Do not read this story if you have to have a happy ending.

This was written for a one shot challenge at Soap Fan Fiction.

The only reason I am not posting this within my Give Me Tonight one shot series is because I want this story to go into the Cooper and Maxie C2.

The challenge: Your favorite couple or characters are on the run from someone(s) who is after them.

Well my favorite couple is Jason and Carly from GH but I couldn't come up with a good reason they might be on the run. Jason could easily kill whoever was chasing them without much trouble. They could run from the cops but dragging along 2 or 3 kids would certainly slow them down.

Anyway, I chose to write about Maxie and Cooper instead. Since I think it is getting harder and harder for that man to survive for much longer in Port Charles.

For a Time

"You can run or you can die. Don't think there are any other options left. There aren't. Now" his tone was harsh but his eyes were bright with unshed tears "...go."

Those words spoken by Logan Hayes sent his best friend fleeing from Port Charles. It was that or put a bullet into Cooper like Sonny had ordered. Or refuse and let Jason Morgan put one in both of them.

Logan risked his own life to save his friend. It wasn't the first time he had, and he would again in an instant. Cooper didn't even have to think about if he would do the same. He would lay his life down for Logan or Maxie or his country without hesitation. But he didn't want to die in some mob dispute that had nothing to do with him.

For too long now Cooper had been playing both sides of the fence. He hadn't meant to get stuck in the middle of Sonny and Jerry. He only wanted out but neither man offered that choice. Cooper walked the fine line for a month but eventually Sonny found out Cooper had helped to keep Jerry out of prison by stealing evidence from the PCPD. There was only one word the mob boss had for that- betrayal- and only one punishment that would do- death.

Without Logan's warning he would be dead right now. Cooper drove along the highway at 70 miles an hour putting mile after mile between him and Port Charles, as the sun fell from the sky and darkness engulfed the car.

She slept curled up in the passenger seat. He smiled at how innocent she looked, yet Maxie Jones was anything but that.

Wild. Bold. Reckless. Intense. Loyal. Headstrong. Crazy. She's everything insane and beautiful in the world, he thought.

Cooper knew he should have left her behind. They had only known each other a few months. It shouldn't be so hard to imagine living without her already. But it was and now they were stuck racing away from upstate New York and trying to live long enough to kiss each other again, to lay together skin on skin, to make promises, and keep secrets, to love each other today and tomorrow and make some sort of life together.

He wanted to believe they could get away...disappear and never let the past catch up to them again...but Cooper wasn't sure that was really possible.

He could feel a clock ticking. It might already be too late.

( Who can say where the road goes?

Where the day flows?

Only time.

And who can say
if your love grows?

As your heart shows.

Only time.) ( Enya)

XXXXXXXXX

HOURS EARLIER

"Don't..." he warned, as he stood in his room above Kelly's. He held his suitcase in one hand, his other gripped hers. "say it. You can't come with me and I can't stay. Just accept it and know that...you made all my time here...precious to me...you made me feel like someone better than I am...I'll never forget all you've done for me or how you trusted me when I gave you every reason not to."

Most women would cry at that point. But her eyes only got more determined. "If you mean all that... then I think you must love me."

He whispered her name.

She went on, "And if you do love me, Coop, then you can't go off and leave me. You have to stay or take me with you."

A thousand reasons why he couldn't do either filled his mind. Instead of speaking, he leaned down and caught her lips in a kiss that he intended to be their last. But she simply wasn't having that. She deepened the kiss, and soon it was filled with desperation as she silently begged him to find a way from them to be together.

"I'm so sorry, baby," he said as he pulled away. Cooper started to walk past her. His hand closed around the doorknob and he stilled.

He could hear angry sobs escaping her, even as she tried to hold them back.

"Sorry doesn't do a damn thing for me," Maxie said "I love you. How can you do this to me? I was wrong, wasn't I? You don't love me at all."

"I love you enough to give you up. I might not even be alive for much longer, if Sonny catches up to me..."

"I want whatever time you have. I'll walk out of my life right now, without even packing a bag, if you say you love me, Cooper. Say it. Say you want me to come with you. Just say it, please! Or just go and forget you ever knew me cause if you walk out on me now I will never take you back. I'll hate you till the second I die. But I don't want to spend my life hating you...I want to love you...you're all I want...don't you want me anymore? If you love me the slightest bit..."

