Chapter 5

Max leaned against the side of his car nonchalantly, his arms crossed. The school carpark was filled with parents chatting to each other good naturedly. He caught snippets of conversation about soccer practice, piano lessons and the relief of sending the kids off to school camp. It was all so mundane and completely unfamiliar to Max. He felt like he didn't fit in, like he wasn't supposed to be there.

The bell rang out across the yard, bringing with it the raucous noise of hundreds of children rushing outside to relish in their freedom. Boys and girls jogged up to their parents, spurting excitedly about their day. Others chased each other across the grass, kicking a ball. It was all so cheerful.

Max peered through the crush of children for Piper. After a minute or two, he spotted her and waved. She strolled over to him unhurriedly.

'Hey Piper,' Max greeted her, 'how was school?'

'It was ok,' she replied noncommittally.

Max opened the passenger door for Piper and then climbed into the driver's seat.

'Before we go,' Max began carefully, 'I have to tell you something.' He waited for a response, but Piper just looked back expectantly at him so he continued. 'A friend from work is going to be staying with us for a few days. She's helping me with something, a new invention. Is that ok?'

'What's the invention?' Piper asked immediately, making Max smile.

'It's called a frequency disruptor. It's going to stop bad radio signals from interfering with good radio signals.'

'Cool.'

Max took that to mean that Piper was accepting of the situation so he put the car into gear and drove off. He wasn't sure whether she'd totally understood his explanation of the frequency disruptor, but she'd ask questions if she wanted to know more. That he was sure of.

They pulled into the driveway 20 minutes later where Alex's black SUV was parked. Max steered Piper into the living room when they entered the house to find Alex sitting on the couch reading the newspaper. She stood up when they came in.

'Piper,' Max began nervously, trying to gauge Alex's reaction, 'this is Alex. We work together. Alex, this is my daughter, Piper.'

Alex smiled. Max's little girl was adorable and she couldn't help noticing that her eyes were exactly the same as her father's. It was still quite shocking to Alex, the idea of Max having a daughter, but seeing her here in Max's house clutching her blue backpack to her chest, it almost seemed right.

She and Max were at the age where most people had a young family and had settled down. Most people their age were not fighting aliens as their day job.

'Hi sweetie,' Alex said, crouching down to shake Piper's hand amicably. 'Did you have a good day at school?'

Piper nodded and returned Alex's smile. 'Max says you're building a frequency disruptor.'

Alex glanced up at Max in surprise, somewhat disgruntled at his lack of secrecy, but he only shrugged.

'She likes science,' he said simply.

'Can I see it when it's finished?' Piper asked hopefully.

Alex hesitated. She'd promised not to get Piper mixed up in all this, but the light in her eyes was so sharp that Alex thought not showing her would break her little heart.

'Sure Piper, we'll show you how it works.'

'Thanks!' Piper exclaimed and threw her arms around Alex's shoulders before running upstairs to her bedroom.

Max and Alex stared at each other, bewildered.

'I think she likes you,' Max said weakly. It had taken him a week to get a hug from his daughter. It had taken Alex mere minutes.

'She's great Max,' Alex replied softly, sensing he was slightly hurt. He pressed his lips together in a small smile and she wondered if he was regretting introducing them.

'Yeah, she is.' Max took a deep breath and ran his hands through his hair. 'I guess we should get started Agent Danvers. Don't want to keep Hank waiting for your progress report.'

He gestured for Alex to follow him down the hallway to his study, avoiding her sympathetic look. Only hours ago she'd had no problem kidnapping him against his will, but now that she knew he had a daughter Alex had softened. Family was everything to Alex. Kara and her mother meant the world to her. She'd never thought of starting her own family because her job wouldn't allow for such concessions. It was too dangerous. She knew that Max had lost his parents when he was young and she felt a strange kind of pity for him now, seeing the awkward way that he'd interacted with Piper and the desperation with which he'd begged to be reunited with her. This was a Maxwell Lord that Alex didn't know, but so far she couldn't find a reason to dislike him.

