Author's Note: Here it is. The last chapter. After this the story is no more. I suppose I AM a little sad, I liked this story. But I've got two new projects I'm working on. Get ready for some Angel Angst::laughs evily::. Hope you enjoy this last chapter.

Taking Off: a Nudge Story

Chapter 8

Nudge POV

I had been sitting on the sidewalk across from my "mother's" house when they found me. Hours had passed since I first found that house, but all I'd been able to will myself to do was to sit on the other side of the street and stare at it.

If Itex hadn't taken me, that's where I'd be living. those kinds of thoughts were what ran through my head. I would have swung on that tree in the front yard. I would have learned how to ride a bike in that driveway. I would have grown up in that house, with the red brick and the green shutters. And I would have had that woman for a mother.

I saw her.

About two hours after I had been immobilized on the sidewalk I saw someone open the door and then walk down the steps to the PT Cruiser in the driveway.

Is it possible for someone to look just like me, but completely different at the same time?

I was mesmerized by her from the moment she stepped out of the house. She didn't have honey-brown hair, no. Her hair was a soft black. It wasn't wavy either, or maybe it was and you just couldn't tell by the way she kept it tucked at the nape of her neck. It was the way she held herself that kept me hypnotized. She looked like an important person, like a person with things to do. I'd gotten bored looking at the house and had taken a peek at my mother's file. Before all I'd looked at was the address. Now I looked at the information Itex had gathered in the last couple of years. My mother's name wasn't Melissa, it was Mariah Carson. She did work for a big business, but she was still inching her way to the top. All the same, she held her head high and looked as though she made millions -no billions- for her company each day. I wanted that person to be my mom. She got into her car, and when she drove past me I got a glimpse at her face... a face that looked just like mine.

I resumed my spot on the sidewalk and waited for her to come back. A couple of hours after she left, my Flock came back to me.

They came to me.

When I saw Iggy flying towards me I felt like I was going to barf my heart. I was that happy. When he engulfed me in a hug, I was too happy for words. My tears said it all.

"Don't you ever do that again," he warned once he had let me go. His voice was angry, but his face had crumpled into a sad expression. "Do you know the kind of crap we went through in order to find you? We almost got killed! And God, the tears!"

I was smiling and crying and laughing and sobbing. A wild mix of emotions ran through me, because I was wrong. They did care about me. They did, or they wouldn't have been lining up to hug me.

Actually there was no line. They didn't even wait for Iggy to finish ranting. The Flock kind of just dog-piled on us. But I didn't mind. Even as my hand scraped the street, I didn't care.

I couldn't stop grinning. Even as they all yelled at me.

Max was a little bipolar about it. At first she hugged me, but then she shrieked that if I ever ran away again she'd tear me apart. And then she hugged me again.

The Gasman and Angel did a double tackle on me. I could tell the Gasman was really happy when he exclaimed: "You're not dead!"

There's a word for what I felt. Or if there isn't there definitely should be. It was kind of like joy and happiness and satisfaction and the righting of wrongs put together. Johappisatisrightofwrongification.

Yes, that was what I was feeling. Johappisatisrightofwrongification. And lots of it.

If I had been right then they wouldn't have come. And they wouldn't have gone to Itex just to find me. I was so so glad that I was wrong. Throughout the tearful reunion Max never let me out of her sight and Iggy never let go of my hand. It was as though they were both afraid I was going to run away any moment now and they wanted to catch me before I did. But I wouldn't. I'd seen four days without my Flock and I never wanted to go back to it. And the knowledge that they had seen days without me and didn't want to go back to it either made me grin, even as they were yelling at me. It was when they said that we should probably get out of the middle of the street that I remembered why I was really in Fairport. Fang suggested we get hotel rooms, and I remembered where I'd thought I would be staying. At my mom's.

My eyes flew to her house, and to the empty driveway.

Max followed my gaze. "Have you met your mom yet?"

I shook my head. It shouldn't matter, right? I mean the entire point of finding my mom was to find a replacement family for the Flock. Now that I had the Flock back, I shouldn't need my mom should I?

Iggy squeezed my hand. "You can do that tomorrow," he said a bit forcefully. As though he wouldn't let go of my hand for anything. I decided I liked that, and squeezed his hand back.

"Yeah," Max agreed, "we should check into the hotel. And then you can see your mom..."

I think we both realized what that would mean and the same time. Max gave me a message with her eyes. We need to talk, it said.

I nodded. Nobody else noticed the meaning of those words. Not Iggy, who smiled and grinned. He was no longer sad and no longer angry. Those two emotions had made way for the happiness that now fell on his face.

Iggy grinned and stuck his fist out.

Everyone had already been smiling, but these smiles now broadened. We all stacked our fists on top of his and Max tapped them. Then we hugged each other, everyone joining in. Even Fang came voluntarily. Nobody wanted to miss this moment where our family became whole again.

Do you remember at the begining of this story, when I said I felt like I didn't belong? Do you remember when I said that I didn't have a place in the Flock? I take it back. I take back everything. I finally felt like I belonged, there in the arms of my family. My place in the Flock was between Max and Iggy. That's where I was when we all took off together to fly towards a hotel. That's where I'd always be. Nudge, I decided, would never fly solo again. I was a cruicial piece of the Flock, only it took me a pound or two of heartbreak to realize it.

