A stuffy old woman in a miniskirt sat at her desk with a huff as she looked over a massive pile of paperwork for this evening. She had to recheck and triple check all of the paperwork for several foster homes looking to adopt their foster children. It's normally a wonderful part of the process, but as a desk jockey, it was a serious pain.

The woman named Evie stopped when she saw an unusually thin file for someone by the name of Max. It was strange for a foster child to have such an unusually thin file, there are normally hundreds of court documents, as well as foster care placement procedures.

She opened the file and looked at all the court documents, but stopped when she saw the foster parents file tucked inside. The foster parent's file was almost completely bare. There was no documentation of the vetting process or the placement procedures. As far as the file was concerned, Max just moved in without even the slightest home check.

The woman picked up her phone and dialed her supervisor. She rarely saw files like these, and only in situations where the main office failed to make physical copies.

"Hello?" Her manager said as he picked up the phone. He just got in for the day, as the main office was in Phoenix.

"Hello, sir," Evie said. "I was calling because one of the files you sent me is incomplete."

"Let me check the computer." the man said as he typed away on his end. "I see what you mean. The file looks like it's been mostly corrupted."

"Well, what should we do?" Evie asked. "I can't approve the adoption with so little information."

"Well you're certified to perform a house visit right?" the man asked.

"Well.....yes, but I don't normally....."

"Well it's your job, so find the address and perform the inspection yourself." the man said. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have a court case to attend."

"Dammit," Evie said annoyed as she slammed down the phone. She grabbed her coat and walked out of the office with a huff of annoyance. The overtime was certain to be a pain.

***

Max looked over the video games aisle as he checked to make sure everything was facing the right way. Gwen had a tendency to fuck that up all the time. That and he wanted to see if he could get Erid and Nerf to rent something.

Erid and Nerf where there alone because they were old enough to rent violent video games without parents permission. That and Max is really good at death threats, so naturally, they choose the blockbuster as there video game provider.

He suddenly stopped when he saw a familiar face enter the store from the mall entrance. Darren walked into a random aisle and picked up a movie while reading it's back.

"Hey," Max said suspiciously. Darren didn't rent movies, the bastard had Netflix, fucking traitor. "What the fuck do you want?"

"I'm browsing," Darren said without even looking him in the eye. He looked far too serious to be renting a movie. That and Max seriously doubted he had any interest in Thankskilling four. How that movie managed so many sequels is beyond pretty much everyone involved.

"Bullshit, your here to spy on me," Max said seeing through him immediately.

"I would be more concerned with your next guest." Darren pointed out.

Evie walked into the store and immediately turned up her nose at the carpet. Who would ever decorate with such a shade of blue?

"Hello," David said as he walked up. "How can I help you?"

"Is this the pine residence?" Evie asked.

"Uhh....yeah," David said, not sure what this was about. He already paid off the debt collectors for the camp.

"My name is Evie," Evie said. "I'm here to perform a house check for your petition of....." David suddenly covered her mouth as Max looked there way.

"Oh," David said suddenly before smiling. "You must be here to check on Max, and nothing else, that would have anything to do with say.....more permanent things, right?" Evie just glared at him with annoyance.

"Placing your hands on me will not go down well on your record," Evie said pointedly as she pushed his hand away.

"Uhh....right," David said as he sweated a little.

"Well start with the apartment," Evie said as she clicked her pen. "Then I will need to perform an interview of the child in question, then we will move on to the neighborhood."

"So you wanna meet Max?" David asked with a smile. "He's right over here." He gestured happily.

"Who the fuck are you?" Max asked as David froze in fear.

"Max language!" David said suddenly flustered. This had to go well! It just had too, otherwise, he'd never be able to adopt Max. Davids technically only Max's foster parent, there's not much of a distinction, but Davids really sentimental.

"As you can see we still have a bit of a language problem but we're working on it," David said as he tried to keep face.

"So you own this store?" Evie said as she looked around. "What a dump."

"You would certainly know one when you saw one," Darren said under his breath outside of earshot. He put down the movie he'd been pretending to read and walked out of the store without another word. He smiled evilly as he stepped out of the room.

"Let's go to the apartment," Evie said as she checked her watch. She had only allotted herself three hours of overtime for this little trip. She had deadlines to make. Then again she's kind of a massive bitch, so it's not like there's a man at home waiting for her.

"Okey-dokey!" David said cheerily. "Follow me."

"This is a bad thing right?" Nerf asked.

"Totally." Erid agreed.

***

"This is your apartment?" Evie said as she wrote down on her clipboard with an unimpressed expression on her face. "How is this suitable for a child?"

"It's full of love!" David replied. Max gritted his teeth as she turned up her nose at his home.

"I see, where is the boys bed exactly?"

"It's right here!" David said as she gestured to Max's shelf.

"I.....see...." Evie said as she turned up her nose all over again. "Are you aware that this building is not a legal place of habitation?"

"Fuck you," Max replied for David. David suddenly freaked out and covered his mouth.

"Max, that's not okay!" David said suddenly. Max bit his hand and scowled as he ripped it away. David smiled sheepishly as the woman looked over Max shelf completely indifferent to his decorations.

