that he had thrown away, parts of those teachings were still embedded in his mind and in his sense of morality, that was one of them. She didn't have the luxury of being brought up in a religious household, or maybe it wasn't a luxury. The faith had seemed to give Damian a blow that he had yet to recover from, so maybe it was better off that she didn't have that backing, the only person who failed Maxie was Maxie.

Maxie heard a knock at her door. There were only two people that it could have been, and she didn't mind seeing either her father or her little sister at that moment in time. Still staring at herself in the mirror, she called out to the person, whoever it may have been, "Come in!"

Mac walked in at the command of his daughter. She was an adult now, but she still lived at home, and Mac wouldn't want it any other way. He didn't think that Maxie was strong enough to be on her own. It wasn't that she wasn't strong, but she was only just now starting to realize her potential, realize the person that she was deep inside. Through all the layers of ignorance and conformity, she had found her true core. She needed to be sheltered, nurtured, given time to get comfortable with herself once again. Damian helped with that, Mac would be a fool to not admit such things, but that didn't mean that he was willing to let his daughter live with Sonny Corinthos. Thankfully, Mac was almost assured of the fact that Sonny wouldn't be in favor of the idea.

Mac sat on the edge of the bed, looking at the headboard. Maxie had managed to make her bed, and her stuffed animals were still there. In many ways, she was still the child that Mac had taken in and loved in all the ways that a father should love a child. As Georgie had told him before, he may not have been their father, but he was their dad. "You're up early… and on a vacation day. Are you feeling sick?"

Maxie blushed softly, "Come on, dad, I'm not a kid anymore. I'm in college now. I know how much it pays to get up early and go to every class, all that good stuff. Besides, if I let myself fall back into the habit of sleeping in, I might enjoy it too much. I want to make this work, dad. I don't want to waste your money, I don't want to waste my time. I want to finally make up for all the mistakes that I made when I was a teenager… when I was in high school. That's the best way that I can think of repaying you for everything."

"Did you rehearse that speech?"

She opened her mouth and made a sound of mock hurt, "Dad! That came from the heart. Honestly!"

"I know it did," Mac stood and walked over to her, kissing her on the cheek, "and I don't think I've ever been prouder of you than I am at this moment."

"Does this mean I get an extra special Christmas present?" Maxie looked up at him.

"And then you go and say something like that, ruining the beautiful moment," Mac took a chunk of Maxie's hair and tossed it over her head, spilling it in front of her face. "You know how to do that better than any other person I've ever met, Maxie."

"It's a gift," Maxie laughed, brushing the hair out of her face.

Mac's face changed expressions as he looked at Maxie once more, perhaps looking at her for the first time, the first true time. "You remind me a lot of your mother… you look more like her each time I look at you."

Maxie's own face also changed. The smile faded, leaving a blankness that threatened to swallow her whole. She didn't want to be compared to Felicia. She didn't want to have the same expectations that were put on her mother put on her. She didn't want to be the type of woman who left her children for years at a time, always coming back with promises that couldn't hope to be fulfilled. If she looked like Felicia in any way, shape or form then she wanted to do everything that she could to make sure that she changed the way that she did look.

Mac knew that he had hit a nerve. Mentally he cursed himself for saying such a thing, knowing full well the effect that it would have had on Maxie. Georgie may have taken it as a compliment, but that was a long shot. Maxie didn't take it as a compliment in the least. She took it as an insult. "Sweetie, I'm sorry. Just because you look like your mother doesn't mean that you're going to do the same things that she did. It doesn't mean that you're going to make the same mistakes that she made. You're your own person, but you have a small piece of her inside of you."

"Then get me something so that I can dig out whatever part of her that's inside of me," Maxie commented, filled with an intense bitterness. "I don't want to have anything to do with that woman, dad."

"Maxie…"

"Don't," she got up and grabbed her bathrobe, "I don't want to hear it. I'm going to take a shower."

"Maxie! Please…" Mac's pleas fell on deaf ears as all he heard was the echo of the door being slammed in the hallway, slammed with a ferocity of anger and hurt. Sighing, Mac looked at the pictures that were aligned on the mirror. None of them had her mother. Not even when Maxie was little, when Felicia was around. The hurt of abandonment ran deep inside Maxie, and it was something that wasn't going to get fixed overnight. It was something that would probably never get fixed at all.

