March 12th – Evening

Bianca was just getting the makings for a salad out of the refrigerator, when she heard Maggie using the outer hall door to get into her room. She had called when she knew she would be home so that Bianca could get dinner ready.

As was now their tradition, Bianca walked over to the kitchen wall that separated off Maggie's room and knocked the beginning of "shave-and-a-haircut" on the wall. It was quickly followed by Maggie knocking back "2-bits". She then heard the shower in Maggie's bathroom turn on.

The knocking ritual made Bianca smile, for it was their private little way of saying "hello" when each of them got back to the apartment. Not only were they living together again, they were joking together….laughing together…and just in general, being together. Though it had only been eleven days since Maggie had officially moved into the apartment, it seemed much longer, as they had fallen into familiar, as well as new, patterns.

It amazed her how she had become a clock watcher at work. Not for the time to go home, but she knew each day now that Maggie would call her at the office at precisely 3:30. This was when Maggie would get home from her daily walk through the park with Miranda, and if she had been using Patrick to drive her, this call let Bianca know he was on his way back to get her. She would also ask what Bianca wanted for dinner, though so far, it was ending up to be a lot of delivery.

During the call on Thursday, Maggie had asked for Saturday, today, off for some mysterious reason.

"You don't have to ask for a 'day off' Maggie. You can just say you need to go do something."

"Well, I wanted to make sure you didn't have anything you had to do with Cambias."

"Nope, Saturday and Sunday are both clear, you go do whatever it is you have to do."

"Thanks."

"Are you going to tell me what it is?"

"Um….nope. It's a surprise! You will just have to find out what it is Saturday evening!"

Bianca chuckled. "Fine…I'll be home around 5:30."

She had spent two days now trying to figure out what Maggie had planned. What could she possibly be surprising her with?

When the boxes of Maggie's clothes had finally arrived that morning, after much delay, Bianca had taken them into her room and unpacked them for her. Since Maggie had left very early, she figured she would be tired when she got home, it also gave her an excuse to snoop around for a clue to the surprise….nothing. Not even a scribbled note. However, she was surprised to find some pamphlets about universities sitting on the top of her desk.

She emptied all the boxes and separated the clothes into piles by clothing item. Tops, pants, skirts…the underwear she left in the box, remembering how flush just shopping for underwear with Maggie had made her. Since she had no idea how Maggie wanted to put all this away, she made piles on the bed and on the desk, so at least it was all sorted. She also made a mental note to wire some money to Dani for the postage on this many boxes. It must have broke the girl.

It was obvious to her as she went through the clothes, when each piece had been bought. While the change was subtle at first, she could see the influence of Jonathan ramping up as she progressed through the clothes. It disgusted her to see how much he had changed her friend. While it was not her place to toss those particular items out, she certainly hoped Maggie wouldn't keep too many of them. She liked that "Maggie Originality", to coin a phrase, that she brought to any outfit she put together.

Back in the present though, she finished tossing the salad, and the sauce for the spaghetti seemed ready. Having heard Maggie's shower shut off, she gave her a few minutes to dry off and get out of the bathroom before she walked over to knock on the door.

Arriving at the entrance to Maggie's room, she closed her eyes and shook her head at the cream colored sign that had been hanging there since Monday. Painted in a lovely cursive script, with flowers adorning both ends of the phrase, there was a message that said "La Hutte de Plaisir"…."The Pleasure Hut" written out in French. Bianca still was trying to guess at what Maggie had said to get Patrick to not only get him to side with her in the naming of the room, but to have him also help with having the sign made.

Bianca wasn't sure what it was about the phrase that bugged her, but her hunch was it had something to do with the emphasis on the word "pleasure". Shaking it off, she finally knocked.

"Maggie?" She yelled through the door.

"Yeah?" came the muffled reply.

"Dinner's ready whenever you are."

"Ok…I'll be there in a few minutes…and thanks for getting all my clothes out!"

Bianca smiled and walked over to Miranda, who had been sitting very patiently in her high chair playing with a stuffed animal. As she approached her daughter, the little girl looked up and grinned, letting out a gurgling, little laugh.

"And how about you Munchie? Are you ready for your dinner?"

Again…a little gurgling laugh.

"I guess so!"

She opened a jar of strained carrots and sat down on a stool next to her daughter to feed her. As they slowly worked their way through the ritual of getting the mouth and spoon to act in unison, Bianca heard the door to Maggie's room open behind her.

Not turning around, Bianca continued to feed her daughter. "Hey there stranger…have a good day?"

