All That Matters
It felt so good to be back. So good. Even though it was the middle of the night when he arrived back at the island, Fang couldn't help, but to feel excited. They had received word while he was away that Max had given birth while he was gone. It was early, of course, but Dr. Martinez had assured him over the radio that Max was fine, along with the baby. Fang obviously wanted to abort the mission then and head back home, but was told it was out of the question by the scientists. So it was only logical that he would fly all the way back to the island alone. Completely logical.
"Dr. Martinez?"
The woman jumped, turning around quickly as Fang walked into the laboratory the scientists had created in the caves. When she saw who it was standing there, she immediately dropped the clipboard she was writing on, rushing over to him.
"Fang, what are you… Was there a problem? Are the others here? Did they bring back-"
"I left the mission. Came back on my own."
"What? You flew here?"
"My baby. Is he here?"
"Fang-"
"Where is he? And Max?"
Other women had given birth on the island before. Eight. Only three of the kids had been born without wings. The others had been complicated births due to their extra limbs. One the children, a boy, had malformed wings that the scientists had to surgically remove. Fang was truly fearful about what had happened to his wife and son. None of the women that had given birth before had died, but none of them had given birth so early.
"It's been three weeks, Fang. They're both fine. It's so late, I would assume that Max is at the treehouse with the baby. But there's something you should-"
"Thank you." He quickly turned, running from the lab now. His backpack was heavy on his shoulders as his whole body ached. He felt horrible, having run himself ragged, but he had to get to his son. He hadn't come all this way to be stopped now!
Racing down the beach, Fang was slightly unnerved by how eerie it was out at night when everyone was safely tucked away in their huts or treehouses. That's where Fang was headed; his and Max's treehouse. He had started building it for her before they found out she was pregnant, when they were still living in a dinky little hut. When he found out though that she was with child, he was overjoyed at the thought of working on the treehouse and the speed and quality of his work improved. After all, it was one thing to build something for your wife; it was a whole other to build something for your child.
Once he made it to the deck of the treehouse, he immediately walked in, retracting his wings while he was at it. The first place his eyes fell was his wife, who was snuggled up on their usual makeshift mattress of blankets and sheets. Then his eyes hovered over to the far corner where the baby was laying on it's own pile of clothes. Fang had promised Max that he would bring a crib back with him on the ship. He hoped Dylan or Iggy, who had stayed behind with the scientists, held true to that promise.
The sound of shuffling feet was what woke Max up. She sat up quickly, but then just sat there, watching him.
"Fang?" she asked finally in a hushed whisper.
"I'm here," he whispered back, just staring at the baby now.
"How?" Max was in action now, moving to stand and rush over to him. "Did something happen? Is everyone okay?"
"I came back," Fang told her as she wrapped her arms around him. "We got that message over the radio. That you had had the baby. It was so crackly though. Then we lost you guys. I had to come back."
"On your own?"
Nodding, he said, "I flew."
"All the way?"
"I had no choice, Max." He patted her on the back, finally looking at her once more. "My baby came early. I had to come see him."
"Oh, Fang," she said, letting him go. "You don't-"
"Lucas." Smiling, Fang headed over to the baby, staring down at him. "That's the name we decided on. He-"
"Fang, we didn't have a boy. We had a girl. That's our daughter. I'm sorry."
He blinked. Then he blinked again. Slowly, he moved to get down on his knees next to the baby and inspect her. He never expected a girl. He wasn't stupid of course and knew that there was a probability that they would have one. It was just…he never really thought about it much. Figured they'd just have a son.
"Why are you sorry?" Fang glanced back at Max, smiling. "Did you choose the name we wanted?"
Max nodded slightly. "Skylar."
"She's not as tiny as I feared," Fang said, looking back at his daughter. "I'd touch her, but I'm dirty."
"Here." Max nodded over at a bucket of water in the corner. "I've been using it to get freshwater, but if you just wash your hands in it, that's fine. I'll get new water later. Boil some or something."
