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Share-a-Lair 17

The time went by quicker than any of them wanted it to. Charlotte spent the first month or so moving all of her things from her parents’ house to Max’s comeback house, and the two of them brought most of his and her things over within the following month from the Share-a-Lair property. He only kept what he would be bringing to Russia with him there, and Charlotte just brought over weekend bags, like she used to for the time being. It was going to be too hard for her to begin sleeping in a new bed with or without him, only to have him thousands of miles away in a short time. Better to stay in the bed that she was used to and adapt to that new bed alone.

As time went by, he and Henry became more anxious. They began to make more mistakes… In other words, they came home with more injuries and arguing a little bit more than before. She would always see to their needs and try to get them to talk out what happened, but it generally boiled down to careless mistakes (mostly on Henry’s part), but that was to be expected. He was getting ready to leave everything that he knew and loved behind for three years and be with a person who he respected and trusted, but had not known very long. It was stressful for him and the fact that Jasper had been there less and less made it harder.

“That’s what you said you wanted!” Max fussed. “You TOLD him as much!”

“I told him that I didn’t want him to drop everything and move to Russia just to be at my side, not to just stop being there for me completely!”

“Well, maybe you should have given him the chance to come to a compromise with you instead of telling him where he should and shouldn’t be and then he might not have had to build up his own defenses by establishing boundaries that made him feel better about your restrictions!” Max accidentally snatched an ice pack out of Charlotte’s hand in his frustration with Henry and put it to his jaw. “I’m going to my chambers. You… deal with him, if you want.” He stormed off, not having even noticed her face whenever he pulled something right out of her hands. She decided to let it slide tonight. She hadn’t seen Max this frustrated in a while and she knew that he was still amped up on adrenaline of the near death mistake that must’ve been made. When he was gone, she looked at Henry.

“You wanna tell me your version of things?”

Henry sighed, reflexively bit his lip and winced, because it was busted and he had just pushed his teeth right into the gash. “Let me get at that lip,” she said and gestured to the stool for him to sit and let her patch him up.

“I’ve been distracted,” Henry admitted. “I haven’t had my head in the fight, and not having your head in can get you killed, and your partner. If Max hadn’t been there… I’d have far more than a busted lip…” He groaned and held himself, “And busted ribs.”

She placed a gumball in his mouth and he blew a bubble to wind up in a hospital gown. She checked his ribs and shook her head, “Bad?”

“At least a couple of weeks, even with Schwoz’s serum.”

“Great. Max is gonna be even more pissed at me.”

“I think he’ll be relieved that you’re getting well and not on the field trying to fight with injuries. I don’t know what his injuries are. Maybe he’ll be down a couple of weeks too.”

“I just missed getting hit by a truck. It swiped me, but Max, dove to get me from in front of it and with me locked in one arm, used the other to keep the truck from crashing. It was amazing work, but we got pretty banged up and if the truck clipped me, I don’t know if it maybe got him too. You should probably check on him.”

“I will. After this,” she said. She continued working and wondered, “So, why was he fussing about Jasper whenever you two came in?”

Henry’s eyes glossed over as she put a cotton ball of something that stung on his cut lip. Whenever she finished, she put a tea bag on it and he never questioned her out loud, but his eyes did. She just questioned him right back, “Jasper?”

“Yeah. Well… After we got things situated and everyone was safe and bad guys were accounted for, he demanded to know how I almost got us killed. I spent the whole trip giving excuse after excuse after excuse, making him ask more and more questions, until eventually, I realized that I’ve been off of my game because Jasper hasn’t been around. He keeps me… centered, you know? He’s my rock.” Henry had tears in his eyes and shrugged his shoulders, “And I just tossed him away. Like… Like…”

“Like somebody who loves him and didn’t want him to throw himself into everything that you’re into?” She set down her tools and reached for Henry.

Without Jasper around, who knows when the last time he had a hug was and Henry was a hugger. He fell onto her and let himself cry. “I thought I was helping him, but I feel like all I did was hurt me, but if he’s happy, you know?”

“I know that he isn’t,” she said. “He’s miserable. He’s trying to figure out what to do with his time now that he doesn’t have so much Henry to accommodate. He feels a little bit empty, and like he’s got a hunger that never stops.”

