It was the next day, after a long night of laying there, Max had finally fallen asleep around 4:00 am all to wake up sometime close to 6:30. She had been awake since, eating an early breakfast with Robin. Given the hospital food was no better than something you'd get at school, Robin went and picked up and snuck in some to go food from the nearby diner.
Around 9:00AM, the two had to wait for the chief to show back up with any possible news for Max. To keep the fear on the low, Robin did what she could to distract Max, playing card games, showing her comics she's never seen before, and watching movies that Robin was able to bring from family video. Although it helped Max a lot, she couldn't help but notice the feeling of dread lingering in her chest, the worry about what was going to happen next, where she was going to be put when this whole case was said and done.
"Unfortunately there was no sign of your parents." Powell said. "We investigated the burn site, couldn't even find a sign of remains."
"We take it they fled the house." Callahan said.
"So you're saying that this might've been attempted murder?" Robin questioned.
"Might've is an understatement." Callahan scoffed.
"When we investigated, the site smelled largely of gasoline, your room being the strongest." The chief said. "Anything there that we could find was clearly doused in it." Max sat quietly, not a single emotion showing on her face. All her things were gone, nothing of hers was left. All her clothes, her skateboards, the memories. All gone. And unfortunately they were the kind of things that couldn't be replaced.
"We currently have officers asking around, seeing if there were any signs of your parents, but that's all we have for you. I apologize for this Max." The redhead didn't answer, staring down at her bandaged hands. She wasn't surprised that her step-father had left, but the fact that her mom did, the fact that she probably took part in all of this, and just walked away, left a feeling of loss in Max. "We understand that this all may be distressing, but we promise to help you as much as possible, it doesn't stop here Max. We're going to be on the lookout, and in the meantime, if you ever have any questions, anything you need to tell us, we'll have you covered." Max slowly looked up at the chief, only one question in her mind, because now that her mom and home was gone, where was she supposed to go now?
"What's gonna happen to me?"
"I'm sorry?"
"My parents aren't here anymore, so where am I supposed to go?"
"We won't worry about that yet Max, right now we want you to focus on getting better while we work to find your parents location." Max didn't respond to this, her eyes going back down to her hands. Powell took a deep breath and stood up in his chair, placing his hat on his head. "Thank you for your time to ladies, and I apologize once more. We will come back when we have more news for you Max."
After earning no response the officers turned and left the room, the only people there now being Robin and Max, the older girl shocked at such news that she's learned. She looked to the redhead to check in on her, finding silent tears slipping down her red cheeks, but not a single sob came from her. "Hey, it's alright." Robin said trying to comfort her.
"No it's not." Max pushed out, her voice shaking. Robin went to open her mouth, but what was she to say? She wasn't exactly in Max's situation, she wasn't the one who almost died for crying out loud. Instead of trying to use words Robin placed a hand on Max's back, feeling the younger girl shaking under her hand. "What now? I mean, we know they tried to fucking kill me, but what are we supposed to do now? My parents are probably gone, and my house, my things..." She swallowed a lump in her throat. "What am I supposed to do? What's going to happen to me? Where am I to go?" Robin sighed sadly and rubbed Max's shoulder. "For all I know, they're just gonna throw me into the system with random people I don't know and just hope for the best." Robin sat for a moment and thought hard, soon, an idea popped into her head.
"Maybe they won't have to do that." Max froze and looked at her.
"What?"
"Hang tight, I'll be back." The older girl stood up from her chair and hurried out the room.
After waiting eagerly to get off the elevator the teen practically ran through the lobby hoping to catch up to the chief and the other officers. "Shit, shit, shit." She said stumbling past employee and people simply waiting to check in.
Luckily, just as Robin reached the entrance she looked ahead to find Powell in his truck, ready to roll out of the driveway. Quickly Robin came up to the vehicle just as it started to move, knocking on the window and startling the officer. He quickly hit the breaks and rolled down the window.
"Ms. Buckley!" He scolded.
"I know, I approached a moving vehicle, not safe, I get it, sorry, but I need just a moment to speak to you." Powell shook his head and put the vehicle in in park, getting back out to meet Robin around the passenger side.
"What is it that you needed to run up to my vehicle for Buckley?"
"It's important, I promise. It's just that, Max, she's so worried, you know, about where she's going to go, and I totally get that," She rambled. "I mean, I can't imagine how she's feeling right now, I mean, I don't think I really can since this is such a crazy situation, not to mention, she's so much younger than me and I can't imagine what was going on before all of this,"
"Ms. Buckley." Robin froze and looked at the man, realizing she was getting off track.
"I know that there are a lot of restrictions, but I'm willing to take Max."
"I'm sorry?"
"You don't need to worry about where she needs to go, she can come live with me." Powell sighed sadly.
"I'm happy you're willing to take Max in Ms. Buckley, but Max is still a minor, with there being no sign of her parents, she needs a temporary legal guardian, meaning she's required to go through the child care system."
"I can do that, I can get a license,"
"But how do I know I can trust you to take care of someone as mentally broken Max? May I remind you Robin, you're about to start you're second run of senior year."
"Yeah, I totally get that, but I guarantee you that taking care of someone a little younger than me is completely different from failing every single math exam you come across, because it's not math, have you ever had to use math in your time in being an officer? I mean, you don't need trigonometry to arrest someone for robbery right?"
"Sure, yes, but you also need to think about Max, her counselling records show she's very troubled mentally-"
"Therefore she shouldn't be stuck in a home with some random family she's never met before, she has no way of knowing how they'll treat her, and they won't know all that she's been through, they haven't been there but I have. I want what's best for Max and I know you do too, and I guarantee you, putting her through this, going through one home after another until she's thrown out at eighteen, isn't the solution." Powell looked down at the girl, thinking to himself. Her reasoning was good, he knew she was right, but the issue was all the legal trouble she'd have to go through just to get Max to live with her.
"Come see me at the office tomorrow, we'll talk more about this."
"Really?"
"Yes, and don't be late. We have a lot of work to do."
"Yes sir." Robin said. She stood planted where she was as Powell got into his truck and left the hospital parking lot.
After making her way back up to the room, Robin went and took a seat next to Max once more, the younger girl staring forward blankly, as if the total realization of pure hopelessness had crashed down on her.
"What did you do?" Max asked.
"I had a little talk with the chief."
"About what?" Robin took a moment wondering if she should tell Max now or not, she didn't want to get her hopes up for something she isn't sure will happen.
"We'll see." Robin said, a grin on her face. Max furrowed her brows and sat back in her bed, already having an idea what Robin had spoke to Powell about, but why would Robin want something like that?
"Don't you wanna go home or something?"
"Why would I want to do that?" Max shrugged.
"I don't know, you've been here for awhile. You're wasting your time on me." Robin scoffed and leaned forward in her chair.
"I am not wasting time on you. I care about you Max and I wanna be here for you until things get sorted out."
"But what if that doesn't happen?" Robin inhaled deeply knowing the possibilities, but she was going to keep trying for Max, she wasn't going to give up on the girl, she won't let that happen to Max again.
--
A/N: So sorry about the slow updates, this is kind of a filler to give you guys a little something, it might be a little before I do another update since I'm currently busy getting ready for graduation and college (: