Christmas misgivings (M/L, CC) CH 10 9th april [WIP]

[Kylie the control freak]

hi guys, this chapter is only short but at least it's new. hopefully i'll post again towards the end of the week.


CHAPTER TEN


When Max saw what was going on, he knew that he had to get Liz and himself out of there. It just wasn’t safe there anymore. Standing at the top of the stairs, he momentarily considered army crawling down to the bottom, but realised it would be a stupid move that would leave him with no chance of seeing them coming. Instead he began to slowly walk down the stairs, all the while making every effort not to make a sound. He had to remain undetected. Max sighed in relief when he eventually made it to the bottom and found Liz sitting close by in the lounge room. She was reading Ebony and Georgie a story and Max idlely recognised that they made a damn cute picture sitting on the lounge all huddled up together. But he pushed the thought aside. This was no time for warm and fuzzies.

Max slowly began to whisper in an attempt to garner Liz’s attention only to have his voice drowned out by Liz’s impersonation of a big bad wolf.

“Liz.” he tried again, this time more forcefully as he made a visible sweep of the area, but the three sitting on the lounge remained completely oblivious to his pleas.

“For Christ’s sake Liz!” his words this time were anything but a whisper and Max cringed at the thought that one of them had heard him.

Sighing in frustation at Max’s interruption, Liz turned, ready to chew Max out for interrupting the story but one look at his face told her that finishing the story was the last of her worries.

“We have to get out of here.”

At his words, Liz literally felt as if her heart had been ripped out of her chest. They’d found her.

“How… how did they find me?” Liz queried out loud, trying desperately to hide the quiver in her voice as she spoke.

“What? Oh, you mean the guys that are trying to kill you?” Max couldn’t help a slight chuckle from escaping before sobering up at the thought of their current situation. “No!. this is so much worse… Mum and Isabel are setting up for the party and WE. HAVE. TO. GET. OUT. OF. HERE!”

Liz couldn’t believe the overwhelming feeling of relief that passed through her. Or the overwhelming desire to hit him. But she’d never been able to throw a punch in her life, so she settled for a few slaps on his chest.

“You freakin’ retard! You had me scared shitless.”

Max looked like he was about to say something when they heard a large crash coming from the backyard followed by some raised voices.

“I gave you ONE simple task, Michael! And that was to get the Christmas tree. It was a simple job… I gave you the correct measurements, shape and colour requirements and you bring me back this… MONSTROSITY!! First of all, it’s supposed to be dark green, not light green, and this tree is an entire four centimetres shorter than the correct height. Do I have to do everything myself?”

The rant continued but Max realised with a smirk that his point had been made and clearly received. Oh yes, he’d seen the fear in her eyes and Izzy was only just warming up.

“What about Georgie and Ebony? We can’t just leave them here Maxwell.” Liz stated as she cast a glance at the two little girls on the lounge.

“We’ll take them with us.” Max decided quickly. They did not need to see their family and specifically their mother right now… Christmas had never been a pretty colour on Isabel.

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Liz couldn’t believe how brave and fearless Max was. “So what exactly did you tell Isabel?

“Define ‘tell’ her.”

“Did you actually speak to her face to face?” One look at his face and Liz knew the answer. “MAxwell! She’ll be worried out of her brain. She doesn’t know where we are going or even if we have the girls.”

“Chill Liz. God, look. I left her a post-it.”

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Once Liz had finished chewing Max out about how much of a chicken he was, they had decided to take the girls to the park. One look at the ice skating rink and Georgie and Ebony had battered their eyelashes and “pwease Uncle Maxie”d until Max had caved and taken them over to get skates. Liz had simply smiled during the entire display and as Max had attempted futilely to resist their charms.

It wasn’t that late in the afternoon, it was only about 4 o’clock and Max was disappointed to discover that the guy who usually rented out skates was closed. They’d all been disappointed and to try and cheer them up, Max had offered to shout ice-creams down the street to cheer them up. But he had a surprise up his sleave. And he hoped that the store would be open.