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 SEVENTEEN
I thought you'd come through
I thought you'd come clean
You were the best thing
I should never have seen
But you go to extremes
You push me too far
Then you keep going
'till you break my heart
Yeah you break my heart
See, I bleed and I bruise
Oh but what's it to you
I'm only human on the inside
-- Human, The Pretender
Maggie had never seen a Kane woman struck speechless before, least of all Kendall Hart. But Bianca's sister only stared at her, jeweled eyes large and luminous, expression stricken, with a wide open mouth, frozen stiff.
"I know it's a shock-"
She didn't see the slap coming until it hit her, across the cheek, jerking her head to the side and creating a sudden flare of heat across her face.
Too stunned to do anything, Maggie only held a palm to her face, blinking away the sudden tears of pain.
"How DARE you."
It was then, through a foggy blurry version of her vision that Maggie realized Kendall Hart had tears brimming in her eyes.
"Kendall," she breathed, "I'm telling you the truth-"
"NO," Kendall snapped, jerking away from her, one hand up, warding her off. "Don't you dare-"
"I wouldn't lie about that!" Maggie snapped, palm falling away from her face, reaching to grab a hold of Kendall's wrist, hauling the skinny woman back to her. "I'm telling you the truth, Kendall!"
"Don't touch me!"
But Maggie didn't pay attention. She grabbed hold of the taller woman, wrapping palms around Kendall's waist, trapping her flailing hands to her side, keeping her so tightly against her Kendall didn't have a chance to hit her again.
"Listen to me," she breathed, "I just found out. I couldn't believe it either. But it's true and if we're going to get her back and back to Bianca where she belongs, then you have to calm down and HELP ME."
Kendall's reaction had been unexpected, but Maggie almost preferred it to the Kendall she had now, a shivering, fragile mess – the remnants of a woman who had loved her niece and nearly given her life for her unborn baby. Who had broken down and lost herself when Bianca lost her baby.
Who had loved Miranda with everything inside her.
It was that Kendall, who lost her strength, who sank down with Maggie on the couch, who kept her eyes on the floor as Maggie rushed to explain, holding Kendall close, ignoring the stinging on her cheek in favor of spelling out her proof, laying it on the line for Kendall.
She put it together as well she could: Babe and her memorial to her dead son, the letter, being witness to Babe collapsing against Miranda's 'grave' and pleading with Bianca to forgive her, everything that shifted and followed into place so easily for those who wanted so badly to believe and yet were still terrified to own it.
Kendall was breathing hard, as Maggie's arms relaxed, and Bianca's sister's sanity returned, turning in her embrace to stare wide-eyed at Maggie, looking like a lost child.
"But I was there. I was so sure and Tad said-"
"He was wrong." Maggie's frown was bitter, gentle. "I don't know how to explain that, except that he's wrong. Whatever that DNA test said? It's a lie. Bess is Miranda."
There was a long pause, as Kendall stared at her beseechingly studying every nook and cranny of Maggie's sincere expression, searching for weakness or doubt.
"Oh my God," she breathed, inhaling as she sank in the couch, shoulders suddenly drooping, for a second, broken. "Oh my God."
Maggie studied the grieving woman with a quiver in her heart, a stiffening of her spine. Kendall's humanity leaked from her like a wound.
She let Kendall have her moment – goodness knew Maggie's reaction hadn't been much better.
Grimacing, she moved off the couch, heading into her kitchen and dumping some ice cubes into a kitchen towel, wincing as she held it gingerly to her face.
Maggie's mother hadn't hit her much. Her mother's slaps came in the form of words, and Maggie had learned that a thicker skin helped only if the soul was just as calloused.
"You certainly are your mother's daughter," she mumbled, hissing when the slight pressure caused the skin to throb.
Kendall looked up, wiping at her tears hurriedly. "Oh, God – I'm sorry, Maggie-"
"It's fine," she said shortly, thankful now for the soothing ice against her heated flesh. "But if you do it again, I'm kicking your ass. I don't care if you are a giant beanstalk."
Kendall hadn't found the energy to move yet, as the news was still fresh to her, and it kept her weak, sinking in.
"Bess is Miranda," she breathed, and Maggie waited, leaning on the counter, a safe distance away as Kendall absorbed the news, went from grief to wonder to joy to Maggie's next logical emotion: anger. "That lying BITCH!"
"Right there with ya," she chirped, frowning as she rearranged her ice cubes, wetting her fingers on the condensation.
"THAT TRAMPY LYING BITCH!'