Fang was quick to go over to the bucket, washing his hands in it the second he was close enough. The water immediately became dirty, just from his hands being in there. It'd been a long time since Fang had had a chance to get a good scrub down. He knew in the morning he would need to take a long bath in the ocean.
"I'm sorry I wasn't there," Fang told her as Max handed him a towel to dry his hands on. "I-"
"No one planned for it that way, Fang. Let's just be glad that everything happened okay, huh?"
Nodding, Fang turned then, going back over to his baby. Nay, his daughter. Skylar. He was almost giddy. Almost. If he was a normal person with normal feelings, he very much might have been. Still, Fang would just settle with hidden overjoyedness. Or whatever.
"Angel will be so happy you're back," Max told him, watching as he slowly lifted the baby into his arms the way he'd been shown by Dr. Martinez.
Another woman had had a baby right after Max found out she was pregnant. Valencia made him baby-sit that baby one day to show him how much work it would be. It hadn't been fun causing Fang to fear turning out like most the other fathers on their island. By that he meant distant, no longer with the mothers, and over all not bothered enough to spend any time with their children. Valencia explained that this stemmed from the fact that most of them had no parents to speak of and had never learned to care for anything other than themselves. Fang was so afraid that he would be the same. After all, who taught him to be a father? A man? Jeb? Yeah, it'd almost be better to not have anyone if that was his only option.
Still, as he bent over and gently lifted his firstborn into his arms, he couldn't even imagine walking away from her. His baby. His daughter.
"I thought she'd be, uh, smaller," Fang whispered as Max came to stand next to him, leaning into his arm gently as she stared down at their child. "Since she was early."
"She grew at a rapid rate. Mom said something about it having to due with our genes. We were lucky it was only two months early."
"I can feel her wings," Fang mumbled as the baby shifted in the blanket she was all bundled up in. "What color are they?"
"They're just murky black."
"That's okay. I'm sure they're beautiful." Fang kissed the baby's head then, smiling down at her. The baby opened her dark eyes to stare into his. "Look at her look at me. She knows she's with me. She-"
"Mmmm. I'll have to tell Ella about this."
He really didn't care about anyone else at the moment other than his baby. "Tell her 'bout what?"
"The way you're acting. She was convinced you wouldn't care for Skylar."
"Why?"
Max shrugged. "Iggy-"
"She and Iggy didn't want a baby. We did." Fang walked very carefully over to their makeshift bed, slowly lowering himself down onto it. "I've told him before to spend more time with his son. He just doesn't care. I can't fix that."
"I know."
"Besides, I already knew what it was like to have a kid. We raised Angel. Nudge and Gasman too, kind of." Fang shifted on the bed so he was up near the pillows. He really wanted to find Max a mattress one day, when he was off the island. Maybe a dresser too. Only the best for his girl, he used to tell him. Girls would be more appropriate now though, he was sure.
"I'll never leave her," Fang mumbled as Max moved to lay down on the bed with him. "Ever."
"Okay."
"It gets to me, you know? These dicks that knock chicks up around here and then just pretend like nothing happened? Especially on such a small island. How can you pretend something isn't yours when it's staring you right in the face?" Fang smiled when his baby yawned. That was the first time he'd ever heard her voice before. It was beautiful. "I don't care if I'm with you or not, Max, this baby is mine."
"I know she is."
He smiled at Max before back down at Skylar. "Look at her. She has my hair."
"She hardly has hair."
"You can just tell that she's going to be like me and not you. 'cause I'm more important to her."
"…I think you need a genetics class."
"She's going to sleep right here," Fang said then. "Right on my chest. So I can-"
"No," Max told him, shaking her head slightly as she shifted on the bed, planning on going to sleep. "She won't."
"Why not?"
"I told you before she was born, Fang, that baby's can die that way. They need to sleep in their own bed."
