Author's Note:

I'm sooo sorry you guys! I didn't mean for it to take this long for me to update! Lol. Oh and warning this chapter is slightly emo too lol..but it gets better at the end :P

As more and more time went on and Maggie started to know the Brooklyn gang more and more she seemed to slowly forget all of her problems. Things just started to slip away more and more easily and she hardly ever thought back to the old gang. But what she really did ponder was if not thinking about them was good or bad. She didn't want to forget them completely but how could she just let herself think about them all the time? She only ended up hurting herself. She didn't even know why. She had done what she had to do and by leaving them she had decided to start a new life. So why was it so hard to still let them go?

Maggie sighed heavily and pulled off her shoes. She was staying in Val and Bennie's apartment tonight which meant she had to sleep on the couch. Neither of them were nice enough to give up their beds and she couldn't sleep with them.

"Maggie get the phone." Val yelled at her from his room where he was getting her some blankets and pillows for the night. Maggie was kind of getting sick of this whole thing. Every week/day she went from house to house sleeping with one of the guys. She had asked them a few times that maybe she should just get her own place but they had told her she wasn't going to get a job and that it was too dangerous. No matter how hard she tried none of them caved in, especially not Val. She threw her shoes in the corner on her way to the phone, the floorboards squeaking under her feet. She hummed to herself as got closer to the phone, not even hurrying to pick it up.

"Hello?" she asked when she finally answered the phone. The other end of the phone was silent for a moment and Maggie cocked an eyebrow to herself.

"Maggie?" a very rough, very raspy, very tired voice said from the other end.

Maggie's blood ran cold and her hand started to shake as she fought to keep the phone to her ear. She stood there, her mouth opening and closing and the phone barely up to her ear. She finally collapsed onto the ground and slide down the hard wood counter and hit the floor with a loud thud. The wood was cold but she could barely feel it, she was in too much shock.

This is all a dream. I'm going to wake up in 3 seconds and realize that this isn't happening. She tried to convince herself but it was damn near in possible. Her mind still knew that this wasn't a dream and that she was fully awake, just a bit numb.

"Maggie?" Val's voice floated towards her followed by his heavy boots on the creaky floor. She kept her eyes pinned on the floor, her hand still shaking violently. She tried to move but her body just wouldn't go anywhere. She couldn't even move a finger from all the shock she was in. She didn't look at Val as he kneeled down in front of her and rubbed her shoulder a bit to try and get her attention.

"Maggie?" the voice on the other end of the phone said again. Maggie took in a sharp breathe, as if hearing that voice was pure confirmation that she was not dreaming and that she was not going to wake up in a mere 3 seconds or so.

"Hello?" Val snapped as he grabbed the phone away from Maggie. His eyes flashed with fire when no one answer.

"Give me the phone, Val." Maggie demanded once she finally found her voice. He raised an eyebrow at her quizzically and she nodded her head, giving him the ok. She took the phone from him, her back still pressed firmly against the counter.

"Hello?" she asked softly, her voice quivering a little. Part of her hoped that he had hung up, the other part of her wanted more than anything to hear his voice again. She didn't know if she was happy or sad when he finally answered her after a long 4 minutes.

"Maggie?" he asked, his voice still full of tiredness.

"Yeah?" she said, as if she really needed to tell him it was her.

"Get your ass back in Tulsa right now." he snapped suddenly. Maggie didn't know whether to laugh that he was still himself or to blow up on him.

"Listen, Steve, I'm not coming back. I just can't do it." she explained to him shortly.

"Yes you are, you are coming home. A lot's been going on since you left and we all need you here, Maggie. Home. With us." he told her. He was so convincing Maggie almost wanted to drop everything and go strait back to Tulsa.

"I need this time for myself, Steve. I'm always thinking about everyone else. Why can't I think about myself for once?"

"Well, you must not be thinking very clearly because your home is in Tulsa with the gang. You can't deny it!"

