Hi guys!
So this chapter is technically on time, even if it is at ten on a Sunday night.
Oh, and happy Easter if you celebrate it, and if not, happy Sunday!
My Sunday was crappy, simply because The Walking Dead was not on, and that is my favorite show next to Supernatural. But I hope you guys had great days!
This chapter is okay in my opinion. Not great. I don't like it as much as I like last chapter, but it doesn't suck. Other than that, there's nothing to say
Read and review!
Almost nothing had changed since the last time Max had been to Fang's apartment. The bed was still unmade and their mugs were still coffee stained and sitting in the sink. The only difference she noticed was the half empty bottle of whiskey on the counter. Either Fang had gotten thirsty or he had gotten a visit from an alcoholic fairy.
"Hi," Fang said when Max entered. His voice was void of emotion, but there's no smug smirk on his face, which helped Max relax a bit. The smirk meant he was going to hit on her.
"Hey," Max replied with a nod of her head. The stupid feeling in her chest was back, and it was making her uncomfortable. Ignore it, she reminded herself along with a deep breath.
"So how the hell do we do this?" Fang asked after a moment.
Max shrugged. "We treat it like every other job we've done."
Fang stared at her for a moment before speaking, "Then let's get to work."
MAXIMUM RIDE
"This is impossible," Fang muttered angrily after about two hours. "This can't be done."
Max shook her head, but she was getting close to agreeing. Every option they looked at wasn't going to work. Jeb was the boss, and you don't get to the top without making enemies. So he was paranoid. And his security showed that. It didn't help that he was the best at what he did, even better than Max. He did train her after all.
"How does this man piss without setting off the sensors in his goddamn office?" Fang grumbled, flipping through a few of the blueprints that showed the security.
Max shrugged. "How did you even get those?" She knew the approximate locations of sensors and things in his office, she'd been in there plenty of times, but she didn't know them all, and she didn't know them well enough to make a blueprint of them.
A mischievous look entered Fang's eyes. "People owe me favors."
"That sounds safe," Max muttered under her breath but she left the subject alone after that.
They worked in silence for a little while longer until Max gets frustrated. "This is impossible, you were right."
"No," Fang's voice was as close to excited as his voice could get. "I think I have an idea."
Max's eyes flashed up from the paper she was looking at. Her eyes were wide as she looked at Fang.
"These vents don't have any sensors," Fang began, but Max interrupts.
"We can't climb through vents, Fang." Max's voice was annoyed and had a 'duh' tone to it.
"I know that," Fang said defensively. "But other things can go through them."
The gears in Max's brain began to whir. "What do you mean?" she asked, even though she already had a pretty good idea of what he was going to say.
"If we can't reach him, maybe some poisonous gas can."
Max made a sound of disbelief. "Unless you know how to weaponized gas, we can't do that. And wouldn't it kill the people in the bar, too? Gas doesn't just stop after it fills one room."
"No we could make it work," Fang argued. "I know how we can."
Max was getting annoyed. Was his ego really going to stop him from admitting that his idea sucked? "And how is that?"
Fang mumbled something under his breath, which sounded a lot like profanity to Max. Then, louder, he said, "You're not going to like it."
Max was officially annoyed. "What is it?"
Fang took a deep breath before he spoke. "I know these two guys who know bombs and gas like the back of their hands."
"No."
Fang sighed. "Do you want to kill Jeb or not?"
Max had been asking herself that same question since they had decided to do it, and she still wasn't sure of the answer. But she wasn't about to have the same argument again only to come up with the same damn conclusion that she had no other choice. "Yea, but do you really think we can trust other people to do it?"
"I've known Iggy for years now, and I'd trust him with my life," Fang said, "And he's known The Gasman since he was a kid, and if Iggy trusts him, then I trust him."
Max weighed the options in her head. They could continue to fail at coming up with ideas, or they could try with Fang's friends who might ruin everything or be the reason they complete the job. It's a huge risk that Max wasn't sure she could take. She had never even met the two men and here she was, trusting them with one of the biggest secrets she has ever had in her life.
"I want to meet them first," Max decided. "Then I'll see if we can trust them or not."
Fang smiled a genuine smile, which shocked Max a bit. She was so used to seeing emotionlessness from him; a grin was surprising.