"We need to talk," Max said.

I was sitting on the bed that me and Angel would share. Max was standing in the doorway blocking any chance for my escape. Not that I wanted to escape. I needed to talk to Max too. Everyone else was downstairs eating at the hotel buffet. Iggy had finally let go of my hand if only to get something to eat. This was the only time we would be alone, and the only time we could talk.

Max sat down on the bed next to me and looked at her lap. I watched her play with her fingers for a few seconds before she turned her head towards me.

"Did... did I hurt you that badly?" Max asked me.

I wanted to say she hadn't, but even though the smiles today had overcome the pain of yesterday, I still remembered myself fresh from running away, crying as I flew.

It was my turn to look at my lap and play with my fingers. I murmured a soft, "Yeah," and we were quiet for a while.

"I'm sorry, then," Max finally said. "I'm sorry for ignoring you Nudge. I don't even know what was wrong with me, except for the fact that I was finally really happy and I hadn't been for forever..." Max scanned my face looking for a reaction, "But that's no excuse. I'm the leader, right? I should have noticed that you weren't yourself. I shouldn't have been so absorbed in myself, to not take time to notice that you were hurting so badly."

"Wrong," I said with a sad smile, "I've been the most selfish brat. I was just jealous of your happiness with Ella and your mom. That's why I couldn't stand that house. I was jealous of everyone else's happiness and couldn't figure out why I wasn't laughing too. But I shouldn't have left. I should've at least attempted to have fun with you all. Only it felt like you were a part of some exclusive club..." I trailed off, not wanting to tell Max how I had felt about the "Blood Club".

After some silence Max stood up and walked to the other side of the room where our bookbags lay. She picked hers up and then sat back down next to me. Max opened her bag and pulled out my diary.

"Forget something?" Max said with a small trace of humor.

My notebook. I took it from her and opened it to the page where I had left. Tearstained, it explained all of my problems with the Martinez house and the Flock. It now seemed like years ago when really it had been a matter of days. It was amazing that I felt completely different now. Now I knew that the Flock cared. But even so as I read the lies I believed, the sadness came pouring back in.

"Did you really think Ella was your replacement?" Max was careful to choose her words. I guess she didn't want to step on a landmine, and I couldn't blame her. My words had been so harsh. Why was I so quick to leave this behind? Why did I want them to find it? To hurt them, I realized. To hurt them as much as they'd hurt me. And it had worked. Max wouldn't have been tiptoeing around her words if it hadn't hurt them.

I wasn't as happy as I'd thought I'd be. In fact I was wholly disgusted with everything I'd done, which was just cause a lot of drama for some petty reasons.

"Yes," I answered truthfully. But my next statement was also true, "I don't anymore. I was so stupid, that I don't want to think about it anymore." To Max's face of disbeleif I insisted. "No, really, can we forget about my stupid runaway attempt?"

Max's eyes narrowed and she grew angry. "Why? Why does everyone want to forget it? I don't want any of my Flock feeling worthless. I don't want them feeling as though they are so unloved that they have to pack up and run away. I don't want us to ever break up for any reason, ever again, but we can't solve the problems if you don't want to talk about it. 'Forget about it', you said. Well what if I can't? I keep reliving how I felt when I'd realized you'd gone, and that you didn't want to be found. That's not going to happen again."

"I'm sorry," I said in all sincerity. And I was. Maybe while I was angry it would have satisfied me to know that Max had felt that bad, but now it just made me cry. "Never again," I promised, "I will never run away again."

Max looked at me as though she didn't believe me. Figuring she'd just have to trust me on this one, Max took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

"Now that that's 'taken care of'," Max said this as though she really didn't believe the conversation was over. But she knew I wasn't going to talk about it anymore so she changed the subject. Max stared square ahead of her at the wall. Still not looking at me she continued, "If your mom wants you back, will you go with her?"

That question left me silent.

I knew that this would come up. Max's look back at my mom's house had been about this question. That was why she wasn't looking at me. She was afraid of what my answer would be.

"Max, look at me." Hesitantly she turned her face until her eyes locked on mine. "I can honestly say, that without a doubt if my mom asks me to live with her I will say no,"

Max's face broke out into a smile and the tears she had been holding back were let go. We shared a moment that only the deepest of friends could share. Wrapped in her arms I realized that I would never give this up, not even for my blood parents. Max was my mom, and also my sister and my best friend all in one. She'd practically raised me. Same as I would never let Iggy's sadness be my fault, I vowed to never make Max cry again.

My heart began pounding at dangerously high levels. No, this rapid heart beat wasn't safe. And since it was this house that made my heart beat so fast, I think I should fly far far away from it.

Only Iggy wouldn't let me.

He'd gone back to not letting go of my hand, for the same reason of making sure I didn't run away. But instead of worrying if I were to run away from him he was on guard to make sure I didn't run away from this house. The hand-holding I could deal with. the not-letting-me-leave I could do without.

