Home is Where You Feel Safe (Camp Camp Dadvid)

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Max felt stupid. Why did he even call David in the first place? There was nothing that he could do. Max was sitting in a ball in the middle of the floor. He thinks that he is crying, but he doesn't even know anymore. Soon, the sobbing got worse and he felt that he couldn't breathe. His breaths came in short, sporadic, little puffs. The panic that he felt that he couldn't breathe set in and caused him to breathe even sharper. Max couldn't get enough air in his lungs and he felt that he was about to pass out. Max tried to think about something else, anything else. Max started thinking about how his foster siblings would come to look for him, but that wasn't helping. He thought about how it wouldn't be long until an employee would come inside and let him out, but that didn't help either. Max closed his eyes and tried to think of the last time that he felt safe. His mind wanders to Camp Campbell. When they would all be around the campfire, too tired to move. David's usually upbeat songs would be softly strummed and hummed by David while the campers would struggle to stay awake. Max was blandly looking at the stars, much clearer than anything you could find in New Jersey. Max remembers one night, he couldn't stay awake much longer. His head bobs back and forth in a poor attempt to keep his eyelids open. The last thing that he remembers about that night is a hand softly but firmly pushing his head against something that Max could only describe as safe. 

Max opens his eyes again and realizes that his breathing has gone back to normal. He also sees that he has been humming a tune that David would play and that fat tears were running down his face. Max sighs and leans back at how pathetic he is. 

He is left inside that room for four more days before someone opens the door. Max recognizes it as someone from CPS. Not far behind her, is Charles and Regina. Regina pulls her crocodile tears and yells out, "There you are!" She runs over to Max, picks him up, and hugs him. Charles then puts on his fake smile and says, "We have been looking all over for you! You always end up locking yourself in rooms somehow." The CPS employee then says, "I'm glad that you found him and that this was just a big misunderstanding." she starts walking away as Regina grabs his hand and starts walking him back upstairs. The couple doesn't drop their smiles until they get into the room and shut the door. As soon as it closes, Max is shoved to the floor and kicked hard in the stomach with high heels. The kick turns him over so that he is no longer facing the front door, but the hallway that leads to their rooms. He sees Lilac stick her head out and retreat back into the room, probably to tell the others. He is picked up by the collar and is suddenly an inch away from Charles's face. He screams, "WHO DID YOU CALL?!" Max hesitates and stutters out, "N-nobody, s-sir." Charles throws him back to the floor and Max lands on his spine. Max hisses but doesn't dare yell out. "Bullshit. That CPS shit said that she got reports of concerns so she had to check the entire house and give us this whole fucking lecture on how we should 'keep things out of a child's reach' and 'not have so much alcohol'. Whatever. We are going out. By the time we get back, I what this ENTIRE apartment SPOTLESS!" Charles then throws Max to the ground and slams the door behind them as they walk out. The apartment is silent as they hear the two of them stomp down the stairs. Nobody dares to even move until they walk out of the facility. 

Once the sound of their shitty, beaten-up car fades away, the apartment is bustling. Max can hear Mia say, "Lil, get some water. Ivy, make something to eat for him. Something easy to get down and not too hot. Hya, do you know where my first aid kit is?" "Yes," Max hears followed by someone running into the bathroom. Mia continues, "Bo, James, help lift him up so that he can drink the water." Max's vision is blurry at this point and can only see shapes of color stepping towards him. He feels himself being lifted up into a sitting position. Max sees something put in front of his face, but he can't tell what it is. He hears, "Do you not want the water?" Max then immediately reaches for it with his good hand and chugs it. He then feels the cup being taken away from him and he hears Mia's voice say, "Slower, or else you'll throw it up." Max is handed the cup again and he tries to drink it slower, but struggles. He hears Hya come back and say, "Here, Mia" Mia then asks, "Max, can you feel your hand?" Max shakes his head and Mia asks, "From where can you not feel anything?" "elbow" Max says hoarsely. He then feels fingers on his arm touching gingerly and cautiously. The fingers then straighten out his arm and Max yells out in pain. His arm gets bent back again and can feel fabric being wrapped around his arm. Max hears, "Is your vision normal, blurry, fading away, black, or white?" Max responds, "blurry". Max then feels himself being laid down on the ground. He can hear someone ask him something else but the words fade away. Max's vision then gets clear for a few seconds before it goes completely black. 

"Do you think Max is okay?" Gwen hears. Gwen sighs and doesn't even try responding. It was the 25th time he had asked her that question in the past three days. Sure Gwen was worried too, but it showed how much more David cared than her. Gwen actually thought it was funny that David was getting anxiety about something and not her. David would ask questions that vary from 'Do you think he's hurt' to 'Do you think his other foster siblings are nice' to 'What do you think he's doing'. Gwen, on the other hand, was blaming herself. For whatever reason, Max told her more than that he was just locked in the basement. He told her that his foster parents were mean, that he missed Gwen and David and wished that he was with them, that he was tired of being hurt, that he even missed camp. Gwen was told pretty vague things, but she could put the pieces together. She didn't tell David because Max trusted her to tell her but wouldn't tell David. Probably because Max knows how bad David would feel. Gwen felt that she should have seen the signs. Max would wear sweatshirts in the heat of summer. He would act defensively and aggressively so of course he was raised in that kind of environment. Max had a problem with all adults and wouldn't get along well with authority. Gwen can only imagine what Max had been through, only at this age.