Max had always known in her head that she'd done the right thing. But sometimes her heart was hard to convince. The timing simply hadn't been right for a baby – they'd been busy saving the world for God's sake. They couldn't have managed it with a child in tow.
She'd never regretted not telling Fang. He'd have needed to talk it over for hours on end, considering and reconsidering all of the options. And when they'd had the abortion he would have held it as a heavy burden on his heart.
Still, Max felt a kind of painful longing sometimes – twinges of nostalgia for a life she'd never had. She could almost see the child – perhaps a strong boy, with her dirty blond hair and Fang's obsidian eyes. Or perhaps a girl, with jet black hair, brown eyes and a raven's wings and fighting spirit. However they turned out, she would love them unconditionally and so would Fang. But this could never be. They'd never be able to stop running, hiding from the world.
And so she nodded firmly to herself and rebuilt all her walls. She wiped away a small stray tear and replaced her 'Leader Max' mask as she heard footsteps coming through the forest. Because she had to be okay. For the family she did have. For the Flock.
Fang had known that something had been up with Max. He'd tried to get Angel to pry with her mind reading, but to her credit she'd refused to allow him access to Max's thoughts. He'd tried asking what was wrong – perhaps it had been something he had done? But she had refused to speak to him alone for months, ever since they had stopped off in NYC. He tried running through his head all the situations they had been in and how he could've been at fault.
There was when the chip had been removed – he had never really stopped teasing her about how much she looooved him. Maybe she had gotten sick of the taunting?
There had been the discussions about settling down with the flock – but they had resolved all of those, and it had been her lead that he had followed, as always.
It couldn't be to do with the special night they had had, could it? He had planned everything so well; a walk, a waterfall, swimming and then the cave where they... consummated their relationship.
Fang started combing through the details of the evening when suddenly it struck him – had they used protection? He didn't think so; they hadn't really had access to any supplies. It couldn't be that Max was pregnant; she would have to be at least 3 months at this point.
Then realisation struck like a lightning bolt. His beautiful, strong, brave girlfriend, his fearless leader, had tried to hide the consequences of that night and her evident decision from him. Part of him was upset that she hadn't felt like she could come and talk to him, but he understood why she hadn't. She hadn't wished to burden him with this information, but had burdened him none the less, through the concern he had felt for her. Fang set off to go and find Max.
At twenty five years old, Maximum Ride sat up in the guest bed at Dr M's house, cradling her child as her husband came through the doorway. They looked into each other's eyes and remembered the hours they had spent crying together when they had spoken about their unborn miracle. Apart from that one day, they had never spoken about it again. But they both remembered it well, and vowed that they would do the best they could with their newborn. Because they could do anything. Together.