A Little Respect Chapter 22, an all my children fanfic

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 TWENTY-TWO

It's been a long night chasing ghosts but at the most
It's been a rude awakening
That all too late I finally see

That it's my loss, my lonely
My mistake, mine only
Mine all, mine all mine
And it's my bad, my broken
All my should have's left unspoken
Mine all, mine all mine

I drove you to the edge of the map and after that
I pushed you off just to watch you fall
You never were the bounce back kind
But boy this time you've proven me wrong after all
Now I'm the one who's gonna crawl

-- Mine All Mine, SheDaisy

Paralyzed, Bianca was caught between being so overwhelmed she couldn't feel anything, and feeling so much she was nearly catatonic.

In her arms was Miranda. Breathing. Laughing. Smiling. Staring at her with wide, vivid eyes. Her little girl - not mangled, her little bones all broken, choking on her last breath, but alive. Beautiful.

Her Miranda.

It was a mantra that she couldn't get out of her head, and it left no room for anything else. She sat perfectly still, afraid to speak, afraid to touch, until Miranda quirked up her head and reached for her earrings, curling them into her chubby little fingers.

The action broke her, and suddenly Bianca gasped, trembling so unexpectedly, hands shaking, eyes watering with tears.

"Take her," she whispered breathlessly, pleading up to her mother. "Please, I just-"

Immediately, Miranda was scooped up, and Bianca's suddenly free hands sprang to her face, as she tried hard to get herself back from the overwhelming near hysteria.

"Oh God," she breathed. Hands wrapped around her shoulders, and she was pressed into the familiar hold of her sister. "Oh God..."

"Honey..."

She swallowed, as the shaking consumed her, emotion becoming apparent, raw and uncontrollable.

And the door sudden thudded with noise.

"Bianca," came a muffled voice. "It's me."

The trembling immediately ceased, as Bianca's head jerked up and her sister and mother both straightened, jerking their heads to the door.

Babe.

The name, the voice, it all burst up from her stomach in a form of nausea.

"Oh, let her in!" Kendall snapped, coming around her to stand beside her mother. "I'm dying to hear what she has to say."

"Bianca, why don't you let us handle this." Her mother's voice was cold, cradling her baby to her, bouncing her granddaughter on her hip, a protective arm around their little Kane girl.

Already, they were both moving toward the door.

"No." Bianca licked her hips, rising unsteadily to her feet. "No, let me deal with her."

Her tone was firm, but still, her family was indecisive. Kendall and Erica both exchanged a look, and she swallowed at the gentle, cautious tone her mother employed. "Bianca, I don't think you're in any shape-"

"Bianca?" Babe's voice once again wafted in, and Bianca felt the tone, a shiver of unexpected anger rolling up her spine.

"I'll be fine," she said flatly. "Mother, Kendall, thank you for your concern - but I want to deal with her. There are things I need to say - things I need to do." She didn't tell them that she knew they would want to protect her. They would let Babe have it with all their fury, and they wouldn't let her get in a word in edgewise. They would scream and rant, and Bianca would have no choice but to let them. "I want to be alone with her. I want to handle this."

Erica Kane didn't like it. She knew it. But Kendall looked in her eyes, and she must have seen it, she must have seen the shimmering rage that simmered softly beneath the surface.

"We can wait outside," Kendall relented.

"We will certainly not!" Erica snapped.

"Mother." Bianca came forward, and with a small, delicate shudder, carefully extracted Miranda, closing her eyes for a moment from just the small spike of emotion that jerked into her soul. "Please."

She moved to the door, and jerked it open, to a blonde haired, blue eyed, beautiful monster.

She stared, found herself amazed at the very different response seeing this woman evoked in her now. "Hi," she managed.

Babe shifted on her feet, glancing from her and Miranda to behind her, where Bianca knew her mother and sister waited, equally dark expressions on their faces.

The entourage was obviously not what she was expecting. "I thought... I thought you said we were going to be alone."

Bianca looked another moment, and then turned, holding Miranda close to her, breathing her in, as another shudder of hate went through her.

Eyes opening, she regarded her mother, her sister, and said quietly, "They were just leaving."

It was a command.

Erica did look ready to argue, but Kendall reached, taking her mother by the elbow and once again told Bianca, "We'll be outside. Ten minutes."

Bianca nodded, exhaling raggedly, as she walked quickly to the small playpen, depositing her daughter.

Keeping her back to the scene, she found herself drinking in the sight of her daughter, as the little girl pulled herself up on her haunches, and blew a spit bubble at her.

