Title: A Little Respect
Author: Misty Flores

Teaser: Pursuing a relationship with Aiden after discovering Bianca in bed with Babe, Maggie begins to question even her own self worth when she finds herself delving deeper into a baby kidnapping mystery, and an intense love triangle.
Timeline: Before Paris, Before Jonathan, and right after an 'I Never' confession.

PART FIVE

All the things left undiscovered
Leave me empty and left to wonder
I need you, I need you

Cuz I can't fake and I can't hate
But it's my heart
Thats about to break

- Undiscovered, Ashlee Simspon

--

"So what'll it be?" Aiden asked, tossing a saucy smirk her way.

Maggie slid into the booth, palms smoothing atop the wooden table, taking the menu from the waitress out of pure habit. She had memorized the BJ's menu years ago.

"Anything but nachos," she said haggardly, smile fading slightly at just the thought.

Aiden tossed her a curious look, but Maggie only shrugged, making a show out of pulling open the menu and propping up on the table, hiding her expression.

"The club sandwich looks good!"

The menu was slowly pulled down to the table, revealing a smirking Aiden, eyebrow raised high. "Maggie..."

She considered lying, but just the idea of spending an hour acting like a cheerleader was too much at the moment, and when his eyebrow furrowed higher into his forehead, she suddenly realized how ridiculous her little performance was.

She broke out into a real smile, laughing to herself as she let the menu fall out of her hands.

"Okay, I'm sorry," she said, palming the side of her face, half hiding it out of meekness. "It hasn't been the greatest week."

"I couldn't tell," he said dryly, wadding up a small paper napkin and chucking it lightly at her.

"Stop!" she said, bursting into a fit of giggles, ducking quickly, feeling it bounce off her crown.

The waitress appeared beside them, and caught acting like she was five, Maggie blushed, trying hard to straighten the goofy grin that Aiden was easily returning, hands meekly in her lap.

"Umm... cheeseburger with bacon," she said quickly. "With a chocolate shake and curly fries. And bring a cherry pie with vanilla ice cream for dessert."

Aiden blinked, but his expression grew brighter. "The same."

Maggie grinned.

"I'm impressed," he said as the waitress left them. "You can eat."

Maggie blushed, but she threw away the compliment with a wave of her hand. "Please. Just try and keep up."

"Is that a challenge, Miss Stone?"

The toying tone was fun to hear. Maggie waggled her eyebrows and leaned forward, purring, "It's war, Mr. Devane."

Dark brown eyes locked with hers intensely, and Maggie's smile faded.

She licked her lips, suddenly parched, and when a wave of unexpected arousal surged through her, she broke the smoldering stare, suddenly irrationally guilty.

Goosebumps floated onto her flesh. Maggie kept her eyes on the wooden table, until the waitress appeared a second later, setting down her shake. Thankful for the distraction, Maggie took the straw, laughing uncomfortably as Aiden did the same.

Bianca floated into her thoughts, and Maggie offered a silent apology. The flirting had come out of nowhere, and as Maggie had previously established, she was good at it.

"So how's work?" she asked lightly, focused now on her straw poising two fingers on top and scrunching down, letting the wrapper wrinkle together at the bottom of the plastic.

"The same," she heard, "Consumed with ego and lies – what are you doing?"

She grinned, glancing up with a twinkle in her eye. "Don't tell me you never did this as a kid."

"Did what?"

"Watch." Setting down the crinkled wad of paper, Maggie set it gently on the table, and then reached for her water, dipping in her straw for a bit of it, keeping it locked into the straw with her finger closed over one end.

As seriously as she could, she leaned down over the table, holding it over the scrunched paper. "Shhh."

Aiden wore a bemused, quizzical expression.

She let the water out, until it dripped, ever so slowly onto the paper. Soaking up the moisture, crumpled paper suddenly stretched out, imitating a rolling insect.

"See?" she said proudly, straightening. "A worm!"

Aiden looked flabbergasted, focus between the still convulsing 'worm' and Maggie's gleeful grin.

He burst out laughing, falling back into his chair. "Maggie, you're something else," he managed.

She grinned wider, taking his unopened straw and placing it in his palm. "Your turn!"

