Hard Reset

By Miss Magillicuddy

Chapter 19

May 31, 2014

"Careful on the steps, baby," Chloe said softly as she lead a blindfolded Max carefully up to the second level of their house. "We don't want you to fall down and smash Liam. Three steps left."

Max was blindly feeling along the banister and carefully counting the stairs as she made her way to the top. Chloe had an arm wrapped securely around her hips to help make sure she didn't somehow slip backwards. She huffed in exasperation before opening her mouth to speak.

"Why do I need to be blindfolded," she asked as she lifted another hand to rub at her eye through the mask. "I swear to dog this better not be some sort of a prank."

"I swear it isn't," Chloe promised next to her, giving the girl a slight smirk. "It's a surprise for you."

"Okay, but we need to hurry a little," Max stated as Chloe led her to the closed nursery door. "the guests are going to be arriving soon, and I still wanted to make some dip for the chips."

"Don't worry, babe. We have plenty of time," Chloe assured her as she turned the knob. She slowly opened the door and led the girl into the room, sending a quick smile to the small group that was in there beaming. "Okay Max… on the count of three you can remove your mask. One… Two… Three."

"Surprise," their friends shouted as Max's mask finally lifted from her eyes. "What do you think?"

Max blinked blearily a few times before taking a better look around the room. Her eyes widened and her jaw fell slightly opened as she saw the beautiful mural that was painted on the wall behind her friends. She felt her eyes begin to water as she took in the forest scenery with baby animal's lazing about. She saw a fawn, a fox and rabbit playing together. In the trees she saw a nest painted with baby birds heads popping out of the top searching for food. Another branch held a baby owl with it's head tucked under it's wing and a swarm of pretty blue butterflies looked to be fluttering around wildflowers.

"Oh my dog," Max whispered, a few tears leaking from her eyes. "I love it! Thank you so much!"

The freckled girl hurried towards her friends, pulling Kate into a giant hug while reaching for Rachel's shirt to tug her near. She pulled back from the girls and saw Dana standing back a little watching them with a smile and pulled her into a large hug as well.

"This is gonna look beautiful when we get the furniture in here," Max said as she started to weep.

"Are you sure you like it," Justin asked from next to Kate, "the tears are kind of making me worry."

"They're tears of happiness, you goof," Kate mumbled to him while rolling her eyes at Max, before turning to whisper in his ear. "Her hormones are all over the place. This is the girl who cried at a toilet paper commercial."

"Oh, right," Justin responded, smiling sheepishly at Max. "I'm glad you like it. I didn't do much in the actual painting, but I was the runner for supplies. I'm not at all artsy."

"It's okay, Justin," Max said, giving him a light hug.

"We appreciated the help that you did give us," Rachel told him, while Dana walked up behind her to wrap an arm around her waist, pressing a soft kiss to the top of the girl's head.

"No Trevor today," Max asked, looking at 2/3's of the throuple.

"He's helping at his parent's shop," Dana responded, "I guess someone quit and they needed a last minute stock boy. He sent us with a present for you."

Any further conversation was halted as Max's phone chimed in her pocket. She smiled as she pulled it out and saw her mom's name flashing on the screen to let them know they were there. She hurriedly sent them a text to let themselves in. A few second's later, the group could hear the front door open and close as her parent's walked into the house.

"You guys have to come see this," Max shouted from the room. There was no way she was going to waddle all the way down the stairs only to turn around and lead them back up. "We're in the former guest room/new nursery!"

The grandparent's footsteps made their way up the stairs, voices getting more discernable as they made their way towards the bedroom's open door. Vanessa's sentence cut off with a screech as she rounded the corner into the bedroom.

"Oh my god, its adorable," The woman gushed as she rushed forward to hug Max, then Chloe. "This is a room fit for a forest prince."

"Our friends painted it for us," Chloe told her with a grin. "We just surprised Max with it."

"It looks great," Ryan agreed as he stared at the wall in question. "You all are way better artists than me. I can't even properly draw a stick figure."

"How do you incorrectly draw a stick figure," Justin asked, looking at the man in confusion.

"I'd tell you if I even knew where I went wrong," Ryan joked with a wink.

"Do you need help finishing to get ready," Vanessa asked as she took Max's hand and led her back down the stairs. "I got here early to help decorate if you needed it."

