A Damaged Perfection

Chapter Ninety Eight: Epilogue

August 20th, 2009

"Okay, say cheese," Lucas said, as he stood in Maxie's living room, getting ready to snap a shot of Cooper, Maxie and Brandon, who were all on the couch together.

Maxie leaned close to Cooper, who was holding their son, and smiled.

She never thought this would be her life. This good, happy, sane existence.

Maxie Jones always had it in her head that she was dirty...that Luis Alcazar made her dirty and that sweet girl she once was before he touched her was lost forever...that every man who looked at her would see that invisible stain on her. The jerks would use it to try and break her. The good guys to try and save her. But both would fail.

That is what she thought until the day that she confessed what Luis did to her to Cooper....and he helped her start to let go of that pain for the first time in her life.

Still, she figured God would not let her enjoy too much happiness for too long, that either her or her baby would die tragically, but that hadn't happened, and now things were going so well that she stopped believing it ever would.

Cooper changed what she believed about her fate. He made her his wife, his partner in crime, and the mother of his son. He made her what she always thought was meant for everyone but her: loved enough to stop living in fear. Loved enough to believe in forever.

Whenever she looked at him holding Brandon, life was simple and good, and right.

"Brie," said Maxie as Lucas snapped the photo. At the same time, Cooper laughed and Brandon opened his mouth to let out one of his now trademark angry wails. They came out of nowhere and ended just as abruptly as they started-sorta like a baby battle cry.

And in that blissful family moment Maxie's life felt the way she never would have guessed a few year back it could turn out. Perfect, finally.

XXXXXXXXX

Logan had been counting the days until Georgie would come back from Europe. As it got closer, he started counting the hours, then the minutes, and now he was counting the seconds while he stood at Port Charles International Airport.

The summer had been packed with life changing events, one after another. He had spent six weeks as a paramedic trainee but finally he was off probation and working full shifts. Every night after work he stopped by to see Brandon for a little while, and usually ending up having dinner with Cooper and Maxie.

Logan also joined a basketball league at the community center to work off steam...since hitting the bars was no longer an option. He didn't need to give Mac a reason to run him in for drunk and disorderly conduct again. The man was grudgingly learning to accept the fact that Logan was a part of his family, but Logan wasn't trying to push his luck. He knew he needed to keep his nose clean from now on, for the sake of his son.

Most things Logan did that summer where about making a good life for Brandon and Georgie.

Part of that, he decided, was that he needed to move so he rented a three bedroom, two bath house. It wasn't nearly as new or nice as Cooper and Maxie's place but it was a great improvement over his apartment. Spinelli helped him set up a security system. Maxie did the decorating.

Logan hadn't done any entertaining at his house yet because it didn't really feel like a home. He hoped that once Georgie was there, it would though. He didn't spend a lot of time in his new place, it only made him miss her more. He would walk the hard wood floors at night, reading and re-reading the letters she sent him and printouts of her emails, and missing his girl.

The girl that he almost was too blind to notice wanted him, just a year before. The girl that he almost pushed away, because she was too good for him. The girl who wouldn't give up on him. His girl.

He was sweating slightly in nervous anticipation as passengers started to come off the flight. When he finally caught sight of her, time slowed, the crowd disappeared and all he could see was her.

How hadn't he fallen in love with her the first second they ever met? He didn't know. She was undoubtedly the most beautiful woman who ever wanted him as her man.

As their eyes met across the crowded airport, a smile curved over her lips. She dropped her bag and ran into his arms. Logan lifted her up, hugging her close to him. "You're back, doll." Soon their lips had found their way to each other, as they shared a series of short, intense kisses until they were both breathless and then Logan set her back down.

Her hand came up to caress his cheek. "I really missed this face. I can't leave it behind again."

He smiled, leaning his forward against hers. "Well, lets not be worrying about next month right now. I want to get you home and enjoy the time we have before you start your year abroad. You ready to go, girl?"

Logan went and picked up her bag, walked back to her and took her hand.

Georgie said "I made up my mind a while ago. I didn't want to tell you until I could do it in person. I turned down the offer to study abroad this school year."

"But-"

"Do not try and talk me out of it. This is where I belong. This is where I want to be.....You will never understand how much I missed you."

