Chapter 6: Sonogram

I'll be honest, I didn't think anyone would like the last chapter. I'm horrible at writing the "action" parts of stories. I'm much better at writing romance and filler. Oh well, I guess it could have been worse. However, now the Erasers aren't going to be anywhere near the lovebirds for a while, so I don't have to worry about it.

Ok, you guys can all thank pearl24 for submitting the 40th review and earning you all a sneak peak of my new story! Technically, one of the reviews was someone telling me they thought my prologue was too descriptive, but I'll let it slide this time. You're welcome. Sneak peak at the end of the chapter, but you have to read the chappie first!

Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride or Entertainment Weekly. I do own my characters though, and Babies for Beginners. (I think. It's not a real place, is it?)


Fang POV:

I looked up at the blue and white building. Meredith was beaming and looked pretty proud of herself. The sign above the doors said Babies for Beginners-Pregnancy Center. Below that, in smaller letters, A non-profit organization. All ages welcomed, no judgment passed! It sounded perfect. Max was quiet, taking it in.

"I looked this place up when I first came here," Meredith explained. "They helped me a lot. They provide free sonograms and parenting lessons, and everyone here is super nice! They didn't judge at all, and they helped me keep the baby. I didn't know how I would get through without aborting, but they offer financial help too. At least, as much as they can." She motioned with one hand and walked inside.

I took Max's hand, "What do you think?" I murmured. It may have been both of our doing, but the baby was really Max's to carry. I could walk away right now if I wanted to. Not that I want to or would.

"Let's go check it out," She said, and we followed Meredith inside.

It looked similar to a doctor's office, but I didn't stiffen up or feel defensive when we walked in. For one, the main resemblance was to a pediatrician's office, not a hospital. It had chairs set out in a waiting room with magazines on scattered coffee tables. A pregnant woman was reading a back issue of Entertainment Weekly while a man across the room watched the hallway, probably waiting for his wife. (He had a wedding ring.) A receptionist sat behind a desk next to a hallway. I could hear an infant crying from one of the rooms. It also didn't smell like all chemical-like. The pregnancy center smelled like baby powder and leather and very faintly of dirty diaper.

Max looked around with curious eyes. "Why can't hospitals be like this?" She asked. I shrugged.

Meredith walked up to the receptionist, one hand on her bulging stomach. "Hey Sally!" She said cheerfully.

The receptionist, who must have been Sally, looked up from her computer. She smiled. "Hello, Meredith. How are you? Any trouble?"

"Nope, Tyler seems just fine. I just wish pregnancy came with less side effects." Sally smiled.

"At least it's only a few more months."

Meredith shrugged. "Anyway, I'm not here for me and Tyler," She motioned for me and Max to come forward. Max rested her head on my shoulder. "This is Max and her boyfriend Fang. Max is-well, I think you know."

Sally looked us over with blue eyes that were intelligent but kind. She had grayish hair and appeared to be in her late forties or early fifties. Max stepped slightly closer to me.

"Of course. I'll have one of our interns show you around. Feel free to make yourself feel at home. We'll have a nurse with you as soon as you're ready."

"Thank you," Max said. Sally called for an intern on her pager. A moment later, a college-age girl with black hair hanging to her waist came down the hallway next to Sally's desk.

"Hi guys. I'm Ana, and I'll show you around the center." It didn't escape my notice that her jade green eyes flicked up and down my body a couple of times, checking me out. Sadly, it didn't escape Max's notice either, and we all know how Max gets when a girl so much as glances at me. My crazy girlfriend snarled at our guide, and I knew her eyes were flashing with her signature back-off-now-or-you-will-die look. Ana backed up. "Uh, let's go, shall we?" She said nervously, turning and walking down the hallway. A nurse came to take Meredith back for a checkup.

As Max and I followed Ana, I slid my hand out of Max's and used it to brush her hair away from her neck, which I then proceeded to kiss softly. "You are an overprotective b****. Chill out. I love you," I whispered, wrapping my arms around her waist. "It is incredibly sexy when you get pissed though." I added as an afterthought.

Max giggled, and Ana looked at us funny before showing us the first room. Inside were about ten women, all at varying stages of pregnancy. Each one was holding baby doll, and the youngest appeared to be in her early twenties. Eight of them had a man sitting with them, listening to the non-pregnant teacher show them how to swaddle their baby doll. "We give parenting lessons to beginners. Things like behavioral advice, potty training ideas, how to make your baby happiest, that sort of thing."

