Alrighty...its kind of short again, but it actually moves the story on a little bit this time. I hope you like it =3

Part 26

While she was making all the lunches up the following morning, Max was still lost in thought. The lady from the agency hadn't appeared soon after Max had gotten up this morning, so she assumed she couldn't be coming in today. That meant she had a few days to talk to the kids about it, but that wasn't what was playing on her mind.

That was where the money had gotten to.

She'd ended up saving some of the money anyway, so they had no treat for next weekend so they had a little emergency money they could fall back on if need be. Still, both Angel and Gasman had picked up on it, and Max had to tell them some of the money was missing.

They'd spent a lot of the evening trying to help her find it by going down the sofa and behind the furniture, but although it was sweet of them Max knew it wouldn't be there. Iggy went through the accounts with her again and again, but no money surfaced.

It had literally vanished.

Sighing to herself, she put some luncheon meat in between the two pieces of bread and wrapped it in cling wrap, carefully putting it in a lunchbox with a piece of fruit and a packet of crisps. It didn't matter. She'd either have the money from the agency soon or she wouldn't have any kids to look after anyway.

She turned, the pile of lunchboxes in her hands, to take them into the hall and pack them into bags, but stopped in her tracks when she noticed Gasman was blocking the doorway, looking sleepy and still in his pyjamas.

"You OK, Gaz?" she asked as she moved to put the lunchboxes down, not taking her eyes off the little boy. He seemed to be sad, the corners of his eyes pricking with tears, and Max frowned. He never cried. "Did you have a nightma-"

"Please don't be mad at me, Max." He interrupted, his shaky voice reminding Max how old her little soldier really was. He sniffed and reached into a pocket, pulling out a small wad of money. Max's eyes widened slightly. "I just wanted to get Iggy something nice for his birthday, we never have enough money, and I thought I could get him something, but…I didn't…"

Smiling gently, Max knelt down beside the Gasman and wiped the tears from his eyes with the back of her hand, her other lifting his chin very slightly so he could see she wasn't angry. She took the money and placed it on the counter before wrapping Gasman in a hug.

"It's ok," she said softly, which seemed to make him cry harder. "I'm not mad. We'll make sure Iggy gets something nice for his birthday, but next time ask me before you make any money, ok?" She pulled away a little to look at him, but nodded into her shirt, tears still flowing. Max held him a little longer, stroking the back of his head lightly.

That was one problem solved.

*~*~*~*

Though he predicted it wouldn't be easy, Fang wasn't quite ready for how difficult it would be to walk to school on crutches. Sure, he could walk that far if he needed to, but he hadn't weighed his school bag into the equation while he was thinking about it.

It wasn't that it was getting in the way or anything, just that it was adding more weight to his poor arms that were supporting his weight rather than his leg. He could put it down on the ground now, but putting weight on it was a bit too painful to bare.

The didn't even want to try doing that with a school bag on yet.

His mum had been allowed out of the house to walk a little of the way with him, and she was kind enough to show him a shortcut to Max's road. It was an alleyway that cut behind a row of houses, meaning he missed the curve on the road with the park on it and lost five to ten minutes of his walk if he went the new way.

Having thanked his mum, he let her go home before Mike got arsey and set off down the narrow passage at a slow pace, balancing most of his weight on the other leg and the crutches. Occasionally he forgot he wasn't supposed to put his bad leg down and a pang of pain would shoot up his leg, but other than that he got to Max's without any drama.

She seemed genuinely surprised to see him on her doorstep and invited him inside to sit down while the kids finished their breakfasts and got their school bags together. He'd left very early to make sure he wasn't late and ended up getting there ten minutes early thanks to his mother's shortcut.

So he settled into an armchair and watched the chaos come to a conclusion.

A couple of minutes before they were due to leave, with the kids just putting their shoes on and doing up ties and coats, there was a knock on the door. With Max helping Gasman to do his tie, Angel was the one to go and answer it.

"Miss Ride?" the woman at the door asked, and Angel shook her head before pointing to Max, who had just straightened and turned to face her name. The lady swept past Angel and dropped her bag at the bottom of the stairs, looking about the hallway as she took off her scarf.

"It's a bit small for this many children, isn't it?" she asked curtly before looking at Max directly in the eye. "And we frown upon small children answering the door. They could be snatched and run away with before you can even react."

Max dared a sideways glance at Fang, who was rising from the armchair and rebalancing his weight on his crutches, though he'd forgotten to put his bag on and not noticed. Looking back at the woman who had just barged into her house, Max narrowed her eyes a little and shooed Gasman towards the door to join his sister, stepping slightly to the side so Iggy could pass too.

"We like this house," she stated as curtly as she could without sounding rude, watching Fang head for the front door out of the corner of her eye before grabbing the woman's scarf she'd discarded on the banister and holding it out to her. "And you'll want to put this back on, since you're a few hours late and we're about to leave for school."

The lady glared at Max for a few seconds before snatching her scarf back, grabbing her bag and storming outside. Max sighed loudly and ducked back into the living room to pick up Fang's back, swinging it onto the opposite shoulder to her own, before heading for the door.

So much for making a good first impression.