Maggie's eyes went wide with surprise, her ice cubes and towel falling to the counter, suddenly forgotten when Kendall made a mad rush for the door.
"Hey! Hey!" Barely managing to catch up with her, Maggie slid in front of her, blocking her escape. "Where do you think you're going!"
"Where do you think!" Kendall snapped, "I'm gonna go to Bianca and-"
"You're going to tell her the truth, and she'll believe you because she doesn't have her head up Babe's ass, and then you'll go running to the Chandlers who'll realize that this was all a big mistake, ya know, WOOPSIE! And just hand her over?"
The dream scenario was reaching, but it hit home. Kendall blinked, eyes shifting on the ground and then back up to lock with hers again, palms turning into fists and flexing back out. "Oh."
"Yeah." Maggie sighed. "That's why I haven't told anyone – we need a plan before we can... even attempt to make people understand."
Kendall closed her eyes, shaking her head. "God..." Turning back, she sank down on Maggie's couch, looking down at her lap. "How did you figure all this out?"
Maggie grimaced, taking her time to join her, settling down beside her, smoothing her palm along her swollen cheek. It was still hot to the touch. "Long. Long story." The door cracked up, and Maggie smiled as Aiden stepped inside, her dark-haired companion staring at them both with open curiosity and a little suspicion. "And I had a little help."
Shutting the door behind him, Aiden regarded them both, his ex-girlfriend and current girlfriend sitting in amiable silence. What's going on?"
"I told her," Maggie said flippantly. "And she took it pretty well, all things considering."
"What on earth happened to your face!" Maggie sighed, tilting her neck up for his inspection as she caught Kendall flushing in embarrassment beside her through peripheral vision, as Aiden palmed her cheek, finger smoothing against the reddened skin. "Bloody-"
"It was an accident," she said immediately.
"My fault," Kendall said as Aiden narrowed his eyes at her. "Look, she just sprung this on me! I didn't take it well, sue me!"
"So you hit her!"
"Slapped me," Maggie corrected. "It's a Kane tradition."
"One I hoped you never had to be a part of," Aiden told her simply, almost trembling now, obviously trying to control his impulse at someone hurting the woman he loved. Maggie had to admit that a small warmth at just the furious devotion in his expression slid into her.
She couldn't remember anyone being that protective of her, except Bianca.
"Aiden, relax," Kendall drawled. "I said I'm sorry." Aiden sighed, glancing away. "Hey, look! I can help now, right?"
"How, exactly?" Maggie chirped.
"Well..." Kendall tapped her fingernails against her knees, considering, before she brightened. "We need another test, right? To prove things?"
Aiden frowned, settling down on the coffee table, lost in thought as he palmed his hands together, doing an odd mimic of a praying monk. "We need samples."
Maggie inhaled sharply, sitting up. "That's right! J.R. will let you get close to Bess, Kendall! Enough to get a hair or a tongue scrape or something-"
"Woah, wait –" Kendall shook herself. "Wait – Oh, God... I just..." Her eyes closed. "If Bess is Miranda, then that means that J.R.'s baby..."
Maggie swallowed, sighing, feeling a moment of genuine sorrow. "Yeah," she said flatly. "It sucks."
"Actually..." Aiden lowered his pressed palms. "I was doing some research – following the Llanview lead."
Maggie quirked an eyebrow, crossing a curious glance with Kendall. "And?"
"And..." he continued, digging into his back pocket. "It just so happens that at the time Jamie and Babe disappeared, there was a baby kidnapped from Kevin Buchanan."
"THE Kevin Buchanan?" Maggie breathed, as Kendall plucked the newspaper clipping from his outstretched hands, holding it open for the both of them to look.
"Wow," Kendall said, tone deepening with wonder. "And I thought I was good at scheming-"
"So J.R.'s baby..."
"There's a strong possibility," Aiden said simply. "You have to admit it makes sense."
"God," Maggie said, slumping against the couch. "Web of LIES!"
"We're very close to making it right," Aiden told her, pressing his mouth into a small smile, reaching forward to squeeze her knee. His affectionate gesture warmed her, and she settled a palm atop his, squeezing.
"Okay, enough of the sickening displays of affection," Kendall said, rolling her eyes and huffing, uncrossing her legs. "So I get this DNA sample. Then what? We march into the hospital and demand that they do this totally illegal DNA test?"
"Yeah..." Maggie said, sighing. "That might be a little tough."
But Aiden's eyes were dark, and in their depths, Maggie could almost see his thoughts whirling.
"There is someone who could help."
