T- Thank you for the review. I was also quite enamored by that particular pairing and hope to exploit it some more in the future. Alas, so far there has been nothing of the sort since then. Carly's been pretty mum lately, same for Courtney. Dillon's going to have a big part of the focus for the chapters that I'm writing as of right now, much less, as in next to none, of Damian for awhile, but first there are going to be a whole lot of Damian centric chapters. I hope you continue to enjoy.

Story-

Park-

"There's something odd about you, you know that?"

"What would that be?"

"You're not complaining…" Maxie giggled, remembering how much her dear boyfriend had complained about the coldness of the outside when they were looking for the Christmas tree the day before. She'd never say anything, but she could hear him from hundreds of feet away. "I mean, we're outside, walking, in the snow, and you're not complaining…"

"Maybe the company is better," Damian looked down at her as the passed by an elderly couple who were walking in the other direction. He smiled at them and wondered if he and Maxie would be like that. Together into their golden years, living their lives together. He wanted that, but that didn't mean that he thought it was something that he could get.

"Are you saying that you have more fun with me than you do with your best friend, your little brother and your aunt?"

"That's what I'm saying, yes. And do you know why you're better company than all of them?"

"No, but I have a feeling you're going to tell me…"

"Or show you," Damian kissed her on the lips, as he had done many times in the past, as he would do many times in the future, and each time it was something that was special, unique from the time before. He knew that he could spend the rest of his life doing the same exact thing, no matter what it was, and as long as he had her by his side he wouldn't think that there was anything wrong with life. "Now, could you picture me doing that with Dillon or Michael or Aunt Courtney?"

"That depends on what your stance on incest is…"

"Maxie…"

"I'm kidding!" She playfully tugged at his arm, dragging him through the park. It was good that she was laughing. She had woken up and she was fine, and then she ended up being nothing but hurt and angry by what Mac had said to her. Fitting that it was the one person who saved her from herself before that could make her feel better again, even more fitting that it was the same man that she had pledged her heart to. "You don't have to look at me like that."

"Like what?"

"Like you're upset with me."

"How do you know I'm not kidding, too?" The whole 'penetrating stare of death' thing was a family trait. Even Michael ended up having one. Aside from the dimples, it was probably one of the better things that Damian could have inherited from his father. "Because I can assure you that I am. I could never be mad at you, Maxie, not for something like that."

"Have you ever been mad at me before?" She hadn't thought about it. Had he been mad at her before? He was so good at hiding his emotions from everyone, even her, that he could have been shielding his rage from her. Maybe there were times when he wanted to break up with her and he held it in, let it ride. She wanted to know, that way she could try and fix the mistakes before they became problems again. She wanted to keep him around.

"I've never been mad at you, Maxie. Disappointed, maybe, but never mad."

"Disappointed? How?"

"Do you really want to know?" He was cautious in telling her. She was vulnerable. She may have put up a tough face, but inside she was entirely open to hurt and to sorrow. He'd seen how she acted when her wall of stability was ripped apart. He didn't want her to ever go through that again, and if he happened to be the one who caused said wall to crumble he could never forgive himself.

"I wouldn't be asking if I didn't want to know," she answered. "Please," she placed her tender hand on his cheek, "I want to know."

Sighing heavily, he knew that he had to give her what she wanted. It was something that was about her, therefore it was something that she deserved to know. Even if it ended up hurting her, which it might have, she asked. He was stuck. "Without even knowing you, Maxie, I was disappointed in you. When I met you that first day outside Kelly's, after you had gotten into a fight with Kyle, after I had seen the type of person that he was and how you were just so hopelessly involved with him because of what you thought was love, I was disappointed. You deserved better. Someone as beautiful as you didn't deserve to be treated in the way that he treated you, but you didn't realize that. Or, if you did, you just didn't want anything more. To be in such a relationship by choice was something that I couldn't fathom, and that saddened me, knowing that you had the made the choice."

"I was stupid," Maxie wasn't hurt. In fact, far from it, she was content that at least she hadn't done something to him that had disappointed him. She was disappointed in herself for doing the same thing, and she knew that everyone else around her felt the same degree of sadness in her choices. "I didn't know any better, but you taught me what it really meant to be in a relationship where two people could talk to each other, share things. With Kyle it was always just kissing, or doing something that I shouldn't have done like getting drunk or doing some drug and then having sex. Kyle would never do the things that you've done for me, Damian. He'd never hold my hand when I needed someone to lean on, he would never help me with my family problems, he would never tell me that he didn't want to have sex. You've done all those things for me."

"Fitting that we should talk about him when we're here, don't you think?" Damian asked, looking around. Maybe it wasn't the same exact spot where he and Kyle had punched each other because of the way that he was treating Maxie, but it was still the same park, it was the true start to the relationship that he was currently completely engrossed in. "I do wish that I could have done something for him. I may not have liked the boy, but I didn't want him to die."

