RS-232 idles in steady MARK. The start bit is a SPACE bit. After the character has been sent the stop bit(s) are again MARK. MARK is defined as a negative voltage and SPACE is a positive voltage at the high level RS-232 interface.

The MAX-232 chips are inverters. In order to get a steady MARK after the character, SEROUT2 is doing the right thing and leaving the TTL line out of the PIC as a high (5V) level.

In order to get the correct state BEFORE sending a character with SEROUT, I find it pays to "condition" the line by setting the serout pin HIGH with a PAUSE longer than a character duration.

HIGH SeroutPin
PAUSE 10
SEROUT pin, mode, [data,data,data, etc]

HTH
Brian