My Heart Is Yours

Max’s pov

Having to sit there while Wednesday was breaking down and practically having a panic attack in front of me was torture. I hated that she wouldn’t let me comfort her. Then again, it’s probably better that I didn’t. I didn’t know what she was freaking out about, so I really couldn’t comfort her…

“I wouldn’t have left Vegas if I…but I was…and I didn’t know what else to do and…” she stammered. I tried piecing things together, but I had absolutely no idea what the hell it was that she was trying to tell me. I scooted closer, trying to get her to calm down. Which, honestly, that really wasn’t a good idea, so I have no idea what the hell I was thinking…

“Wendy, it’s okay. Calm down…I don’t blame you for leaving,” I told her earnestly.

“You don’t understand why though, Max!” she half-shouted. I looked over towards where that little girl of hers had gone. Apparently, whatever it was that she wanted me to hear or whoever it was that she wanted me to meet wasn’t someone the little girl should no about? Or was… God, I was so confused right now… She looked up at me and I turned all my attention back onto her. “Max, I was pregnant when I left.”

My heart, literally, stopped beating. My jaw hit the ground and I felt rather incredulous. “Y…yo…wh…how…what?” Okay, so I was completely incapable of forming words right now. Everything that I had known about Wednesday up until this point and ended up being a complete and total lie. It made sense, now, why she left. If she had stayed, I’d end up finding out that she was pregnant and, after her breaking up with me, I kind of saw why she wouldn’t want that. I wasn’t going to let her raise that child of ours by herself.

And here I was, already having done that without knowing. All because I had to go and do drugs and get fucked up that night.

“I was pregnant, Max,” she repeated, seeming calmer than she had been. Though she still had tears coursing down her face and I really just wanted to reach over and pull her into a hug. I couldn’t believe it. So did that mean… “Lily is your daughter, Max…” she said and I blinked a few times as I realized how…right that sounded. I was still…well, speechless.

“I thought you should know…” she said, wiping at her eyes and watching me for some sort of reaction quietly. I was still blinking in a confused manner, trying to sort out my thoughts and also trying to get it to where I could speak and make sense. That wasn’t working out so well for me. “If you’re angry, I understand, I shou-”

“I’m not angry, Wendy…I just…” I sighed, scrubbing my hands through my hair as I continued to blink. Well this was certainly not what I was expecting.

“You don’t have to do anything for us, Max. We’ve gotten along this far with…on our own.”

“Bullshit like I’m not going to be a part of…you don’t want me to, do you?” I asked finally, frowning at her and furrowing my brows. She sighed and shook her head, running a hand through her hair before looking up at me.

“If you want to, I would never keep you away from her, Max. I could never do that, I’ve hurt you enough as it is…” I couldn’t believe that she was blaming herself. I sighed and reached out to her, glad that she didn’t recoil or push me away. I cupped her face and felt my heart skip in my chest and my throat close uncomfortably. I couldn’t believe that I was here right now… this close to her after all these years. God, I wanted to kiss her…

But I really shouldn’t…

“Wendy, you have never hurt me,” I said, pulling her gaze to meet mine as I leaned towards her in her curled little state. “If anything, I should be the one apologizing. Fuck, I am. I’m so sorry, Wendy. Please, believe me when I say that it is not your fault…” She glared at me slightly when I said “fuck” and I wondered what that was all about. Until I remembered that her…our daughter was in the other room and I suddenly felt like a complete and total idiot.

“Can I meet her?” I asked, pulling away from her and reluctantly taking my hand from her face. She looked like she was either going to slap me or start crying again. Probably both, honestly, I wouldn’t blame her. But when I asked that question, she nodded and grinned at me, unfurling from her little ball of Wendy to stand to her feet with a grin.

“Of course, Max. Just…give me a second, okay?” I nodded quietly and watched as she ran off through the hall and into a room. My attention moved to the decoration around her home. It wasn’t that fancy. White walls, dark red carpet. The couch I sat on was comfortable and I guess I never really noticed it before now because I was more worried about the hysteric Wendy in front of me. She seemed to be living pretty well, and I was almost a little surprised. The fact that she’d been able to handle paying for this place, taking care of her…our daughter, doing whatever else it was that she did, was amazing in and of itself.

I couldn’t believe that I had a kid. I mean…I know I’ve probably had a few too many sex-crazed nights with various women, but I would have never thought that I would actually have a child. And with Wendy? That was even better… Like, ten zillion times better. I was just pissed that the last six years had been spent completely wasted when I could have been with Wendy and our daughter. I was, I’ll admit, kind of pissed off at Craig right now for never telling me that I had a daughter. Or that he’d been seeing her behind my back. Bryan, too. But…ugh. I don’t even know… I was just overall kind of pissed off at all three of the guys for not telling me anything about this…

I guess I kind of understood why, though. I mean, had I known that I had a kid, I probably wouldn’t have had anything else to do with Escape the Fate. Which would have killed me, but it was true. Fuck. Now what was I supposed to do?

“Max?” I looked back at Wendy, seeing that she had the little girl on her hip and in her arms. My little girl. God, that was so weird to me still… Despite the fact that I was excited as fuck over the whole thing. “This is Lily.” I grinned at the little girl, who shied into her mother’s shoulder. I smirked as Wendy sighed and rolled her eyes.

“Hi, Lily. I’m Max.”

Again, the little girl shied away from me. I sighed and felt worry set over me. Great. It would figure that my own daughter wouldn’t like me.

“Lily, you little brat,” Wednesday muttered and I smirked at that. Lily frowned at her mother before squirming out of her arms to land on her feet. God, she was tall…

“How old are you, Lily?” I asked, leaning towards her as she watched me from in front of her mother. Wendy skirted our daughter and went to sit down on the couch next to me. Lily’s face lit up and she quickly came over, grinning excitedly.

“Five,” Wendy said and Lily frowned.

“Five and a half,” the little girl retorted, setting her hands on her hips and frowning at her mother. I couldn’t help but to chuckle at that.

“Really?” I couldn’t believe that I had missed five and a half years of her life. God, I was such a terrible person…

“Hey Lily, I want to tell you a secret,” Wendy said from behind me and I looked over with a single raised eyebrow. Our little girl crawled into her lap and had her full attention on her mother, big blue green eyes sparkling. It was strange, though, seeing my eyes on someone else…

“Do you know who Max is?” I heard her ask and I felt a little awkward. I wondered what the both of them were going to say after that… Lily shook her head, her dark brown hair falling into her eyes. Wendy brushed them away lovingly before looking over at me and causing Lily’s attention to turn on me. Oh yeah, I felt a little more awkward now… “Max is your daddy…”

Holy shit. Hearing that again, even though I already knew it and had for the last few minutes, was completely insane to me still. I just…it was insane!

“Daddy?” Lily said and I almost started crying hearing that one word come out of the little girl’s mouth. Holy fucking shit. That was a beyond amazing feeling. Like…so beyond amazing that I couldn’t even believe it. My throat closed as I grinned and nodded at her. She looked confused or a few moments before grinning back at me and launching herself at me and latching around my neck. I laughed and hugged her back, liking the way that she, like her mother did, fit there.

I couldn’t believe I had a daughter… I couldn’t believe that I had to go and mess everything up for the last six years and not get to know her during this time. Yeah? That Maxwell Fucking Green asshole everyone's been talking about around me? Total douche bag of a person right there…