Though he knew it was selfish and wrong to put her into this mess he made, Cooper Barret simply couldn't stand to leave her like that.

Turning around, he opened his arms and she rushed into them. He dropped his head to bury it in her hair. "If I love you, baby? Come on, now, you know... I've loved you all along...you didn't give me a lot of choice in that one...but it's not like I wanted any either."

(Who can say
why your heart sighs
as your love flies?

Only time

And who can say
why your heart cries

when your love lies?

Only time.)

XXXXXXXX

Maxie had said she would never regret going with him. He feared that wasn't true- that regrets would stalk them for all the days of their lives from now on- but he was willing to risk that.

She was still asleep, lost in her dreams, when his cell phone rang.

"Three."

"I can't help you anymore, One."

"I heard you turned tail and ran like a coward. Sonny is highly irate. It's quite amusing, actually."

"You're twisted. The way you enjoy messing with people's lives..."

"You didn't mind it when we were robbing the hotel. You were a good little solider that night. Come back and be one again. I could still use your connections inside the police department."

"Find someone else. I'm finished with you, Sonny, and that town."

"I expected more but then again I had my suspicions you weren't the type to be able to last much longer in this game we're playing."

"Well, enjoy your game. This pawn has left the board."

Jerry laughed. "Not quite yet, but soon."

"I'm out. I'm gone. You and Sonny keep this up much longer and you'll both end up in early graves."

"Not before you, though."

Cooper felt a cold chill come over his body.

Jerry went on, "You see, mate, I always take out insurance. You shouldn't have accepted that drink from me the other day. There's a nice lethal dose of poison running through your veins right now and if you don't get the antidote in three hours you'll be dead. Would have told you sooner but you left without even saying good bye. Bad manners, really. Now I suggest you high tail it back here and go back to being my eyes and ears at the police station. Hope you are not too far from home."

"You're lying."

"See you soon or in hell. You choose." Jerry hung up.

Cooper let the phone slip from his hand. His eyes darted back over to Maxie again. They had been on the road ten hours, driving faster than the speed limit the whole time. He had a headache and felt bone tired but he attributed that to the stress of the day.

There was no way to get back to Port Charles in time to save himself, if Jerry was telling the truth. He pulled over at the first hotel he saw, parked the car, and walked around to Maxie's door.

He lifted her out, and her eyes fluttered open. "Hey, there, why are we stopping?"

Leaning close to her, his voice low and tear choked, Cooper Barret told Maxie Jones the truth. "Cause I want to make love to you."

Later, in their room, he held her naked body close to him and made sure to keep his eyes off the clock. His breathing became shallow. She was asleep again. He kissed her head.

"I've been prepared to die since the war..." he had once told Sonny.

That was true then. But now- here with this woman he loved with his whole soul- Cooper wasn't ready to leave this earth yet.

Still, he knew, you don't die when you're ready. You die when it is your time.

He hated to let go of her for even a second but he crawled from the bed anyway and wrote a few letters- to Logan, his mom, his aunt, the father he never met, to the cops, and to her, his only love in life.

Then he curled up next to Maxie once more, as he gasped for air and fought off the panic that was starting to take over. He prayed she didn't wake up till morning." So sorry, baby. You deserved better..."

He was surprised how this felt. It didn't hurt as much as he thought it might, not in his body. It was his mind that caused the agony, as image after image of the life he had wanted to give her flashed behind his eyes.

The face a blue eyed little boy with her smile kept coming back over and over, then Maxie wearing a wedding dress, him carrying her over a threshold, them both walking on a beach fifty years from now, his infant son smiling, Maxie kissing Cooper in the rain on some perfect summer day that he would never see now.

Each word was choked out as he felt himself losing the final battle of his life,
"Love...you...always...Maxie...always..."

I'll see you again, baby, one day.

(Who can say
when the roads meet
that love might be
in your heart?

And who can say
when the day sleeps
if the night keeps
all your heart?

Night keeps, all your heart...
Who knows - only time

Who knows - only time...)

THE END

Note- I rarely write tragedies but for this challenge contest I wanted to go for maximum emotional impact.