Disclaimer: I do not own AHS.
A/N: Thank you guys so much for your lovely words. It means so much that you guys love this tiny, little story. Seriously. So in honor of your sweet words and of Hotel premiering tonight, this little fic will get a nice, long overdue update!
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CH 11- Rose Quartz
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Maxine let her glance fall from her grandmother's onto the blank piece of paper in front of her. She knew the secrets she had to keep and kept them locked shut. "No one, Mommy." She whispered, feeling terrible for lying to her mother. She never wanted to keep anything from her mother.
Cordelia glowered at Maxine's answer, tired of the girl denying everything. She knew someone was bothering her child and demanded to know who it was. But what hurt Cordelia the most was the thought that her child didn't trust her enough to tell her. Maxine had grown so distant over the years. She preferred to run off by herself than spend time with her mother. Cordelia thought she had deserved it for spending so much time with the Coven instead of with her child. She knew she had been wrong to do so but she hadn't chosen the Coven over her daughter. Max always came first. However, the Coven needed her too.
Cordelia sighed softly, wishing Maxine would open up to her for once. She was tired of being lied to. As if she wasn't the child's mother.
"Don't lie to me, Maxine." She said sternly in that tone only the Supreme could carry with much power and authority.
Max squirmed, fiddling with her fingers, afraid that she had gotten caught on her lie. She didn't like to lie to her mother but she had been sworn to secrecy. "I'm not lying." She lied again. Every little lie that escaped her lips burned her tongue.
Still, she could never understand why the ghosts wanted to stay hidden. They each longed for Cordelia in their own way. Maxine just didn't understand.
Cordelia exhaled, exhausted of pleading to the child. Maxine was stubborn; she wasn't going to speak a word of what was happening. "Very well then." Cordelia stood from the bed and kissed the top of her head, "Goodnight, Maxine."
"Goodnight, Mommy…" Maxine watched her mother go with wounded doe eyes. She felt terrible inside and wished Cordelia hadn't left the way she had.
"Oh, child, no." Misty went to her when she saw the tears pool in Maxine's eyes. She sat upon the bed and wrapped her arms around her, "Don't ya worry, now. It's all for the best."
"Hmph." Fiona huffed, "That mother of yours sure is something."
Misty kissed the top of Max's head and rubbed her arm. "Ya were very brave, I say."
"I don't like lying to my Mommy." Maxine whimpered, suddenly angry at the situation. She hated being pinned between the living and the dead for reasons she did not understand.
"Don't cry." Fiona said harshly, "You should never cry. It makes you look weak."
"Don't tell 'er that." Misty hugged the child tighter, protecting her from Fiona's cruel words, "That's awfully cruel."
"If my granddaughter is going to grow up to be the next Supreme, she has to be strong."
"She's just a child."
"She's a Goode." Fiona snapped.
Maxine looked at her grandmother with tear filled eyes. She didn't want to be the next Supreme but the weight was befalling upon her shoulders little by little and there was no way to escape it.
"There, there." Misty rocked the startled girl back and forth, "It'll all work out. Just ya watch an' see."
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The next morning Cordelia woke the girls up bright and early for morning gathering just like she did every day. Maxine was the last one she woke.
"Maxine Goode, it's time for morning gathering. Get up now." She said when she opened the door and closed it back up.
Maxine rubbed her eyes and forced herself out of bed. She dressed under the eyes of her grandmother and her best friend, putting on a pretty black dress with a white peter pan collar. She grabbed a pair of black tights from the drawer and slipped them on, one leg at a time. She then sat at her vanity and let Fiona brush her hair.
"I might as well have given you birth myself." Fiona beamed at the child, "You look more like me than your mother."
Maxine looked at herself in the mirror. True she had her grandmother's eyes and her blonde hair but she had her mother's lips and her nose. Everything else was her own. Or so Maxine believed it to be so.
Fiona brushed the girl's long, straight blonde hair and tied it up into a ponytail laced with a black ribbon. She then placed her hands on her shoulders and smiled at the mirror. "There you go, beautiful."
Maxine smiled at her through the mirror, "Thank you, Nana."
"Max! Hurry it along now!" Cordelia called from down the stairs.
"Go on now," Fiona said, helping Maxine from the bench and ushering her out of the room, "Before that mother of yours gives me a headache."
Maxine dashed out of her room and through her mothers and out into the hall where she hurried down the stairs.
"No running!" Cordelia called from somewhere downstairs.
Maxine slowed down her pace and carefully grasped the bannister. When she did, something caught the corner of her eye. She looked down the hall, in the opposite direction she had come in to see Spalding standing in front of the door that lead to the attic. He gave her an eerie grin and waved her way. Maxine waved back and hurried down the stairs for morning gathering.
When Maxine reached the foyer, she noticed Kyle heading in the direction of her mother's study with two new frames under each arm. He must have been replacing the glass frames she had shattered the day before. Maxine felt terrible but joined the rest of the girls in the living room where they all sat in a circle.
