Note: Max may be dead in the real continuity of the show, and I grieve for my precious, beloved Max, but here he lives on. Max shall never die!

Queen of the Elven City- It was not my intention to guilt you into reviewing, although I'll take what I can get, but, if you don't honestly 'feel' like it, don't. I won't hold it against you. Yes, plenty of angst. I can't do a story without angst. It just seems wrong. There's been a lot less comedy in this one, which is rather sad for me, because, as much as I love angst, I also love to keep people from feeling it too much by having lighthearted, funny moments. I've got some in store, but yeah…

Story-

Port Charles Hotel-

Lois had to admit that while it was great to have everything that she could have ever wanted so close, with only a simple phone call to fulfill her deepest desires, she still felt something deep inside of her that could not be filled by any items that she may have gotten, no matter how lovely they were. She wanted to be able to forgive him for what he had done. She wanted to be able to say that it was just because he was angry that he said the things that he said, but she couldn't. Lois couldn't just push aside the things that Ned said to her because they stung so much, they cut her to the most vulnerable part of her being, and in doing so, it left a lasting scar that she would never be able to fully heal. It wasn't even the fact that he caused her to get so angry that she ended up crashing her car that she was upset. Yes, she was mad about that, but she truly couldn't blame that aspect on Ned. That was her own fault for being so irresponsible. It could have been much worse. She could have killed someone, or herself. As far as she was concerned a bump on the head was her making out like a bandit.

She has spent most of the day in her bed, flipping through the channels on the television, hoping that there would be something that she could watch that would make her feel a little better, or at the very least get her mind off of what was going on around her. It wasn't very successful, sadly. After the much anticipated long bath that she took, which only added to her frustrations because she only thought about the events that had happened the night before rather than focusing on the relaxing aspect, she found herself in a state of complete docility.

The phone on the counter rang and she reached over to pick it up, resting her head on the pillow of her bed. "Yes?"

"Miss Cerullo?" Max's voice came through on the other line. Sonny had instructed Max to watch over Lois for a few days, entrusting the safety of his best friend only with the bodyguard that he trusted the most. She was glad, because, while she didn't know Max very well, he seemed to be one of the more approachable people that Sonny had employed. He was even funny, a rarity. Sonny was pretty funny himself, although he would rarely let anyone see the comedic side of himself. Sonny was afraid to open up, to show the sides of him that weren't all about being gruff and tough. That was partly because of the way that he was raised. She couldn't fault him for wanting to protect himself, to stand up to people who would hurt him, like his step-father.

"Is something wrong, Max?" Lois asked, wondering why he would call.

"Your daughter is here to see you. Would you like me to send her in?"

"Of course… why would you think that I would deny my daughter the chance of seeing me?"

"I'm sorry… but I'm just doing what Sonny wanted me to do. He said to call you and make sure that you wanted to see whoever it was that came to see you."

"Max, for future occurrences, you never have to ask me if I want to see my daughter. She's the most important thing in the world to me, I would never want to push her away, not even for a second."

"All right, Miss Cerullo."

"And call me Lois."

"I will," Max said with a light snicker. Sometimes it was odd to think about the way that they were connected with one another. Max had always figured that he would be subservient to everyone, that he wouldn't be treated like an equal in some ways, but he was, and that was what kept him going.

Lois propped herself up, checking her face in the mirror to make sure that there was nothing that would give Brook the slightest hint that she had spent most of the day fighting back the tears that were threatening to pour out of her eyes. The whole time she couldn't help but wonder what had happened to the two of them, why she and Ned had changed from the people that they were when they were in love, and they were very much in love before. When the door opened and she saw her daughter, Lois instantly popped up from the bed and hugged her daughter tightly, "I don't think I've ever loved you as much as I do right now since the moment I gave birth to you…"

The analogy would have made Brook Lynn run away, but she remembered just how much she hated the idea of being without her mother, and that made everything and anything that Lois said, no matter how odd, completely tolerable. She would never think her mother to be some sort of strange person that nobody could hope to understand, because now she did understand. Brook understood what Lois meant to her, and that was all that mattered. "Ma…"

Lois pulled away, "Don't say my name with that sadness in your voice, Brook Lynn Ashton! You listen to me and you listen well, what happened was horrible, and I hope to God that neither of us ever has to go through that kind of pain again, but nothing bad happened to me, I'm fine, and I'm going to be fine. So stop looking at me and talking to me like you still think that I can just keel over and die any second. It isn't going to happen…"

Brook nodded, "I was so afraid."

"I know, baby," Lois replied as she hugged her daughter again. "But you had people around you that helped you get through the pain that you were going through. People who you will forever be indebted to for what they did."

"Yeah, I know."

"Not that I don't appreciate the visit, Brookie, but why are you here? It's pretty late, why aren't you at the mansion with the Q's?"

"I just wanted to see you while you were here… and I wanted to know why you came."

"Didn't you talk with your father?" Lois asked. Ned would never say the things that he said to Lois, or at least repeat them to their daughter. Ned knew that it would put a strain on the relationship that Brook and he had, and Ned wasn't a fool, he wasn't going to take the chance of risking something that was just blossoming into a beautiful relationship, one that every father, even Ned, had a right to have with his daughter.