A suddenly clap, the slap of skin against skin came, another, just as quickly, and Bianca turned back.

Babe's eyes were watering, her palm covered the left side of her face, and she stood, horrified, as Kendall and Erica both glared at her, already moving past her.

Bianca waited until they shut the door, until Babe recovered from the slaps of her family, lowered her palm and came toward her.

"Are you here to take the baby?" Bianca asked, tone flat. Hard.

Babe sensed the change in tone, but her smile was sincere, her eyes moist with her deceiving affection.

"I'm not here to take the baby," she answered carefully. "I swear-"

She never gave her a chance to finish. Before she could finish her last word, Bianca lost control, all the rage bubbling up and bursting, as her hand flew, and she sent a stinging slap across Babe's face, watching with perverse satisfaction as her 'best friend' reeled from the action.

Babe sucked in her breath, surprised and gasping, mouth open, tears flowing down her cheeks, palm once again pressed on her face.

Bianca shook her head with disgust. "You could swear on 100 Bibles. I wouldn't believe a word out of your mouth."

Kendall's mother was less than pleased.

"Are you expecting me to wait out here like some sort of nursemaid, while the woman who is responsible for stealing my daughter's baby-"

"Woah, Mother? You're screeching!" Kendall backed up, wincing as her mother's voice went unnaturally shrill.

"I do not screech."

Kendall ignored the indignant tone, too resigned to do much of anything but nod patronizingly. "Yes, I know - you don't screech."

Erica narrowed her eyes.

"Kendall-"

"Mother, don't you get it?" Kendall asked, jerking a palm to the closed door. "Bianca has to do this alone. She needs it. She needs to let loose on that bitch, and if anyone deserves it, she does. If we were in there-"

"If I were in there, I'd give that trashy little tramp exactly-"

"Yeah. Exactly." Kendall straighten, arms crossed. "Bianca wouldn't get a word in edgewise. We'd beat that thing to a muddy pulp and Bianca wouldn't even get a bone. She needs to let out her inner Kane, and I'm all for letting her do it. The way I figure? We stay right here, we get her as she makes her escape."

It was malicious and altogether nice to think about. Erica Kane's shoulders squared, as her mother eyed the door, then her.

"Kendall Hart," Erica said immediately, "You certainly are a Kane."

The proud tone made her blush, a small, sheepish smile creasing her lips as she rolled her eyes. "Yeah - right."

"I would have been preferred to be told earlier about... all this..." Erica said, motioning with a manicured palm to the door.

Kendall sucked in her breath, and managed a nervous grin. "Take that up with Maggie, okay?" Erica considered that, and suddenly reached out with a palm. Kendall took it, eyes suddenly moist.

Weird saccharine moments with her mother were rare and few, and while Kendall adored them, seeing her mother so obviously overcome was somewhat disconcerting.

She cleared her throat, suddenly changing the subject. "Mother, why were you flying here anyhow? I thought that you couldn't make it."

Erica licked her lips, glancing down for a second before regarding her daughter. "I had to see you." Kendall quirked an eyebrow, confused. "Kendall, I just... oh it seems so silly now..." Erica took a breath, and began again. "It's about Greenlee."

She blinked. "I thought Greenlee would be back to normal by now -- I mean, as normal as Greenlee could be," she muttered, rolling her eyes at just the thought of her sometimes friend, sometimes enemy, always pain in the ass. "Isn't she better yet?"

"They don't know. They're still looking for answers. The only thing they do know is that she had an unhealthy amount of an antipsychotic in her system."

That made even less sense. "Well, how would Greenlee even get ahold of something like that?" Erica glanced at her, a knowing look, and suddenly Kendall found herself rolling her eyes, yet again, now out of irritation. "Oh," she muttered. "Oh, ok, that's -- that's why you're here. You missed the benefit concert but flew all the way down here to find out -- very delicately, of course -- if I just happened to slip Greenlee some magical pills?"

"Look, Kendall - obviously, that's not important now-"

But she was already feeling a hot burst of anger, indignation. "Mother, I saved Greenlee from taking a header off of our corporate headquarters. I mean, do I get any points for that? Not to mention, I've been a little preoccupied here, trying to prove my niece is alive! Really, that takes precedence over obsessing over Greenlee's state of mental well being, or lack thereof." She sighed, agitated. "Not that it wasn't already questionable before."

"Kendall, I'm sure that you didn't want Greenlee dead."