"Yes I can!" Maggie growled into the phone, anger taking over her previous numbness. "I will deny it all I want!" she screamed at him.

"Maggie, there's something you gotta know!" Steve pleaded with her.

"And what would that be?" Maggie snapped angrily, thinking there probably really wasn't anything she should know.

"Sandy's back in town. She's had the baby." Steve said slowly. Maggie frowned slowly and her heart sank. She remembered back briefly to when Pony had told her that Sandy was pregnant and that she was moving to Florida to live with her grandma...and the baby wasn't Soda's either.

"That's not all." Steve continued. Maggie's heart sunk even further down, if that's possible. "Evie dumped me." there it goes again. "And Darry's working two jobs so he doesn't have to be at home very often. Its a wreck here Maggie. We need you. Without you were just one big mess." he told her, his voice low and slightly hurt. "You used to hold us all together. You used to keep us sane!"

Maggie tried to ignore her feelings but she slowly realized that she was being selfish. Here she was in New York having the time of her life while everything in Tulsa was falling apart.

"Fine." Maggie whispered, instantly regretting her sudden decision. "I'll come back to Tulsa for a week." she told him in a stern voice. "No longer!"

"Ok." Steve said with a relieved sigh. "I'll call you in a day or two and get all the info of when to pick you up." Steve said before the line went dead. Maggie looked up at Val to see him beat red, his eyes shinning with fire...again.

"I have to." Maggie said quietly as she pulled herself to her feet and put the phone back on the hook.

"No you don't have to!" Val screamed at her and banged his fist on the table. Maggie inched away from him, suddenly feeling the fear she used to when Dallas was mad at her. "Your life is here, Maggie. You know that if you go back you'll never come back to New York again. You'll leave New York and the Tigers behind. Then what are we supposed to do?"

"I'll come back Val, I promise!" she pleaded with him, stepping a little closer but taking a quick step back when he raised a hand. She shrunk back in fear but ignored the urge to wrap her arms around herself.

"You won't come back, Maggie. Why can't you just let them deal with their problems and you can deal with yours? You've got enough without going back to Tulsa." he told her, waving a finger in her face threateningly.

"I have to." she said again, shaking her head. "Everything's falling apart there. If I don't go back who knows what will happen to all of them."

"Maggie..." Bennie interrupted, but trailed off.

"What?" Maggie asked him shortly turning on him with tears in her eyes. She didn't know why she was about to cry but something in her just made her want to.

"What's going on?" Bennie asked, looking from Val to Maggie and back again. Maggie's shoulders started to shake with sobs she wouldn't let get out. This was all getting to be too much. She missed gang all the time, but she still loved the gang here. She couldn't go back to Tulsa with out the Tigers getting mad and she couldn't not go to Tulsa without making the Tulsa gang mad. It never worked out! Nothing ever worked her way.

'Wait', she thought, shaking her head. 'What am I doing? I'm going soft. I'm actually crying. I'm turning into one of those fucking Mary-Sue's. What's my problem'

"I'm going to Tulsa and if you say one more word about it I will stay there and never come back. I may have left them but they're still my friends. They need me right now so I might as well go and help them." she told Val. This time she was the one with fire in her eyes. She wasn't going to take no for an answer. She wasn't going to let Val hold her here. He didn't own here. She was only 15, yeah, but she was still in charge of herself.

Val glared at her, his eyes not wavering from her's.

"Fine, but you're going to have to wait a week or so." he told her, his voice cold and harsh.

"Fine." she agreed.

"WAIT!" Bennie yelled. "What's going on?"

"I'm going back to Tulsa in a few weeks. Care to join?" Maggie asked, a cold smirk on her lips.

"Well, I have some um..." he trailed off for a minute to look at Val. He scratched the back of his neck in a nervous gesture. "I have some business to do." he said. "I won't be able to come." he added hurriedly.

"Fine. Don't come." she added shrugging her shoulders and going back to the living room.