I know that I've been pretty bad about updating this story. I'm super sorry about it! I've been VERY busy with school (semester is a few days away from ending and I have a couple of finals left) and have been busy with other stories that have caught my attention and needed to be finished. However, I swear that this one will have my attention finally, the attention it deserves. It'll be slow, but I think it'll be worth it. So...please review!
"The door is locked. I wonder where Eric is now…" Maggie slowly unlocked the door to their apartment, letting her friend and son inside, the former wishing for rest and the latter wishing to stay up later than bedtime. Most of the lights were out, the kitchen letting a light yellow glare at them as the trio came inside, their faces bathed with the dull illumination.
As Ursula took Michael to his bedroom quietly, Maggie went into the only room with light, only seeing Eric slumped over in a chair, sleeping. The table had been cleared save for an empty beer bottle and a plastic container still full of take-out Chinese food. It made Maggie sick to her stomach, fearing that Eric was stealing more money from her bank account once more and bouncing her debits.
It was nighttime, after all: little free time left for the C.S.I.'s, the two girls exhausted from days and nights of working. The night at the bar with Nick was a faraway memory for them both (Maggie had giggled well into the night with Ursula about it and could not stop talking about it when Eric was not around), their work out in the fields not only stimulating, but also grueling. Maggie – looking down at Eric and suddenly wondering why she had stuck with him for all that time they had together – had Nick far from her thoughts as she unlocked the door to the apartment and let her friend and son in and thought about her imminent breakup (it had been coming for a while, she reasoned, but it should have been done ages ago), time ticking before her shift at the lab. She had to do it, she still reasoned in her mind, and it had to be that moment.
Days had passed and a routine had been established, after all. May blended into June and the Las Vegas sun shone brighter and hotter. The crime lab had gone on with life, as if Warrick was not dead, his funeral not even the month before. Michael was enrolled into pre-school for September (Maggie relieved that she did it in time, before the deadline for the paperwork was over), Ursula had started a relationship and conducted it discreetly at a nearby motel (and would not tell her companion about the man…or woman, since she was bisexual), Eric had supposedly started a job at a casino (they all doubted it, even Michael) and Maggie could only think of her son, work and sometimes that last kiss Nick had given her. It had been over a month since their date, but every time Eric slept with her, kissed her, touched her, Maggie could close her eyes in utter disgust and only think about Nick and his kisses, thinking about how Eric was not Eric but Nick, finally coming back to her.
"I don't know where he is," Ursula answered, sending a shiver down Maggie's back as she turned around, seeing her friend behind her in the kitchen doorway. "Well, hell, there he is now. Sleeping, as usual. I'm not surprised about him doing that anymore. Come on, Maggs, let's go to bed now. Well, no, you have a shift in a few hours with Grissom and the gang. Sorry. Do you want to put Michael into the tub and into bed or do you want me to do it?"
"You do it. I need to talk to him." Maggie indicated the motionless figure in the chair. She even sighed. "I'm going to kick him out…tonight, I'm hoping, tomorrow by the latest. I don't see him getting a job or helping the family. And I'm tired of being with him. Eric is wrong, Ursula, and he always had been. I can live without him, like I lived without Nick. I can live without a man in my life. I have you. I have my son. And that's all I can ask for right now." She paused. "Well, I could ask for my brothers, but Grace won't let Eddie or their children talk to me and, since they moved, I can't contact them really. Chris only called me a few times in three years to tell me the news, since he's forgiven me all of a sudden. However, he's not ready to see me yet. Soon, he said before I moved back here. Interesting how he's still living at my parents' old place and is married to some girl named Rachael, who teaches deaf people and loves Robbie. They got to get married after Chris couldn't find Helen. He and his former in-laws declared her legally dead."
"Ahh, decisions, decisions," Ursula chuckled softly as she replied. "We make them every single day, not knowing how they impact us most of the time. This is a good one. I'm proud of you, Maggie. You deserve happiness, not this mess."
"So am I. But…have you decided whether or not you're going to tell me about the person you're seeing at that shady little motel down the road? Or, am I going to be in suspense for a while?"
Ursula laughed out loud. "Maybe, but not yet, I think. Well, I can say that the person is a man. His name, though, shall be a mystery for a little while, I think."
"No, you have to tell me!" A lower lip stuck out, becoming a pout. Arms were crossed even: a long-forgotten childlike gesture.
"You know, Maggie, when you do that, you look like Michael, right?"
"Oh, stop it! You know that it's not true."
"Maggs, it makes me believe that you don't have depression after all, or maybe it's somewhere hidden somehow, and that you are capable of being the same Maggie from the past that I keep hearing about, but don't really see. You have medication, you take things so slowly, and yet…is it real? Am I seeing the real Maggie from long ago, before she came to meet up with little old me in Hartford?"
"Perhaps you are right. But, come on. We have things to do. Just keep Michael preoccupied until this is all over, ok?" Maggie then crossed her arms again and shooed Ursula away, indicating to her that her confrontation with Eric was about to begin and that she didn't want her or Michael around to see or hear it really.
"Oh, I see now. I know when I'm not needed. I know when I've been insulted! I know when I've been insulted!" Ursula yelled and was soon laughing, getting Maggie to do the same as the latter playfully pushed the former into the next room. However, this got Eric to wake up.
Maggie it saw it immediately, sensed it almost, as her playtime pushing stopped. "Get in Michael's bedroom, ok? Keep the cell phone handy just in case. You know who to call."