--
Kendall had been staring at her for the past five minutes.
Maggie tried to ignore it at first, picking at her fries as Kendall sat up ramrod straight, perfect posture, looking at her with her impeccably made up face, scrutinizing, unabashedly unashamed at her complete rudeness.
"Okay, WHAT!" Maggie asked finally, jerking her head up to glare right back, locking gazes. "You're freaking me out, Kendall!"
"You really love my sister, don't you?"
Maggie blinked, an unexpected jolt to her soul sending her sputtering into her coke, snorting the brown liquid through her nose, burning her nostrils and making her choke.
"It's okay," Kendall said immediately, pressing her hand to hers for a brief second, and then drawing it away, as Maggie kept trying to recover sending another round of death glares in her direction. "I guess I just should stop being surprised by it, is all."
Maggie sniffled, mouth buried into her napkin, somehow fragile when Kendall gave her that look again. Thankfully, before she could respond to Kendall's oddly serene statement, Aiden appeared, offering Maggie a quick distracted kiss on her lips, sneaking into the seat beside her. "You all know Anita, right?"
Anita, Aiden's beautiful nurse, stared down at them, clutching her purse almost nervously, obviously confused at the assortment of people that greeted her at the table at BJ's.
"Um... hey," she greeted, throaty voice almost a purr in her uncomfortable politeness. "Aiden said you'd be here, Maggie, but I didn't expect Kendall..."
"Oh, we all go way back," Kendall said flippantly, scooting over, "Sit!"
Still bewildered, but always classy, Anita did.
--
Anita was in. After two hours and a hell of a lot of explanation, Anita had proven herself hesitant, but willing to help – for the sake of Bianca.
So many people loved Bianca.
Maggie sucked in her breath, licking her lips in anticipation, trying to calm her beating heart.
Bianca's door could have been a living, breathing thing, like those ones in that trippy David Bowie movie, before Jennifer Connelly had learned how to act.
She almost wished it was, then at least it wouldn't be her fault if that door failed to open itself.
Still, she had been commissioned by Kendall to talk sense into Bianca, and while Maggie had severe doubts as to the powers of her own persuasion, she was heading to New York that very evening, and Florida was very quickly looming near.
They were running out of time: the makeshift James Bond wannabes who were out to save Miranda from the blonde ditz and her lunky hunky man minion.
It was now or never.
Sucking in her breath, Maggie took another step and rapped hard on the door, stepping back again just as quickly.
She waited a moment, and almost against her will, her heart jumped into her throat, almost frightening her, when she heard the locks click and the door swung open to reveal Bianca.
She had always liked Bianca's hair long, and the way she wore it now, loose curls tumbling over her shoulders, made the girl look like a woman. Bianca was breathtakingly beautiful, and Maggie could never get over how every time she saw her, she could so easily knock the wind out of her.
She managed a frozen smile, taking in the surprised, odd expression on her best friend's face.
"Hi."
"Maggie." Bianca breathed out her name, and it made her swallow, as Bianca leaned against the door. "Hi."
There was a moment of awkward silence, until Maggie stared meaningfully over Bianca's shoulder. "Can I-"
"Oh! Sure! I'm sorry!" Bianca laughed nervously, opened the door wider, letting her step in. "How've you been?"
Reaching the center of the living room, Maggie turned on her heel, pasting on a smile. "I've been... busy. School's been driving me nuts, and..."
"Yeah," Bianca said, nodding, stepping forward on her carpet, palms clasped together. "I... I've been wanting to call..."
Panic, fast and hard, shifted into her chest, cutting off her air supply, forcing her to inhale sharply, as awareness of what Bianca wanted to call about made her want to suddenly cry.
"I know." Maggie sighed raggedly, glancing down at the floor. "Listen, Binks, I know that things have been kinda weird-"
"I know." Bianca came forward, closer now, and Maggie sucked in her breath, tried to hold her ground without giving in, backing down, even as every step made her more intensely aware of the last time they had been alone together. "And, Maggie, what happened before-"
"I'm not here to talk about that," she interrupted, stopping Bianca short, just a few feet from her. "I mean..." she said, in the silence that followed, ripping her eyes from Bianca's intense gaze. "I just figured if there was something to talk about... it would have happened by now."
Bianca was quiet, and Maggie swallowed again, trying to force that deep, hard lump down from her throat and back down to her stomach. "Maggie-"
"Bianca, it's fine..." Eyes flicking up, Maggie sucked in her breath. "But I don't want to talk about it."
