missy jade - just for you. Plus, it helps me not work on my thesis. And procrastination is terribly important.

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.

PART SIX

Wasted days and wasted nights

I have left for you behind

For you don't belong to me

Your heart belongs to someone else

-- Wasted Days and Wasted Nights, Freddy Fender

--

She couldn't stop staring.

Maggie was frozen, cemented into place, lost in her own personal hell.

And still - she couldn't stop staring.

Bianca, sheet held firmly against her chest, wore an expression that Maggie couldn't fathom, and it was only when her best friend began the slightest shake of her head, obviously ready to speak, that Maggie could no longer stand it.

"I'm sorry," she said automatically, gaze darting to J.R. and Adam Chandler, and suddenly back to Bianca and Babe on that bed. Maggie began to move, backing towards the door. "I can't be here right now-"

Bianca shouted something, but Maggie couldn't hear it above the pounding of blood in her ears.

She moved fast, her entire body pulsing with emotion, and Maggie found herself blind to anything else but the image that lingered with her, stabbed inside of her brain and her heart with an icepick, chipping away at her self control.

Bianca and Babe. Bianca naked in bed with Babe. Bianca with Babe and not her.

She shook herself, stumbling to a stop, taking in a shuddering breath as she pressed palms to her face, taking a moment to try hard to hold it all in.

Clinks and ringing suddenly floated into her consciousness, and Maggie lowered her palms and discovered herself back on the casino ground floor, surrounded by gamblers and laughter and a cacophony of ambivalence.

Her heart stuttered painfully inside her, like a jack hammer working on her lungs.

Bianca's big brown eyes stared pitifully at her.

Poor desperate Maggie, who actually thought that somehow, someway, there had always been a chance .

She moved fast, anything to keep from standing still, shouldering her way past cocktail waitresses and men in suits. Eyes on the floor, she knocked into the back of a man wearing a leather jacket, and mumbled a hurried apology, moving fast around him.

"Maggie!"

She didn't hear it, too intent on escaping, until a hand closed over her elbow, jerking her to a stop.

"Maggie, stop!"

She had run into Aiden.

He wore a concerned frown, keeping her from leaving with his strong grip.

"Aiden," she began raggedly. "Hi - sorry." Exhaling, she kept her head bowed, smoothing fingers through her hair, an excited gesture. "I'm sorry - I'm in a hurry, I can't really-"

"Maggie..." Once again, he kept her still, but she wouldn't look at him, not until he forced her to, with an index finger under her chin, gently raising her eyes to his. "You're upset."

Her insides throbbed. "No I'm not!" she said, trying hard to smile, mouth pulling upwards and trembling at just the attempt. "I really need to go, Aiden."

"You're shaking." Aiden's broad palms rested on her shoulders, smoothing over her tanktop and then over her arms, massaging lightly.

Maggie had no strength to argue. Her eyes stayed on the floor, and Aiden moved closer to her, guarding her from the rest of the world.

"Come on," he said in a low tone, turning her lightly in his arms, pushing her toward the exit.

She struggled slightly. "Aiden, you're working-"

"It can wait."

It was an order, not a request, and Maggie, fragile and caught with her heart naked and bleeding, didn't have the strength to argue.

- -

It took a car ride to hide the pain inside herself, bury it where she had buried her mother's abuse, her sister's murder. Bianca was hidden in the darkest part of herself, and Maggie found the numbness a convenient alternative to the mess she had been before.

Now, her face was passive, arms crossed over her chest, ignoring Aiden's concerned frown, his dark eyes brows nearly crossing each other as he drove into his parking garage, jerking the stick shift down and removing his keys from the ignition.

"Come on," he said, when she didn't move. "I've got some bear at my place."

His place was the local motel, and Maggie kept her head down as she moved. How the hell she had run into Aiden, she had no idea, but it felt like a misfortune, because her new... old... whatever Aiden was, friend was a private investigator, who had been in Intelligence. He was going to get it out of her, she had caught the determined glint in his eye.

The keys rang in his hand, as he unlocked his room, casting her another look.

It opened, and he stood by, obviously waiting to let her in. Maggie stayed put, pressed against the hallway, before she bit her lip and told him frankly, "I need chili cheese fries and a chocolate shake."

He stared at her, but she only arched an eyebrow. They were her demands.

Aiden's mouth parted into a small smile, palm pressing into the small of her back, leading her inside. "I'll see what I can do."

