Through the Eyes of a Servant | Chapter 20 | by: Rachel / Chapter posted November 29, 2010.

AU | Max/Fang | PG / 3,717 words

Max, Fang - 17| Iggy - 19 | Nudge - 16 | Gazzy - 15 / Angel - 13

When Max accepts a job as a maid in Fang's household, will it be love at first sight? Or will anything and everything come between them?

The idea for this story is my own, and no one else's. Everything else belongs to James Patterson -although I will be next in line for the throne when he retires xD-. I made no money writing this story, I simply write for reviews.

Jeb Bachelder sat on his living room couch, his brow creased in confusion, as the two teenagers in front of him waited anxiously for a response, any response. Jeb sighed inwardly, his mind a whirl of thoughts. Yes, he'd seen himself in this position before.

He'd been expecting something like this ever since Max had gotten her first boyfriend, three years ago. She'd been fourteen then, just a kid, just like she was now, waiting for him to either deny her of all her rights or give her the go-ahead, the blessing to finally start dating. And since then, he'd always been waiting for this day.

We're engaged, she had said. We're in love, she had said. And although what Jeb Bachelder had really been expecting to hear was I'm pregnant, Daddy, it didn't make it any easier to hear. After three months of knowing Fang, his daughter had up and decided to marry him. And it hurt. Max wasn't his little girl anymore. She never would be again, because those days were over.

And yet, they still both looked like kids. Fang, biting his lip and wringing his hands and fidgeting like mad. Max, her eyes wide, that please Daddy please look on her face, just like when she was fourteen years old. If that proved anything, it proved that they were only kids, that they couldn't possibly get married. Still, there they were.

His eyes, while thoughtful, traveled to the picture on the wall, the one of his wife and three children at the beach on that one afternoon all those years ago. If you're old enough to want it, you're old enough to do it, Valencia Martinez had said once before. And what Jeb had discovered, in all his years of being married, was that she was usually right.

"Dad?" Max asked cautiously, her voice barely more than a whisper. Fang had avoided making all eye contact and now appeared to be in an intense staring contest with the floor, and winning at that. Jeb's eyes left the picture on the wall and traveled back to his daughter's face. This time, she was seventeen again. All grown up.

He sighed again and rubbed his forehead. "Does Fang's mother know?" he asked simply. And he didn't need to hear the answer, because he could see it from the way Fang's eyes flashed, from the brief look of panic on Max's face, from the sick expression that the two of them shared. Jeb groaned.

"Okay, not exactly," Max looked down at the ground. Fang looked as if there was nothing he would have loved more than to die, even if it meant being cast into the deepest pits of hell. "But we were going to tell her right after this!" she protested. "Right, Fang?"

Fang looked guiltily away and said nothing. "Fang!" Max hissed, swatting him on the arm. He looked up at Jeb. "I mean, yes. Right after this," he lied lamely. Jeb's eyes narrowed, and Max sighed in defeat.

"I thought as much," Jeb said blandly. "You guys, let's say that by some miracle, Fang's mother did, in fact, say yes. Exactly when are you two planning to go through with this?" The look on their faces told him all he needed to know all over again. They had given it exactly zero minutes of thought.

Jeb glared at Fang sternly. "Fang, my daughter is in high school. You both are seventeen. Still minors. Still children. You can't get a decent job in the world if you're uneducated and married straight out of high school. I appreciate your enthusiasm, but can't you see the flaw in your plan?"

Max set her jaw, and Jeb sighed, because in that instant, he saw so much of her mother in her that it was scary. He saw the same defiance in Max that he'd seen in his dead wife so many times. Because in a lot of ways, they were one in a same. And if she truly felt this way, he was fighting a losing battle, and he knew it.

Can't you see that this is what she wants? He heard Valencia's voice in his head. Don't you see that this is where her heart's at? You might not know what this boy has to offer her, but he's the one in her heart. He's the one she loves and wants to be with. Why can't you trust her? Why can't you?

"Because she's my daughter!" his hands clenched into fists, and he didn't realize that he'd spoken the words aloud until he felt Max's hand on his own. She looked at him with soft, serious eyes.

"Damn it, Max," he sighed. "I wish I could let you grow up. I wish I could tell you to go ahead and marry him. I wish I didn't care." He looked away. "But I do! It's too soon! I'm afraid that something will go wrong, and you'll get your heart broken, and you'll come back to me, and ask me why I didn't stop you, and I'll wish that I did."

He looked up at her. "I know that it's what all dads say, but I watched you grow up. I held you when you were a baby, and I took you trick-or-treating every year on Halloween, and I held the handle of your bike and taught you how to ride it. I didn't let you fall back then, and I can't now!"