"Uh huh…very relaxing."

"Relaxing? What exactly did you go do?"

"Well, since I got my first pay check from you, I treated myself to a spa day."

Bianca let out an exasperated expulsion of air. "Maggie Stone! You selfish thing!" She began to turn around to look at her friend "You couldn't invite your best friend along? Why I oughta…..". She froze in mid sentence.

The sight before her was one she knew very well. It was a 5' tall woman, with shoulder length blonde hair. She was wearing blue jeans and a lilac scoop necked top with wrist length sleeves accented by puffs that made up the top third.

It was Maggie Stone. Not the Jonathan Lavery version, but the original, just arrived in Pine Valley, full of fire and attitude model. Gone was the dark brown dye job. Gone were the clothes he had chosen for her. In their place, the girl who had made Bianca fall to the floor the first time she saw her. The girl who had asked her to prom. The girl who had helped her through the rape and her subsequent pregnancy. The girl…she loved.

"You oughta what?" said Maggie with an enormous grin.

"You…you…."

"'I'…'I'…what? Oh…you mean this?" she asked, looking skyward with her eyes. "Yeah, I thought it was time for a change. Sometimes newer isn't always better."

"Where….how…."

"Well, on Tuesday I talked to Patrick about helping me find someone who could strip the coloring out. So, the poor guy, sat on the phone all day calling hair salon's for me, because of the whole language thing. It was quite amusing actually. Finally, one of them referred him to a day spa whom are experts at doing it without damaging my hair. Since I was going to have to sit for long periods to let the process happen, I took the opportunity to do some other girly things." She lifted the legs of her pants ever so slightly to show off her well tended, and painted toe nails.

Bianca continued to sit there, her jaw agape at the change. Miranda began smacking her tiny hands on her high chair tray, finally bringing Bianca back to reality. She turned around to finish feeding her daughter, but said nothing.

Maggie wasn't sure what to make of the silence, so decided to walk over and get out plates and silverware. "Dinner smells great!" she said as she set all the utensils on the counter. "All I've had today is a couple of croissants, so I'm starving."

"Uh huh." was all the reply Bianca gave.

Maggie was really confused now. She had thought returning to her "normal" self would thrill Bianca, but it didn't seem to be having that effect. Just then though, she heard Bianca make a sniffling sound. She walked over to stand in front of her brunette friend and could see a tear rolling down her cheek. When Bianca spotted her friends legs in front of her, she tried turning her head away.

Maggie squatted down in front of Bianca and looked up at her face. "Hey! What's wrong?" she said in a soft, soothing voice while taking the baby food jar from Bianca and setting it on the counter behind her. She then took both of Bianca's hands in hers, and could now see Bianca was full on crying. "Bianca….what is it? What's wrong?"

"I….I…" came the sobbing reply.

"What? You don't like that I did this? I had to do it….I had to do it for me to release myself. I'm sorry if you don't like it, but…"

"I love it Maggie…I love it so much!" Bianca blurted out. "I just didn't realize how much I had missed……you."

Maggie smiled now that she understood. She lowered her knees and knelt before Bianca. Once settled, she pulled her taller friend forward, into a hug. Bianca slipped her arms under Maggie's and held her tight, while Maggie reached up with one hand and stroked Bianca's hair.

"I never went anywhere Bianca…I was always here…I was always right here….you just couldn't 'see' me for awhile is all."

After another minute or so of hugging, Miranda again was banging on her little table for attention, and the rest of her dinner. The girls pulled apart and laughed at the little girl. Maggie looked at Bianca. "Go wipe your tears…I'll finish feeding her."

"Thanks." Bianca croaked out. She rose and went to the counter to get some tissues. Her face now tear free, she grabbed the utensils to set the table. By the time she was done, Maggie had finished feeding Miranda and was wiping the food from the little girl's face.

Maggie swept Miranda up and out of her high chair making smiling faces at her and placed her in a one arm hold, resting the little girl on her hip. The little girl spotted her mother, and grinned largely at her. Following the child's line of site, Maggie looked up and did the same.

"This is how it's supposed to be," she thought to herself "the 'old' Maggie, not that tainted and twisted version that Jonathan made. This Maggie, the true blue original, and my daughter. No matter what happens between Maggie and I, this is my family now."

"So…are we ready to eat?" Maggie inquired.

"Yeah…you go sit down and I'll put Miranda in her crib."

"Naw…I'll keep her during dinner. I promised her some spaghetti if she didn't fuss while I finished feeding her….not that she understood me, but I feel obligated." Maggie grinned as she reached down with her free hand and tickled Miranda's stomach. "Isn't that right Munchkin?"

