Life Continues to Confuse Me

Part 3

"And then what, ran through a wood-chipper?"

"Fang!" I yelled. Fang had to be where the blood came from. I carefully stepped over the blood puddle and walked over to Fang's room. Fang was slumped on the floor by his bed.

"You know, you could have said something like, 'Hey Max, I'm bleeding to death out here.' I just might have ended my shower early for that." I said sarcastically as I knelt beside him.

He looked at me for a second and smirked. "The day Nudge shuts up." He replied and started to take his shirt off.

"Oh no, buddy. We're going to cut that off. You might dislodge any clots that are already developed if you move to much." I said and looked around.

He rolled his eyes and pointed to his desk. "The scissors are in the drawer." He said, giving up on the motions.

I stood up and walked over to the desk and opened the drawer. The scissors weren't there.

"They aren't here." I told him.

"They're there." He stated

I rolled my eyes. "I'm not blind, they're not there." He looked at me for a moment, as if to say 'look again'. Not one to be ordered about, I grabbed the drawer and dumped it onto the floor. "See, no scissors." Fang looked at the scattered items on the carpeted floor.

"Okay, plan B. There is a knife in my left boot." He said and looked at the other wall.

"What?" I said to myself. I knew he wouldn't repeat himself so I just knelt down and slipped my fingers up his left pant leg until I got to the edge of the combat-boot. The knife was clipped to the inside of his foot. I grabbed it and started cutting off his shirt. A pair of scissors would have made this job far easier because the knife didn't cut straight. I decided to scrap Fang's Plan B and just unbuttoned his shirt.

"What are you doing now?" He asked me, his brow raised.

"You don't want to know." Was my reply right before I ripped the shirt off.

Fang let out a strangled gasp of pain and looked me in the eyes. "Ow?" He said sarcastically.

I wanted to puke. His right side looked like ground hamburger. Not only that but by the way his ribs were waving at me from the surface, I was pretty sure he'd broken them."What happened?"

"I got beat up."

"And then what, ran through a wood-chipper? This is a lot worse then just getting 'beat up'." I said and applied slight pressure to his ribs. Suddenly blood started gushing out of the wounds and I grit my teeth. "I'm getting Mom." I said and stood up.

"No!" He shouted. I turned and looked down on him. "Can't you just fix it?" He was pleading without pleading again. I understood why. If I told Mom, she'd come in and take him to her clinic. It wasn't her fault that the clinic smelt like anti-septic, the smell that made all of the flock a little ill.

"I can't fix this. You're going to bleed out if I don't get her." I said softly. He stared at me, looking for the truth of my words in my eyes. He nodded and I ran down the hall to Mom's room.

I pounded on the door. "Mom, Fang's hurt, grab your bag." I heard shuffling behind the door and she appeared in her nightgown, black bag in hand. I lead her to Fangs room.

"Fang! What happened?" She asked him as she knelt by him and opened her bag. "Max, got get towels. Wet two of them and hurry."

I ran out of the room and went to the closet across the hall. I grabbed an armload of towels and set them by his door. Grabbing two I went to the bathroom he shared with Iggy and wet them down real well with hot water. I scooped up the other towels and headed back in.

"We're going to have to go to the clinic. You need surgery." She said and started to wipe him down.

"I'm not going to the clinic." He said and tried to push her hands away.

I looked at mom desperately. "Mom, please? There's got to be something you can do here."

"I can't even give you pain killers without the proper precautions." She said to him as she watched the towel she was holding to his ribs turn red.

Fang darted his eyes around until he spotted me by mom's side. "Max..." He said to me.

I really don't like being in these situations. "Mom! Just do something!" I said. She turned to me, shocked that I'd spoken to her like that.

She looked from me to Fang and bit down on her lip. "Max, hand me purple topped bottle in there." I looked down into her bag and grabbed the bottle and handed it to her. I recognized the pills by their distinctive "V" pattern. Mom poured about five pills in her palm and shoved them into Fangs mouth. "Swallow those."

