"Max", Beth said suddenly, from where she had been colouring in on the couch and Max looked up from where she was frosting cupcakes.
"Yeah?"
"How come you and me look so much alike?" she wanted to know. "Me and my mummy didn't look alike. And how come I never met you before?"
"That's a lot of questions for a little girl", Max chuckled nervously, setting down her spatula. "Want to lick the spatula?"
Beth nodded eagerly, and Max offered it to her, before joining her on the couch.
"Okay, um… well… Caroline!" she called out. "Caroline?"
"Caroline's gone with Candy Andy", the small brunette informed her. "You were in the bathroom when she left. Do Caroline and Candy Andy love each other?"
"One question at a time, please- and yes, they do".
"Oh. Well… okay, I'm going to tell you a story, okay? But you've got to listen, and remember, okay Beth, that your mummy and daddy loved you more than anything in the entire world. Okay?"
She nodded.
"You can ask as many questions as you want, but you've got to remember how much your mummy and daddy loved you".
"I know", she said to Max. "Mummy and Daddy told me every single day. They said 'Bethy we love you more than anything in the entire world'. I really miss them, Max". She leant into Max's side and Max ran her fingers through her dark chocolately curls, kissing the top of her head. "How did you know my mummy and daddy?"
"When I was younger- I was very young, I was only eighteen- I was at the doctors. That was where I met your mum and dad. They wanted a baby; they wanted to have a baby more than anything in the entire world. But your mummy couldn't have a baby in her tummy".
"Why not?"
"It was complicated, Beth", she said truthfully. "But I knew how much your mum wanted a baby. Some people are born to be mothers, and that was your mum. But she couldn't have a baby".
"But-"
"Patience. So we talked and talked and talked, and because your mum and dad really, really wanted to have a baby, I decided that I was going to have the baby for them".
"What?"
(Ooh, this was not good. she'd never had to do this before. Where was Caroline when you needed her?)
"I was very very young", she said tactfully, "And I knew that if I had a baby I would have a lot of trouble taking care of them. But I had a baby for your mum and dad".
"I'm your baby?" Beth's little eyebrows nearly flew off her face. "I don't-"
"You grew inside me", Max clarified, "But as soon as you were born, the doctor gave you to your mum and dad. That's why you didn't know me. You know how I make the cupcakes, and someone else buys them? How we sell them in the shop and Han sells them in the diner?"
Beth nodded.
"I guess it's kinda like that. Kinda. Not really. Actually, it's nothing like that, forget I said that".
"That's why we look the same?" Beth questioned. "Because you're my mum?" tears welled up in her eyes and she set the now clean spatula on the coffee table, scrubbing at her face with the back of her sticky little hands. "But Max-"
"Hey, hey, hey!"
Fighting tears, Beth put her arms around Max's neck and Max rubbed her back gently. Her head fell onto her shoulder and Max rocked her softly, like she had done to Brad and Angelina and all the other children she had surrounded herself with (maybe Caroline had been right).
"Max?"
"Yes?"
"Do I have to call you Mum?"
"No, not if you don't want to. You can still call me Max".
(If she was honest, being referred to as 'mum' scared the hell out of her. she wasn't a mum. She was Max Black.)