AN: So, I read somewhere that disclaimers aren't ACTUALLY required-
Jared: Um that was on someone's profile-
Me: Shut up and let me talk, will ya?
Jared: Fine, fine...just trying to be helpful.
Me: You beating up JP for not giving me the rights to this story would be IMMENSELY helpful.
Jared: Whatever...
Me: Anyway, so we don't exactly have to do it. I hope some of you are aware of it...but it just seems to be tradition.
Jared: Are you done yet? I want to go get ice cream!
Me: I have no money!
Jared: What about that twenty that you keep on your-mpjha
Me: Ha. Duct tape always works!
Jared: MMMPH-ha got it.
Me: Oh crap!
Jared: That's right, you better run, you-
Max: Keep it PG, okay, imaginary talking zebra I shouldn't be seeing.
Jared: My name is Jared, and I am NOT imaginary.
Fang: Then why is one of your stripes purple?
Jared: IT'S A BIRTHMARK!
Max: Suure it is, Jack.
Jared: My name is-
Max: I know what your frigging name is, you buffoon.
Me: You're starting to bore my readers.
Max: -Sigh-
Fang: -glares-
Jared: -punches Max-
Max: Do you want to die?
Jared: Do you?
Max: -chases Jared around with a hockey mask and a knife-
Fang: This isn't Friday the 13th, Max...
Me: -hands popcorn to Fang-
Fang: Cool, where did you get that?
Me: IT IS A SECRET!
I've practiced this for hours
gone round and round
And now I think I've got it all down
And as I say it louder I love how it sounds
'Cause I'm not taking the easy way out
No wrapping this in ribbons
Shouldn't have to give a reason why
It's no surprise I won't be here tomorrow
I can't believe I stayed here till today
Yeah you and I will be a tough act to follow
But I know in time we'll find this was no surprise
- No Surprise, Daughtry
The bleeding wasn't stopping like it should. Angel landed in front of Max's house feeling very dizzy. She just had to get inside and get the bleeding under control. Blood continued streaming down her arm. She staggered foward another step, feeling dizzy. But the person who opened the door was not Max or Fang. It was Iggy.
"Who's there?"
"Iggy...my arm is bleeding. Can you help me?"
"Hello Angel. Haven't heard from you in a while. Max is in quite the state...I'll bring you inside. How'd you hurt your arm, by the way?"
"Something attacked me," Angel lied smoothly. "Could you hurry? I think I'm about to collapse."
"That bad?" She nodded and let him led her into the closest bathroom.
"So, where did you go by the way?" he asked as he blindly searched the area for a sewing kit.
"I went to see Gazzy. I thought he might need to see me at least once more. Turns out I was right." Iggy ran his hand along her arm, searching for a place to start on sealing the cut.
"What's this? It feels like there are more injuries...but they aren't bleeding. They feel old. Angel, is there something you're not telling me?"
"Just fix my arm please," the blonde deadpanned, stifling her panic. Iggy nodded and didn't question things further. He finished patching up her arm a few minutes later in complete silence. When he was finished, Angel left the bathroom and found Max sitting in the living room, staring at the floor.
"Max, I'm-" The rest of her apology was never heard as Max wrapped her up in a suffocating bear hug.
"Oh, Angel, I'm so glad to see you're safe!" She limply fell against Max's chest, feeling weak from blood loss.
"What's wrong?"
"Max..." She continued falling, and then everything went black.
Maximum Ride Maximum Ride Maximum Ride
"Did you know about this?"
"N-no, I had no idea!"
"Iggy..."
"Alright, I had my suspicions, like Fang. But don't drag Nudge into this. She didn't know anything. Same goes for Ella and your mom." There was a silence. Angel stirred, listening to the voices around her. Nobody paid any attention.
"She definitely needs help, then. I don't want to watch her fall apart any futher than she already has."
"There's no way Angel is going to be willing to go to a therapist."
"I agree," Fang spoke quietly.
"I'm not telling the others. At least not yet. You got word about the Gasman, Iggy?"
"He's being released tomorrow after a physical checkup. Nudge and I are going out there to pick him up. Should we go by plane?"
"Too expensive now...just fly there yourself. Nudge can fly, can't she?"
"I think she might be too far along. It's hard for her to get off the ground." Angel shifted again, feeling herself come back into the world she had been unawares in for some time now. Nudge is pregnant.
"Oh I have been meaning to ask you, did Jeb figure out if the child would be one of us?" Max asked, crossing over to where Iggy sat at the dining room table. Still none of them bothered to take notice of Angel, who was almost completely awake now.