He covered the wall with pictures from his time at camp, along with different bits and pieces from his adventures in the mall. He even had the camporee trophy and the top of that stupid staff David had. He also had Mr Honey Nuts tucked into a box with a lock on it. No one touches him, not even guests.

"I see." the woman said as she wrote down on her clipboard. She took no note of how much work David put into making sure he's comfortable there.

***

Evie turned up her nose as Neil and Nikki walked into the room. Neil's hair was slightly on fire, while Nikki was covered in mud. David just finished showing her where he homeschooled Max, and yet again she was unimpressed.

"Whos she?" Neil asked.

"Witch!" Nikki yelled before throwing a water bottle at her face.

"This is a social worker," David said nervously as she wiped her face clean of water. "She's here to check on Max, and has nothing to do with adoption, only.....foster care."

"You're a moron," Max said simply as he rolled his eyes.

He didn't care about some bullshit legal definition, David was his dad, some stupid paper didn't mean a damn thing to him. He was kind of annoyed that David thought it was so important. It made him wonder if what they had now wasn't enough and that made him feel.....bad. It actually really pissed him off.

"As you can see, I take Max's education very seriously," David said with a smile as he tried to put up a good face. "Although he has a few behavioral problems that prevent him from attending regular school, I still think that his education is the most important part of this situation. So I spare no expense to make sure he gets the guidance he deserves."

"Right....." Evie said as she stopped writing on her clipboard.

***

Evie sat down on there dirty couch with her nose so upturned you'd think it was upside down at this point. It's like she hated everything about being here. The bitch wasn't exactly a nice person.

"So Max," Evie said as she looked at her clipboard. "Has any physical abuse occurred?"

"Fuck you," Max replied.

"You don't seem to like me, Maxwell." Evie said.

"I think this adoption bullshit is stupid." Max snapped. "If this isn't good enough for him then....then....fuck you." Max's voice cracked a little as he tried to hide his feelings.

"Adults tend to put emotional significance on trivial things," Evie said. "Just as you seem to have put emotional significance on that man."

"Fuck you," Max said as he huffed.

"For one thing, formal adoption prevents your parents from attempting to regain custody over you once their sentence has been served," Evie said.

"What?" Max asked suddenly confused. "They could have taken me back?"

"Yes, if they can prove that they are no longer abusing you," Evie said. "There already filing for a trial basis when they get out of prison in five years."

"What?" Max said suddenly slightly afraid. He didn't wanna be taken away from David, now or ever. He relaxed when he realized David was only trying to protect him.

"It's a shame really," Evie said. "This place is obviously unsuitable for a child." Max suddenly glared at her as he heard her words.

"What?" Max said more angrily.

"You sleep on a shelf, I imagine you would be quite happy to be rid of this...."

"Fuck you!" Max said more loudly.

"Excuse me?" Evie asked.

"David loves me, that's all that matters!" Max yelled. "How dare you say he's unsuitable!" Max fumed as he picked up his lighter.

***

"Get out!" Max screamed as Evie came running down the stairs, a plume of fire followed her. Max's discovery of hairspray will be the death of everyone. "Get the fuck out, you bitch!" Evie glared behind her as she left the store and climbed into her car.

"That could have gone better," Darren said as he put down a DVD he was pretending to read.

"What happened?!" David said as he ran over to where Max was crying a little.

"Shes....she's going to take me away." Max sniffled a little. He couldn't believe he was crying like a child and in public of all places.

"Interesting," Darren said.

"What the fuck did you do?" Max snapped angrily at Darren.

"I did nothing," Darren said as he looked Max in the eyes. "That may be the route of this little problem."

"Fuck you," Max said through angry tears. "Fuck you and everyone who wants to take me away! I'll kill you all if you try!"

"Max!" David said as he picked him and hugged him. "Gwen, can you cover the storefront?" Gwen silently nodded as David walked up the stairs.

***

Max slumped in David's arms with tears all down his face. David was crying too, but he wanted to act strong for Max.

"They're gonna take me away," Max said again as he clung to David. "I don't wanna go."

"I don't want you too either," David said as he hugged him closer. "I wish things could be different, but.....but it's not." David cried to as he hugged Max even closer.

"I hate you," Max said through tears. "You made me feel happy, you made me think everything would be okay!"

"I know," David said with tears in his own eyes. "I'm sorry Max. I'm so sorry."

"Where is everyone else?" Max asked with tears in his eyes. "Why aren't they doing anything?"

***

Evie walked into her office and looked at the shades on the window. It had gotten late, so it was mostly dark outside. She walked over to the shades and closed them before sitting at her desk. She brought out Max's file and looked over the area concerning Davids formal request for adoption and stopped when she realized it was already marked as approved.

"Jenny, did you get into my...." Evie stopped when she realized her coworkers weren't in at the moment. That's strange considering they all usually worked late.

She didn't put much stock into it and simply reached for the stamp marked void to remove the mistake. She suddenly stopped when she realized it wasn't there for some reason. Which was strange, she usually kept her desk meticulously organized.

"Looking for this." Evie suddenly jumped and fell out of her chair as Darren stood over her.

