Title: A Little Respect

Author: Misty Flores

Teaser: Pursuing a relationship with Aiden after discovering Bianca in bed with Babe, Maggie begins to question even her own self worth when she finds herself at delving deeper into a baby kidnapping mystery, and an intense love triangle.

Timeline: Before Paris, Before Jonathan, and right after an 'I Never' confession.

Rating: Towards the later chapters, will heavily feature an M rating for sexual situations.

Notes: Remember the time in AMC history when Maggie was achingly in love with Bianca, told Bianca and Bianca turned her down, and still, Maggie was there, selflessly in love, trying hard to be the best friend she could be, even while Bianca went on and on about Lena and Babe? Maggie in love with Clueless!Bianca always breaks my heart and it's the Maggie I love the most.

This is a monster - 40 chapters in it's completed form. While the focus is Bianca and Maggie, it is, in reality, an AU, with one thing changed: What would happen if Maggie had run to into the arms of a genuinely nice guy instead of a crazed psycho? How would that affect the timeline, the surrounding relationships, and Bianca?

Here's one take on the question - turns out? It would affect quite a bit of people.

Characters featured: Maggie, Bianca, Aiden, Anna, Robin, Kendall, Greenlee, Jonathan, Babe, Jamie - and their prospective arcs

Part One

I try to discover

A little something to make me sweeter

Oh baby refrain

From breaking my heart

-- Erasure, A little Respect

She supposed it was karma that had come back and bit her in the butt.

Maggie Stone was not the superstitious sort, but she had lived in Pine Valley long enough to know that things happened in cycles. For every good thing that happened to someone, something dark and sinister always lurked around the corner.

Years of childhood abuse and a relatively closed nature (flirtatious spunk not withstanding), coupled with a tragedy or two, probably hadn't helped the less than optimistic outlook. She was lucky, she knew that, to have Bianca and her never ending positive energy in her life in any way, shape or form.

Biting her lip, Maggie dug further into her root beer float, swirling the dripping mixture with her condensing spoon, wiping off the moisture with her thumb and lifting it from the glass, watching the melted icecream slither off of it to plop back into the root beer fuzz. Ten feet away, her best friend continued to prattle on, taking slender fingers and pushing back a few strands of glossy black hair behind a perfectly shaped ear, flirting with her long distance girlfriend.

She was terribly, horribly lucky.

Maggie slumped further down into her seat, hiding her grimace and the hateful feeling in her gut behind her glass of ice cream and soda, wrinkling her nose at the mixture, now utterly nauseous as Bianca continued to flirt horribly.

Even before all the confusion came with Lena and Bianca, she would hear them flirt and cringe. Bianca was just a bad flirt. Bianca was really, really bad at flirting, and Maggie knew - she was an expert flirt. She knew all about how to do the secret smiles and subtle touches, the long smoldering looks and the 'come hither' stare. She was good at flirting, she knew exactly what to do.

With a guy.

This feeling, this love that came with Bianca, she had no idea what to do with. Three years going and she still had no idea what to do with it, and all that she had come closer to figuring out was that there were moments where she knew for certain she wanted to kiss Bianca, and the startling clarity that if there were no more guys, ever, it wouldn't matter as long as Bianca was there, as long as there was a chance that Bianca would be with her, and to hell with the rest.

Still, one confusing admission later, and things were still exactly where they'd been for the past year. Maggie, sitting at her counter, watching Bianca glow and flirt horribly, creating a painful twist in her gut and a literal throb in her chest. The only difference was that now, thanks to Lena and Bianca's horrible ineptness at cutesey flirting, root beer floats had been forever ruined.

Thank you, Lena, for taking away another thing that I didn't know I loved until it was much, much too late, she thought sardonically, shifting her eyes to stare mournfully at the pitiful state of her float, a half melted mess.

"I love you too!"

She sighed, shoving away the float, and folding her hands on top of each other on the kitchen counter, eyes roving after the roaming Bianca.

Karmic, she decided. This was all some sort of karmic payback designed to teach her some sort of lesson, because forever ago, Bianca had wanted her and told her that they'd figure this whole mess out, and Maggie had rather decided, she would much rather stick with the cock than try to deal with that, thank you very much.