"Let's not get off track," Iggy said hastily, distracting Max temporarily. "Angel has some...issues that still need to be addressed. There's no way she was going to reveal this to us. No doubt it's a cause of all her abuse from her foster father that you told me about."
"All I know is that the abuse was physical. There is probably more to it that we'll only know from Angel, once she starts talking. But it's only been a few days. Hardly enough time to heal from any trauma. And she's had three years of it." Angel sat up on the couch, rising out of unconsciousness. No one heard her, so no one was alerted to this event. Meanwhile, Max and the others were intensely focused on their conversation.
"Group therapy sounds like a good idea for her. Maybe being around other people will get her to trust again." In that moment she knew they were discussing her fate. I have to get out of here.
"Shouldn't we ask how Angel feels about this?" Max asked, glancing at the door that lead out of the kitchen. Angel went into Max's bedroom, searching for paper.
"I think the answer is obvious," Fang spoke up grimly. "She's going to deny anything's wrong and continue to try and hide this. Face it, if she hadn't gone to Iggy, we'd all still be in the dark about this. Life would continue, and one day Angel would take things too far. Do you want to live the rest of your life feeling guilty for something like that?"
Ah, paper. Now for a pen...she scanned the messy desk for any sign of what she seeked now. Seconds later the pen was in her hand and she cleared a space for the paper.
"You have a good point there, Fang."
"I might want to call Nudge and have her start packing..."
Dear Max, Angel wrote. She had to get the words on paper so that she understood just a little.
"Fang, could you get the cookies out of the oven?" There was a knock at the door. Angel paused, wondering who could possibly be coming by for a visit.
"I'll get it!" Iggy all but shoved Max aside in his race to the front door. Angel continued writing. She had filled almost half the page now.
"Hi, Ella! Come on in."
"Heard Angel finally came back," Ella said. "Hope you don't mind that I brought Nudge with me. She really wanted to see Angel...it's been quite some time."
"Three years," Max said, nodding in agreement. Meanwhile, Angel was busy upstairs, unbeknowest to everybody. "She should be right on the couch." She turned. Too slow. Too late. The couch was empty. Max blinked, trying to remain calm.
"Ange, honey?" she called. "We have visitors." She searched the downstairs bathroom. Empty. The kitchen was empty, except for Fang, who was currently having difficulties getting off an oven mitt. Max sighed and yanked the troublesome object off his hand.
"Really, you'd think you never watched the Food Network before," she muttered. Fang didn't say anything, but just continued with piling the cookies onto a large glass plate. "I'll be right back. Gotta find Angel and make sure she's presentable for company."
Love, Angel she concluded. The pen rolled out of her hand and to the beige carpet below her. She folded up the paper once. It was complete. She glanced toward the already open window. A gentle breeze teased her blonde ringlets. Need a shower. I'll get one soon.
Only one room left to check...Max turned and saw her bedroom door was shut tight. She turned the door knob.
Angel took a few steps toward the window. The door was starting to open. She had to get out now. Just as she dropped out of sight, Max came into the room.
"Angel? Are you in here? Don't play games with me now. Ella and Nudge want to see you and they aren't taking no for an answer." Silence. Angel struggled to remain airborne and unseen at the same time.
"Angel?" She turned and flew off, tears spilling down her cheeks. I'm sorry, Max, but I have to do this. A feather lazily drifted to the ground. Max turned and walked out of the room, thinking that Angel had decided to hide off somewhere else in the house. The note lay there, not to be read for a while now. As she changed direction, she delved into Nudge's mind, and realized that she would be the one to discover it.
'You know my secret. So I have to leave' she mentally said to Nudge. With that, she climbed higher into the sky, out of range now.
Maximum Ride Maximum Ride Maximum Ride
"Where is she?" Ella asked as Max came back down. Nobody noticed Nudge slip upstairs into the same room Max had just been in.
"I don't know."
"I'll look outside," Iggy offered. Fang went with him, silently offering to be his eyes. Ella looked worried. She bit her lip and looked up at Max. Suddenly, there was a piercing shriek from upstairs.
"Nudge!" Max breathed. Her eyes were wide with fear. They exchanged a glance and ran up into Max's bedroom to find Nudge shaking, holding a letter filled with Angel's handwriting. Fang and Iggy burst into the room, not even breathless from the long sprint they had to make all the way here.
"What is it?"
"Angel isn't coming back."
"Give me that," Max said, snatching the paper from her. She quickly scanned it. Ella carefully read out loud over her shoulder for Iggy's benefit.
Dear Max,
By the time you read this, I'll be long gone. No, I won't be dead, but you still will never be able to reach me. There is no reason to worry. I made this decision. I don't need to be sent to therapy. Everything is perfectly fine. You rescued me. Now you can get on with the life you had before you were forced to pity me.
