-1It Only Hurts When I'm Breathing

"Georgie" Mike Corbin exclaimed happily as she entered Kelly's restaurant. "You're a sight for sore eyes." He came around the counter and wrapped her in a hug. "What can I get you?" He asked as he went back around the counter.

"Just a soda." She told him smiling. She looked around the small diner. "Nothing's changed." It was comforting to know that Kelly's like so many other things in her hometown had remained the same despite her time away. "How are you?" She wanted to know.

"I'm doing well. I'm so proud of you. Mac can't stop bragging about you and all that you've accomplished." He told her.

She blushed and smiled. "He's biased. For example, did you know that baby Ava is the smartest most beautiful gifted baby ever born anywhere in the entire world?"

He placed the soda in front of her, and cut her a slice of pie even though she hadn't asked for it. "Well, I must admit he's pretty accurate. Jason and Robin did good."

The bell above the door jingled and Georgie turned to look, her breath immediately caught and her heart slammed against her chest. Logan had walked in talking and laughing with Lulu. She sucked in a breath and turned back to Mike, "do you think I can have my pie to go?" She knew she was being a coward and that she should stay, eat her pie, and catch up with Mike, but seeing Logan was felt like ripping open a wound, and seeing him with Lulu made it worse.

"Sure thing sweetheart." He looked between her and Logan, who hadn't moved since he'd spotted her, and quickly wrapped the pie.

"Thanks." She took the package from him and gathered up her purse. She forced herself to stop in front of Logan. "Hi." She gave him a thin smile.

"Hi." From the moment he'd spotted her at the counter talking with Mike, everything and everyone else had fallen away. "I didn't know you were in town."

She shifted uncomfortably, when had talking to him become awkward? "I'm here for the christening of my cousin Robin's baby."

He should have known that she'd be in town for this. Her family was always important to her, she'd want to be here for this. "Right."

She impatiently brushed a few wayward strands of hair off of her face. "I should go." But she didn't make any move to leave, she couldn't force herself to walk around him. "I should let you and Lulu get back to whatever it is that you were going to do. I'm glad that you're happy." She wanted him to happy, but she wasn't sure it was something she could watch. She quickly made her escape, without giving him a chance to respond. When she was safely in her car, she let the first tears fall.

"You saw Logan." Maxie said matter-of-factly when Georgie entered the kitchen. "He was with Lulu?" She ventured a guess.

Georgie sighed, she knew her sister meant well, but she wasn't sure she had the energy for this. "Look, I know that you hate both of them…"

"Of course I do, they both hurt you." She went to the freezer and pulled out a pint of chocolate ice cream, and grabbed two spoons, then returned to sit at the table by Georgie. "There's nothing better than plain chocolate to cure what ails you."

"Thanks." She gave Maxie a small smile, and took the spoon her sister was holding out to her. "I knew seeing him again would hurt." Georgie said after a bite of ice cream. "I just didn't think it would hurt this much."

"Do you mean to tell me that you've been living in a great fun city like Chicago for almost two years and you really haven't found a guy who could make you forget about Logan Hayes?" Georgie, didn't answer her, just took another bite of ice cream. "Please tell me you've at least been on a date."

"There've been a few guys. I was even semi-serious about one, but I couldn't make it more than that. It wasn't right. None of the relationships that I've had since have been able to compare to what I had with Logan, and I can't settle." She said shrugging. She had been lucky and blessed enough to have been loved twice. First by Dillon and then by Logan. She wasn't sure you got a third chance at something that special and powerful.

Maxie just shook her head. She had never really understood the connection and relationship between her sister and Logan. She thought that Georgie could do so much better than Logan. "He was never good enough for you Georgie."

The sound of the front door slamming startled both girls. "Damn it!" Maxie said jumping up off the chair. "He never did know how to knock." She almost ran into him when he entered the kitchen. "Get out!" She said firmly, pointing in the direction he had come.

"I didn't come here to see you." He said crossing his arms over his chest, and leaning against the door jam.

"Well you're not going to see my sister, I'm not giving you a chance to do anymore damage to her than you already have." She had never backed down to him before, and she wasn't going to now.

"Maxie, its fine." Georgie said standing up, trying to diffuse the situation.

