June 11th – Morning

Sleep can be as enjoyable as a good steak when you are in need of it. When you are drifting in that deep, feel it in your bones, sleep, the last thing you want is a rude awakening. Like, say, curtains being flung open, and a crazy woman dancing through the room while singing a made up, off key, song.

"Beach day…gonna get some sun…because it's beaaaaaaeeeeaaaach day!"

Bianca grabbed a pillow and flung it blindly across the room, hoping that by pure luck she would hit the source of the sound and light. Sadly, the pillow made no sound except that of skidding across the carpet floor, once it had hit the ground.

"Awwwww! How can you be such a grumpy Gus on…beaaaaeeeeeaaaaach day?"

Bianca violently pulled the covers over her head, hoping the sound making creature would go away. Alas, it just landed in the bed, on its knees, next to her. Bouncing up and down, it used its hands to shake her back and forth.

"Get up! Get up! Getupgetupgetupgetup!" The still un-seen body belly flopped when she changed positions, so now, she was laying on her stomach, facing Bianca. A finger hooked the sheet, and slowly pulled it down to where Bianca could now see her attacker, who was grinning like a maniac. "Wake up!"

"Maggie…I love you…don't make me hurt you."

"It's a gorgeous day out. I have all my homework done. I checked your schedule and you're free today and Miranda…well…" Maggie lifted her eyes, shaking her head back-and-forth in a show of faux humility. "She had a couple of things on her schedule, but I shifted those around."

"That's Erica Kane's granddaughter…a full social schedule already." Bianca said, lifting her arms out from under the covers and stretching.

"So come on, get up, and we'll have a beach day." Maggie said with an enormous grin.

Bianca rolled fully onto her side, and placed her hands under her head to support herself on the pillow. "We will huh? And how exactly do you propose that since Patrick has the day off, and we have no car plus we live nowhere near a beach."

"We'll make our own!"

"And just where do you propose we put this 'beach'?" Bianca said, waking up more and laughing with her friend.

"Hello? Giant terrace! We can just lay out there."

"And why, pray tell, do we even need to lay out?"

"Have you looked at us lately? The French air traffic control called and said our pasty whiteness was becoming a distraction to passing pilots!"

Bianca stared at Maggie, her jaw sagging a bit. "Your mind is a truly scary place, do you know that?"

Maggie grinned proudly. "Yep! Now come on, time's a wastin'!" Maggie rolled off the bed, swinging her legs around so that she stood up in one fluid motion. "I already got out a bikini for you, I'll grab Miranda and get her all gussied up, you can grab towels, and I'll meet you out there." And with that, she disappeared into the master bathroom to pass into Miranda's room.

Bianca sat up in bed and stared after her. "And Patrick calls his daughters the whirling dervishes….yeesh." She threw off her covers and saw a pale blue bikini lying on the chair next to her bed. She grinned and thought, "What would I do without her."

Miranda sat on her mother's lap in a little yellow sun dress with a matching floppy hat on to protect her eyes. Bianca was in her bikini, with a short robe on over that, and was applying sun block to all of Miranda's exposed skin. Maggie had plopped the little girl in her lap, while she ran back in to change in to her swimsuit.

A few minutes later she reappeared, hair in a ponytail, a bright pink bikini and a light pink, short sleeved, button down shirt on over that. Bianca had just set Miranda down and was laying out the towels as she approached.

"You do realize it's only in the 60's today don't you?" Bianca asked as Maggie opened the door.

"Um…no…that I didn't realize." She pondered for a moment, and then made a dismissive gesture with her hands. "We'll be fine for a little while."

Bianca rolled her eyes. "Don't come crying to me later when we all have hypothermia."

Maggie laughed. "I can just see those headlines now 'Women Found Frozen To Death While Sunbathing!'."

"Sounds about right!"

Maggie took off her shirt and straightened the towel meant for her before she sat on it. As she did, she turned her back to Bianca, and that was when she spotted the rare sight of Maggie's tattoo of a ballet dancer in mid-leap. It wasn't obvious very often due to its placement just above her right hip. It had always intrigued Bianca, especially since Frankie had a matching one, but she had never asked about it.

Maggie finally sat down and brought her knees up to a peak so she could rub suntan lotion on her lower legs. "You get munchkin all covered up?"

