Max was deeply asleep in the side room, his paci moving occasionally in his mouth and just on the point where he would fall of the couch if he leaned any further.
Bradley had been right in saying that little's his headspace age needed naps, and Max's body and mind was very grateful for the rest, but it left him unaware of his surroundings.
So, when Jos entered the gym room, the older man looked around with a frown. He knew his son's schedule well enough, and normally the little should have been training right now, but instead the room was empty. No sign of him nor that caregiver trainer of his.
Walking in the gym room, he looked around, seeing the door of the side room ajar a little. Doubting that anyone was in there, since the light was out, he still went in there. Opening the door completely, Jos turned on the light, and then felt fury fill him at the sight of his son.
"What's this?" the man said loudly, anger colouring his voice.
Max startled awake with the loud noise, giving a hard twitch while his eyes flew open, and the movement was enough to make him fall completely from the couch, hitting the ground with a loud thud. A startled sound came from his mouth, making his paci fall out and slide away a bit.
The suddenness of his waking up, the pain of the fall, and the a sudden overwhelming amount of fear when his body instinctively recognized his angry dad, his mind slammed itself in his small headspace, instead of keeping to the much safer bigger headspace.
The proximity of caregivers who actually had taken care of him made his body produce certain hormones that reversed some of his normal reactions, and without him wanting or realising it, Max was suddenly deeper in his headspace that he had ever allowed himself to go, and all he could do was look up at his dad from where he was lying on the ground.
The man suddenly seemed so big and scary, towering over Maxie with a big scowl on his face.
"Owie," Maxie said, when the man took him by the upper arm and forcefully pulled him up, making his blankie fall on the ground and exposing his legs to the colder temperature. His pain was soon forgotten though, when he saw the angry face pulling him close, disgust at finding his son in just a diaper had put a red mist in Jos's brain.
"After what happened this morning, now this?" the man fumed shaking Maxie hard when he didn't react immediately, "can't even keep on your fucking pants. You fucking showing of these things," he said, slapping Max hard on his diaper, before letting go of his arm.
"Oof," Max said when he landed back on the ground, his diaper only partly able to cushion his fall.
"And what the hell is this thing?" Jos asked, toeing the paci that was lying on the ground, and Max suddenly felt a bad feeling. He gave a whine, and reached out for it, but Jos saw him doing it, and before Maxie could grab the paci and bring it to safety, Jos moved his foot.
The crunch from the hard plastic shield of the paci breaking was loud in the room, and Maxie could only stare while his father twisted it in the ground with his heel, making sure that even the soft plastic would be completely deformed.
The man removed his foot, revealing the mangled remains of the broken paci that he had only gotten the night before, still almost hearing Lando saying that it was all his.
For a moment, the room was filled with silence, Jos glaring at his son and waiting for a reaction, waiting until the little had collected himself and begged him for forgiveness. Instead, Maxie, who was overwhelmed with emotion, did the only thing his headspace would allow him.
He threw back his head and started to cry, loudly, hight-pitched, the distress clear in his wail.
Jos his look of bewilderment was almost comical, never having seen this behaviour from his son, not even the few times that he had stayed when he had noticed Max was in his headspace. It only took him a moment to get over his surprise, his body suddenly in an angry stance and giving a sharp slap on the back of Max's head.
"Get some control!" Jos shouted angrily, leaning down in Max's face.
Maxie immediately cowered back, his back against the couch while he put his hand in his mouth and biting down hard to stifle his hysterical sobbing, partially succeeding.
Jos looked at the door worriedly, probably afraid that someone had heard the commotion, but when no one entered immediately, he turned back to Max, angrily slapping the back of his head a second time, making the little wince and bite his hand even harder, still crying.
"Why the fuck are you like this?" Jos asked angrily, and just then the door was slammed open, leaving a dent in the wall while Daniel and Bradley ran in, closely followed by Lewis, and then after a moment a slightly out of breath Christian, making the small room suddenly seem overcrowded.
It only took Bradley a second to spot the crying Maxie, and he didn't waste any time on Jos, knowing that from all the people there, he was the least intimidating for the older man. Instead, he went over to the little, crouching down next to Maxie, and hugging him tightly, hoping to give the little some comfort.
"No, don't bite on that," Bradley says softly, almost crooning while he pulled the hand out of Maxie's mouth, wincing when he saw the red tooth marks in the flesh, some even bleeding slightly from where they had broken skin.
Daniel's reaction was different from Bradley. He saw the man go to Maxie, and he knew that the little was being taken care off, leaving him to deal with the threat. Wasting no time, he pushed Jos hard against the wall, putting his underarm against the older man's throat, who was now looking wide-eyed at the caregiver, but quickly seemed to gather his wits again.
"Let me go," Jos said, his voice surprisingly steady considering the amount of glares aimed at him, "this is assault,"
"Like what you did to Max?" Daniel growls, but Christian stepped forward, putting a hand on Daniel's shoulder.
"Let him go," the man said, and Daniel reluctantly did what he was told, but made sure he was in between Jos and Max, not wanting to give the man any access. Lewis casually went to stand next to him, managing to look down at Jos as if he was even worse than dog poop.
"I didn't do anything to Max. Why would I hurt him. He's my son. We were just...talking," Jos says, glaring at Maxie who had buried his face in Bradley's shoulder, still crying, "he just started to bawl because I accidently stepped on that thing,"
Daniel's gaze immediately went to the broken paci, and it was clear that it wasn't just stepped on, every one present knowing good enough that it hadn't been an accident.