"I won't roll over on her or nothing."
"You don't know that. Besides, she might suffocate against your chest." Max shook her head. "She's going to sleep over there, on her back."
"But what if she needs me?"
"She's gone how long without you?"
Fang glared at Max before shaking his head. "She needs me, Max. You can tell."
Sighing, she said, "You're more emotional about this than even I thought you would be."
"I'm not emotional."
"You are too."
"I just love her. I didn't think it would happen so quickly."
"I'm sure it hasn't," Max assured him. "You haven't had to stay up with her crying all night or changed a diaper yet. It'll wear off, this feeling."
"This will never wear off. I'm her father. I love her just for that fact alone."
"You're her daddy," Max taunted. Fang didn't find the humor in that though.
"I am," he said, nodding his head. "That's what she'll call me. Daddy."
"Not at first. She'll call you dada or didi. Something close to that."
"Maybe me and her will be super close," he said then. "And she'll call me Fang."
"Doubt it."
"Why do you doubt that?"
"I can just tell. You're going to be super strict."
"Am not."
"Strict, no, maybe not." Max let out a slight yawn. "Protective."
"Of course I will be. She's a baby."
"I mean when she gets older. She'll hate you as much as Angel hates you now."
"Angel does not hate me," Fang said with evident disdain.
"Not hate in the way you think. She is tired of you trying to break up all her relationships though."
"I don't care. She's hardly old enough to date. I don't need to be an uncle before I get a chance at really being a father."
"Uncle? Or grandfather?"
"Max," he complained.
"Just admit that you love Angel."
"Admit? I'm no denying it. I'll never deny it." He frowned as the baby began to whine from his arms. In moments, it was full blown wailing. It startled Fang, who readily passed the baby off to Max.
"You ready for your first diaper change, Fang?"
"No," was his knee-jerk response.
"Good," Max said after a quick check of the baby. "She doesn't need one."
"Then what's wrong?"
"She's hungry."
Fang knew, of course, that Max would breastfeed the baby. It was the easiest way to care for a baby so young on an island. Still, he'd never seen it before and watched for awhile before standing.
"What are you doing?"
"Just getting undressed for bed." He pulled his shirt off, groaning as his muscles protested.
"You shouldn't have done it, Fang."
"Took off my shirt?"
"Rushed back here. I was fine. The baby was fine."
"I didn't know that though." He opened his sore wings slowly. His back was cramping. "I got a little lost there for awhile. Flew for hours straight, wanting to get back here. For days, I tried my hardest to not rest at all. Just to get back to you. To my baby."
"To your son," Max corrected. "That's what you wanted to get to."
"If I had known that I had a girl, that we had Skylar, I'd have still come. I just assumed that we had a boy. I'm no less excited. I have a baby." He smiled despite the pain he felt as he closed his aching wings. "I have a daughter."
"It's just as well, I suppose," Max said as she stood, taking Skylar back over to her own pallet, apparently full. She was quiet now and Fang was pretty sure she was sleeping again. "That we get the girl out of the way. Now I guess I have to have another baby, huh? To satisfy you when it's a boy?"
"No," Fang said slowly. "Why are you so insistant that I don't want my baby? That I don't want a girl?"
"No guy ever wants a daughter. Everyone knows that."
"That's not fucking true."
"Fang-"
"I know. We agreed to stop cursing. I'm just…tired." He dropped his dirt caked jeans too before going to get back on their pallet, sighing. "Are you sure she has to sleep so far away?"
"Yes, Fang."
"I'll hardly be able to sleep," he told her as Max came to get back into bed with him. "I'll just lay here all night, worrying that someone will come in and kidnap her."
"On an island full of people that I know?"
"Yes. You never can be too sure around people. I don't know how truly screwed up these people are." Fang shook his head. "This is my baby."
"Fang," Max complained as he rolled away from her, facing the corner of the treehouse where his baby was. "We always snuggle."