Before Mac could even bang on the door in hopes that Maxie wasn't actually taking a shower, that she was just sitting on the toilet, letting the water run, giving the illusion that she was taking a shower, he heard a knock on the door. Georgie was likely still asleep, or hiding in her room for fear of being caught in the fallout. Unsure of how much good he could do, if any, to Maxie's case by trying to speak with her, Mac begrudgingly went for the door, walking down the steps and hoping that it wasn't someone trying to sell him collectable plates.

When he opened the door he saw that it wasn't a solicitor, but it wasn't someone that he really wanted to see either. Then he thought about it, maybe it was a good thing that he was there. But he couldn't let Damian think that, it wouldn't be part of his role. "What are you doing here?"

"I went for a morning walk and happened to come around here… thought I'd see if Maxie wanted to spend some time with me."

"The penthouses are on the other side of town…"

"It's a small town, and it was a long walk," Damian had long since told everyone that saw him and Mac together that he wasn't going to back down just because of his reputation, his family. He loved Maxie and would die to protect her, he had almost died protecting her before. He knew the risk that he put her in, she knew the risk that she was in, and they accepted that. "Shouldn't you be trying to accuse my father or my uncle of doing something illegal?"

"They've managed to cover their tracks better than usual lately," Mac countered. "But, knowing them, they're probably doing something that would get them in trouble."

"Dad's making Michael breakfast right now. Watch out, Commissioner, that's a crime in the making…"

"Can I be frank with you?" Mac asked.

"I wasn't aware there was anything else that you could be when it came to me, Mac. It's not like you try and sugar coat the way that you feel about me." Damian wouldn't turn around. If he managed to fight Mac down then it was a victory in his favor, and one that could show Georgie and Dillon that they didn't always need to be cautious around him. Yes, Mac was no longer as strict in either relationship, but he wouldn't accept either of his daughter's beaus, he was just that type of person. Baby steps needed to be taken, and baby steps were being taken by Damian.

"If you weren't who you were, if you were someone else, if you had any other last name… I'd welcome you with open arms," it wasn't something Mac liked to admit, but Damian was good for Maxie. Perhaps if he was Damian Serrano… or anything else. Tack on the Corinthos name and it was just like he was wearing a target all over his body.

"Careful, Mac, you're getting close to paying me a compliment," Damian knew that he should have called Maxie first. That was why he had a cell phone, so that he could get in contact with people when he needed to talk to them.

"You're a good person…"

"That is a compliment…"

"But you're also a liability."

"And there's the typical counter-insult," Damian knew that if he and Mac weren't fighting each other so often they could and would get along. But he wasn't the one who wouldn't drop the situation. If Mac wanted peace, all Mac had to do was ask and it would be his.

"However," Mac was growing weary of the banter, "you are the one that Maxie loves, and you love my daughter."

"I do…"

"And you were able to help her when nobody else could, because you understand her better than us…"

"No, I don't," Damian shook his head. "She didn't feel that she could talk to you people because she knew that you understood her better than me. I was able to help her that night because I was able to give her the objectivity that she needs. Mac, she's more comfortable around you than she is me. She's going to come to you first because you know her better than I do. I love her, but I can't help her through everything. What I can't help her with, I hope you can."

"And what I can't help her with, I hope you can," Mac was impressed with the admission of importance that he had in Maxie's life. She would never admit that, she was too stubborn. "Which is why I'm turning to you right now…"

"What do you mean?" Damian cocked an eyebrow. Mac, asking for help? It was rare.

"I said something that I shouldn't have. Something that I thought she wouldn't take offense to, but she did. I compared her to her mother."

"And she shut you out of the room?"

"Close," Mac looked up the stairs, "she says that she's taking a shower, but she could just be standing around making me think that she is."

"She might be taking a shower, it's the morning… people take showers in the morning." Some people did. He did.

"And if she isn't?"

"Then she's just letting out steam… no pun intended." Damian listened and he could hear the faint sound of running water, but there was no way to tell if Maxie was actually inside the shower, or just standing around. "What is it you want me to do, Mac?"

"Make her feel better…" a simple, yet complicated request.

"I'll do what I can," Damian nodded. "I owe you for getting me out of jail when Baldwin wanted to pin those murders on me. And I love her… I'd do it regardless. You do realize that you'll have to let me in the house…"

"Don't let it get out," Mac held the door open, shutting it when Damian walked in.