Chapter Four

The next day

Mac stood before the cameras and announced " If anyone has any information on the identity of this child or her parents please contact the Port Charles police department."

He walked away from the media and into his office. Lucky followed him.

"You didn't mention the picnic basket." Lucky said "Someone might recognize it."

"It's just a ordinary wicker basket." Mac said distracted

"But I still think-"

Annoyed Mac snapped at him "You haven't been back on duty long enough to think anything, Spencer. You worry about staying clean and let me do the thinking."

"Fine. I have some leads to follow up." Lucky walked out and Mac sat down behind his desk.

It's just an ordinary picnic basket, he told himself

So what if it looks just like one that Georgie, Lulu and Maxie took to the beach last summer. And he hadn't seen back at the house since.

So what that it had the same ornamental gold clasp as the picnic basket Mariah sent Felicia from Texas?

It's not the same one, he told himself.

He dialed Felicia. "Hey, hon." he said when she picked up "Where's Georgie?"

"In her room studying, as usual. I've barely seen her face since she came home from Harvard Sunday morning."

Mac thought, The baby was found Saturday night.

Felicia continued, "You don't think we pushed her too hard into transferring there, do you?"

"She deserves the best education available to her. You don't know any world renowned neurosurgeons who come from Port Charles University, do you?"

"I guess not. I just hope she's happy. She seems so stressed. And this is summer vacation. What was she like at school?"

Mac said, "Georgie can handle it. She's a strong girl. Our good girl."

"You're right, hon. As usual. Will you be home soon?"

"Not for a while. We have to work this baby abandonment case hard for the first week or else any leads that are out there might dry up. I just called to check on you two. Can you go into Georgie's room and just make sure she is alright?"

"Why wouldn't she be?"

Mac didn't want to say, Because she might have just given birth to baby and left it in the park.

He immediately shook the thought out of her mind and replaced it with Georgie isn't a person who could do that, he thought, It wasn't my Georgie.

He said, "Just make me feel better and check in on her. She is staying hidden in that room and we barely know what is going through her mind these days."

And what went unsaid between Mac and Felicia was, We can't lose Georgie like we did Maxie.

September 30, 2006

Maxie was feeling no pain. The alcohol warmed her from the inside out. The little white pills, who knows what they were( she hadn't asked Kyle when he offered them) but they made her feel invincible.

She pressed herself closer to her ex-boyfriend on the dance floor. She thought, I don't need Lucky to love me. I don't need him at all. I have all I need right here.

Kyle grabbed her ass and squeezed. She kissed his neck, then spun around and let his hands moved over her stomach and breasts, as she raised her arms and shook her body to the incessant beat of the rap music that blared through the warehouse. It was so loud that it was all bass, no words, but that made it better. There was nothing to concentrate on but lust and, the way she felt tonight, that was all she could handle.

Later, when the lights came on, reality hit her full force for a moment. She could see the other young people around her looking wasted. Her buzz began to wear off. A thumping immediately started behind her eyes.

Only another drink would cure this feeling, she knew from experience.

Kyle grabbed her hand and lead her out the back door and down the alley. The sun was just coming up and other people from the club, looking like the walking dead, bumped against them as they funneled into the alley and toward the parking lot.

Maxie was leaning heavily on Kyle, feeling tired and massively drunk. But Kyle was not a stabilizing force, he never had been for her, and as this night faded into the next day he was just as drunk and out his mind as her.

He pushed her against a dumpster and gave her a sloppy kiss, not caring that everyone passing by could watch him paw her. He said, "Let's go get a room somewhere."

She nodded.

They drove fast down the side streets out of town, heading for the interstate where the cheapest motels were. Maxie closed her eyes and laid her head on the cold window.

For a moment she felt okay.

Kyle reached over and put his hand on her thigh, pushed up her skirt, and his fingers moved over her. Her eyes remained closed. Better to just ignore this. No need to think about why she had been happy to run into Kyle tonight, no need to remember that he represented drugs and madness and all the things her family told her to stay away from. And he didn't love her. But then no man, other than Jesse, ever had.

"Shit," Kyle muttered as he slammed on the brakes. The car slid sideways and then smashed into something, momentarily slowing. Then they were sliding again, circling and finally, just when Maxie was sure that this was it, that death was here, they came to a stop.

She was bleeding from a wound on her head. She touched the broken skin on her forehead. Then she brought her fingers down and stared at them, stared at the blood, her blood.

Proof she was still alive. That's good, I guess she thought in a daze.

Kyle was already out of the car. She turned and looked through the back window and saw him standing over a body in the road.

Then he was running back to the car and jumping into the drivers seat.

"Who was that?" asked Maxie "Is he okay?"

Kyle put the car in gear and said, "No."

He pushed down on the gas and they flew down the street again. A car turned onto the road and passed right by them.

Maxie locked eyes with the person driving it, Diego Alcazar, and then kept her focus on him as he continued down the road, his brake lights came on, and he stopped and climbed out of his car. He stood over the body.

Then Diego's head shot up and he was watching Kyle's car fade into the distance.

"You have to go back." Maxie said

"I am getting the hell out of this town. One more run in with the cops and I'll have three strikes. You can come with if you want. Or stay here and take the fall on your own."

"I wasn't even driving!"

"Whatever, Maxie. It is your car which you LET me drive. But tell your daddy you're innocent and I am sure he will save you."

Maxie knew he would but she hated the thought of telling Mac about this. She knew she would see utter disappointed and shame in her parents eyes. A familiar look they gave her lately.

"Where are you going?" she asked

"Anywhere but here."

"Works for me." She pulled out her cell phone and called Georgie.

She left the message, "I'm leaving town. Tell Mom and Dad not to worry. It's better like this. Love you little sis." Her voice broke a little on the last word but she pushed the tears back. She was getting very good at that. Not feeling. Numb was becoming normal.

She looked over at Kyle and realized she was stuck with him.

And then Maxie Jones rolled down the window, tossed the phone out, and cut all ties with Port Charles.