It was well after seven before Johnny stepped off the elevator, his body exhausted from the long day. He had finally settled on his house and secured the pair of keys that would give him freedom from his family, from his ex-girlfriend, from everything that he no longer wanted to tie him down. Only Claudia knew where his new home was, and other than Maxie, he didn't really plan on sharing his address any time soon. It was nice to have that kind of freedom, a first for him. Even as the heaviness of the inevitable conversation he had to have with Maxie weighed on his mind, Johnny was looking forward to seeing his favorite blonde.

She was perched atop her desk when he came into the main foyer of Crimson, her head bent over in deep concentration as she poured over proofs of that month's issue. A yellow pencil kept her hair off her swanlike neck in a messy bun, wild tendrils framing her face. "Hey, beautiful," he called as he came over to her. A genuine smile lit up her eyes as she jumped down to meet him. "I missed you today."

"It still weirds me out a little bit when you're so sweet," she confessed after kissing him briefly. The truth was that she had missed him today, too. It had been hell working side by side with Lulu, but she had managed to be the consummate professional and get through the day. Her only solace had been that she would get to see him tonight. "Where are you taking me for dinner?"

"I was thinking my new house," he offered. He had stopped by Kelly's to pick-up takeout on his way to get her, and Claudia had sent one of the guards over with a full picnic setup that was waiting for them in his new living room. "Just you and me and a little candlelight, what do you say?"

"Sounds perfect," she retorted. She closed the book and tossed it back on her desk carelessly before reaching for her purse and keys. Kate and Clarice were still in a meeting and were not to be disturbed. After rattling off an email to her boss and setting the phones to go directly to voicemail, she reached for her boyfriend's hand and pulled him off toward the elevator. She was ready to go home, wherever home was going to be from now on.

The drive to the small house was short, conveniently located within walking distance from her office. Maxie couldn't help but picture midday rendezvoused in his loft bedroom or drinks at the quaint little bar just around the corner from his place. As soon as she came into the house, those dreams went even further. She could almost see small dinner parties with Mac, Robin, Patrick and Emma in the dining room. She could see how she would arrange the furniture in the living room to take advantage of the natural lighting and the way she would set up one of the spare bedroom for a home office so Johnny could work from the comfort of his new house. However, it wasn't until she came into the master suite that she appreciated just how much of her Johnny had seen in this house.

"Oh, my God."

Johnny chuckled as she stood in the middle of the closet, which was about the same size as the spare bedroom, and spun slowly in a circle. From the customized shelving to the numerous racks for clothes to the nooks for shoes and handbags, it was perhaps one of those most beautiful sites Maxie had ever seen. "I take it you approve."

"That doesn't even begin to describe it," she cooed as she ran her hand along the polished island in the middle of the room. It was built with small drawers perfect for jewelry. There were his and hers sides, making it the perfect place for the two of them. "Johnny, this is beautiful."

"I wanted you to feel at home here," he admitted. "Even if you choose not to live with me, I want it to be somewhere you are comfortable. I'm hoping that you'll spend a lot of time here. Maxie, I know it's crazy that we're talking about living together already, but neither of are known for our logic and rational. We lead with our emotions, and right now, everything in my body is telling me that this is the start of something big."

Maxie was justifiably terrified at how quickly everything had unfolded between them, but she couldn't even begin to regret finding herself with him after just a matter of weeks. "I want to live with you."

"That's it?" he asked. Every big decision with Lulu had required hours of conversation, so he had a hard time believing that it could really be that simple. "You're going to make it that easy on me?"

"You want me here, and I want to be here with you," she shrugged. "I can do the girl thing and make you analyze your every feeling, but I honestly don't really want to have that conversation. I know what I want. I've never lived with anyone, though. I might not be very good at it."

There was a good chance that neither of them would be very good at it. Johnny had always liked his space, needing to retreat inside himself whenever life got to be too much. There would be no doing that if he was to cohabitate with Maxie. They wouldn't just be sharing a house and a bed, they would be sharing a life. That was a big step, the biggest he'd ever taken in his life. Maxie was very much the same way. She was used to relying on only herself, especially since she had lost her sister. It would be an adjustment that they would have to make, but Johnny felt eerily confident that they could do this.

He threaded his fingers in her hair and cradled her close to him. "We'll be fine."

She liked the promise that she heard in his voice. Unlike most of the men in her past, she actually believed Johnny when he said those kinds of things to her. He had no reason to lie. She had already been willing to give him everything when she was asking for nothing in return. "I love you, you know?"

"Yeah, me too," he grinned down at her, kissing the tip of her nose. "We have dinner downstairs if you're hungry or I could take you for a walk around the grounds."

"Actually, I spotted that box on the counter downstairs. What's that for?"