Henry sniffled and looked at her, “Did he tell you that?” She nodded. He wiped his eyes, “Should… Should I call him?”

“You almost died. Hell yes, you should call him. Even if you didn’t miss him like hell, he’d want to know what happened tonight.” She handed him his phone and gave him a cold compress for his lip. Then, she got started on his ribs. Schwoz’s serum and a tight wrap should do the trick. He’d be in a lot of pain, but he’d heal up way faster than typical medical attention would allow.

“Heyyy… Jasp… You answered…”

She could hear Jasper on the other line, obviously excited and nervous to hear from Henry at 2 in the morning.

“Yeah, I did. What’s going on? Is there an emergency? Are you okay? Is Charlotte alright? What’s going on?”

“I’m… alive,” Henry said, grunting a little as Charlotte pushed down on his ribs and tried to wrap him. This was much harder without another person, but she believed in herself. “But, Char says my ribs are gonna have me down for a couple of weeks.”

Jasper took a seat. Charlotte and Henry could both very clearly see him doing it as they heard a gust of air come from the other line. “What. Happened?” He asked, a little lower. Charlotte couldn’t really hear him that time.

“I was distracted and Max had to stop me from getting killed. Pretty much needed to throw himself in harm’s way to do it and I got sideswiped by a truck and…”

“I’m on my way.”

“On your way? What can you even do, Jasper? Char’s fixing things up…”

“Headed out the door now.”

“Jasper…”

“You could’ve been killed, Henry. Are you really telling me that you don’t want me there, at a time like this?”

Henry let a few tears fall. “Of course I want you here… I would want you here if I didn’t almost die… I miss you.”

Jasper couldn’t hide the happiness in his voice as he replied, “Like I said, I’m on my way.”

“All done!” Charlotte said, kissed Henry on the cheek and said softly into the phone, “Night, Jasper.”

“Night! Thank you for taking care of him!” He said.

“Psssshhhht. Who else would?” she joked and collected her things. Henry and Jasper stayed on the phone until Jasper could make it there. Neither of them wanted to have to hang up. That would be too much like losing each other after this vast time apart that no, Henry felt stupid for even causing Jasper to feel like he had to create this rift.

Charlotte was exhausted and felt a little sore herself fighting with those wraps. Max heard, “Alert Future Baby Mama approaching.”

“I’m gonna have to change that thing,” he told himself, but he was dead tired. He could barely move. She set her kit down and leaned closer to see if he was awake. “I’m up,” he said. “Already self scanned and tended to my injuries.” He reached for her and she climbed into bed, letting him snuggle close to her. “I’m sorry for blowing up in front of you like that,” he said, softly, into the back of her neck. “Henry really pissed me off tonight and I should have took it easy, but I just couldn’t.”

“I think he’ll be okay. He called Jasper and I think they’re gonna work it out.” She turned to face him. He didn’t want to let her go, but he loosened up a little to let her adjust. “Were you scared?” She wondered. “Is that why you got so mad at him? Because you could’ve died?”

He scoffed, “No. I’m not very likely to die out there. Not like that, anyway. I was angry that I had to throw myself in harm’s way, but I was scared of losing him.” She smiled a little. “Don’t look at me like that. It’s not about him. It’s about you. No, I don’t want to lose my pupil on my watch, but if I were to lose Henry… I can’t even begin to imagine what that would do to you… What it would do to us. It was more important to risk myself for the chance to save him than to do nothing and have to come home and tell you that Henry was gone.” He shivered a little. “What would you think of me? You would associate the sight of me, the thought of me, trusting your best friend’s life with me and me failing and you losing him.” he looked seriously shaken up by this. Charlotte sat up and collected his head onto her lap, to look down at him, but cradle him close.

“Max… If anything happened to Henry, I would be devastated. He’s my best friend. I love him and I don’t want anything to happen to him. But, I wish that you knew that if something did happen, I’d never blame you. I would know that it couldn’t be avoided and that you would’ve done anything to try to help him. So… I mean, be concerned about helping him get home, but not so preoccupied with it that it makes you feel like I would… whatever it is that has you quivering, right now.”

