Chapter 25  <br><p> 



"Felicia, let me help you with the dishes before the 
girls get back," Bobbie offered, helping to clear the 
table after the two friends finished dinner. "What 
time did Mac say he'd be back with Maxie and Georgie?"  <br><p> 

Remembering how Mac brusquely refused her offer to 
have dinner here for the four of them - Mac, Felicia, 
and the girls - Felicia sighed, responding, "Mac knows 
that this is a school night. He'll have them back here 
by 9 p.m. at the latest."  <br><p> 

"Well then let's put the dishes in the dishwasher now. 
I want to talk to you before the girls get home."  <br><p> 

A few minutes later, Felicia and Bobbie were relaxing 
on the sofa drinking coffee. Taking a big gulp of the 
strong coffee in order to strengthen her resolve, 
Bobbie sincerely hoped that Felicia would listen to 
what she was about to say.  <br><p> 

"I haven't had a chance to comment on that news 
broadcast the other night," she began.  <br><p> 

"Wasn't it brilliant?" Felicia gushed, interrupting 
Bobbie. "Mac is so blinded by his affair with Dara he 
isn't seeing it in its true light, as everyone else 
sees it. Maybe the report opened his eyes to the 
reality of what he's doing."  <br><p> 

"Felicia, this is me, Bobbie. Do you mean to tell me 
you really think that report was fair? It basically 
said that Mac abandoned you and the girls to run off 
and have an office affair with Dara Jensen."  <br><p> 

Puzzled by her friend's question, Felicia defended the 
depiction of the news report. "That's exactly what he 
did do, Bobbie. That woman had the nerve to call me 
promiscuous in open court on the witness stand during 
Luke's trial." Still feeling the sting of that 
humiliation, Felicia was more than happy to air Dara's 
dirty laundry in public. "After using her position of 
ADA to embarrass me in public and destroy our 
marriage, she immediately went after Mac to seduce 
him." Felicia's voice dripped with venom as she made 
her accusations. "If anything, the report didn't focus 
enough on Dara's role in our separation. I know Bonnie 
is planning a follow-up report to the story and I'm 
going to suggest that it should focus more on Port 
Charles' wonderful ADA. ...that tramp."  <br><p> 

During Felicia's diatribe a stunned Bobbie Spencer sat 
mute holding her coffee cup in mid-air as she 
listened. She placed her cup on the coffee table and 
used both hands to firmly grasp Felicia hands. Knowing 
it was useless to try and shake some sense into 
Felicia, she instead attempted to reason with her. 
"Felicia, look at what this is doing to yourself, and 
possibly doing to the girls. You all will have to live 
the rest of your lives with the fallout of this. You 
know, Mac can fire back with some potent ammunition of 
his own. Just because he is generally a nice guy, 
don't count on it keeping him from defending himself - 
or Dara." Watching Felicia wince, she knew that her 
words were painful for Felicia to hear. In a pleading 
tone of voice Bobbie hoped to get through to Felicia. 
"I'm saying this because I care about you, not Mac or 
Dara. Don't go down this road to try and get Mac back. 
It's wrong and I don't think that it will work."  <br><p> 

With a frown on her face, Felicia freed herself from 
Bobbie's grasp. "No, you're wrong Bobbie, not my plan. 
I'm going to do whatever it takes to get Mac back and 
he will come back, because in the end that is where he 
belongs, here at home with the girls and me. I thought 
that you would be more supportive." Felicia was 
peeved. Of all people she expected the most support 
for her plans from Bobbie, whom she considered her 
best friend.  <br><p> 

"I am your friend Felicia, and friends are obligated 
to be truthful with one another. Even though I thought 
you might get hurt, I held my tongue when you and Luke 
became involved, because I know from experience people 
tend ignore advice when it comes to matters of the 
heart. But I could have told you from the beginning, 
no matter how much she and I have our differences, 
Laura is the only woman Luke with ever truly love." <br><p> 

Listening to Bobbie recite how much Luke loved Laura 
was too much for Felicia to handle. "Stop, Bobbie. 
Just stop. I don't need to hear anything else you have 
to say tonight. Please just go now."  <br><p> 

Reluctantly, Bobbie departed just as Mac, Georgie, and 
Maxie arrived at the house. The girls were bubbling 
with details of the evening they spent with Mac at his 
apartment. Georgie exclaimed that she wanted to play 
chess after watching the video Searching for Bobby 
Fisher that evening while Maxie handed Felicia some of 
the chocolate chip cookies they'd baked. Seeing how 
happy the girls were after being with Mac and sensing 
he was anxious to leave, Felicia cattily commented 
with a smirk, "Well, I'm glad you all had a great 
time. It must have been a rare experience for Mac to 
actually spend some time at his apartment these days." 
<br><p> 
Mac clenched his teeth in order to prevent a sharp 
retort to Felicia's remark. Instead, he chose to focus 
on the girls. Smiling at them he said, "You girls need 
to get to bed. Give me a kiss goodnight." Disappointed 
that Mac wasn't staying, Maxie and Georgie gave him a 
kiss and hug and with obvious sadness they went to 
their rooms. Not saying another word, Mac turned and 
went towards the door to leave.  <br><p> 