He stared in her eyes for a long moment, and then he said, softly "I get it. Because I was missing you just as badly right back."

XXXXXXXX

May 6th, 2018

"Happy Birthday, BJ!" yelled all the party guests who were gathered around the Quartermaine living room.

It had become a tradition that the Quatermaines would throw Brandon a party, any theme that he wanted, and then the following weekend Georgie and Logan would take him on a camping trip.

Since Logan grew up in a small town in Texas, he had spent his childhood skipping rocks on rivers, fishing, hiking, tubing, and sleeping under the stars on warm summer nights. He wanted to make sure his kids had all the same kind of experiences.

It had been seven years since Georgie became his wife, five years since she published her first novel- a mystery set in southern France- and nearly four years since she gave birth to their daughter, Andrea.

They had moved several times over the years and finally settled into a Victorian style house on the outskirts of town. It had six bedrooms, which worked out well when Christina needed a place to crash after having yet another fight with Lucy over Michael Corinthos. Some things, no matter how many years went by, didn't seem to change. Christina had been sure that boy was the one for her, and now that man was still the only one in all of Port Charles that made her smile and made her half crazed all at the same time.

Logan figured that one of these days they would get it all worked out. That didn't stop him from throwing Michael against a wall or two when he made his sister cry, but what did he expect? Baldwins were known for their tempers. Logan told Christina she could stay at his place as long as she needed. She came and went as the mood- or arguement- struck her.

The other guest bedroom was used when his mother visited from Texas, or when Maxie and Cooper sent the kids over for sleepovers.

Since Maxie couldn't give birth to any more children, without risking her life, they had found a surrogate. Logan didn't know how Maxie managed to run her own business, hob nob with the snooty crowd of fashion elite that she called her friends, plot and scheme with Sam McCall every time her best friend was getting married or divorced- which was every other year it seemed- keep her own marriage going strong, and also raise four kids but somehow she pulled it off like a pro.

That was Maxie for you. She always got her way in the end.

BJ blew out the candles. His light blue eyes sparkled with mischief.

Ned asked "So what did you wish for this time?"

"A million dollars, Gramps." His light blue eyes sparkled with a devilish glint.

They all chuckled.

BJ had his mother's penchant for always wanting more, more, more...and Logan's wild side....if not for also having Cooper's very sweet and tender heart, the kid would have been headed straight for juvenile hall.

Lucky for him he had a big family, made up of half the town, and there was no way they would let him get too far off track without jerking him right back into line.

He couldn't get away with anything- between his grandfather the police commission, his grandfather the prosecutor, and his father the cop. But that didn't mean BJ didn't try to anyway.

Shaking her head at BJ's answer, Maxie joked to Logan "He gets the greedy gene from you."

Logan told her, with traces of his bad boy grin from a decade back still lingering on the corner of his lips, "Nah, darlin, I'm sure he gets it from you."

Andrea, in her four year old baby talk, asked Logan "Daddy, do I gots the greenly gene? I gots brown eyes, nots greens."

Picking up his daughter, Logan said "Let me see." He tickled her stomach as she laughed. "No greedy gene in here. Where is it? I can't find it."

"Uncle Cooper," Andrea cried "save me from the tickle monster!"

Laughing and squealing she jumped out of Logan's arms and into Cooper's. It was just another typical day in their crazy intertwined lives. A day of family, of love, and memories.

A day that never would have happened if not for the mistakes and missteps of the past, if not for forgiveness and second chances, if not for the crazy twist of fate that made Logan and Cooper brothers before they even realized that both their fathers lived in the same town, and the women they were meant to marry were sisters....before they hurt each other...before they nearly lost it all... before forever even started they became brothers, in their hearts.

And when this life ended, they would be brothers still. Two fathers for one lucky little boy who never thought of his perfect life as being even the little bit damaged. They had outgrown their damaged perfection, and turned it into just simple perfection.

Because that is what their boy deserved.

"Happy birthday, BJ," said Felicia, Frisco, Harlan, Lila Quatermaine and Barbara Jean as they stood behind him, watching over him like they had every day of his life, making sure it all worked out just the way it had been planned out from the start. Making sure that this perfection never got damaged again.

THE END

Thank you so much for reading this story. Its been a very long journey. I appreciate everyone who went along on this ride with me.

Sara