Hey guys! I am sooo sorry for the long time it took me to update, but I've had very limited computer access, since we moved and are currently in temp. Housing. The only reason I am able to update this soon is because I got a flash drive. Thanks for being patient!! (Unlike me)

Max POV

Due to the circumstances, I had no choice but to let Seth carry me back. This was impossibly frustrating since I knew that me and my handy-dandy wings could get back faster that the wolves could, in addition to the fact that I just plain didn't like being carried. But with a sigh of resignation I allowed Seth to pick me up and sling me into his arms. I made sure his hand supported my shoulder and not my back.

"Man, you are light!" Seth said, "What are you? Anorexic? Or did I just get stronger?" Just the thought of me being anorexic made me laugh. It didn't last long though, and it stuck as it went up my throat, making it sound sarcastic and harsh. Quite an improvement, if I do say so myself. Leah, however, glowered at me for it, and I picked up her thoughts which mistook the tenor of the sound as mockery.

"Sorry," I said, but I wasn't sure if it was for Seth or Leah, "that caught in my throat." Seth just brushed it off, and I didn't have time to see what Leah's reaction was, because we were off, racing through the trees. I didn't like that it was their instinct that guided me, and not mine. Oh well. My life can't really get any more screwed up, can it? But my muscles still remained tense.

As the house came into view, I could hear pacing from inside. And voices. There were a few I didn't recognize.

"You can put me down now, you know," I said, addressing Seth.

"Oh, right," He said, but still kept me locked in his hold until we reached the front door. Then he released me as I twisted out of his embrace-like hold.

I stood there, staring at the door and trying to figure out if I should knock or just go right in. It was technically my house, too, but at the same time, it wasn't. Jake solved this miniature dilemma by barging in himself, the walls reverberating his loud voice that called, "Charlie, we're here!"

The conversation in the other room abruptly stopped, and we walked into the room they were all in. I went straight to Mom, who pulled me into a tight hug until I turned away to apologize to Charlie. Who was standing on the other side of the room. With a man. Who wore a white coat.

I immediately backed up to the wall, flattened against it, and couldn't keep in the violent shakes that rippled through my body. I noticed that my Mom approached me, cautiously, trying to console me, but then everything fell away, leaving just the white coat and me.

"So, you found me," I managed to choke out. "Did you come to take me back, or just kill me? Well, I'm telling you right now you won't accomplish either." I didn't even bother to keep the snarl out of my words. I forced my body to stop convulsing, and shifted my position into a fighting stance that, at the flick of a switch, would allow me to either attack or escape. The cage of restraining arms resurrected the rest of the world. I whipped my head around to see Ella and Mom trying to hold me back.

"Max! Max, calm down! It's alright. That's Carlisle. He's your uncle. Who happens to be a doctor. It's okay," I heard the coaxing voice of my mother trying frantically to calm my fears. "He came to examine Charlie's hand." I flinched, and looked around me, trying my best to ignore the expressions on everyone's faces. I did my best to calm down, reminding myself three times every second that I trusted Mom, trusted her judgment. She wouldn't hurt me. She wouldn't let anyone else hurt me. But I could still feel adrenalin shivering its way through my body, could hear it just as loudly in my ears as any white coat knocking on the top of my crate. Mom and Ella still clung to my arms, almost desperately, their eyes just as locked on my as their hold, their gazed wide and scared. I turned my head away from them, and back to the sickening white coat who stood, perplexed, in the other side of the room.

Finally, I relented, sliding from the now loosened hold of my understanding mother and half-sister.

I reached out, slowly, and creped forward until I reached Charlie. "I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to… I just reacted. Is your hand okay?" I asked, while keeping an eye on Carlisle the whole time.

It was Carlisle who answered first. "It's fractured. How did you manage to do that?"

I looked anywhere but at him, attempted to pretend I hadn't heard him. I noticed Bella and Alice looking at me. From Bella's expression, which was more of a glower, she must've been really pissed. At me. I noticed that the pack was staring at me, then Charlie, and then back at me. I sighed, turning to face Carlisle. When I met his eye, I felt myself cringe away.

"I, uh, well, he startled me." I stuttered. I immediately heard the gasp of understanding from the pack. Give them a prize; they figured it out.

"Oh Max. What did they do to you?" Ella murmured, her thumb stroking the back of my hand.

Still unused to touch that was anything other than painful, I flinched away. I turned my eyes to the window, almost wishing I could jump out it to avoid this question. But Ella's voice came back, so strong and forceful, full of intense anger, saying, "Max! What. Did. They. Do. To. You?"

Memories, which I tried frantically to suppress, were pushing into my mind, ghosts of wounds and tears that my throat strained to hold. Spirits of the blood and love that I had shed in those horrible corridors. The face of one person whose name was the equivalent as satin's, dad. And then, like a lightning bolt while flying through a storm cloud, it hit me.

I looked up at Ella, my serious eyes meeting hers.

"I have to leave. I don't know why I even came here," my words came sullen and venomous, as though I were conversing with an upbeat white coats assistant who was upbeat and preppy as she explained just how big the needle was. I pulled away from her, heading towards the door, which was blocked by a shocked yet determined pack of wolves. So instead I turned towards the window, when I felt Ella latch on to my waist. She looked up at me, hurt pouring from her water-lined eyes.

"Why?" she asked, her voice breaking, "Why?" she repeated, louder and clearer this time.

"Because it's only a matter of time before they find me. And I can't be here when that happens."

"Yes you can!" Mom insisted, her face appearing next to Ella's.

It was then, of course, right then, with my face turned away from the window when it shattered into tiny fragmented shards, whose knives I could feel burrowing into my skin.