Revisiting these stories, and cleaning them up.

"Max has been shot! The mayor has been shot," Kenny Lacos screamed into his radio, as he cradled her in his arms. He was vaguely aware of Jimmy and Skeeter grabbing Stubby Miller, and Carter and Jill kneeling down beside him. He couldn't take his eyes off of her face because this was his Max, and she couldn't leave him now. Not after everything that we've been through. Damn it, he thought, don't you dare die on me Max. I need you.

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Jill and Carter were trying to stop the bleeding, and he could feel her growing cold in his arms. Kenny ran his fingers through her short blond hair, and reluctantly let the paramedics carry her away. He caught a glance of Stubby out of the corner of his eye, and it took every bit of self restraint he possessed not to got over there and throttle the guy. Rage, regret and hurt boiled in his gut, as he watched the ambulance pull out of the parking lot. There was so much left unsaid between us, Kenny thought to himself, as he tried to keep his emotions in check. He had to be strong for her because when she pulled through this, well then they would have that talk. The one that they had been skirting around since they had first broken up eight months ago. The one they started the night of Zach's thirteenth birthday. Both of them chipping away at each other's walls, and getting to the core of the problem.

"You said I looked like a whore," Max said hoarsely. "You were mean to me, and your mean to me a lot. Just little things, to make me think I'm paranoid. But I'm not paranoid, am I?"

"Listen, Max, when people are together, and they go through things, and it ends. Sometimes hurt, comes out mean."

Jimmy laid a hand on his shoulder, bringing him back to reality. Silently they walked out to the parking lot to follow the ambulance to the hospital.

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"We've got her stabilized," Dr. Jill Brock, said quietly. "But there has been a lot of internal damage."

"She's going to be okay though?" Kenny asked, trying to keep the fear and desperation out of his voice. "Jill?"

Jill paused for a moment, not wanting to give out false hope. "Max is in a coma, and her body needs time to recover. She's young and strong, but the bullets caused severe bleeding. If she pulls out the coma in the next 48 hours, there is a good chance that she will recover."

"What are her chances of pulling out of it?" Jimmy asked his wife because Max was like a second daughter to him, and the thought of losing that relationship was eating him up inside.

Jill took a deep breath before replying. "We always like to hold out hope, but in cases like this…. Her chances are under 10%."

Kenny inhaled sharply, and felt like someone just kicked him in his groin. The pain was that bad. "Are you sure?" he croaked, as he felt his heart break.

Jill looked at him, with sympathy in her eyes, and nodded. "Yes."

"Can I go sit with her?" he asked. "I need to. I just want to be with her."

"Of course," Jill said quietly, she could almost feel the pain radiating off of him. She had watched these two dance around each other for years before finally admitting their feelings for each other. When they broke up over something as stupid as hair color, she wanted to shake them. Looking at Kenny then, she could see the same regret and hurt chasing across his face. This wasn't supposed to happen to people, friends, so young.

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Kenny stared down at Max, and she was almost as pale as the sheets she lay on. He stroked her cheek gently, and took her small hand between his two large ones, and tried to will her fingers to move. Just show some sign of life, he thought. C'mon Max, you can do this, don't let some moron with a gun end your life this way.

"Come back to me," he whispered.

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Max watched Kenny sit by her body from the other side of the room. She wanted to go over to him, and wrap pull him into her arms. Tell him that she was here, and everything would be all right. It was weird to see herself like that, to be outside herself, and not know how to get back in. She tried to talk to him, but he couldn't hear her. And it scared her, to see him hurt like that. In all of the years that they had known each other, she had never seen him torn up like that.

"Kenny," she called. "Please, I'm here. Please see me!"

"He can't," a familiar voice said from the window. "You're in different places now."

Max whirled around, and gaped when she saw Howard Buss sitting on the window sill. "Howard," she gasped. "But you're dead! Oh, shit. Shit. Am I…. I must be. Shit. Howard, am I… dead?"

Howard smiled, and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Maxine, take a deep breath. You're not dead, at least not yet. You have an important decision to make, and I'm here to help."

"A decision?" she asked numbly.

"Come with me," Howard said, extending his hand. "I have to show you before you can decide."

"Decide what?" Max said stepping back, and looking over at Kenny again.

"He'll be fine," Howard said, following her gaze.

"But," Max began, not wanting to leave him again.

"There's no time for arguing! Time is short," Howard proclaimed. "We won't be gone long."
Max reached out to meet his hand, and in an instant they were gone.

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"He's been in there a long time," Joey Diamond said to Jill, as they observed through the window. "Just sitting there."

"They're both so young," Jill replied. "I think they've left a lot unsaid between them."

Joey looked in the window again, and was taken back at the pain on Kenny's face. She hadn't known them as long as the others, but whatever they had between them obviously wasn't finished yet. Sighing, she went back to her rounds.

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Kenny didn't know how long he sat there in silence, just listening to the sound of the machines connected to Max's body.

"I'm not really sure what I should say to you," he began. "Max, I'm not really good at this. Talking about my feelings. You know that though? When you first told me that you were in love with me, well you know how long it took me to say it back. You're my best friend, despite everything that happened. And, I still love you. Always have, and always will. Don't you dare even think about dying on me."

Kenny lapsed into silence again, and prayed that everything would be alright. He needed his faith right now.

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"Where are we?" Max asked, as she and Howard entered a great room, with soaring ceilings and pale gold walls. She spun around, everything seemed so bright, and untarnished. So perfect, so untouched by the world. The light filtered in from the high windows sparkled with flecks of silver, and she felt so warm and welcome.

"This is, it's kind of an in between place," Howard said. "Kind of a gateway to Heaven if you will."

"What are we doing here?"