Bianca was now sitting on her own towel, legs open some so that Miranda could sit between them. "Sure did, she's good to go."

Miranda giggled and wrestled herself free of her mother's grip. She crawled over to Maggie, who welcomed her with open arms and a giant smile and scooped her into her lap to hold her.

Bianca smiled serenely at the two of them. "I'm so glad you two get along."

"Well, I've been meaning to tell you, we really don't. This is all a show for you when you're home. While you're at work during the day….yeah…there's been some hair pulling and cat scratching." Maggie joked.

"Miranda! I'm ashamed of you beating up your nanny like that!"

Miranda giggled while patting Maggie on the cheek and looking at her mother.

"See! Nanny abuse! Nanny abuse!" Maggie screamed falling over onto her side.

As the morning wore on, it finally warmed up to a decent temperature the girls could live with. They laid out, chatting more than paying attention to anything going on.

What was on Bianca's mind was Maggie's tattoo. She kept finding excuses to be at an angle where she could look at it. Right now she was sitting in a chair next to Maggie, holding Miranda. Three and a half years she had known Maggie, and she could pretty much count the number of times she had seen it. And in all those times, there had never really been an appropriate time to ask about it. Finally, around noon, she worked up the courage. "Maggie?"

She was laying face down, her head resting on her hands. "mmhmm" came the drowsy reply.

"Can I ask you something personal?"

Maggie scrunched up her face. "Since when do you have to ask permission?"

"I'm just not sure about this one."

"Just ask…I really doubt there is anything you could ever ask that would bother me."

"Well…I was curious about your tattoo."

Maggie smiled and chuckled. "That's all?"

"Yeah…I was wondering if there was some meaning behind it. I know Frankie had the exact same one, but when I asked her about it, she grumbled something about it not being any of my business."

Maggie finally lifted her head and shook it. "That was Frankie for you." She turned her head to look up at Bianca and squinted her left eye against the sun. "Seriously, in all the time we've known each other, we never talked about it?"

"No. I've always been kind of afraid to ask about it because it seemed to irritate Frankie."

"I could have sworn we did. Strange. Oh well." Maggie lifted herself to onto all four's, and swung around so she was sitting upright. She then drew her knees up and wrapped her arms around them and leaned her head so she was looking at Bianca. "You know, I honestly forget it's there some days. I can't see it, and when I got it feels like a lifetime ago."

"So…does it mean something?"

"Yes it does…to me at least."

Bianca could see a wistful look pass over Maggie's face. "If you don't want to tell me, you don't have to, I shouldn't have…."

"No, it's fine, I was just trying to remember all the details really. Frankie had run away again, and had been gone a couple of weeks. It was the day before our 16th birthday, dad was who-knows-where, mom was drunk as usual and I had decided to go out surfing. I got home late, not that it mattered to anyone, and went straight to bed because I was so tired. Then, around midnight I heard a knocking on the window, I got up and went to see what it was, and there was Frankie."

April 26th, 1998

"Frankie! What are you doing here?"

"Get dressed."

"Why?" Maggie turned and looked back over her shoulder at the clock. "It's midnight for crying out loud, I'm not going out now. And you could always come in you know."

"Fat chance of that happening, now get dressed."

"Why should I?"

Frankie stared at her older twin. "Because….it's our birthday."

Maggie saw a look she had never really seen in her sister's eyes before. It almost looked like concern….and caring. It was several seconds before she said anything. "Give me a minute." She quickly threw on some clothes and crawled out the window, cursing herself all the time for going along with whatever crazy idea her sister was having. "Alright…you got me to come out. Now what?"

Frankie gestured with her head out to the street where a car was sitting. "Come on."

"Should I even ask where you got that?"

"Probably not." Frankie said, with a straight face.

Minutes later, Frankie pulled the compact car up in front of a tattoo parlor.

"What in the world are we doing here?"

"We're getting tattoos."

"Excuse me?" Maggie asked with a shocked tone. "I don't think so! You can just take me back home thank you very much."

"Just hear me out Mags!"

Maggie folded her arms, locked her jaw and stared straight ahead. "What?"

Frankie turned in the seat to face her twin. "Do you remember when we were 5, and we begged our folks to let us take ballet classes? And only after weeks and weeks of begging, they finally gave in?"

Maggie said nothing.