"Oh, thank you," she muttered sarcastically, as her cellphone began to ring, a mechanical twang coming from the confines of her purse. Locating it quickly, she glanced at the phone number, and noticed with a jump start of her heart, the phone number. "FINALLY!" she snapped, opening the receiver and yelling into the phone.

"Right, Kendall - because it's just in my power to make planes fly faster," came the dry voice. "Where are you!"

"We're upstairs," Kendall answered. Glancing at Erica, she mouthed 'Maggie', before she closed her eyes.

"Well, we're in the lobby, and we've spotted Krystal and this blonde baby - and now Tad's looking for J.R."

J.R.

The name and face popped into her brain like an exploding firecracker. "Oh, God," she breathed. "J.R. He still doesn't know!"

"Where are you!"

"We have to find him," she said, "We have to make him understand- I'm coming down-"

"Kendall-"

Already, she had shut the phone, stuffed it in her purse. "Mom, I have to go. I have to find J.R. I have to explain all this to him-" Swiveling back to the closed door, she sucked in her breath, and begged her mother. "Please don't leave this door."

"Kendall, at this moment, it's taking every ounce of will power I have not to knock down that door, grab that girl by her blonde hair, and toss her over that balcony."

Kendall snorted, glancing back apprehensively. "Well don't fight it for too long."

"The truth," she breathed, palms closed into fists, advancing on the shorter girl. Her breath was hot, her head was ringing, and hate, like she had never experienced, flew into her heart, took residence: festered. "I want it from you, Babe."

Hand still on her cheek, Babe looked like a wounded animal, shrinking back from Bianca's glare. "Okay," she whispered. "Okay."

Bianca's suddenly choked, throat blocked with a lump, as she glanced at her baby, HER baby. "Miranda?" she whispered, palm lifting in the baby girl's direction. "MY baby?" Babe's lower lip trembled, and she swallowed hard, nodding tentatively.

"Yes."

"You kept her from me."

A crystal tear slid down Babe's cheek. "Yes. I kept her from you."

Bianca took in the truth. The admission. THE GALL.

"Bianca, it was what I was coming up here to say-"

Her fisted hand jerked forward, connected with Babe's cheek, the fair skin bright red from the abuse. She watched as Babe stumbled back, and felt a thrill from it, coming forward, looking down at the stumbling woman.

"You bitch," she breathed. "You had my baby? The baby that you delivered, put into my arms, cut the cord? You kept her from me?" Babe knelt on the floor, looking up at her with sad, pathetic eyes. "I grieved. I stopped the milk." Bianca suddenly trembled, remembering the nightmare events as if she were living in them, shuddering from the cobwebs of her darkest days, ghosts of pain coming to whisper in her ears. "I -- I gave all her things away. I shut the baby book," she added, remembering closing Maggie's book, the feel, the desperation of that day, "because there was nothing else to write. I had to move on. You helped me. You held me. You -- you told me that you wished that you could make all the hurt go away."

"And I still do wish that, more than anything."

It was so pathetic.

"You could have, Babe. You could have made it all better if you had just told me the truth." Babe's eyes closed, as she slowly got to her feet. "Well," Bianca snapped, voice cutting through Babe like invisible wire. "What did you think, that I was going to, what, get over it, move on?"

"No, no! I knew that that was impossible. I saw how you loved that child."

"Bullshit," she breathed. "You only saw yourself." Babe recoiled, as if slapped yet again, and Bianca shook her head, unable to feel anything but the pure anger that filtered through her. "Do you know what I had left of my baby? A shirt, a tank top that I held to my face as I cried at night. Can you just see that? Can you picture me all alone in my room in the dark? You put me there, watching the minutes drag by because there was no point in going to sleep. That's when the nightmares would come -- trying to get to Miranda, save Miranda, Miranda in the river, Miranda screaming my name, calling out to me. And I was so close. Our -- our fingertips were almost touching, and then she would float away down the river, and I would wake myself up screaming her name!" Babe inched back slowly. Bianca's angry tears splashing over her own cheeks, bruised heart aching from the emotion that she endured.

"Bianca, please - I wanted to tell you-"

"Worse were the dreams where she was alive, healthy, smiling, looking -- "

"Bianca, don't-"

"Don't what!" Bianca snapped, voice erupting a shout. "Don't WHAT, Babe! BE HONEST? Do you not want to hear this? Is it too hard for you to TAKE, you BITCH? You had Miranda in your arms against your heart?"

