[Hi! Just a little background info before we begin. I came up with the idea for this story before MAX came out, so this is kind of parallel to what would've happened if the 5th, 6th, and 7th Maximum Ride books were never published. So for those who are new to the series, you don't have to be caught up with all 7 books to understand what's going on!
This takes place 11 years after the books, so Max, Fang, and Iggy are 25, Nudge is 22, Gazzy is 19, and Angel is 17. The flashbacks start when they are the same ages as they are in the beginning of the series, so Max, Fang, and Iggy are 14, Nudge is 11, Gazzy is 8, and Angel is 6. Hopefully this isn't too confusing, but if you have any questions, please feel free to ask!
Enjoy!]
Chapter One:
"Hey, Fang," the Gasman said as I walked up to him.
"Hey," I said, dropping my duffel bag to my hand. I could feel the receptionist's gaze on me. I guess my I'm-not-interested vibes weren't strong enough.
"See anyone else yet?" Gazzy asked.
"No, I just got here." I looked around. "Why are sitting here by yourself?"
Gazzy smiled. "Waiting for a girl."
"Good luck with that," I replied, trying not to roll my eyes.
"Thanks. So, anyone you're here with?" he asked, a little too curious.
"No." It was a little harsh, but I really couldn't think about that right now.
Gazzy gave me a sideways glance. "Whatever. In case you're wondering, Iggy took Angel and Nudge to lunch. Probably won't be back for a while. Ella's with some friends. I chose not to go with either of them. I mean, Ella's friends are way hot, but that's just way too much estrogen for me."
I nodded and restrained myself from asking about Max. I probably didn't want to know.
"I'm gonna head up to our room," I said.
"Alright. Oh, but just to let you know, I let someone in before and I think she's still there. See, Angel and I were here last night, but her room isn't ready until three and she was wiped from the plane ride, so I told her she could crash in our room. So just don't go charging in like an elephant."
"Ok," I said, wondering what had compelled him to compare me to an elephant. "Who is it?" I just hoped it wasn't some random hooker Gaz decided was cheap enough to stay in our room, because that would totally be something he would do.
Just then, a girl walked up to us. "Hey Zach," she said, looking at Gazzy. "Ready to go?"
"Yup," he said, then turned to me. "Catch you later."
"Wait," I said as he stood up. "Who's in our room?" But he was already walking away.
I sighed and made my way towards the elevator. There was no way I was carrying this eighty-ton duffel bag up six flights of stairs.
The elevator reached my floor and I stepped out, grateful to be away from the whiny toddler traveling up to his room. I was glad the room was close by; I needed to get the new article I didn't start in by tonight.
I slipped the plastic key into the lock, heard it click, and pushed open the door. Sure enough, a woman was sleeping on the bed farthest away from the door. She had wavy light brown hair, and something about her was familiar.
In her arms was a young girl, who looked about six, with short dark brown hair. She was sleeping with her mouth wide open.
Next to the bed was a foldable play-pen thing, and inside was another sleeping child. I wasn't close enough to see more than that.
I dropped my two bags on the bed and went to hang up my neat and ironed clothes in the closet without bothering to take them out of the bag. I would unpack the rest of my stuff later. A feeling of anxiety washed over me, for reasons I didn't know, but I brushed it off.
The little girl stirred as I shut the door a little too loudly, causing the woman to move as well. As her hair slid off her face and down her neck, my breath caught.
It was Max.
Except something about her wasn't Max. Her hair was longer and darker than it has ever been before and she had gained some weight. But the biggest difference was the way she laid there, not relaxed, but almost guarded. Or maybe protective. Like she was protecting herself, or maybe the child.
Slowly, still looking at Max, I unzipped my sweatshirt and pulled it off. I removed my laptop from the bag, unrealistically thinking I could get some work done.
Walking over the desk, I glanced at Max's face for the first time. It looked peaceful and calm, like it always did when she was sleeping.
I looked to my left, noticing that Max had fallen asleep. I watched as her shoulders rose and fell, and lowered the volume of the TV. So much for our movie night.
I grabbed the blanket from the back of the couch, and placed it carefully across her legs. Picking up the bowl of popcorn that was wedged between us, I stood up and brought it in the kitchen.