Bianca's mouth pressed together. "Maggie, I know things are crazy, but I do think that we should talk about it – "
"Okay," Maggie said reasonably, "I don't."
"You can't just run from it-"
"Why not! You did!" Maggie slammed her mouth shut, hissing in self recrimination, turning away at her loss of self control. She waited a moment, gathering her resolve, and then turned back, eyeing Bianca with as much flat ambivalence as she could muster. "Are you still with Lena?"
Bianca's immediate shifting of eyes, the way she broke their stare, the guilty turn down of the pout on her lips, confirmed it, and Maggie smiled at the ache. She expected it.
"You're still with Aiden, aren't you?"
"Yeah," she answered. "And he's not going anywhere." Just like Lena. The big and amazing love of Bianca's life.
Bianca sighed audibly, she was frustrated, and Maggie didn't want to hear it. She didn't want to feel it. She didn't want to process it. At all.
She didn't want to know why Bianca was frustrated, or what Bianca wanted to talk about, or even what she wanted to say.
She was battling the fear, the sores that still bled from her wounded heart, and Bianca's power over her fragile soul.
"Fine," she heard, as Bianca's tone deepened, grew shorter. "What do you want to talk about?"
Maggie licked her lips, rubbed at her neck, and tried to smile. "Bianca, look- I ... it's just that Kendall told me about what happened-"
"Oh my God-" Bianca snapped, already angry, turning away.
"And I just don't want you to make a mistake!"
"I can't believe she got to you!" Bianca's hands flew up, exasperated. "Maggie, you, YOU of all people know what J.R. is capable of."
"Yes," she said immediately. "That's not what this is about –"
"No?" Bianca snapped. "No! Everything I'm about to do, everything I'm doing, I'm doing for that little girl."
"Good!" Maggie breathed, coming forward. "GOOD, Bianca! Then do what's best for her! Let her stay here! Keep her here with you!"
"Maggie-"
"Bianca, Babe is not who you think she is!"
"Because you don't like her? Because you say so?"
"Because I know better."
"Oh, please." Bianca's eyes flashed, "You don't know what we went through, Maggie. I know Babe. I saw her soul in that cabin- you couldn't know-"
There was an ache, one that caused her to almost choke, but she pushed past it. "I know, Bianca! I know- I know what happened in that cabin meant so much to you, I do, but I think that maybe it's colored the way you see her-"
"Maggie, stop."
"You've associated Babe with Miranda and Bianca, you can't do that!"
"That's not true!"
"Bess belongs here. With you."
"Shut up, Maggie!"
The sentence was harsh, and it succeeded, for about half a second, as Maggie blinked, throat gone dry, taking in Bianca's furious face, her flushed expression.
She closed her mouth, licked her lips. "Okay," she said, softly. "Okay – Bianca, I just love you, okay? I just want what's best for you, and I need you to trust me."
She wanted to tell her the truth. She wanted to take Bianca by the shoulders and shake out all this blind devotion, all this grief for Miranda buried deep in her friendship with Babe.
And she couldn't Not until they had that test. Not until they had those samples, not until they had the proof that Bianca couldn't ignore – Bianca would hate her if she did anything less.
"Bianca, can you do that? Can you trust me?" Bianca looked at her, mouth open, breathing hard.
"Maggie, I'm trying-"
"Then just trust me about Babe. Please. Don't take that baby to Florida. Keep her here with you. Don't meet Babe-"
"Maggie, Babe loves me. Babe wouldn't hurt me. Babe knows what she wants. She doesn't keep me guessing. She gets my pain and I get hers."
Maggie's eyes suddenly stung with unshed tears, as she fought the lump of emotion that suddenly lodged in her throat, sucking in a ragged breath as she answered simply, "I see. And I don't. It doesn't matter how much I love you, how much Kendall loves you, not even how much Lena loves you, because the only love you care about is Babe's."
Maggie wouldn't cry. Not when Bianca's jaw straightened, not when her best friend, the person Maggie revered above all else, all but admitted that was true with just the smallest shake of her head. "Maggie, if you're here just to do Kendall's bidding, I think you should leave."
"Bianca-"
"Maggie."
Maggie sucked in her breath, and bit back her words. Once again, Bianca had managed to take her heart, bruise it, beat it, and hand it back to her, a quivering mess.
Maggie's wounds were beginning to scab over now, and she wondered how long it would be, until the numbness would take over, and she wouldn't hurt her anymore.
It had happened with her mother.
As she sighed, moving past her best friend and toward the door, Maggie was surprised to realize she was starting to wish for it to happen with Bianca.
