Spinelli eased the minivan into the driveway and cut the engine. Even as he and Maxie unhooked their seatbelts and got out of the car, Georgie stayed put and goggled. She couldn't believe that this was Maxie's home. This big house with a wraparound porch and a white picket fence was her sister's house. That was enough to make her laugh.

"I can't believe that this is your house, Maxie. Where's the dog?" she asked facetiously.

Maxie turned around and gave her a bland look. "Just shut up. I told you that I changed when I got married and became a mom." She laughed as she lifted Georgie's duffle bag and hooked it over her shoulder, only to have Spinelli racing to her rescue and taking it from her.

"Hey, I can carry that," she protested but led Georgie toward the front door. She pushed it open and motioned for her sister to walk inside.

Georgie walked through the door and gaped as she looked around the house. The foyer opened into an airy living room furnished with Maxie's flair for the extraordinary. The couch and matching chairs were cream leather with burgundy throw pillows. The walls of the room were covered in modern prints and family photos. She walked up to one of the photos and studied it. She touched a hand to the picture and ran a finger down the face of the blond child.

She turned around as Maxie walked back from the kitchen. "I set your bags up in the spare bedroom, where you'll be staying," she said, frowning at the look on her sister's face. "What's wrong?"

"Are these your girls?"

Maxie smiled. "Yeah. Fiona's the one in the purple and Julia is wearing the swimsuit. That picture was taken last summer at the Fourth of July picnic. Fi's sixteen and Julia turned ten last month." She walked to the couch and sat down. "They're so excited to meet you. We haven't told them much about the whole situation other than that you are my sister. Fiona asked more questions but we weren't sure how to explain the logistics."

"If it is alright with you and she asks questions, I'll be happy to tell her some of the information. Not too much, but enough."

"I think that that would be okay. Look Georgie, I know we got off to a different start, but I'm really glad to have you back." She looked down at her lap for a moment and then back at her sister's face. "When I lost you, Robin and I became closer. But then she died and I thought I'd lost you both. So now that you're back, I really want to have what we used to have back."

Georgie sighed and came to sit next to Maxie. Angling her body so she could see Maxie's face, she took her hands. "Please don't think that I didn't want to come back."

Maxie began to speak, but Georgie held up her hand and cut her off. "No, please don't. I thought about you often, but I couldn't come back. As far as you and the state of New York were concerned, I was dead. There was no way to safely come back and it was better for everyone if I was dead."

"I made my choice to work for the WSB and that was that. There was no going back and I was okay with that," Georgie added as she got to her feet. "Now if you don't mind, I'm awfully tired and would like to rest before your girls come home."

"Oh oh, of course. Here, I'll take you upstairs," Maxie jumped up and led the way through the sunny kitchen and up the rounded staircase. Turning the corner at the top of the stairs, she directed Georgie into a pale blue room furnished with a white bed set and lacy curtains. Georgie turned and angled an eyebrow at her sister.

"Lace?"

Maxie shrugged. "It looked good in a guest bedroom, but, as you'll notice, there's none to be found in the rest of the house."

"Whatever. Wake me up when the girls get home okay?"

Maxie nodded as she went to the door. "Okay. I love you, Georgie," she replied, shutting it behind her.

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Morgan walked into the dining room of the restaurant at the Metrocourt. It was posh and sophisticated, almost too classy for his tastes. But it suited his mother to a tee. If there was one thing that Carly had done well in her life, it was as part owner of the hotel.

When he spotted his mother at the bar with a glass of white wine in front of her, he made his way across the room. Carly smiled when she saw him and stood up to kiss his cheek.

"Morgan! I was wondering when you'd make it."

He shrugged and sat down next to her. He signaled the bartender and ordered a soda water, as he couldn't drink on the clock. "Yeah. Um, we had a case that took longer than was expected."

