This just popped into my head, and I considered using just a part of it for a drabble, but… nope. Here it is. Just a random thing. After MAX!

Oh, and I haven't forgotten about Sick Days. It won't be too much longer, I'm just still thinking about it.

One more thing: I've been to a hospital only once in my life, I think, and that was to visit somebody. So if I don't have the hospital lingo stuff right, please forgive me!

Disclaimer: Maximum Ride belongs to James Patterson and not me.

I drove quickly along the highway, keeping my eyes on the ambulance in front of us so as not to lose track of it. Ella was in the passenger seat beside me, twisted around so she could talk to the four flock members squeezed into the back. They were all scared and in hysterics, after watching Max get brutally injured in a fight with an M-Geek. Even I was having a hard time staying calm as I worried about what was going on in that ambulance. My only comfort came in knowing that Fang was with her.

"Are we almost there?" Ella asked, spinning around to look at me.

I craned my neck and spotted a sign. "Just a minute."

"Is Max gonna be okay?" Nudge wailed. "She has to be okay! What'll we do if she's not? We can't--"

"Nudge," I sighed, turning right into the hospital parking lot. "I'm sure she'll be fine."

"Okay," she sniffled.

I hurriedly parked in a spot right by the emergency entrance. The six of us piled out of the car as Max was wheeled out of the ambulance on a gurney, Fang right behind her. I caught up to him, motioning for the kids to hurry up, and we ran into the building.

Once inside, Max was immediately taken through swinging double doors. One of the paramedics stayed behind and grabbed Fang's arm as he made a move to follow them. "Son, you can't go in there."

"Why not?" he demanded, trying to twist out of the man's grasp.

"If she's going to be okay, she'll have to undergo major surgery," the paramedic said. "Nobody is allowed to be in there when this kind of stuff is done. We're talking major here."

"I'm not leaving her!" Fang snapped, ripping his arm away and storming toward the doors. Somehow, Iggy knew to run forward and practically tackle him, wrestling him into one of the many chairs in the waiting room.

"Dude," he said. "Calm down. They're gonna fix her up."

"Iggy, she's alone with a bunch of doctors! How does this not make you nervous?"

"It's the only way to save her, Fang."

At those words, with the flock and Ella and I just standing there awkwardly, Fang buried his face in his hands and sobbed, huge ones that shook his shoulders. The younger kids turned to me, genuinely scared at this scene, but I didn't know what to do. I'd never seen him like this, either.

"I never told her," he said, his voice breaking. "I never said it to her face."

My eyebrows shot up into my hairline, and I slanted my gaze down at Angel standing beside me with a frown on her face.

"Angel?" I whispered. She looked up at me with sad blue eyes. "What does he need to tell Max?"

Angel bit her lip and stood up on her tiptoes. I leaned over so she could reach easier. "He has to say 'I love you,'" she barely breathed into my ear.

I tried not to show any expression on my face as I straightened up, everything clicking all at once. The look on Fang's face when Max said all those things on Valium. The way he'd lunged across the room to protect her when the pizza exploded. How he'd held her as she cried, right after she'd rescued me.

Fang did love her. I should have known. She should have known.

I looked back over at him. His face was in his hands, but he was no longer shaking. Nudge was hovering near him, rubbing his shoulder.

As I watched, his back moved as he took in a big, shuddering breath and whispered one word, just loud enough for me to hear. "Max…"

0000000000

I walked down the hallway with a cup of steaming hot coffee in my hand. Ella and most of the flock were still in the hospital's cafeteria, eating breakfast, and I was going to try and convince Fang to join them.

When I reached Max's room, I pushed the door open with my hip and smiled at the familiar scene before me: Fang in a chair beside the bed, Max's hand securely in his. He had lived in this room for the past week, the whole time she'd been staying here, even though she hadn't woken up yet. There was a bathroom in the corner of the room, which he used occasionally, but otherwise, he was glued to that chair.

"Fang," I called softly. He turned around, nodded at me, and returned his gaze to Max's face. Inwardly sighing, I moved forward. "Fang, I know you're nervous about leaving her alone, but I'm here. I won't let anybody hurt her. Now, you go eat."

"I'm fine."

"All you've been eating is what we bring you, and those are just normal human meals."

Fang shrugged.

"Fang." Now I put on my firm mother voice. "If Max was awake, she would want you to be feeding yourself, so that's what you're going to do. If she wakes up, I'll let you know. But I want you in that cafeteria now."

He took a long look at me, then stood up slowly. I watched him smooth the hair off of Max's face and press his lips to her forehead. Then he turned and walked past me, nodding once again, and left the door open behind him-- I supposed so he could come back in and see Max as quickly as possible.

I sat down in the plastic chair and took Max's hand myself. It was warm on the palm, where Fang had been holding it. Glancing to the right, I chuckled at the indentation in the mattress where he'd rested his head at an awkward angle each night as he slept.

"Mom…?"

I looked up towards Max to see her blinking sleepily as she tried to sit herself up. Her elbows gave out beneath her, though, and she fell back onto the pillows.

"Hi, Max," I laughed, moving to prop up the pillows and help her sit back on them. "How are you feeling, sweetie?"

"Fine," she said. Then, with a hint of worry in her voice, "Where is everybody?"

"They're eating, down in the cafeteria." Max's face relaxed. I bit my lip.

I never told her. I never said it to her face.

"Max, I have to tell you something. It's… about Fang."

"What?" The creases came back into her forehead. "What about him?"

"He's fine," I said quickly. "It's just… you were in surgery for twelve hours, Max. For a while there, it was doubtful you were going to survive. They wouldn't let Fang in the ER, and he had to be restrained."

Max rolled her eyes. "He's so freaking protective!"

"He's so freaking in love, sweetie."

"Huh?"

I could tell I'd taken her by surprise, and I reached up to stroke her hair. "I can't tell you for him, but I can say this. Fang cried. And not just a tear or two. He was shaking."

She stared at me. "Fang doesn't cry."

"He does for you."

Max looked away, embarrassed. I pressed on. "I had to force him to go eat with the others. Fang hasn't left your side the entire week you've been out, sweetie. He's been in this chair, holding your hand. Listen to him. Let him say what he needs to say. Okay?"

She opened her mouth to reply, but then her eyes shifted so they were looking over my head. I spun in the chair and saw Fang standing in the doorway, holding her gaze.

"Max," he said, half-jogging across the room, past me, and finally coming to sit on the edge of her bed. He gathered Max up in his arms, clutching her to his chest and burying his face in her hair.

I rose from my seat and walked toward the door, giving them a moment alone. Right before I left, I glanced back at the two of them, holding each other and rocking slightly.

As I quietly pulled the door shut behind me, I smiled, knowing that something would be very different the next time I entered that room.

I liked writing this. I like Fax from other character's points of view. Well, any kind of Fax, because I'm just obsessed like that. But you get my point.

Fang… OOC?

Please let me know what you thin! Leave me a review! Thanks for reading!