--
Robin had tried to cook a turkey. It was obvious that it wasn't her strong suit.
A last minute plan to save Thanksgiving resulted in Maggie and Robin constructing a weird turkey mold thing, held together by stuffing and mashed potatoes.
Turkey mash. Aiden discovered he actually liked it.
"So much for American cuisine," Robin mumbled, poking at it. She stared at it glumly for another moment, before she glanced up, watching Aiden shovel the food into his mouth.
"Living together," she chirped, arching an eyebrow, an absurd smile on her face that made Aiden flush, rolling his eyes as he chewed his huge forkful.
"It's not as serious as it sounds," he told her pointedly.
"Please." Robin elbowed him. "I'm visiting in a month. I'll be the judge of that." When Aiden stared, she continued, "Just don't start having sex in every corner of the room, all right? That's be freakin' weird."
--
Anna curled her hands together, regal and beautiful despite her shorn head. Her eyes closed and Maggie cursed herself, eyes flickering down to her steaming cup of tea, for affecting Anna this way.
"Anna-"
"No." Her hero shuddered, sucking in her breath and opening her eyes, squeezing her palms together one more time before she blinked at a stray tear. "I'm fine. I knew David had a dark side. I just wasn't aware just how far his shifting ethics would take him."
Maggie didn't respond, she had no way to help. She merely kept her eye on her tea bag, letting it seep, letting it bob in the hot water, before she sighed raggedly.
"Babe is his daughter," she managed. "He's blind to any other fact, I guess."
"Enough to betray Bianca?" Anna replied quietly.
"You know David," she muttered, sing song, painfully.
"I thought I did. Apparently I didn't."
Maggie grimaced, distracted by laughter, as across the room, Robin and Aiden engaged in stealing food from each other's plates.
"I'm sorry."
"It's not your fault, Maggie." Anna smiled, a painful twitch of her lips that only made Maggie hurt more. "David and I are long over, but I always wanted to believe that the man I loved was still buried inside of him."
"Well, David isn't the only one obsessed with Babe," Maggie said hesitantly, fingers rubbing the thread of the tea bag between her tips, "Bianca loves her so completely. She won't listen to me. She won't listen to Kendall. It's like she's under this spell - all because Babe delivered her baby girl in that cabin - and then ripped her away. God," she sucked in her breath, eyes closing. "I should have been with her, Anna. If I had been with her instead of trying to run away from my feelings like a moron, this wouldn't have happened. I would have taken care of her. I know it-"
"Maggie." Anna's palm settled on hers, squeezed firmly. "Everyone has regrets, and Bianca has coped with her grief the only way she knows how. But it doesn't excuse her taking you for granted."
Kendall had flipped out when Maggie had told her nothing had changed.
"We'll do it again at Thanksgiving. We'll gang up on her. We'll bring Mother into it if we have to. She'll have to listen."
"I'm not going to your place for Thanksgiving," Maggie had told her flatly. "Whatever you do this weekend, do it yourself, but leave me out of it. Bianca and I aren't doing each other much good now - whatever happens, she's not going to listen to me."
"I want to let her go, Anna," she whispered achingly. "I do. I want to just give up on her and let her go but I can't. Not until Miranda is back with Bianca. Not until Bianca has her heart back. Then she can go to Poland and be with Lena and be happy and I can finally let her go. I can move on."
"With Aiden." Maggie swallowed, hesitating to look at Anna until she squeezed again, a light, firm pressure. Anna's eyes were round, velvety orbs of wisdom. "Can I offer you some advice, Maggie?"
Heart throbbing, Maggie offered an unspoken nod.
"I love my nephew. I love you. And the sight of you with each other, making each other happy, warms me. We can be your family, Maggie, if that's what you want." Maggie blinked, tears sliding suddenly over her cheeks. "But if what you want is Bianca, if the family you're dreaming of is Bianca and that little girl, then ignore your fears, ignore your regrets, and be with them. Claim your happy ending, Maggie. Own it."
Maggie sucked in her breath, and her chest tightened painfully when she whispered simply, "Bianca doesn't want me, Anna. And with Aiden, I'm happy. I want to be free. I just have to do this. Aiden and I, we have to do this - and I can let this go."
Anna didn't respond, but she opened her arms and drew Maggie into them, holding her close. Maggie closed her eyes and sucked in a silent sob, lost in the comfort of Anna's embrace.
--
end chapter
coming soon
The anniversary of Frankie's death brings about a break up, a truce, a confession and an ultimatum.