It was then that Fang spoke up. And when he did, the spark in his eyes startled Jeb. The determination caught him off guard. It was a look that told anyone around that he meant business, and that he was truly, truly serious.

"With all due respect, Mr. Bachelder," Fang said, his voice steady, "I love your daughter. You might have held the handles on that bike back then, but I'm taking over now. And I promise, with my own life, that I will never, ever let her fall."

"Fang-"

"Listen!" Fang interrupted, his voice hard. "These are the only words I have to say to you or anyone else that asks me. Just because I'm young doesn't mean I'm stupid, Mr. Bachelder. Max is the one that I want to spend the rest of my life with. I wouldn't say that if I wasn't serious."

He pulled Max closer to him protectively. "If we have to wait, we will. If we don't have much money, that's okay. Whatever the problem is, we'll find a way to make it work. I promise you that."

Jeb swallowed hard. Seeing Fang's arm around his daughter like that was hauntingly familiar, bringing back old memories, like being nineteen and telling Valencia's parents the same thing. Like seeing Iggy the day he was born. Like teaching Max how to ride that bike.

"I'm trusting you on this," he said at last, and tried not to notice how much Max's face lit up, because even if he was really letting her grow up now, it still hurt, just a little. Fang just nodded once. "I won't let you down," he replied.

And Jeb could only hope that it was enough.

That night, it seemed like there were a million stars in the sky. The road in front of the two of them was lit by four lamp posts, and the locusts were buzzing noisily. Apart from that, it was eerily silent as both of them made their way to the large house at the end of the block. Neither one of them spoke.

"So you're really going to tell her?" Max asked, looking up at him with wide eyes. "Tomorrow?"

"Yeah," he answered as they reached the wrought-iron fence that she had come to know so well. His stomach flipped just thinking about it. How was his mother going to react when he told her that he was going to marry a poor girl, no more than a 'commoner' in her eyes? Disown him? Scream at him yet again? He didn't know.

"Don't worry about it," she whispered, and leaned up to kiss him lightly on the cheek. Her shyness startled him. It seemed uncharacteristic for some reason. "Your mother can't keep you prisoner forever," she told him. "In a few more months, you'll be eighteen. And then it's you, me, a white dress and a couple of rings," she joked.

"I bet you'd look really good in a white dress," he grinned softly, and leaned down to capture her lips in a kiss, a more passionate one this time. Butterflies sprouted in her stomach as she stood on her toes, her arms weaving around his neck. Lightheaded, she feared that if he wasn't holding her up, she'd fall over.

"First day of school is tomorrow," he whispered in her ear. "You excited?"

She groaned, as he knew that she was. The last thing that she wanted to think about was that she had one more year of high school and then four more of college to look forward to. "You'll do great," he whispered, and she sighed, not wanting to think about it, just letting him hold her.

"Thanks," she mumbled, and they stayed like that for another two minutes before he let her go, kissed her softly on the forehead, and unfurled his wings, soaring like a whisper over the wrought iron fence and fading into the sky. She watched him fly away, and felt lonelier than than almost ever before.

With that, she turned away, stole one last glance up at the night sky, and walked back down the path towards home.

The next morning, she woke up to her alarm clock in the usual way, at six o'clock sharp. With a shudder and a long, painful sigh, she got up out of bed, grudgingly made it through the shower, put on one of her best outfits –which wasn't much– and tied her hair back into a low ponytail.

The Voice made no surprise appearance – which she was extremely glad of. Putting on a thin layer of makeup, having never been much of a person for the stuff, she took one last look at her room before climbing the stairs tiredly and slinking into the kitchen, where Iggy, Gazzy and Jeb were already up.

"There's my favorite sister!" Iggy grinned mischievously, eager for the chance to poke fun at Max for once. "There she goes, folks, ready for her first day of school, just like a big girl!" Gazzy snickered behind the counter as he received an annoyed slap in the face from a very disgruntled Max.

"I was going to give you some chocolate-chip pancakes, but I don't think I will," he stuck his tongue out her. Instantly, her eyes brightened, and he didn't have to have his eyesight to know that he had gotten her attention at 'chocolate'. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" she said immediately, and he grinned.

"Now, Max, I know that it's going to be a big day for you," he said as she ate her pancakes hungrily, "but just remember that for Gazzy, it's going to be about ten times worse. Just think. Yesterday, he was an eighth grader, on top of the school, and today, he'll be dunked in a toilet by one of those freakishly tall juniors." He grinned devilishly.

