CHAPTER 3 - THE FIRST CONVERSATION

Kate woke up with a start. Those fucking dreams. They'd been haunting her for a while now. What was going on? Why did she keep dreaming about a temple? And why did she constantly feel on edge and like she had somewhere to be? She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but she'd have no time to think as she heard the whines of Max, who was beginning to stir and wake for the day. Looks like she'd woken him up. She looked at the clock, 9:32 a.m. At least it wasn't early in the morning. She waited as Max stretched, rubbing his eyes and opening them, immediately turning his attention to her.

"Hey there." Max didn't say anything to her, but his eyes said it all. He was saying hello back.

"Still not speaking?"

"Tired…" He fumbled around a little, wanting to get up out of bed.

"You're tired? All you do is sleep, my friend, I don't understand how you'd be tired." She stood up, grabbing Max's hands and hoisting him up out of bed and into his wheelchair, helping him put his dressing gown and slippers on as he asked. She then wheeled him out into the main area, letting him go off to go to the toilet whilst she checked for mail, opening the front door and looking in the mail bin. Despite being in a remote location, they still had an address, which Kate had given to Alicia to send stuff once they got there.

Surprisingly enough, there was mail. A single letter addressed to Kate. She took it out, immediately recognizing Alicia's handwriting. The first letter. She happily walked back indoors, deciding to wait until Max returned to open the letter. Maybe she'd sent him something too, knowing how much he'd be missing her.

Max returned 5 minutes later, and Kate wasted no time.

"Alicia sent a letter."

He immediately came over, trying to take it from her so he could see it for himself.

"Hey, hey! Let me open it first please!" She quickly tore it open, immediately seeing the large sum of money within, but also noticed a letter. She pulled it out and sure enough, it was addressed to Max.

"Here. Now you can have it because this letter is written specifically for you." She handed it to him, and he wasted no time opening it up and beginning to read it all, smiling to himself. Seems she'd written him something very nice.

"What did she say?"

"She loves me and misses me a lot."

"Well that was very nice of her to say." She knew it wasn't all of what she'd written, but she didn't want to push him to talk. "She sent us a lot of money, so perhaps we could maybe purchase a phone so we can talk to her and the others, eh?" She watched as Max gave a solemn nod, thinking to himself. God how much he wanted to talk to her again.

"We'll tackle it after breakfast. C'mon." She took Max to the dining table, preparing his cereal and mixing his meds in as always. She placed it in front of him and he immediately began to eat, skimming over the letter as he surprisingly ate the entire bowl of cereal, he'd only ever stomach ¾ of it. Looks like Alicia's letter really had put him in a good mood.

Elias joined them a while later, having woken up and immediately went to get his own breakfast, noticing the lovely vibes he was getting from Max and Kate.

"Looks like you two are very chipper this morning, what's happened?"

"Alicia sent Max a letter and us money, I'm gonna use some of it to buy a phone so we can get in contact."

"D'aww, that's cute! Can I read the letter, dad?"

"No."

"Oh. I was kind of expecting you to say yes."

"Piss off."

"Ok, wow. No need to be so mean, dad."

"Sorry."

"It's ok." Elias didn't bother pushing it further either. Hopefully Max would show him later since he was very curious as to what Alicia had written.

Max held onto the letter for as long as he could, but Kate eventually had to take it off him as he needed a bath. Despite his protests, Kate took the letter from him, folding it neatly and placing it on the table.

"You can have it back after I'm finished bathing you." She proceeded to start undressing him, unbuttoning his pajamas and removing his slippers. Once he was fully undressed, she helped him get into the bath, which was full of warm water. But Max still tried to protest taking away the letter, as he began to kick and thrash as Kate attempted to wash him, getting soap, shampoo and water all over her and her clothes. She ignored him the best she could, managing to wash his hair and fur pretty well, before cleaning down his face and ears with a cloth. By the time she was done, Max was pretty much over it, now just wanting to get out. Kate grabbed the towel, and got him wrapped up, picking him up and carrying him to the bedroom. Max lay there patiently, waiting for Kate to get his clothes.