"Neither did I. And if anyone had the right to want Kyle dead, it would be me. He did so many horrible things to me, things that I didn't even think were that bad until I really thought about them. He made me believe that I was his, he twisted me into someone who did things that I knew were wrong, but did them for him. Even through all that… I don't know, I just didn't want him to die, especially not the way that he did." She held back tears, keeping the long since promised vow that she would never shed another tear because of Kyle Radcliff. "Could we talk about something else, please?"

"I'm sure talking about how you looked when I saw you at your house earlier this morning is out of the question…"

As Maxie had observed, Damian was the master of switching the mood around. It was a good thing when she was in a bad mood and he made it better, but he could do the flip side just as easily, although it was something that he tried to keep himself from doing whenever possible. She blushed when she thought about it. "I didn't know that you were going to be in my living room!"

"Neither did I," Damian admitted, scratching the back of his head uneasily. "I thought Mac was going to kill me for seeing you while you weren't fully clothed. Heaven forbid I see your ankle."

"I was in a bath robe…"

"It had bumblebees and ducks on it, too," Damian winked at his girlfriend, getting enjoyment out of seeing her face turn yet another shade of red. He didn't think people could blush that much.

"I'm never going to live that down, am I?"

"My lips are sealed, Maxie," Damian brushed a few snowflakes that had built up around her hair out of the way. "I would never do something that would embarrass you."

"So you're not going to come to the Christmas Party at General Hospital, then?"

"Of course I am!" He cut the idea out of her head before the plan could even formulate. "Maxie, what you're going to do for those children is something that a lot of people would never actually do. There are so many people that just want to help others, but never actually do. They don't realize that just by being around the people that need help, just by showing them that they care… it's enough. It doesn't cost them anything. When those little kids see you dressed up like an elf, they're going to feel better. No matter what they're going through, seeing you and your sister will lift their spirits up, if only for a few hours."

"But the outfit is so… horrible…" she hated wearing the outfit, truly, she did. The long stockings of multiple colors and the tacky hat. But Damian was right. The way the kids looked at her when she handed out candy canes to them, the glint in their eyes, it made her discomfort all worthwhile. "Just promise me that you won't take any… pictures…" she remembered what she was thinking about before Mac got her thinking about her mother. She was thinking about them, about how they didn't have any pictures. She turned away, looking at the sky as the flakes fell to the ground.

Damian noticed the quick shift in her mood. He didn't like what it could have meant for her, for him, for them. Placing his hand firmly on her shoulder, he spoke in a soft, comforting tone, "Maxie, what is it?"

"You're probably going to think that this is something that's really stupid… and I don't even know why I care about it…"

"Is it important to you?" Damian didn't have any clue what she was talking about, but he wanted to know what it was and he wanted to know why it was so important to her.

"In a way, yes. It's nothing big, but it's just something that I've had on my mind for a little while. Like I said, you're probably not going to care about it either way."

"Maxie, if it's even marginally important to you, then that makes it important to me. You can tell me… I want you to tell me."

"We don't have any pictures of us," Maxie closed her eyes. She sounded like such a moron. Only little girls cared about stupid things like pictures of her and her boyfriend. "We've been going out for months, Damian, and we've never taken one picture together. I don't know why we haven't… it's just never came up, and do you see why it's something that shouldn't matter?"

"I don't like pictures," Damian wasn't the most photogenic person around. He never had been, he probably never would be. "It's just something that I've never had an affinity towards. You should see the lengths I went to in order to avoid taking pictures for the yearbooks at school. Even when I was little, pictures were something that I hated taking."

"Do you know why?" She was curious. There was always a reason that Damian had whatever quirk it was that was in his personality. He liked playing the piano because it was something that helped him escape from the cold reality of life. He wanted to be a doctor because of what happened with his mother. So what was the reason that he didn't like to take photos?

"No, I don't," he answered the only way that he knew how to answer, with complete honesty. "Maybe because I don't like looking at myself when I'm in a picture? I don't like looking at how I was and knowing how much I've changed, and then I think about the mistakes that I made and I regret making them?"

"So… you don't want to take pictures with me, then? Even if we get married, if we have children, you won't have any pictures with me?'

"No, I will take pictures with you."

She smiled, overjoyed that he was willing to do something for her, because she knew that it meant that he loved her that much. "Really?"

"Maxie, I don't like taking pictures because it shows me the mistakes that I've made, with you, there aren't any. I'm never going to look at a picture that I've taken with you and say to myself that I regretted something that happened either before or after that picture, because with you there are no regrets. You want us to take pictures together? Then that's what we'll do."

"With Santa?"

"Now don't go and get any crazy ideas in your head. I'll take pictures with you, but I'm not about to go and sit on some poor man's lap."

"What if I sit on his lap?"

"No, Maxie, just… no. There are limits to what I'm willing to do for you… and we've just found one."

"Could we take some of those professional photos, then? Just the two of us?"

"See, now you're starting to understand how I work," Damian lifted her hands up with his own, "I just want you to be happy."