Head falling down to her arms, she continued to track Bianca as she wore paces in her living room carpet, focusing on Bianca's smile and special laugh.

Yeah. That had really worked out well.

Karmic. Payback. Bitch.

It was when she realized Bianca was wrapping up her session of 'Bad Flirting with the Hot Polish Geek' that she managed to suck herself out of her pity party, already rolling her eyes as they exchanged another round of "I Love You"s and "I'll see you soon" and sucking her breath, pasting on the stupid, idiotic smile that said, 'I'm okay with Lena! She's the awesomest'.

By the time Bianca hung up the home and directed her gorgeous smile in her direction, Maggie was already grinning painfully, ear to ear. "Two calls in two days!" she said, in an overly chipper tone that, when she heard herself, made her nearly cringe. "Bet those phone bills must be piling up!"

Bianca shrugged, smiling humbly as she placed the phone back in it's cradle and settled on the big orange couch. "I think she's trying to butter me up," she said simply. "You know, getting me to Poland, the new approach."

"Wheedling you down with kindness?" Maggie asked, coming around to settle in beside her, mouth aching from the stupid smile and throat sore now from her purposely chirpy tone. "Is it working?"

Bianca's dark eyes were thoughtful, picking at a stray strand of lint on couch. "She really wants me to go, Maggie, and I should, shouldn't I? She's my girlfriend. I love Lena."

Maggie remembered distinctly having this conversation weeks ago. My life. It's a broken record. Still, she knew how to play her part. "So you should go, right?"

Her friend was still, eyes downcast, and suddenly, she shifted, long legs settling into Maggie's lap, hands reaching for hers, caressing Maggie's palm idly.

It would drive her crazy forever, the fact that Bianca didn't understand that doing this, tended to drive her crazy.

"She joked about me and Babe," Bianca said simply, smoothing her finger over Maggie's suddenly sensitized skin, completely oblivious to Maggie's hitched breath. "I mean, she hid it with this laugh, but I really think she's worried. Maggie, I don't know what to do. How do I explain to Lena that something's holding me back and not get her angry with me?"

Maggie opened her mouth, but nothing really came out. Her mind had become a little splintered, thanks to Bianca's foot shifting in her lap, dangerously close to her pleasure zone, and Bianca's incessant fingers caressing her own.

Her mouth shut again when she realized she was gaping like a fish, and trying hard to recover, she settled for a half hearted shrug, sliding out from under Bianca's legs, and giving Bianca back her hands, pasting on the stupid cheery smile.

"I'm really sure you'll think of something." Bianca's hopeful expression dropped, and Maggie got a look that clearly signified that Bianca thought she had just lost a few brain cells, but at the moment, Maggie was a little too flustered to care. "Look, I really have to go, okay? I have to meet someone for a study date, and I'm late. I'm really, really late. For a study date. It's at eight."

She blinked, suddenly aware that she had rhymed. She's turned me into a Loony White Rabbit from a story dreamed up by a stoned weirdo. Nice.

"Maggie..." Bianca began, mouth curling down into a worried frown. "Are you okay? Did I say-"

"No! I'm just late!" She fumbled for her keys, pushing one arm into the whole of the hastily grabbed jacket. "I gotta go! For the study group! Don't wait up!"

"Okay, if you're sure-"

"I'm sure!" she babbled, already at the door, smiling as she used the momentum to shut it behind her. Collapsing against the door, Maggie closed her eyes, suddenly intent on nursing her way through her furiously beating heart and ragged breathing.

It really was the dumbest thing she had ever done, when she had let Bianca to move in with her.

Opening her eyes, Maggie pushed off the door, and shuffled a few feet from it, digging her hands into Jamie's jacket.

It was then that she realized that in her haste to escape from her frustration and inability to control herself, she had just left her own apartment with no money, no keys, and nowhere to go for several hours.

Maggie sighed, eyes closing in annoyed resigned self-pity. She used to be normal. Now, she was pathetic and desperate and in love with someone who didn't love her back, and worst of all, Bianca knew.

She allowed herself one more glare at the door, before she trotted away from it, in the direction of the elevators, wondering where the hell she was going to go for a few hours.

Karmic. Payback. Bitch.

end chapter