"Max, there's no more of your Royal outfits. I haven't had time to wash them yet. You'll have to wear a pair of Elias' clothes today."

"No."

"You have to."

"NO." He started getting fidgety in the towel, getting riled up. He didn't want to wear Elias' clothes, he wanted his own.

"Right, if you don't want to wear his clothes, you'll have to wear your pajamas." Max said nothing, which meant he was fine with it. She helped him put his pajamas on, and dried his hair with the towel, brushing it out too.

"There we go, you look spick and span now, and smell lovely as well. I think you're ready for your first outing… Despite being in your pajamas, though we can cover you up with your jacket. Whaddaya say? Do you want to go outside?" Max looked at her, and nodded. He wanted to go. A lot.

"Wanna get paper… And a pen… Write to Alicia…"

"Oh, of course we can do that! Now let's just get ourselves ready." She stood up, grabbing Max's slippers and putting them on his feet, before reaching into the closet and grabbing his hat, scarf and coat. It wasn't exactly cold out, but she had to disguise him somehow. Nobody could know it was them. She also grabbed Elias' heavy coat, putting it on herself; she'd definitely have to disguise herself since everyone would know who she was. She hoisted Max up into her arms, and got Elias to help her bring his chair outside, proceeding to place him in.

"Are you sure this'll be fine?"

"We'll both be ok, I know what I'm doing." She turned to look at Max. "You know the rules too. No talking to anybody but me, I don't want you getting us found." She looked as Max nodded, understanding her clearly.

"Right." She turned to Elias. "We'll be back soon. Anything you want?"

"Not that I know of… If you see anything you think I'd like, get it!" Kate nodded, knowing what that would mean, before setting off, pushing Max in his wheelchair down the pathway of the forest. It was a very beautiful walk, both Kate and Max admiring the scenery, quiet and not speaking to each other. Though, once they were out of the forest, small talk began, mainly Max rambling on to Kate about some random stuff and Kate just nodding and smiling, agreeing with what he was saying, looking around at all of the shops.

"Aha-! Here we go, tech shop, I'll be able to get a phone in here. Now, Max, please don't say a thing while we're in here, let me handle the talking." Max didn't say anything, so Kate trusted he'd be quiet, and so they went inside, immediately starting to look around for a good quality phone… Well Kate was anyways. Max was looking, but perhaps not in the same way she was. Though, both their attentions were drawn to 2 people in the store, who were having a conversation… About them.

"Did you hear? King and Queen Acorn have run away, and now the monarchy is being ruled by Ixis Naugus."

"I wonder where they went off to? There's no way they could be here, we're too far away to travel that far in such a short amount of time, ESPECIALLY since I've heard the former King left with them."

She could feel Max getting all tensed up. He really didn't like all the talk about it, as it reminded him that this was all his fault. Oh how foolish of him to trust St. John.

Kate quickly got them both away from the people, hiking her hood up more and pulling Max's scarf up over his muzzle. She could feel the wetness of tears in his eyes, but she had no time to comfort him. She had to just get that phone and get out of there. That was easily done, Kate just picking out a smartphone that she knew was good, and quickly paid for it and got the sim card activated before getting herself and Max out of the shop as quickly as possible. He was still sniffling, but he wasn't full-blown crying, so that was a good thing. She chose to let him fester as they continued walking, but Max wasn't willing to let it go that easily.

"They were talking about us…"

"I know they were, but they didn't notice us, so we're alright. Don't let it upset you, we're not going to be found if we keep to ourselves." Max nodded, wiping his face down, and the two continued their shopping trip without any further issues, managing to get everything they needed before returning home, where Elias was just sat on the steps of the porch, getting some fresh air. He spotted them and stood up, walking over, smiling.

"You both look very happy. Get a good haul?"

"Yeah, we did! I got the phone, some new clothes for us all, and I got us more food for dinner for the next few days."