The little girl squirmed in Maggie's arms, trying to escape the dreaded tickling, giggling the entire time.

"Ok, but when she gets tomato sauce all over you, don't come crying to me about it." Bianca chided her with a laugh as she walked over to grab the salad and bowls.

Halfway through dinner, Maggie had found herself the recipient of at least two spots on her blouse from spaghetti, but neither girl had commented on them, except for Bianca's enormous, self-satisfied grin. Maggie hadn't seemed to notice, or if she did, not to care. She was too happy making a mess with the little girl all the way through dinner.

Afterwards, they had shared in the chores of cleaning up. The first task was cleaning up Miranda, and putting her to bed. After that, they had agreed to do the dishes together. They joked and chatted, splashed water at each other and had acted like the best friends that they were.

Dishes cleaned, leftovers put away, Bianca asked "So…care to join me for some television that I have to translate for you?"

"Yeah yeah…I'll join you in the den in a minute." she said as she disappeared into her room.

Bianca smiled. She filled two glasses with water and headed across the penthouse to the den. She set the glasses on the coffee table, spacing them at an interval that, she hoped, would keep Maggie from putting her feet up. She sat down and started flipping through channels, searching for anything worth watching. "I do not get the French fascination with Jerry Lewis." she mumbled as she flipped past "The Nutty Professor".

"What did you say?" Maggie asked, as she entered the room.

Maggie had changed from her dinner clothes that had been splattered with spit up and sauce. Now she was in brown sweat pants that had white stripes running down the legs and a maroon, faded jersey that said "Tigers" with the number 35 below that.

Bianca smiled, she had always loved that jersey. It was living in the studio apartment that she had learned it originally belonged to Frankie. When the twin had left home for the final time, she had taken all of her clothes with her, save for this jersey that had been in the wash at the time. Maggie treasured it for the reason it was the last physical item that connected her to her deceased sister.

"Oh, I was just marveling at yet another Jerry Lewis movie being on."

"Oh please tell me it's not 'The Bellboy' again! I swear I have seen that twice since we got here." Maggie exclaimed as she walked over and sat down on the couch next to Bianca. "Oh! Water! Thank you." She moved the glass to the side and placed her feet on the coffee table.

Bianca rolled her eyes, but she had given up on that fight already. She did notice though that Maggie had sat closer to her than she usually did. She didn't think much about it until the shorter girl folded her arms and leaned to the side so her head rested on Bianca's shoulder. She leaned her head to the left and rested it against the top of Maggie's.

They sat like this for at least a half hour as Bianca translated snippets of shows they flipped by. Sometimes the translations were accurate, sometimes totally random, for a comedic effect. After having finally settled on the English version of a news channel, Maggie spoke up. "Bianca, I…I was wondering if I could talk to you about something fairly serious."

Bianca raised her head and turned to look down at Maggie. "Of course, always. What is it?"

Maggie lifted her head and turned her body slightly so she was facing her friend more. "Well, I saw you had moved those college pamphlets in my room, so I thought maybe I had better explain them."

"You don't have to explain anything you don't want to Maggie. Sure, I was curious why you had them, but that's why you have your own room, so you can still have some privacy. I probably shouldn't have even gone in there."

"Oh! I don't mind that at all! And you did me a huge favor by getting all my clothes out for me. I just thought you should know that I am looking at possibly going back to school rather sooner than later. I called PVU, and they gave me a list of schools over here they know will accept their credits, and are bilingual with classes in English. So Patrick helped me run around the past 2 days getting info on them."

"That's great!" Bianca said, "But….are you sure you're ready? Are you sure you don't need to take a little more time off?"

"I've thought about that, and I think the best solution is just to get moving on as fast as possible with my life." She said, as she twisted a lock of her freshly blonde hair around her right index finger. "If I just sit around and think about everything that happened, it just seems to make it all worse. So I think going back to school as soon as possible may be the answer for me."

"Well….I want whatever you feel is best for you, of course."

"And don't worry about my being Miranda's nanny. I am going to try for night classes, so you would be home. If I have to take them during the day, I am going to try for late morning and early afternoon, because Patrick said he would be willing to watch her during those times if you had nothing for him to do."

Bianca smiled. She was so thankful that Maggie had found a friend in Patrick. She had feared that the shorter woman would feel isolated not knowing anyone other than herself. She was sure Patrick was a big help to her in that regard. "That sounds great, but…well…I hate to bring it up, but how are you going to pay for school? I know David was paying for it in Pine Valley, but you two aren't exactly on the best of terms now."