Glancing at the clock, I realized it was only a little past ten. How had Max fallen asleep? Was I really that boring?
Walking back into the living to turn off the TV, I saw Max was sitting up, rubbing the side of her face with her palm.
"Sorry," she mumbled. "How long was I sleeping?"
"I just noticed," I said, cleaning up our crumpled napkins.
"Oh," she said. She moved over on the couch, the blanket falling onto the floor.
"I'm so tired," she said, looking at me.
"Yeah," I responded, not letting her know how bad I felt that she was calling the night quits.
"Would you mind if I bailed? I just want to sleep," she said, standing up.
"Nah," I said, as she moved the remote to the end table.
Max stared at me for a moment then turned to walk upstairs.
"Good night," she said softly, before stepping on the stairs.
I watched her go, trying not to feel defeated, like she blew me off. She did look tired. She probably wasn't trying to hurt my feelings, she just didn't want to watch the movie with me.
Deciding to leave the small mess we had made until the morning, I followed her upstairs to go to my own bed and try to fall asleep.
I passed Max's room and noticed that she was already sleeping, the covers pulled up to her chin and breathing deeply. Her back was turned towards me, so I couldn't see her face.
Back in my own room, I sat on my own bed, thinking about how peaceful Max had looked. Recently, the house had been a little crazy with the start of school for the younger three, and Max had been stressed out about them going. I thought the movie would be a good excuse to get her mind off of things, and of course, I just wanted to hang out with her.
But I guess it was better for Max to get some sleep, rather than sitting through a movie with me.
I booted up my laptop, trying not to stare at Max. I checked out the sleeping child in the play-pen, and he looked around a year old. He had messy dark brown hair, and had his thumb in his mouth.
A sound from the little girl made me look up. She was sitting up on the bed, and her eyes widened when she saw me look at her. Her hand flung out on to Max's leg and shook her hard.
"Mmm," Max mumbled, turned her head.
"Mommy," the girl whispered, which made my heart pound. Mommy?
"What babe?" Max mumbled again, her eyes still closed.
"There's a man in here," the girl said frantically.
Max sat up like a bullet, and wrapped her arm around the little girl. She looked towards the door, but then whipped her head around to my side of the room. When she saw me, her eyes widened, but then she visibly relaxed. Her grip on the girl loosened, but she still stared at me. I could hear the sound of my pulse in my ears.
"Mommy?" the girl whispered again.
"It's all right, sweetie. He's the man I was telling you about," Max said soothingly, taking her gaze away from mine.
"Oh," the girl said again.
I stayed quiet, not quite knowing what to do. Max smoothed down the girl's hair, and sighed before glancing at me again. She gave me a small smile, the corners of her mouth curling up. I couldn't bring myself to smile back.
It was stupid; I knew I was going to see Max. There was no possible way I could ignore her. Nor did I want to. I had even prepared what I was going to say to her. I was so ready.
But now she was here under different circumstances, and I had no idea what to say or how to feel.
Thankfully, the little girl broke the silence. "Are we still going to the pool?" she asked, looking up at Max.
"It depends what time Iggy gets back. He promised he would take you," Max responded.
The girl nodded, before rolling off of the bed. "I have to go potty."
She ran into the bathroom, Max turning her head to watch her go. Looking down at my laptop, I opened up a new document and typed my name and date at the top. I reached down into my bag to get my notebook. When I looked back up, Max was looking at me.
"Hi," she said.
"Hi."
She smiled again. "So how have you been?"
I nodded, praying I could answer nonchalantly. "Good." I opened my notebook to my last page of notes. Don't ask about the kid, I thought, as if not mentioning them would make them disappear. "And you?"
She sighed. "I've been good too," she said with another smile. The corner of my mouth turned up as a reflex, which made Max smile larger.
She got up off of the bed, and smoothed down the blanket she was lying on. "You really didn't need to do that," I said without thinking.
"Do what?" she asked without turning around.
"Sleep on top of the covers."
She turned around and smiled again. "I know, but I didn't want to mess up the bed for whoever was going to be sleeping here tonight."
I nodded, but she didn't see. I positioned my fingers above the keyboard, and turned my head to glance at my notes. I started typing, knowing I wasn't going to process any coherent sentences.
"What are you typing?" Max asked. I looked up, surprised.