--

He caught BJ's just as they were closing, arranged a delivery, and in twenty minutes, she was picking through the fries, attention focused on pulling the potatoes sticks apart, thickly laden with melted cheese, sucking them into her mouth and chewing determinedly.

They were her utter drive and focus.

She reached for her shake, and sucked hard, eyes now leveled on Aiden, who was watching her patience, a mixture of bemused confusion floating over his face.

She picked up her nearly devoured plastic carton of fries. "Want one?"

"I'm fine," he said dryly, tilting his beer at her. "Thank you."

Maggie went back to her meal, poking with her fork, spearing a particularly drenched fry and shoveling it into her mouth.

"So are you going to tell me what's wrong or should I resort to tricks?"

"Why not torture?" she asked flippantly, buried in her food.

"I try not to do that unless it's absolutely necessary."

"Such a pushover. Not even pulling out my molars with tweezers or something?"

She glanced up - Aiden was wearing a surprised, almost appalled expression.

"I watch Alias," she informed him.

He laughed, almost uncomfortably. "That show is sadly misinformed."

"Really," she said, chewing thoughtfully. "I hate the dentist. It would have worked on me."

"Maggie." Aiden leaned forward. "Please. Let me be a friend to you. Tell me what happened."

Her breath hitched slightly when the soft, warm pressure of fingers against her wrist kept her from stuffing her mouth again.

She blinked, lost again in the moment, the image, the feeling, as Bianca stared at her with her deep dark eyes, sheet pressed against her cleavage.

"Maggie."

Shaken out of the sudden lapse, Maggie's bruised emotion was relieved to see Aiden's brown eyes staring at her, instead of Bianca's.

She deflated, dropping her fork, teeth sinking gently onto her bottom lip.

"Have you ever loved someone and then realized that you were a total jerk because you never had the chance?"

Aiden's stare was strange, uncomprehending at first, and then suddenly, the smallest of a painful smile spread on his perfect lips, and Maggie found herself bursting into a disbelieving laugh when he looked down, into his beer bottle.

"I'll take that as a yes?"

Dimples formed on the attractive face, and Aiden quirked an expressive eyebrow, looking almost bashful as he drawled in his brogueish accent, "I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours."

Maggie's insecurity caused a nervous smile, and she studied Aiden's pretty boy face, wondering for a split second who wouldn't give a guy like Aiden a chance.

She thought of Bianca, her precious love - the one thing she had never given up on, sacred and buried in her soul. To share it with someone other than Jamie, to say it out loud, would somehow make the rejection more real.

She glanced up again, looked down and managed a smirk of her own. "You first, then."

Aiden was quiet for a moment, shifting his muscled frame on his bed. Maggie lifted her chocolate shake, draining it melted ice cream, and joined him, falling onto her side, studying him as he obviously struggled for the words.

He thumbed the top of his almost empty beer bottle, tilting it this way and that, watching the liquid swish back and forth. "I may have some resilient feelings for Anita Santos."

Maggie blinked, twisting her torso up, making sure she heard correctly. "Anita? Married, sister to your ex-fiance Anita?" Aiden tossed her a mournful look. She couldn't help it. She laughed in disbelief. " Man ," she said, flopping back down. "What is it with the men in this town and unattainable married women!"

"There's more than one of us, is there?"

"You'd be surprised." He laughed, in a painful way that tugged at her. She shifted up, and smiled in sympathy, reaching over to squeeze his bicep. "I'm sorry."

"Just as well," he said, tipping the last of the beer into his mouth and tossing the empty bottle over the side of the bed, plopping with a dull sound onto the carpet. "She's married and very much in love with his husband." She discovered a pattern on his sheets, and began to trace them with her fingertips. "Is it Jamie?"

She glanced up. "What?"

"The guy you're in love with."

Maggie's heart jackhammered into her throat, causing her to choke, lose her breath for a second.

"Uh, no..." she managed, eyes tearing away from Aiden's and back on the pattern on his sheets. "No, that's someone else."

There was an awkward expectant pause, until the bed shifted with Aiden's movement and she felt rough, masculine fingers on her shoulder. "You don't have to-"

"It's Bianca."

She said it so softly, he didn't hear her, not correctly. She glanced up nervously, but Aiden only looked confused. "What?"

She sighed, heat flushing to her cheeks. "It's Bianca," she said, louder and more pronounced. Aiden absorbed that, closing his eyes and opening again. "Surprised?"

"A little," he answered, "But not really." She tossed him a questioning glance, and he smiled gently, "I have seen you together, Maggie."

