Hey everyone!!! Sorry again for this update being so late. I promised everyone that Hunter would enter in this chapter but then I realised that there was so much stuff to happen before he did so this chapter is really long by my standard. 7 typed pages!!! Trust me that's a lot for me. So I really hope you enjoy it coz I spent ages on it and I think it's a really good chapter. Enjoy!!
OH and I would again like to rant at another idiotic anonymous reviewer. The reviewer was booknerd1326 and the review was, and I quote: the daughers name should be moira like in the book remember she had a dream
Now I don't know about you guys but I'm sure that the whole reason for FanFiction is to write you own scenarios and such using the original characters from the book/movie/whatever. This is why I feel entitled to tell this reviewer that I really don't care what he/she thinks the daughters name should be. This is my story so I decide if I want to name the characters according to the original story or not. If you have a suggestion about what you think should happen in the story then you can share this with me and I will take it into consideration when writing and maybe use it in the story. I actually do enjoy people sharing their ideas with me but I don't like being told how I should write my story.
If you would like an explanation as to why her name in Max, I figured that considering Max left her whole life, Especially Magick, behind then perhaps she didn't want to name her daughter something that would remind her of her old life, her lost Magick and her lost love. Besides I think Max is a really cute name for a girl.
So thank you to everyone who leaves good reviews and thanks for enjoying the story so far! :)
The three women headed into the house. Morgan stood in the foyer uncertainly, clutching Max's hand. Mary Grace closed the door behind them and headed into the lounge. Morgan followed her timidly and settled down on the couch next to her mother with Max on her lap.
"I think some introductions need to be made." Commented Mary Grace calmly.
Morgan glanced up nervously at her mother. "Um ok. Mom, this is Max. And she's, um, well…you see, she my daughter." Mary Grace's eyes widened. "Max this is your Grandma."
Max giggled cutely and climbed off her mothers lap and onto her Grandma's lap and gave her a hug. Mary Grace sat there speechless, her mouth occasionally opening, and then closing as she failed to come up with something to say. Eventually her skill of speech returned.
"Well hello Max. Would you like some candy?" Max's eyes grew wide with the possibilities.
"Really?"
"Of course. I have in the cupboard somewhere. Lets go find it."
Mary Grace and Max headed into the kitchen and Morgan watched from the lounge as her mother appeared with come candy and gave it to Max, before asking her if she want to play in the backyard. Max happily ran out the back door and Morgan smiled, finally happy.
But not for long.
"How could you?" Morgan looked at her mother, startled as her icy voice leeched through the room. Slowly Mary Grace turned to face her daughter, her face betraying her anger and disappointment. Morgan stayed silent to let her mother rant. She knew she would need it.
"Now I don't think I need to tell you what's wrong with you having a daughter. You're a smart girl. I'm sure you realise what you did wrong. But running off like that? Having to work it all out by yourself when we could have helped you? And what about us Morgan? Don't you think your father and I deserved to know we had a granddaughter all this time? Where did you go anyway?"
"England" replied Morgan calmly. Mary Grace's eyes flared with anger.
"England! You couldn't possible have gone further away! So now you're back and you just expect us to welcome you back with open arms like nothing happened. What about Mary K? How do you think this is going to affect her?" Mary Grace's rant came to an abrupt halt. Her face was red and her greying hair a bit frazzled. Then, when Morgan thought she was going to start shouting again she burst into tears and threw herself into her daughter's arms. Morgan began silently crying as well, her arms wrapping around her mother tightly.
"I missed you Mom." Morgan whispered as she clutched onto her mother tightly. Neither woman heard the front door open but they did here Sean Rowland's briefcase hit the ground as he stared at the two women in shock. Morgan managed to untangle herself from her mother to gaze at her father.
He seemed so old compared to what she remembered. His hairline was rapidly receding and his face looked worn and tired. He stared in shock at the young woman standing in his living room with his wife. Morgan opened her mouth to speak but before she could the backdoor slammed shut and they heard light footsteps as well as a high scream.
"MUMMY!!!!!"
Morgan's eyes filled with panic and she whipped around as Max ran into the room and swept the small girl up into her arms.
"What's wrong baby? Are you ok? What happened?" Morgan asked in a rush. She set her daughter onto the ground and looked her in the eyes. Tears flowed from the young girls eyes and she struggled to breath.
"I got stung by a bee. See." She held up her hand to show her mother a swollen red bump near one of her knuckles. She sniffled as Morgan inspected her hand.
"It's not to bad. The sting did stay in. but it's going to sting for a little while. Do you want to go run it under cold water?"
"Yea and can I put a Band Aid on it as well."
"But honey, it's not going to help."
"But it always makes it feel better."
Morgan chuckled and carried Max towards the kitchen sink. "Ok you can have a Band Aid on it as well." As held Max's hand under the tap and placed a band-aid on it Mary Grace attempted to bring Sean from his frozen state. Eventually she succeeded and they stood by the doorway of the kitchen as Morgan fussed over her daughter, making sure she was happy. Eventually Morgan looked up to see her parents gazing at her in a strange way.
"What?" she asked, slightly uncomfortable under their intruding gaze. "What's wrong?"
