Fang's POV

Angel's case had been closed for a while, about 6 months ago, when the team kept hitting dead ends. A month later, I'd found Max, but never would I have ever suspected that the two could possibly have been related.

After pacing my office for hours on end debating on what I should do with the information, I ignored the fact that it was 3 in the morning and called Iggy. He picked up with a groggy, "This better be good, Fang, or you're not going to hear the end of it tomorrow."

Brushing past his idle threat, I continued, "Iggy, was there anyone else with Angel?"

I could hear the rustling of his covers as he got out of bed. "Angel? Geez, Fang, are you still working on that case? It closed ages ago."

"I know it's been idle, but…" I hesitated because the words sounded crazy even to my ears. "Angel knew Max."

"Did Max tell you this? Was it a memory?" He sounded condescending.

"No, nothing like that. She was looking through my black books, and she pointed at Angel's picture, looked me directly in the eye, and told me she had seen her at the flea market. She said Angel knew her name."

"What?" Iggy's voice held disbelief. "Angel's alive?"

"She must be. Max talked to her."

"I don't know Fang. Something doesn't seem right. The chief would want to know about this, though."

I scoffed. "Are you kidding? I was almost put on probation for being too obsessed."

Iggy sighed. "Fine, I'll take care of the chief." Bingo.

"Yes, Iggy. Thank you. I'll see you at work tomorrow."

"You knew how this conversation was going to end didn't you?"

I smirked. "Goodnight."

Max's POV

Fang had me wait outside the chief's office while he paced back and forth, but I wasn't sure why I was there. He had snatched the black book away from me after I'd shown him Angel's picture, and he kept telling me not to worry about her case. I had never seen him so antsy before.

"You're making me nervous," I told him. He glanced up at me, but ignored me and kept pacing.

Finally after too many intense minutes, Iggy peeked his head through the cracked door. "Chief wants to see you guys."

The man who Fang and Iggy called chief was actually a woman, a proper looking lady named Valencia Martinez.

"So you're Max," she greeted. "The same Max who brought my Ella home?"

What?! "Ella's your daughter?" I asked wondrously. "How is she?"

Valencia smiled softly. "She's okay. I'm glad that I'm getting the chance to say thank you in person."

I returned the smile. The chief was much kinder than I'd expected, especially after hearing all the horror stories Fang and Iggy told about how strict and stern she was. Perhaps scaring her employees just came with the territory of being chief, but I wasn't scare of her at all. "Um, Ms. Martinez…"

"Just call me Valencia," she offered. I noticed Fang and Iggy exchange a surprised look.

"Oh, ok. Um, Valencia, I'm not sure why I'm here."

Her expression turned serious, and she gestured to the chair in front of her desk. "Max, I need you to tell me exactly what happened the day you saw Angel."

With Fang's encouragement, I told her every detail I could remember. When I was finished, she nodded slowly and began gathering papers from a drawer. I peeked and saw that they were forms.

"Well, Angel was kidnapped 4 years ago, when she was 2 years old," she began. "She disappeared from her bed in the middle of the night without a trace. Since then, there'd been a few similar cases of children disappearing and kidnappings that gave us leads, but at some point, the unsub just stopped. Maybe he died or moved away, we don't know, but we tried to piece together the information we had so that we could at the very least recover the children or the bodies, but we just kept chasing our own tails." She then looked to where Iggy and Fang stood. "Fang was the lead in that case, and Iggy was his right hand."

Fang's hands were clenched into fists, and he grit his teeth. "I looked Angel's parents in the eyes and promised them I'd get her back."

And just like that, I understood why Angel's case was in his black book, why he hadn't sleep that night I told him I saw her, why he hadn't stopped pacing. His eyes were filled with hurt, and for the first time since I'd met him, he appeared completely transparent and vulnerable.

Iggy placed a hand on Fang's shoulder in comfort. "We all did, but it was a promise none of us could keep. It's highly unlikely for kidnapped children to survive past 72 hours, let alone 4 years."

"When the next child disappeared with the same m.o., we assumed Angel was already dead." Valencia continued. "So if we can be sure that Angel's alive, we can revive the case."

"Chief?" Fang questioned in disbelief. "Are you serious?"

She grinned. "And I'll even make you lead, on one condition. Max gets put on the case." So that's what the forms were for.

"No," Fang immediately opposed shaking his head. "I'm sorry, Chief, but I don't think that's a good idea."

Valencia gave him a warning look. "Well, I think it's a great idea. She might have a history with Angel that we're unaware of."

"But she's just as clueless," Fang argued. "Plus, she's not trained to be in the field. You'd be putting a citizen at risk."

"I'm sorry to dive right into the fire," Iggy interrupted. "But Max is sitting right here."

Valencia and Fang stopped their arguing as Iggy asked, "Max, what do you think?"

The sudden bomb of information thrown at me had me speechless so that I was barely listening to the conversation. All I could think about was Angel locked up and starving in some tiny room in the attic, muffling her cries against her teddy bear, alone and terrified.

The same Angel knew me. And I'd let her walk away.

I was scared, and for the first time, I didn't want to remember. Fang was right. My brain was clearly trying to protect me from something, and I'd be stupid to try to fight myself.

But this also wasn't about me.

So I swallowed past the fear and crushing sadness and slowly turned to Fang. "Angel's case. It's important to you, right?"

He shrugged. "Don't worry about me, Max."

But of course I'd worry about him.

Then I faced Iggy, "And it's important to you too."

He nodded.

So then finally, I faced Valencia, who raised her eyebrows in amusement and wonder. "I want to do it. I might be useless because I can't remember anything, but I'll do whatever it takes."

Valencia smiled at my resolve, and I let out a heavy breath.

"Let's bring Angel home."