"You stay away from him," Daniel said when Jos made to take a step closer to Max, and Jos stopped, looking hesitant, but pulled himself up, looking as if he was the one with a reason to be angry.
"You can't stop me from speaking with my son," Jos said, holding his nose high in the air and looking as if he was preparing himself to barge through the wall of caregivers.
"Well, actually," Christian said calmly, glancing at the camera in the corner of the room, "you'll find it that we can easily do that now,"
Jos frowned, but followed Christian's gaze, his eyes widening in understanding when he spotted the camera.
"You can't do this," Jos said, "Max won't let you,"
"Well, you know how it goes. If the court decides that you are a danger to a little..." Christian said, letting the sentence trail away, but Jos knew. He knew that even if the little tried to deny it, the court could overrule it and deny him any access to Max.
"Max got where he is because of me. I made him," Jos growled, towering over Christian, who just calmly smiled, almost looking amused, "he's nothing without me,"
"I guess we'll just have to find out," Christian said, "now, are you going to leave out of your own will, or do I need to have you removed?"
Jos gazed around the room, and saw no friendly faces in there. Swallowing harshly, he contemplated his options for a moment, before he angrily turned around and he left the room, bumping hard into Christian, who stumbled back into Lewis and Daniel, but didn't fall, hands steadying him.
Maxie had noticed the angry tones of the conversation, but his mind was too deep in headspace to make out the words. Instead, he tried to press even tighter in Bradley's shoulder, crying heaving sobs in the man's shirt, looking very tired and put-out, again his finger making the way in his mouth.
"Shh, don't bite on those," Bradley said, trying to soothe Max while he grabbed the fingers in his hands to keep them safe, "you're still tired, right? Perhaps we can get you back on the couch,"
"Couch?" Lewis asked, lifting his glare from the door and now looking at the pair. He moved over to them and crouched next to them, patting Maxie on the back. He looked over at the couch, a pillow on there and the blanket on the floor, "he falls out of the bed, you know,"
"Oh," Bradley said, his eyes widening, "right, I should have thought about that,"
Bradley looked embarrassed. He should have realised that Maxie probably needed a crib. Most smaller headspaces used those, but the little hadn't asked about it.
But then again, Maxie had been so convinced that he wouldn't fall asleep, so he probably hadn't thought to mention it at all.
"If you don't have one here, we have one at the Mclaren side," Daniel offered, standing near the other ones, concern clear on his face.
"We don't, not yet at least," Christian said, standing a bit to the side, not used to seeing Max like that, still crying loudly. It made him whish that he had done something sooner about Jos, but Maxie had always been positive about his father.
"Well, let's go then," Bradley said, his voice raised to go above Max's volume. He got up, and then lifted the little in his arms, making Max make a startled noise when he was suddenly lifted from the ground.
Out of reflex he wrapped his legs around Bradley's waist, his arms around the man's neck and clung tight. Everyone was relieved when the cries had stopped for a moment, but once Max understood that he wasn't going to get hit or dropped, his lip wobbled again, and the cries started anew.
"Here, follow me," Daniel said, and Bradley follows him, trying to bounce Maxie a little in his arms and making soothing noises, but the little seemed to upset to hear them, his face red from the effort of crying.
"I'm going to get some things arranged with security," Christian said, taking a different route, glad to be out of the noise and always feeling better if he could focus on getting something done. Lewis looked at Maxie, and quickly followed, wanting to be sure that the little would calm down.
To say that they pulled a lot of attention was an understatement. The Mclaren side of the paddock was quite a bit away, and with Max still wailing loudly, it wasn't a big secret when they passed, people staring openly at them, and it was then that Lewis realised that max was just clad in his shirt and a diaper, Bradly softly patting it in comfort, almost pulling more attention to it.
Well, if people didn't know before, they were clearly going to know now. By the time they arrived at the Mclaren side, Max showed his stamina in still crying loudly, regularly stopping a second to take a deep breath and to start again.
"Look here, a nice crib," Bradley said, trying to put Maxie in there, but the little didn't release his grip on the large man.
Maxie was currently feeling too horrid to let go. His dad was so angry at him, and the world suddenly seemed to be too big, and he didn't want to be let go on his own. He needed... he needed someone to make it go away, the sadness and the fear, and if he let go, he would be all on his own again, so he couldn't.
"I don't think he'll be able to calm down," Lewis said, looking helplessly at the way Max was trying to hang on, his wailing growing a little more high-pitched in his panic.
Bradley gave a sigh and stopped trying to put Maxie down, instead choosing to sit on a nearby chair. It took a little effort to switch Maxie's position a little, so he was sitting on Bradley's lap, leaning against his torso and grasping the shirt tightly.
"Do you think a bottle or something might help him calm down?" Bradley asked, looking at the two caregivers.
"Yeah, it might," Daniel said, already having noticed how much sucking on a paci calmed Max down, so perhaps a bottle would do the trick, "I think I know where to find one, just a moment,"
Daniel left the room, the cries less audible when he closed the door. It only took him a few moments before he found the caregiver that worked for them, knowing that his little was a baby who worked in their administrators team.
A small explanation, and the man quickly got him a bottle, already filled with the milk that his little would normally get for his nap.
"I always carry a reserve, for when he's very hungry," the man said, when Daniel asked if he was sure, "go calm that one down, or soon we'll be all deaf,"
"Thanks," Daniel said, running off and quickly heating it in a microwave, making sure to shake it thoroughly so it was evenly heated.