We kept walking. The next three rooms looked the same as each other, with a hospital bed hooked up to a machine with a monitor and wires connecting to something that vaguely resembled a book scanner at the library. In one room, a woman and her husband were looking at an ultrasound. They looked so happy, it made my heart ache. That man was smart enough not to get the girl he loved knocked up at fifteen. It probably showed more affection to wait until a healthy time. Oh well, too late to realize that now.

The last room had a nurse giving a sobbing infant a check-up. Meredith was waiting in a chair by the door, and she waved at us. Max waved back and I nodded. "This is the check-up room. The nurses know the signs of a healthy or unhealthy infant or pregnancy. However, birthing must be done at the hospital down the street. We don't have the authority to administer treatment other than bed rest.

"So what do you think?" Ana asked. "We get all of our funds from fundraisers and charity events or donations from local businesses or schools or churches. We also give free sonograms and supplies, to an extent."

"It sounds amazing," Max said, "Thank you."

Meredith walked down the hallway with a nurse next to her. "Max, do you want to come get an ultrasound?" The nurse asked. Meredith flashed us a thumbs-up. Max and I looked at each other.

"What do you think?" She asked.

"I think we should. It's free, unlike at the hospital, and it can give us a feel for what our baby will…be like," Max knew I meant mutation-wise. Hopefully Max won't be laying an egg. That would be weird.

"Okay, let's go," Max said. We walked back to the room with the sonogram machine.

"Alright sweetie, lie down on the cot right there," The nurse, named Margie, told Max, gesturing to the bed. Max did while I held her hand. Seeing her lying there holding my hand conjured up a memory that made me chuckle quietly.

"What?" Max asked while the nurse prepared the machine. I shook my head. "Tell me." She commanded.

"This is making me think of the time you said you loved me," I stretched out my arms. "Thiiiiiiis much!" Max swatted at me, laughing.

"It's okay, everyone knows its true now."

The nurse smiled as she rolled an office chair up next to Max. "This is going to be cold," She warned, squirting blue goop onto Max's stomach. Max flinched, then relaxed. I kissed Max's forehead as Margie rubbed the scanner over Max's stomach. "You're very lucky," Margie said as she waited for an image to appear on the screen. "Most guys walk out as soon as their girlfriends break the news. It warms my heart to see two people as genuinely happy as you two in here, even if you are a little young."

Max sighed, "I know, but it's a little late to think about using protection now, isn't it? Now we're homeless with a baby on the way. Meredith said she was going to help us find a condo near her's though."

Margie nodded. "Alright, I'm getting an image," She said, pointing at the monitor. Sure enough, a blurry black-and-white image was appearing slowly. Margie motioned to a white blob near the middle. "This whole thing is Max's womb, and this little blob in the middle is your baby. You can already see that it's growing well for it's age, but we won't be able to determine the gender for a while.

"How pregnant are you?" Margie asked.

Max looked at me uncertainly. "Um, I'm not sure. Five weeks? Six?"

"Six, I think," I said.

"Hm, you look closer to ten weeks," Margie said. "And the heartbeat seems much faster than normal too. That's very concerning. You may need to visit the hospital and see what they think."

Max and I looked at each other, stressed. What were we supposed to say?

"Well," Max said hesitantly, obviously going with the truth. Meredith walked in, wanting to see our results.

"We're not exactly…well Fang and I aren't completely, um, human, per say," Max said nervously.

"What do you mean?" Meredith asked warily, looking at us nervously.

Max looked at me, and very, very slowly, we unfurled our wings. Meredith gasped and Margie pulled back in shock.

"Don't panic!" I said hurriedly. Luckily, neither of them screamed.

"What are you?" Meredith asked.

"Human-Avian hybrids," Max said, "We were experimented on by insane scientists before we were born. They kept us in a lab until we busted out when we were ten. We've been on the run ever since."

"Is that why those guys attacked us on the train?"

I nodded. "We grow faster and have faster heartbeats than normal humans. The baby must be the same."

"Don't say anything to anyone! We're trying our best to keep it a secret. Just, please. We need help, and-" Max's eyes were filling with tears. I kissed her softly.

"Max…." I murmured.

She took a deep breath. "I'm sorry. The hormones are already making me emotional."

Margie breathed through her nose. "Okay, we'll just have to orient your pregnancy schedule around the faster growth. You should be able to find out the sex of the child and feel it move at about twenty weeks normally, so probably closer to thirteen weeks for you. Your pregnancy will probably last six and a half to seven months instead of nine as well."