Her mother looked at her with a slight smile. "Nothing's wrong. You make a good mother, that's all." Morgan smiled uncertainly at her assessment and then all four of them when into the lounge to catch up. Max began to know her grandparents and Mary Grace and Sean began to relearn about their daughter and meet their granddaughter finally.
The End
…JUST KIDDING!!!!! (Ha, that was fun)
Morgan and Max were in the kitchen helping Mary Grace with dinner. The whole family was coming. Mary K, who had rapped up her court case early and coming to stay for a few days to complete the family, Aunt Eileen and her now life partner Paula with there 5 year old adopted daughter Grace, and Bree and Robbie. None of them knew she was going to be here besides Mary K and Bree. Morgan was feeling slightly nervous about having to face them all but now that the worst part was over she was sure that everything would be fine. As long as HE didn't turn up. (Foreshadowing much??)
Morgan chuckled as she watched her daughter struggle to peal potatoes. She had a look of severe concentration on her face and her tongue was just poking out of the corner of her mouth.
"Max, do you want me to help you?" she asked gently.
"No! I can do it myself. I know I can!" Max exclaimed in determination. Morgan smiled and left her to it. She knew there was no way to intervene when she was on a mission like this. She had a feeling dinner wouldn't be for some time, seeing as the only thing left to cook was the potatoes and on one had the heart to steal Max's job from her.
When the doorbell rang Morgan's head whipped up and her hand automatically floated to her daughter's shoulder. Max, being to preoccupied to notice, continued carefully pealing the remaining potatoes, but Mary Grace, who was putting all to other food in the oven to keep it warm, noticed her daughters silent panic in interest. It seemed that she was scared that a certain someone was going to come to see her. Anyone who looked at Max could tell who her father is, which seemed to point at the reason she left all those years ago.
In the lounge Sean hauled himself off the couch and went to answer the door. When Mary K's voice floated into the kitchen Morgan visibly relaxed.
"You stay here she keep up the excellent work Max, I'm going to go say hello to your aunty ok?" said Morgan to her daughter. Max looked up at her mother and smiled.
"Ok mum."
Morgan went through the lounge and towards the foyer, bumping into Mary K in the doorway.
"Morgan!" Exclaimed Mary K, hugging Morgan tightly.
"Mary K! What's with the welcome? I saw you yesterday!" Morgan managed to squeeze out as she was being squashed in Mary K's hug. Mary K laughed and released her.
"I was just so happy to see you again. I still can't believe your back!"
Morgan opened her mouth to reply but went silent as she saw two women and a small child walk through the door. They had changed a lot since she had last seen them but she still recognised them as she aunts. Mary K looked behind her when she noticed that Morgan wasn't paying attention to her and smiled.
Eileen and Paula were both frozen in the doorway, staring at Morgan. After a second Eileen unfroze and ran forward to hug Morgan tightly.
"Welcome home Morgan" she whispered quietly. Paula, who was know carrying little Grace, smiled and hugged her as well. Outside another car pulled up and Robbie jumped out of the drivers seat to help Bree out of the car. Morgan smiled at the sight. He was going to be such a good father.
Robbie's face was priceless when he caught sight of Morgan. His jaw dropped and his eyes boggled, making him look remarkably like a gold fish. After some more tear- filled reunions, in which all the tears seemed to be coming from Robbie, the crowd of people headed towards the living room when the table was set for ten people.
"Dinner will be ready soon hopefully, once the potatoes are done," announced Morgan with a slight smile.
Eileen counted the seats with a frown on her face. "Morgan, are we expecting someone else. There's one too many seats at the table."
Morgan frowned as she did some quick math in her head, then smiled when she realised the mix up.
"Oh you haven't met my…"
BOOM!
Everyone spun to look at the kitchen, where the noise came from. The noise was very closely followed by a dull splat. Before anyone could realise what had happened Morgan was running into the kitchen. She stopped just inside the kitchen to survey what was happening.
The first thing she looked for was her daughter, who stood where had left her, by the sink, with a veggie peeler in hand. She was perfectly fine, looking around the room in shock. Next she looked for her mother, who she saw was by the oven, also looking around the room in shock. Following their gaze she gasp.
The entire room was covered in shredded potato.
Morgan suppressed a giggle as she inspected the damage. Potato flesh and skin was splattered up the walls, over the ceiling, almost entirely covering Max and partly covering Mary Grace. Morgan walked forward to check the Max was ok. Max shook out of her surprised state to hug her mum tightly.
"M…mu…mum the potatoes exploded! I was peeling them and I got really angry coz I couldn't do it right and then they just exploded!"
Morgan frowned. How could that happen? Unless…no! It's couldn't be. Max couldn't do Magick. She was too young and no one had taught her how. Unless she was exceptionally strong that it came out on it's own. No! Morgan didn't want her daughter exposed to that world. It was too dangerous, especially for the descendant of the Riordans.
While Morgan was thinking Max untangled herself from her mothers tight embrace and inspected the group of people by the door curiously. They all looked at her with mixed expressions.