Once Cordelia noticed Maxine enter and take a seat next to another girl named Chloe, she began. Cordelia had not forgotten the incident in her study of the talk she had with the child the night before. If Maxine wasn't going to tell her willingly then she was going to find out on her own.
Cordelia always found a way.
During the gathering, Cordelia went over the house rules for two new girls that had joined them. Maxine didn't pay much attention and instead looked over to Misty who was wandering along the wall behind Cordelia. She was glancing up at the paintings of previous witches, running her fingers along them.
No one seemed to notice that Robichaux's was crawling with ghosts. Only the child carried the burden of witnessing them all.
Maxine wished she were in the green house with Misty. Dancing and twirling around to the lovely voice of Stevie Nicks and tending to the plants they were growing. Maxine laughed and giggled like never before when she was with Misty. She adored the swamp witch and decided that keeping her presence a secret was for the best. Maybe her mother would rid of them if she were to find out. Or at least that's what Fiona had told her the night of the incident so the girl would stop questioning it and stay silent.
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"Why do you look at my Mommy like that?" Max asked later that day when they went into town for a festival with a few of the other girls in the house.
It was mid October and New Orleans was alive and vibrant with music and decorations to celebrate the upcoming deadly holiday. Cordelia had gone to the festival like she had done back when she was but a simple witch and didn't have any of the duties she had then. It had been her idea that the girls went out for a little bit of distraction and had announced it after their gathering.
Dressed in all black just like her mother, Maxine followed close behind them as they made their way through the crowded New Orleans street.
"Like what, darlin'?" Misty asked, keeping her eyes on Cordelia who was inspecting a stand of colorful handmade little skulls. Four men in black suits and sunglasses followed after them, keeping a close watch.
"Like that." Maxine pointed up at Misty's face.
"Oh, I don't know what ya mean." Misty cleared her throat and waved the child's question away with a hand. "Yer seein' things."
"You always look at her funny." Maxine raised a brow at Misty, "Why?"
"Don't ya pay no mind to me, little bird. It's nothing." Misty reassured her and turned her attention back to Cordelia who was smiling at a little sugar skull with colored of white, pink, green and blue.
"Max, stay by my side, please." Cordelia reached a hand out to the girl.
Maxine ran to join her mother, taking her hand.
"What do you think of this one?" Cordelia picked up the sugar skull and lowered it for Maxine to see.
"It's so pretty, Mommy." Maxine smiled, letting herself forget of the look of disappointment in her mother's eyes the previous night.
"I thought you'd like it." Cordelia grinned and turned to the vendor, "I'll take this one."
They continued along the stands looking at jewelry, little trinkets and hand made gifts. There were many skeleton figures in different outfits. Maxine particularly liked a group of skeletons in a jazz band and giggled at it. Cordelia said they would buy it if she wanted it. "No, thank you." Maxine said, continuing to study all the little things upon the table.
Cordelia felt so blessed to have Maxine as her daughter. She was such a humble little thing that never begged for anything or threw tantrums over things she couldn't have. The child was polite and delightful. Cordelia didn't know how she had gotten so lucky.
Finally, they reached a stand with a collection of rocks, gems, crystals and healing stones. Maxine was utterly delighted with a pastel pink rose quartz necklace. She picked it up with the tips of her fingers and held it up before her, "Wow."
Cordelia came from behind her, bending down slightly to be at eye level with her. "Healing crystals are very powerful." She told the girl.
"They are?"
"Yes, they're used for healing and many other things like protection."
Maxine liked it when her mother taught her things just to her opposed to a classroom like she often did to the other girls. Maxine often found that she didn't like sharing her mother's attention with the rest of the witches but she knew she had to. Still, she often wished she could have Cordelia all to herself like she did in that moment.
"It's so pretty."
"It is very pretty. Just like you." She softly pinched Maxine's cheek and glanced up at the woman selling the quartz, gesturing that she was going to take it. After she paid the woman, she took the pendant from Maxine's hand and placed it around her neck, putting it on. Once it was locked safely, she let it hand on her chest, brilliant against her black dress.
"There you go, my love. So you'll always be safe."
Maxine took the crystal between her fingers, pulling softly on the golden chain and studied it before her. Cordelia hadn't given her such a precious, yet special and meaningful gift before.
"Thank you, Mommy." She smiled up at Cordelia, taking a hold of her hand, "I love it."
"I'm glad you do." Cordelia beamed at her child and continued on to the next stand.
Misty had watched the whole scene with an aching heart. She loved watching Cordelia be a mother to the child; it warmed her heart.
Maxine glanced up to see Misty across the crowd and raised her arm up, lifting her hand to her. Misty went to her without hesitation and took the child's hand, feeling the link connecting her to Cordelia. Misty looked from Maxine to her sweet Delia, knowing that they lived in separate worlds and that the child was the bridge that would connect them one day.
Oh, how Misty longed for that day to come. Perhaps it would come sooner rather than later.