Max

<snip>
A few seconds later he looked up. “Can you do me a favour..” he asked
“Sure.”
“Look after Max for a few hours…I need…I need some time alone.”
“Um…Jay…?” Cass said sheepishly, but it was too late. Jay had gone.
Cass looked down at Max, and smiled a nervous smile…
</snip>
She was a copy, no, an exact duplicate of the single most powerful being this universe had ever seen
How hard could it be?
Max stared back up at her and suspiciously narrowed his eyes
“Where’s my mummy?”
Whoa shit!
Her stomach suddenly knotting with panic, Cass quickly glanced back over her shoulder, desperately looking out across the square in the vain hope that Jay was still around somewhere
“Where’s my Mummy?” her pint-sized inquisitor repeated, forcing Cass to turn and regard him
Tall and thin for his age, his mop of curly, dirty-blond hair made him look like a cherub, although with his Dad's brown eyes and his Mum's sardonic smile, the effect was somewhat diminished, lending him an air of belligerent mischief
“She... She’s not around Max” Cass gently shook her head, wondering whether Jay really had told him about Katrina or not
“Where is she?”
The morgue?
Dead?
Never coming back?
“She had to go away sweetheart”
Crap lie
This was intolerable. What the hell did she know about kids!?
The last time Cass had been left in charge of a child had been years ago when Seymour’s daughter, Alota, had burrowed a wormhole through to deposit her, almost completely naked, in a wardrobe in Jay’s apartment
Katrina had been less than impressed
“So, who’re you?” Max asked, matter-of-factly
What the fuck!? Cassandra’s mouth fell open at this – The little bugger had sat on his mum’s knee on countless occasions while she and her had chatted together, and she distinctly remembered him using her name on several occasions before now. There was no way he didn’t know who she was!
“I’m Cass”
Nodding sagely, Max shrugged and looked out over the square while he considered this before turning back to her to favour her with a cool sideways glance out of the corner of his eyes that was 100% Katrina
“Mum and Dad sometimes argue about you”
“Ooookay” Cass was up and on her feet in an instant “Let’s go find something to do shall we? What do you like doing?”
“Lego”
“That's from ‘Leg godt’. Danish for ‘play well’ – Don’t ask me where I acquired that piece of useless trivia”
Max stared at her as if she were quite mad
“So you like building things? Wanna build a robot?”
“I already got a robot”
“Yeah?” Cass frowned. She was fairly certain she was aware of the deposition of all the droids on the ship
“Here!” Max raised his chin and pulled the bottom hem of his top outward to exaggeratedly display the red caricature of a robot embroidered on the front
“Hmm. Not enough scything blades for my liking. C’mon kid” she held out her hand for his “Your old man’s concerned about your safety, so let’s load up on chocolate and go visit some of the places you were told never to go”
“Won’t we get into trouble?”
“Nah” Cass smiled as he slipped his little hand into hers “We won’t get into trouble, but anything that gets in our way might”
How hard could it be?