Words You Wouldn't Say

Max woke up to his phone ringing.

He'd fallen asleep with Otis in the crook of his arm, on Skype with Mike before his concert. He didn't know what time he'd fallen asleep, but it was nearly nine in the morning now and from what he could see in his status bar, the call had lasted seven hours. He smiled slightly, figuring that Mike must've left the call on during the concert, and answered the call.

"Anna?" he asked sleepily.

"Hey Max," she said cheerily. "Did I wake you?" Max glanced down at Otis, who was still sleeping.

"No, it was about time for me to get up anyway." He carefully extracted his arm from around Otis and sat up, rubbing his face.

"I remember what it was like," she said conversationally. "He used to want to talk after his concerts, and it'd be like, three in the morning for me." Max's eyes scrunched slightly, and he couldn't help but feel a little weirded out by her choice in topic.

"Yeah, it was a long night," he mumbled, sitting on the edge of the bed. "There's a break coming up soon, he said he might come."

There was a long pause, and after a while Anna said, "I was thinking about stopping by today." Max's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "I mean you still haven't picked a name for the baby, and I haven't seen Otis in a while and I'm sure you could use a break." She paused again and said, "And really, I'm lonely, and it'd mean a lot for some company."

Max smiled at that and glanced at Otis. "Me and Otis would love to have you." He heard her sigh of relief and rubbed at the bridge of his nose with his thumb. "Let me get cleaned up and square everything away here. We'll be ready for company in about two hours."

"Okay, Max. See you then." She hung up and Max sighed, standing and making his way to the kitchen to make breakfast. As he set to chopping up bell peppers for an omelet, the doorbell rang.

Confused, he made his way to the door and checked through the peephole. Surprised, he opened the door and stared at a smiling Melody.

"Hey Max!" she said. "I'm sorry to just drop by like this."

"That's alright," he said slowly, still confused. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, I started working with the DA's office. And I noticed some discrepancies in Jace's case, and I wanted to talk to you about it." Max couldn't help the flinch that came with hearing Jace's name. "Sorry," Melody said quickly. "It's been so long, I just..."

"Don't worry about it," Max mumbled, stepping aside. "Come in." She stepped inside with a thank you and Max closed the door behind her before he heard the sizzling of something burning and rushed back into the kitchen to take his pan off the stove.

He turned back to the peppers and started chopping them again as Melody followed him into the kitchen. "What did you need?" he asked over his shoulder as he worked.

"In your private talk with the attorney, you mentioned some blank spots where you couldn't remember a whole lot, but you heard footsteps and what not. And in the testimony, the defendant's lawyer asked if it were possible there was someone else." Max paused in his chopping, eyes going unfocused as he listened to Melody talk. "Have you been able to remember anything? Is it possible there was another person involved?"

"Are they planning on reopening the case?" Max asked, grip tightening on the knife in his hand.

"Well there's been some new developments," Melody said. "I was hoping you might remember something, and if you do we can take it to the DA and talk about opening the case again."

"I don't," Max said quickly. "Remember anything, I mean. My sister says it's some kind of psychological block, and I prefer not remembering as much as I can."

"Good," Melody said. Max's eyebrows scrunched together and he started to turn around, the knife tucked behind his back, when a gun went off and the wall next to him exploded. He ducked away, yelling out in surprise, and stared up at Melody in surprise. She had a handgun pointed at his head, glaring at him like he was a dirt stain on her brand new shoe.

"Melody," Max said, throwing out his free hand in a placating gesture. The other hand gripped the knife tight behind his back. "Why are you doing this?"

"You ruined everything!" she screamed at him. "You ruined his life!" Max stared at her with a blank shocked expression. "Everything would've been fine but you fucked it all up!"

"Melody," he said, hand still out in an attempt to disarm her. "I don't know what you're talking about." She stepped closer, gun almost centered in the middle of Max's face.

"Jace was almost done," she said, hands trembling. "He was gonna finish you off and that was it. We were gonna be done with it and move on together!" Max took a deep breath, understanding flooding through him.

"You were the one helping him," he breathed out. Her grip on the gun tightened.

"You said you didn't remember."

"I remember everything," Max said firmly. Her eyes went wide. "And I can tell you Jace wasn't planning on stopping, Melody. He told me so much." He stepped out of range of the gun. "He told me about his dad, and how he used to touch him, and how his mom wouldn't do anything about it. He told me about the cats he used to torture after it started. He told me about the boy he met in high school." Her grip tightened on the gun again and she aimed it at his face again.

"Shut up!" she screamed. "You ruined it! You and your stupid - your stupid boyfriend!" He swallowed, but before he could say anything he heard faint crying. She paused, eyes going wide. "What's that?" Her head turned away and Max took the chance to lash out at her with the knife he was holding, cutting a stripe up her arm and causing her to scream in pain. She dropped the gun and grabbed her arm and Max pushed her away, scrambling for the gun.

Otis, he thought numbly. He aimed the gun at her and she froze, staring up at him in fear. "Get outside," he told her thickly. She scrambled to her feet and backed up to the front door, throwing it open and stepping out. He followed slowly, and as he started to close the door she grabbed his arm and threw him outside. He grunted in pain as he hit the pavement and looked up at her, at the manic gleam in her eye.