"Oh that's okay. I'm just glad that you were able to get away on such short notice. I know how difficult those civil service jobs can be," Carly replied, taking a sip of her wine and studying her son over the rim. He looked different. Not different in the way of new clothes or a recent haircut, but different in that he looked happier or something.

He gave her a bland look that told them both that she had no idea what a civil servant did on the day-to-day basis. She shrugged and set her wine glass on the table. "So tell me, how have you been? I hardly ever get to see you. Your sisters miss you."

"Mom, when are you going to quit using that line? My sister's are sixteen and twenty-four. They are both more than old enough to come and find me when they want to see me," Morgan replied, his eyes narrowing. Carly was up to her tricks again and he could only imagine what kind of problems she would cause.

"Well, I wouldn't have to use any lines if you'd come by more often. Whenever I call you, you're always working or with that Mattie girl."

"That Mattie girl is my fian—friend," he amended quickly, glowering at her rude comments over his fiancée. "I don't appreciate you talking about her like that. I care about Mattie. I know that you know that so what I don't know is why you can't at least be civil toward her."

Her eyes narrowed. As he knew she would, she had caught that slip of the tongue. Carly Jax could be called a lot of things, but she was not an idiot. This was something that both she and her son knew to be true. "Friend? Is that all?"

Morgan hesitated. He knew that Mattie wouldn't be mad if he told his mother about their impending marriage, but knew that his mother wouldn't be happy to hear about the engagement. But Carly's face told him that he'd better explain. Sighing, he picked up his glass and took a drink.

At her frown, he set the glass on the table with a thump.

"Morgan."

"Mom."

"You have to talk eventually. What is going on?" Carly pressed, looking up as a waiter brought her salad and his Rueben sandwich.

"I proposed to Mattie on the night of the ball."

Carly's fork dropped to the plate with a clatter. Her eyes widened as she dabbed her mouth with her napkin. "Well."

Morgan frowned. "Well what?" He bit into his sandwich, buying time.

"Well, that's a bit sudden, isn't it? I wasn't expecting that" Carly replied. She took a sip of wine to calm herself.

Morgan frowned. "Really? You weren't expecting it? Come on Mom. I've only been dating Mattie for eleven years."

"I-I know. I just never knew that it was so serious," Carly protested, reaching for Morgan's hand.

He pulled away. "I can't believe that you'd say that. No, wait. I can, because you've continued to make Mattie feel like she's a criminal because you and Robin have a past." He pushed his plate away and got to his feet. Reaching for his wallet, he slapped down a few dollar bills."

"Morgan—" Carly began, but he cut her off with a flick of his hand.

"Save it mom. I don't want to hear it. I love Mattie—I love her more than anything and I'd do anything for her. I love her and we are getting married with or without your blessing. I'm sorry, I have to go. I was hoping that this would have gone better. But you can't seem to forget the past, can you?" He turned and strode out of the restaurant with Carly staring after his, mouth agape. She couldn't believe that he was marrying Mattie Drake…no, she could believe it and that made her feel lower than she'd ever felt before. There was nothing like your own child being disappointed in you.

She pushed her half-eaten salad away and stood up. She had to make this up to him. Right now, she just didn't know how. Maybe a little distraction would clear her mind. She walked out of the restaurant and toward the hotel lobby. No, there was nothing like disappointment coming from your own child.

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Kate sat down at her desk and pulled out the file. Opening it, she scanned the cover for the next issue of Crimson. She was quite pleased with how everything had turned out between Crimson and Fusion. But something was missing.

The model was good, Kate noted. Jenny Martin was one of the biggest and brightest stars on the runway this season. And the clothes were spectacular, after all one couldn't expect anything less from Maxie Jones. But it still needed something else.

Sighing, she dropped the paper and stood up. Muttering under her breath, she prowled the room. Kate hated the fact that even the work she loved wasn't soothing her. But on a day like today, there was little that could. Stopping suddenly, she glanced at the calendar. No, on this particular day there was little that could ease her troubled heart.

