Still, I am getting amazing response on this AU. Nearing 10,000 views! Probably not that great, but it's great for me!
NightshadeLG: Do you? OK then. I hope you enjoy this as much :)
Guest: Thanks, that's high praise. The update arrives!
Max had no idea how long he was hiding down there. Maybe it was a few hours, maybe even days. Probably not days, but a long time He knew he'd missed dinner by the growling in his stomach, but didn't want to go back up to the ward. He had heard an announcement over the speaker, telling him to report to the doctor's office on floor three. Max ignored it. There was another announcement half an hour later, telling everyone to be on the lookout for a young, Indian boy wearing hospital pyjamas. Max sighed. No one would find him here. Either he stayed until he rotted, or come back to the ward on his own.
After many hours had passed and the entire building had gone to sleep, Max found the growling in his stomach become unbearable. He stood up and stretched, shaking out a cramp in his foot.
The loading bay was deserted, as usual. There was action in the ambulance bay, but that was understandable. Max slipped past and up the stairs again, slipping through the silent corridors like a miserable shadow. He reached the second floor, but then realised that he didn't have to go back to the ward. He had the whole place to himself. He could sneak into the kitchen and get food, and spend the rest of his days here in the loading bay. He could just stay there all week. He could stay there forever. Run away from his problems.
Max turned away from the stairs and headed on, into the second floor. He came to a door, simply marked, A. He shrugged and reached for the handle.
"Max?"
Max jumped and spun around to see Space Kid stood behind him, still clothed in his rocket pyjamas, toy rocket in his hand and a confused expression on his face.
"Space Kid?! W, what are you doing here?"
"No one lets me play space in the ward." Space Kid replied, smiling again. "So I have to do it at night, away from all the other people. It's strange really. No one ever likes me playing space."
"Was playing space what got you landed in here?" Max gestured to the bandage around the boy's head. Space kid shrugged.
"You wanna play? In fact, where have you been. Everyone's been freaking out. It too ages for them to go to sleep so I could sneak out. But do you wanna play?"
"Sure, sure. I'll play." Max said in a bored tone. If it kept Space Kid from telling, it was worth it.
Space Kid didn't seem like one to tell on Max though. They went all over the hospital, from wards full of old people, to sliding down the banister of a massive staircase, to the ambulance bay (the workers in which seemed to know Space Kid, and one even gave him some candy) to the very top of the building.
This seemed to be Space Kid's favourite place. It was very open, out with the night air, the night sky seeming impossibly close. Max leant against the railing that encircled the roof and gazed out across his city. He could see the lights of street lamps and see people walking about, coming home from restaurants or going to late party sessions at nightclubs. Police sirens wailed. Birds roosted on telephone wires. Max took a deep breath of the most likely polluted air and smiled.
It smelt like home. Home to him, and many other people, probably most of the patients on the ward. He could see a park in the distance. Nikki had mentioned living near a park. Max pictured her there now, sat on the roof of her apartment building, howling at the moon, maybe. Happy.
This roof was very far from the ground. It was hurt very much if he just...
Just one step...
No. No way. Especially not with Space Kid watching.
The other boy came up to Max, having finished running around the rooftop with his rocket.
"Why did you run away?" He asked, leaning on the rail next to Max, looking out. But instead of gazing down to the pavement below, he was looking up, up at the sky, the place where he longed to be someday.
"Erm, I was just... angry at Neil." Max said, but that barely brushed upon what he truly felt. Who he was truly angry at.
"OK." Space Kid whooshed his rocket along the railing a bit. "Will you be coming back?"
This question hit Max. The answer... he didn't really know himself. He shrugged.
"What if I don't?"
"I think Neil will stay upset."
"Upset?"
"Oh yeah." Space Kid nodded. "He hasn't spoken a word since you left, just lies there. And David's freaking out too. Gwen seems to be a little nervous about it all."
Max grinned at the thought of David freaking out.
"So, what if I do go back?"
Space Kid thought for a minute.
"You and Neil will probably have to apologise to each other and make friends again, like Ered and Nurf did."
Max shrugged. "I won't get punished?"
"David's too nice. And Gwen will be too relieved, I think." Max frowned. He hadn't really thought Space Kid took note of the world around him, but apparently, he took way more note than Max had ever thought. Maybe more than Max did himself. He had never really thought David cared that much. Maybe he had just refused to believe it.
"I think we should be getting back now." Space Kid said. "You know, if you want to."
Max shrugged.
"Sure. I think I can face the music."
Space Kid smiled and waved towards the sky.
"See you soon." He said, and headed towards the stairs. Max looked down into the street below.
"See you soon, you old cunt." He whispered, and headed after Space Kid.
...
David heard Gwen yawn and stretch, then get off her bunk to start the day. Must have just woken up. David hadn't. He hadn't slept at all. He had been so worried for Max. The boy had been really upset and angry, and he gathered it wasn't just because of Nikki leaving, nor Neil's attitude towards him. It was all his fault. He shouldn't have invited him to talk about his parents. Not he had probably escaped the building and was running loose in the city. Anything could happen to him down there!
"David? David, are you getting up today?" Gwen's head appeared next to his own. David jumped a little.
"Oh, yes, sorry." He sat up and hit his head on the ceiling. "Urgh, I do that every time, don't I?" He gave a feeble laugh.
Gwen sighed. "Max will be fine. The little shit's probably just hiding in the kitchen or something. He'll be back."
"I guess you're right." David said. "I hope you're right." He muttered.
"I'm always right." Gwen gave a smile and left the office. David carefully climbed down from his bunk, and heard Gwen gasp. "Max?!"
"Max?!" David exclaimed, and scrambled out of the office after her. "Max!"
Max was there, sat up in bed, eating a large bar of chocolate and grinning at them casually. "Oh hello David. Nice PJs."
David ignored the comment about his pine needle nightclothes. "Max, where have you been? We were all so worried-"
"Yeah, yeah, I get the idea. I've been a naughty boy, but I'm back now and as I remember, I have treatment in an hour or so, so chop chop, get dressed."
A laugh seemed to float from Space Kid's bed, but when David checked, the young boy was fast asleep. He sighed.
"You certainly are a strange one, kid." Gwen said with a nod of the head.
"Not as strange as David."
The other patients were gradually waking up and Neil rolled over to see Max in the next bed. He gave a start. "Max!"
"Yeah, finally people get my name right, no need to keep repeating it." Max finished his chocolate and tossed the wrapper into the bin in the nurse's office with the skill of someone who spent many detentions doing just that.
"Are you... alright?" Neil said awkwardly, sitting himself up.
"Yeah. Nothing awful happened to me on my adventures. Space Kid can probably testify to that."
"But..." Neil sighed. "I'm sorry about the stuff I said. I was still mad about you keeping that from me, but... you were right. I was pathetic about all this."
"Yeah, but, I was being a bit harsh on you." Max admitted. "I shouldn't have attacked you about it. So... I'm sorry."
The friends gave each other a small smile.
"Get a room!" Preston exclaimed from the next bed. Neil raised a fist, but it was in a joking way.
Space Kid sat up at the other side of the room, observing the friends laughing and joking, and including Chucky. He smiled.
"Houston, my work here is done." He declared.
"Huh?" Muttered a half asleep Dolph.
"It's another word for mission control."
"Oh, OK." Dolph dropped back to sleep. Space Kid observed Max and Neil for a little while longer, before reaching for his toy rocket. There were other space missions to play right now.
NOT a shipping chapter!