"Who are you?" Evie asked. "How did you get in here?"

"That's none of your concern," Darren said simply as he walked forward.

Evie lunged for the phone but stopped when she heard the nose that said her phone was disconnected. She took several steps back as the scary man came closer to her. She was all alone in her office in the dead of night and now even the phones weren't working.

"I have a deal you aren't in a position to refuse," Darren said as he opened the blinds again. Several different lasers suddenly light up and shined onto her chest making her breath heavily as the terrified woman looked down at her blouse.

"What do you want?" Evie said in a panicky voice.

"I have a debt I need to repay," Darren said. "Unfortunately David is ever so sentimental. The deception fell apart fairly recently as he stirred up the hive. He should know better, but he's so naive."

"What do you want?" Evie asked.

"Let's just say there are several people with a vested interest in keeping David and Max together, at any cost," Darren explained.

"You're threatening me?" Evie asked.

"No, I'm not threatening you....." Darren said as he got closer to her. "I'm warning you." He said as he gestured to the nine little dots all over her blouse. "They will be extremely upset if they find out that some caseworker bitch, decided to rip apart a perfect little family."

Darren walked behind her and got up real close as Evie looked out the dark window at all the lasers pointed at her chest. He grabbed her hand and placed the stamp labeled void in her hand.

"I do hope you'll make the right decision," Darren said as he wrapped her hand around the stamp. "They'll be watching.....very closely."

"I don't wanna die," Evie said with a shaky voice. "Please don't kill me, I'll do anything."

"Good," Darren said. "Then you won't be making much use out of that stamp in your hand now will you?" She dropped it quickly as Darren walked out of the room. The shaking woman refused to move even as the individual lasers began to click off.

Earlier

Erid and Nerf watched Evie, Max and David walked up to the stairs for the first house tour of the day. Max had just finished showing them around the video games earlier, but they didn't say much when Max started to annoy Darren.

"This is going be like....a problem." Erid said.

"I know right, we should do something," Nerf said. "We should kill her!"

"Corpses create questions," Darren said as he walked back in.

"So what should we like....do?" Erid asked.

"I have a number of options."

***

Nerris and Dolph walked into the blockbuster, just as Erid and Nerf were leaving. They looked around in confusion as Gwen snoozed at the sales counter.

"What's going on?" Nerris asked. "We were supposed to set up for D&D today?"

"I even brought mein own characters!" Dolph said as he held up a figurine that in Dolph's eyes was just waving hello, and look suspiciously like a soldier of some kind.

"Max is about to be taken away by a social worker," Darren said.

"What?" Nerris asked.

"Oh no, mein comrade is in trouble!" Dolph said. "I must do something!"

"I already have a few plans," Darren said.

***

Harrison and Preston looked into the theater the blockbuster used as a classroom with concern on there faces. Evie was still in the middle of her tour, and she was currently dissing all the work David put into Max's education.

"If they take away Max, we may never see him again," Harrison said with concern.

"We mustn't let our comrade be taken from us!" Preston said dramatically.

"Perhaps you would be interested in an alliance?" Darren asked, making Preston and Harrison turn toward him. "I already have a range of potential courses of action."

***

Nikki and Neil tried to listen in on Max's interview with Evie, but David was already pressed against the door and taking up all the space.

"We should try roof!" Nikki said as they walked out of the store.

"That should work, and I can use my advanced microphone," Neil said as he brought out the little gadget.

"The interview isn't relevant," Darren said as he walked up behind them. "She's already made her decision."

"Then what do we do?" Nikki asked.

"I put together a few options," Darren said.

***

"Fuck," Gwen said as she sat down and crossed her arms. Max had just chased the social worker out of the store, and now she was in charge. "I'm actually gonna miss the kid. I feel like I should do something."

"I already have a plan in motion," Darren said. "We could use a driver."

"I'm in," Gwen said as she grabbed the keys out of Darren's hand. "Did you get space kid?"

"There's a ninth one?" Darren asked.

Present

Darren leaned against a van as Erid and Nerf came walking up holding laser pointers.

"That was really messed up." Erid said. "But also kinda cool."

"I feel kinda bad about it," Neil said as he handed his laser pointer back to Darren.

"I would have preferred a disappearance, but this will have to do," Darren said as he opened up the van. "Now let's get you home, your parents will be asking too many questions."

"I helped too!" Space kid said as he held up his laser pointer. Darren kinda forgot about him, so he kinda had to pick him up from his house. It's one of the reasons they're so late.

***

David and Max silently dozed in each other's arms as a letter was pushed under the door. David woke a little with the knock and silently pushed Max off him and into a more comfortable position on the couch. Though getting Max to let go of him in his sleep was a challenge all on its own.

David walked over to the letter and cracked it open with a tired and salty face. He cried so many tears his face was practically pure salt. The last thing he wanted was more bad news, so when he opened the letter he could barely believe his eyes and had to re-read it several times.

"Max," David said silently.

"What is it, Dad?" Max said as he rubbed his eyes.

"It's.....It's....." David started crying all over again. "It's going to be okay."

"Shut up David, no it's not," Max said bitterly.