A/N - PLEASE READ, IMPORTANT: This is not the full chapter, it's the first two scenes of it. And they're probably going to be edited a bit more too.

The actual chapter will end after they've tracked down Jerry, we've heard about what he's been getting up to and it's been explained that the Russos need to find the Stone of Dreams if they don't want to forget everything and disappear forever. I might also work in that scene where Max tries to hug Teresa. When I've finished the chapter I will delete this one and create a new chapter, so you'll definitely get an alert letting you know. Think of this as a... preview. I couldn't leave you with nothing for any longer.

A brief explanation as to why I'm late and why I haven't finished this yet, for those who are interested: I know it's disappointing when stories are updated late and it's even worse when they aren't ever finished - please believe me when I say I will be finishing this story. Unfortunately I've had trouble finding the time to work on it because other work has made me extremely busy lately. I'm actually going to be very busy until about 15th December 2014; I'd hoped that I would still be able to write a chapter of this each week if I took a week off from FanFiction to get as much work done as I could but ultimately I have several different areas of work which have deadlines in December, which also happens to coincide with a series of university interviews which I need four weeks to prepare for. Therefore, until mid-December, updates are going to be very irregular, fitted in to whenever I have a few hours spare. After this, I'll have plenty of free time until April, allowing me to update every Sunday again. Hurray!

In theory, I should be able to finish this chapter in the next few days. I just have more studying to do first.

I am so, so sorry that I didn't let you know this information on Sunday (I didn't decide that I wouldn't be capable of updating every Sunday until today) and, of course, I apologise for not being able to update regularly for the next month. Thank you for your patience and interest and enthusiasm and reviews and follows and favourites - in return I will be giving you a finished story, I'm afraid life just interferes now and again. This story will be finished.

So in this chapter, we see the effects of my alteration of the timeline last time - obviously Jerry and Teresa have had a rather different experience too (or have they? We didn't see in the movie what they got up to at night, after all) - but by the end of the chapter we are pretty much back on track (as you will see eventually...). This is set on Monday morning now, happening at the same time as the most recent Harper chapter, in case you lost track.

Warnings: Home-Brewed-Punch-Induced Hangover (not based on personal experience)! Strong language! Implied sexual content! Disappointing shortness!

A massive explosion woke Alex up. Wait, no... that was just the sound of the door opening. Ugh, she flinched as it closed again - who the fuck was making all that noise? Seriously, if Alex wasn't kind of busy hugging this pillow right now, she would totally be remembering that forbidden spell she'd read, the one about replacing people's hands with toilet plungers. Ha, try opening a door then.

Ew... gross. How long had she been drooling? She could feel the damp patch of spit against her cheek, she hoped Ju- nobody had seen because they'd obviously take yet another picture for the big ol' family vacation album and then she'd be screwed for eternity-

Oh, God! A light had been switched on in the bathroom and it was penetrating right through her eyelids. 'The fu-' she started to say but then the headache stopped her and-

Oh my God, this is not a pillow.

She'd tried to sit up to yell at whoever the hell thought it was a good idea to assault her senses for a third time but then she realised that this pillow she was pressed into was kind of a strange shape, and kind of didn't feel like a pillow, and her legs were kind of wrapped around one of the pillow's legs and-

'Ahhhhhh!'

A woman was screaming and Alex was being attacked and she was trying to move but she was too hungover but then someone moved her for her because some idiot likes to shove things when he's being attacked in his sleep and then, Ow!, she'd hit the floor.

'¡Vete! ¡Vete! Get out!' their mother was attacking Justin with an actual pillow.

Justin meanwhile, crouched on the other side of the bed, was shielding himself and whimpering something about Captain Jim Bob Sherwood. Psh, sure, that's gonna save you.

'Mum!' Alex screamed to stop the screaming, her headache really couldn't take any more noise.

'I'll call the police, I'll report you to the manager - get out!' their mother clutched the pillow as some kind of shield, backing away. She looked crap - wait a second, Alex wondered what she looked her herself - had Mum been out the entire night?

'The police?' Justin cried from underneath the elbows covering his head.

Justin had a point, their mother didn't exactly have to get them arrested for sleeping together, Jeez.

