Okay, people, here's the deal with this: somebody was supposed to read this for me, because I had some doubts about it. And I think it got read, but I never got feedback from her. Which is fine, I think she's sick, but I'm just going to go ahead and post it. We'll see what the consensus is. If everyone hates it, I'll take it down and make adjustments. Cool?

Right. Happy reading!

We were probably the oddest group of people that Wal-Mart had seen in a long time: eight filthy, mostly unrelated kids in tattered clothes and, in my kids' case, loose knee-length gowns. The good news is that by the time we got to the store, Nudge and Angel had latched onto Gracie and the Gasman and Devin were becoming fast friends, too.

When we got to the clothes, I stood right where the boys' and girls' sections merged, told everybody to make sure the clothes were practical, and watched the girls go one way and Iggy take the two boys the other. It didn't register that Fang didn't join the latter until I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

"Hey."

"Hello." His eyes were boring into the side of my head, but I refused to look at him.

"Max, I'm… sorry."

"Sorry isn't good enough, Fang. I wouldn't be able to raise the flock alone; why would I be able to handle two more little bird kids?"

He didn't answer, and I realized that I had just broken my commitment to not let Fang know I needed him. As I tried to look unbothered, my gaze wandered over to Gracie, who was giggling as Nudge and Angel held up shirt after shirt in front of her. I was embarrassed to feel a pang of jealousy as I thought about how she didn't have even one quality of mine.

Fang moved closer to me so that our arms brushed. "She has your smile," he said quietly. Great-- even when I was mad at him he could see right through me, see all my worries and insecurities. Except that his soft voice immediately melted my anger, and I looked at my daughter, wondering if he was right.

"When you laugh, that's how you look," Fang went on. "And last night, I was awake and I saw her smile in her sleep… and you do that too."

"I do?"

"Yeah."

I turned to look at him. "You seem to know a lot about this."

Fang grinned, one of those rare ones that light up my world. "My watches aren't entirely about looking out for enemies, Max."

Before I even realized what I was doing, I had wrapped my arms around Fang, pulling him into a hug. I rested my cheek on his shoulder, and after a long hesitation, he slowly rubbed between my wings.

We stayed that way for a long moment. The noise of the store was only a dull hum to me, as the world seemed to melt away until it was only me and Fang, together again, a team. The way it should be.

"Did you give them middle names?"

I furrowed my brow, but didn't move my head. I hadn't even thought about it; none of us had middle names. "No."

"Can I do it?"

Now I looked at him, my arms still locked around his waist, and searched his face. He was completely serious. I shrugged. "Sure."

Fang nodded and hesitated only a second before saying, "Her name's Gracie Maximum."

I stared.

"I know you want some of you in her," he said. One of his arms was still wound around my back, and he squeezed me a little. "And I want some of me in him. So his name's Devin Nick."

"Not Devin Tooth?" I teased.

"Nah." Fang grinned again-- that was two in five minutes-- and started sort of rocking from side to side. I smiled back and copied his motions, and then we were swaying together, almost dancing.

Our moment was interrupted when Nudge shrieked, "Gracie, no!" I spun out of Fang's embrace to see that Gracie was standing with her wings out, flailing them clumsily. There was nobody else around except for two preteen girls, who were staring.

"Honey," I whispered, loud enough for them to hear, as I hurried toward Gracie. "You don't need to put your wings on yet. The costume party's next week."

I pressed her wings back into her back through the slits in her gown, trying not to hurt her. She cried out in pain anyway, though, and I bit my lip. When her wings were folded, I shrugged off my jacket and draped it over her shoulders. It was huge on her; the slits were too low for her to get her wings through.

The girls seemed to have fallen for my ill-conceived cover-up story and moved on to another rack. I breathed out in relief and turned Gracie by the shoulders to face me. "Sweetie, our wings are secret, okay? Nobody can know we have them. If people find out we have wings, they'll… do bad things to us. Do you understand?"

She nodded, her eyes downcast. "I'm sorry, Mommy."

Hearing that last word made my throat close up, and I tried desperately to hold in my tears. I stroked her hair and said, "It's okay. You didn't know."

It was then that I noticed Fang, hovering a few feet away with his hands in his pockets, looking slightly uncomfortable. I scooped up Gracie, resting her on my hip. Then I walked over to stand in front of him, well aware of Nudge and Angel staring at my back, and smiled.

"Gracie, this is your daddy," I said quietly.

Dark eyes met dark eyes. Then Gracie grinned-- I felt my heart swell as I thought about Fang saying she had my smile-- and reached one hand out to him, keeping the other wrapped around my neck.

A long moment passed, and then Fang slowly put his pinky in her tiny palm, letting her squeeze it. One corner of his mouth quirked up, and even though it was just a tiny one-- I am not turning into a softy-- a tear did creep down my cheek.

If you've read Sick Days-- there was a reference to that in this chapter-- anybody catch it?

Please tell me what you think… review!