He complied but still looked panicked. After about a minute he stopped struggling from mom and his features started to slack. "What did... she...give me?" He asked in the familiar state of Valium induces loopyness.

I kept a straight face and replied, "It's called Vicodin." I said and looked at mom with the "Just smile and nod your head" expression on my face.

She shook her head and said "Help me strip his bed." We pulled the comforter and sheets off and lined the bed with towels. I knew what was coming next so I ran to get Iggy. He was already at the door waiting for orders. He must have heard the commotion. "Can you help me lift him onto the bed?" He nodded and we hauled Fangs giggling form onto the bed.

Mom opened up the disinfectant and the smell filled the room. Even doped up Fang went rigid. "Max!" He yelled.

I hurried to the other side of the bed and grabbed his hand. "It's okay, Fang, I'm right here. It's just mom working on you." He stared at me and pushed his hair out of his eyes. "Would I ever lie to you?" I asked.

"Yes." he replied. It felt like he'd just ripped my heart out.

Taking a deep breath I calmly said "Just shut up and enjoy the ride. Mom does great work." He smirked and kept eye contact with me. Suddenly his face went very serious. "Don't leave me, Max. I need you here."

I knew he meant while mom was fixing him up, but I couldn't help but be reminded of the night of my birthday. "I'll stay Fang, don't worry."

He looked at me and then did something I'll forever thank Valium for. He smiled. Not a smirk, not a grin, a full on smile. Something I don't think I'd ever seen before. "I cause you so much trouble." He said.

Oh, now here was an opportunity. "About as much as I cause you. Mutual chaos and what not." I replied.

"You do cause a lot of trouble." He slurred.

I acted offended and said "Tell me how you really feel, why don't you!" I said. I was just waiting for something crazy to come out of his mouth so I could get him back for the whole I love you this much thing.

"Like crap. I did get jumped and run over by a car." He said matter of factly. I looked at mom. She knew what I was thinking and nodded.

"Yes, Max. The injuries are consistent to that." She said and I heard a sickening slurping sound. I looked down to she mom stick her fingers into a three inch incision on his side.

I passed out and I woke up to Iggy's hand waving something putrid under my nose. "Oh gross! What is that!" I demanded.

He smirked and tossed the pad away. "It's ammonia. Nothing like cat pee to wake you up in the morning,huh?"

I shook my head and tried to sit up. The world decided it hated me and I was decided it was a good idea to lay down for a few more seconds. "Take it easy, Max." Iggy said as he helped me sit up.

"You okay, Max?" Fang said from the bed.

"Yeah, I'm okay." I replied, rubbing my now throbbing head.

"You should of seen it! You looked down and then just flopped over! Like a fish!" Fang declared and started giggling. I was turning red again but he started wincing. "Laughing hurts." He said softly. Then he started giggling again. "Ow... ow... ow..." He said with a yelp of pain.

"Gee Mom, how long is he going to be like this?" I asked.

"What? In surgery?" She asked as she started stitching him up.

I looked at her firmly. "Off his rocker." I retorted.

"Oh, his meds already wore off. He just thinks you're amusing when you flop over like a fish it seems." She said and cut the last stitch.

"How? I was wonky for hours!" I said.

She took out a large piece of paper out of her bag, it was a clear adhesive bandage that she put over the ribs so she could check for drainage. "I gave you medical strength injectables. About 200 CC's. thats about 500 milligrams of that tablets, and he only took a hundred."

Go figure, my one chance for revenge and I just had to pass out.

"Hey Max, thanks for helping me." He said and reached for my hand. I gave it to him and smirked. "It wasn't like I was going anywhere."

Mom gave me instructions to watch his temperature and check for signs of infection around the incision before she went back to bed. I closed the door behind her and stepped over to the left side of the bed. "Iggy, can you just help me bring him to my room so he can get some sleep. I need to get this cleaned up too."

Iggy shrugged and ran his hands along Fang's side. "How are we going to do this? His side is really messed up. Just picking him up could break the stitches." I Looked around and found a sheet that had been tossed off the bed.