"Sure…" Ursula became serious in an instant, literally running in the opposite direction as Maggie went back into the kitchen, facing Eric.
"What's this I hear?" Eric roared, getting Maggie to wince, thinking about the neighbors downstairs. "I come home from working hard and I get some food. I fall asleep and wake up to two idiots giggling about stupid shit. Well, this is the last time!" He got up, knocking his chair over with a loud thud. "Maggie, you should know better!" He cracked his knuckles, coming towards Maggie. "Now, I guess that you need to be reminded of what you should do when somebody is sleeping, now, shouldn't you?"
Eric quickly moved towards Maggie and was about to hit her when the C.S.I. quickly blocked the blow and held the offending fist in her own hand, breathing heavily herself, her own instincts of old – things taught to her – coming back to her. Officer Michael O'Keefe had taught her that. My father had taught me that. He taught me that for a different person, a totally different person from Eric. But, they're all the same. They always are. They're all scum of the Earth.
The offender was surprised, shocked even that Maggie had defended herself and had done it well. His mouth open, his eyes widened, Eric looked at the C.S.I.
"How dare you?" he hissed, his tongue even like a snake's: thin, slithering and even penetrating tight spaces. "How dare you do this to me? I've given you the world, Margaret Jane O'Keefe. I've given you everything and this is how you pay me? This is how you pay me for the years I've supported you?"
"Yes," Maggie replied, more sure than ever that she didn't need Eric…and Nick, if it came down to that. "Eric, I thought you were good for me. You met up with me, we dated and we lived together. You used to get along with my child, my son, before you started this…this bullshit. You treated me like a slave, like I was meant to cater to every 'need' you have, every little thing you 'needed' me to get done." Maggie let go of Eric's fist, throwing him off balance for a second, still shocking him. "I could have had Child Services bothering me, but luckily, I had not. I had support and help from the people who really love me. And, realizing this, within weeks of coming back here, has made me think twice…and know that I run aside danger all the time, but I could always push it away when I have the ability to. And Eric…I love you, used to be in love with you…and I realize that I don't need you anymore."
"You're breaking up with me?" Eric's voice had a squeak to it, very high-pitched and stunned.
"I want you and your things out of here no later than tomorrow evening, before I go back to work." Maggie stood taller, putting her hands on her hips.
Eric stood back and nodded with understanding, his usual irate look back on his face. "It's that C.S.I. you work with, isn't it? It's Nick Stokes, that bastard, isn't it?"
"We work together and that's about it," Maggie replied, smiling with a rare new confidence.
"You're hiding more, you little –"
"No!" the C.S.I. interrupted. "I will not hear you calling me names again! I want you out of here. Now. Since you've been so 'helpful' to your own cause, I suggest that you be gone before I come back from work tomorrow morning. And, if you try anything, I have patrol cars within my reach and they would come to our aide when we call."
"You're lying!" Eric called her bluff, but Maggie did not care. All she knew was that if Ursula called Headquarters, Brass would not hesitate to get some cars out to come help them with Eric, helping his former co-worker's daughter (and his own) and making sure that she and her loved ones came to no harm.
Knowing this – and keeping it in mind – made up Maggie's mind permanently. She could no longer have Eric in her life. She would rather have Nick than Eric.
"No, I'm not." Maggie took out her cell phone and put Brass' number on the screen quickly and showed her now ex-boyfriend the power she had over him. "Would you like a demonstration?"
"To hell with you, then!" Eric yelled without fear, ferociously walking around Maggie (without pushing her, she noted) and heading to their bedroom. "To hell with you and Ursula and your little bastard, Michael, too!" Stomping in and out of the room and returning to the kitchen with a bag of his things, Eric stopped before Maggie, wagging a finger at her as she put the cell phone away. "You have not heard the last of me, you little weasel. You won't hear the last of me. I'll follow you down and kill the people you love!"
"Like I haven't heard it before," Maggie replied stiffly, remembering those words spoken to her long ago, from a different person.
"I'm sure." Eric walked around her again, opening the front doorway and striding out, leaving without another word. Afterward, even with him running down the stairs in anger, there had been silence: silence, without the fear in her heart, without the pounding in her head, without the worry about her son in her soul. He was gone.
"Oh, God, I see that went over well." Ursula had entered into the kitchen, seeing Maggie still in a defensive stance, ready to strike back. Michael was nowhere in sight.
"Is Michael ok?" Maggie turned to her friend, tears in her eyes as she turned her own thoughts to her son.
"He's fine. He knows. Oh, Maggie, are you ok?" Ursula ran to Maggie to hold her as she almost fell to the floor in a faint of disbelief.
"He's gone, Ursula. He really is gone." Sobs shook her, choked back words long forgotten.
"Yes, he is. Shh, or Grissom will kill me instead of you." Ursula laughed nervously, getting Maggie to face her, holding her a foot from her own face. "Come on. You have shift in two hours. You have to play the part and be ready to rat out more bad guys tonight. It's what we do. We're C.S.I.'s, remember?"
"Yeah, really…" Maggie seemed listless, a weight off her shoulders. "I just need to make a call, ok? Let me go…please."
Ursula, making sure that Maggie could stand up, let her go, but watched as her friend took out her cell phone and walked to the living room, dialing a number memorized by heart. Ursula knew who she was calling as she talked to the person on the other line, even though they were meeting up later in the evening. Walking back to Michael's bedroom with a sigh, she thought about her own happiness…and Maggie's, seeing it finally played out at last.