Chapter Fourty-Four:

Damien Spinelli sat in the Corinthos living room with the large group of people that in one way or another were now his family. The kids had requested some "family time" before the wedding and has asked for Maxie to be included too. It thrilled Spinelli that they already saw her as family. As they sat, he began to think. He suppressed a laugh at the thought of his reaction if he had been told what his life would be like now just one year ago. He never could have dreamed that he would be sitting in Sonny Corinthos's house having a casual conversation with the man who was his father while his siblings played and his fiance sat by his side.

So much had changed and he wouldn't trade any of it. Not many people could say they were grateful for having cancer, but he could. Because it gave him his family. He wouldn't have his funny little brothers, adorable little sister, kind grandfather and father who actually loved him if he had not had cancer. It was almost mind blowing. Not only had the things around him changed, but he himself had changed. He had finally opened up about his childhood and although it would forever scar him, he had allowed himself to at least begin to really heal.

Who could have thought that that horrible mess of a year that was the majority of 2008 could end so well? And now, two months into 2009 it seemed like maybe this year would balance out the last one. Sonny had truly excepted him as a son and he was learning what it was like to have a real father. Michael was out of the wheelchair, though he still tired easily. The child was bound and determined to make the best and fastest recovery of an eight month coma patient ever. Not to mention the little fact that Spinelli was getting married in two days.

Though Maxie had been running around exclaiming that "Who knew Valentine's Day would be this soon?!?" everything had fallen into place perfectly. The only regret was that Georgie wouldn't be there to see it, but both Spinelli and Maxie knew that she would be very happy for them. In some ways it had been the longest and shortest just-over-a-year ever. It seemed impossible that so much had happened in so short a time. Yet it also seemed impossible that Georgie had been gone for over a year.

Spinelli turned to watch his little siblings playing. Michael had pulled out a board game and was teaching them to play. It was such a normal sight, but nobody in the room thought they would every get enough of seeing it. They had come much to close to losing Michael and were all well on their way to driving him insane with their over protectiveness. For now, everyone was content to simply watch the sight that had been so badly missed those eight months. Michael, Morgan and Kristina together and Michael's smile.

He couldn't get over the fact that in two days he would be getting married. Life had finally fallen quite perfectly into place. His beautiful Maximista would soon be his wife. It almost seemed to good to be true. Talk turned to the wedding as he reassured himself that really was going to happen. The current biggest shocker of all was that in the excitment over the wedding, Carly and Alexis were actually getting along. He hoped that would continue at the actual wedding.

The kids were now happily discussing their roles in the wedding as well. Michael would be the best man, Kristina would be the flower girl and Morgan along with Cameron were going to be the ring bearers. Molly and Spencer had been declared "too young" to be involved and they really didn't care. Robin would be Maxie's maid of honor and various other friends would have roles as well. Spinelli hoped it would turn out just as perfect as Maxie dreamed.

Finally, as the children began to get tired, Spinelli left to take Maxie home. He kissed her when he dropped her off at Mac's. As she turned to open the door he said "Goodnight, my beautiful bride-to-be." Maxie smiled, "Goodnight, my wonderful soon-to-be groom!". As Spinelli headed to his car he took a deep breath. "And now the chaos begins". he thought.

Author's Note: Well, here it is. The second-to-last chapter. How did this get here so fast?!?! I'm sorry it wasn't longer, but I was about to fall asleep while typing as my father woke me up very early this morning. I hope you guys like it anyway and I promise that final chapter will be much longer! I do plan on taking a bit of a break between the end of this story and the sequel, but I promise you there will be one!