"We roll him onto his good side and slip the sheet underneath him. Then we grab the ends and haul him to my room." I said.

Iggy helped Fang turn over as I unfurled the sheet. After a small struggle with the sheet we were heading to the room. I'm sure it must have looked very odd because we weren't successful in keeping it straight so Fang was a giant lump still touching the floor as we shuffled down the hall.

Finally after we got him settled in bed, I said good night to Iggy and turned off the lights. Pulling back the covers on the right side of the bed, I lay down. "Good Night, Fang."

I was almost asleep when Fang rolled over and brought his arm around my waist. " G'night Max."

I held very still for a while, trying to figure this one out. I decided that he was just more comfortable this way. That was a good excused for him considering his ribs were broken, but what about me? Why did I feel more comfortable like that too?

Soon I drifted off into a night of dreams that evaporated like dew in the first minutes of morning. I awoke to Nudge's exclamations of "Oh my god! Max! Fang! You two make a cute couple!" I was preparing to destroy the alarm clock and probably strangle Gazzy through the phone line, when I noticed a dark figure in the doorway.

"Nudge!"

It was great to have Nudge there, don't get me wrong, but I couldn't help but keep wondering why she was there. Nudge never does anything like this without a reason. All suspicions that I had pointed to me cornering and grilling her. Both of which were not likely options when an Injured Fang is using me as a pillow and I'm trying not to wake him.

"Nudge, shh!" I said and rose a finger to my lips then pointed at Fang.

To my dismay Nudge just looked at me confused. "What?" She asked. Isn't it obvious?

"Fang's a-" I looked down. "Wake." Yep, that's right. A big pair of shiny brown/black eyes starting at me... Again. "Will you cut it out with the non-blinking staring thing already!? It's -REALLY- creepy!" I said shouting at the head on my shoulder.

"Max!" Nudge was trying to get my attention.

I turned my head to face Nudge again. "Yes?" I asked. This had better be good.

Nudge looked apprehensive for a moment and then just blurted it out. "Where is all that blood from?" I looked down to where she was pointing. There were dinner plate sized blotches of blood on the sheet. Oh crap.

"Fang? Fang are you okay? I think you tore your stitches." I said and his arm off of me.

"I don't think so. I'm sore, but not in agonizing pain." Fang said and slowly sat up. I pulled the sheet away to see that Fang's bandage was still in place and the wounds were clean and appeared to be healing nicely. I breathed a sigh of relief.

Then a thought occurred to me. If it's wasn't Fangs, and it wasn't mine... Then who's was it?

I through the blanket over and heard a sharp metallic clunking. Frowning I looked over the side of the bed. On the hardwood floor was a pair of bloodied scissors. Fangs scissors if the big, bold, sharpie written word "Fang's" was any clue.

"Nudge, we've got a serious problem." I said to her. She looked at me and then down at the floor.

Suddenly a voice of such pure clarity entered my mind and with a whisper made my heart sink. "Ella" I bolted out of bed and nearly succeeded in stepping on the aforementioned scissors. I ran past Nudge and ignored her protest as I made my way down stairs. Once I got into the living-room I found Ella. She was sitting on the couch watching some show.

"Ella, are you okay?" I asked. Ella looked at me and frowned for a moment. Then she smiled. "Of course, Max. Why?"

I knew she was lying to me. Both me and Ella got our lying skills from Mom, which is to say that all three of us won't be going to Vegas any time soon.

"You're lying. What's wrong?" I demanded. A flurry of emotion crossed her features for a moment until they settled back to her "cheerful" face.

"It' just school stuff." She said and turned off the TV. Ella started to head to her room when I grabbed her arm. The reaction was so microscopic that I might have missed it if I wasn't looking for it. She winced. I pulled my hand away and saw the blood ooze onto her shirt.

"Ella? What happened to your arm?" I asked suspiciously.