"Oh, good, great! I can't wait to have a look, let's go inside." He helped Max out of the chair, carrying him up the stairs and sat him on the couch, with Kate following close behind with all the bags and such. She got to putting all the food away in the fridge and freezer as Elias and Max started having a look through everything that had been bought.

"Oh, wow, the phone is good quality! Yeah, this'll be good to use to call the others. I should have mom's number somewhere…" Elias started rummaging through his bag, no luck. He looked in Kate's bag, and low and behold, she had it.

"Right, here it is, we'll wait for her to come back before calling." She overheard them talking, and quickly finished up, coming and sitting.

"Right, let's do this." She watched as Elias slowly typed in Alicia's number, his hands trembling slightly. He pressed the dial button, and a long silence filled the room as they all waited for what would happen next.

"Hello?" That unmistakable voice said. It really was her. She'd picked up. Max wasted no time with staying silent, excited to hear his wife on the phone again despite it only being a few days since they'd left.

"Alicia-!"

"Oh, Max-! It's you! Oh my goodness it's so good to hear from you since you left! We've all been so worried!"

"We're fine, Alicia, we got here with no problems." The voice of Kate rang out.

"Oh, that's such a relief! Both me and Sally have been worrying non-stop since your departure, things haven't exactly been going well here."

"Mom, what's been going on?"

"It's… about as bad as you'd expect with Naugus ruling. He's still trying to insist I rule with him, obviously to attempt to manipulate me since he failed to get Kate to rule with him, but I've refused everytime, and I'll keep refusing until I can't anymore."

"Good! Don't let him take control of you, mom. You'll be dragged into it all if he does."

"Oh trust me, we've already been dragged in. As soon as he found out you three had fled into the night, he immediately came to question me, Sally and Kate's family, he and that St. John person attempted to get answers out of us, but we of course didn't tell him, since we don't even know where you guys are. Where have you located to?"

"It's my Uncle Chuck's old house, back before he and my dad moved, he kind of just decided to keep it. He's… in on the entire operation, knows every detail, but I trust he won't spill that easily."

"Oh, I wasn't aware that he was in on it, he's definitely doing a good job of it."

"Yeah, he is, but now since we've escaped, it's up to us to just lay low and make sure not to get caught, word'll spread quick if we do and we'll get found."

"Yes, yes, that's absolutely important, keep yourselves safe, especially Max. Speaking of, can I talk to him? On his own?" Max immediately grabbed the phone as Elias and Kate just got up and went to the bedroom, hearing him ranting on to her about things, before it went silent. They went back out to check, and Max had finished talking to her, having put the phone down and was just sitting there staring into nothing. Kate walked over, and grabbed the phone, putting it away safely. She'd try to call Luke or Emma later to catch up, but for now she put the phone away, before coming back to chill with Elias and Max, though Max had other ideas as to what to do for his afternoon.

"Want to go to bed…" He rubbed his eyes, yawning. The shopping trip had worn him out. Elias sighed, and stood up, taking him off to bed, helping him pull the covers up. He didn't expect what was coming next.

"Goodnight… Elias…" Elias had to do a double take before leaving the room. Had his dad actually finally used his chosen name?!

"Goodnight dad." He quickly went back over and gave him a kiss on the head, so very happy to have heard that come from him. Max smiled and nodded, before snuggling in, shutting his eyes and going to sleep. Elias walked out, still smiling to himself widely like a dope, to which Kate caught onto immediately.

"What are you so pleased about? All you did was take him to bed."

"He called me by my name, Kate. He didn't call me you-know-what for the first time ever."

"He did?!" She immediately looked up, grinning too.

"Yeah! I can't believe it, I know he's struggled with it because of all of the mental stuff going on, so hearing him actually say it at his own free will makes me feel so happy." He sat down, jittering a bit, on a high from it all.

"Well, I think to celebrate we should do something nice, maybe… Make your favorite dinner?"

"YOU GOT THE INGREDIENTS FOR MAC AND CHEESE?"

"Yeah, I did! Come on, let's go!" And so the two got up and walked into the kitchen, a very successful day for them all.