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 FIFTEEN
I'm choking on the words
I didn't get to say
And pray I'll get the chance
Someday
-- Still Holding Out for You, SheDaisy
--
Her brain, previously shredded with frazzled emotion, suddenly spiked into a thousand thoughts a minute as her heart beat so hard that she had to gasp to try to contain it.
Maggie was literally frozen, staring at Aiden, and the haunting presence of Bianca beside her.
They could have been standing there for seconds or hours, it made no difference to her. She still found herself battling, trying hard to process what had just happened, trying hard to figure out how to react now, when everything was suddenly shifted, and her safe place had just been decimated with a huge grenade.
Aiden shut the door, a slow, methodic thud, and with it, gave Maggie back her mobility, as her flushed face managed a smile, and she pushed off the couch, ignoring looking at Bianca completely, for the favor of comfortable, safe Aiden.
"Hi," she said, pressing a kiss against his mouth - rougher, firmer lips - giving him a hug - harder, and he smelled different -
He responded by wrapping his arms around her, holding her to him to press another kiss to her forehead. "Are you all right?"
Maggie arched her head up; he wasn't looking at her.
Aiden wasn't a stupid man, and Maggie's trembling and obvious rattled demeanor had registered.
She turned, with a hard swallow, to Bianca, who still sat on the couch, staring at them both with an unreadable expression.
"Fine," Maggie said, pulling away from Aiden to move toward the counter, hands palming the counter, using the seconds her back was away from them both to suck in her breath, close her eyes to steady herself.
"I was just making sure Maggie was okay," she heard, as she lifted her head to discover Bianca rising off the couch, her hands clasped together, nodding her hello to Aiden. "It's been hard for us both."
Bianca's voice was weird, a little too high pitched, and Maggie's boyfriend... her boyfriend - oh, God-
Aiden was suspicious, she could see it, and when Bianca glanced back at her, Maggie only swallowed, ignoring the jolt and the ringing in her head to concentrate on just breathing.
"Thank you," Aiden said suddenly, drawing them both back to him, as he stood, hands on his hips, wearing a terse grin. "I appreciate you wanting to be there for Maggie."
She could visibly see Bianca's throat bob, and she flushed, unable to keep her eyes off Bianca's hands, her back still searing in the place Bianca touched her.
"I think you should know, Bianca - they've arrested Ethan."
Once again, her head jerked up, her eyes widened, and suddenly it was something else to concentrate on, place as a barrier to whatever the HELL that THING was that Bianca decided to do to her. And she couldn't. Wouldn't think of it.
Already she was shaking, and so she blocked it again with Aiden's words, as Bianca gasped, and she narrowed her eyes at her boyfriend.
"I had nothing to do with it," he told them both, when Bianca let out a ragged breath, and he grimaced. "They found evidence..."
"Oh, God..." Bianca pressed her palm to her face, obvious concern in her dark eyes. "You know what? I better go see if Kendall..." She was already walking to the door, and Maggie's fingers clutched at the counter when Bianca paused, hand on the door knob, and stared at her.
Her mouth, already dry, was open, and Maggie tried to say something, anything, but found nothing came out. Her brain was literally fused. She shut her mouth upon the realization that she must have looked like an idiot.
"I'll see you later," Bianca finally said. "I um... I'm sorry about... all this." Maggie didn't realize she was holding her breath until the door closed, shutting her out, and Maggie let out a long sigh, air rushing out, eyes closing as she tried to calm her rapidly beating heart.
"Maggie." Aiden. She opened her eyes. Aiden's expression was tight, suspicious. "What just happened?"
Oh, God. "What do you mean?"
"I mean it's obvious I just interrupted something," he snapped, shrugging out of his jacket, throwing it over the back of the couch. "Would you like to tell me what that was?"
She held onto that counter so tightly, as she blinked, suddenly seeing spots. How the hell could she tell him what it was, when she had no idea -
What the hell had just happened!
"I just... I um..." Maggie was almost gasping now, as she blinked and shook her head, tone raspy. "I'm..." Bianca's own version of a hit and run. "I'm just... I can't believe Bianca," she finally managed, rushing it through, an angry tone suddenly accompanying her breathless words.
He tilted his head, kept staring. "What does that mean?"
"I mean... the way she..." Maggie's fingers tightened harder on the counter, and found it suddenly amazingly easy to focus on her frustration. It seemed to funnel her, ground her, and she clung to it - "How can she be so smart and so amazing and be so... so... DUMB!"
"You've lost me, Maggie."
