Disclaimer: Anything familiar to you, I don't own. This is a work of fanfiction for personal amusement, fulfillment and a bit of self-therapy. I make nothing from any of it.
Chapter Forty-Two: Oikos
November 22nd, 2011, 8:03 PM
Max turned her head pointedly toward the stage, mostly because Rose and Joyce were trying to catch her eye and it was getting harder to pretend to miss them with the crowd thinning rapidly around them. Several people were leaving the area already as this particular play had run later than the others. The polite clapping was long since over. Family members and close friends as well as a couple of staff members seemed to be the only ones left. One of those staff members, she knew, was David Madsen who loomed at the back of the assembled chairs like a great bat. He had not yet spoken a word to Max, Chloe, Rachel or Steph, perhaps realizing the tenuous nature of things between them. Given what Chloe had revealed about David believing that Chloe was the one he was chasing through the woods the night Frank died, it was also possible he was (rightly) scared.
About this time the first actors and actresses began making their way to the front. The majority of them had not bothered to change out of their outfits, though a few looked to have loosened something or switch into more comfortable shoes. For the most part, they were coming the long way around the stage; at least just about everyone but the two whom Max was looking for. Oh no, it wasn't that simple. Chloe was the first of the two to appear, pushing out from behind the curtain. She was still mostly dressed in Laertes' almost princely outfit but had stuffed her boots on quickly after the curtain fell. Chloe crouched at the edge of the stage and then jumped from the end of it, landing on soft, cool ground without a moment of hesitation.
Chloe made a bee line for her. For some reason this produced no small amount of happiness in Max, who grinned as she spotted Rachel following in Chloe's footsteps only an inch or two behind. Max decided to meet them as close to the stage as possible, to buy a little time before things became uncomfortable with their mothers. Chloe slowed up at a certain point, apparently reading her intent to join them by the stage. Max felt herself folded into Rachel and Chloe's arms for a minute. Her compliments were lost in the moment of the embrace but, that was fine. They already knew everything she was trying to say.
"Sure you should be hugging your sister like that, Laertes?" Max finally managed. 'Ophelia' reached past Chloe and popped Max lightly on the shoulder as they pulled apart. Chloe, on the other hand, took Max by surprise by pulling her close once more and planting something of a major kiss on her. Okay, someone's in a good mood. Max cooperated, even returned the kiss in kind until it began to feel a little too intense for the public eye. That did not make her move her right hand from the back of Chloe's neck as they pulled apart, at least not immediately. She hated to kill the mood but that was probably already done by more than one set of eyes being turned on them by the people in the immediate area. Plus, they both deserved a warning. "Your mothers are here," she told the girls and did her best to gesture behind herself as casually as possible. She wasn't sure how close they were but as she sought to turn around, Max caught Chloe's response.
"You sure throw that word around really easily." At first Max was content just to place herself in the middle of the two, wrap an arm around their shoulders and wait for Rose and Joyce to come and, hopefully not ruin the good mood. At Chloe's admonishment, though, she borrowed a gesture of Rachel's for the first time, her left hand sliding down from Chloe's left shoulder to press lightly into her back, between her shoulder blades. The bluenette leaned into her a bit. Max wasn't entirely sure what it was about that spot that did that to Chloe, but she did hope it helped her calm down.
Joyce and Rose were taking their time, stopping politely to let people past or allow families to reunite with actors, but in no time at all they came into a conversational range and Max removed her arms from either girl only to feel Chloe immediately take her newly free hand. It's not looking good for Joyce. Chloe's slowly hardening face was not exactly aggressive, but she looked to be burying amusement and adrenaline beneath a sort of forced impassiveness. Rachel, on the other hand, had eyes in the moment only for her mother. Where as Rose had spared no expense to looking as if she was very well off and respectable in her dark pantsuit and expensive looking jewelry, Joyce was still dressed for work and frankly looked as if she had not had the best day at the diner. Still, each of the women wore almost matching kindly looks on their faces as they approached and Max did her best to echo this.