She didn't know if she was relieved or just broken. Slumping down on his sheets, she closed her eyes. "Yeah," she mumbled. "Yeah - me and Bianca. Except I don't know if I'm gay. Or straight. Or just confused - cause I still like guys, but this feeling for Bianca..." She swum in it for a second, the overwhelming emotion and passion that Bianca erupted so easily, without even trying, with just a smile or a glance, a touch or a hug, the feel of Bianca's lips against her cheeks and every time she fought the urge to twist her head just enough to feel them against her mouth.

And then there came Babe again - Bianca in bed with Babe, and her emotion flared into sudden pain. She opened her eyes.

"It doesn't matter." She smiled weakly at Aiden. "Bianca doesn't want me."

"Maggie-"

"No," she said stubbornly. "She doesn't. I was... God I was so stupid." Her eyes slammed shut again, and she rubbed her palms furiously to her stinging orbs. "I mean, when I first told her, when she first turned me down, she said it was because of Lena, and I was so... I convinced myself that it was why. That somehow - there was a chance! That every day Bianca was here and not with Lena that meant that some part of her wanted to be here with me. And it was all bull. She's here because of Babe. She wants Babe." The pressure of a warm palm settled on her back, smoothing up and down, maneuvering her tiny body, until suddenly she was spooned into a heavier frame, the soft feel of human warmth enveloping, heady with scent of masculine cologne and pure male. "God," she said suddenly, wiping at her dripping tears. "How stupid was I? Who would ever want me?"

"Maggie, that's enough." Strong hands twisted, until she was facing Aiden, palms cupping her face, expression firm. "There's nothing wrong with you."

"Oh, please."

"Maggie, you're beautiful." Thumbs caressed her features. "And you're fun. And you're sexy." At that, Aiden wore this impish grin, like a little boy caught ogling a Playboy.

She laughed bitterly, wiping at her tears. "Well I don't feel beautiful or fun or sexy."

"Face it, Maggie. You are." She rolled her eyes, and he sighed. "Come on, Maggie. I've laughed more in the past week spending time with you than I have in the past few months."

"At me or with me?"

He grinned. "With me. You're an amazing girl, Miss Stone - you lift spirits and your smile can break hearts."

She quirked eyebrow at that, but he only thumbed her face, expression gentle. It was an absurdly intimate moment, legs entangled, her fingers running circles on his bare biceps and his thumb now lingering on her bottom lip.

In the silence, as she realized where it would lead, she suddenly glanced away, breaking the burning attention on her lips.

"Well, you're not so bad yourself," she said, laughing uneasily, as they managed to extricate themselves from each other, and she scooted to the edge of the bed, taking a deep breath.

"Maggie."

Exhaling slowly, she turned back, to discover Aiden wearing a curious expression, like a light bulb had magically appeared over his head.

"What?"

"Come with me to New York. Tonight."

The sentence was so extreme she didn't register it at first. "Huh?"

"To surprise Anna. She could use the pick me up and I think we could too."

"You want me to leave," she said skeptically. "Now."

"Yes. Come on, Maggie."

"I have school!"

"Tell them you have a family emergency."

A family emergency. Maggie considered the phrase, the impish smile on Aiden's face. "You're serious."

"Bloody serious."

God, that accent was sexy.

She thought about what she had waiting at home - an inevitable confrontation with Bianca, hearing Bianca try hard not to sound sympathetic and patronizing, even while she broke Maggie's heart over and over again.

She tightened her grip on Aiden's sheets, and shut her eyes against the image.

"Let's go," she said slowly, opening her eyes to Aiden's widening smile. "Let's go to New York."

--

It had been an amazingly long day.

Bianca nearly fell into her room, battling a head ache, limbs aching with exhaustion.

Closing the door behind her, she used the wood behind her for a moment of support, closing her eyes as she leaned her head back, taking in a deep breath, and letting it out slowly.

Everything she and Babe had did - the entire sting, for nothing. J.R. had one-upped then again, and now Bess could have been anywhere.

Bianca felt the panic rise inside of her, and she struggled to hold it down, shaking her head, jerking away from the door, like just the action could shake off the edges of insanity that she could feel creeping around her brain like tentacles.

The feeling in her stomach refused to go away, and Bianca forced herself to remember that J.R. would never hurt Bess - just Babe.

The look on Babe's face - the torment. Bianca wanted to wrap her arms around her friend and will it all away.

