Maggie takes a deep breath as she parks her car in front of a brick house. She looks around at the woods as she heads to the front door and knocks. "Sorry, I've already accept Jesus as my lord and savior." A woman says, wrapped up in a long plaid robe with a headscarf around her curly blonde hair. "Try the house down the road."

"Wait." Maggie smacks her hand against the door to stop the woman from shutting it in her face. "Do you not know who I am?"

"Please tell me you're not the girl I refused to buy cookies from a couple years ago."

Maggie's heart hurts.

Her own mother doesn't recognize her.

"No, I'm- I'm Maggie- Magnolia." The woman's face falls as she looks over her daughter. "You know who I am now, right?"

"Look at you." She whispers. "You've grown into such a beautiful young woman- come in!" She waves her in, disappearing around the corner. "You hungry or anythin?"

"Sure." Maggie shouts back, standing awkwardly in the front room, looking at the decor her mother has put up.

"Where are you?" Evelyn rhetorically asks, coming into the living room with a sandwich and a glass of iced tea. "So, what's new?" Maggie and her sit on the couch together.

Mags snorts quietly. "In the last eight years? So much." She swallows hard.

"You still with that boy? The baseball player?"

"Kinda- I dunno." She looks down, bouncing her knee.

"What's botherin' you, baby?" She tells her everything. "Wow okay. Well, for starters, I'm so proud of you for writin' them songs and putting out an album. I don't like Matt, sounds like an asshole. Michael and Caleigh seem like great people. Morgan didn't steal your songs if his name is on the music. Riley has some good points; why didn't you want to work it out?"

"Because tellin' him I couldn't marry him sounded better then tellin' him I don't love him no more." She mumbles, pulling apart the crust of her sandwich.

"You cheated on Riley with Morgan and you cheated on Matt with Morgan." Evelyn says, looking down at her iced tea. "You've been engaged twice but they both ended with you hookin' up with your ex-boyfriend?" Maggie nods. "Wow. He's right. You are a trouble junkie."

"Momma!"

"I'm just sayin' baby. You are your fathers daughter." Those words come out more venomous than intended. "Just be glad that you weren't actually married to anyone while you were messin' 'round with Morgan because divorce is expensive and depressin'."

Maggie has tears in her eyes. "Holy shit. I- I didn't realize that he- that I- oh fuck!" She drops her head in her hands and starts crying softly. "After all these years of hatin' my old man, I'm him! I'm- I'm Frank! What do I do, momma?"

"Take a deep breath, baby." Maggie sits back and does as she's told. "Okay, you should take a break from being in the spotlight. Just take a month or so to find yourself again." She nods. "So, go get yourself found."

Maggie chuckles. "Thanks." She wipes her eyes. "I missed you." Her mom pulls her in for a hug, comforting her youngest child with a hand rubbing her arm.

=

"Get out!" Frank screams at his son. "You fuckin done it now, boy!" Sage doesn't flinch as his old man gets in his face. "Get out!" He shouts again.

Sage gives him that handsome smirk of his as he spins on his heel and heads down to his bedroom in the basement to gather some of his shit. He gets to work shoving things into random boxes and bags before he takes them out to his truck to toss them into the bed. He turns to his little thirteen year old sister and gives her a hug before wordlessly driving away.

Maggie sits on the front porch in tears as she watches her best friend drive away. Frank found out that he wasn't going to college and kicked him out. Evelyn always backed her kids up; always stood by them but she's away visiting her sister. He finally came to his senses and kicked the eighteen year old out.

Magnolia gets on her bike and rides a few streets over to Morgan's house.

She throws her bike to the side as she climbs her way up the side of the house to his opened window. Maggie drops to her feet and immediately wraps her arms around him, her tear stained face smushed against his chest as she sobs against him. Morgan awkwardly hugs her back, lowering them to sit on his bed as he cradles her in his arms.

In broken words, she tells him what happened and he is furious. Sage was like the older brother he never had and now he's gone for god knows how long.

=

Magnolia takes her mother's advice and moves to a house several miles outside Nashville. She hasn't talked to Michael or Morgan or Caleigh in weeks. Hell, she hasn't left her house in weeks except to get groceries.

That's when she bumps into someone.

"I'm sorry." The voice says, helping her up from the floor of the small 'ma and pa' grocery store. "Didn't see you there." Maggie nods as she brushes her jeans off. She gives the stranger a once over before her eyes narrow in on the military patch that reads 'Wilson' on the chest. She looks up at those strong sage green eyes that are looking back at her blue ones. "You okay?"

What's with her family members not recognizing who she is?