“I think it just hit me how heavy this was - my absolute need to make sure that I bring Henry back home safe to you, and the fact that he sorta… almost ruined that. That we could have lost him tonight, all because he made some mistakes with his boyfriend? I mean, I’m sorry that he wanted Jasper to be free then couldn’t take it, but I don’t want you to be free of me. I don’t want you to be free of Henry. I bring you everywhere with me, and Henry needs to learn how to do that too. What was he gonna do in Russia without Jasper? Freeze up in actual frost and just die in the cold? I have a life to build with you when I get back… I wouldn’t be able to do that if we lost Henry. It would be like losing a huge part of YOU.” He reached and clenched for her and she let him find her hands. He wrapped himself in her arms and held tight to them.

“You were more worried about Henry dying and me being sad than your own well being?” She asked. She felt kinda bad. Had she placed Henry on so high of a pedestal that he felt it was more important to return him to her at all costs, or was he just being a very diligent mentor and putting that burden on himself?

“I was worried about losing you,” he said. If ever I don’t return, I think you’ll be okay. You’ll have Henry and Jasper and they will do everything to put back together any breakage. But, if Henry doesn’t come back… How the hell could I fix that? That’s a dozen years of bonding and building, destroyed. That’s more than half of your life and most of your waking moments, washed away. Even if I knew how to fix it, would I be able to? Would I be able to face you with the guilt of whatever wreckage that’s caused? It’s just… it’s a lot, and I don’t wanna talk about it anymore.” he kissed her hands and continued holding them.

She wanted to talk about it more, but he seemed very emotional about this fear of his and also, he quickly fell to sleep - having taken meds after taking care of his injuries.

Eventually, she was able to pry herself from his grip and lay down again. His arms quickly found her and cradled her to himself. She smiled and snuggled in closer to him. She knew Max loved her. That had been clear for a while, even before it was actually said, but she supposed she hadn’t really examined just how much, and now she felt like she had some idea - more than anything. She was going to have to make sure that she let him know that this was mutual. Somehow. Someday.

.

That last month that the guys were there, it was a very active one. For one thing, July was full of crime, but also had Jasper’s birthday, and their departure date. There seemed to be too much to do and not enough time.

They would have hard missions, with Charlotte and Jasper waiting, helping wherever they could from the lair, come back safely to hugs and kisses and pampering, and a lot of the time, they’d meet in Max’s chambers, and watch something or play video games or do SOMETHING, to avoid sleeping the entire rest of their time together as a group.

Crashing in his bed or the landing pad for Henry and Jasper to not have to walk all the way to the tower, sometimes Charlotte crashing with them because Max went to sleep earlier. Sometimes, Charlotte fell to sleep first and they placed her over there to keep playing video games. Sometimes, Henry and Max would fall asleep first, worn out from battle and Jasper and Char would have to decide if they felt like trying to squeeze into bed with them or just taking the landing pad, because there was no way that they were moving them and risking waking them after a rough night.

Max was not a fan of waking up being spooned by Henry, but if Charlotte was nearby, he didn’t raise hell about it. Charlotte and Max were early risers, while Jasper and Henry (especially) just weren’t. And the couple might wake up early, duck into the bathroom and spend some quality time alone before their friends got up, or they might wake them up and tell them to leave so that they could be alone.

Henry would vow that he was not spending the night in this room ever again. Jasper would practically sleep walk back to the tower. Both of them would definitely be back that night to unwind and fall to sleep. Time was slipping away from them. Henry didn’t know how to be without Charlotte or Jasper for 3 years. Charlotte wasn’t going to turn down their company, knowing that at least one of them was going to leave (and presumably both of them, because she simply didn’t realistically imagine Henry and Jasper at this point sticking to that whole - Jasper shouldn’t follow Henry to Russia - idea), and while she would’ve wanted to spend more alone time with Max, she also needed to spend as much time with her friends as she could.

Max indulged this, mostly because he was as sure as she was that Jasper would be tagging along with them, and Charlotte would be alone. She didn’t have other friends, though he had gotten his friends to promise to check in on her, and convinced her to come with him to his friends for a night, too.