A look of panic passed over Gazzy's face. "Don't worry, Gazzy, nothing like that happens in real life," Max said helpfully, and the relief on his face was almost instantaneous. Once he returned to his pancakes, Max and Iggy exchanged various 'he is so going to get killed' glances.

"You're up early," Max looked at Iggy accusingly as she finished what was left of the pancakes. Iggy gave her an odd look and shrugged. "Here in the real world, most of us keep their jobs in the fall, too, Max," he pointed out. "I'm still working at the gas station all day."

"Oh," was her only response. Of course. Iggy would keep his everyday life. Nothing would change for him because of the new semester. Nudge would still sneak out to see him every day, and life would go on. Suddenly, jealousy flared inside her. What right of his was it to stay the same, to not move on, when that was all she had been doing? Why couldn't he go to college, give up the one he loved?

The hate and anger was gone just as quickly as it had come. When she shook her head, she felt horribly confused. Iggy didn't deserve that any more than she did. It wasn't fair, the way things had worked out, but that was the way her life had gone. This wasn't a fate she could ever push on anyone else.

"Time to go, Max." She looked down to see Gazzy tugging on her shirt slightly. And she almost smiled. With his large, round eyes, he looked almost the way he had when she had taken him to his first day of kindergarten. He had been so scared back then, and so young. Max sighed. If only the present day could be so simple.

She took a deep breath. "Okay," she breathed out. And even though some things were the same, like the ratty old backpack on her shoulders, her brother's hand in her own, and the sense of inevitable dread in her heart, things were about to change. For better? For worse? She didn't know.

But one way or another, today, she was going to find out.

The start of Fang's day was much different than Max's had been. Not just because he had awoken in a bed made for a prince. Not just because he had his breakfast brought up to him. Not just because he had woken up five hours later than Max had. When he woke up, Max was at school, cowering under a cafeteria table and trying not to get hit in the face by a flying blob of spaghetti.

Of course, he didn't know any of this.

All he knew was that yesterday he had made a promise to Max. And although it had been a promise from the heart, and he had meant every word of it, he didn't relish the idea of his mother's face when he told her that he was, in fact, engaged to one of the very servants that his mother had expressly warned him of.

Reluctantly, he got up out of bed, ate, and followed a routine much like the one Max had, but he had to admit that he was dragging his feet most of the way. His mother didn't need to know exactly that minute, did she? Maybe he'd wait after lunch. Come to think of it, he could probably wait until after dinner. And he wasn't seeing Max today. What if he waited until tomorrow morning to tell his mother?

NO! The thought broke through his head like a lightning bolt, and he winced, crashing against the bathroom mirror, his toothbrush jammed down his throat an uncomfortable angle. Fang, what the hell are you doing? He heard his sister's voice in his head. You promised Max that you'd tell Mom today! You can't just chicken out at the last minute because you're afraid of your mommy!

Gagging, he peeled himself off the mirror and coughed up the rest of the toothbrush distastefully. Angel! How did you know about that? he asked her grouchily, and then remembered. Oh, shit. Mind reader. Riiiiiiight. He then staggered into his bedroom to see her sitting on his mattress cheerfully.

"Fang, this is stupid," she lectured him as he cringed. When had she started sounding so much like Max? "Listen, you big dummy, Mom is never going to listen to you unless you tell her, and seriously, that you love Max and she's the one you want to be with? Would she take you seriously now? Running and hiding instead of facing up to it? Damnit, be a man!"

He rolled his eyes. "Clean up the language, Angel. I don't know what truck drivers you've been hanging out with, but it isn't too pretty." He ignored the feeling that she was shooting daggers into the back of his head. After all, he got that look five times a day from Max.

"Fang, be serious." Her voice had switched to that which he reserved especially for people he hated, and he shuddered. Apparently it was unpleasant to be on the receiving end of the look. Note to self: scratch the glare, he thought, cringing. Upon seeing the look on his face, she sighed. "I'm sorry."

"No, you're right," he grumbled. "You always are." She grinned, having heard the six words she loved most in the entire world. "I know I have to tell her," he sighed. "But it's hard. It's hard to change. You always want to hold onto the way things used to be, and not change, because it's easier that way."

He looked out the window vaguely. "But I guess nothing good ever got done without a little change." Angel offered a small smile, and placed a hand on his shoulder lightly. "I will tell her, Angel," he looked back at her. "I'll have to."

"You can do it," she told him.

So without a backward glance, he walked out the door, and down the stairs to his mother's office.

He could only pray that he was doing the right thing.