"Hello! My name's Max, what's yours?" Everyone was quite until Max caught sight of Mary K's smiling face.
"Aunty Mary K!" exclaimed Max as she run up to her and gave her a big potato filled hug.
"Hey Max. How are you doing? Did you and your mom have fun?"
"Well of course we did. We always have fun. Don't we mum?"
Morgan smiled at her daughter lovingly. "Of course we do honey. Now why don't we go get you out of these dirty clothes, or do you want to wear potato for the rest of the night?"
Everyone looked shocked as Morgan's motherly instincts came out strong as she herded her daughter upstairs. Mary Grace followed to find some of Morgan and Mary K's old clothes for Morgan and Max's possessions were still at the hotel. As Morgan carefully gathered up the potato covered clothes Max turned to her curiously.
"Mummy. Why did the potatoes explode?"
Morgan froze. She did not want to have this conversation with her daughter, at least not till she was older. Yes she did realise that eventually she would have to explain about their heritage and unusual abilities but she hoped that the conversation would not be needed for some time.
"Umm, well, they…spontaneously combusted. Yea that's it!"
"Umm. What's spondaninous condumption?"
"It's something you'll learn about when you're older. Now lets go down and have dinner and you can meet some more of Mommy's friends ok?" Max nodded and skipped down the stairs with Morgan in tow.
Dinner started well. Morgan explained to her old friends and family about her life over the past 10 years and introduced them all to Max. Max was getting on well with little Grace. Usually Kids Max's age don't like playing with younger kids but Max was a complete sweetheart.
Morgan eyed up the yams hungrily, but realised that there was no way she could reach them. They were at the other end of the table, next to Robbie's arm.
"Hey Robbie, could you pass the y…"
Morgan was cut off by an urgent knocking on the door. She froze. She had a feeling she knew who was at the door and it terrified her.
She didn't want to see him ever again. She was perfectly comfortable with Max growing up and never meeting her father. He could go jump off a bridge and she wouldn't care.
But deep down she knew that wasn't true. A small part of her was still in love with him and she knew that her love for him would never go away. Maybe he didn't mean to cheat on her ten years ago. Maybe they could be together again as a family and Max could finally have a father.
'No!' Morgan thought to herself viciously. Things could never be like that. Be betrayed her and that was that. She just had to stay strong and get over him. It's probably wasn't him at the door anyway. Maybe the next-door neighbour wanted to borrow some…sugar or something like that.
Mary Grace got up to answer the door and Morgan's eyes nervously followed her as she left the room and she listened intently as she continued to the door. With one hand she grasped the table tightly and with the other she held Max's hand. Everyone at the table sensed her nervousness and guess what it was about. They already knew who Max's father was.
Morgan heard the door open and then there was silence for a second. Then a rough male voice could be heard.
"Let me see her. Let me see Morgan."
In a split second Morgan realised two things.
One, his voice had changed. It was rougher, worn. Like he had suffered terribly for a decade. But Morgan knew that couldn't be true. If he found it so easy to cheat on her when she was here, why should it be any more difficult to find a girlfriend once she was gone?
Two, he was here. Which meant he would somehow get past her mother to come and see her. Which meant he would be face to face with Max. A blind person could see the resemblance between them.
So she ran.
She picked up Max and ran out of the room. She headed up the stairs, which were just out of view of the front door and dove through the first door, which happened to be her own bedroom. She looked around for a hiding place, faintly realising that her room had not changed one bit, but found nowhere. 'This room is too obvious anyways' she thought. She headed into the bathroom but shook her head. It was connected to her bedroom. Duh! Then she went into Mary K's room. It would have to do. She opened her closet and put Max down in there.
"Max I need you to stay in here and keep quiet ok. No matter what happens you stay in here. And don't listen to anything the man says ok." Max took in her mothers' urgent expression and the crazed look in her eye and deduced that know would be a very good time to listen to her mother.
"Ok Mum."
Morgan smiled at her and gave her a quick kiss on the forehead before closing the door. She stood in the centre of the room and waited, praying that he wouldn't be able to find her.
Then in hit her.
She was stupid. Of course he would find her. She hadn't used her Magick since she left but she doubted that hunter would have stopped. He probably sensed Max's accidental Magick thought that it was her. And he could easily tell where she was hiding.
She stiffened as she heard heavy footsteps on the stairs. Obviously he had gotten past her mother and anyone else that tried to stand in his way. She tried to prepare herself to see her unwanted soul mate after a betrayal and ten years but she knew that she would never really be ready for in. She just had to take it as it came to her.
She heard the footsteps go straight past her room without stopping, proving her previous assumptions correct. She drew in a breath as the footsteps came to the door and the doorknob turned. The door swung open. She recognised him, even though he had changed a lot. His expression held shock, hurt, pain, but above all longing.
Hunter had finally found her.
DUN DUN DAAAAAAAAAA!!! Well that took me ages to write. Hope you liked it and don't worry. There will be lots more of Hunter in the next chapter, which is basically all Morgan/Hunter interaction (shouting match). Please review!!!
Oh and thanks Miranda, who reviewed to every chapter. Much appreciated!!
Peace out, Merry Christmas, Secret