"You're here to make a decision," Howard said. "You can either go back to your life, or you can travel up to Heaven."

"Heaven?" Max asked dumbly. "Then I'll be dead."

It didn't seem like such a bad option at that moment, standing in that light. She felt more at home than she ever did back in Rome. More content, safer, and she felt at peace.

Howard led her to some cushions, and they sat, as a floating picture appeared in front of them.

"I'm giving you a picture of what life would be like back on earth," Howard said. "The good and the bad."

Max nodded slowly, as she watched her future unravel in front of her.

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"Kenny, go home. Get some sleep," Jill said gently, entering Max's room later that night.

Kenny looked up at Jill, and she could see the exhaustion in his eyes. He had been sitting for ten hours, and his back was throbbing and his legs screamed to be stretched.

"I'm not going to leave her alone here."

"Kenny," Jill began.

"What if she wakes up? I don't want her to be here alone," Kenny snapped. "She deserves better then that."

"Max wouldn't want you to torture yourself like this," Jill said quietly. "You know that."

"I can't leave her here," Kenny choked out. "I need her, Jill. She's the best part of my life. Anything else I could lose, and I could survive. Not Max though. She's everything."

Jill swallowed at his passion, she never heard Kenny express himself quite so forcefully before, at least with words. And she wondered if Max ever had. If she had really ever known the depth of Kenny's feelings for her.

"Okay," Jill said nodding and gesturing to his blood stained shirt. "Let me see if I can find you something clean to put on."

Kenny smiled slightly, and returned to his vigil.

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Max watched as the images swam across her vision. Her parents were coming to visit her, in Rome . Something they had never done before. She cringed as she saw her father yelling, and raising his hands. Her mother was cowering in the corner, and herself falling to the floor after a hard slap by her father. Her father being dragged away by her co-workers and friends. The image changed then, and she saw Danny Shreve. Her ex-boyfriend, who got a little jealous and crazy. His face was twisted into something ugly and savage, and she could feel the hatred in him. Max yelped as his hands reached out for her, and she could almost feel him touching her.

"Make it stop!" she yelled at Howard. "Why do you have to show me this!"

Howard smiled sadly at her. "There's more."

Max whipped her head around to the images in front of her, and Danny was gone. The image had changed again, and it was almost peaceful compared to the others. She saw herself, her hair long and red again, chasing after three children in a big backyard with a wide smile on her face. Three little kids, and Kenny was there beside her. Max felt a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth, as she watched the happy family. She wrapped her arms around herself, as they laughed. She longed to cuddle the children in front of her because they were hers. And Kenny's.

The images faded slowly, as Max began to tremble. "Is that how my life is going to turn out?" she whispered.

"That's the plan," Howard nodded solemnly. "There's a lot of pain, and a lot of love waiting for you, Maxine. Everything you saw doesn't have to happen, but it might depending on the decisions you make in your life."

"I don't know if I can handle seeing Danny again, or my parents," Max admitted slowly.

"It's up to you," Howard continued. "But why don't we go back to the hospital?"

Max took one last look at the cavernous room, and followed Howard back to where they started from.

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"Max, can you hear me at all?" Kenny asked after Jill had left. "Just give me something here. Anything so that I know you're here."

The still form in the bed didn't move, not a flicker of anything. Kenny took her hand again, and tried to tune out the humming of the machines. He concentrated everything on Max.

"We both said some things we can't take back," he began as he thought back over their fights in the past eight months. "But we could try again. It scared me, Max, and you know how much it kills to me admit I'm scared. You and me, I knew that what we had was the real thing, and I think you knew it too. We were both looking for a reason to run because were both such, I'm not sure what we are. Commitment phobic, maybe? This scares me more though, that maybe you'll never know all of this. That you'll… die, and never know what you mean to me."

Kenny took a deep breath, and studied Max again for any sign of movement or change. He laid her hand gently back down by her side, and buried his face in hands.

Max and Howard watched this scene from the window, and Max struggled to hold back tears. She turned to Howard, trembling, and then back to Kenny.

"Oh, Kenny. I'm here, I'm here," Max whispered, knowing he couldn't hear her. "And I love you too."

"I need a decision," Howard asked slowly, seeing the emotions on Maxine's face, as she watched her partner, friend, and future husband. Howard smiled to himself, watching these two young people.

Max turned to Howard, as she thought of the pain that going back would bring, and how she would have to deal with her parents again. Danny too. She shuddered to think of what was going to happen there. She looked back at Kenny, and the feeling of contentment came flooding back into her.

"I want to stay here," she whispered. "I need to stay here."

"Are you sure? You have some challenges ahead of you," Howard asked carefully. not wanting to sway her decision.

"I can handle them," Max replied. "I need too. I have unfinished stuff down here."

"Okay then," Howard agreed, giving her a slight push towards the bed.

Max felt herself falling back then, and then there was nothing but darkness.

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Zachary Brock entered the room then with a cheerful, "Hi Kenny!"

"Zach," Kenny replied.

"I heard that music was good for people in comas," Zach continued, as he placed a tape recorder on the table.

"Zach, Max isn't exactly," Kenny began, as the theme song from "Annie" began to play.

"The sun will come out," Zach sang along with the tape.

Kenny had to smile at the kid's enthusiasm, and he turned back to Max.

"Hmm," came a groan from the bed. "No. No."

"Max," Kenny whispered incredulously, leaning over her. "Max."

"I'm in hell. And someone is singing songs from Annie," Max muttered.

"You're not in hell, Max. That's Zach singing," Kenny replied, a wide smile on his face, as he leaned down to kiss her on her forehead.

"Kenny," Max muttered again, cracking her eyes open to look at him.

"Oh, Max," Kenny whispered, holding her hand in his, as Zach finished the song.