But before any of that happened, before Fang even woke up, Max and Gazzy were standing in front of their new school. It was exactly seven forty-five, and although the world seemed to be moving around them at light speed, with the school buses pulling up, the laughing students, and the arriving teachers, they were standing still, hand-in-hand.

"Do you remember what I told you that day that I left you at your kindergarten classroom?" she asked him softly as she gripped his hand even tighter. Staring up at the school now, it seemed to her as if they were about to walk into the belly of a monster, and willingly. She gulped.

"No," he replied, frowning slightly.

She shook her head. "Me neither," she replied. "But I must have said something comforting, because later that day, you came home with a juice box in one hand, a smile on your face, and the strange lack of a wedgie." And with those words of wisdom, she lead him inside.

They parted ways almost at once. As Max had learned from visiting the school a few weeks earlier, most of the classrooms that Gazzy would be using were at the exact opposite end of the school, and so she let go of his hand, and merged into the crowd of swarming teenagers, each one of two sorts: the sort that missed their friends and were happy to be back, and the sort that, like Max, would have been considerably happier at the thought of an early death.

Her classroom was easy enough to find, considering that it was on the first floor, and about ten feet from her locker –which, apparently, had refused to open–. At the head of the class was the teacher that Max suspected would be teaching them; at the back, a group of laughing boys that she made a mental note not to get in the way of.

Carefully, she made her way to one of the empty desks and tried to appear as inconspicuous as possible. Having attention drawn to herself on the first day wasn't something that she was accustomed to, and she desperately wished she had something to do to busy herself with in order to pretend she was doing something worthwhile and productive, so as not to be interrupted.

But of course, the universe, in all of its infinite wisdom, had decided that this was not to be her fate.

"Oh. My. God. Where did you get your shoes?" Max looked up, snapping herself from her thoughts, her eyes coming to rest on the four girls who had somehow surrounded themselves around her desk. They were all wearing too much makeup, with obvious spray-tans and unrealistic highlights. For some reason, this made Max feel out of place, wishing she were more…orange, like they were.

"Uhm…my closet?" she asked uncertainly, and was rewarded with the high cackle of all of them giggling like mad, as though this were extremely funny, even though it was entirely the truth. They were an old, ratty pair of tennis shoes that she'd had for over a year, not nearly anything special.

The four girls all eyed her curiously, much to her chagrin, but before she could make a speedy escape, girl who had spoken first piped up again. "God, isn't she just so cute?" she asked, and the rest of them laughed that annoying, high-pitched giggle all over again. Staring at her as one might stare at a zoo animal –and Max definitely knew what that felt like– they were almost scary.

"What was your name again?" the girl asked, and even though Max didn't remember ever telling the girl her name in the first place, she blurted it out immediately. "Max, that's cute," the girl told her again, but it seemed silly, fake. And it was. "I'm Taylor. And this is Naomi, Courtney, and Maddy."

"Hey," Max mumbled. And they burst out laughing all over again. "You're new here, right?" the one called Naomi asked. Or maybe it was Courtney. In any case, Max didn't remember, or even remotely care. Please just leave me alone, she thought desperately. But of course, fate wasn't that kind.

"Let's be friends," Taylor suggested then, and for some reason, even though Max had fought Erasers, Flyboys and Whitecoats when she was much younger than this, Taylor, a normal, preppy high school girl, scared her more than any of them. So all she could do was nod.

It was then that the bell rang. "Come on!" she cried, and pulled Max up, out of her seat, and out the door. Max sighed. This certainly wasn't how she'd pictured her first day of high school starting. But she did know one thing – it was going to be a long day, and this was just the beginning.

Would she make it out alive?

I can't begin to describe how sorry I am. It's been over a month since I updated this story, and in that time, I feel like I've let all of you down. When I first started writing the story, I was writing down an idea of mine for me, and the more reviews I got, the more I started writing for all of you. And without any warning, I dropped it. And for that, I'm so sorry.

A lot of things have been busy in my life, and I won't go into that here. But I promise that this story is a part of my life and I'm not going to just let it die, so here's another chapter. I'm going to spend a while rebuilding this story, with more updates soon. I'm not going to leave it hanging again, I promise. I'll stay until I finish it, at least. I'll give you all the story you deserve.

I know that a lot of people once read this story, and I probably lost quite a few readers. That makes me sad, but hopefully, those of you who are still waiting will enjoy the story. One way or another, I'm gonna finish thing, and you'll probably have another update before the end of the week, at the very latest. If I don't have the time, I'll make it anyway.

Thank you all for giving this story love and support, even if I haven't.

~Rachel