He shot her an antagonistic look, but obediently began to try to push it open. "And how's the aspiring pre-med?" he asked, tongue between his teeth, concentrating.

Her smile grew wider at his focus. "Class, class, and when I'm not in class? Books! It's awesome."

He smiled in sympathy. His crumpled paper had a few odd angles in it, but it looked decent enough. "Ready?"

"Go for it."

Dipping his straw in his water, he carefully held it over the straw. "All right. Come to life, little pal."

He lifted his thumb off the straw, and suddenly it came gushing out, pouring over the piece of paper. The worm never had a chance.

Maggie's eyes widened and her jaw dropped, as the mangled little creature lay there. "You killed it!"

Aiden quirked an eyebrow, shoving at it with his finger. "There's a surprising amount of skill required."

She 'pfffed' him.

"How's Jamie?" he asked, dismissing his poor dead worm.

The mention of her roommate made her smile fade somewhat, and thinking back, she sighed, taking in a slurp of her milkshake.

"As well as can be expected, I guess," she said softly. "I visited him yesterday."

"Did you?"

She nodded, thinking back to the visit. It had been eventful, at least. She had come armed with the fixings for a root bear float, her and Jamie's comfort food of choice (until Lena had ruined her taste for them, at least), and the chirpy, loyal little red riding Maggie from the hood had almost worked, until Babe had shown up.

Her stomach turned at the thought. Another confrontation with Babe, another round of Babe stating her good intentions and never getting through her thick moronic skull that she was hurting and confusing Jamie more than helping him by showing up.

"I also saw David," she said lightly.

Aiden froze, glancing up to stare directly at her. "Maggie..."

"I didn't tell him," she said flatly, "But God... I wanted to, Aiden."

Aiden's strong masculine fingers played with the rim of his shake, obviously turning over her words in his head. His eyes squinted now, an almost glare painted over his features. "Maggie," he began, obviously upset. "It's not your story to tell."

Maggie sighed, a rush of anger starting at her spine and rolling up to her shoulders, "Aiden – I know you think he's a bad guy-"

"What I think of him doesn't matter," Aiden interrupted. "This is what Anna wants."

What Anna wants.

That's what it came down to. What was important.

She smiled, lifting her shake to her mouth, taking the straw between her lips. "So we're in it for Anna?" she said.

"We're in this together for Anna," he said, and she grinned again.

"All right then," she said, laughing, as they clinked frosted glasses.

--

Jamie's call to Reggie had been frantic, and always the loyal roommate, Maggie had done her duty, armed with chocolate chip cookies from BJ's that she had ordered after her lunch with Aiden, an entire basketful.

She hadn't really counted on Reggie trying to eat them all before they actually got to Jamie's hospital room.

"Easy on the chocolate chip cookies!" she snapped, hugging them protectively, smacking his hand away as Dani pushed open Jamie's hospital door.

"Shhhh!" they heard.

"They're almost gone." Maggie, still involved in protecting her cookies, didn't notice they were in complete darkness until they were inside.

"What with the blackout?" Reggie asked behind her, already fumbling for the switch. "Where's the lights?"

"Don't," came the voice again, and Maggie squinted, peering as her eyes adjusted, finding Jamie in his bed. "Leave them off."

"Oh," Maggie said, glancing over the blinking lights and shuddering suddenly. "This isn't mood lighting, it's scary."

Beside her, Danielle sniffed, "You're covered in chocolate chips."

Maggie stared, unsure, until she looked down and discovered crumbs all over her. She nearly dropped the basket.

"Oh, thanks!" she said dryly, trying her hardest to brush them off with just one hand. "You couldn't tell me before we got in the hospital?"

Jamie tried to shush them again, but Dani only grinned merrily. "No fun in that."

Maggie glared, ready to snap right back when Reggie distracted her with one important observation. "Yo, James... Yo... what's with the IV being disconnected?"

Jamie had indeed, removed his IV. "I don't need it."

Maggie scoffed unbelievably. Really. Jamie was a dolt. "Oh, that's great."

"Could you hand me that?" Jamie asked, pointing to his shirt.

"What's going on?"