Mid-July, Cherry and Oyster invited them over for a small gathering. It was going to be the first time that Max saw Phoebe in a couple of months, and most likely the last time he’d see her or his friends in a few years, so Charlotte definitely obliged him.

Link couldn’t make it, but Phoebe was not only there, but had helped set up everything and cheerfully greeted Max and Charlotte whenever she opened the door to let them inside.

Charlotte was pretty quiet, like she usually was at these things. She just wasn’t that sociable of a person. And there were several of Max’s friends there to keep his attention. Cherry and Phoebe’s friends did try to keep her in the loop, though. It was fine for her not to be in it. She felt awkward every time someone was trying to tell a story or recall an event, and Cherry turned to her and gave her all of the background information on the person, the place, or the things of the story. Besides, that, there was a weird smell in the place. It was a sweet and a salty smell, but she couldn’t place it, and kinda smelled like seafood, too. She pretty much just presumed that the smells of whatever they were serving were blending together. It wasn’t very appetizing.

After a while, Oyster called for everyone’s attention in the kitchen… Which was a pretty small space and not at all going to be possible to get them all in there, Charlotte noted, hanging back because whatever toast he was gonna make or whatever, she’d be the last person included…

BUT, Oyster took her hand and moved her in closer, setting her next to Max and Phoebe, and while the three looked confused at each other, he silenced the room and Cherry smiled, cheerfully. “My wife and I have an announcement to make…” Oyster said. He turned on the light on the oven and Charlotte saw some kind of bread in there.

Phoebe gasped and squealed, “You two have a bun in the oven???”

Cherry squealed back, “WE DOOOO!!!” The two of them screamed and jumped up and down, Kelsey, Roxy, and Maddy joined in, the five of them jumping up and down. Charlotte hung back, but said, “Congratulations,” to Oyster.

He smiled brightly and shooed the women away to get to the bun. They were all talking at the same time, but relocated back into the living room, while Wolfgang and Gideon followed, and Sarah trailed behind them. Oyster set the huge bun on the stovetop and put aside his mitts. “Cherry wants to ask Phoebe and Link to be the godparents…” He confessed, somewhat apologetically. “They’re getting married, and we’ve known them a long time, and Phoebe’s Cherry’s best friend…”

Max laughed and shook his head, “I do NOT want to be a godfather. You aren’t hurting my feelings dude. Fun Uncle is where it’s at.”

Oyster let out a sigh of relief. “Oh good. It’s just that you envision having kids of your own and a big family and stuff, so I wasn’t sure if…” He looked at Charlotte, who seemed uncomfortable and noted Max’s face trying to gesture to him to stop talking, but he figured that there was some kind of secret message happening between the two of them (that happened sometimes whenever he saw Max and Charlotte together), so he ignored it and kept talking, “If you’d be offended that you’re just not where me and you thought you might be at this point.” To Charlotte, he commented, “Had no idea he wasn’t gonna be the first one of us to get married and start a family. I thought for sure that by the time Cherry and I had our first, he’d have two or three, and at this point, you’re so young, I’LL probably have two or three before you two even start!”

Max slid between them and put an arm around Oyster’s shoulder, “OKAY! Enough of that. What is this…” He looked at the bun and released Oyster to point both hands at it, “What. Is. This?”

“It’s our bun in the oven!” Oyster said.

Charlotte looked confused, “That’s only a symbol, for Cherry’s pregnancy, right?” She really hoped that there wasn’t just a celebration for what appeared to be the least delicious bread product she would ever see in her life, and certainly didn’t plan on tasting.

“Not, only. We made it special, with oysters and cherries, to represent us coming together to make something really unique,” Oyster said.

“Oh God,” Charlotte said and left the kitchen.

“There’s… There’s oysters and cherries in this thing?” Max asked Oyster. “This thing that you plan to serve to us, your friends?” Oyster smiled and collected it with the bread knife and gestured at the plates to Max. Max grabbed the plates, but announced, “I hope you realize that I am not eating this.”