"Babe!" she spit, dredging the name from the numerous things wrong with Bianca, plucking it off the top of her list. "Her friend just hightails it out of here, says all these mysterious and cryptic things, plans on kidnapping Babe, and Bianca... she thinks it's a good idea! How stupid is she!"
Letting go of the counter, she finally found the strength to make it to the couch, sinking down on it, crossing arms and legs.
Fingers suddenly kneaded into her neck, and Maggie's high strung body trembled under the attention, as her eyes drifted closed and she arched her neck, tilting her head to the side, letting Aiden work through it, save her, for at least a moment.
"God..."
Another moment, and then he moved in beside her, threading fingers through the nape, working into her hair.
Her eyes drifted open and she smiled.
"Thank you."
"I need to ask you a question, Maggie. It's one I haven't ever asked you because I was afraid of the answer, but I need to know now."
Safe place gone.
Maggie jerked her head up, eyes narrowing and mouth pursing. "What?"
Aiden pulled back, on his face a curious expression, one she hadn't seen before. He looked... insecure. Almost scared.
"Maggie, are you really over Bianca?"
It was the wrong question at the wrong time.
"What?" she asked dumbly.
"I'm just wondering how much of this concern over her wellbeing is that of a best friend, or that of someone who still..."
"I can't believe it!"
Anger was so much easier than having to deal with that. In Maggie's cushy little world, where Bianca hadn't just thrown her flat on her ass by the weirdest, hottest kiss ever. Where Bianca wouldn't ever love her and Maggie had a hot boyfriend who did.
"Have I ever given you any reason to think that I would..."
"Maggie, that's not what I'm asking-"
"Bianca is not a threat to us!"
"I think she might be!" he snapped back, and Maggie blinked, thrown for a loop at the sudden anger. "You loved her, Maggie - I don't think you've forgotten it - how am I supposed to-"
"It's happened months ago, Aiden, and Bianca... She's..." Bianca. Maggie's world had imploded, and asked this question about five minutes before THE KISS, Maggie could have answered it easily. Now, her mind was twisted, and her body was heated and she was mad and hot and confused and torn and it was both delicious and maddening and hopeless. Maggie's shook herself. "I don't know. Aiden, I'm sorry..." The look on his face tugged at her, and Maggie's genuine love for Aiden seared her, as she moved back to the couch and grabbed his hands, desperately. "I love you, okay? I do - and I don't want you to-"
"Do you want to be with her?"
"I want to be with you," she said firmly. It was true. Aiden was fun and safe and hot and didn't make her feel like she was going to crawl out of her skin or commit an act of insanity. He didn't come with questions or baggage.
And he didn't pull the kamikaze kiss of the century and then leave her to deal with it.
God... she blinked, suddenly pulled out of her melodrama. If this was anything like what she had done to Bianca -
No.
"Maggie-"
"No," she said again, forcefully, head ringing, as she felt Aiden's hands slipping out of her own, and she held on tighter, glancing back at her empty bedroom and empty life. "Move in with me."
The words came out before she could stop them, and they shocked them both, as Maggie blinked, considered the statement, suddenly qualifying it to herself.
"Maggie... I don't-"
"Take the other bedroom - cause Jamie's... And you can use the steady bed and not a crappy motel room and... it wouldn't mean that we were living together, but, you could be my roommate-"
"Maggie, are you sure this is what you want?"
Maggie swallowed hard, pushing at the panic that surged up. "Aiden – I don't want to lose you. You've been there for me when no one else was, not even Bianca, and you make me happy. You make me sane. I don't know what would happen if-"
He cut her off with a kiss, and Maggie clung to it, opening her mouth under his, sucking in his tongue, praying that with his contrast he could drown away the searing memory of Bianca's lips on hers, painting across her cheeks like a delicate artist, settling on her mouth, branding her.
Maggie moaned, slipping fingers through rough hair, and pulled Aiden over her, shutting her eyes.
--
She had lost control.
Maggie's delicate form, pressed against hers, Maggie's halter top, leaving her open to trace impossibly soft skin, smooth fingers over an unblemished back, small breasts pressing into hers, because Maggie hugged with her entire body, and buried her face into Bianca's neck, moist little tufts of air that made her shudder, arch her neck as cheek slid against cheek, and when she had kissed Maggie's cheek-
She had lost control.
Bianca's was lost in the memory now, the sudden taste of Maggie - the hesitant brush of lips on lips, shooting such a wave of desire she couldn't resist another kiss, one made sweeter by Maggie's mouth moving just enough to deepen it so slightly, kissing her back.
It had been brief. So miniscule. But Bianca still felt it. Maggie had kissed her back.