Infuriated that Mac had not spoken to her once during 
the visit, Felicia was determined not to be ignored. 
"I must say that picture of Dara and you in the 
newspaper this morning was not flattering at all."  <br><p> 

Against his better judgment, Mac stopped just short of 
the door and turned to respond to Felicia's taunt. 
"These days talking to you is a waste of time Felicia. 
I'd do it if I thought we'd get somewhere but now I 
feel it would be a useless effort. I'm going to let 
the lawyers work it all out." <br><p> 

In a threatening tone of voice Felicia responded, 
"You're going to want to talk to me, if fact you'll be 
begging to talk to me, before long. Why are you 
putting us through all of this? Just come home and put 
an end to all of this torment. The girls are 
miserable. Did you just see their faces as they went 
upstairs? You profess to love them but you can't drop 
them off fast enough so you can get back to your 
girlfriend. How can you be so hypocritical?" <br><p> 

Anger, frustration, and borderline rage filled Mac as 
he listened to Felicia. "Hypocritical? Look who's 
taking? How many times last year did you leave them 
and me to run off to God knows where with Luke 
Spencer? How many times did you promise not to see him 
and then end up going off with him again? Why..." Mac 
abruptly stopped himself, angry he had allowed himself 
to get sucked into this who-did-what argument. 
Clenching his hands and willing himself to calm down, 
he continued, "It doesn't matter who did what to whom. 
What matters is that you really did not love me and I 
no longer love you. That's all that matters now."  <br><p> 

"Don't tell me what I felt or feel for you Mac. I do 
love you. I've always loved you."  <br><p> 

Giving up, Mac left the house muttering a parting 
comment. "You have one hell of a way of showing it 
Felicia."  <br><p> 

~~~*~~~  <br><p> 



"Is there anything wrong sweetheart?" For the last ten 
minutes Alice held a conversation with her daughter 
Ellen and she sensed that something was on Ellen's 
mind, but Ellen was having a difficult time broaching 
the topic. "Is it Matt, that you miss him?" Alice 
gently probed.  <br><p> 

"Yes Mother, I do miss him. We've spoken almost every 
day since he's been gone. He'll be back here in Port 
Charles on Sunday."  <br><p> 

"Well, I'm sure that having a week to yourself will 
allow you to focus on the wedding plans. How are 
things going with it?"  <br><p> 

Ellen and Alice discussed the progress Ellen was 
making in the wedding preparations. Grateful she was 
separated from Ellen via telephone wires, Alice 
visibly cringed when told of Lucy Coe's suggestions 
for the wedding. She looked upward and mouthed 'thank 
you' when Ellen said that she would figure out another 
way so Lucy could help. After talking for a few 
minutes more, Alice stopped trying to draw out of 
Ellen whatever was on her mind and said goodnight. 
<br><p> 
Sitting on her bed and sighing, Ellen placed the 
receiver on the telephone cradle and looked forlornly 
at the telephone. Frustrated, raking both hands 
through her dreadlocks and across her scalp, she 
stared at her reflection in the mirror on her dresser. 
Ellen desperately wanted to share her thoughts with 
someone but she knew of no one to whom she could turn. 
It was madness, she pondered, letting a few sentences 
and looks from Kevin Collins unnerve her and make her 
question her relationship with Matt. No one would ever 
consider Ellen a flighty person who would have serious 
feelings for more than one man at a time. Good grief, 
for years she wouldn't let Matt or any man get close 
to her because she had strong feelings for her late 
husband. For a fleeting minute Ellen tried to convince 
herself she misunderstood the message Kevin meant to 
convey. Then shook her head slowly, trembling 
slightly, closing her eyes as she remembered feeling 
his breath on her face as he asked would she ever 
consider having a relationship with someone else. Like 
an idiot she stood there frozen and in shock as Kevin 
made his feelings known. Thank goodness Alan came out 
when he did. But Alan's timely interruption only 
served to postpone Ellen's reply to Kevin's query 
until Friday (tomorrow) night. Why did Kevin's 
questions weigh so heavily on her mind? Why didn't she 
immediately respond that she was madly in love with 
Matt and it didn't matter if she met Matt last year, 
next year, or ten years in the future? Matt would 
still be the man that she loved and wanted to share 
her life with. Kevin was her friend, her colleague, 
and her confidant. Ellen's mind tried to focus on 
these qualities of Kevin and pushed aside thoughts of 
how extremely attractive, charming, and caring he was. 
Punching her pillow with her fist several times, Ellen 
turned off the light in her bedroom and tried to 
settle down for a night's sleep, hoping that she would 
not dream of Kevin Collins because he certainly had 
occupied far too much of her conscious thoughts today.  <br><p> 
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