Okay so this is a really short little drabble. It was requested by Alexis and it's also kind of inspired by something Kiera posted on Tumblr I believe. I remember her mentioning that America got her songbird necklace back eventually when she and Maxon finally cleaned out Clarkson's room so i was like, 'okay, Ellie, what would that be like?' And then Alexis reviewed on Chapter 36 asking if Maxon ever broke down and missed his parents. So anyway, that's kind of the premise of this chapter. it takes place in the spring after they get engaged. :)
"Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny." - C.S. Lewis
It was mid-March when Maxon woke me up one morning with a kiss on my shoulder. We had enjoyed a date the prior night but he had to attend to something sudden halfway through so I was forced to sleep in my own room. When I felt the warm pressure of his lips on the bare skin of my back by the strap to my nightgown I smiled and rolled over, greeted by the lazy smile of my darling fiancé.
I was about to kiss him when Fitz jumped on to the bed between us, wagging his tail in proper puppy-like enthusiasm. "There goes that make-out session," I joked. He laughed with me but it died quickly, instantly making me worried. Now that I was more awake I could see that his smile didn't reach his eyes and that his whole posture was tense despite leaning so far over me. "What's wrong?" I asked, stroking a hand down the side of his face.
"I know you were excited to relax today but there's something I decided that I need to do instead," he prompted.
I frowned, getting the impression that this wasn't going to be pleasant. "What?"
"It may be a bit premature but in the future we're going to need their room so I figured…we need to clean out my parents' room," Maxon finally said in a huff.
"Oh," I breathed out. I didn't know what was worse; my mother having to live in a house with constant reminders of my father or Maxon having to clean out his dead parents' room. Remembering that Mom moved out just a few weeks after my father passed and that she also still had five children and a grandchild, I decided that Maxon was in a far worse situation. "Let me get dressed and then we can go."
He nodded and kissed me forehead, wandering over to his own room to get himself dressed. When we reconvened in the hallway of the third floor a half hour later, he only looked worse than he had earlier when he had woken me up. Now he looked pale and his face was completely shut off, no doubt so he could put on a brave face for everyone else.
We slowly walked down the hallway to the double doors that led to the suite where his parents slept. He silently opened the door and took a few steps in, looking around the room as if he had no idea where he was for a moment. Finally he wandered over to a shelf by the fireplace and lifted a picture I couldn't see from where I lingered in the doorway.
"She must have loved him a lot more than I ever gave her credit for," he said quietly, studying the picture. I walked up to him and peeked over his shoulder. It looked like it could have been a picture from his parents' wedding day, featuring a much younger version of Clarkson and Amberly. "Through it all, she stuck by his side. They shared this room from the moment they married until their very last night." His voice broke as he finished.
"Did they ever fight?" I asked reluctantly, thinking of the proximity of this room to Maxon's. Surely if there were raised voices to be heard he could have heard them.
He shook his head. "Mom didn't want to fight with him. Ever. If the situation arose that could end with a confrontation, she was careful to avoid it. After hearing the stories of my grandparents, I could understand why she gave him a break for being an angry person. Not to mention the fact that she didn't want me to be raised in a similar environment as him."
I put a hand on his arm, waiting for the floodgates to open up but he took a deep breath and put the picture on the bed. I don't know what I expected from Clarkson's room but it was not what I was expecting. It was actually pretty cozy, not at all like the torture dungeon I'd pictured in my mind.
We slowly worked through the bookshelves on one of the walls, sorting pictures and books into things we were keeping and throwing out. Some things we found caused Maxon to conjure up a memory that he had to tell me about. Some were happy and some were sad but no matter what, there was still an underlying tremor of loss in his voice.
He lifted a small, ornately carved wooden box and peeked inside, gasping when he saw the contents. Of course I expected to see the worst inside but when I looked I saw that it was the opposite. "Are those…" I started, not believing what I was seeing.
"It's your necklace," Maxon confirmed. "And the earrings and bracelet."
"But he was supposed to use them to set that man free," I protested, starting to worry that I didn't save that man after all. Maybe he was in jail right at that moment despite my sacrifice. Maybe he had been executed.
Maxon shook his head. "He didn't need the money from these to do that. You'd be surprised how much embezzling went on with my father around here."
"I just don't understand why he'd keep them," I said.