You may think you were right in trying to send me off to group therapy, but I think otherwise. Everyone has their own way with dealing with certain things. I'm not hurting anyone by doing this. I can stop when I want. I've got things under control, so don't worry so much.
Yes, I am going to a safe place. I'll call you from a pay phone. Nobody can trace it. And we'll only talk for a short time. So, don't get your hopes up. I'm perfectly fine, though. I'm going to find a place to continue my education. I haven't given up on school, obviously.
Just because I'm leaving you guys for good, doesn't mean I don't love you. Remember that when you think of me at night, Max, blaming yourself for something that was going to happen anyway. I'll always keep each of you in my heart. I'll never forget you, Nudge, and your incredible ability to put fashion over everything else. Iggy...I'll always be sorry that I never got to know you before the incident that made you blind forever. Fang, you'll always be like a big brother to me. Don't forget that. Ella though I haven't known you as long you have been an incredible friend, like a sister to me. And Gazzy, if you're there, I'll always love you, best brother in the world.
Maybe I'll take a leaf out of your book, Fang, and start a blog of my own. I don't know. It's a big world out there. But not too big. We'll probably cross paths one last time, but I doubt it. So this is my goodbye. My whole life has been a...maximum ride, thanks to you Max. You will always be my favorite.
Love,
Angel
The resulting silence was deafening. Absolutely nobody had any idea as to what to say. Max's hands were shaking, her eyes bright with unshed tears. Nudge had her hand over her mouth. Iggy stared silently at the floor. Even Fang, who was normally an impassive rock, showed some sign of outrage and helplessness.
"What do we do now?" Ella asked, her voice wobbly as she choked on her own tears. In that moment, Max said something completely out of character.
"Nothing. We let Angel run away."
Maximum Ride Maximum Ride Maximum Ride
"I'm busting you out, brother," Angel said. Hours had passed since she left the flock for good, ready to start a new life on her own.
"Are you going back to the others?"
"Not a chance with that. You?" Gazzy shook his head. "Let's go start a life of our own, then. How do you feel about starting school?"
"Really?" A faint smile appeared on his face. "We'd actually get to go to school?"
"Sure, we're older now. We can go around without supervision."
Gazzy was discharged from the hospital a short time after that, and then soon they were flying high over the city. Angel realized she really needed to clean up. Her situation was getting desperate at this point, so they made a stop at a hotel for the night. Angel, using the Max card she took with her when she had gotten adopted, was able to purchase a penthouse suite at the very top of the exquisite hotel.
"Wonder how much money it's got," Gazzy mused as he stretched out on the other bed. Angel turned on the TV, already changed into her old clothes, but not feeling as awful after a hot shower to clean all the dirt off.
"Don't know," Angel said. "Maybe it's a debit card that goes to an account that belongs to Jeb."
"Huh. Maybe. That wouldn't surprise me."
"In that case we're set for life."
"We really aren't going back?" Gazzy asked quietly.
"No," Angel whispered. "We can't."
"Why, though? What happened between you and Max that is making it so hard for you to go to her?"
"That is none of your business," the blonde replied coldly. "I'm taking first watch. You get some rest." Night was beginning to fall. For the first time, she was alone with her thoughts, unprotected by distractions and the world of light.
Never good enough
The whispers began, relentless as always.
"Don't want to listen to you." Her voice was barely heard even by her own self. Gazzy was fast asleep on his bed, oblivious to the situation.
You deserve nothing but pain
Worthless, just like all your efforts
She took another step forward, not even realizing how far she had traveled until she blinked herself back to reality.
Nobody will love you
Leaving won't faze them
What should she do to earn their love?
What makes you think that you ever will?
Angel screamed, but nobody heard. It was all in her mind. Was that better, or worse, than what it could be? Automatically the razor was over an unmarked area of skin. She twitched the shining silver blade, and a cut formed. Blood trickled down her arm. She looked up to see Gazzy standing there. His normally bright blue eyes were cold with betrayal.
"So, this is why you run away, to hide a secret from the others. And to think I thought of you as a brave little sister."
"Looks like I made a mistake in letting you tag along," Angel said calmly. "This is where we bid farewell. Forever. Goodbye, Gazzy." She jumped out the window and flew off into the night. A bloodstained razor was all she had left behind.