Maggie smiled a devious grin. "Silly, stupid boy that he is, deposited several years tuition all at once so he wouldn't have to worry about remembering to do it later. So, while it will cost more to go to school here, I am still covered for awhile before I have to worry. And hopefully, by that point, I will be able to get some sort of scholarship."

"Well then, what are you waiting for? Get yourself enrolled! We will worry about all the details later." Bianca turned her self more fully and leaned forward, wrapping her arms around Maggie for a hug, a hug that was eagerly returned.

"I was worried that you were going to be upset with me for rushing back so soon."

"Don't be silly! I always knew you would go back to school, I just didn't expect it quite this soon. If this is what will make you happy, than this is what you do."

Maggie finally leaned back, putting more space between them, but keeping her hands on Bianca's back. "You really are the best friend anyone could ever wish for, you know that?"

"Of course I am! I am the best at everything I do! I'm a Kane woman!"

Maggie threw her head back so hard in a hearty laugh, it caused her to topple backwards, landing in the open space of the couch. "And you do humble so well!"

Bianca playfully slapped Maggie's thigh. "Come on, let's go look at those pamphlets of yours, and pick you a school."

Bianca stood up, clicked off the TV with the remote, and turned to leave the room when she felt a hand on her left shoulder turning her around. She faced Maggie now and she saw that it was a serious expression she wore now, her eyes full of thoughts.

Maggie was looking up at Bianca, as she always did. "I meant what I just said Bianca. You are truly the best friend anyone could ever wish for. You're understanding, kind, giving….and most of all, patient. I haven't said it lately, but…..thank you. Thank you for everything you have ever done for me, and most of all, for helping me find myself again."

Bianca could feel the tears welling up in here eyes yet again. She looked down at the floor, and with both her hands, reached up and tucked her raven colored hair behind her ears. "You know, when we first got here, you prescribed me daily hugs, and like a good patient, I have followed the doctor's orders." Maggie grinned at that. "But, what I want to know is, is it possible to over dose on that prescription?"

"Certainly not! As a matter of fact, it is one of the few medicines that is more effective the more you go over the prescription!"

The girls again hugged, standing in the middle of the room. A long, lingering hug, that neither wanted to break, but started to go so long they had to wonder if the other was yet getting uncomfortable from it. Finally, when the timing just felt 'right', they pulled away from each other, grinning from ear to ear.

"Come on," Bianca said. "I'm all excited to pick out a school for you!" She reached down and slipped the baby monitor in her pocket, and picked up her glass of water, while Maggie grabbed hers. Bianca then held out her hand in a motion indicating Maggie should take it, the shorter girl smiled and did. "To your room!"

"Wow…racing to 'The Pleasure Hut', who would have guessed it!"

Bianca stopped dead in her tracks. "Oh….I….uh….".

Maggie catapulted past Bianca, still holding her hand, and now dragged her along. "Come on….it's perfectly harmless…I'll even just call it "my room" for now." she said with a wink, and continued to pull Bianca along behind her.

Bianca willingly let the rejuvenated, and original, Maggie Stone pull her along.

March 19th – Morning

Bianca was awoken by a very odd song coming from her daughter's bedroom.

"Oh I say…who in this house is the birthday girl?…Miranda…Miranda…."

The singing got progressively louder as the 'singer' danced her way through the master bathroom, into her bedroom. Once in the bedroom, she got to witness Maggie doing a little cha-cha-cha dance to accompany the song, with a still half asleep Miranda perched on her hip.

"Oh I say…who in this house is the birthday girl?…Miranda…Miranda…."

She now cha-cha'd over to the side of Bianca's bed and held out her free hand, indicating that the mother of the birthday girl should join in the song and dance. Bianca grinned, and happily accepted.

Bianca and Maggie stood face-to-face, both of them holding on to the now smiling little girl squeezed between them. The girls now sang, and danced their odd little dance in unison.

"Oh I say…who in this house is the birthday girl?…Miranda…Miranda…."

After several more choruses, Maggie finally broke the song while laughing. "Ok…so neither of us are obviously song writers."

"Yeah, I don't foresee a Grammy in our futures."

"Oh well, she is an easy to please audience." she said, nodding her head towards Miranda.

"That she is." Bianca said as she leaned over and kissed the top of her daughter's head.

"So what are the plans for celebrating this very special day?"