"Doesn't matter," he told me, lifting the necklace into his hand. "You have it now." I didn't even hesitate to turn and hold my hair out of the way so he could fasten the silver chain around my neck. I faced him and found myself wanting to just leave this room and spend the rest of the day kissing him. "When you were in Carolina attending to your father's funeral, all I wanted was to get this necklace back for you. I called all of the local jewelers and none of them said they had it. I knew how much it meant to you."
I smiled, cupping his face in both hands. "Thank you," I whispered and leaned up to kiss him. "I love you." As we got closer to our wedding I felt like I just couldn't tell him that enough. I stopped though when he didn't kiss me back or tell me he loved me. "What is it?" I asked.
He took a long, shuddering breath and shook his head. "I just miss them so much Ames. Being in this room and knowing that they're never coming back…" He bowed his head, his forehead hitting my shoulder as he started to cry. I instantly wrapped my arms around his shaking rib cage and rubbed circles into his back.
All I could do was hold him until his sobs subsided. I knew Maxon well enough to know that when he was upset like this he only sought comfort, which I was more than willing to give to him. My heart still broke for him though. I just wanted to take all of his pain away. It was like what he told me in the safe room just a few months earlier; I would spare him from crying for the rest of his life if I could.
Eventually he cried himself out and managed to straighten himself up again. "We can do this later. We don't have to finish today," I told him, wiping some stray tears from his cheeks.
He shook his head. "No. I need to do this today," he refused, walking back over to the bookshelf and lifting up a couple of books. I watched him for a few moments and then went to Amberly's desk in the corner of the room to finish what I had been doing.
I know, I would have liked for it to be longer too but it is the holiday season and I've been devoting my time to family, friends, and my novel I'm writing. I may be doing another one-shot (a special one from Maxon's POV) for Christmas time. Yes, I know it is past Christmas but it may just be a short little one and besides, there's still five more days of Christmas left. Hope you guys liked it! I probably will not be updating until after this weekend. I'm going snowboarding these next few days and my birthday is on Saturday so i'm going to stay pretty busy this week.
To stay more up to date on my life, follow me on Twitter/Instagram: Fl_GeorgieLine and Tumblr: GingerTags
Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas (or whatever else you may celebrate, I celebrate Christmas!)
P.S. thank you guests for using original names so i can answer y'all!
IC: you know, i looked at the Wikia and couldn't find it! i guess i was looking at the wrong place there! do you know America's birthday?
WisdomandtheNight13: i figured, hey, this is Fanfiction, someone has to have a rough delivery with their kids at some point. everything else was going to crap at that point, why not have a baby come in the middle of it all? plus i also liked the way i was able to tie in Maxon.
keegs16: yay, glad to hear it! I'm still on the fence about this next Maxon POV one-shot but you should definitely keep your eyes peeled just in case!
Someone the World Forgot: I don't know...will there be more children? ;)
Parisismydream: aw, thank you! Merry Christmas to you as well!
Kaiara07: hmm, that would be interesting. let me work on it a bit and see how it goes. sometimes i have to start it to see how it'll work out. it wouldn't be my next update because i have a few other things in line but i will keep it in mind. :)
Ann's Krazy Obsession: well, Win would have brown eyes because i'm pretty sure brown eyes are more dominant. maybe there'll be another Maxerica baby in the future with blue eyes? *wink wink* and Maddox is Shalom's middle name, so i don't quite understand what you're trying to say there. trust me though, America is already hormonal but now her husband has been shot which resulted in their child being born prematurely...she's not happy. and that AU has definitely been put on the back burner for now. i'm writing two of my own novels right now and i want to finish this one. i also have a couple Hunger Games one-shots in the works so I'll have to see about that one.
prnamber3909: yes, you're like, the tenth person to tell me that. i wrote that chapter back when i was flip-flopping over whether to keep their names canon or not. i must have missed one when i went back to correct it. i think i've fixed it now though. thanks for the heads-up!
Me: Thanks! I really do love hearing comments like that because i never know!
booklion4: loving you, new reviewer!
shadeslayerprincess111: yes, thank you for that! you and a few other reviewers caught that slip! and sometimes i read names and i recognize them, other times not. maybe you reviewed as a guest before, i don't know! i just figured i would remember your name! or maybe you reviewed before i started answering reviews
winterprincess: it felt like a blur as i was writing it! and i don't know a lot about pregnancies, having never been pregnant myself or even having friends that have never been pregnant, but my reasoning is that America was far enough into the pregnancy where she was able to deliver the baby before her life or Win's was jeopardized. oh, and i get the quotes from Pinterest.