Between Max's now booming business and seeing the guys, Max and Gunnar spent as much time as possible together, Gunnar continued opening up to her and Max regularly found small gifts around in the next few weeks.
Flowers in her house and a new toy for Hendrix, a cooked breakfast when she woke up, dishes washed in the kitchen at Tools and slowly as another few weeks passed dvd's she liked, dinner dates to new restaurants in town. She found books left in her handbag she had looked at when they had gone shopping. She found pretty little wooden statues on her bedside table one morning, a cupcake sitting next to a grizzly bear. She enjoyed calling Henrik her teddy bear and she loved her little statues. She found her favourite ice cream in the freezer when she hadn't been shopping and baskets full of fresh fruit and vegetables from his garden.
Max wandered into the warehouse noticing Barney sitting on his bike in Tool's shop, Tool was calmly tattooing his lovers back.
"Wow Uncle Barney" she greeted wandering inside and sitting down on the nearby stool "Papa has turned you into a walking work of art" she continued
Barney chuckled "Never thought of it that way" he answered glancing at Tool
"He's always been a work of art, I just added to it" Tool added
"Naww" Max cooed "Papa and his muse" she added laughing at Barney's expression
"Always has been, kept my best tattoos for him, I enjoy seeing my ink and my art on you" Tool addressed the last part at Barney smiling softly
"Done?" Barney asked
"For now" Tool answered as Barney pulled his t-shirt back on
"Maxi" Barney started looking at Tool with uncertain eyes
"When do you go?" She asked understanding his look
"Tomorrow afternoon"
"Scale of 1 to ten, ten being a suicide mission how bad is it?" she pushed
"Seven" he answered
"How long do you expect to be gone, you know it everything goes well"
"Month" he answered
"Right, you told them?"
"Tonight" he answered
"Okay" She answered kissing Tool on the cheek
"Im going to get some food then, how does gumbo sound?"
"Great" Tool answered watching Max wander over to Barney and kissed him on the cheek in goodbye as well. She left and Tool noticed Barney look he was giving him
"What?" Tool asked
"She kissed me again" he answered
"Her Mama was Italian, she kisses everyone" he laughed
"Yeah but she doesn't usual kiss me goodbye, just you" Barney added
"Guess she is fond of her Uncle Barney" Tool smiled
Max returned and they could hear the music Max was playing on her little Ipod dock that Tool had seen Gunnar put into the kitchen when Max was out. She cooked away happily singing along quietly, she wandered out to say hello to the boys, kissing each hello as they arrived and returning to her kitchen. Gunnar arrived and wandered into the kitchen after greeting the others, he watched Max sway as she slowly danced as she stirred the large bubbling pot. He walked up behind her and wrapped an arm around her waist, she lent back looking up and he glanced down knowing her head sat under his chin perfectly
"You know this means I'm going again" he stated
"Yes" she answered
"I cant promise I will be coming back, you know that right"
"Yes" She answered
"When I do" He stated firmly "I'm going to retire" he added looking at her hoping his words pleased her
"What will you do?"
"Ive been offered a job" he explained
"What?" she asked
"I didn't mention it because I didn't think I would get it. It's a " he answered "research chemical engineering part-time" he added
"Henrik" she smiled "is that what you want?" She asked
"I like what I do, I also loved chemical engineering but now I don't like leaving and not being able to tell you if I'm coming back. Before I never cared" He shrugged
"Do you really want this?"
"I want to be around longer and have more time with you, if that's ok" he answered
"If you want to do that then of course, when you come back we can talk about it but it sounds wonderful to me" She smiled kissing him quickly
She pulled back and wandered to the door
"Gumbo" She called and stepped back as the man ran rushing in to get a bowl.
She smiled and got quick kisses on the cheek as each man mumbled a thank you with a mouth full of food.
She had sat down and finished on her bowl when Barney cleared his throat
"This is gonna be my last job" He stated, Max noticed Tool surprised look
"Im getting too old for this but I wanted to tell you that I will still the smaller organizational stuff with Tool. I've brought the bar down the road since Clive is retiring with Betty to florida." He added still not looking at Tool
"Barney?" Christmas asked
"Im almost sixty-seven man, I've had enough of wadding in other people's shit, I wanna just be for a while" he added
"Right, get some feel guys and see you all tomorrow" He walked off into the kitchen as the men all started to leave
Max looked at her Papa
"Did you know?" She asked
"No idea" Tool answered slowly smiling
"Goodnight Papa" she kissed him and after calling out a farewell to Barney she climbed onto the back of Gunnar's chopper and they left.
"Barney?" Tool called watching the dark-haired man wander back out with another beer in his hand
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you" He answered
"Do you want to retire Barn?" He asked
"Yes" He answered "I only did what I did for so long because I didn't have anything keeping me here, nothing to keep me connected to life"
"And now?" Tool asked
"Don't make me say it" Barney grunted
"I would like to hear it" Tool answered
"I wanna be here with you alright, figured running a bar n this place would keep me from going crazy and we can still organise the boys"
Tool smiled a happy smile and picked up Barney's hand and leading him to the bedroom.
"love you too ya idiot" he smiling kissing him gently
Max opened the door and allowed Gunnar into her house and she smiled as Gunnar kissed her slowly, deeply and lovingly. He carried her to the bed and slowly made love to her, trying to memorizing every moment with her in case he couldn't come back as he planned. She curled up at his side and rested her head on his chest contentedly as she drifted off to sleep, when she woke Gunnar was gone but she found a small jewellery box sitting on the pillow Gunnar had used.
She opened it and saw charm bracelet sparkling at her, the white gold setting off the colour of the charms that were currently on it.
She grinned at the cupcake, a teddy bear, a dog, a spanner, a heart and the motorbike as she pulled it out and put it on her right wrist. She enjoyed being called Gunnar's cupcake, he was her teddy bear. She was touched that he include Hendrix, Tool and her mother who she always stated was a sweetheart.
She had a few work related phone calls, she took Hendrix for a long walk before picking up the keys to Gunnar's new truck he had left in her drive.
Hendrix climbed in happily and she pulled into the warehouse, Hendrix rushed off to find Tool as Max wandered into the kitchen and made two coffees.
She heard Papa laughing as he wandered into the kitchen with Hendrix, she handed him the coffee and a quick kiss on his cheek.
"Got off okay?" She asked
"Yeah" Tool answered taking a sip
Max smiled shyly as Tool grabbed her wrist and looked at the new bracelet with a smirk
"New?" He smiled
"Yes" she smiled "He hmm was offered a job, wants to take it and retire if he comes back"
"Really?"
"Yeah" she answered looking down
"Look at us" Tool laughed "Got both our men retiring"
"God I want them both to come back" she sighed
"Me too" Tool answered