"I'm gonna finish what he started," she said, starting toward him. He heaved in a breath and grabbed the gun, chucking it over the fence. She screamed as he threw it and watched it sail away and he took the chance to scramble up and away from the house, thoughts on getting her as far from Otis as he possibly could. He glanced over his shoulder and heaved a sigh of relief as he watched her start to race after him and away from the house.

She let out a guttural scream and Max realized she was holding the knife he'd used to cut her earlier. A moment of panic flashed over him and he stumbled, falling to the ground. Melody was on him in an instant, screaming in his face and slashing at his arms. He yelled out and thrust his hand up, pushing at her jaw and grabbing at her slashing hand with the other.

She screamed again and he got the knife knocked out of her hand. He felt a flash of triumph, but it was gone as soon as it came when she wrapped her hands around his neck, knocking the breath out of his lungs.

He pushed at her again but her grip tightened in response. She glared down at him as he flailed and he gasped for breath, his hand knocking against something metal. He grabbed at it, cutting his hand as he tried to grab it. He flipped it around and smashed it into Melody's side and almost immediately her grip went loose around his neck and her eyes went wide in surprise.

Blood gushed out of her side and onto Max, who couldn't help the face he made as it splattered over him. He stared up at Melody as blood dribbled from her mouth and she tilted over, falling on the ground next to him.

He scooted away from her as he heard sirens and a cop car came into view, skidding to a stop next to him. The cop got out of his car and rushed to Max's side, helping him up and demanding to know what happened.

"She - she attacked me and I - Otis!" He started to rush towards home but the cop grabbed his arm. "I can't - I'll explain I just - I need to get the baby." The cop's partner looked up from where he was checking Melody's pulse.

"Go with him, and bring them right back," she said. "Be on your guard, we don't know the full story." The guard holding his arm nodded and gestured for Max to lead the way, his hand on his holster. Max swallowed and hurried home, where Otis' cries had reached screams.

He grabbed a blanket and wrapped the baby in it before picking him up, careful to keep him away from the blood.

"Is there anyone who can come and take care of him?" the cop that followed him inside asked. Max nodded dully.

"His mom's supposed to come later, I'll tell her to come now." He grabbed his cell phone off the side table and dialed Anna.

"Max?" she asked, uncertain.

"I need you to come now," Max said, glancing at the cop, who gestured for him to go back outside.

"What happened?" Anna asked as he started outside. He took a deep breath, wondering how to broach the subject.

"I'll tell you when you get here. Just hurry."

"I'll be there in five," she swore, and hung up again.

*

Mike stumbled into Max's hospital room as Max was beginning to eat his jell-o cup. Anna was sitting in the chair next to his bed with Otis on her lap, flipping through the television channels while he dozed. Mike froze as he took in the scene and Max stared at him, spork on its way out of his mouth.

"I, uh." Mike stood up straight and walked into the room as Anna looked up. "Well this was unexpected." Max smiled slightly.

"Anna's been keeping me company," he said. "They figured that she was my girlfriend because I had Otis, so they've let her stay all this time." Mike looked uncomfortable, but he nodded.

"Okay, well, I'm here. Explain what happened." Max felt suddenly ashamed, because Melody was the second torturer, the one he hadn't told Mike about. He looked down and took a shuddery breath.

He scrubbed his face and looked at Anna, who took the cue and stood, carrying Otis out of the room. Mike took her empty seat, his eyes on Max's face. "There was some stuff I didn't tell you," Max mumbled, looking down at his jell-o cup. "When I first went to my sister to talk about what happened, I remembered that... that Jace wasn't alone." Mike's expression went carefully blank.

"Why didn't you tell me?" he asked, voice tight.

"I didn't want you to freak out," he whispered. His excuse felt meek even to his own ears and he closed his eyes, afraid of Mike's expression.

"We'll talk about it later, Max. Right now I wanna know what happened." Max sucked in a breath, feeling like he'd been slapped.

"The other person was Melody, the other girl in my group," he forged on. "And she came to the house claiming she was with the DA's office and wanted to talk to me about the case, and then she whipped out a gun and shot at me." He rubbed his face. "I attacked her with a knife and got her out of the house. She followed me and I threw the gun and she attacked me with the knife," he gestured to the new bandages around his arms and chest. "And I got it out of her hands, so she started choking me, and then I grabbed the knife and stabbed her."

Mike took a deep breath before taking Max's hand. "The craziest things happen to you when I'm not around, Max." Max cracked a smile, but his gaze was unfocused.

"I killed her, Mike," he whispered. Mike shook his head quickly.

"She was gonna kill you, Max," Mike told him. "You did what you had to." Max took a shaky breath and Mike rubbed his hand. "Look, I've cleared it with the boys, you're coming on tour with us." Max started to protest and he shook his head. "I know it's not good for Otis but I need you both close. I'm gonna die of worry if you're not there."

After a few seconds, Max nodded. Mike rubbed his hand gently and Max sighed. "I could use the vacation."