Quick, and a little late, update. Sorry. I have to get to school in thirty minutes and still have like half of my art portfolio missing. Don't hold it against me...lol.

Ten – Easter Day

She felt like the folder was burning a hole in her bag. She wanted to grab it and rip it open, but she knew she had to wait until she arrived home. She didn't know what propelled her to slam the door on Logan's face. After all, she wanted that normal dinner, with him, talking about restaurants and unheard of chefs. It was the one time she shared a memory about Manticore with anyone. And, she actually smiled.

Just as she began to believe life could be seen through rose-tinted glasses, it disappeared as she saw how backless people could be to rip something that was so important from her hands.

Maybe she needed to see it. To realize how important her education really was to her.

To see that the man she used to hate was only expanding her potential, even how twisted it was.

She couldn't forgive him. No. Not after what he had done to Eva.

"Like anyone else, you have learn how to forgive your demons, and begin to go on with your life."

Damn, Logan. Forgiveness meant nothing. Not to her. She wasn't like anyone else. She wouldn't find comfort in forgiving her demons because they would always cover her like a rainstorm. Being the city of coffee, fish, and rain, she knew it would be rare to see the hope of sunshine.

Climbing the stairs, she unlocked the apartment door and found herself in a familiar environment. It wasn't long until the silence was interrupted.

"Here's the girl of the hour!" Theo praised as he jumped off the couch. Max turned around from locking the door to see Jacinda come out of the kitchen area with a bright maternal grin. She brought her head back, automatically suspicious.

"What do you want from me?" Max wryly asked, eying both of them by their movements. "If you want my sector pass, I stole it fair and square so you can just forget about it."

Jacinda's face didn't change despite not knowing about the crime Max committed three months ago. She waited four hours, upside down, to score those cards so she and Kendra could go clubbing in Sector 3. Damn if she almost risked vomiting just for them to take the passes away. Theo just shook his head, trying to remain blissfully unaware to his adoptive daughter's troublemaking.

Jacinda shook her head as she lifted up the slip of paper. "You passed your midterms. All of them. Mr. Matthews says you got the best grade in all of your classes."

Max blinked.

Oh, that's what they were talking about.

Theo came over and wrapped his arm around her shoulder. He gave her a good squeeze before kissing her on the temple of her forehead. "I'm so proud of you, Maxie. I knew you could do it."

Max didn't know what was exactly happening. What was the huge deal? It didn't take that much effort to pass. They didn't know that, but they saw the success of her grades and insisted Max had worked hard. After all, she made the choice of passing or failing. That was effort enough.

"I think this is a call for a celebration! We can go to that noodle place on the corner, you like so much. You can have as much fried rice as you want." Theo added.

"We never doubted you, Max. I just don't know what got into you to pass." Jacinda said, teary eyed. The look on Jacinda's face was enough to touch Max in a way she never been. Her maternal cheer and the content smile cause Max to fall into pieces. She reached out, and in an extraordinary moment of emotion, Max clasped her arms tight around Jacinda's back as she leaned into her chest. She could even feel the little baby inside kicking against her abdomen as she squeezed Jacinda closer.

Jacinda let out a relieved cry as her palm went to cradle the back of her head. Jacinda thanked the good Lord as Max buried her face in the crook of her shoulder. She had never felt as complete until Max clung to her like a daughter who had been separated from her mother since birth. Max had finally found the mother she had been longing for all her life. She felt so warm and safe. It was the most rare moment she ever experienced.

"I love you, Max."

Max expected her heart to stop. Instead, it felt like it then beat with purpose.

She licked her full lips and felt nothing stopping her from the three words she promised she'd never utter. "I love you too," Max's cheek brushed softly over her soft shoulder. She closed her eyes in the perfect moment of security. She attempted to speak the first words on her path to absolution. It came out a whisper, but she heard it clear enough. When that one word was spoken, Max let her heart open, finally, completely, and for the first time. "…Mama."

In that moment, the world stopped revolving for the both of them. Jacinda Guevara's heart beat with an overwhelming duty to protect and adore her children. She never carried Max inside of her body, she never given birth to her, and she never watched her say her first words or walk her first steps. But, she knew there was nothing could stop her from being her real mother by those two words. Their souls were connected, just as any mother and daughter.

