Chapter 3

Over the course of the next week, Max discovered that having a daughter was difficult, but rewarding. Piper returned to school on the third day and Max ended up having to give her some money for lunch because the thought of making her lunch hadn't even crossed his mind. Dinner was also interesting. He quickly found out that nine year olds don't really enjoy steaks medium rare. Nor will they tolerate braised duck. It wasn't that Max didn't enjoy a cheeseburger as much as the next guy, it was just that he wasn't used to having to cater for somebody else.

He was meticulous about picking Piper up from school though. There were three alarms set on his phone to make sure that he wasn't late. It had been a bit awkward meeting her teacher on the first day, since he couldn't really answer any of her questions about how Piper was coping. Max barely knew her after all.

The biggest change for Max was the noise. His house had always been silent; the only sounds came from him and whatever he was doing. He'd always hated the emptiness and now the presence of someone else in his house was strangely comforting. Once or twice he'd heard Piper thumping down the stairs and momentarily thought that someone had broken in before he'd remembered. Other times, the noise of the television would float through the house into his study and it would distract him from his work, but it didn't irritate him. It actually made him feel more at home than ever.

And so Max and Piper stumbled their way through the first week of living as father and daughter. Piper was still quiet and sad. Max still had no idea what he was doing. But it all seemed ok. Life kept moving forward.

Max woke up on Sunday with an idea forming in his sleepy brain. He thought he might take Piper to Lord Technologies and show her around. She knew as little about him as he did about her and Max thought that going out might distract her from whatever was going on behind those miserable eyes. They had breakfast together and then bundled themselves into Max's Mercedes.

Piper watched out the window with wide eyes as the skyscrapers of National City flashed by. She had so many questions about this place. Which one was the tallest building? What was CatCo? What did the letters in KPJT News stand for? All of these questions and more whizzed around her head, but she didn't voice them out loud. Two weeks ago she would have pestered her mother with them, but now she didn't really feel like it.

Her eyes grew even wider if that was possible when they pulled up at the front of the Lord Technologies main building. It was massive, made mostly of glass with two tall towers on either side of the huge entrance hall. A big, curved sheet of glass stuck out like a baseball cap above the front door.

'Well Piper, this is my building. I'm the boss of all of it. What do you think?' Max said proudly as helped her out of the car.

'It's huge,' Piper exclaimed, clearly impressed. Max couldn't help but grin. Even a nine year old thought he was impressive.

'Come and see inside.'

Piper nodded eagerly and took Max's hand as they started towards the entrance. The contact made Max jump and he almost pulled away before he realised what had happened. He looked down at his hand to find Piper's fingers gripping his own. She walked on as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened, fixated on the building that loomed ahead, but it wasn't nothing to Max. It almost made his heart stop.

They'd barely taken three steps into the reception area when a slim lady with long black hair came sauntering up to them.

'Mr Lord,' she purred, 'will you be in the office today?'

'No, Paulina, not today. I'm showing Piper around. Piper, this is my secretary, Paulina.' Max avoided the use of the word 'daughter' for reasons he didn't quite understand.

'Hey there sweetie,' Paulina smiled at Piper, but the gesture was not returned. 'I'll leave you to it then.'

Max nodded as she walked away. He briefly wondered if she had kids.

'What do you do here?' Piper asked suddenly.

'Science,' Max exclaimed with a dramatic wave of his hand. 'I invent things that will make National City better. Technology that will improve the lives of everyone that lives here.'

'Like what?'

'Did you ever hear about the bullet train that was going to be launched in National City?' Piper nodded eagerly. 'That was my train.'

'No way!'

Max took immense pleasure in the joy on Piper's face. He lead her through the building, stopping to show her his office, his lab and some of the projects his team was working on. At first Piper just followed along with interest, but after seeing the laser cutter that Max was developing to assist firemen with rescues she couldn't hold her questions in any longer. For the first time in two weeks, she felt like she just needed to be herself.

The questions flooded out of her and Piper didn't think she could stop. As soon as one had left her mouth, another was already itching on the tip of her tongue. She listened intently to Max's explanations of his inventions even though she didn't really understand a lot of it. It was all so cool!

Max found it difficult to explain his research in a way that was suitable for a nine year old, but he kept trying because he was secretly thrilled that Piper was so keen about his work. It was a side of her that he hadn't seen yet and it made him feel so much more comfortable with her. It helped that he loved the opportunity to boast about his scientific endeavours. No one ever really wanted to listen to him that much about his work in day to day conversations. Even the DEO scientists had been too busy glaring at him with disapproval to appreciate his genius. Piper, however, hung on his every word.

'You must be really smart,' Piper commented after they'd returned to Max's office for a drink.