Rose was the first to speak, congratulating first her daughter and then Chloe before pulling Rachel into what was actually a fairly expressive hug for Rose. Joyce kept her distance. It doesn't help that the moment Joyce got close to us, Chloe took a step back. Still, the artist was trying to keep her expression neutral. Max was just about to greet Joyce and Rose as respectfully as possible when one more person entered the picture. Max had only seen the woman in question once since the day that Damon Merrick 'went missing.' On that occasion, Sera had been dressed in all black, waiting in the lower levels of the courthouse to see Rachel after her father was declared guilty.
Dressed for work, herself, Sera Gearhardt was more classically attractive than Max remembered her being. Then again, the first time she had been attacked, kidnapped and drugged and the second she had clearly been in tears, a kind of mourning of her own. The true awkwardness of the moment came to bear in full force, causing Rachel to stumble over her greeting as Rose released her. She tried to speak twice and then after taking a breath, gestured to Max.
"Sera," she said, "this is Max. I've never gotten to introduce you."
"It's been a long time, Max," the blonde greeted her. "I'm glad to see you again." There was a certain amount of gratitude in her voice and face which made Max feel uncomfortable almost immediately, so she was relieved the woman punctuated this greeting by turning to look toward Rachel, obviously wanting to speak to her. "I'm told you'll remain in town over break, so when Chloe and Rachel come by for dinner, I hope you will come with them."
"Yes, Ms. Gearhardt. "
"Stick with Sera," the woman advised her. "Makes me sound like less of an old bag and maybe I'm vain but I could use that nowadays. Now I need to go dote on Rachel a bit. I've got a few years of that to make up for."
"I gotcha," Max promised her, trying to set herself at ease around the woman. It was a complex situation there: Sera was clearly important to Rachel and had been since the day Rachel learned about her. However Max could not entirely shake her tendency to associate Sera with not one but two dead men who Max felt partially responsible for now. When she shot a glance at Rose, the prim woman was quietly checking her nails. Okay, this is either going to be really uncomfortable or really bad or both. Rachel did not seem to know which way to look: her attention was being split between her mother, Sera, her girlfriends and Joyce. She was worrying about too many people all at once. Max took a risk at being a little too forward in front of Joyce and Rose and reached over to squeeze Rachel's hand.
While this seemed to be all Rachel needed to focus on Sera as the woman moved closer to her to speak a little more freely, Max turned back toward Joyce and Chloe. Joyce looked ready to speak to Chloe, but given the complete lack of an engagement she was getting from Chloe, stalled Sera on her way by to introduce herself.
"Hi, I'm Joyce. Chloe's mother," she said, extending one hand with long, pale blue false nails toward the woman.
"I'm Sera, Rachel's- oh, well what would be appropriate?" she asked Rachel, now only a step or so away from her.
"Sera's my biomom," Rachel told Joyce, her voice a little gravely as if she could use a glass of water. Sera gave a quick nod as if to accept the title and then walked past Joyce to Rachel where the two struck up a conversation about the play with Rose right beside her. Max wasn't entirely sure which awkward conversation that was about to unfold she should pay attention to, but the level of discomfort she was feeling was starting to reach truly impressive levels. It would be shitty, she thought, to try to slip away right now for many reasons, not the least of which being that Chloe and Rachel would be on their own with the issues ahead of them.
Joyce took so long to finally speak, looking her daughter in the eyes from a couple of feet away that Sera had turned from Rachel to greet Rose at the woman's 'hello.' Rachel looked pointedly anywhere but at the women as Sera informed Rose she had raised a 'fine young woman.' Fine is one word for it, Max joked internally. All in all that exchange was downright friendly considering Rose's husband was in jail for setting up Sera's murder. Chloe and Rachel have less than stellar home lives. Then again, at least Chloe has Steph now and most of the time that's pretty good.
"Hello, Chloe," Joyce finally said, shifting her purse strap up higher on her shoulder as she folded her hands together in front of her.
"Hi, did you enjoy it?" Chloe asked. It was clear she was trying to sound polite but she was not particularly successful at this. Max could hear that Chloe, too, was thinking about what it would take to beat a hasty retreat from the situation. Rachel's not going to be far behind, she thought as the blonde looked back up at her mother and biomom. Are they her 'mothers' then or what? I feel like this is the sort of thing I should know about her. As for Chloe, she couldn't help but wonder what Joyce would say if she knew that last month Chloe had nearly gotten arrested in Jamison Square in Portland during an attempted 'occupation' of the park.
