Silence – Chapter 7

By MyNameIsCAL

-Max's POV-

I walked back to my room slowly, trying to absorb what had just happened. Teddy's feelings for me, I guess they were always that obvious, I had just gotten use to them. He knew that I was never going to fall for him though. Having those kinds of feelings for Teddy had never crossed my mind. My heart had always been set on Fang.

Speaking of Fang, he wasn't sleeping when I came into the room, but he sure was trying hard to pretend he was. I got into bed and stared at the ceiling for a while.

"Teddy just stopped by," I said, knowing he had heard us talking. "He said that the files they found about Angel say that they're going to get fixed. Do you know what that means?"

Fang shot up into sitting position, turning on the light on the bedside table. He grabbed his notepad and started to scrawl on it. As I sat up, he thrust it at me.

FIXED = exterminating what makes any of Itex's experiments unique, eliminating special abilities if possible. For us, CUTTING OFF WINGS!

"No…" I dropped the notepad.

Fang's eyes were dark and intense, staring into mine. There was no way he was mistaken.

"I have…I have to tell Teddy." My voice was shaking. The thought of anyone doing something so terrible to Gazzy and Angel made me sick.

Fang nodded and I reached for the phone. After one ring, Teddy picked up.

"Hey, Max, I'm sorry about –"

I cut him off. "Fang told me what fixed meant."

"Oh?" Teddy's mind was somewhere else.

"Wings are what make us special, we can fly. Fixing Gazzy and Nudge means removing them…" I trailed off.

"That sounds…Horrifying," Teddy stuttered. "I'll inform Captain and get them to look through the rest of the files faster. We're gonna find them, I promise, Max."

He shouldn't be promising anything. Lucky for him, I didn't believe in promises all that much.

"Alright, thanks, Teddy," I breathed out.

"And Max?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry about earlier. I wasn't really thinking."

"It's fine," I insisted. "Just…It never happened."

"Yeah, that's probably best," he agreed, sounding reluctant.

"Goodnight, Teddy."

"G'night, Max."

I hung up and settled back into bed, leaning up against Fang. He turned off the light and I could feel his arms come around me. In a few minutes, both of us were asleep.


It only felt like a few minutes later that Fang was shaking me awake. Yet when I had fallen asleep, it was dark. Looking outside, it seemed like the sun had been up for a while.

"What's wrong?" I yawned.

Fang pointed at his ear and then at the door. Listen, he almost seemed to be telling me, so I did listen. After a few seconds, I could pick up what he was hearing. There was someone down the hall, banging things in the kitchen.

"I'll be right back."

I tiptoed down the hall and stopped at the corner. The fact that I had to think about this just showed how out of practice I really was. When was the last time I threw a punch? Too long ago. Maybe since I lost the flock. Well, here went nothing. I pressed myself against the wall and then turned the corner, reading to grab or punch whoever was there.

But it was only Iggy.

"Ig, what are you doing?" I watched him pull plates and pots and pans out of the kitchen cabinets, letting them bang onto the floor, some breaking.

"Where is the fucking Advil!" he growled, still pulling things out. "If Fang wasn't so stupidly in love with you my head wouldn't hurt!"

"Why didn't you wake one of us?" I offered. "I would have been happy to get it for you."

"No!" He chucked a plate across the room. "I'm tired of not being able to do things, tired of people telling me what I can't do!"

"I never said…"

"You were thinking it!" Iggy threw another plate, this one missing me by inches and crashing in the hallway behind me.

Nudge came running out of her room, looking exhausted.

"I don't want to do what you're telling me!" he fumed. "You keep your needles away from me! You…"

He dropped the plate he was holding.

"No, you're…They're not here…" Iggy started to back up, finally running into the counter.

Nudge took a few steps towards him, reaching for his hand. "Ig, listen to me for a minute."

"No…I don't want to anymore," he squeaked, shaking her off.

"Do you know where we are?" Nudge asked, taking his hand again. "IGGY!"

"Nudge, they're going to get us. We're…They're…" It was clear that Iggy was confused.

"Iggy, we're not at the hospital anymore. There are no more doctors to inject with anything, no more doctors to take Fang and hurt him," Nudge said slowly. "We're at Max's house and she's protecting us. Don't you remember?"

The blaze of anger in Iggy's eyes before was now dissipating, like Nudge had thrown water at Iggy to burn it out. Still, Nudge looked like she was going to cry. "Don't you remember, Iggy?"

He didn't answer, leaning against the cabinets and sliding to the floor, tears streaming down his face. She sat next to him and he slouched over, leaning against her.

"Shhh, Iggy, it's okay," she said soothingly. "They'll never hurt you again."

I stood there, watching for a while until Fang wheeled up next to me. He looked at Iggy, a sad look on his face, almost pained. I wanted to break down and to cry too, watching them all on the verge of tears, but I was supposed to be the strong one. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Before I could open them, Fang had taken my hand. When I did open my eyes, Fang's eyes met mine.

It'll be okay, they seemed to be saying. We'll be okay.