Intertwined

Part 8: Home and Away

They stopped in front of Max's home and yet it was as though they were frozen in the car.

Silence was still heavy in the cabin of the Coop- yet there were several things that needed to be said.

Yet no one knew how to address them.

With the boys and Luna asleep in the back, Max and Helen silently slide out of the car and shut the doors gently enough not to wake them. Heading around to the back of the car, they wait a few moments before either decide to speak.

Helen gazes at the outside of the home and can't help but smile at how cozy it seems- but based on what both Max and Luna told her, it's merely a facade.

"She's talking again. I can't believe it...Helen— how did you..." He looks at her as though she is pure magic. As though she needs to only think something to make it come true with a blink.

"She started a the game." His face goes slack and his brows knit together.

"The game? Why didn't you..."

"How was I suppose to explain any of it? It just happened." Max sighs and relaxes as he takes it in for a moment. "Max, Luna told me why she doesn't talk."

"She's talking now. She sounds great and..." He begins to half excitedly and half frustratedly go through his thoughts and Helen is overwhelmed because he frustrated she didn't tell him sooner but over joyed that she is talking again, and so many more emotions.

"Max, you're not listening."

"I heard her. I am listening. I'm just confused as to..." He begins to mumble again about how she didn't tell him and wondering how Luna sounds so lively after two years of not talking and why hasn't she talked to him and Helen has had enough.

"Max- stop." She firmly states and grabs both sides of his face so he looks at her instead off turning in slight circles to make sense of everything. His eyes search hers and her insides knot up. "Luna thinks she's a burden."

"W...what? Why would she..."

"Because when you got done putting her to bed one night and decided you needed to drown yourself in booze- she heard you in the basement." Narrowing his eyes and looking down from hers, Max tries to recall such a thing. "She heard you say that you never wanted to have the burden of being a father and doing it all alone."

Max contemplates this thought and tries to think hard if that could be true or not.

His memory isn't what it used to be.

"N...no. No I didn't—I wouldn't have said...said that." He shakes his head several times.

"Yes...you did. You were drunk and this was right after you lost your sister. Luna remembers it perfectly because you both came home in black from the funeral. Luna stood at the top of those stairs with her ear to the door hearing you smash things and cry and scream." Max stills and Helen's hands drop to his shoulders and then his chest.

"I...I didn't..." He tries to think back and recall that time, but it's always too painful and the drinking is what he used to cope with that pain.

"She didn't want to hurt you any more Max- because she believed being happy and talking to you forced you to be a Dad to her. So she decided that night she wasn't ever going to burden you again. She chose independence and silence to relieve you of your fatherly duties. For two years, that little girl of yours has just been trying to stay out of your way so you didn't have to do this alone."

Max stands there numb and lost in the buzzing of his mind as she tells him this heart breaking reality.

"Th...then why...why did she talk again? Tonight?" He mindlessly asks and Helen becomes so red in the face.