Babe looked so small. So insignificant. So helpless. Bianca knew better now.

"I know that it was a sin, what I took from you."

She had to laugh, a bitter, dangerous laugh that didn't appease her kidnapper. It made her nearly recoil with the insane quality, the anger, behind it.

"No,no,no, Babe," she whispered. "Sorry, not one sin - a thousand. A million." She came forward, eyes slits, "A sin for every second that she was apart from me."

Maggie's heart was pounding. Literally pounding. Going so fast and so hard, as she searched the lobby wildly.

"Upstairs!" she breathed, ignoring Aiden as her boyfriend kept his phone on his ear, Tad waiting nervously beside him. "It's a hotel! There's ten thousand UPSTAIRS!"

An elevator dinged, and she whirled, nearly jumping in relief when Kendall came walking out of it in a brisk walk.

Moving fast, Maggie grabbed hold of her wrists. "Where is Bianca!"

"She's upstairs - she knows everything, Maggie," Kendall said, breathless with excitement. "Mom and me - we got to her."

Maggie sucked in her breath, sudden hope making her weak-kneed. "Where is she?"

"She's upstairs with Babe."

At first, the statement was so ludicrous, she couldn't quite process it. Then it sunk in again, and she nearly shrieked, grabbing hold of Kendall's wrists again, and squeezing tighter. "WHAT!" Kendall blinked, obviously a little concerned by her sudden brute strength. "Have you lost your mind!"

"Have you lost yours!" Kendall jerked her hands out of her grip. "I bruise like a peach!"

"Did you seriously leave her up there with the skanky baby snatcher from the whore-y side of hell?"

"Maggie? Calm down," Kendall said, "My mother is waiting outside the door, and right now, we have to find-"

"Your mother is WAITING outside the door!" Maggie shook her head in disbelief. "Seriously, who the hell are you people? What happened to the town bitches!"

"Listen, I don't have - what!" Kendall took a full step back, rising to her full height. "We're so going to have words later, Shorty."

"Allright - the police are already here," Aiden breathed, jogging toward them, interrupting the conversation. "We can find prove that that baby we saw Krystal with is the Buchanan baby? We can hold them."

"We have to find J.R.," Kendall breathed. "I'm pretty sure that if we find him, we can find Jamie."

Maggie was experiencing a certain amount of tunnel vision. "Where's Bianca!"

"Second floor," Kendall snapped, pointing the way. Maggie blew out her breath, and didn't bother to give them her good-byes.

Locking eyes with Aiden, she nodded shortly, headed in the direction of the elevator. "FIND them."

"Bianca, I swear. I was coming to tell you, that was the reason I wanted you here in Florida-"

"Oh, really!" she spit, jerking her head up. "Really? You swear? Oh..." she said, sucking in her breath, as if remembering. "That's right... you shared with me the scraps of your life with my daughter to make me feel better. Oh, and weren't you so kind and loving after I ran off with Miranda? Spunky Babe stood up to big, bad J.R., fought for my place in my baby's life, and kept on fighting." She shuddered, hands fisting again, an action Babe saw, because her former best friend took another step back, suddenly afraid. "Aren't you the hero."

Babe wrapped arms around herself, sinking on the couch, weighted by her own shame. "I know what I did was a terrible thing... What I did was unforgivable."

Bianca's mind was racing, reeling, as the events of the last few months came flying in at her, taking control - her denial. Her rage. Everyone that tried so hard to tell her the truth...

"Kendall..." she breathed. "The way she resented you. This big, irrational hate that my sister had for you because your baby lived and my baby died. I almost cut her out of my life for you, and Maggie-" Her heart suddenly palpitated, nearly burst, and she came forward, grabbing hold of her shoulders, and shaking the life out of Babe, desperation consuming her. "Oh, GOD, MAGGIE, Babe! She tried to warn me! SHE TRIED. She told me the truth. She told me she loved me - and I told her to go to hell, because I wouldn't see it. I did, because you -- you were the only other person on earth to have held Miranda. You saw my baby's face. You put her into my arms. And that alone made me love you. Soul sisters, for life."

"For life," Babe nodded, sucking in her tears.

And she couldn't stop herself. The rage had consumed, and she did it again. She backhanded the bitch across the face.