'I am,' Max replied mischievously. 'I'm a genius.'

Piper giggled. 'Can you teach me?'

Max was slightly taken aback. 'Teach you what?'

'Science.'

Piper leaned forward eagerly in her chair, but Max was lost for words. His daughter wanted him to teach her about science. His head whirled. Where would he even start? Science was his fallback, his one true love, his safety net. And Piper wanted him to share that with her.

'I'll teach you everything,' Max promised solemnly, making Piper clap her hands together once in a rare moment of glee.

Max stopped at the bookstore on the way home from Lord Technologies and bought every book on science for kids that he could find. Piper's mouth dropped open when he returned to the car with three boxes of books.

'Those are for me?' She asked incredulously.

'The ones in my house are a bit big for you at the moment,' Max replied, 'so we'll start with these.'

Piper couldn't believe it. She flicked through the books one by one as they trundled through the streets of National City. There was everything from what an element was to what blood was made of to why humans can't breathe in space. She was going to learn it all. She was going to be as smart as Max was.

She looked across at her father as the car pulled into the driveway of Max's house. In all her nine years, her mother had never mentioned him. Not once. Piper had asked, but all she'd gotten in reply was, 'He doesn't matter. What matters is us.' She'd often wondered whether her dad had done something terrible or whether they'd just had a fight. Looking at him now though, she thought he was pretty cool.

Such is the way of things that good moods rarely last long and in the case of a nine year old girl who's just lost her mother, good moods are unlikely to last very long at all. The day after her visit to Lord Technologies, Piper's heart ached. It was like someone was squeezing her so tightly that it hurt. She lay on her bed and stared at the photograph of her mother that Max had framed for her.

'Why did you have to leave?' Piper whispered, tears falling down her face. The longer she focused on the picture, the more it hurt. The room tilted and spun. Her vision was blurry from crying. She missed her mother's voice when she called her downstairs for breakfast. She missed giving her a hug goodnight and the kiss on the forehead that her mother would unfailingly give her. She missed telling her mother about all the things she'd done at school that day. Everything kept piling up in Piper's mind until she was mad with grief. She picked up the book that lay forgotten on the end of her bed and threw it across the room. It hit the wall with a loud thud, leaving a mark, and dropped to the floor.

Piper jumped out of bed and ran to the closet, sliding open the door and throwing herself inside. Darkness enveloped her as she closed the door and sunk to the floor, wrapping her arms around her knees and crying uncontrollably. She just wanted to go home. She just wanted her mum back.

Max was in his study looking over some papers when he heard a noise from upstairs. He started, but then relaxed quickly. It's just Piper, he thought. He listened out for her footsteps, thinking that she was on her way downstairs to ask what was for dinner or what made balloons float. She'd asked so many questions of him last night that his head swam. Her keenness had made him strangely happy. It had given Max a purpose of sorts, something internal and personal to focus on. Most of his life had been spent flaunting his brains for the benefit of the people of National City and that's what he enjoyed doing, but this was something different. This wasn't about showing off, it was about sharing something in common with someone who was closer to him than anybody had ever been before.

When Piper didn't appear to quiz him about the weather on Mars, Max wandered out of the study to see what she was doing. He was bored of reading those designs anyway. His footsteps echoed around the stairwell as he climbed, but there were no sounds coming from Piper's room. When he finally reached her doorway, he was surprised to find it empty. Glancing around, his eyes fell on the book that was lying open on the floor. Two of its pages were bent where it had been thrown.

Max bent down to pick it up, but then froze as his ears registered a noise coming from the closet. It was the unmistakable sharp, high-pitched intake of breath that punctuates sobbing.

'Piper?' Max called uncertainly, hurrying to the closet door and pulling it open. 'Oh no.'

His heart sank like a stone when he registered the dishevelled, tear stained little girl curled up into a defensive ball at the bottom of the closet. He dropped to his knees and crawled in to sit next to her, gathering her up in a hug that she didn't resist.

'I w-want my mum,' Piper wailed into his chest. 'I want…to go…home. I want…my mum!'

'I know,' Max murmured, stroking Piper's hair. 'I know.'

What else could he say? Max had never felt so powerless. It was a kick in the guts for him because he'd thought they'd made so much progress. Piper had started talking more. She'd even smiled. And now she'd broken down and Max had no idea what to do to make her feel better. He doubted there was anything he could do. Nothing had ever made him feel better.

Max cradled Piper until she cried herself to sleep. He carried her back to bed and pulled the covers up to her chin. A terrible sigh escaped from his lips as he wiped a hand across his face and left it there, blocking everything out. Nobody had prepared him for this, the ups and downs. Nobody had prepared him for any of this. He was floundering helplessly and he was on his own. He was always on his own.