"She's never leaving me!" She told her father, so sure in the knowledge that Max was hers forever.
Her best friend, her first mate. Her Max. She thought that maybe she'd like to kiss her.
She had such pretty lips after all. Chloe didn't know how she hadn't noticed them before. But for weeks now, her eyes would find them every time Max smiled, every time she bit her lips in nervousness.
Max was so fucking cute and Chloe was sure they'd be each other's first kiss.
Her little brunette was so shy though. So Chloe would have to be the one to make the first step.
She'd take Max to their fort. They'd have a picnic and the Chloe would kiss her. She'd just have mom help with the food...
But she wouldn't rush.
She had time to prepare. Make it really nice for Max. Just like she had been dreaming for weeks now. And she better make sure to not stare at Max's lips...
She was pretty sure her dad had noticed her doing just that. But Chloe had a feeling he would be okay with it...
But he couldn't. He couldn't because he died... How had she not remembered? William was gone.
Her daddy was gone forever.
…and Max.
"My dad got a job... in Seattle. W-we are moving in a week."
And Chloe felt like dying...
Images of dark twisted pictures delivered to her door...
Max gone.
Max hurt.
Max alone.
"No! " She grabbed the brunette by her shoulders shaking her. " No. Don't leave! You can't. You'll get hurt... Max please... "
" I'm sorry." The young girl whispered. And Chloe's fingers suddenly slipped through the smaller girl as she faded. The room flashing around her and turning into a dark, cold room...
"It's too late... " The broken girl in the corner whispered.
-M&C M&C M&C -
A warm hand on her cheek was the first thing she felt when she became aware of her surroundings.
"Max?" her hands grabbed onto the one on her cheek, but she sighed in disappointment when she opened her eyes and saw Joyce, not Max, looking at her with sad eyes.
Still she didn't push her away like she would have before. She was too exhausted to put up her walls. And maybe too broken to ask what she needed to without having someone keeping her from falling apart.
"... Is she...?" Chloe couldn't finish because he mother's eyes became sadder. Anguished. Even if she managed to keep a poker face.
"I asked David for help." She tensed waiting for Chloe to snap at her for mentioning David. But she relaxed a few seconds later when Chloe didn't react. The blue haired girl not caring much for him, but needing to know more about Max decided to let Joyce talk.
"He has some connections, some of his old friends work with the Seattle Police Department..." She continued hesitantly, making Chloe frown. She wanted to tell her to get to the point, but at the same time she was terrified of what she would say. "It was...soon after they moved there... Not even a week..." She trailed off not sure how to continue.
"Just tell me... " Chloe needed to know, even if it hurt.
Joyce sighed. "There was a robbery in a restaurant. Max and her parents were having dinner there..."
"Chloe... Ryan and Vanessa were killed..."
Chloe shook her head in denial. It had been so long since she had last seen them. They had been like another set of parents to Chloe, not as open and warm as her father had been but Chloe had cared about them too and they had always welcomed her into their lives and their home. And she had hated and blamed them for taking Max away from her...
And they had been dead all these years.
"What about Max?" She asked desperately, clutching her mother's arms, shaking her. "What happened to my Max?" She had lived, she knew that... The pictures.
"How the hell did she end up in those pictures?" Had she been kidnapped? Taken by the people who killed her parents?
"Chloe... Max was put into foster care."
She heard the words but they didn't make sense. It just wasn't possible. "What? That's not... what about her family? Vanessa's parents? They would have taken her in!"
Something in Joyce's eyes hardened with what Chloe thought was anger and disgust. "They refused to take her in... I don't know why, I don't know how they could have done such a thing, but they did ... and she was placed in a foster home... She was adopted after a while... They... They seemed like good people, a good home. They already had two young children a boy and a girl."
"Wait... They hurt her? They were the ones who..? " Joyce nodded.
"The police found her,. She had been missing school for over a month. The... Parents." The waitress sneered at the word. "They claimed she was sick... but they had her in the basement... She's in the hospital right now."
The younger Price couldn't believe it. How could this be real? It was Max... Her sweet shy Max... Anger coursed through her body, she wanted to hurt her grandparents for abandoning her. She wanted to kill the bastards who hurt her.
But most of all she just needed to see her. "Mom, I have to see her. I need to see her." Chloe cried. Tears of pain and anger running down her face. "I need to see my Max."
"I know, dear... I know." Joyce pulled her daughter into a hug, rubbing her back gently in an attempt to comfort her.