"Well, Kendall called last night, yet again forgetting the time difference." Both girls rolled their eyes.

"For someone so capable of running a major company, you would think she would be able to add six hours to her time."

"Anyway, she wants to do a video conference today so she can actually see Miranda. Which means…"

Maggie cut her off. "Put her in the little pink, 'Fusion' t-shirt that arrived in the mail the other day."

Bianca grinned. "Glad to see our communication skills are returning!"

"Yep! Anything else? I'm guessing there will be an Erica phone call at some point also."

"Oh I'm sure there will be one, but nothing is set in stone. The morning is ours for sure though, since everyone back home is still asleep."

"Well, I am going to take Munchkin down to the kitchen. Why don't you get dressed and join us and we can go over what we want to do for this so very special day."

She turned and left the room, humming her little birthday song and doing a much tamer, and smaller, version of the cha-cha-cha dance.

Bianca finally joined Maggie and Miranda in the kitchen, as Maggie scooted around, still humming her little birthday song.

"Coffee's ready whenever you are."

"Thanks Maggie." Bianca said as she stopped to tap her fingertips on her daughter's cheek. Miranda reached up and attempted to brush away her mother's hand, as she was much more interested in the dry cereal she was eating by hand. "So, what do you think we should do today?"

"I don't have a clue. After the year she's had…heck, all of us have had…maybe a quiet, calm day is the best idea of all."

"What? A day without drama? Why Maggie Stone, however would the world continue to rotate?" Bianca asked in a rhetorically, inquisitive way.

"I don't know, but I think it would be a pleasure to find out."

"Well then that is what it shall be…a quiet day at home with this very special little girl, and of course, an arm load of presents!"

"Oh! Speaking of…." Maggie headed over to the door to her room, and disappeared inside for a moment. She returned with two wrapped gifts, one with a green ribbon, the other slightly larger, and with a red ribbon. "Here you go…the green one is from Patrick, the red is from me."

Bianca smiled. "I will make sure to thank Patrick on Monday morning. That was awfully considerate of him." Bianca opened his first to find a stuffed toy of a famous cartoon character. It managed to pull Miranda's attention away from her cereal, but it was unable to maintain it.

Maggie's gift was next. It was larger and heavier than Patrick's, and had Bianca's curiosity stirred. She lifted the box lid to discover a scrapbook. She set aside the box, and was about to open the book to the front when Maggie interrupted. "Bianca….before you look at that, let me explain it. Ok?"

Bianca furrowed her brow in confusion, and looked at Maggie. "Ok…sure."

Maggie pulled one of the stools over to sit next to Bianca. She took the scrapbook and held it so they could both look at it together. Opening to the first page, Bianca was greeted by the clipping of a newspaper article about the helicopter crash that had led to everyone believing Miranda had died. "Well…I can see this is going to be a cheery book."

"I know…it's not…and it is…all at the same time."

As they continued to flip the pages, Bianca saw it was the entire year laid out in newspaper clippings. From the "death" of Miranda…her kidnapping of 'Bess'…the proposal for the Miranda Center…her falling into a coma…the return of Miranda to her arms while she was still in the hospital…and ending with a picture of Bianca, Maggie and Miranda at the farewell party mere weeks before.

"I know this may not seem like the happiest gift in the world, but someday, she's going to want to know what happened…she deserves to know what happened. And she also needs to know that through it all, her mother never gave up on her own life. That you made the best you could out of a horrible situation and that you were brave enough to turn your own pain into something that would help other's heal."

Bianca continued to stare at the picture of the three of them at the party. Maggie sitting on the couch with Miranda in her lap. Both of them, beaming with smiles. Behind them, Bianca stood leaning down to fit in the picture, her hands on Maggie's shoulders, her head pressed against her best friend's. It was tangible evidence of the family unit these three had formed, no matter how non-traditional it might be.

"Are you ok with this?" Maggie tentatively asked, breaking the silence.

"I am more than ok with it Maggie….it came from the heart, and those are the best kinds of gifts. Thank you." She wrapped her right arm around Maggie's shoulders and pulled her close, placing a kiss on her friend's cheek.

Maggie blushed. "Well, I thought it might also save you a lot of painful explaining down the road when she did finally ask."

Bianca flipped back to the beginning of the book, and started over. "How did you get all the clippings?" she inquired.

"Oh, I…I was saving them the whole time. At first it was because I thought it would be some of our only memories of Miranda." She looked down at her hands, and breathed a heavy sigh. "And then it became more of the fact that you were amazing me how you could take a tragedy like that and make such a far reaching positive out of it."

