Queen of the Elven City- Yes, it would be great to see him happy again, wouldn't it? But then where would the angst be? No promises one way or the other, mostly because I'm not sure one way or the other…

Story-

Scorpio Household-

Maxie had been in her room shortly after the fight had broken out, tending to her wounds. The whole time she wondered about how far she would go. There was a time when Maxie was a bright and innocent young girl who wouldn't hurt a fly, who wanted to ride unicorns around the world with her little sister for as long as possible. While that little girl probably rested deep inside of her, the child was certainly buried so deeply inside that Maxie wouldn't have been able to tell if that person really existed anymore. No, it was more about finding a way to take the bitch who had ruined her life out. She fantasized about tearing Brook's hair out, pulling it until she managed to have clumps of it in her fingers, feeling the threads and secretly loving the way it felt. She wanted to throw Brook out on the streets of Port Charles, or out on the streets of some interstate highway, just looking for a way to get out of town.

Maxie wanted a lot of things, but she knew that she wouldn't get them. No matter how mad she may have been at Brook Lynn for what she had done, Maxie also knew that there was plenty that she couldn't do. Despite the hatred in her soul for the other girl, Maxie did not want her dead. Hurt, a lot, but not dead. She just wanted, more than anything, to get everything back to the way that it used to be. But, if the time that she had spent after the fight with Brook showed, Maxie knew that it wasn't an option. They had passed the line where they couldn't come back from. The point of no return. And she had been the one who did that. Maxie didn't have to attack Brook, she really didn't. And maybe, in the back of her mind, Maxie didn't want to do it, but when she saw the girl, all alone, at Kelly's, she saw her opportunity, and she wanted, needed, to get the rage out. Brook may well have been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The young girl didn't bother to stick around the restaurant once the fight was over. She waited for a few moments, hoping that Damian would come back and see if she was all right, but when she realized that he wasn't coming, when she realized that he was going to stay with Brook instead of her, she also came to the realization that she was on her own. She remembered looking back at Elizabeth and Mike, who had finally come out of the back after everything was over with. She remembered the way that they both looked at her. What she remembered most of all, though, was the way that Mike, the man who had always been warm and welcoming, even before he knew that he had a grown grandson, shooed her out of the place without any sort of sympathy in his voice. The harsh words that Mike gave, and the look of disdain on Elizabeth's face made Maxie take a look at herself, and what she saw was not something that she liked.

What had happened to her? She'd broken up with people before. She'd even had her heart broken many times in her life, but nothing had ever hit her quite as hard as what had happened with Damian, because that was what meant the most to her. Before, everything that she had been through had been something different. With Lucky it was a crush, her first real crush on someone who was right there and wasn't busy being on the covers of various magazines that she would never have a chance of actually being around but wanted to spend time with regardless. With Kyle it wasn't a real relationship, it was him taking advantage of her and trying to use her in order to better himself and get what he wanted. With Damian… it was a true relationship. Not a one way street, like with Lucky. Not a game of manipulation, like with Kyle. It went both ways, they both got what they wanted, no, what they needed, out of the relationship, and they were both better people because of it.

But while Damian had continued to be a better person because of his relationship with Maxie, Maxie herself had done a complete turnaround. Everything that she had become, everything that she had learned, all the growing that she had done while she was with him… it was all eradicated, because of her own stupidity. That was what hurt the most. She could have tried to tell herself that it was Brook's fault, and maybe she even believed it on some level, but more than that, Maxie knew that the fault truly rested on her and her alone. She was the only one who managed to do anything wrong. It was her fault. She didn't have to sleep with him… she didn't have to make it seem like there was nothing wrong.

Maxie picked up her cell phone and looked at the number that was displayed. It was his number. How many messages had she left on his phone? How many times did she need to say that she was sorry about what she had done? Did he not believe her? Did he think that she was just saying it in order to get into his good graces again? That wasn't the truth. She truly did feel like she needed to apologize for the mistakes that she had made, but she wanted to do it to his face. More than anything else in the world she wanted him to listen. Maxie wanted him to care about her again.

Throwing the phone onto the ground in a huff, Maxie rested her head on the pillow of her bed and continued to sob. It was all that she had been doing ever since they had broken up, ever since she knew that the relationship was completely done. All of it… all of it was because of her.

Georgie had gotten home some time before, but she had kept herself quiet. The last thing she wanted to do was deal with her big sister when she didn't even want to admit that she had one. But there were memories of their time together all around her. Pictures, everywhere that Georgie turned there were pictures. Of the two of them as they grew up into the young women that they had become. From the time when they both dressed up as Princesses for Halloween down to the picture that Maxie and Georgie took at Maxie's graduation ceremony. The smile that was on Georgie's face showed just how proud she was of Maxie, how she saw the potential in Maxie that she had always seen, and how it was finally, after so many years, being tapped into.

But, with all the reminders, Georgie couldn't deny the connection that she had with her older sister, and she couldn't ignore the fact that, no matter what, Maxie was her sister and she would always love her. Georgie had passed by the door and she had heard Maxie crying. Before, she would have ignored it, decided that Maxie had brought it upon herself and it was beyond time that she dealt with the consequences of her own action, but the same couldn't be said when she heard the girl crying as she made one more journey from one end of the hall to the other. What had started as just a trip to grab one of her books to do some of her homework had become the breaking point, the moment where Georgie had to go inside, because she couldn't live with herself if she didn't give her dear big sister the help that she needed.