Okay, that sentence came out wrong - give her a break, she drank a lot of punch last night, 'Mum-'

'How did you even get in here?' she was switching her gaze between Justin, Alex and the phone on the bedside table, 'Who are you? I'm writing down your details!'

Huh?

'Okay, uh-' Justin, apparently recovered from his little mental breakdown over there, grabbed Alex around her arm and yanked her up off of the floor, 'Sorry we... bothered you, we'll just, er,' he was guiding Alex out of the still slightly-open door, 'be leaving now, heh- Alex, what did you do?'

Outside now, she blinked, trying to focus on his face but the light was too intense, 'I- ha, you got my drool on your shirt,' she poked him in the chest and he batted her hand away. Alex stuck her tongue out briefly, 'I didn't do anything you didn't do, Justin, you can't just blame this all on me, I didn't force myself on you-'

'Wha- huh- I- I'm talking about the fact that Mum doesn't know who we are!'

Ohhh-

'Ahhhhhh!' Another scream came out of the room.

Oh, right. They forgot about Max.

One minute Max had been all caught up in this awesome dream about this can of chicken soup that went around fighting crime - and it could fly. And he was that can of chicken soup. Then his mum had to go and ruin one of the best dreams ever by going all crazy and screaming.

'Ahhhhhhh!' she said.

'Ahhhhhhh!' he replied because he guessed this was her new way of saying Good morning or something. Huh.

'Aye yai yai, are there any more of you?' his mother threw up her hands, looking pretty tired.

'Uh, I don't think so, unless... that spell I've been working on worked! Did I do it? Did I replace everyone at this resort with Maxes?' This was a momentous day for Max Russo.

Teresa wasn't even listening, pacing back and forth, 'Ha, if I'd known this place was filled with so many homeless kids I'd have never booked it in the first place.'

Well, Max had no idea what she was talking about. Where was Dad? Or Justin and Alex? Oh, hey - the sound of arguing. Found them.

Max climbed out of bed, leaving the hotel room without thinking to change out of his pajamas for some reason. Actually his pajamas were swimming trunks and a snorkel. The snorkel was because they were on vacation.

'Well, if you'd just distracted them properly yesterday, instead of gluing people to chairs then I wouldn't have-'

'Hey, guys, what's going on?' Max glanced between his siblings. Their clothes were all crumpled and Justin had some kind of liquid on his shirt. Huh, everyone looked really messy today - at least Max knew he looked good.

Justin turned to his brother, arms crossed and hair kind of spiked in a load of crazy angles, 'Alex,' he glared at her again, 'do you want to tell our little brother what you did?'

'You mean what we did?'

'No-'

Actually, Max would rather they just got to the point. He yawned, 'You guys gonna tell me or not?'

Justin sighed, 'She got in a huge fight with Mum and used the family wand-'

'That you gave me.'

'This is not my fault! - to wish that Mum and Dad had never met and now Mum doesn't remember us and now, apparently, the spell book and the family wand are missing too. Nice one, Alex, you've really outdone yourself this time.'

'It was right on the bed before you slept on it.'

'Before we-' Justin cut himself off. Wow, Max thought, maybe my brain really doesn't make sense - I thought Justin was about to say something kind of weird, then. Max took this as his queue to ask something.

'So... it's like we're in a parallel universe, right? Mum and Dad have never met, so that's why they don't remember us?'

Justin seemed shocked that Max had understood, 'Um, yes, actually. Exactly like that, by the looks of it. How did you...'

Of course, Max understood highly ridiculous situations perfectly.

'I'm confused,' Max said, returning to normal, 'Is this a good thing or a bad thing?'

Alex, who was trying to sleep against the wall with a scrunched up expression on her face, said 'Kid's got a point.'

Justin gasped, 'This is a very, very bad thing! And, once again, proves why I don't do bad things,' he threw his hands up, 'because whenever I do,' he pointed a finger at Alex, who couldn't see anyway because her eyes were closed, 'more bad things happen!'

She snorted, 'Which of the many bad things are you talking about, Justin?'

'I- not in front of Max!' his eyes flickered between the two of them before grabbing Alex's arm again, 'We need to find Dad.'

He tugged her along, not looking back.

Max tagged along behind them, just like always.