Ella snatched her arm back and covered the rapidly growing bloodstain with her hand. "It's just a scratch. Jenn's cat bit me yesterday and I'm beginning to think that I should have gotten stitches. It was a total accident." She said and walked away, ending the discussion with a turn of her back.

"I, for one, am not buying that at all." Nudge stated behind me.

I watched Ella close her bedroom door with a sinking feeling. "I'm with you on that one, Nudge. You just might be onto something." I turned around to see Nudge looking the most worrisome I've ever seen her. "Things around here aren't usually this dramatic. I'm so glad you're here, I've really needed to talk to somebody." With this I wrapped her in a hug.

Then I practically dragged her to the kitchen. "I'm starved so I know that you're probably famished. How'd you get here anyway?" I asked.

Nudge sat down at the table and looked around. "Well, I took a flight. Like, on a plane. It's weird being on a plane when you can actually fly. But it's so much easier!" She exclaimed.

I was rummaging through the cabinets and looked at her from around the door, "So, pancakes or pop-tarts?" I asked.

A wicked expression presented itself on her face. "Depends. Who's cooking?"

"I'll have you know I can cook now!" I exclaimed. I'm not that bad of a cook, come on now.

"I don't want to be poisoned my first day here so lets go with pop-tarts." Nudge said as if it was a decision that had taken much thought. I tossed her both the pop-tarts and a glower.

Suddenly her mood became somber, this is not my Nudge. "Max... There's something I've got to tell you. I'm not sure how you'll take it, so please don't hate me." I heard her spew.

Okay, so maybe this is my Nudge after all. "Uh, okay." I say, still holding the pop-tart box in my hand.

"Max, you're in great danger. It's not ITEX, nor any of the usual suspects." She said in that "I'm - dancing- around - the- bad- part" way of hers.

"Oh really?"

Nudge looked at me. "Fang called me about your car. He wanted me to check into it. I hacked into the government's satellite network and I know who did it." She said and looked at me.

My legs were starting to go weak as I sat down on the seat next to her. "And?"

"You aren't going to like it." She said wincing.

"Nudge, I'm a big girl now. I think I can handle it." I said and placed a hand on her shoulder.

Nudge reached into her jacket and pulled out a manila envelope. "I'm not so sure about that." She said and pulled out a couple photo's and slid them across to me.

I looked at the first picture, there was a guy there, a guy with wings. He stood there holding out a baseball bat to somebody off screen. It had to be Shadow, unfortunately, the angle of the shot made it almost impossible to make out his features. I grabbed the second picture and looked at it.

In this one a girl was taking the bat from him and looking towards him. I couldn't make her out because her hair was in the way. The third picture floored me. The girl was standing on my hood, bashing in my windshield. Finally after a few more pictures of the destruction the girl looked up. My blood ran cold in my veins. I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

"This is a lie. Complete crap. You're pulling my leg aren't you, Nudge?" I asked. She only looked down at the table. "Come on Nudge, tell me it's a joke."

She took a deep breath. "Just because you don't like what you see, doesn't make it a lie, Max." she said softly.

I through the picture onto the table. "But it can't be true!" I exclaimed.

Fang stepped into the room and he seemed concerned. "What's going on here girls?" I turned my face away and looked at the floor.

"I got that information you wanted, Fang." Nudge said very quietly.

His expression became very serious. He limped forward and grabbed the back of my chair for support. He grabbed the picture on the top of the pile and looked at it. First his brow raised and then I watched as he began to build up his rage.

"Where is she?" He asked.

Nudge started to say something but for once, I interrupted. "We don't know."

Fang looked murderous and stormed out of the kitchen and a few moments later I heard the front door slam. I waited until his car was out of the drive before I stood up.

Nudge held out a hand to stop me. "Max don't do anything stupid."

I took a breath. "I don't plan too." I replied and turned to her. "I think I just saved her life." I said and picked up the picture again. I looked hard into the eyes of my betrayer.

"Why, Ella?"

Nudge looked at me, and for a moment there was this connection. She knew how I was feeling and she knew that I wasn't sure what I was going to do. She blinked and the moment was gone.