Maximum Ride Maximum Ride Maximum Ride
"May I ask why you are here so late?" Dr. Martinez asked, at the last of her patience. Max sighed and just let herself in, Fang right on her heels. It was evident that Max had been crying. Dr. Martinez switched from tired annoyance to worry in less than a second. Although Max was more open with her emotions these past few years, seeing her upset still brought out her motherly instincts. Ella had already come home, and Gazzy just a couple hours afterward, not telling anyone where he had been, thankfully saving a trip for Iggy and Nudge.
"Angel's gone," Fang said. Max silently stared at the floor and held up the letter. Dr. Martinez took it and carefully read it. When she had finished, she let out a shaky sigh, setting the letter aside.
"Have you been looking for her?" Max's mother asked. Very slowly, Max shook her head, more tears filling up in her already red-rimmed eyes.
"Max thinks we should wait and see if she changes her mind, but..." Fang shook his head in an attempt to keep back the emotion. It had been easy around the flock, but when surrounded by Max, plus her mother, it just made things harder to deal with in his own special way.
"Angel, she..." Max whispered hoarsely. "She's been hurting herself."
"You know what you need to do?" She looked up at her mother. "You need to find her before it's too late, because I may be no therapist, but it is unlikely that Angel will come back on her own." Max nodded and wiped fresh tears away. After a minute she hardened, looking more like her old self.
"Let's track down our baby, Fang." He couldn't help but smile at seeing the fight return to her eyes.
"Now, who wants cookies?" Dr. Martinez offered.
"Can't have a mission without cookies," Fang pointed out. Max rolled her eyes and playfully punched him on the arm. Ella came out, sleepily rubbing her eyes.
"What's going on?"
"Nothing," Max and Fang said at the same time. It was still a habit of Max's to protect Ella this way so she wouldn't try to get involved.
"I smell cookie dough," Ella said. "Mom never makes cookies unless someone's really upset. Did someone get hurt?"
"Do you not remember what happened earlier today?" Fang asked. She shook her head and went into the kitchen.
"She blocked the memory of that note," Max said. "Trauma."
"Just give it a little bit, she'll come around."
"I'm not so sure that will be a good thing."
"Couldn't sleep?" Dr. Martinez said. Ella nodded.
"Can I help you with the cookies?"
"Flour's right there."
"Why can I smell cookie dough if you haven't gotten started yet?" She suspiciously looked around the kitchen. "Did you get that scented air freshener I told you about, Mom?" Dr. Martinez just smiled. Ella got the flour out. A bowl and several measuring cups sat on the counter. Ella carefully began to measure out the flour while Dr. Martinez preheated the oven.
"Alright, now for the sugar..." The familiar process continued, and just as they were adding the chocolate chips, Ella remembered what happened yesterday. The breath rushed out of her, and she nearly dropped the chocolate chips in shock.
"Ella?"
No response. Gazzy came into the kitchen looking very confused. He had been working on a bomb all this time and hadn't been distracted from his work until now. He stood there, watching the scene.
"Ells, honey, what's wrong?" Dr. Martinez set down the measuring cup. Ella's eyes were blank as a flurry of memories rushed through her. Oh God, the note! Angel really left! How could have I blocked out such a thing? How foolish of me! I have to apologize to Max about how I was acting earlier! She must really hate me now. I don't blame her. Off to find Ma-
"What's going on?"
"I...don't know. Ella just froze. She won't respond to anything."
"She's probably remembering when Max read the letter from Angel. She'll snap out of it." Suddenly, Ella blinked and steadied herself as the world spun a little from holding her breath so long. She let it out in a gust and sucked in more air just as quickly, causing everything to settle back into place.
"What just happened?" asked Gazzy, his blue eyes filled with worry. For a second, he looked a lot like his eight year old self from so long ago.
"I'm fine, don't worry about me," Ella said finally. "Sorry to scare you like that Mom. Want me to help finish with the cookies?" For the remainder of the night everyone tried to act normal. Max and Fang spent the night at Ella's house, Max taking the couch and Fang sleeping on the floor beside her. But nobody was sleeping, not really. For Max still secretly wished for Angel's return and Fang, well he was Fang. He always knew what was on his girlfriend's mind. Well, wife actually, this past year. Gazzy, of course, was worried the most, being the blood brother of Angel and having only just seen her hours before.
Meanwhile, a preteen bird kid made her way through the streets of South Dakota, travelling on foot rather than by air. A hand came down on her mouth and was soon replaced by a strange smelling rag. Angel's eyes rolled back in her head and she sank to the ground in a crumpled heap.
An: Not as long as my usual, but I hope you liked this chapter. So Gazzy's back home, Angel's all alone, and who knows what's happened to her...well we shall find out! By the way, sorry for the long author's note at the beginning. Got a little carried away there! But...it's all part of my AWESOMENESS and without my awesomeness, where would we be?