"Lucky!" Meredith said jealously.

I smiled, and Max grabbed my hand, twining her fingers with mine as Margie cleaned the excess goo off her stomach. Then Max stood up as we prepared to leave.

"Thank you," Max said again. "We would really appreciate it if you didn't tell anyone about…you know. Not even the other nurses."

Margie nodded, her graying hair swishing. "Okay. I'll treat you when you come in again in about two months."

"Do we need an appointment?" I asked.

Margie shook her head. "Nope. Just show up."

"I guess we'll see you then." Max said.

Meredith paid for our tickets on the way back too, despite our protests. This train ride was much more uneventful though, thankfully.

When we got off at the station, Meredith turned to grin at us. "Now let's see about finding you two a home!"


Alright here's a sneak peak of my new story.

Ella POV:

I took a deep breath and pushed on the gate. It swung open with an ominous creaking sound. I steeled my nerves and started walking down the stone path. I pushed open the solid oak doors with wolf-head-shaped brass knockers. They weren't even locked.

Once inside, I was immediately aware of how pitch-black it was. The front door slammed shut behind me. I hadn't touched it, and there was no wind. I was terrified now. But the thought of a date and kissing Ryan Bernoth kept me going.

My eyes adjusted after a moment. The place was full of old furniture and knickknacks. The weird part was, it didn't look abandoned. There were no cobwebs in sight and dust seemed nonexistent. Not only did it look inhabited, it looked like whoever-or whatever-lived here was very neat.

Suddenly, I heard breathing behind me. I turned just in time to see a dark shadow vanish through an archway to the next room. However, it may have just been my imagination.

My hands shaking, I pulled my phone out of my pocket. Time to text Ryan. If anything was here, he had a gun. Ryan could protect me. I wrote a simple text.

coast clr. come on. its drk.

I hit "Send". A second later, a message popped up on the screen. No service. Message cancelled. What did it mean "no service"? I tried to call Ryan instead. It rang for a few moments, then a monotonous, robotic voice said, "Unable to connect. Service unavailable." I started to panic. What the H-E-double golf clubs was going on?

I turned to go out the front door and shout for Ryan and the others to come on, but something blocked the way. I couldn't tell what it was. Suddenly, a dim light turned on. I shrieked. It was an African American girl, about my age, with huge wings extending from her back. A young blonde boy with gray wings flew over to join her. "Don't you people ever learn?" The boy asked.

"Yeah, like, we're not stupid," The girl backed him up. "We have a cell phone jammer. We knew you were coming, like, half an hour ago."

"Who-who a-a-are you?" I was struggling to control my voice. My whole body was shaking.

"That's of no importance to you," A voice said from the shadows next to the winged kids. A new figure emerged and I stifled another shriek. This girl had brown hair and yellow eyes, slitted like a cat's. She had a yellow spotted tail and matching fur down her arms and legs and face. Thorn-sharp black claws were extended from each of her fingers. I backed away.

"I'm sure the master will be very pleased to have a new prisoner. It's been so…quiet," She purred. I focused on not hyperventilating. "The others are outside scaring off your friends." As soon as she finished her sentence, I heard terrified screams and a car starting and rolling away. "Naughty, naughty, bringing a gun. Master won't be pleased."

Suddenly, I heard a deep growling behind me and the clack-clack of claws on marble. Hot breath stirred my hair. "Why, here's the Master now," She said delightedly. I slowly turned around. This time I couldn't hold it in. I screamed as loud as I could.

What do you think? Intrigued? I'll probably post the first chapter tomorrow. It's called An Enchanted Curse. I hope you'll take the time to check it out. Don't think it will take too much time away from this story though. I'll try to update one or the other every weekend.

Eek! Did you guys hear about Japan? Of course you did, what am I asking? Isn't that so scary? And they didn't even have any warning or time to evacuate. Then Hawaii evacuated and all they got were six-foot waves, which are big but not much of a concern. The tsunami in Japan reached up to six miles inland. O_o Six freaking miles! Luckily, I live in hrshmrgl, which is far enough inland and far enough away from a fault line that earthquakes and tidal waves can't reach me. (You didn't reall think I'd give you my real location, did you?) Still...*shudders*. Poor Japanese people. You're in my prayers, Japan!

Review please! Tell me what you thought of the chapter and the excerpt. I love you all! Let's try for 48 reviews. Please? I'll update soon.

Until then, may all your coins be golden and all your flowers bring you fireball powers. (Quoting that from something my little bro just showed me.) ;)