"- butterfly and we all played maracas, while Greenlee wore a hula skirt and did the finale from Grease 2."
Bianca blinked, torn suddenly from the heated flush of her body to register Kendall, eyebrow practically in her forehead, studying her with a smirk curling up her lip.
"Huh?"
"Thank GOD, you're back to earth!" Kendall tossed her hair over her shoulder, one arm perched daintily over the end of her chair, crossed leg bobbing. "I knew I lost you when I insulted Babe three times and you didn't say a word."
"Three times?" she repeated, still dizzy from her daydream.
"You'd be surprised to find how colorful my language can be when I really put my mind to finding adjectives to 'skank'," Kendall said dryly. "Where'd you go?"
Bianca pushed her breath out slowly, still too caught up in what happened with Maggie to take offense on her friend's behalf. Instead, she glanced up at Kendall, and began haltingly, "Have you ever looked at someone and then... felt something that you didn't expect to feel... or... done something that you didn't expect to do?"
The sentence sunk in, as Kendall's eyebrow went further into her head, and her beautiful sister chuckled suddenly, uncrossing her legs to settle herself. "This sounds like a good story. What happened? And with who?"
Bianca felt herself on the precipice of something supremely frightening, as her mouth opened, and her heart went with it. "It's um..."
Dull thuds on her door knocked her out of her thoughts, as Kendall glanced back at her door, annoyed, and Bianca stared hard at it.
"Talk about your bad timing," Kendall drawled, as Bianca got up reluctantly and headed for it, pulling on the door knob.
Maggie Stone smiled hesitantly at her, jolting her body, leaving her dry mouthed, as her friend clutched onto her purse like it was a flotation device, meeting her eyes. "Hi."
Bianca blinked, and suddenly shook herself into propriety. "Hi, Maggie."
"It's... it's been a couple days since our... um..." Maggie smoothed bangs away from her face, and glanced at her shoes. "Talk."
"Yeah..." Bianca clutched onto the door for support. "Right, I was going to call but-"
"Well, maybe we can talk now, because I'm just a little... confused."
Maggie's annoyed expression caused an almost bitter twitch of her lips. "Yeah, you're not the only one," she breathed, and opened the door wider, trying hard to ignore the sudden jackhammer on her chest, pressure and sudden hope mingling together with other feelings she didn't quite want to try to address.
Maggie stepped in, froze, and it was then that Bianca realized that her sister was still in the room, looking at them both with wide eyes, and her mouth rounded to an 'o'.
"Um... Kendall?"
Kendall jerked her head this way and that, sending her curls springing, before her mouth widened into a rather unfortunately grin, and she jerked off the chair. "Well, I can see you have a lot to talk about-"
Stepping around them both, her sister had morphed into a chicken, bobbing her head in her over enthusiasm, forcing Bianca to bite her lip in embarrassment because her sharp sister had obviously figured isomething/i out.
"Maggie, lovely to see you."
"Since when?" Maggie asked dryly.
Kendall just grinned, forcing Bianca to shrug in apology, as her sister began to back away.
Bianca, ready to let her go, turned her attention back to Maggie, and found herself smiling hesitantly, stepping forward. "I umm..."
"Bianca!" Head swiveling toward the open doorway, Bianca's throat went dry when her mother, the great Erica Kane, flew in, nearly knocking over her sister, pushing Kendall back into the room. "There you are. I have to talk to you. Right now."
--
"I don't get it."
She said it to him as they were lying in bed, her cheek resting against his chest. She said she liked it because she could hear his heartbeat, she could count them – beat for beat. She knew when he was excited, when he was calm, when he was happy or sad, all by counting the pitter patters of his heart. The future Dr. Stone, obsessed with anatomy, even in matters of the heart.
Brushing his mouth absently across her brow, Aiden slid fingers through her hair, eyes straight up, at the ceiling. "What don't you get, love?"
She lay still for another few seconds, before she turned, shifting until she lay on top of him, chin resting on his chest, regarding him.
"Bianca said that Babe was going to kidnap Bess," she said. "But she didn't. Why?"
Aiden pressed his lips together, considering the thought. "Maybe she didn't get the chance."
"And left anyway." Maggie clucked her tongue, eyes sharp even in the darkness. "I may not have a maternal streak but I wouldn't just abandon my baby, not if I was parading around for months before like I was mother of the year! Plus, she promised Bianca all this stuff..."
His knuckes ran down her spine absently, as Aiden let out his breath, pushing up until they were both sitting up. "All right – well, then, let's put the pieces together."