Without knocking, since she knew that Maxie was inside the room and bawling her eyes out, Georgie walked in and saw the pathetic sight in front of her. Maxie was there, and she was crying, but she looked like a mess. Her eyes were so red, and her body was trembling. There was nothing that made Maxie look like the confident woman that she once was, the woman that was brought out when she finally met someone who was right for her. Georgie didn't want to see that person go away.

"Come on, Maxie… I know how hard it's been on you, but you need to actually get up and get ready to face the world."

"I don't want to face the world… not without him. This would be so much easier if I knew that there was nothing I could do, Georgie. You know, like when I thought that he could have been put away for his entire life… it would have hurt me so much, but I would have been able to accept it, because there was nothing I could do. Or, when I thought I was going to lose him because of the accident. I tried to make peace with it… there are things that I can't stop, I understand that, I accept that. But he's just right on the other end of town… and he won't even give me the chance to try and find a way to make everything right again."

"Do you think you deserve that chance, Maxie?"

"Georgie!"

"I don't mean it to sound mean or anything. I really don't, but, you need to understand… what you did was wrong. What you did to him was horrible. You made him believe, even for a second, that you were unfaithful to him, because you were. I was here, Maxie. I saw the way that you looked at him, I saw that glint in your eyes, when you were satisfied with everything that had happened. That's the way that you look when you're at your worst. I thought that person was gone… I was hoping that it was gone forever, but I was wrong."

"I didn't mean to do something like that!"

"Don't fool yourself into thinking that you didn't act of your own free will, Maxie, because you did. You knew what you were doing, you were completely aware of it from the moment it happened. You thought you saw what you wanted to see, you were looking for a reason, any reason, to bring your ideas about Brook and Damian being together out, to make it seem like you were right. If you would have just trusted him everything would have been different. I want you to be happy again, Maxie. I truly do, but if you want me to feel sorry for you, if you want me to try and make you feel better because you became the victim here, I can't do that."

"So why did you even bother coming up here then?"

"Because I wanted you to know that if you need someone to talk with, I'm going to be right here waiting."

"To tell me that I'm an idiot…"

"Sometimes you need to hear that you're an idiot. It might not be the easiest thing in the world to accept, but it makes you feel better. Remember what went on when I thought I was in love with Lucas? After the prom, after everything that happened, you helped me see a part of myself that I didn't think existed. You helped me just as much, if not more, than Dillon did. I hated you when you told me that I was stupid to believe that he was ever in love with me… but now, I'm glad that you did. Because it was what I needed to hear at that time."

Maxie finally brought her head up fully, no longer giving Georgie the small look of her eyes that were shielded by her knees. "I don't know how I'm going to go keep on going without him, Georgie. He was so important to me. I loved him so much."

"You'll find a way."

"How do you know?"

"Because when mom lost our father to the life that he lives she didn't know what she was going to do, either. When she thought that she would never have anything to live for she found a way. Frisco may have broken our mother, but she didn't leave her completely useless. I know how much you hate being compared to mom, Maxie, but you need to know that you really are like her in a lot of ways. You have her strength, the passion that she tries to keep from everyone around her. You might not believe that, but I do. I know it, because I see it in you."

"And if I can't?"

"Then you've got someone that you can lean on. I'll always be your little sister, but I'll also always be the one that you can depend on." Georgie reached over and touched Maxie's cheek softly, looking to wipe away some of the tears that were still on her face. When she got a little too close to the eye, Maxie turned away. "Maxie, come on, I'm just going to dry your eyes…"

"I don't need you to dry my eyes, Georgie. I'm fine."

Georgie reached over and got a good look at her sister's face. There wasn't anything really 'wrong' with it, but she would be lying if she said that she was completely unable to tell that there were a few areas that seemed to be red, or bruised. "Maxie… what happened? Did you run into something?"

"No…"

"Well?"

"I…" Maxie didn't know if she could tell her sister, but the look in Georgie's eyes showed her that if there was anyone that she could trust… it would always be her little sister. The person who would always be there for her, even when things got a little too tough, when she thought that the world around her no longer made sense. Georgie would always be the person that she could lean on. And she appreciated that more than anyone could ever know. "I got into a fight…"

"With who?"

"Brook… at Kelly's… just a few hours ago…"

"Maxie!"

"I didn't want to fight her, Georgie!" Maxie quickly found herself defending her actions, as she always found herself when something like that came up, mostly because she felt that she needed to justify them, even though there wasn't much she could do in order to actually justify them. "I didn't mean to do it…"

"But…"

"But she was there, and she was alone… and I don't know, I just snapped. She looked so smug and full of herself that I needed to wipe the smirk off of her face."

"She was probably eating something… god, Maxie!"

"I won't apologize for fighting with her. She broke up my relationship with the guy that I thought I would share the rest of my life with. Maybe she didn't have everything to do with it, but she had something to do with it. You can't deny that… you can't tell me that she didn't want to take him from me, can you?"

"No, I can't." Georgie knew that Maxie was not completely in the wrong. If someone had tried to take Dillon away from her that girl would find that there was going to be hell to pay. Georgie may have looked like she had no clue what she was doing if she was forced to get into a fight of some sort, but if it came to fighting for her boyfriend, the girl would not go down without a slobber knocker. Her own inner Felicia, as well as her great grandmother Mariah would come out in those moments. "But Brook can't be faulted for having a crush on someone…"

"She acted on it!"

"Not that much… you brought it out."

"Maxie," Mac came up, having entered moments before. There was no welcoming look in his eyes. "Do you want to tell me why I got a call from Elizabeth saying that you were in a fight at Kelly's?"