"Oh my god," Emily placed her hands on either side of Alec's face and looked up at him, tears in her eyes, before yanking him into a hug which he returned carefully, "oh my god."
Likewise, Max found herself pulling into the embrace of her crying mother, but Max gave up all sense of dignity and bust into tears along with her, working hard enough just telling herself not to hug her mom too tightly so she wouldn't suffocate her. Maria managed to choke out, "They told us we were crazy, that place hadn't happened, I didn't have you."
Refusing to be at a loss for words, Alec, not letting go of his mother, asked, "So, I guess you could tell us our birthdays."
Tempted to smack him, Max instead found herself sniffling slightly as she had never even thought about her birthday or that finding her mother meant she could find that too. "We've… we've been looking for you for so long," unconsciously adding Alec in with the we.
Looking up, Maria smiled at Max and gently disentangled her from the hug, "We should sit down, away from the guards."
Letting go of Alec, Emily led the so far unnoticed group to a couch in the far corner, motioning for Alec and Max to sit even though the two older women stayed standing. "You're both so beautiful. How did… what was it like, growing up there?"
The seated pair cringed and Max laid her head on Alec's shoulder tiredly as she said, "It was… hard. Being soldiers always is. But you all, they took away your lives, don't you want-"
Whispering in Max's ear so the others couldn't hear, Alec said quickly, "I say it's time for a new plan, take out the guards, get everybody out, blow it up, and then run like hell." When Max nodded he continued, louder, so that their parents could hear, but not the guards, "They'll be lots of time for us all to catch up after we bust you out of here."
Exchanging nervous glances, Emily and Maria shook their heads, Maria whispering sadly, "There's too many guards, we've tried; it'll never work."
Maria bent forward and brushed a stray piece of Max's hair out of her eyes, "Just seeing you, just seeing you is more then we could have asked for. Any of us."
Shrugging off the painful flashbacks of her childhood, Max smiled tersely, "What can we say? Manticore didn't give you all those vitamins for nothing. We've got it covered, gather everybody together and wait for our signal."
Flashing his infamous grin to reassure their mothers, Alec nodded towards the other women who were still oblivious. "C'mon, trust us, it'll be fun, and if we screw up there's nothing that you can get blamed for."
Wiping at a few stray tears, Emily ruffled Alec's hair affectionately, whispering conspiratorially, "I know, you will be the miracles we have been waiting for."
The two older women stepped back sadly and turned to assemble their friends, a new plot of escape on their lips. Their last words before they walked away were, "Be careful," as they cast worried glances towards the guards.
Slowly standing back up, Max brushed off remaining tears and smiled at Alec, "What do you say we go kick some butt?"
"I'd say," Alec drawled slowly, "last one there has to figure out how we hide almost a hundred women in this town."