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Chapter 7; Hypocrite
For a long while, Fang stood there stunned, the phone to his ear, Iris propped on his hip absently 'fixing' his hair, which was Iris speak for tying it in knots while she tried to braid it. He was wearing an old T-shirt with stains on the front and flecks of paint on it, and a pair of sweats that weren't in any better condition.
He was barefooted, and standing in the kitchen of his and Max's apartment trying to figure out how the hell to make an 'Ambrosia Salad', since that's what Iris had insisted she was going to have for her snack, and he knew the child was stubborn enough to not eat ANYTHING ELSE.
She had too much of Max in her.
His heart was hammering in his chest, and lately, that wasn't a good thing... For the past few weeks he hadn't been feeling well at all. Of course, the fact that Aaron had shown up on their doorstep three days before saying that he and Nudge had broken up, hadn't helped him recover from whatever virus the kids had brought back from daycare.
He ached all over, and he'd missed class for the past week because he'd been so deeply asleep not even Max had been able to wake him up long enough to get showered and dressed.
But, now his heart was thudding away, and he was getting quite light headed because of it...
"Daddy, are you OK?" Iris asked quietly, putting a small hand on either side of his pale face.
On the other end of the phone he could hear unsteady breathing and in his head that voice echoed...
He knew that voice... And it broke his heart to hear it...
"Uncle Aaron!" Iris said in a panicked whine, trying to draw backward from her father, her little fuzzy wings beating so that if her father collapsed like he looked about ready to do, she might be able to break her own fall by flapping.
Aaron, who'd just stood off the couch to walk toward the bathroom turned his head and rushed forward, snatching the little girl off Fang's hip and watching as the other young man slid to a sitting position on the floor.
"Nick, are you still there?" The voice on the other end of the phone whispered.
Fang cleared his throat, finding his breath and pressing a hand to his chest in hopes of stilling his runaway heart.
"Yeah..." He squeaked. "I'm here."
Silence...
"Daisy? Daisy, come on, don't shush up on me now... What's wrong, are you OK? Where have you been?" His mind had kicked into father-mode and worry ate away at the pit of his stomach. He hadn't seen his sister in nearly five years... Hadn't heard anything on her condition, hadn't heard any news whatsoever. So, to suddenly receive a phone call from her... He felt like he was going to have a heart attack.
And on the other end of the phone there was a sob, followed quickly by a strained voice that sounded rough and cracked; "I missed you so much... Are you OK? Is everyone OK?"
Fang leaned his back against the cabinet behind him and cupped a hand to his forehead; "Yeah, Daisy... Everyone's OK... What about you?"
"I... I'm OK..." She snuffled pathetically; "I'm so sorry, Nick... I'm so so sorry we left you... She m-made us... S-said we h-had to keep Em-ember s-safe..."
"Ember... Is Ember OK?" Fang felt his stomach churning and he knew, when this conversation was over, he'd be bowing before a certain Porcelain God and spending the rest of the day in bed.
"Ember's fine..." After a moment, in which Fang pictured a seven-year-old version of his sister twisting the phone cord around her finger, he heard words that made him grind his teeth and fight the urge to scream and pound the floor in rage.
"We're not safe with her anymore, Nick... A-angel's gone too far... I don't f-feel safe around her anymore... I'm scared."
Fang nodded, swallowing with some difficulty, his thoughts swirling, replaying every conversation he and Max had had about Angel and the others over the past five years... More specifically the one they'd had the night after it had ended... The night he'd been lying in the hospital recovering from surgery on his wing and the wounds dealt to him by Omega.
Max had been curled in the bed beside him, Igneous, Epiphany and Iris between them, curled against Fang's chest, or their baby fingers around his fingers... The heart monitor had been beeping out its near frantic cadence, the alarms silenced since he wasn't actually in V-fib, his heart was just naturally fast.
He'd been unable to sleep... Plagued by nightmares that seemed to be horribly intense because of the high dosages of pain killers he'd been on. Max was lying there, her forehead pressed against his whispering soft reassurances in their secret language and telling him how much she loved him... They'd discussed creating a new word, since they really didn't have one that meant what love was really supposed to mean... They had a word for it that was used with sarcasm... That made them think of whitecoats and pain and how much the scientists had 'loved' to run tests on them... Fang remembered he'd shaken his head when she'd suggested they use 'Rashi' as their new word, then he'd motioned to the sleeping babies between them and made that soft chirping noise in his throat and Max had chuckled when all three of them had stretched and their tiny wings fluttered...
"That means love, Max..." He said in a strained whisper, "We don't need to make up a word, we already have one..."
Max sighed and petted their children's soft fuzzy wings then the subject changed; "We have to find Ember... We've got to get her back... Angel should have turned around to help... Or at least sent SOMEONE back to help..." She stifled a sob and scrubbed her face. "If she wouldn't let anyone come help then there's something wrong with her... My Angel would never have done that..."
"She's not your Angel anymore, Max... She's changed... We all have."
Max's lip trembled and she nodded; "I just hoped she'd changed for the better... Not this."
"Nick? Nick, are you still there?"
Daisy's voice broke through the haze of memories and he nodded to himself, as if finalizing his decision.
"Daisy... I need you to get Ember away from her... Get Ember away from her and come home..."
Daisy's breath was nothing but choked rasps and for a long while Fang feared she would simply hang up on him and this would be the absolute last time he'd ever hear from her...
But, then her voice broke through the line again, one simple word before the phone was slammed back down on the hook and everything was dead silent.
"Okay..."
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NOW we start getting to the plot! YAY! FINALLY!
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