"I can't. I have to watch her."
"You're unbelievable."
"I just want to protect her. My baby." He laughed slightly as his eyes slipped shut. It was still all so new to him. He had a kid. His kid. He'd had months to prepare for this of course, but still. It was so much different now that it was here. She was here. "Our baby."
"I feel like I've been usurped."
"Hmmm?"
"I feel like now that you have a baby, I'm not as important to you."
"You're not."
"You really have a way with women."
"You'll always be my wife," Fang assured Max.
"I hate when you call me that."
"Why?"
"We never got married."
"Max, it's not like we've got a pastor here to officiate it," Fang grumbled. "I say you're my wife, you're my wife. If you wanna be, I mean."
"I want to get married."
Groaning, he said, "Fine. Next time we're both in Europe together, we'll get married. Me and you. I'm pretty sure they're back on track with keeping records of those things. Good for you?"
"I suppose."
"Good for me then." He peeked an eye open, checking on his daughter one last time before finally settling out. "We'll have to take Skylar."
"I dunno, Fang. I mean, Mom's given her all the shots and stuff that she can and plans to give her more later, but I don't want her going to the mainland. A lot of places are having trouble with vaccinations. I don't want her catching something."
"It'll be when she's older," Fang assured her.
"I don't care. You can protect her from the fake problems in your head here. I have to keep her safe from real problems."
"Our immune systems are extremely resilient."
"We were made that way."
"And she was made by us."
"That doesn't mean much."
"We can't keep her on the island forever," Fang told Max.
"The hell we can't."
"Then we can't get married in Europe."
"Why not?"
"We have to keep her with one of us at all times, Max."
"Oh, Fang-"
"We have to." He stifled a yawn. "It's our duty as her parents."
"So is keeping her safe."
"Safe is with me. Safe is knowing that nothing bad can happen to her if I'm right there. And I will. Be there, I mean. 'cause I'm her daddy."
"Is being her daddy more important than officially being my husband?"
"Yeah," he sighed as he started to drift off. "It is."
"I think I like that."
"Mmmm."
Max frowned slightly, snuggling against his back. "I thought you weren't going to be able to sleep, Fang? That you were going to stay up all night with worry for the rest of your life?"
"I'll start that tomorrow," Fang sighed, his eyelids too heavy to reopen. "I can't stay awake right now. Gotta go to bed now. It took so much out of me, just getting here."
"I was only teasing." Max kissed his back gently. "Rest, Fang. She's fine. I'm fine. You though? You need to sleep. Perhaps through the morning. When you wake up though, I'll make you something good to eat, huh?"
"Sounds good."
"Y-"
"But can Nudge do it? Or Angel?"
"Don't make me hit you."
He lost consciousness then, something that hadn't happened since he stopped drinking. There for awhile, he and Iggy were pretty heavy on that. Fang had cut it cold turkey, but Iggy still needed it. Now that Fang had a daughter though, he knew he'd never go back. This was the last time he'd completely blackout, even if it was just from exhaustion. He needed to be ready from now on, prepared, for anything that may befall his family.
Fang knew it would be a few hours before he was awake again. He hadn't slept in days, after all. Part of him was fearful that what Max said was true, that he would sleep through the morning. He didn't want that. He wanted to wake up promptly at sunrise to enjoy his first true full day with his baby. His daughter. He wanted to walk around with her in his arms, let everyone know who she belonged to. Not to mention he needed to work. Help build things, gather food, daily island jobs.
"It'll be okay," he heard Max whisper somewhere in his head. Maybe he wasn't fully unconscious yet. "She'll be here when you get up. And so will I. Promise. Rest, Fang. You're here now. That's all that matters."
Yes, he was here now. And he wasn't going away anytime soon. 'cause Fang being there wasn't all that mattered. Skylar being there was.
I can't stop with these one-shots. Maybe I just need a new, serious Maximum Ride story.