Chapter Nine

"Damnit, Michael. I told you that you should never attempt to tell anyone that you could handle me. You know that you can't. It's useless for you to even try. We have had this talk before and I expected you to at least attempt to take what I said seriously. But, obviously you being you, you didn't." Maria stopped talking and unconsciously placed her hand on her stomach as she realized that her husband had yet to say one word. Usually, when they were in an argument, he would have been defending himself by now. Hell, it even looked to her as if he wasn't paying any attention to her. "I just want you to know that you can go straight to he---"

"HELLO, my beautiful children," Liz said in an attempt to drown out Maria's swear word. The children each ran to their respective parents, Azarian and Devon to Michael and Maria and Gabriel to Liz. Miguel and Philip watched the action in silence and immediately knew that this was a tactic on Max's part to save them from Maria's wrath.

"Momma, we wanna eat," the three tots all said in unison.

"Well, why don't I take you guys out to eat, uh? I'll take the three of you to McDonald's and you guys can eat there." She said as she picked up her small son and kissed his baby soft hair. She walked over to where Devon and Azarian were standing. "Come on Azarian and Devon. You guys want to go don't you?" She asked putting down her one free hand so that the children could grasp it.

"No, we want Momma to make us something," the twins, said as the wrapped their small cubby arms around Maria's legs.

"But, your momma is talking with your daddy, don't you two want them to finish talking." The twins shook their heads no and replied: "We want Momma to fix us something."

"Sweeties, I understand that, but your mother is busy. Won't you please, let me do this?" Liz said as she tried to reason with the insistence two-year olds. But, again they shook their heads. She sighed, man were these two children stubborn, just like their parents.

"It's okay, Liz. I'll go with you. Because, other wise this could go on for hours." She reached down and grasped the hands of her small children from around her legs. "You guys can either clean up or eat the food we already made. I don't care which." She informed a silent Miguel and Philip. "Oh and by the way, Michael, we're not through yet. This is not over it's only just began." She walked to the doorway and went outside to go her car.

Liz was the only female left in the kitchen when Max came in. She turned to follow Maria out the house but he stopped her. "Liz where are you and Gabe going?" He asked immediately side stepping the waving hands of the other men to go to his wife and child.

"We are going to go get some breakfast and then, I am taking our son home. Besides, that Chloe and Kay don't want to be here anymore. They would like to get away. And to be completely honest, so do I." She answered looking around the kitchen.

"Look, did I do something wrong? Is that why you're leaving?" He asked again as he saw her avoid looking directly at him. This he knew from previous experience that this met that she was mad at him.

"Okay, I am a little --,"she stopped her self from speaking. "I really don't want to get into this right now. I'm just going to go and besides, that I really don't think that you want me to get into this now, all right. Gabriel, say goodbye to your father. " She looked down at the little boy who had been observing the situation.

"Bye, Daddy."

"Bye," Max said as he watched Liz walk out the door. He turned to look at the other men. "So what happened?"

"Maxwell, you better talk to her. She was a little pissed by what happened earlier." Michael said as he grabbed the purses of the other women and handed them to Max. "Here, take these, this will be your excuse for going to her." Max took the purses and headed out the door.

"Good Luck!" The other men said together, then looked at each other and shrugged.

Liz and Maria had already put their kids in to their seats when they realized that they had left the purses in the kitchen. Liz got out of her car and walked to Maria's. "I'll go get the purses, you keep make sure Chloe and Kay are alright." Liz said before turning from the car and seeing her husband with four purses in his hands.

"I thought that you guys could use these." He handed her the purses and looked beyond her to see Kay and Chloe's eyes red and blotchy. "Are they going to be okay?" He asked suddenly concerned about how they got that way.

"They'll be fine as soon as we get out of here. Thanks for bringing them out." She said.

"What happened?" He asked still concerned for the other women.

"Look if you really want to know ask their husbands. They will be better as soon as we get out of here. So I'm going to leave now." Liz grabbed the purses and turned to leave. When she passed Maria she handed her the correct purses and then moved on to her own car with the appropriate purses. As soon as she got into the car, buckled her seatbelt and started the car Max came up to her window.

"I'll be coming home later today, after I help the guys. Okay?" Max said

"Yeah, whatever. Bye." And with that, Liz waited for Max to moved back before she started the car and drove out of the driveway with Maria right behind her.

Leaving Max standing in the drive way, he immediately knew from the way Liz had drove off the whatever happened in the kitchen had made not only to women cry but it made Liz mad at him too. He was going to have to investigate or suffer the consequence that his wife is pissed at him.