It was Bianca's turn to blush now. "Well, whatever the reason, it is one of the best gifts ever." she said with a beaming smile. Again, the friends embraced, this time, Maggie kissing Bianca's cheek.

March 19th – Early Evening

"Happy birthday my little Miranda…now, you wear that Fusion t-shirt auntie Kendall gave you with pride…yes…you show all those little French babies where you get your fashion sense!"

Maggie was glad she was off camera so Kendall wouldn't be able to see her rolling her eyes.

"Ok…I gotta go…I love you…bye Binks…bye Miranda."

"Goodbye girls." Ethan piped in at the last second before the video conference was ended.

"What am I? Chopped liver?" Maggie inquired.

Bianca was trying to wipe the cake off of Miranda's face, and took off the little faux fur-lined party hat Maggie had given her daughter to wear. "They didn't know you were in the room Maggie, since you absolutely refused to get on camera."

"Well…I didn't want to get in the way of family time."

"Maggie….how many times do I have to tell you that you are part of the family now…my family?"

"I know, I know…and someday it might even sink in…remember, I am blonde again now." She said with a grin.

Bianca just smiled and shook her head. "Well, I'm going to keep saying it until it sinks in." She picked Miranda up out of her high chair. "And I'm sure as soon as this one can talk, she'll be saying it also.

Maggie walked over and cupped Miranda's cheek with her hand. "I sure hope she will, but for now, I'll just settle for her saying anything!"

"Soon enough…I'm sure she's just saving up for a whopper."

"Well with Erica Kane as her grandmother, I'm just hoping it's not 'diamonds' or 'Where are the boys?'."

Bianca playfully slapped Maggie's shoulder. "You're horrible!"

Maggie rubbed her shoulder in mock injury. "Sometimes the truth hurts you know….for both parties."

Bianca rolled her eyes. "Come on…let's go give cake monster here her bath. I'm not sure, but some of it may have actually gotten inside of her."

"I think I saw one or two bites get in there, but I'm not going to swear to it. Before we give her the bath though, are you sure we got enough pictures? You did promise everyone cake covered pictures from today."

"We have digital pictures and video, I am sure we have enough. Am I safe in assuming this will be in the next email of the 'The Daily Munchkin'?" Bianca loved the name Maggie had given to the daily picture she sent to every one back home.

"Yep. May even have to send out more than one tomorrow."

March 26th – Afternoon

Bianca was thrilled so many of her items had finally arrived that morning from Pine Valley. There were boxes everywhere, and she had a sneaking suspicion of what was in the large wooden crate, but she had decided to wait until Maggie had taken Miranda for their daily walk to look in it, fearing the reaction it might cause. She had actually planned to take her daughter for the walk today, but when all these items arrived, she knew she had plenty to do. Plus Maggie seemed to really enjoy her alone time with Miranda, so she really didn't like intruding on that to often.

As soon as they had left for the park, Bianca had grabbed a crow bar and headed for the crate. It took some work, but she finally got the boards undone, and was pulling away the excelsior packing from the edges, that was when she started to see the familiar colors. It was Portia, in all her abstract, three-eyed glory.

Bianca knew she had the perfect place in the den, over the couch, to place her. She wasn't quite sure how Maggie was going to react though. Actually, she kind of knew how she would react, but she was hoping it would be slightly less catastrophic than that.

She carried the painting into the apartment from the outer hall, and into the den. She went and retrieved a hammer and nail, stood on the couch, figured out where center was, and drove the nail in. She lifted up Portia, hooked her on the nail, evening her up. She smiled at the painting. "This is either going to be really funny or really ugly when she lays eyes on you, not sure which yet."

Stepping off the couch, she turned and looked at Portia one more time, smiled, and headed towards the kitchen to start preparing her special anniversary dinner she had been planning for a few days now.

She wasn't sure if Maggie had even realized it had been a month since they had moved, because they had been so busy settling in to new jobs with Cambias and being a nanny. Never mind that Maggie had the added pressure of going back to school weighing on her mind also. They told her she could start on the following Monday, so both girls were working out how their schedules would change.

Even though she doubted Maggie knew the significance of the day, it didn't matter to her. She was going to make this a mini celebration of their new life together. Their new life….as a family.

Rudeboy1971's version of BAM will show up next in story 3 "Empowerment"

They've settled into their new lives, but where do you go from here? How do you move on with your life after everything that has happened. Sometimes, you have to learn from the past to get the motivation you need. And once you have it, what do you do with it?