Title: "Paging Dr. Stone"

Author: carpesomediem

E-Mail: carpesomediem[at]gmail.com

Fandom: All My Children

Characters: Bianca/Maggie

Rating: G

Warning/Spoilers: Agnes Nixon created it, ABC produced it and still airs it, and well the writers, they kind of blow at writing it. So, I'm here to fix it. Written for Passion & Perfection's 5000th story celebration. This is definitely the start of something more, eventually.

Summary: Maggie's finishing her residency in Pine Valley, and Bianca returns home to set things right.

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Bianca Montgomery sat nervously in the waiting room. She'd arrived at the hospital shortly after touching down; Kendall met her on the tarmac, taking Miranda home with her to give Bianca the chance to talk to Maggie alone. Nobody knew she'd returned to Pine Valley, beyond Kendall, and that's the way she wanted it to stay.

It was shortly after three in the morning, little of the city would be stirring by now. A light snowfall was covering the grounds outside the hospital, and she watched snowflakes fall lazily before being swallowed by the remnants of heat in the air. Few snowflakes made it through the billowing air, landing on the sidewalk before evaporating back into the sky. 'It's warming up outside,' Bianca mused, before being torn from her reverie.

"Bianca?" It was more of a question than a statement. The shorter, now light brunette, was standing merely five or six feet from the seated Bianca. She rose, slowly, her eyes focusing in on the woman before her. Bianca asking herself, 'What am I doing here?' "What are you doing here?"

"I…" Bianca swallowed, her heart swelling. It'd been close to a year and a half since she'd seen Maggie Stone. In that time, Maggie managed to land herself an internship residency at home in Pine Valley instead of shipping off to some big time medical school elsewhere on the East Coast. "I heard you were back. My mother-"

"-Your mother is a meddling, two-faced-"

'-Maggie!" Bianca snapped. She didn't need another lecture about how Erica Kane's most touching gestures were, well, suited for Erica Kane's benefit alone.

"Sorry," Maggie muttered, half-heartedly, "Habit." She tapped her foot on the ground, more out of sleep deprivation than annoyance. Her eyes managed to roam up, then down Bianca's body out of practice of stealing glances here and there during their time together in the past. She thought she was beyond that, but clearly, she wasn't if the butterflies in her stomach threatened to spill out and force her into a surgery of her own that early morning.

"I know," Bianca broke into a slight smile. "She told me you were back, and I had to come. I had to come and see you. To talk."

"I don't have a lot of time to talk," Maggie interrupted, "I'm working a double."

"That's what the nurse told me."

They stood in a stalemate, a loss of words, for a few minutes appraising one another. Bianca looked healthier, happier over all, but there was something written in her eyes that told another story. Despite the comings and goings in her life, Bianca's home was now in Paris, not in Pine Valley.

That is, until Maggie Stone returned to the city, now it seemed she was torn. Maggie opted to flee the pain and desperation found in Pine Valley for Paris with Bianca when she left, Miranda in tow. However, Maggie never found herself comfortable with the French lifestyle. She needed guidance, a plan, and jumping on the first plane out of the country with Bianca seemed like a good idea at the time. Eventually, the impulsiveness of the decision caught up with her, and she decided to return home to finish her last semester of college and head to med school in the states.

It broke Bianca's heart, since things finally seemed to be on the same page for them. They said their tearful goodbyes, and over time, they both finally accepted that the paths before them were the roads they were meant to travel on. Alone. Now, Bianca's own impulsiveness at returning home threatened that delicate balance they'd found in life without one another, lives on their own. Until now, they'd accepted the inevitable: That fairytales, no matter how real, don't always have a happy ending.

The stalemate was broken when Maggie's pager began chirping. She looked down, frowned at the number, before meeting Bianca's eyes once more. Flickers of the past bubbled to the forefront of both minds, but before they could reflect much, Bianca spoke softly.

"Do you have to go?"

"Yes," Maggie said, a hint of sadness laced in her voice. "It's one of my patients…"

"Oh," Bianca sighed, "When is your shift over?"

"Um," Maggie looked at her watch, critically. "It's about four now, I'm supposed to get off at eight."

"Do you want to get breakfast?" Bianca asked before she could stop herself. She assumed Maggie would want to go out for breakfast, that she'd want to talk, that she'd be given the chance to explain her sudden appearance.

"Sure," Maggie replied without hesitation, relaxing Bianca just a bit. A new energy soared through the doctor's body, something she remembered from past rendezvous with her. Despite how exhausted she felt, she felt as if she could work another three or four shifts before her body collapsed. She could see it now: 'Code Blue! Code Blue! Intern down!' She chuckled at the thought, seeing a small smile form on Bianca's face.

"Then, it's a date," Bianca said without thinking. Her smile gone, a smirk forming on Maggie's face.

"It's a date," her pager went off again as she said it. She looked down, shook her head, "I got to go. I'll see you later." She began jogging down the hall, not daring to look back, fearing her resolve would break.

The moment she spied Bianca as she turned the corner to see her was visiting her, she felt as if the world around her was crumbling down. She'd worked so hard to move on, to get over Bianca, and here she was sitting within her reach once more. It was a dance they'd danced many times before, so many times that Maggie thought this time it might just be different. They'd had resolution, it was over, but the one sight of her – not even having spoken to her, yet – had broken her stone cold resolve. She feared looking back would destroy the remainder of her resolve, she'd already agreed to breakfast. 'A date,' she thought idly, 'It's been a long time since one of those. This is shaping up to be an interesting day, indeed.'

Bianca, meanwhile, had nowhere to go. She watched Maggie disappear around a corner and wondered just where she was off to or whose life she was going to save. It was her dream to be a doctor, to help others in need. Bianca didn’t want to interfere in her pursuit of that dream, asking her to go to Paris was just one way she'd done it in the past. Asking her to stay, to raise Miranda, to be a couple, those were other ways. She'd come to realize she had to let Maggie go in order for her to find her own way in life, and that's what she did, even if Maggie didn’t understand it at the time. Especially after everything that happened to them over the last few years.

So, she resigned herself to the uncomfortable waiting room chair she'd been sitting in waiting for Maggie to make her appearance. She decided to wait, despite the little voice in her head saying run; if she didn't stay, she feared her own resolve would break, and she'd be back on a return flight to France within the hour. Her fears found their way to the surface, and all she could do now was wait.


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