Chloe's involvement in the protests in Portland was not as frequent as the artist wanted them to be, but she had become more vehemently supportive of the Occupy movement's message that the current distribution of power between the wealthy and the poor was dangerous. Personally, Max agreed but every time she thought about putting herself into the center of one of those protests, she remembered bits and pieces of events from the other timeline, though most of those were focused on reports over the protests in New York. Suffice it to say, the bits she could remember were disjointed and so impersonal as to sound like nonsense, but it did not sound like things were going to be pretty for Occupy protesters. After the pepper sprayings and arrests in Portland last week, she only resisted asking Chloe not to go to any further by reminding herself how much it would upset her.
Besides, Max thought, Chloe's too proud of those protests. If Joyce tried to tell her not to go, she would lose her cool big time.
"Yes," Joyce finally told Chloe. "You did wonderfully in your role."
"Thank you," Chloe answered, almost as soon as the words were out of her mother's mouth. There was an edge of finalty to her voice as if she were trying to politely escape from the conversation, but still being assertive. Joyce looked at Chloe, mouth gaping slightly and then turned to Max as if trying to save face. Max wasn't sure the woman was looking in the right direction. Ever since Rachel had made the implication that Joyce might be trying to manipulate her, Max had been pretty dubious of the woman. Holy shit, I think it's been months since I went by the diner.
"You're not going home for thanksgiving?" Joyce asked. Max shook her head but at that moment Rose spoke up.
"Max, Chloe and their friend Steph are joining Rachel and I for Thanksgiving dinner," Rose announced.
"I convinced mom and dad to let me stay with Steph over Thanksgiving break, but that means they'll probably wait until the very last second of Christmas Break to bring me back to the school." Max was trying to sound as if she was in the mood to joke, but at that moment the only sensible thing to do, at least as far as Max was concerned, was to beat a sudden retreat.
"I'm sure your parents will miss you this Thanksgiving," Joyce counseled, sounding sympathetic to them as if to make Max feel guilty. Max's stomach twisted a bit when the woman turned her eyes on her daughter and added, "It's important to be with family over the holidays."
"I totally agree," Chloe told the woman. Joyce blinked at her once in some surprise and then almost recoiled. It took Max a second to catch the inherent message: Chloe was going to be with her family over the holidays and that didn't include Joyce. Oh, way too harsh, Max found herself thinking. She got the idea that telling Chloe she was being a bit too cruel any time soon might end in trouble though. Besides, Joyce did fuck up and only Chloe can decide when and if she's ready to repair things. This was one of those moments where Max's interference in it needed to go no further than, 'talk to me about how you're feeling.'
The air between mother and daughter became decidedly less friendly after that. Max again considered where she wanted to be and decided that at that moment she wanted to take a step back and stand behind her girls. She hoped they would understand; she absolutely did not want to be anywhere near that scene all of a sudden. The awkwardness, the conflict or potential conflict in the air felt like it was partially transferred through the air, through her. Was she capable of and willing to engage in conflict for other people? Absolutely. Did she enjoy conflict? Not even a little and sometimes it made her inexplicably uncomfortable, no matter that she felt a little guilty for reacting that way. This, here, was one of those 'sometimes'.
Joyce gave a quick forced smile and excused herself. She made no special effort to promise Chloe they would talk soon; she just nodded, muttered for everyone to have a lovely evening and turned to walk away. There was no way to make that situation less awkward. As if that was a cue the extended situation fell apart in that Rachel made a sudden promise to call both her mother and Sera the next day.
"For now, I've gotta run, because if I don't get this makeup off before the wrap party, I think I'm never going to be able to sweat again." Rose gave a chuckle and told her to go have fun. Sera's response was for Rachel to buzz off and go see her friends, they would talk soon. About the time that the taller blonde asked if she could talk to Rose for a few minutes and Rose agreed, Rachel was in full retreat and Max definitely understood the motivation behind that. With a quick goodbye, Rachel turned and gestured for them all to hurry back stage with her. Max could have sworn she felt a sudden gust of wind at their backs as she and Chloe did so. Ahead of her, Chloe shivered.