They entered his study and he cleared the desk of papers and files, creating a space to work in. Alex had brought with her the components Max needed to build the frequency disruptor and now she placed them neatly on the table top. There wasn't much for her to do whilst Max worked, since she didn't really have much of an idea about how any of it worked, so she sat down on the couch in the corner and watched him.

The first two days of their strange living arrangement passed similarly. Max would work and Alex would watch, interjecting with a question or two here and there when she started to get bored. She got him talking about Piper and managed to extract the details of how he'd wound up becoming her guardian. The origin story didn't surprise her, but she didn't feel any scorn towards him. She couldn't, not when she saw the way he let her help cook dinner in the evenings, or the way he patiently answered all of her questions about his new "invention".

Max was just glad that Piper seemed happier. She appeared to like Alex a great deal. Each day when Max picked her up from school, she'd tell him what they'd done that day, but then she'd tell it to Alex all over again in slightly more detail. Alex couldn't help but be amused. She thought that Piper was a really sweet kid and she could see that she loved her father already, even if Max didn't realise it yet.

On the fourth night, after Piper had gone to bed, Max returned to the couch with a tired sigh. He unconsciously sat down a little closer to Alex than he normally would have, turning his head to look at her. It was a strangely domestic scene.

'I've helped fight aliens,' he muttered, 'but this is harder.'

'You're doing fine Max,' Alex murmured back with a reassuring smile.

'I don't know what I'm doing Alex. I go through every day just hoping that she's not going to break apart again. I don't even know who to be anymore.'

Alex reached for Max's hand and gave it a quick squeeze. 'She just wants you to be her father, someone that loves her, and that's the Max I've seen these past few days. This Max isn't so bad, you know.'

Max raised an eyebrow. 'I'm sorry, could you say that again please? Could I get it in writing? Agent Danvers giving me a compliment!' He threw his head back in mock astonishment.

Alex just tutted and rolled her eyes with an amused smile. 'She loves you Max.'

'How do you know that?' He asked, suddenly serious again.

'Because,' she smirked, 'she spent nearly an hour telling me about what you do at Lord Technologies last night even though we told her that we work together.'

A smile crept onto Max's face as he felt his heart swell. Maybe he wasn't doing as bad a job as he thought he was. He glanced down at his hand where Alex's fingers still lay over his. Things had certainly been easier since Alex had come here.

'You're going soft, Agent Danvers,' he murmured.

'Says Mr. Nostalgic-for-the Cold-War.'

Max laughed. A minute or so passed in silence as they contemplated their bizarre lives. Max's thoughts drifted to the frequency disruptor and he voiced his thoughts out loud.

'I'll be able to finish the machine tomorrow.'

'Hank will be happy,' Alex replied. 'He's wasn't impressed when we left.'

'Piper won't be happy.'

'I thought she was excited to see it?' Alex shifted so that she turned inwards to face Max on the couch, her elbow propped against the top, her hand on the back of her head. It was a subtle shift, but it was a comfortableness that she hadn't offered Max before.

'She is, but she won't be excited when you leave.'

Alex bit her lip and looked away. She hadn't thought of the effect that her presence here would have on Piper. Perhaps becoming so friendly with her hadn't been such a good idea.

'I can come over to visit every now and then if she gets upset,' Alex relented.

Max nodded. 'She'd like that.'

Alex didn't know why, but there was suddenly tension between them. It wasn't a negative tension, but there was something unspoken in the way she hadn't lifted her hand away from his.

'And Max,' she began hesitantly, 'I can come over if you need me. If you need help, I mean.'

Max looked up at her in surprise. Something inside his chest burst and it was like he could breathe properly for the first time in two weeks. He wasn't alone.

'Thank you, Alex,' he said sincerely, gripping her hand.