"And we only got to do it for a little while because eventually mom forgot to pay for the classes because she was always drunk?"

"Yeah…I remember."

"Well, do you remember any other time you and I ever agreed on anything? Any other time we actually got along? How about any other time the two of us ever really felt like honest-to-gosh sisters, let alone twins?"

Maggie raised her right hand and tried to conceal a tear rolling out of her right eye. "No….I can't say that I can think of any other time like that."

Frankie pulled a piece paper out of her denim jacket and unfolded it. "Here…look at this."

Maggie turned her head and looked at Frankie. Finally she looked down at the paper that she was being presented to her. She took it and looked at what it contained.

"I drew that the other night when I was bored. When I was done…I don't know…it's hard to explain, but it spoke to me. I was thinking about making it into a tattoo….and I thought….I thought maybe you would want it also."

Maggie stared at it. It was solid black drawing of a ballet dancer in mid leap with her arms extended. Maggie honestly thought she had never seen anything that looked so free and alive.

"Well?"

"It's gorgeous."

"So what do you think? Do you want it also?"

"Well small problem brainiac….we just turned 16, not 18."

"I've got that covered." she said as she pulled out a fake ID. "We can just say you forgot yours, but since we obviously share the same birthday, it shouldn't be a problem."

Maggie rolled her eyes, not from surprise though. "Ok…not wanting to know about where you got that. And am I safe in guessing there's a wad of cash I don't want to know about either?"

Frankie just grinned.

Thirty minutes later, the Stone sisters were lying on their stomachs on tattoo chairs in the shop, their heads turned so they could look at each other. Frankie's left arm was extended so she could hold hands with her sisters extended right hand. They both would occasionally wince, but mostly they just giggled and smiled. Sharing what was possibly the only "sister" moment they had since those ballet classes all those years before.

June 11th, 2005

Bianca reached up to wipe away her tears. "I had no idea."

"Frankie came back to live at home one more time and then that was it." Maggie looked up and saw Bianca wiping away the tears. She reached out with her left hand and placed it on Bianca's knee. When Bianca finally looked at her, she smiled back. "Don't be sad, this is a good memory. One of the few times that Frankie and I were connected by more than our genes. And besides seeing her face every time I look in the mirror, I always have another reminder of her with me."

Bianca smiled back and placed her right hand on top of Maggie's. "I know it's a good memory, that's why I'm crying. It's nice to have good memories of Frankie….and thank you for sharing that one with me."

Maggie stared at their hands resting on Bianca's knee. It was an odd realization of where she had put it, but she was suddenly hyper-aware of the fact. Bianca seemed to sense it also as they looked at each other, and something crossed both their faces that resembled recognition.

Bianca started to stand up. "But now…I need a tissue. Can you hold Miranda for a minute while I go get one?"

"Of course!" Maggie said, eagerly taking the small child into her arms.

Bianca smiled at the sight of her daughter in her best friend's arms. Without thinking, she leaned over and kissed the top of Maggie's head.

Maggie looked up at Bianca. "What was that for?"

"For being you." She said with a smile and walked away with a bounce in her step.

"It's a full time job you know!" she yelled after Bianca. As Bianca walked away laughing, Maggie continued watching her walk through the apartment, courtesy of the giant glass wall. Once she was out of sight in the bathroom, Maggie looked down at Miranda. "Speaking of genes, if you get your mommy's figure, you'll be one lucky little girl."

Miranda was far more interested in her nap she had begun, than the conversation Maggie was trying to start.

June 11th – Night

The rest of the day had been uneventful. After they finished their 'beach day', the girls had just hung around the apartment, not doing much of anything. After dinner and a movie, both of them retired to their rooms to get some much needed sleep.

Sleep was not coming easy for Maggie though, as she kept thinking about her hand on Bianca's knee. It had started innocently enough, but the more she thought about it, the more it nagged at her. The more it made her think back to that night nearly a year ago, and the game of "Truth or Dare", followed by her confession of feelings for her friend in the morning.

So much had happened since then to distract her from her feelings for Bianca, but ever since the plane ride over to France, and yet another kiss, she was thinking about her again. She was finding herself paying more attention to how Bianca dressed…how she walked…her legs…even how she smelled in the mornings. Maggie had had other friends in her life, but she never thought about any of them the way she would think about Bianca, not even Jamie.