"Okay."
"Now – the first thing you found out that didn't make sense, and that has yet to be explained..."
"Babe had a son," she answered automatically.
"Right," he agreed, nodding. "How does that fit with Bess?"
"It doesn't. She lied to Bianca – but about what?"
Mentally filing the observation, Aiden continued, "We also know that you and Jamie went to a chapel-"
"And he saw something there – he found something and he lied about it – he refuses to tell me what that was – and he and Babe hook up a few weeks later. Not to mention, the stupid window that started all this that Bianca thought was a big surprise? Babe never brings it up. Ever."
"There's another piece," he told her, rubbing fingers into his head, "Anita told me that Jamie had been asking her about DNA tests – how to determine paternity."
Maggie's brow furrowed. "Paternity?" He nodded.
"That's right."
"This is just getting more and more weird," she breathed. "So, then he and Babe hook up, skip town, don't take Bess, and yet Babe promises Bianca she's going to be in Bess' life no matter what and that she'll explain the 'son' thing, which she never did and everyone seems to have forgotten about."
"Everyone but us." Aiden pursed his lips together. "There's something happening, Maggie. You're right."
"Oh, God..." Maggie's voice had a tone of realization, suppressed horror. "Aiden, I just thought of something." Furrowing his brow, he waited. The moonlight streaked in through Maggie's window, highlighting her intense features. "Bianca told me that David and Krystal were in there with Babe when she made that stupid 'son' statement." Her eyes widened, and her lower lip trembled. "God, you don't think..."
He closed his eyes. His despise for David Hayward wasn't ever a secret, but to be caught up in all this...
"I think we need to find out what's in that chapel," he said finally.
He stood in the chapel, staring at the window. The colored hues of the glass filtered in, creating a jeweled image that spoke of heartbreak, sensitivity, loss.
The priest who had met him had been pleasant, kind, and his words to Aiden had twisted his soul, a tight pain that made it difficult to breathe, as Aiden took in the special memorial.
To a son.
Aiden's brow furrowed, forgetting his jealousy, his insecurity. Instead a shiver of anger spread through him, as he remembered Bianca and all she had been through, all for this.
Babe had a son. Not a daughter.
--
The grand Erica Kane never needed an invitation to come in and completely take over the room, demanding Bianca's attention and completely ruining the moment.
Maggie should have gotten used to it, by now. But today, she was feeling remarkably fragile, her resolve to come here and get an answer out of the conveniently absent Bianca crumbling slightly when put in the presence of all three Kane women.
Kendall looked almost apologetic. "Um... Mother? Maybe we should-"
"Mom?" Bianca, at least, sounded aggravated, as she came to stand beside her, wearing a pained expression. "I have company."
"Oh, don't be silly! You just have Maggie!" Maggie suppressed the urge to roll her eyes, managing a smile of her own as Erika waved in her direction, "Hello, Maggie. How are you?"
"I'm fine Erica," she said politely, "How are you?"
"Very upset, Maggie, thank you for asking." The grand dame Kane's eyes were sharp, turning her glare back onto her own daughter. Still, Erica could be amazingly charming when she wanted to be, and when Bianca sighed dramatically and threw her arms up, obviously giving up on trying to get her mother to leave, Erica continued politely, "How are things with you and Aiden?"
Maggie's posture stiffened, and she resisted the urge to glance at Bianca as she opened her mouth, and found herself unable to really say much. "Well... they're... okay."
"Okay?" Erica grinned. "Tad Martin told me you two decided to live together!" Oh, God. Unable to stop herself, she jerked her gaze to Bianca. Her best friend looked stricken, and just the expression made her want to suddenly crawl into a hole and die.
"Well..." she smiled crookedly, face flaming. "It's not that serious – I just needed a roommate and I had a room-"
"Oh, sweetie, you don't have to be modest. There's nothing to be ashamed of." Erica actually thought she was helping matters, as she patted Maggie's shoulder. "I'm so happy for you both."
Oh. God.
Maggie sucked in her breath. There was no way that could have been brought up at any worse time.
"Thank you, Erica," she said dryly, noting that Bianca's mother didn't quite catch the sarcasm.
Once again, she snuck a glance to Bianca. Bianca's eyes were locked on hers, wearing that weird expression, the one she had seen time and time again, the one that made Maggie feel like she had just betrayed her-
And she hadn't, right? Bianca hadn't even explained... Really...
Maggie bit her lip, and crossed her arms, suddenly feeling further away from Bianca than she had ever been.