"That would be great," Max said. The two of them made their way into the living room where the double baby shower was taking place. "Joyce is going to be bringing the cake over soon, but I figured we could get the tablecloths ready. We have one snack table, and two present tables. One for me and one for Victoria. We figured it would be easier for everyone to just combine the baby showers since we have a lot of the same people going to both."

Everyone else in the house eventually made their way back down and started finishing the set up. Chloe ran into the kitchen to make some dip for the chips they had set out on the table so that Max could have a seat. Her feet had been super swollen all morning, and the blue haired girl wanted her to be relaxed before their house was full of people.

They were just putting up the finishing touches when Joyce walked in with the cake. David was trailing behind her holding a bag loaded with 3 different types of ice cream, which he stowed in the freezer until later. Max had Chloe take them upstairs to show them the nursery and she could hear the southern woman's excited shouts from the living room. The next person to arrive was Victoria. She had wanted to be there earlier to help, but had gotten tied up at the airport waiting to pick up her parents. Victoria's parents were not what she was expecting. She had thought they would be snooty like Victoria had used to be, but they seemed genuinely kind. She knew they were exceedingly rich, but they showed up wearing extremely casual clothing. Her mom, Louisa, had given Max a warm hug as she introduced herself. Immediately asking the girl how she was doing with everything. Max assured her she was doing much better.

Their friends started trickling in soon after and they happily played a few games before having cake, which was as usual for Joyce absolutely divine, and ice cream. Max had two slices of cake, stating that the baby was wanting another piece. (Chloe internally swore to make sure the girl had a very healthy dinner because of that.) After eating, the two mom's to be sat on a loveseat next to each other and began opening presents. They received a lot of clothes, diapers, toys and really nice diaper bags. Max nearly cried again when she saw a picture of a rocking chair that her parents told her they would put together for her, but it had been way too large to wrap.

"so, have you picked out a name yet," Vanessa asked as the party started winding down. Every time she had asked in the past she had been told they were still working on it. They had figured it out a few weeks before, but had decided to wait to say it until the shower.

"We have," Max responded coyly, smirking at her parents.

"Are you going to tell us, or make us guess," Ryan joked next to his wife.

"Oh, were you wanting me to tell you," Max responded sarcastically.

"The anticipation is killing me," Joyce drawled.

"Okay," Max laughed. "I don't want to kill anyone. His name is going to be Liam Ryan Caulfield-Price."

"We named him after dad," Chloe said smiling gently but with a hint of sadness in her eyes for the missing family member, "but didn't want to go with the traditional William."

"Oh, Chloe," Joyce whispered as she became choked up. "Girls, that is so beautiful. William would be over the moon."

"We wanted to honor him," Max told everyone as her eyes became a little misty, "He was an excellent father to Chloe and a huge part of my childhood. He was like a second father to me. I was devastated to lose him. If Liam grows up to be even half the man William was, he'll be a great man."

Joyce let out a light sob before rushing over and pulling the two girls into a tight hug. The three of them sat there holding one another for a few minutes with Chloe and Max rubbing Joyce's back. All three of them had tear tracks on their cheeks as they pulled back from one another. There was a sob from a sofa near them. Everyone's eyes darted towards the sofa and widened as they landed on Victoria sobbing gently.

"S-sorry," the blond sobbed, "my hormones are all over the place. I don't mean to cry. It's a beautiful name."

"It's okay, hun," Joyce told her, wiping a stray tear from her eye, "have you picked out a name?"

"Yes," she murmured as she began dabbing her eyes with a tissue. "Alexander Mason Chase. I'm going to call him Xander."

"That's a sweet name," Louisa said as she pressed a kiss to the top of her daughters head.

Shortly after that, everyone started departing. The Chase's helped get all of Victoria's gifts out to the car, while Chloe and Max's families started lugging hers up to the nursery. The Caulfield's were going to be staying in town for the rest of the week as the Blackwell Graduation Ceremony was the next Saturday. Joyce and David had converted Chloe's old bedroom into a guest bedroom and the couple was going to stay with them since the girls no longer had a guest room.

They didn't even make it through the following week before the news broke. Mark Jefferson was murdered in prison.

AN: Sorry for the delay. This is just a short chapter that I wanted to get out since it was partially written. I haven't had a whole lot of time to write lately, but figured something is better than nothing!