As soon as our connection was broken I stormed out of the room. I marched down to Ella's room, which was the only bedroom on the first floor. First I pounded on the door like a madwoman and then tried the knob. The door was locked. My immediate reaction was to start kicking the door. The door flew open, wood splinters flying as the lock ripped through the molding on the door frame. I expected defiant screams, but was only welcomed with silence.

Ella wasn't there. I looked around her room, the window was open. Had she run away from me as I was kicking the door in?

"Max!" Nudge exclaimed, bringing me back to my unfortunate reality.

I turned to face her and looked her in the eye. "Check the window. Tell me why she left."

By the way her lips twitched I was almost positive she was about to say something obvious like, "Maybe because some crazy woman was kicking her door in? I remember doing that a few times.", but she had learned some restraint over the years. She walked over to the window and placed her hands on the window's ledge. Closing her eyes she seemed to be focusing.

"She's been gone for almost a half hour already. She felt... Anger and resentment." Nudge shook her head as if to erase was she was seeing. She opened her eyes and looked down again. Then she gasped.

"What?" I asked moving towards her.

"She wasn't alone, Max. Somebody was with her." She said in barely a whisper. "We have to find Ella in order to figure out who it is."

Then a thought dawned on me. "We have to find her before Fang does."

Never underestimate the observance of Nudge. "Max, what haven't you been telling anyone?" Notice how she asked that? Not 'what haven't you told me.'

Awkwardly I looked to the ceiling and then to my shoe. "A lot." I said and started to walk out of the room. Iggy was standing in the hall. He had heard the entire thing.

"That's an understatement." Iggy whispered as passed him. I stopped mid-step.

"And what would you know of it?" I asked.

"Oh not this again,Max!" He stated. "I know more then you give me credit for. I also know that we have no way of finding either of them right now."

"Oh, we can find them!" I exclaimed.

"Fang's tearing up the roads in his car and Ella got picked up by a large vehicle and has a thirty minute lead on us." He interjected.

I would have asked him how he knew that but then I remembered the super-freaky hearing thing.

"Then we split up and track them down." I said.

"On what? Bicycles? Neither me, nor Nudge here, drives if you haven't forgotten." He said in his 'I'm not being sarcastic, really' voice.

Oh. Yeah. Well that blew Plan A out to some nebulous region of space. "Then what do you propose we do? Wait?" I asked.

"That is an option." He said. I glared at him, a futile move but a deeply engraved reaction. "But I was thinking more along the lines of calling Fang on his cell phone."

I blinked. Twice. "He has a cellphone?" I asked. Why had I not received this memo?

"He does now." Iggy said gesturing to Ella's computer. I was officially confused. "Nudge, guess who has satellite radio? Do you think you could swing it?"

Nudges eyes went wide. "I need a head set, but it's all but done."

Within moments Nudge was seated at the desk and apparently hacking into the system. I can't really explain how she did it, I'm not the uber gifted computer hacker.

Suddenly she gave a resounding sigh. "I can't believe this."

"What?" I asked.

"I can hack into anything else but this is they only time I've ever had to have the name and password. It's so simplistic that there is no back-door." She sighed. "Any guesses?"

Iggy spoke up. "FnickolasFnickolby, password's gotwings. Not very original, is he?"

"And how do you know that?" I asked.

"Max, the walls have ears." He said and shrugged.

Suddenly Nudge jumped up, "Guys, I'm in." She handed the headphones to Iggy.

"We now interrupt your previously scheduled programing for a test of our FANG GET YOUR ASS BACK HERE system." Iggy said. I ripped the head set off. "Ow, Max, I needed those ears!"

Nudge was kind enough to roll her eyes and ignore him, "Guys, their security is closing in, I can only keep it open for a few more seconds!" Nudge exclaimed.

"Fang, it's Max. Please come back. There's a lot of stuff I need to tell you. Don't do anything stupid." I managed to get that out before Nudge gave the dead signal. Now all we could do was wait and hope.