Oh. My. God. He was here. All I could do for a few seconds was look at him in complete shock, memories coming back to me. The submarine, where I had kissed him in front of everyone, where I had realized he was my one and only. Where I realized that I could never love anyone else, not even someone who had been made for me.

Our first date, eating ice cream and then being shot at by M-Geeks.

The first time he'd ever kissed me, in a cave, while we were out doing recon, looking for a place to settle down.

When I had thought I was turning into an Eraser, and he had come in and kissed me on the forehead, taking away all my fears instantly.

The beach, where he had been hurt badly by Ari, and I had thought he was about to die, and I had kissed him.

Fang. It still hurt; the pain and heartbreak of when he had left me. Me and the flock.

For a moment, I let all of these emotions show on my face, letting him see how much pain he had put me through. And then my poker face went up, and I shut him out again.

And for a moment, he let his emotions show through, letting me see how sorry he was. But then his stone wall went up, ensuring that I had been the only person able to see that brief moment of emotion.

He had come back, and he wanted to rejoin the flock. He had left his new 'flock' behind. He had said he'd made a mistake; that he should never have left, never should have split up the flock again. But I read between the lines. He was saying that he never should have left me especially. He was saying he was sorry, that he knew it wouldn't be easy, but he wanted us-me- to trust him again. Like it used to be.

But now he wanted back in, after practically breaking all our hearts, most of all mine. I had loved him. Worse than that, I still loved him. And for one of the few times in my life, I honestly had no clue what to do.

"He means it," Angel's voice cut into my thoughts. Turning my head, I looked down at the seven year old telepath. "He knows he's made a mistake, and now he wants to try and fix it," she went on, her blue eyes seeming to stare straight into my heart. "He knows none of us, least of all you, will ever trust him the same way again, but he still wants to try. He knows he'll have to earn our trust, that it won't come readily. But he means it Max. And…he still loves you too.

I sent a thought back to Angel. "I know sweetheart." I didn't need a seven-year-old mind reader to tell me all of that. Besides what he'd done, Fang was still my best friend in the whole world, and I knew him better than I knew myself. I was the only person in the world who could read him like a book. And sadly, he could say the same for me. I knew that everything he was saying was coming straight from the heart, that he meant every word. Now it was up to me.

But what should I do? Somehow I knew that the Voice wasn't going to chime in on this particular situation. And I knew that the flock would leave it up to me. I was the leader; I was the one who made the decision. I turned away from Angel to look at the rest of the flock. I could see that all of them were torn as well. And I could also see that they really wanted Fang back.

Truth be told, I wanted him back too. But how did I know that he wouldn't break my heart again? Know that he wouldn't break all our hearts again? He had already left twice. But third times a charm right?

I suddenly remembered something I'd once quoted to Total. (off a t-shirt of course, 'cause this is my life we're talking about here right?) It went: 'If you love something, let it go. If it comes back, it's yours.' Well, Fang had come back. The only problem was, this was the second time he had come back. Think they make a t-shirt for that? Yeah, I didn't think so.

So. Back to reality here, which, by the way, totally sucks at the moment. What the heck do I freakin' do?

So, I quickly made a list of Pros and Cons in my head:

Pros:

Everyone else wants him back too, even if they won't admit it.

The flock would be complete again.

His special camo skills come in handy from time to time.

I love him.

I love him.

I love him.

He loves me too.

Cons:

He might leave again and break all of our hearts. Again.

Notice which list is longer. Ok, decision time.

I looked at my flock again, and saw their hopeful expressions. Then I turned back to Fang. He hides his emotions so well from the rest of the world, but not from me. I could see that he was a little hopeful too, but I could also see that he was trying not to get his hopes up.

He looked straight into my eyes, waiting for my verdict. I sent him a question, and of course, he understood immediately.

This was our silent conversation:

"How do I know you won't do it again?"

"You don't. You just have to trust me."

"Right, like that's gonna be easy."

"Max, I know-"

"I know you know." I paused for a minute. "It wasn't just me you hurt, Fang. You hurt the flock."

"I know. And I'm sorry."

I paused again, then took a deep breath, not believing what I was about to do. "One more chance Fang. If you blow it, that's it." His eyes widened almost imperceptibly. But I wasn't done yet. "But Fang, this doesn't mean that anything is changed between us. The fact that you left hasn't changed. If you want my trust back, you're gonna have to work for it, long and hard."

"I know."

I looked back at the flock, then back at Fang, then back to the flock. I nodded, and tapped the back of Iggy's hand, giving the sign for 'yes'." All of their eyes widened, hardly daring to believe it. They all looked at me, and then turned to look at Fang. Gazzy was first. He ran forward, and hugged Fang hard around the middle, barely keeping back tears of happiness. Then Iggy went up, and clapped Fang on the shoulder. But then he gave up being the man, and hugged Fang hard too. Next was Angel, smiling big, giving Fang an even bigger hug. Nudge was last, a bit more tentative than the rest. She looked back at me, and when I nodded, she smiled and hugged Fang too.

But I didn't join in the hug fest. My heart was…well the best way to describe it was 'roller coaster'. One second, I'd be so happy that Fang was back, that he was part of the flock again, and the next second my heart would plummet again, remembering those weeks spent in bed, crying over him, acting like a big baby. Over a boy.

Fang was looking at me, part of him hoping I'd hug him too, but the other part, the bigger part, knew that I wouldn't. I just gave him a nod, then turned away, feeling hot tears spring to my eyes. Forcing myself not to run and scream like a banshee, I went back down the hall of my mom's house, turned into my room, and flung myself down onto the bed, balling into my pillow.