"Yeah. I am. Sorry." She nods, pushing her cart towards the check out counter. "Here, let me get 'em things for you." She doesn't give the man a second to refuse as she drops his basket onto the counter.

She gathers her things and heads out to her car with the stranger respectfully behind her. "How's the military treatin' you?" She asks, looking at that familiar silver, bench seat Chevy Silverado with the small Tennessee state sticker on the back windshield that's parked next to her SUV.

"Good. I-"

"Do you not recognize me?" She cuts him off, giving him that look she's gotten to be a pro at after twenty three years of practice. "How do you not know who I am?"

"Uh."

"Sage, it's me." He gives her a forced smile, trying to place the girl in front of him. "Wow."

"Sorry- I-"

"You don't recognize your own sister!" His face breaks into that handsome grin of his, wrapping his strong arms around his little sister for the first time in ten years. Sage laughs as he squeezes her tight, lifting her off her feet as he does so. "I missed you."

"I missed you too! How's momma? And Frank?" He asks as he drops his tailgate, hopping up in his uniform.

"Frank cheated on momma and she moved to Asheville, a couple years after you left."

"Oh my god."

"Then his girlfriend kicked me out after I graduated high school."

"Wow."

"Yep but now I'm doin' real good. I'm one of the top songwriters in Nashville and I put out my own album last year."

"Get the hell outta here. Is it called 'Neon in the Dark'?" She nods. "I knew that was you! I had no idea you could sing like that."

"Yeah, I'm full of surprises."

"I'm sorry for leavin' you the way I did. You don't know how many times I wanted to come back." He says as he digs around in his paper bag for his bottle of sweet tea.

"Why didn't you?"

"I couldn't. I was sent to Texas for a couple months then I ended up living in Florida for a few years." He takes a drink. "You and that one kid together still?"

Maggie rolls her lips into her mouth as she looks down at her sandals. "It's complicated."

"Try me."

She tells him some of what happened; not as much as their mom knows for sure. "Matt seems like an asshole." She chuckles. "But Riley seemed like he was a good guy-"

"He is! I messed everything up, Sage." Hé huffs. "So after everything with Riley happened, I went to see Momma and she gave me some advice and now I'm just doin' my own thing, alone."

"Good for you." He throws his arm around her shoulders. "Hey, I gotta get goin' but we should get together soon."

"For sure." They hop off the tailgate, embrace each other then part ways.

When Maggie pulls up into her drive, she furrows her brow at the blue pickup truck already parked in the second spot. She hops out of her car and carefully peeks into the window. She suddenly knocks on the glass, scaring Morgan, causing him to jump and spill his drink. "Ah! Mags!" He shouts, slipping out of the drivers seat to wipe the liquid off his face. She giggles but then shrieks when he splashing it back at her, the sticky sweet tea soaking her white t-shirt, making it cling to her braless chest. "Ha-ha!"

"You asshole!" She gasps, crossing her arms to hide her breasts. "Dude!" Morgan cackles, elbowing the truck door shut. She huffs as she gathers her groceries and carries them through the garage door. "What're you doin' here, Morgan?" She asks as she heads into the bathroom to clean the stickiness off herself and change her clothes.

"I's worried 'bout you." He says shyly. "You haven't been to the studio for almost a month-"

"I needed to clear my head after everything." She heads to her bedroom with a towel around her body to get clean clothes. "Sorry I kinda shut you out." Morgan leans against her bedroom door frame with his hands in his damp jeans pockets. "I can toss 'em clothes in with mine so you're not, y'know, soggy."

Morgan bites his lip as he nods, kicking his tea soaked blue jeans to toss at her. She huffs as she picks up the denim to throw in the hamper with the rest of her dirty clothes. She digs around in a box and throws him a pair of his sweats that she's kept since high school. He can't help the smile on his face as he steps into them.

"I'm gonna take a shower." She says, dropping her towel in the hallway before heading into the bathroom, leaving the door open. Morgan gets the hint and slips in with her.

=

A couple days later, Morgan talked Maggie into letting him stay over. She's fine with it. It's nice to have company, not to mention the hot sex they've been having nearly nonstop. He's been starting to slowly bring more and more of his stuff over and again, she's totally fine with it.

She's wearing just his Lynyrd Skynyrd t-shirt and nothing else while she's watering the plants out on her porch. Morgan's sitting on the couch next to her, watching with his guitar in his arms. "That's a nice little tune." She smiles, holding the watering can against her chest. "Got any words yet?" He shrugs as he sets his guitar against the railing before he pulls her to his lap. She chuckles, her hands going to his shoulders.

This is the first time in months that she's felt happy.

Truly happy.