After her girls had stopped and, true to Rachel's word, washed away the majority of the stage makeup in play (it was going to take a good warm shower and a hard scrub to finish the rest) Max agreed to join them for the wrap party. She did so wishing that she was a little tipsy or at least had had an extra hour or two of sleep. There was no immediate sign of beer or any illegal substances, which made sense: this gathering was not official but it certainly wasn't protected by whatever force defended the Vortex Club from the prying eyes of staff and security. Not to mention this was happening on the school's lawn behind the stage. A few folding tables had been secured from one of the school closets. Given that the actors had conveniently 'accidentally' retrieved more chairs than needed, as they had last year both times, there were enough seats behind the stage for cast and crew to be present in its entirety: Keaton was even sitting in discussion with Juliet. He probably would be part of the wrap party for a short while, judging by the two prior.
While Max had skipped the last one she had been convinced to come tonight. She was more relieved than she cared to admit when the majority of the cast greeted her alongside Rachel and Chloe and despite the presence of a couple of people whom she did not particularly want to even have to look at, Max felt mostly welcome. Steph, who had been doing the lightwork alongside Brooke on the soundboard waved the three of them over. I wish my stash wasn't running so low. I could've done with a smoke, first. Whoever takes Frank's spot is going to be fucking loaded.
For the most part after they settled down at the closer end of the table, Max remained quiet and listened to the cast and crew talk about the show. Occasionally she was prompted or piped up to offer outside opinions on how well certain scenes, choices in attire, stage direction or lighting had worked out. Having done this once alongside many of them, she had a fair idea of what they might want to know that they would have had trouble seeing from their own point of view. All in all, the first few minutes after they arrived were fairly calm, even despite Eliot occasionally shooting a glare down the table at them or the presence of the ticking time bomb to his right.
After a couple of months of having remained fairly calm and even headed (and by all accounts being a better student) Nathan was clearly out of sorts. By the time that Max had been there for half of an hour, he had already made two or three offhand comments about playing such a tiny, pointless role. Just about every time he spoke, she remembered trying to comfort him in response to what she had perceived to be his nerves after A Midsummer Night's Dream, telling him it was over and the performance didn't have to weigh on him anymore, that he had already done all the hard work, right? Max remembered him seeming to finally lighten up, finally speak to her. She also remembered very clearly that had been a guise and the moment she had let her guard down, the Prescott heir had snuck something into her drink, much like the strange boy a couple of weeks ago had tried to do to Victoria. Sometimes, though she had not voiced this concern to anyone, she worried Nathan had been involved in that, too.
It was Nathan who ended her enjoyment of this wrap party when, almost an hour later, he made an offhand comment, about non-cast and crew being present. To do so, he had spoken over her, cutting across her response to Hayden's question about one scene or another. Her response was so automatic that she felt like it was preplanned. Max stood up, smiled at Hayden and a couple of people closest to her and excused herself from the party without looking at anyone else. She especially did not want to catch Rachel or Chloe's eyes as she excused herself: she wanted to give them the option to stay if they wanted. Hayden and Dana called out her name, regretfully, as if trying to talk her out of leaving. Max had just reached the path to the dormitories when she heard footsteps at her back and none of them belonged to either Hyaden or Dana.
Chloe, Rachel and Steph were stepping up to stand behind her. None of them looked especially beaten up about leaving the wrap party so Max relaxed for a moment, until she caught Nathan's voice on the edge of her hearing. The boy was practically yelling to be sure they heard him. Fuck this place, sometimes.
"Huh, I guess it's true what they say: dykes do all go off at the same time." She wasn't able to make out what Hayden's response was, but his tone was far from friendly and she definitely caught the word 'vasectomy'.
"Okay, I am definitely out," Max told the three. "If you wanna go back, I get it."
"Fuck that," Steph replied as Rachel wrapped one of Max's arms in her own.
"Yeah," Chloe agreed. "You know what time it is?" The bluenette gestured toward the parking lot with the cap that accompanied her costume.
"Time to make a bad decision?" Max asked, hopefully.
"Time to make many bad decisions," Rachel corrected.