After a moment's pause, she said, "I didn't mean to be nosy."
I blinked, confused. "No, it's ok. I'm working on an article."
"Oh, cool," she said, moving to the edge of the bed, her legs hanging over the side, palms under her knees. "About what?"
"I'm comparing America's transportation system to systems of other countries."
"Oh yeah? Sounds, um, cool."
I looked her in the eye, completely unmoved. "It's boring."
"Yeah," she agreed, smiling a little.
The bathroom door opened, and Max moved her head to the little girl in the doorway. She walked over to Max's side of the bed, and stood in front of Max. "Can you help me with my button?"
"Sure," Max said, leaning down. I shifted my eyes back to the screen, trying to get through another paragraph. However, I couldn't resist looking back up at Max, who was caring for this girl that I had no idea about.
I watched as the girl walked over to the closet, and pulled out a small purple backpack. With difficulty, she carried it in her arms, hugging it to her chest as she walked back over to Max. Looking up at her, she asked, "May I color?"
Max smiled, "Of course." Latching her hands under the girl's arms, she pulled the girl up to the bed, and unzipped the backpack, pulling out a box of crayons and a coloring book.
Feeling oddly intrusive, I looked back down at my notes. Rereading them for the zillionth time, I stared the important ones, for the fourth time today. I focused back on my screen, the cursor mocking my jumbled thoughts.
"Hey Fang," Max said, her voice drawled out, in a way that seemed vaguely familiar. "I don't think I formally introduced you too. This is Nora," Max smiled, smoothing down the girl's hair. "And Nora, this is Fang." Max looked at me, smiling, and Nora looked up at Max, then turned to me, and also smiled. Max blushed slightly, and looked back down.
I watched as the girl sprawled across the bed, lying on her stomach, gripping the crayon in her hand. I didn't notice Max was looking at me, until I moved my eyes on her. She smiled again.
I swallowed, not asking what I really wanted to know. I couldn't bring myself to say it, nor could I couldn't bear the answer.
"That's Matthew," Max said, nodding to the sleeping boy. "Or Matty, as everyone calls him."
I nodded, not knowing what else to say. I looked back at my screen, feeling Max's gaze running up my spine.
"Am I distracting you?" she asked.
I shook my head. "Not at all."
"Are you sure?" she asked slowly. I looked up at her.
"Yeah. It's an awful topic to concentrate on."
She nodded. The following awkward silence was filled by my clicking keys, and my repetitive use of backspace. Rereading my only four sentences I had, I deleted two of them, for lack of clarification.
"Mommy how do you spell Iggy?"
Out of the corner of my eye, I watched as Max leaned next to Nora, picking up a crayon and opening the coloring book to the back page.
"Like this," Max said, as she wrote Iggy's name in big, capital, block letters. "Why?"
"I made this for him. As a present," Nora said, matter-of-factly.
"That is very nice of you, sweetie," Max said, sitting back up.
She caught me watching the two of them, before I could turn away. She locked eyes on me, a mischievous smile tickling her lips. I almost wanted to roll my eyes, but I held that back.
"They're adopted, you know."
My shoulders dropped slightly, as I swallowed. "What?"
"I adopted them."
I was quiet for a moment, wrapping the idea around my head. "Adopted?" I clarified, and Max nodded. "You can do that?"
She nodded again.
"When?"
Max looked down at Nora, who was obviously listening, but concentrating on writing Iggy's name. "I adopted Nora a little over a year ago. Last July. Matthew I got a few weeks after he was born, in January."
I looked at her, not even denying the fact that she was beaming without the faintest smile on her face. Her eyes were shining, and she looked the happiest I had seen her in such a long time. I got this funny feeling in my chest that seemed distantly recognizable. I couldn't place it, so instead, I forced a slight smile.
"That's great."
She looked at me for a moment, struggling not to smile. She looked down at her lap. "I know."
The silence was awkward, the only thing filling it are the occasional tapping of my keys, as I try to get this done before we head off to dinner tonight. Nora broke the silence.
"Mommy, can you rip this page out for me?" she asked, and I looked up to see Max tearing her colored-in page out of the book. "I want to make a new one."
"All right sweetie," Max said, laying the page next to her. She looked back up at me.
"So how did you get that topic?" she asked, obviously just trying to make conversation.