Reggie shook his head disbelievingly. "When you called me on the phone, I just figured you were bored out of your mind in the hospital."

Clutching onto her chocolate chips, Maggie narrowed her glare. "Yeah. We rushed right over." And cut her lunch short, but whatever.

"We smuggled in some chocolate chip cookies!"

Maggie sidled a slight glare at her friend. Right, Dani. That's why Maggie was the one covered in chocolate chips. Team effort her a--

"Well, get ready to smuggle something out."

Maggie jerked her gaze back to Jamie.

"Huh?"

"Like what?" she asked.

"Like me."

And then her stupid dolt of a roommate actually tried to get out of the bed.

"Jamie," she said, dropping her cookies and heading to the bed, ready to push him back down. "This is crazy."

"Very bad idea," Dani agreed.

"You guys don't get it," he said, struggling feebly. "Babe is going to get the truth out of J.R."

Maggie quirked an eyebrow disbelievingly. "And?"

"She's ready to do whatever it takes to find out what he did."

"All right," Reggie said, obviously pleased by this news. "It's about time Babe figured it out."

Maggie rolled her eyes, silent agreeing.

Jamie just looked frustrated. "You're not hearing me. Babe has not figured anything out. She's trying to."

Maggie's eyes once again involuntarily rolled upwards.

"That girl is pretty, but slow," Dani commented flatly.

Maggie's mouth pulled up unexpectedly, murmuring her agreement. Catching the expression, Jamie glared at her.

"She knows I didn't give her the drugs."

Maggie burst out into a snort. "Oh, finally!"

"But she's not convinced J.R. did it."

The room fell silent, and Maggie contemplated Babe's complete denseness.

"What's slower than slow?" Dani asked her.

She really did give blondes a bad name. Maggie considered darkening her hair to auburn.

"Nonfunctioning," she answered, shaking her head in disbelief. "What is it going to take this girl to catch on, your life?"

"No," Jamie said vehemently. "Babe knows this is serious."

Maggie had just about lost patience. "Like I don't know it, Mr. Almost-Cashed-In?" He huffed, looking away. "I'm sorry, I'm not going to get all sensitive and mushy for this girl."

"None of this was her fault."

Dani settled on Jamie's bed, taking a chocolate chip cookie, obviously less than moved. "Let Babe smack J.R.around a little bit."

"Yeah," Reggie said, stealing a cookie for himself. "Maybe it'll knock some truth out."

Maggie stayed standing, arms crossed. Jamie glanced to her for sympathy, but she gave him nothing. Seriously, talk about barking up the wrong tree.

"If J.R. catches on to her, what do you think he'll do?" he said desperately. "I need to get Babe away from him. He already nearly killed her with that drug. He could do anything."

Reggie sighed, reluctantly agreeing. "Yeah, being a Chandler he can get away with almost anything."

Jamie looked relieved. "So you guys will help me, right?"

When he locked eyes with Maggie, she squared her frame resolutely. "No. Babe made her double espresso. She can wake up and smell it all by her lonesome."

In retrospect, maybe it wasn't the nicest thing to say, but Maggie had already twice tried to ream sense into Babe, and she had gotten squat. She had seriously begun to suspect that somehow all the peroxide from the bleach had gotten into her brain.

Jamie looked almost hurt, and for that, Maggie softened her expression, walking to the edge of the bed.

"You have to cut the cord."

"Babe is still in danger."

Stubborn idiot.

She turned away in exasperation. "You know, this wasn't so tragic, I think I could actually find a blonde joke amongst all this mess."

"Ok, ok, fine, I get it. She's not your favorite person." Maggie's eyes hurt from rolling so much. Understatement of the year. "But Babe is about to go under for the third time. Someone has to care!"

And it went like that, back and forth, back and forth, Maggie not caring and Jamie pleading case like she was a damsel in distress, conveniently forgetting the fact that he had a hole stitched into his side.

Maggie gave up arguing two minutes into it, instead just offering her own snarky comments as Reggie came up to bat, trying hard to talk sense into Jamie, who was doing a very good imitation of Babe's lapdog.