"I'm sure they're at the bar right now," Fang said, stacking papers before standing. "We could just head over and see."
Max shook her head. "You just want to drink."
"They'll be there," Fang promised.
Everything in Max was screaming bad idea, bad idea, bad idea but she stood anyways and followed Fang out of the apartment. Meeting them can't cause any risks, can it? They won't know anything about what Max and Fang were planning, they'd just see it as a friendly meeting. Or at least that's what Max was telling herself as she walked out of Fang's apartment.
When they arrived at the bar, Fang immediately made a beeline for a table in the middle of the room. A blonde man sat there, nursing a scotch and having a loud conversation with another blonde who looked a little younger, almost like a little brother. They both wore smiles and looked as if they'd never seen an injustice in their lives. Max smiled wistfully at them, wondering how they could look so carefree and happy.
Fang greeted the taller, older man first. "Iggy!" he called from across the bar.
Iggy's smile widened when he saw Fang, but not as much as his eyes widened when he saw Max. His smile faded a bit as the two approached his table, transforming into a gape. When Fang and Max reached him, he tried to disguise his shock and said, "Uh, hey, man. Good to see you."
Fang nodded at Iggy before looking over to the other man. "Hey, Gaz."
The Gasman nods back at Fang, eyes staying on Max the whole time. Both men seemed to be in awe of the woman, which was exactly how Max liked it. She knew her reputation, and apparently so did they.
"This is Max," Fang introduced, "Max, this is Iggy and Gazzy."
Max smiled a bit, making sure not to let any emotion shine through her eyes. She quickly swept her gaze up and down the two men, judging them.
Iggy wore a Batman t-shirt and worn jeans, and Gazzy wore nearly the same thing, except his shirt lacked the Batman insignia. Their smiles had not fallen from their faces, even after they were shocked by Max's entrance. After they had gotten over it, the grins had regained the happiness. They reminded Max of two little kids.
"Can we talk?" Fang asked after a moment of silence.
Iggy and Gazzy looked at each other before Iggy answered. "Yea, sure. Sit down."
After Fang and Max had been seated the silence returns. Nobody knew how to initiate the conversation. Finally, Iggy opened his mouth. "So, what's up? What'd you want to talk to us about?"
Fang didn't know what to say for a second. He couldn't tell them the truth yet, so he spluttered out, "I wanted to introduce you guys to Max."
Gazzy snorted. "What, are we your parents or something? Do we need to judge all of your girlfriends?"
Before anybody could say anything, Max interjected, "I am not his girlfriend."
Gazzy nodded, amusement in his eyes, but it was clear that he didn't believe her.
Iggy spoke next. "You seemed offended by that," his eyes held a spark of mischief, "Fang isn't that bad."
Max shrugged, not allowing herself to let her guard down and joke with them. She still had to decide whether she could trust them. "He's pretty annoying."
Iggy laughed at that while Fang made a sound of protest. "Isn't she just a ray of sunshine?" Iggy said after his laughter. "Is Sunshine down with having a beer?"
Max nodded, and a minute later, four beers were placed in front of the group. After the drinks were put in place, the atmosphere lost some of the awkwardness. Max's guard slipped a little, and she found herself enjoying the conversation.
She had lost track of time when she realized that she actually liked these two men. She could see herself becoming friends with them, and she could see why Fang trusted them. So she tapped Fang's shoulder and whispered, "You can tell them."
Fang smiled his second genuine smile for the day, and Max found herself returning it. Then she found herself ignoring Iggy's murmured, "Aren't dating my ass."
Max tuned out of Fang's invitation for the four of them to return to his apartment and instead swept her eyes across the bar. She didn't see anything out of the ordinary, nothing that set off her alarms, but that didn't mean nobody was watching.
She didn't stop looking around as they got up and exited the bar. Only when they were a few streets away did she allow herself to sink back into the conversation. The three men were talking about some big job that their friend J.J. had gotten, discussing how big of a splash it would make when she completed the job. Max didn't really care about the subject, but joined in nonetheless.
They kept the conversation up all the way to Fang's apartment. It didn't stop until Fang unlocked the door and the group stepped through the threshold. That's when Max and Fang went silent.
"We need to tell you something," Fang began, looking at Max to assure that she was still on board with telling the two men. "And we need you to listen."