Charlotte read the room. The faces were obvious. Everybody was used to this type of oddity from Cherry, Oyster, or the combo, but nobody was gonna eat that oyster-cherry bread. She wondered if she could just sort of, eat around the weird stuff to at least not look unsupportive, and actually… it wasn’t that bad. Either that, or she was really hungry, because she had to help her mom with some stuff earlier and wound up running around all day before meeting up with Max.

But, a few of the girls noticed she was eating and they tried it. “Wow. This seemed, like Oyster and Cherry, that it was going to be a disaster of an idea. But, it worked out just as well,” Roxy said.

“Awwww,” Cherry cooed. Charlotte snorted a little laugh.

After the whole thing was over, Max found Charlotte cleaning up while Cheery was sending off some of her friends, and Oyster was hanging back with Wolfgang and Gideon. “What are you doing?” He asked. “I figured that with mostly everybody knowing each other and hanging out, this would get left behind and I didn’t want a pregnant Cherry to be left with all this mess,” she said, with a little shrug.

“She’s got a strapping young, able bodied man in the house,” he reminded her.

“Yeah, but… He’s Oyster,” she said and pointed to him, in the other room, seemingly seducing his most recent guitar as Gideon and Wolfgang ogled. Max rolled up his sleeves and began to help. No way was he bringing her to an event and she was gonna just become the designated maid.

The two of them came into the living room, where Phoebe, Cherry and Oyster were winding down and Phoebe wondered, “Where have you two been?”

“The kitchen is clean, dishes drying, leftovers dated and put away,” Max said and flopped down on the couch next to her. “Though, to be fair, Char did most of that and I just collected the dishes and put them in the washer.”

Cherry gasped, “Thank you SO MUCH Charlotte! We probably would’ve left everything a mess for like days.”

“I’d say maybe even weeks,” Oyster admitted.

Charlotte gave Max a look and he simply bowed his head knowingly as she accepted a high five from Oyster. Of course, she was right.

“Ready to be an uncle?” Phoebe asked.

“I was ready to be an uncle whenever you and Link got back together,” Max said, laughingly. “Sucks though, because now I’m even more abysmally aware that in a couple of weeks, I won’t see you all for a few years. Gonna miss all of the bun’s first milestones.”

Cherry made a sad face and rubbed Oyster’s thigh as his best friend admitting this.

Phoebe said, “Wait until it sets in that you’re probably gonna wind up missing your own kids’ milestones.” Max sat up alert. “I’m not saying that I have anything solid yet, but just wondering about it has been stressing me out. Link and I are both career driven, and sure, whenever we do start having children, there are a lot of options, but I think about when we were little - the amount of times that Mom and Dad missed out on things, even with Billy and Nora, when they were stationed in Metroburg, there were lots of things that they just didn’t get to be a part of like they did with Chloe, and that’s more than likely my future with Link. I know it's normal, but that doesn’t make it easier to process.”

Max looked at Charlotte and tried to envision her at home with kids while he did hero stuff. That didn’t seem realistic. More realistic was seeing her at work, with a baby on her hip, running the show and fixing a bottle, while he was out on mission. That didn’t seem ideal. “Whenever I start having kids, I’m gonna get a stationary gig, and work a flexible career,” he said. Charlotte raised an eyebrow.

Phoebe laughed and furrowed her eyebrows, “Wait, you’re serious?”

“Dead,” he said. They all stared at him. Charlotte couldn’t help but to smirk. Max expounded, “Whenever I get married, I want to be able to be available for my wife, but I’m not going to have a situation where I can just drop everything. The person who can put up with that and still manage to want to marry me and start a family isn’t somebody that I’m just gonna leave at home to take care of our kids. Or have her lugging my child into the office because I got called away. She’s most likely gonna be a big freakin’ deal. Her work’s gonna be just as or even more important than mine. Why not just settle someplace and be the primary caretaker? Besides, the work that I do that I’m most passionate about is always done from home, in my lab, anyways.” Phoebe was speechless. “Oh, what? I didn’t even dream of being a hero until senior year. You thought that was my lifetime achievement?” He asked.

Charlotte offered, “I’m sure that if it was, or is… You and your wife would figure out how to make it all work and to still be able to be great parents. Your wife’s gonna be a huge freakin’ deal… but the two of you together, will be bigger and greater.”

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