AN: If you guys couldn't already tell, I'm going to be finishing up this story like I meant to do a long time ago. I hope you enjoy, and please review so I'll know if I really should keep going with this or not. Thanks :)


"So, what's your big plan now?" I asked Fang. We were still in Roger's stolen car, driving as far away as we could before we would have to ditch the car and head out on foot.

"What?" He asked, looking at me from the driver's seat with sleep in his eyes. It had been two days since we ran away, two very long days.

I looked in the rear-view mirror as I asked him the question again. Monique was fast asleep on Iggy's shoulder and he caught my eye to let me know that it was all going to be okay, before he returned to stroking her hair until he too was asleep.

She was only a few weeks along, but I knew that whatever happened from here on out, her baby would have a real father. Blood or not, I knew that Iggy was too much in love with her to ever let her do this on her own.

Ariel was asleep on his other side, clutching tight to the small teddy bear that Fang picked up for her at our last rest stop. She looked so...little that it nearly broke my heart.

She had fled our foster parents' house because she didn't feel safe there, and I hated myself for not being able to protect her from them even though I tried my hardest to do just that. The worst part was that her brother George had gotten adopted the day we left and we would probably never see him again.

I hated myself for not getting them all out of there sooner, but the last time one of us ran away, Roger split Iggy's skull open when he was caught and returned.

"We're nearly at the Arizona border." Nick said, bringing me out of my thoughts. "I think we should ditch the car on this side of the border, facing south to throw them off, and then continue heading west. We should be able to hit California soon if we can just get our hands on another car."

"And what if we can't?" I asked the obvious, hating that this guy who we just met was leading my family off to their doom. If Roger and Carol found us, well, let's just say that it wouldn't be pretty.

"Then we'll think of something else." Fang said with a confidence I didn't understand. We were on the run, for crying out loud! "You have to quit worrying about things you can't change, Max."

"My name is Lena. Maxalena." I said sternly. I don't know why he insisted on calling me that stupid nickname when I so clearly didn't like it.

"Why do you hate 'Max?'" He asked the question I knew he had been thinking for the last two days.

"Not that it's any of your business," I said, not sure why I was even telling a stranger this when no one else had ever gotten me to talk about my family before, "but my dad called me that until I was ten and he started dating Belinda. Then I was shipped to a foster home because she was eighteen and didn't want to deal with being a mom."

"I'm sorry." Nick said automatically, but I shook my head at him.

"Don't be." I said. "I'm not. I would rather be on the run than with Jeb, Belinda, and Ari." I said honestly. "Besides, there's always my mother..."

"Do you know who she is?" He asked in disbelief.

I shook my head, checking the mirror again to make sure that the three of them we asleep still before answering. "I just know that she was the best that money could buy...I think her street name was Valarie."

"I'll help you find her." Nick said with sensarity in his dark eyes.

I had to laugh at that though. "You want to find a hooker who had a baby seventeen years ago? That's crazy, Fang."

He got quiet, not looking at me as he said the thing that changed my world forever. "I think I know how to find her."