A/N: see chapter one for the disclaimers, review please!
Max was happy; a good day had just gotten better. Jack had given Evan the morning off and he helped out with some of the chores on her list of things to do so she got done faster than expected and ended up with time on her hands. With the twins at a play-date and everyone else still in school until later she actually had time to herself for once; one afternoon where she wasn't dealing anything relating to parenthood.
The day had gotten better because Max had talked with Lydia who had told her that she and Crysta were thinking about coming over for a visit. They had extra vacation time they needed to use up and decided what better way to use it then to see their friend whom they haven't seen in months?
Max was excited to hear the news, she missed them almost as much as they missed her, but needed to see if Evan could wrestle some time away from Torchwood; the way she figured it is that Lydia, Crysta, Evan, and herself could all meet up in Cardiff and then head over to London or somewhere while leaving Anglia and Devon in charge of the kids (of course they wouldn't be truely alone…they had gotten to know their neighbors so Max would ask them to check on them daily).
But before they could make plans, she needed to talk to Evan about it and see if he was willing to take a break from work. Max knew that he needed it, sometimes he got back after she fell asleep and was gone before she woke up, and that he pushed himself; not to please Jack but because that's how he was used to doing things.
Making her way across the Plass she couldn't help but smile; they had been in Cardiff for a number of months now and she was starting to actually enjoy it (despite the constant rain). Today the sun was shining and combined with the prospect of Lydia and Crysta visiting Max felt like nothing could go wrong.
Digging through her purse she looked for the address of where Torchwood was. Pulling out the card with the hexagonal shapes forming a 'T' she glanced at it before heading down the street. Evan had given it to her, telling her that if it was an emergency she should go there with the kids, and while this wasn't exactly one Max thought that she could surprise Evan and tell him of the tentative plans being made.
Max looked at the building in front of her with confusion. It matched the address on the card but instead of an office building there was a tourist office. Wondering what was going on, she looked at the address on the card then at the numbers on the building.
Neither was wrong.
"Maybe it's some kind of printing mix-up and they haven't fixed it yet." Max thought as she moved towards the door. Whatever the case was someone inside could straighten everything out.
As she neared, Max saw the sign on the door read 'closed' and wondered why a tourist shop would be closed during the middle of the day (although they could have been out to lunch, but if that was the case then Max thought that at least one person would've stayed back to man the phones in case a-you know-tourist called or stopped by).
Since it was obviously indicated that the shop was closed, she knew that it would be useless to try the door but decided to give it a go on the off chance that someone was actually there and they had just forgotten to change the sign. Testing the knob she was slightly surprised to find it turning.
"Maybe someone's here after all." Max told herself as she pushed the door open and heard the bell chime overhead.
"Hello?" Max called out after closing the door and moving towards the desk. Silence greeted her and she couldn't help but wonder where everyone could be; there were only so many places you could be in a building this size. Leaning over the desk, she tried to get a view of the back to see if anyone was there and called out again.
After five minutes of no one showing up, Max sighed; obviously this was some kind of mix-up on Evan's part and she was going to let him know when he got home. Turning to leave she spotted another door standing ajar. Naturally she wondered where it led to and paused; maybe it was some kind of storage area and everyone was back there. She could pop in there to find out and maybe get everything straightened out.
After one last quick look around, Max opened the door the rest of the way, stepped through, and instead of boxes filled with tourist paraphernalia she was greeted with a short hallway with what looked to be elevator doors at the end. Steps echoing loudly as she walked down the hallway she called out, "Anyone here?"
When no one answered her, Max stepped towards the elevator and jumped slightly when the doors slid open. She stared at the empty box for a few minutes, wondering what was going on exactly; something about all this seemed a bit off.
Not knowing exactly why, maybe it was to find someone and get all this straightened out or to satisfy her curiosity or something completely different, Max took a deep breath and stepped into the elevator. As soon as she entered the door slid shut and she felt it begin to descend.
After what seemed to be hours the elevator slowed to a stop and the door opened to reveal another hallway. Raising an eyebrow Max thought, "How many hallways in this place are there?"
Stepping out she moved forwards while wondering if she should just go back up (how ever far that was), forget finding Evan, and wait until he got home to tell him about Lydia and Crysta. "Hello?" she called out once again, her voice carrying across the empty hallway while also betraying her anxiety.
She was greeted with silence but still kept on moving down the hallway. As she neared the end, a large circular door sprang to life rolling back to reveal a larger area. Hesitating slightly, Max wondered if she shouldn't be here. "If that's the case then I'm sure whoever's here would've set up better defenses." She reasoned to herself as she stepped through the door and entered a large cavern filled with walkways leading to other areas and stairs to an office surrounded by Plexiglass. There were desks with computers and even a workbench.
Whoever was here did something that required secrecy….or at least anonymity.
"Anyone there?" Max asked out loud, stepping farther into the cavern. After her voice faded there was silence and then a shriek causing Max to jump. Looking up her eyes went wide as she saw a large bird, which looked like a dinosaur…but that was impossible; they had died off long before now, overhead.
Max was so surprised by the large bird-like creature that she didn't hear the footsteps behind her. However she did hear the hammer of a gun being pulled back and then a distinct Welsh voice saying, "Don't move."