Hello again. This is Maximum Ride, the girl who one of these days might actually get to sleep for more than four hours. I'll let you know when that happens. Possibly never.

All right, so. I apologize for the cliffhanger, but we had… guests.

So I let them in, of course, albeit grudgingly in Jeb's case (ooh, look at me, 'albeit'. Those six months total of high school really paid off), and Jeb continued right into the kitchen and sat at the table.

"Max, how are you? Are you all right?" my mom immediately said.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I said. She pulled me into a hug anyway, and I hugged her back—I still don't take those for granted, and I was really glad for the proof that she was still alive, but I wanted to know what they were doing here… and how they knew we were there. "What are you guys doing here?"

"We wanted to make sure you were all right," she said.

"We?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

She sighed. "Jeb really does care about you, Max."

"Are you sure?" I asked. "Have you forgotten that he left us here when I was 12? And sent his seven-year-old son to kill us? And tried to come back out of the blue and take over again for no reason when he had absolutely no right? And tried to kill Fang? Have you forgotten the whole jail-cell-because-he's-criminally-insane thing?"

She sighed. "Honey, I haven't forgotten any of that. But he really cares about you, even if he doesn't show it very well sometimes."

I sighed. "That's so screwed up."

"I never said it wasn't, sweetie. But you have to give him a little bit of a chance. We've got information, anyway."

"Why can't you tell me here?" I asked. She looked over my shoulder at the rest of the flock. I sighed. "Guys, go upstairs, okay? Mom, I'll be right in." She went into the kitchen, too, and they all started to walk upstairs. I shouted as an afterthought, "Ella can have my bed, I'll sleep on the couch later. Iggy, that means Ella. As in, only Ella. Got it?" I heard a small groan and shuffling footsteps towards the boys' room. Fang started up the stairs and I stopped him. "Where are you going? You're coming with me," I said, and we both went into the kitchen.

Jeb immediately frowned when he saw Fang. "No, we need to talk to you alone, Maximum," Jeb said.

"Too bad. You get both of us or neither of us," I said, and he sighed. My mom smiled a little.

"Fine," he said. "Listen to me. We think we have a pretty good idea of who sent those assassins to the island."

I sat up a little straighter. "Who?"

"Well, we've been looking at anyone who's been interested in either you or recombinant-DNA theory in general—" my mom began.

"Like you?" Fang asked, and I looked at him in shock.

My mom went red and asked, "How did you even know that?"

"Back at your house a few years ago, I found books on your bookshelf about birds and DNA, and between them, a picture of baby Gazzy," he said. I remembered that.

"What are you trying to imply?" Jeb asked him, low traces of a threat in his voice. I stiffened, prepared to stop the fighting if it came to it—though honestly I'd like to take a swing at Jeb myself.

"Nothing, just… I'm not sure we can afford to trust anyone anymore," Fang said quietly.

"Okay," I said, standing up. "Can I talk to you?" He shrugged infuriatingly and walked into the hallway. I immediately told him, "That was totally out of line."

"Why?" he asked. "She's a doctor with some incriminating stuff in her house, plus she would've been able to tell them where to go. It makes sense."

I shook my head. "No. Not Mom. She's not a whitecoat, Fang!"

"How can you be sure?"

"Because I am! Do you have a problem with that? Because if you do, then go upstairs and shut up!"

"Fine!" he shouted and stomped up the staircase. I groaned and went back into the kitchen.

"Sorry," I sighed, and sat back down. My mom looked at me, slightly concerned. I shook my head—I'm fine.

"All right, well," Jeb said, "we've been looking into everyone who's ever shown an interest in you. We think we may have found ties to Dr. Gunther-Hagen."

My eyes widened. "He's dead," I said shortly.

"Apparently not," Jeb sighed. "And we said ties, Max, not—"

"Yeah, whatever," I said. "I'm going upstairs. You can have the living room."

"I thought you gave Ella your room," Jeb said.

"I'll figure it out," I sighed, and started to walk up the stairs. I didn't want to think about anything—not Dr. G-H, not Fang, definitely not Mom's Itex-y hobby. Before I could even get halfway up, I heard my mom say to Jeb, "She knows I'm not a part of any of this, right?" I stopped and went back downstairs to listen.

"I'm sure she does, Valencia," Jeb said. So they're on first name terms now? "But maybe you should have hidden those better—"

"Excuse me?" she gasped. I knew that voice. She was getting angry. Jeb had better back off. "Might I remind you that it's your fault I even had those books? Your fault that I had to read theoretical science jargon I haven't bothered to decipher since senior year of high school just so I could know what they were doing to my baby? The baby you told me that I couldn't even carry? I was already pregnant, Jeb, until you evil freaks decided to take her out and put her in a test tube! You didn't tell me that when you told me our daughter was going to save the world! No wonder I left you!"

"Whoa. Back up. What?" I asked, shocked, from the doorway. "You told me I was a test tube baby!"

"Well… you were, eventually," Jeb said.

"Wait, so does that mean that you… ugh," I shuddered. "I think I'm going to be sick."

"Max, get out, this doesn't concern you," Jeb said.

"Excuse me?" I asked, but they weren't even hearing me anymore.

"And to think I gave you another chance! To be a father, one who doesn't whisk their babies away from their wives so you can put wings on her and torture her until you see fit to let her out of her dog crate!"

"What did I do to Ella? Nothing!" Jeb yelled.

"Ella's my full sister?" I asked weakly, but again, they didn't hear.

"And what about Ari?" my mom asked, tears welling up in her eyes. "When I left you, I should have taken him with me, too, and look what it cost me that I didn't! I can't even look at you right now," she said, before dissolving into sobs.

I looked at Jeb. "Get out," I said. "Right now. Sleep in your car for all I care. You're not welcome here."

"It's technically my house, Max," he said.

"GET OUT!" I yelled, and he ran for the door.

I went upstairs and started typing. I'm going to sleep now—in the hallway, because that's just my luck. I don't want to think. I'll be back.

—Max