Denial

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No. No no no no NO! This can't be happening, this couldn't be happening. Maya reached her hands up and ran them through her hair, burying her fingers so deep that her nails were scratching her scalp.

Michael couldn't be dead. He couldn't. Not after everything that had happened, not with everything they had been through. He had told her that he wasn't going to give up his life for hers, he told her that. He wasn't dead. He couldn't be.

Maya walked further into her room, pulling off her heels and throwing them at her closet. She wanted out of those shoes. She wanted out of this dress. She wanted out of here. She just watched a man, a good man, die in front of her. He had given the last two years of his life to this case, and it costed him everything.

She should have done things differently. She should have taken the case more seriously to begin with. She should have gotten closer to David by now, a lot closer. Maybe if she had, none of this would have happened. Michael would still be here.

What was she going to tell Peterson? Did Michael have a family? Parents? Siblings? A wife? Was he a father?

Maya buried her fingers deeper at which point she was surprised her scalp wasn't bleeding. She felt like pulling all her hair out. She felt like walking out of this house, no, she wanted to run. She wanted to get as far away from here as she possibly could.

She wanted out of this case, she wanted to go home. She wanted Josh.

Josh. Oh God. Josh! Farkle, Zay, Lucas, Mia! David said he was going to find all of them, track them each down and kill them. She had to warn them, she had to get to Josh.

An impatient knock on the door caused her to snap her head up.

"Hey, it's me, Max. Let me in." Max's voice said. Maybe this was it, maybe Max was coming to tell her that it all had just been a sick joke. That Michael wasn't really dead, that everything was okay, that she could go home.

Maya shook her head of these impossible thoughts. She barely heard Max knock on the door again and his voice get even more impatient.

"Josie I'm serious, open up." Max called out. Maya still didn't answer. She heard a faint sigh from behind the door, and his voice lowered two octaves so that she was barely able to hear him whisper. "Agent Hunter. You have to let me in."

Maya snapped her head up at the door, her eyes wide. Was that why he was acting so weird lately? He had figured it out, he knew who she was. Did that mean he knew who Michael was, too?

Maya got up from the bed and unlocked the door. She pulled it open and Max was staring at her. Maya looked him straight in the eyes, as if she was hoping to read into his mind. Max opened the door further and walked past Maya, letting himself in. Maya looked down the hallway and noticed that the coast was clear, and she closed the door. Turning back around she saw Max staring at her with concern in his gaze.

"How did you find out?" Maya asked him. Max didn't say anything at first. He stared at her for another moment before swallowing hard and leaning against her window.

"I followed you and Michael. Under David's orders. The day you two went to go see your team. I saw you both pull up and go into the FBI headquarters. I thought you two were going to report what you knew, but then the more I thought about it, the more it all started to make sense. I think David has always been a little suspicious of Michael, it took him almost a year to earn his full trust. I always had my doubts about him as well, but it wasn't until I saw you both that day that I knew." Max explained to her. Maya didn't say anything, she just kept silent and listened.

"I really like you, Maya. Since the day you first got here, I knew there was something different about you than the rest. Something was off and I couldn't fully make myself believe that you were truly on David's side. That's why I told David that I really did see you and Michael with your mother that day. Because I didn't want to see you end up like everyone else that has tried to double cross him. Michael confronted me that night, told me everything. Told me it wasn't safe to be super close to you unless you needed my help. I wasn't sure when that time would come, but he said I would know. And until then I needed to stay away from you."

"Well," he continued, "I guess that time is now. Michael told me that no matter what happened to him, you needed to finish this. This case needed to be cracked open and David needed to be taken down. And I want to help you do that." Maya stared at him.

"You would help me?" She asked him. "David is your uncle, he took you in when you didn't have anyone else. He cared for you, raised you. Why would you help me destroy him?"

"Because I know what he's doing is wrong. I know that women aren't pieces of property. They shouldn't be sold to the highest bidder. He has tried so hard to make me like him, to make me go into the "family business" and I've always hated it. I love him, he's family. But I can't sit back and watch him do this. I can't sit back and let him take so many innocent lives for his selfish benefit. I've stood back in the shadows long enough, it's time for me to step up."

Max suddenly got such a determined look on his face. Maya had never seen it before. She had always seen Max as this innocent kid that David had tried so hard to corrupt. And now he was getting a backbone.

"We'll take him down." Max told her. "And we'll do it together."
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