She rolled over on to her side and stared at her red lava lamp Reggie had sent over with her other items. She watched the lava flow to and fro, changing shapes … merging …breaking apart…colliding again. Who knew a lava lamp could be a metaphor for her entire friendship with Bianca? "Oh we're getting close….look we touched…now I must float away." she thought. She laughed at her own silliness and shook her head.

Sleep was finally overcoming her. She could feel it approaching in waves, and she wasn't going to fight it anymore. She was….ready….to……

Maggie's eyes snapped open. She'd been asleep for what felt like 2 seconds, and now she was wide awake. Instead of lying down though, she was sitting on the edge of her bed for some reason. She was wearing a skin tight black, long sleeved dress that covered her entire neck, and formed like a pool at her feet so she couldn't even see them.

She looked around her room, and spotted the lamp on her desk was on. In the pool of the light there was a book lying open. She couldn't explain it, but she felt drawn to it. She rose from her sitting spot, and glided more than walked, over to the desk.

Examining the book, she saw it was a collection of Shakespeare's sonnets with some letter's underlined. 'Wait a minute…' she thought, 'that's Frankie's and my code.' She looked closer at the book and quickly deciphered the hidden message. It was one word, "Terrace".

In the blink of an eye she was standing in the vast living room, looking at the back of a woman standing on the terrace, who was dressed in an identical dress to hers, except it was white.

She opened the doors and stepped out into the bright sunlight. The world had some fuzz around the edges, giving it an unreal feeling, and the sun was far brighter than usual, but she did not feel the need to squint.

The woman in white was facing away from Maggie and staring up at the Eiffel Tower. "Who would have ever thought it? You…in Paris…living this close to the Tower. What was it Mrs. Branbridge used to say about us?"

"Those Stone girls will never get anywhere in life!" they said in unison.

"Not that I'm unhappy to see you, because I am happy, but what are you doing here Frankie?"

Frankie turned her head and looked at Maggie. "It seems you need my help."

"Help with what?"

"What do you think stupid? The same thing everyone has been trying to help you with lately! Your silly fears about a certain little rich girl we both know."

Maggie placed her hands on the railing, and stared down to the street below. "I didn't ask you here."

Frankie turned around and leaned against the railing, folding her arms across her chest. She turned her head to look at Maggie and leaned closer. "You had something to do with it….do you think I would have put myself in a dress and lipstick?"

Maggie chuckled. "Good point."

"So…here you are. You live in Paris with Bianca-la, everyone tells you to be with her, even you think you should be with her sometimes, but yet….you're not. What's up with that? Scared what Mama Kane might have to say about another one of us Stone girls going after her daughter."

"Erica and I get along fine. We're not bosom buddies or anything, but I don't think she has a problem with me."

Frankie snorted in disgust and looked away. "Glad one of us could get along with her. So come on, what's stopping you?"

"Fear."

"Fear of what?" Maggie blinked and they suddenly were standing in Bianca's bedroom, each of them on an opposite of the bed, staring down at a sleeping Bianca. "Fear of her?" Frankie continued.

Maggie looked down at her friend and smiled warmly. "No….not her….I could never be afraid of her."

"Is it the fact that loving her would mean you are in love with another woman?"

"That's part of it for sure."

"Then what is the other part?" Frankie asked.

"What it means….if I love her. What would happen eventually."

Frankie took a seat on Bianca's bed and twisted to look at Maggie. "What do you mean by that?"

Maggie sat down on her side of the bed, so now they were both talking with Bianca lying there between them. "What happens to every relationship Frankie? They come to an end. And in this case, not only would I lose an incredible woman, I would lose my best friend in the world."

"You have no clue how badly I want to smack you right now." Frankie said, shaking her head.

Maggie laughed. "I know…it's silly of me, but…."

"But nothing Mags!" Frankie stood up again and started gesturing towards the sleeping form of Bianca. "You have one of the most incredible women…hell…one of the most incredible people on the face of the planet in love with you, and you want to worry about what other people might think and what might happen some day down the road? I thought you were smarter than that!"

Maggie hung her head some. "I know…I know it's silly of me, but Frankie….I just wouldn't be able to handle not having her in my life at all, whether it be as a girlfriend or as my best friend."