For the first time since Max had met Iggy and Gazzy, their smiles dropped from their faces. "What is it?" Gazzy asked slowly, caution sinking into his words.
Fang doesn't answer immediately, so Max decided that it was her turn to speak up. She also decided that there was no point in beating around the bush. "We're going to kill Jeb and we need your help."
Silence shrouded the room. Emotion had dropped completely from both Iggy's and Gazzy's faces. They just stared at Max, and then after a minute, they stared at Fang.
"You broke them," Fang said, his voice light even though his jaw was tight with tension. He wanted to know what they're going to do, but being Fang, he couldn't show that.
Finally, Iggy spoke, "And why the hell are you doing that?"
Max crossed her arms before she said, "It's either him or us. And I choose us."
Iggy copied Max's posture. "I don't get more of an explanation than that?"
Max shook her head. "Not if you aren't going to help us."
"Alright, then I'm in." Gazzy's declaration shocked everybody.
Iggy turned and stared, stunned. "Gazzy, don't you want to talk about this a little more?"
Gazzy shrugged. "I've never been one to pass up a good challenge, and this is the best damn challenge I've ever seen."
The corners of Max's lips turned up a little bit when she looked at Gazzy. "Thanks, Gaz. I promise we'll tell you more later."
The Gasman nodded and then turned to stare at the other blonde. "It's your choice, man."
Iggy was silent for a few more moments before he sighed and said, "What the hell? I'm in. Now explain why you two have gone insane."
Max and Fang told the story quickly, not eager to dwell on the details. Iggy and Gazzy did not need to know everything. Especially not how Fang had carried Max home or the coffee they had shared the next morning. They got the gist from the main details.
And that's how they ended up all sitting on Fang's floor with papers scattered about them, planning on how to kill a man they had all known as their boss for years.
Even if their mission was morbid, the atmosphere was light. Iggy and Gazzy joked with each other constantly, not letting the mood slip below jovial for more than a minute. It was different than how Max and Fang had worked before, in silence with frustration veiling the room.
With the distraction Iggy and The Gasman were providing, it was easy for Max to stay silent. She could get lost in her thoughts without anybody noticing.
And the first thought that entered her mind was: do I really want to kill him? It made her think. When she had become an orphan, Jeb had decided to become her father figure. She had been sixteen, terrified and angry, and with a new identity as a killer. She was confused and unwanted, and had just wanted for something to take away the pain.
Killing didn't do the trick, but it took the edge off. Whenever there was a new body lying on the floor, it helped because she could know for certain that it wasn't her father lying there. She hadn't just put a bullet through his head; this was just a random person who angered somebody with a lot of money. That always made her feel a bit better, but never completely full.
She didn't feel even remotely close to okay until he came into her life. He swooped into her reality like a superhero, stealing the pain and unwanted feeling away with him and leaving love and happiness behind. Jeb had loved him, called him trustworthy, and said he was good for Max. And that was all Max had needed to trust him fully. If Jeb said he was good, then he must be. Jeb had said he was perfect.
And Max had agreed. That is, until it happened. No, she isn't thinking about that. She took a deep breath as she struggled to suppress the memory. She hated remembering it, as it was easily the most painful experience of her life.
And Jeb still supported him after it. Maybe that was why she didn't trust Jeb as much anymore. Maybe that's why it was so easy to kill him, or at least plan to kill him. Because no matter what he did, no matter how many high paying clients he got her, no matter how much space he let her have, she's always known how he supported the man who hurt her so badly more than her. It just sucked; she thought she had a real father. But no, she would never have somebody even closely comparing to a father. She knew that after the first time her biological father hurt her. The first time he carved into her, the first time he starved her, the first time he called her useless, the first time he didn't care when she ran away.
She killed him for a reason, after all.
And that's why she would kill Jeb. She was absolutely sure about it now. It was in the way she had never really questioned it, and the way she wanted Fang to stay safe. It was in the feeling in her chest. She knew that warm feeling wouldn't be there unless she was sure she wouldn't have to hurt Fang. And not hurting Fang means hurting Jeb.
"Max!" it was Fang's voice that shocked her from her thoughts. "Are you alright?"
Max bit her lip. "Yea," she replied, even though she didn't know if she was lying or not. "I'm fine."