Johnny had actually missed the cardboard parcel resting on the granite countertop in the spacious gourmet kitchen. He followed Maxie down the stairs and watched as she tore it open. Her face was perplexed as she pulled out the leather-bound album and handed it over to him. Johnny knew what it was immediately. He had seen it on his father's bookcase in the study for most of his life. Embossed with the family crest, it had been one of Anthony's most prized possessions.

Maxie watched curiously as he flipped through the pages, his eyes locked on the snapshots that lined each page. She recognized the miniature version of Johnny immediately, with his glittering dark eyes and crooked smile. There were also a few photographs with Claudia. However, most of them were of Johnny with a statuesque Italian beauty, her eyes the same as Johnny's. "That's your mother."

He nodded silently as he sunk to his knees, resting the book in his lap. He traced the outline of his mother's face in one photo of them together on Christmas morning. Johnny had been just four that year when they had gone to Milan. It was one of his earliest memories and one of his best. It was one of the rare holidays where his parents had been genuinely happy. He couldn't help but tear up slightly as he looked down at her. It had been so long since he had seen these photographs and almost as long since he had allowed himself to really remember her.

"We went there to visit Claudia," he remembered. "She must have left this here for me. It was the year that she got me my toy piano, the one that got smashed. My parents were really happy, even my father. It was the best Christmas I ever had."

Johnny had only spoken about his musical beginnings once to her. It had been late one night after they'd been together. It was much easier for him to let his walls down in the dark when he was unable to gauge her reactions or see the emotions flashing in her eyes. Maxie knew what that piano had meant to him and likely what that holiday had represented.

She shifted the photo album into her lap and slid a photograph from the sleeve. It was a black and white shot of his mother holding him as an infant. Her face was serene as she smiled down at her beloved newborn, their attentions both completely focused on each other. "We are going to frame this one and put it in the living room."

"I miss her."

Leaning her head on his shoulder, she held the photograph in front of them with one hand and held his with the other. "I know what it's like to miss someone," she commiserated. "My mother is still alive, but she quit being my mom a long time ago. I'm lucky that I still have Mac. I don't know what we would have done without him. I was so afraid that I would lose him after Georgie died. It would have been so easy for him to give and turn into this angry person."

"If it wasn't for you and Robin, he probably would have," Johnny acknowledged. He knew what it was like to have the only family you have left turn toward the darkness and madness. It was what his father had done after he had shot his mother. It explained the bitterness that Claudia carried around with her. "You were his saving grace, just like you've been mine."

Maxie shook her head as she looked up at him pleadingly. "Please don't say that. I don't want that kind of pressure, Johnny. I will be the biggest part of your heart and of your life, but you can't build your world around me. We both know how that usually works out."

Most people would have thought that Maxie would want to be the center of attention, but Johnny understood her reluctance to mean that much to anyone. Growing up in a town dominated by the likes of Zacharras and Cassadines, she would have been crazy not to have apprehension when it came to something like that.

"Maxie, I need to tell you something."

She knew immediately that whatever he had to say was huge. "What is it?"

"You're going to hate me."

"Maybe," she confessed. As much as she loved him, she was still who she was. There was a good chance that whatever he had to tell her was so monumental that she might end up hating him. She wouldn't lie to him anymore than she would lie to herself. "But I still love you, and we won't know how to deal with it until you tell me."

"I'm not sure that I'm ready."

"Then wait," she countered, squeezing his hand. "Tell me when you're ready."

Her patience was uncharacteristic but welcomed. "I need to tell you now. I know that I'm never going to be ready, but I can't keep this secret from you forever. It's the same thing that I knew would destroy Lulu and me."

"I thought that I did that."

Johnny smiled briefly before shaking his head. "You just gave me a reason to make us both move on," he proclaimed as he held her gaze. "You know that no matter what I tell you, this happened before we were together and that I love you."

"Okay, now you're scaring me."

He couldn't tell her how scared he was himself. "It's the huge secret that I've been keeping for months now," he confessed. "It explains all the things that I've had you help me do for Claudia."

"I gathered as much. Go on."

He looked down at their entwined hands. How could hands that caressed hers so gently be capable of doing the things they'd done? How could the heart that loved her so completely been so cruel as to want to end a man's life? How could eyes as gentle as his were when he looked at her have ever been filled with so much hate? Johnny was still that walking contradiction, a perplexing mix of light and dark. He knew that he could give into the darkness and keep this secret, or he could reach for that beacon of hopeful light that she was offering him. It was different than it had been with Lulu. Maxie understood both sides. She loved the rebel and the poet, the criminal and the musician.

"It's about Michael Corinthos' shooting," he said finally. "I'm the reason that he is in a coma. I'm partly to blame for the fact that a mother lost her son and a little boy lost his brother. I'm to blame for everything, Maxie. I did this to him. I did this to everyone."