"You're not our parents Maggie. You have no clue what could happen here. This could be it, she could be 'the one', and yet you want to sit back and do nothing because of what 'might' happen down the road. There is such a thing as being too cautious you know."

"I know Frankie…I know."

Frankie's expression finally softened. "I just…I just want happiness for both of you Maggie. And I think you are both denying yourself that by not being together."

Maggie noticed that Frankie was no longer looking at her, but instead was looking down at Bianca with the warmest smile imaginable. Frankie then leaned forward, placing the softest of kisses on Bianca's forehead. She cupped Bianca's cheek and smiled even broader. "She is the most amazing woman I ever met Maggie. She has so much love to give, and it could all be yours with just a few words."

Maggie blinked again, and they were out on the terrace once more. Frankie was again looking up at the tower. "You are going to have to say something to her, and soon Maggie. You can't expect her to wait forever."

"I know Frankie…believe me….I know. She has shown more patience than anyone deserves already….more than I deserve, that's for sure."

Frankie spun around with an angry look on her face. "Stop that! Stop that right now! I am so sick of it! 'you know, you know' You don't know anything! You and I both deserved better than we got as kids, and I sure as hell deserved better than what I got a few years ago at the hands of Auntie Vanessa's crew. She.." Frankie said, gesturing towards the upstairs, "is ready to love you…right here, right now, and you keep pussy footing around. Just stop it Maggie…just stop it…."

Maggie saw a tear rolling out of one of Frankie's eyes. She reached over to wipe it away and Frankie pulled away.

"I had my chance Maggie…" she said in a voice barely above a whisper, "and I blew it. Don't follow in my footsteps. Don't lose your shot with her."

Maggie could feel something pulling her back into the apartment, back towards her bed. "I won't Frankie….I won't waste it. I promise to take care of her…..and I give you my word I will try to get over my fears." The pull was getting stronger and she was now being pulled towards the doors, against her own will. "I love you Frankie….and thank you."

Frankie look shocked at Maggie saying 'I love you', but only said one thing in return. "Maggie…if you ever hurt her in anyway…I will be back…I will be back every single night….and I won't be so nice."

Maggie smiled. "I wouldn't expect any less from you, I……"

bzzzt

bzzzt

bzzzt

Maggie smacked the alarm button. "Stupid clock."

June 12th – Morning

Maggie shuffled around the kitchen making coffee as she thought over her dream. Even if that was all it was, it was nice to 'talk' with Frankie. Sure, over the years she had one sided conversations with her deceased twin, but never anything that resembled what she had just been though in her sleep.

So many of Frankie's words resonated in her ears still, but most specifically it was, 'She is the most amazing woman I ever met Maggie. She has so much love to give, and it could all be yours with just a few words.'

Maggie opened the refrigerator and got out some eggs to scramble up for breakfast. She had already fed Miranda, who now cheerfully sat on the floor by the dining room entrance playing with a stuffed bear. The only person missing from the happy trio was the source of all of last night's angst.

As she started cracking the eggs into a bowl, her mind drifted far away again, remembering all the good times with Bianca, as well as some of the bad. For some unexplained reason though, that puzzled even her, a conversation she had with Jonathan ,after the first time they slept together, popped into her head. Though she now realized it was one of his many manipulations, he had asked her what it felt like to be in love with someone, and she replied 'Yes.'.

'That's what it feels like to love someone. Loving someone makes you feel like you could say 'yes' to the world. And not just because you can, but, you really don't have a choice."

Maggie chuckled to herself as she whisked the eggs. "Oh yeah, that was the wrong person to be saying that to." she mumbled.

"Saying what?" came Bianca's voice from behind her.

Maggie turned and stared at Bianca, who had entered while she was lost in thought. She had picked up Miranda and was holding her cheek to cheek with her. Together like that, it was almost as if they glowed. Upon Bianca's forehead, she saw what might have either been a trick of light, or it was quite possibly just the smallest of traces of two lipstick covered lips placing a kiss on the forehead.

Maggie stood there. Whisk in her right hand, a bowl of raw eggs in the left. Hair still a mess from sleep, her pajamas crumpled and creased, staring at her best friend. In this most awkward of moments, unromantic in the least, it was at this time and this place that Maggie realized it was Bianca she should have always been saying 'yes' to.