Tears escaped through her eyes as the happiness brought to her seemed like absolute pain she would gladly endure. Kissing her forehead, she wrapped her arms around Max's body and held her closer. She was so small, so warm, and so soft. Jacinda let her head roll back and whispered gratitude to the heavens. Bliss, absolute bliss.

Max pulled back and Jacinda cupped her round face in her hands. A tear escaped from Max's face as she found nothing but warmth in an environment she believed would feel lonely and dark. She was so surprised by it.

Uneasy, she turned her head to the side. "Is it alright to call you that?"

Jacinda grimaced before she let out an overjoyed sob. "Of course," she said breathlessly before she pulled her back in.

Max pulled back with some carefulness. She gave her a lopsided smile before wiping the cheese from her blotchy cheeks. "I just give me a few minutes to clean up."

Jacinda nodded and Max escaped to her room. Jacinda licked her lips before letting out another cry. "Did you hear her, Theo? She called me Mama." Jacinda wrapped her arms around Theo and squeezed him tight, taking the support of her husband for the strong man he was.

"She called me Mama."

Max took a deep breath of confidence when she entered her room. She closed the door behind her and took a good look around her room. There wasn't much. Graffiti walls that Theo tried to paint over because they had been obscene for a fifteen-year-old to read. It didn't do much, it still showed when there was enough light.

Max had some of her clothes pied together in a large lump. She needed to take them down the Laundromat, but she had too many things on her mind such as Logan Cale.

She had a few pictures of herself, one when they first got her off the street, Kendra and Sketchy at school, and one solely of herself. The one her first foster family took. Her hair had just beginning to grow out, but still wasn't more than an inch long. Lucy's mother made her put on a humiliating emerald taffeta dress. It had puffy sleeves, a peter-pan collar, and she even fashioned it with patent Mary Janes. Max remembered looking in curiosity as Lucy put a matching bow in her hair. She looked like a doll, and Lucy looked even just as fantasy like. Like Alice in Wonderland with the blue dress and crisp white apron.

Max looked in the camera with Lucy on her arm and wicker baskets in hand. They both had something to smile about after celebrating Easter Day.

It was a happy day, Max remembered. All the girls her age wore fancy dresses and hats. It was almost like a fairy tale to the young Max, who had never thought of her a princess in the warm spring sun. It was her good place come true. Even Lucy laughed and she still couldn't recall a time when she did.

But, there was no such thing as the good place, Max should have known. When they came home, Lucy 'accidentally' fell down the stairs and broke her arm.

Max wanted so much to only remember the painted eggs, all the candy she could ever ask for, and the first time she spun in a circle so hard she fell down laughing. But Lucy's cries kept her from remembering it. It was just too painful.

That picture did serve a reminder, that she had been happy as a child. For just one glorious day in a frilly dress and a ribbon in her hair, she had been a little girl and not soldier.

Max knew it was time to open up her bag. A part of her wanted to remain blissfully ignorant about the others. If it had been bad news, she wouldn't imagine going on with life the same. But…it could be everything she had hoped for.

For all the patience she had to get to that moment, Max couldn't wait any longer. She tore through her bag and took out the folder in frenzy.

There was a glossy picture of a man's hand raising short blonde hair to show a barcode.

The lines burnt into Max's eyes like fire.

330417291599

Max slipped the picture over and saw her CO, her oldest brother and her caretaker from birth. Her heart stopped when she knew he had made it out after all. It shouldn't surprise her. But, it did. She had spent all those years believing Manticore got him during the escape. She should have known he would sacrifice himself for them all, but never abandon them, ever.

She lifted the picture and saw the federal paperwork from a juvenile corrections center out by Salt Lake City. He was arrested for armed robbery as Michael Hanover. She could see him, the hero he was with a gun trying to hold up a full bank at the age of twelve. It brought a smile to her face.

Then the smile grew.

Escaped Easter Day, after only four hours in custody.

They shared a common thread even after their escape.

So, maybe she did have a reason to love that picture after all.

TBC