Zach had been right to send her away from the fundraiser. It was a hellish night, and just the reminder that this was the anniversary of Micheal Cambias' death was a very sour cherry on the top.

Sinking down into her bed, Bianca closed her eyes, the events of the day swimming in her head. Babe's hurt, J.R.'s glee, Maggie's face-

Maggie.

Bianca's eyes shot open. Maggie. Who had run out of the room hours ago and still had no idea what the real-

"Oh, no," she groaned, shifting onto the bed, more exhausted than ever. She pushed herself up, fumbling for the phone, Maggie's expression vivid on her face as she saw Bianca.

Bianca's heart had literally jumped at Maggie's sudden intrusion, and she had hoped, really hoped, that Maggie had seen the minute shake of her head, hoping that their almost psychic connection wouldn't fritz out on her and Maggie would understand that it wasn't what it seemed-

And then Maggie ran.

Bianca found her cellphone, headache pounding into her skull, pressing in Maggie's cell phone number quickly, holding it to her ear as she rubbed at her neck tiredly.

The phone rang. And rang. Until the chipper voice of Maggie Stone heralded that she wasn't able to answer and to leave a message because she also screened. Bianca sighed, shaking her head in frustration.

"Maggie, it's me," she said as soon as the phone beeped. "I really need to talk to you, okay? We need to talk about what happened today. Please, please call me, okay? I'm still at the casino for this fundraiser so maybe we can talk face to face tomorrow? Call me."

She lowered the phone, glanced at the running digits on the LCD screen, tallying the length of her call, and cut it off.

Alone now, Bianca looked at the bed, considered her beating heart and the million thoughts running through her head.

Bess missing, Babe's worry, J.R. regression into Adam Chandler, Maggie, Kendall's insane obsession with Greenlee and Ryan-

There was too much. If she tried to sleep now it would drive her mad in her sleep, mingling into her nightmares.

She needed a distraction. Her eyes caught the evening down hanging on the dresser doorknob, set out by the casino staff.

"Guess I'm going to the fundraiser," she murmured, walking toward it.

--

"I know now what road I'm on! I'm a vagabond! On the streets of love! Honey I'm a vaaaagabooond on the streets of looooooooooooooooooove."

She was either annoying the hell out of Aiden or amusing him, she couldn't tell which. But giddy from emotional exhaustion and suddenly caught in the irony of finally 'getting' country music, Maggie pushed the back button on his cd player.

"Oh, come on now, Maggie."

"NO! This is perfect! If you didn't want me to play it then you shouldn't have had this in your CD player," she insisted, holding up his copy of the soundtrack to 'A Thing Called Love'. "Why the hell do you have a country CD anyway?"

He tossed her a glare, hands at the wheel. "That was River Phoenix's last movie."

"Right - cause you're all Rebel Without a Cause." She hopped slightly in her seat. "Come on, sing it with me," she said, as the intro wound down.

"Maggie, if you know the words after only twenty minutes, you're playing it too much."

"All right!" she sang loudly, glaring at him smugly. "I admit it. I'mmmmmmmmmmm lonesome! Come on!" she added, elbowing him. "That's right! There I've said it, baby! I'm not ashamed to be blue!" She drummed her palms on her thighs, and he burst into laughter. "I know now! What I'm made of! Skin and bone! Muscle and blooooooooood. I know nooooooow, what road I'm on! AIDEN!"

"All right!" he said, clearly just to get her to shut up. "I'm a vagabond!" they tuned into together, "On the streets of love!"

Another look, and they burst out into another round of laughter. Maggie's cellphone beeped intrusively, and as Aiden continued to sing country with his incredibly British accent, she dug into her purse, pulling it out to check the Caller ID.

Bianca.

She caught her breath, physical pain actually flaring up inside her chest as her lungs contracted.

"Maggie?"

She swallowed hard, looking at the phone.

"Maggie? Are you all right?"

She forced a smile, dropping the phone back into her bag. "Fine," she said, reaching forward to turn up the dial for more volume, drowning out the ringing, listening to the next verse.

"So if you - turn on the porch light. Let it shine just for me. It's been a while, since I took my chances - but I'll come knocking at your door!"

"Big finish, come on!" she said, and he smiled, amused against his will.

"I know now! What I'm made of! Skin and booone, muscle and blooooood. I know now what road I'm on! I'm a vagabond! On the streets of love! Honey I'm a vaaaagabooond on the streets of looooooooooooooooooove."

The car zoomed down the highway, towards the glistening lights of the city.

end chapter