Max had told me I didn't have to do this. She'd said this when I began hyperventilating this morning. She looked on worriedly and said that I could back out. I guess she didn't want me to die a day after she'd just gotten me back.

Iggy, however, told me that if I didn't do this now I'd regret it for the rest of my life. He said that it would haunt me until the day I came back to Virginia but by then I would have such a deathly fear of this place that I wouldn't go anywhere near her house. That's why he had been the one to volunteer to come along with me while the others stayed at the hotel.

I was actually glad that he came with me. Somehow his warm presence next to mine was reassuring. And when his hand wasn't gripped so tightly to make sure I wasn't about to escape, his tumb was softly caressing the back of my hand, which I had to say was very soothing. Only it didn't make me any less anxious to enter that house.

Iggy leaned down and tickled my ear with his whisper. "Before it was this or nothing, right? Don't you take comfort in the fact that you have a backup plan? It doesn't matter as much if you hit it off with this woman or if you totally hate each other, you have us. You have me."

It was that "you have me" that gave me the courage to ring the doorbell. It was that "you have me" that made me not instantly dig my face into Iggy's arm when my mother answered the door. I did however dig my nails into his skin. He asked me to retract my claws, please, but I barely heard him. I was too busy looking at my mom.

My mom. Her face did look like mine. At first I'd begun to doubt it, a peek through a tinted window of a car rushing past at 40 miles an hour wasn't very reliable. But now I saw we had the same face, only hers was longer, more elegant and more grown-up. I didn't know what to say so I just stood there my mouth agape.

Thankfully Iggy made up for my moment of stupidity. He extended his hand. My mom shook it and then said in a rather confused voice, "Er... hello?"

"Ms. Mariah Carson?" Iggy asked.

The woman nodded and I almost squealed. It was her. It was really her. No doubt about it. I had come from this woman's body, she had given life to me. If I thought my heart was papilating fast then, it was nothing to the marathon it began to run when she admitted to being Mariah Carson.

"Yes, that's me. May I help you?" The look of confusion was gone and now she was begining to take control over the situation. She straightened her posture up a bit and looked at Iggy who was obviously running this show.

"Twelve years ago, did you get pregnant?"

Mariah's face hardened. "Yes," she said her voice with a bit of an edge. "But my child died during labor. What is this about?"

Iggy paused. I closed my eyes and said a slight prayer. This was it. It all came down to this one moment.

"I think-- we think that your baby might not have really died. And we think that Nudge is her."

Iggy pushed me forward a bit. Mariah Carson hadn't noticed me before. Probably because I had been acting as though I were dead on my feet. But now her eyes turned to me.

Both of our breathing stopped. She scanned my face as I had done to her. I knew she was checking and double checking for resemblances. I knew she was second-guessing herself. This was too good to be true, or was it? I'd died, hadn't I? Even though the child in front of her looked like what she'd imagined her child to be, it couldn't be, could it?

"Hi," I finally got up the courage to say something. "My name is Nudge." I extended my hand and closed part of the distance between us. It was up to her to close the other half.

Mariah's hand went out and her arm wrapped around me. She was hugging me. My mom was hugging me. We both started crying at about the same time, further proof that we were kin. We both started babbling incessantly on how we couldn't believe it, and was it really true? Mariah, my mom, invited me in. We sat down on the couch in her living room and couldn't stop staring at each other. Every once and a while she'd reach over and pinch me as if checking to see if I were real. I could get where she was coming from. I realized she only half believed that I was actually her dead baby. Occasionally we'd burst into crying fits either because we were so happy, or because she thought she was dreaming. It was tear-jerking, heart-wrenching a truly touching moment. A moment that I had dreamt about, not just the past four days, but also all of my mutant life.

I wore a little smile, even through the crying bits because now it was over. No w I had met my mom. here was living proff that I wasn't born in a lab, but from an actual human being.

But...

I've learned in life that there are always "but"s. Exceptions to every rule. I was happy that I'd met my biological mother, but I also realized I hadn't let go of Iggy's hand once through the entire thing. I realized that I hadn't needed to meet my mother and that Iggy was wrong. Even if I'd never stepped onto Mariah's porch and rang her doorbell I would've been okay. I would've been whole. I was a part of my family again, and that was all that I needed. The meeting was fun and... 'educational' would be the wrong word for it, but I did learn why I talked too much. My mother also had a motor mouth, or maybe it was just the excitement of seeing someone she'd beleived dead for the past twelve years. We finally came down to the ever-important question.

Mariah was fidgeting. I knew she'd been dodging the subject until she couldn't take it anymore and just had to ask. "I know we've just met, but I want to get to know more of you. Would you like to live with me?"

Iggy's hand tensed up in mine. It was just like when Max had asked me, Iggy looked like she had. Afraid of what would happen next, of what I would say. Only this time I knew my answer.

"I'm sorry Mariah. But I already have a family,"

Author's Note: Did this ending satisfy everyone? You're not left with any burning questions are you? I hope not. I hope you've had a good time reading this fanfic. This wasn't my first, but this was the only one where I had an actual audience. ::tear::, oh gosh you've got me mushy. I must leave before I cry on my keyboard and short circuit it. buh-bye! See ya in my next fic!