"No, its not. Cooper!" She called out loudly for her fiancé. "Cooper!" She turned her attention back to Logan. "Leave my sister alone or I swear to G-d I'm going to have Cooper shoot you."

"What?" Cooper asked, coming up short in the crowded kitchen. He took in the situation and let out a wary sigh. "Logan, why are you doing this?" He had always respected Logan's relationship with Georgie, and he'd understood how deep their bond ran despite the fact that at first glance they were total opposites. But he also knew that a bond that deep could cause some serious pain, he'd seen them both go through it.

"Because I have to." He said quietly as he met Cooper's steady gaze.

Coop turned to Georgie. "Georgie?"

She sighed. "Its fine.

"No way!" Maxie said indignantly, putting her hands on her hips.

"Come on Maxie." Coop put his hands on her shoulders and started guiding her out of the kitchen. He turned back to Logan. "If you hurt her again, I have a feeling I'm going to have to shoot you despite the fact that you are my best friend."

"We'll be fine." Georgie reassured her soon to be brother-in-law.

"You've been crying." It was a simple observation. Her eyes were still tinged red, and her cheeks still slightly puffy. It was subtle, anyone else might overlook it.

She knew that it would be pointless to deny it. "I'm fine. What did you want to talk about?"

"I…" All that he had known was that he wanted to see her. "How are you?"

"I'm ok, you?"

"I miss you, you look beautiful." He wanted to touch her, to hold her, to go back and make everything right between them.

She took a deep breath and turned away from him. She went and put the ice cream away, and the spoons in the sink. "Please, don't do this." She said quietly, her back still to him. "You can't come here, and look at me like you're looking at me, and tell me that I'm beautiful and that you miss me, its not fair. She finally turned back to him, struggling not to cry.

"Georgie." He took a step closer to her, but stopped when she moved backwards.

"Why are you here?" She questioned him, her voice beginning to rise. "You ended things, you moved on."

"You were shot because of me, Georgie." He was yelling now too. "I thought that you were going to bleed to death in my arms."

She closed her eyes, that day and those that followed it, still fresh in her mind. "You didn't shoot me Logan." She said quietly.

"That doesn't matter." He said tightly. "All that I've ever tried to do is put you first Georgie, no matter what it cost me."

"All that I ever wanted from you was for you to love me and be with me. I understood what I was getting into when we got together. I knew that there was a risk, and I decided for myself that it was one I was willing to take."

"I wasn't willing to risk you." He said quietly.

"Well, obviously, your life is much less risky now." Bitterness and hurt seeped into her voice.

"Lulu isn't you Georgie." Nobody else would ever be to him what she was.

"She's worth the risk." Georgie said quietly. It hurt knowing that she couldn't be to him what Lulu apparently was.

"Losing Lulu wouldn't kill me. If you had died that night Georgie there would have been nothing left for me." Loving her that much scared the hell out of him. He'd gone through life never needing anything they way he needed her. Learning to live without her had been the hardest thing he'd ever had to do.

She didn't know what to say to him, how to respond. So instead she crossed the distance between them put her arms around his neck and kissed him. Letting go of everything that had built up over the last two years.

It was over for him the second she touched him. He kissed her back hard, wrapped his arms around her, and pulled her against him. He couldn't get enough of her, couldn't stop touching her, kissing her. Having her in his arms again was too much, made him feel too much, want too much. Pulling away from her was the second hardest thing he'd ever had to do. "No matter how much I love you, and I do love you." He touched her hair gently. "Things haven't changed, I still work for Sonny. You would still be in danger because of me."

She shook her head and pushed past him, needing some distance. "I can't believe this."

"This isn't what I want." His voice was rough.

She turned towards him. "Its what you're choosing."

"I am a con man and a thief no matter who my boss is, there are always going to be dangerous people in my life who wouldn't hesitate to use you to hurt me. After you were shot it became painfully clear to me that if I loved you, I'd let you go, let you have a normal life, with someone better than me." He had to avert his eyes, so she wouldn't see what was there.

She closed her eyes. "There is no one better than you for me Logan. Someday you'll see that." She took his face in her hands, kissed him softly, and then left the kitchen, and went up the stairs.