"Don't you get it!" Bianca snapped, tears rolling down her cheeks. "DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND! I lost the LOVE OF MY LIFE! I cut her out, I let her GO. Because I wanted so badly to do the right thing. Because I couldn't bear the thought of a mother and a daughter being separated. And you... you and your great friendship." She lost her strength, shaking her head, stepping back. "When Kendall looked at you, all she felt was hate. Maggie saw you and she saw a disloyal tramp. I should have listened to them. I should have listened to them both. They were right. I've never hated anyone the way I hate you now."

She could hear the shouting, her daughter's heart bleeding out at her, and Erica Kane could no longer stand it.

But even as she turned in the direction, making her way to pound into her daughter's room, she noticed a twitch in the corner of her eye, a small movement that made her jerk her head.

Krystal, staring at her from the end of the hallway, a stroller in front of her.

And Erica knew - just like that, she knew.

She knew where the tramp had gotten her better qualities from.

Krystal's expression was stunned, and then just as quickly, she moved, turning the stroller and jogging fast, away from her.

Erica had no choice. Dragging her eyes from Bianca and her doorway, she sucked in an angry breath and followed, high heels sinking into the carpet, away from the room.

She heard shouting from a warehouse, followed Aiden, and banged on the door.

"J.R.!" she asked desperately.

"Kendall!" she heard, "I'm in here! Open the door!"

More shouting, and suddenly the dull pounds of flesh against flesh. Grunting.

"AIDEN," she snapped.

Already, he had unlocked it, pushing his shoulder into the heavy framed door, and into the room, they nearly fell.

What she saw made her gasp, nearly recoil in sheer horror.

Brother against brother, Jamie and J.R. fighting like animals. "STOP IT!" J.R. grabbed hold of an iron, brought it down on his brother's head. "NO!"

Aiden tackled J.R., bringing him down, jerking away the weapon. "What the hell are you doing!" he snapped. "You're going to kill him!"

Kendall collapsed on the floor, next to the bloody, still Jamie. "Oh, my God..."

J.R. stumbled to his feet, ignoring Aiden, as he crowded over Jamie, checking his pulse.

"Where's Bianca!"

"She's upstairs... she's upstairs with Babe-"

"What!" he breathed. "You didn't stop her!"

"J.R., there's something you don't know-"

"DAMN IT, KENDALL!"

"J.R.! Wait -"

It was too late, he was already sprinting out of the room, and Kendall was caught up in the flood of policemen, who crashed into the warehouse, surrounding her, Jamie and Aiden.

Bianca had lost her strength, amazed at her own stupidity, her own willful ignorance. "God..." she whispered. "All the fighting I did for you. The people I was going to cut out of my life..." She jerked her glare over to the woman sitting across from her, looking small and meaningless. "The way I went off on J.R. when he turned on you. He called you a liar and a con and said that you weren't fit to raise that bab--" she cut herself off, shaking her head. "Where do I even start with that one?"

Babe was quiet, and tried again. "You're saying all the things that I said to myself."

Bianca opened her eyes. She didn't think it was possible to be more disgusted. "Really?" she asked incredulously. "Like how we hopped into bed together to nail J.R. for the bad guy he was?" She laughed bitterly. "I did that to protect Bess from evil J.R., who was so low and so cruel as to keep a mother away from her child. It's funny, huh?" she asked the bitch, "I swore that I would protect that baby. My baby. My baby. My baby." She stood slowly, hardening her tone. "And all I did was break the heart of the woman I love. All I did was sit there, and watch while Maggie's heart broke right in front of me, watched as her face crumpled and I LET HER GO. I LET HER GO FOR YOU, YOU LYING, TRAMP."

Babe wasn't looking at her.

Bianca glanced behind her. Her heart stopped.

Maggie stood in the room, face unreadable, stiff. "Don't stop on my account," she said frankly, stepping into the living room, dropping her purse on the couch. "I was enjoying that."

Bianca was frozen, so stunned by her sudden appearance she could only drink her in, watch in muted silence as her beautiful Maggie moved in front of her, regarding Babe.

"Hello, Babe."

"Maggie..." Babe breathed raggedly, rising unsteadily to her feet. "Are you going to slap me too? If you do, I won't blame you."

"You have no right to blame me," Maggie said sharply. "In fact, I could care less if you did." Babe's lower lip trembled, and Bianca licked her lips, glancing from her expression to the back of Maggie's head. "But I'm not going to slap you. That's a Kane woman thing."

Babe opened her mouth, closed it again, not sure how to respond.

"I'm a Stone," Maggie chirped. "We're the closed fist kind of girls."

And her small little Maggie snapped her wrist, lunged forward, and smashed her fist into Babe's face.

end chapter