On this day, eleven years earlier, the great Sonny Corinthos had finally met his match. But fate had stepped in and destroyed Sonny's life in a far more humane way than Sonny had ever given any of his own victims. It wasn't a bullet that had killed a self-proclaimed mob boss, but a heart attack. Fate was a cruel mistress, Kate thought as she sat down at the desk and picked up the file again.

Nothing was missing from the magazine. Kate had made sure of that because she rarely made mistakes—especially in her professional life. Now her personal life as another story—a long, long story. But that wasn't relevant on a day like today. Or was it?

Kate sighed and picked up her phone. Opening her laptop, she selected the document containing the magazine and prepared to send it to the publisher. While she waited for the email to send, she dialed Jax's phone number.

"Hello?"

"Jax, its Kate. I just wanted to let you know that I sent the layout to the publisher," Kate said, closing her laptop when the email was sent.

"Oh good. Hey, will you let Maxie know about the meeting next week? I want to go over the budget for this next year."

"Sure. Look, I have to go," Kate replied, closing her phone and getting to her feet. Grabbing her purse and jacket, she calmly walked out of the door. As much as she loved her work, there was someplace else that she needed to be on a day like today.

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Lila closed her eyes and lay on the bed, trying to keep still. Every time she moved she felt nauseous and it already seemed that she'd vomited anything that was in her stomach. She didn't know what was wrong.

Lila Rae had nerves of steel and never got sick, so she couldn't figure out what the problem was. The moment she'd swung her feet over the bed and connected with the floor, she'd had to sprint to the bathroom; only to collapse in front of the toilet and vomit what little had been in her stomach.

After she'd finished, she'd laid by the toilet on the floor, too weak to move. Finally she'd been able to draw herself up and drag her worn out body back to bed—without even brushing her teeth! And now, here she was, too weak to even think about moving, let alone calling into work to let them know she was sick.

"Ugh, this must be some nasty stomach bug," she moaned, forcing herself to sit up. She pushed the hair out of her eyes and took a deep breath. She knew that she had to get to work. She was a self-described workaholic and nothing—not even an annoying and unfortunate stomach bug—could keep her at home.

Pushing back the covers, she cautiously slipped her feet out of the bed and onto the floor. Strangely, she felt fine now. Shrugging, she stood up and walked back to the bathroom to take a shower. It must have been something she'd eaten.

Fifteen minutes later, she stepped out of the bathroom draped in a towel. She walked to her walk-in closet and skimmed through the skirts and pant suits. Finally settling on a pinstripe pant and jacket set with a heather blue blouse, she opened her dresser drawer and selected a cheetah printed pair of panties and the matching bra.

Lila slipped on the shirt and buttoned it almost to the top. Pulling the pants on, she debated on how to do her hair for the day. After she finished dressing, she walked back to the bathroom to fix her makeup and hair. Fifteen minutes later, she had flawlessly applied her makeup—ensuring that there were no signs of her previous incident with the stomach bug—and after drying it with a hairdryer, piled her hair on the top of her head with a banana clip. There, now she was ready to go and lucky that she didn't feel any repercussions from this morning's attack.

Lila tossed her dirty clothes in the hamper and vowed that she would do a load of laundry when she returned home from work that afternoon. After tidying up her room and bathroom, she raced to the kitchen.

As always, her coffee maker stood ready with coffee. But as she reached for a cup and began to pour the thick black mixture, its smell assaulted her senses and made her grab the counter for support. Waiting for the dizzy spell to pass, she washed her up and mourned the fact that there would be no caffeine this morning. Sighing, she grabbed a banana and went to collect her purse and briefcase. Hopefully she'd be able to keep that down, she thought as she locked her apartment door and started for her car.

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Please review now! Thanks for reading! Also, let me know if you have any suggestions for possible storylines. Hope you enjoyed the update!