Dani turned on her about halfway through, her romantic little heart locking onto this Harlequin romance idea that Jamie was going to go off on his giant steed and sweep Babe into his arms ala The Princess Bride to ride off into the sunset.

Even Reggie looked ready to murder her then.

It became increasingly clear that Jamie had this locked into his big dumb head, and Maggie resigned herself to it about halfway into the next argument. He was going to do it with or without them, and truthfully, Maggie would rather be at his side making sure he took care of himself and didn't do something idiotic than have him try to go up against his brother.

The last time he tried, he had gotten himself nearly killed for his trouble.

When Dani and Reggie finally relented, and gone off for appropriate 'sneak Jamie out of the hospital' attire, Maggie was left alone with the brave knight.

He must have seen her angered annoyance, because as soon as Reggie and Dani had gone, he pulled out the real arsenal.

"Maggie." She sighed, glancing toward him, watching as he struggled with his shirt, grimacing in pain. "What if the whole town was trashing Bianca, saying she was scamming you, out to hurt you." Maggie huffed, looking away. "Would you believe us?"

"No," she snapped. "Because it wouldn't be true."

"Why not?"

Maggie turned stiffly, heart throbbing at just the thought of her best friend. "Because Bianca is a wonderful person."

"Yeah, so far," Jamie agreed. "But people change, and we all can do heinous things depending on what gets thrown at us."

The words were meant to hit home, and unexpectedly, they did. Maggie's resolve twisted slightly, and a desperate pain that had been slowly building in that past week ached inside of her, choking her breath.

But she loved Bianca. She knew Bianca, and Bianca would never, never consciously do anything like that to her.

She swallowed hard. "Bianca would never hurt me," she said flatly.

She wouldn't. Not now, not ever.

--

"Maggie?"

Falling behind Jamie, Maggie glanced back, looking quizzically around for whoever had called her.

Jogging up to her, was Aiden.

She smiled, a genuine grin of unexpected happiness. "Hey! Working hard or hardly working?"

"What are you doing here?" he asked, pressing a hand against her shoulder affectionately.

"Oh..." Shrugging, she waved a palm to Jamie, who now faltered, arching his neck and giving her a slight glare for keeping him. "Helping out a friend rescue a princess. Though that title is up for debate."

Aiden looked confused at the sight of her roommate. "What is he doing out of the hospital?"

"Strong like bull," she said. "Or just bull-headed."

"Maggie!"

She waved Jamie away. "I'm coming!" she said, shaking her head. "I'm sorry, I gotta go-"

"Maggie, wait-" Pressure on her elbow kept her from leaving, and when she glanced down at the contact, Aiden let her go. "I was just going to ask – are you free this weekend?"

"This weekend?" she asked. "Why?"

"I was thinking of going to see Anna."

"Maggie."

"I'm coming, God! " Maggie shook her head, looking from Jamie back to Aiden. "I'm sorry, I really have to go – can I call you?"

"Sure," Aiden said, thumbing behind him. "I should go too..."

"Okay." Maggie smiled, watching him slip away, and then turning back to Jamie, who was staring at her with obvious contempt. "What!"

--

Twenty minutes, and still no sign of St. Babe. Jamie kept his hand at his side, and sliding a sidelong glance at her roommate and his obvious pain, Maggie considered broaching the subject of giving up.

"Jamie..."

"Shhh..." Maggie paused, as Jamie stopped suddenly, face and body ramrod straight, like a hunting pointer dog. "Do you hear that?"

She did – loud shouting, coming from one of the rooms.

"-cheating is cheating, and you, my dear, are a pro!"

"Let's go," Jamie said, moving fast now. "Babe!" he shouted desperately. "Babe, are you all right!"

Maggie followed, clutching onto her purse, as they located the source, just in time to hear, "Come on in, James!" The door opened. "Come on in and take a look at what you've been fighting for."

Maggie wasn't sure what she was looking at, at first, until she kept staring, unable to tear her eyes from the sight of the two women in the bed.

Her brain imprinted the moment, the actual scene seared into her brain, and still, Maggie couldn't process what it was, not until she saw the guilty look on Bianca's face, the horrified expression locking onto hers, as she kept the white sheet up against her naked torso, right beside an equally naked Babe.

end chapter