"Dad just said that you were staying over here at the hotel, that Sonny was going to pay the bill while you were staying here. He never said why you were staying here, even though I asked him. He just changed the subject to asking how I was doing with everything that had happened."

"Somehow I doubt that Ned simply said that Sonny was going to pay the bill." She could just imagine the colorful language that Ned used when describing Sonny. The two of them had never liked each other, not that she didn't understand why they hated each other so much. It rather mirrored the relationship that she had with Carly, although Ned was no fonder of Carly than she was, and vice versa.

"You're right, he was a bit more… cutting with his words. But you know as well as I do that dad really doesn't like Sonny, and never will. We do, so we just have to block out everything that he says that is horrible about Sonny…"

"Sonny is paying for this room, he's paying for me to stay here because he wants me to recover from everything that happened yesterday in peace. Let's face it, the Quartermaine's… well, peace and quiet in the mansion is not something that ever has or ever will be understood in that place."

"We can… we can just leave… go back to Brooklyn, go back to our family…"

"Brookie, these people are your family, too."

"Yeah, but you're more important than them!"

"Baby, I love the fact that you've decided to tell me that, really, inside, I'm dying from pride, or maybe it's just the medication, but you know that we can't just leave again. Your father would be destroyed, and I don't want that."

"Dad can always come and see me whenever he wants."

"How well did that work out in the past? I mean, you saw Jax more than you saw your father… and I know that you want to be with him, Brook. I know that the one thing you want the most is the chance to have a real relationship with your father. I can't take that away from either of you, I can't take the chance that you two have. That would be horribly selfish of me."

"But…"

"This isn't something that we're going to discuss. You're actually here, you live here now. Port Charles is home. You go to school here, you have friends, you have Dillon and Georgie, people who will be able to help you no matter what happens. And there's more… do you really think that you would be able to throw away the friendship that you have with him?"

"For you… yeah, I would."

"That's sweet, Brook, but you know it's a lie. Face it girl, you're smitten. And if there's one thing that I know, when a girl is smitten by a Corinthos man, it's really quite hard to pull away. I've seen it a few times in my life, always the same thing. Everything's going to be all right, Brook. I promise."

Brook sighed and looked out the window. She wanted to believe her mother, she wanted to believe that Lois knew what she was talking about, that Lois had some sort of plan that would make everything all right, but somehow Brook understood that the possibility of Lois truly being able to do something like that was slim to none. Brook was well passed the point in her life where she thought anything that her parents said was true.

Scorpio Household-

Georgie waited until she heard the car that Robbie was driving leave the driveway. Maxie may have been stupid, but she certainly wasn't going to be suicidal and let the boy stay around when Mac came home. Even though it was a school night, Georgie didn't care how long it took for her to get it through Maxie's thick skull that she had screwed up one of the best things in her life.

When she heard Maxie walking up the stairs again after letting the boy leave, she quickly rushed out of her room and stood in front of Maxie's door. The stern look on her face was the first thing that her older sister saw when she came up the door.

"Georgie, go away."

"I'm not leaving you alone right now, not after what you did."

"And what exactly did I do?"

"You just had sex with another boy, in your room, when your boyfriend walked in on you…"

"He's not my boyfriend anymore!" Maxie yelled. "I don't know why I ever thought he was."

"Why would you say something like that, Maxie? You know how much he loves you. You saw how hurt he was. How can you hurt someone like that so much and not feel anything?"

"Because he hurt me, too! And he didn't care. He just went behind my back and started having some sort of affair with Brook and he kept on telling me, to my face, that nothing was going on. He lied to me, Georgie. Someone who should never lie to me did, and you think I can just accept that?"

"How do you know he's having an affair with Brook?" Georgie was fully aware of the fact that Brook had her eye on Damian, and had since they met, but there was a huge difference between one person wanting the other and the two of them giving into their desires.

"I saw them yesterday…"

"Yesterday?"

"At the hospital, in the chapel. I was doing something and I walked by the chapel. I don't know why I looked inside, but I did, and when I looked inside I saw the two of them hugging. And it wasn't any sort of friendly hug. He was holding her as tight as he could… now you ask me again why I did what I did…"

Georgie shook her head. "You're an idiot, Maxie! I can't believe that you would let something as simple as a hug send you over the edge like that! I thought you were better than that. I thought you knew more."

"You didn't see it…"

"Lois was in an accident last night, Maxie," Georgie pointed out. "Maybe you didn't know that, but she was. And when Brook Lynn needed someone to be there for her, Damian was there. He was holding her because she thought that there was a chance that she could have lost her mother. Now I realize that if the same thing happened with us you would be dancing around in celebration, but Brook and Lois are close and if you know anything at all about being a friend, you would know that when someone that you care about is in that kind of pain you just want to hold them and try and help them through it. That was it… but no, not Maxie Jones. She has to think that there's some sort of conspiracy theory going on. I hope you're happy with what you lost… because, if you act like that, you don't deserve to be happy." Seething with rage, Georgie walked back into her room and slammed the door shut, leaving Maxie alone to ponder the consequences of her actions, and how foolish she truly may have been.