Sinking down into a chair, Maggie ignored the conversation, that was rapidly escalating into an argument, something about Babe and her idiotic running away and J.R. and what Babe deserved.
"Just forget about her, Bianca!" Erica demanded, as Maggie lifted her head, as Kendall skirted around her, and Bianca's face became increasingly red. "You have Maggie, and you have Lena, don't you?"
She had Lena.
Maggie lost the ability to breathe, as Bianca now looked at her. Maggie's confusion now boiled into a sudden anger, a spike of irrational jealousy. "You're still with Lena. Of course, how could I-"
"Maggie," Bianca said, fingers twisting together, hands wringing, "I just haven't had a chance to talk with her-"
Maggie closed her eyes, ignoring the bitter stab of her heart. "Whatever," she said dismissively, turning her attention to her sweater, picking off the lint.
"Maggie-"
"Bianca, this is important!" Erica interrupted. "Just tell me that you're through with this whole Babe nonsense-"
"Mother, she's my best friend!" Bianca snapped, and Maggie rolled her eyes, ignoring the wince in her heart with an automatic shake of her head, feeling oddly like giving Bianca the finger when her friend crossed glances with her. "I'm not going to give up on her just because she's in trouble!"
"In trouble!" Erica repeated, scoffing openly. "She's caused all this trouble for herself!"
"Mother-" Bianca bit her lip, and Maggie arched an eyebrow when she appealed to her sister for help. "Kendall, can't you tell her-"
"Nope." Kendall shook her head, sighing. "Can't do it, baby sis. Bianca, she's being harsh, but I'm kinda with her on this."
"Babe is true and kind, and she didn't deserve any of this," Bianca breathed. "She can't even be with her child – how fair is that!"
On the couch, Maggie literally ached, rubbing at her chest with a palm, watching Bianca defend Babe with every breath in her. Bianca believed in Babe. Bianca loved Babe.
Bianca had kissed her the very day Babe had left her –
Maggie sucked in her breath, suddenly horrified. God – was she a rebound?
And still, there was that stupid, tiny hope, the one that never, ever died, not matter how often she had killed it, no matter how many times that Bianca killed it, the one that told her that some day, somehow, Bianca would wake up, the one that had taken Bianca's 'whatever-the-hell-it-was' and run like hell with it.
And they were all looking at her.
She blinked. "Huh?"
"We're asking you, Maggie," Erica repeated. "What do you think about Babe?"
Oh.
She doubted 'skanky attempted baby stealing tramp' was quite what they were looking for.
Licking her lips, she looked at Bianca, met her angry, desperate gaze with a regretful sigh, and a methodic, gentle, "Bianca, I think they have a point."
Bianca jerked away. "Oh, Maggie, not you too-"
"I just think that maybe, Bess would be better off here with you," Maggie said immediately. "Than what Babe and Jamie would try to offer her. I mean, she did try to leave her-"
"Because she didn't have a chance to take her!" Bianca snapped, eyes flashing, and Maggie closed her eyes against it.
Seriously. Like a cult. Babe was delivering pheromones of stupidity.
"A baby deserves to be with her mother!"
"A mother like Babe?" Erica scoffed. "One who would write a letter like the one-"
"J.R. lied about that letter!" Bianca said, and Maggie glanced up again, this time confused. Letter? What letter. "He used it to lie to me, to make me think Babe would say something cruel and hurtful-"
"I don't think J.R. would do that, Bianca," Kendall interceded.
"He drugged her, didn't he? He poisoned her! He was going to use me –"
"He thought you were having an affair! You set him up, Binks!"
"What letter?" Maggie interrupted, "What letter?"
It stopped them all, as they looked at her again, and Bianca breathed out, taking the momentary break in the fight to answer civilly, "J.R. told me that Babe wrote this letter – she did, but he lied about what was in it-"
"What did it say?" Maggie asked, rising to her haunches, suddenly desperate to know.
Erica, obviously itching to continue this argument, settled her hands on her tiny waist and said, "That Bess was actually Miranda. That this wasn't Babe's child at all. That Bess was Miranda."
"It was a stupid, hurtful lie-"
Bess was Miranda.
The fight continued, and Maggie didn't hear it. All she heard were those three words, seeping into her brain, ringing into her like a gong.
Bess was Miranda.
Bess was Miranda.
Maggie's heart jump started and suddenly, suddenly, it all made perfect sense.
"Oh, God," she breathed.
Bess was Miranda.
end chapter
Coming Soon
Maggie and Aiden look for proof, Babe makes a phone call to Bianca, and Kendall asks for Maggie's help in trying to talk some sense into her fiercely devoted baby sister.