I finished the sentence I was on. "I was just assigned it."
She nodded. "Do you ever get to choose?"
"Only if I come up with an idea. Since I move around a lot, I'm usually just assigned odds and ends," I clarified, and she nodded again.
The hotel room door opened, and Gazzy, Angel, and Nudge all walked in. Nudge threw her pocketbook on one of the beds.
"Look who we found in the bar," Nudge sang, slapping a hand on Gazzy's shoulder. "This one! On a date!"
I shook my head, and Max laughed. "You're underage aren't you?"
Gaz shrugged. "Only by a few years. And I only had one drink."
Max shook her head in denial. "Where's Ella and Iggy?" she asked.
"They went down to check out the ballroom for their big day tomorrow. It's being set up now. Ella just wanted to make sure everything is ok," Nudge explained.
"They said to meet us down in the lobby," Angel added.
"Yeah," Nudge started, walking over to Max. "And it's a nice restaurant we're going to so wear something presentable."
Max sighed, and nudged Nora. "Come on, let's get changed, ok? We can bring your crayons to dinner."
Max stood up, and brought her large red suitcase with her and Nora into the bathroom. "And will someone wake up Matty please?" she called out.
"I'll do it," Gaz said, dumping the contents of his pockets on the dresser.
Nudge walked over to me, wrapped both arms around my shoulders, and gave me a kiss on the cheek. "Hey, Fang," she said. "It's crazy huh?" She nodded towards the makeshift crib.
I nodded.
"How was your flight?" she asked.
"It was fine," I replied, as Angel came over to me too.
"Scootch," she said, elbowing Nudge out of the way. "Hey," she said, leaning in for a hug. "It's good to see you."
"You too Ange."
She gave me a hard stare as she pulled away, and then flashed me a wicked grin. "We'll catch up later," she promised.
The Gasman cooed softly at the baby who he was picking up from his nap, and I had to bite the inside of my mouth to keep from smiling. The boy whined a little, but rearranged himself on Gazzy's shoulder.
Angel glared at me as soon as Gazzy's back was towards us. "Don't laugh," she mouthed, and I shook my head.
Nudge whispered, "He does have a point. I mean, it's Gazzy."
Angel shook her head, as I watched, honestly fascinated by the effect Max's two little kids had on everyone. I wondered how I could not have possibly known about them if everyone else had already fallen in love.
The bathroom door opened and Nora sprinted out, dressed in a sundress. Max appeared behind her, pulling her hair back into a hair tie.
"Look, Nudge, Mommy's wearing a dress!" she said, pulling on the hem of Nudge's shirt. Nudge and Angel laughed, as Max took Matt from Gazzy.
"Don't worry, she'll be wearing a different one tomorrow to the wedding," Nudge said.
I took the time to shut down my laptop, as I heard Nora exclaim, "Really?"
I stood up from my chair, and Gazzy turned to me. "Are you going to change?" he asked and I nodded.
"Just my shirt," I said. I noticed Angel look at her watch.
"We're supposed to be there in five minutes," Nudge said, fixing her lip gloss in the mirror. "Why don't we go down, and can you two meet us down there?"
Max, who was sifting through a bag of clothes, waved her hand without looking up. Casually, I made my way to the closet, pretending not to care. "Yeah, that's fine. I want to get his diaper changed," Max said.
"Ok, cool," Nudge said. "Come on, Nora."
I got my already pressed shirt from the bag hanging up in the closet, and made my way into the bathroom to change. I heard Max whispering outside.
When I opened back up the door, Max was standing up, bouncing the boy on her hip, and walking around the room. "I'm just making sure I have everything," she said without even turning to look at me.
From behind, I looked at Max. She was wearing a simple brown dress and her hair was pulled into a sloppy ponytail. Holding her baby, she looked very mom like, but didn't stray at all from her Max personality. I got a funny ache in my chest, and I knew that I was already feeling regretful. I could be leaving this life with her, this very moment, but it was ruined.
Suddenly, Max twirled around and faced me. The boy was resting his head on her shoulder, a thumb in his mouth. "Ready to go?" she asked, and I nodded.
I held open the door for her as well left, walking out together as if nothing had changed and everything was perfect. I don't know what hurt more; the fact that it wasn't perfect, or the fact that it so easily could be.