A/N- The story's not over yet! It's only over when you see the words 'The End' at the bottom. Keep checking back! I love you all, my reviewers. You have no idea how much it means. Enjoy this chapter on to the end of the story. I have more for you!

Memories of You

Chapter 9

Nudge POV

On the last night in Hollywood, I had managed to separate myself from the flock long enough for them to go back their hotel and pack up while I went back to my incredible suite. Throwing random clothes into a suitcase my agent had brought over, I was trying to fit everything I owned into it, which was easy because I didn't really have much.

"Are you sure you have to go?" she asked hopelessly, and in that moment I felt sorry for. She was probably the kid in school, the awkward one who didn't have a lot of friends, and I'd managed to be kind to her, only to find that she wasn't that bad. But what would she do now. "I mean, I'm happy for you and everything," she continued, "but I guess I'll be alone again."

"You did fine without me," I answered, "before I came here. I don't really know how much time I have left, or I might stay. All I know is that I'll probably forget soon, and I want to spend as much time as I can with Iggy. I tried to give him up once, and I can't."

"It sounds like you have a great guy you're looking at here," she said as she stuffed one last envelope inside it. It looked curious, and I wanted to open it, but I decided not to. "Look, Nudge, I'm sorry about what happened to your family just because you came here. You…you can't go back to your old house again, and you know that."

I wouldn't let the tears slip out. I couldn't crack now. I tried to remind myself that the relocation was just part of our new beginning, and that there would be plenty of memories in a new house. Memories that, with any luck, I wouldn't forget. But then, that was just sort of a pipe dream, wasn't it?

"Listen…I…I've lived in the woods before, I've scrounged for food, and I've lived in a dog crate. You all seem to forget that however many normal qualities, likes and interests I have, I will always, always come from a dog crate. I can deal with sleeping under a bridge, or in a forest now. I haven't gotten weaker. I'm two percent bird, and sometimes the two percent adds up to be bigger than the ninety-eight percent human I'm made of."

She lifted my chin with her finger and looked me in the eye. "You may come from a dog crate, but you'll never belong in one, Nudge," she said, as the tears poured from my eyes and I cried into her hug, for the last time.

Max POV

The small motel room was in absolute chaos as Angel and Gazzy literally flew around trying to locate toys, games, clothes and Total. I wondered vaguely how he had even managed to come with us. I hadn't remembered him being with us for the entire trip, but I guess I'm just not a dog person. Or a pet person, or even remotely an animal person.

Iggy was stumbling around blindly, due to the new environment of the hotel room. He nearly tripped over something black and hairy that was lying halfway under the bed with a sheet over its head, to which Angle cried with delight. Apparently they had found Total. Tears, real tears, streamed down both of their faces. Total complained about how he was 'so lost down there', and Angel sobbed about how she 'thought she'd lost him'.

In the midst of all this confusion, there was a large bang, and the bed literally jumped two feet in the air, a hole being blown through the center. Fang shrieked, yes, shrieked, and jumped back. "Who just hid a bomb under there?" he cried, not noticing Gazzy's evil chuckle.

Off to the side and not paying much attention, having packed up all my stuff before the kids got back from their last trip to the pool, I was leaning against the wall, fingering the ring that I had no idea Fang had gotten, and had obviously had custom-made. When he had asked me to marry him, I was so caught off guard that I had assumed it was an impulse and not planned ahead.

I had been wrong. It was absolutely gorgeous. I know all girls say that, probably, but it really was. It was a gold band with a diamond in the center, very traditional. But that wasn't all. Sticking out from the sides of the ring were two crystalline wings with tiny bits of diamond on them. It caught the light in a way that made bits and pieces of sun shine on the walls like a disco ball.

I felt a pair of slim yet muscular arms wrap themselves around them, and I offered a sunny smile up to my slightly-charred fiancé. "You must like it, you keep staring at it," he grinned at me. "We can talk about dates and cakes and stuff later, don't worry."

"Please," I snorted. "I'm not gonna be one of those bridezillas who go crazy over their wedding. As long as I'm marrying you, I'd get married under a bridge with a cake that Iggy made from a box mix." I was impressed that I was finally able to say what I wanted to around Fang instead of hiding what I really felt.

"But you're not gonna, right?" he asked, uncertainly. "Cause if you want, I can take back the ring and replace it with a rubber band."

"Never!" I shrieked, holding my other hand in front of the ring. "Mine."

"No," he said, tilting my chin up. "Mine," he whispered, and kissed me lightly on the lips.

"You are the cheesiest," I mumbled.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Gazzy said, walking past us with Angel, Total and Iggy. "He's cheesy like macaroni or pizza or whatever. Can we go now?" I broke away from Fang, grumbling slightly. I should have noticed that it had gotten quieter.

"Fine. You all got your stuff?" I asked, just mildly annoyed now as I picked up my suitcase and my purse. Yes, Maximum Ride carries a purse now. I saw the best one ever in the mall and fell in love. And then Fang yelled at me for breaking the bank.

As we were getting halfway out the door, my eyes widened, remembering. "Wait, what about the hole in the bed? They'll see us and track us down, then make us do the honest thing and pay for it!"

Fang thought on it for a moment, and then walked back into the room. He grabbed a towel from the bathroom and threw it over the hole. "Let's go," he hurried us out, "before they catch us. We'll pay with cash and then get out, and it'll be there problem, and they won't find us." With one last tug we were in the elevator.

News flash – a ride in an elevator with three other people and a dog and all the suitcases you can carry is not fun, in any way, shape or form.

"Stop shoving!" I shouted as we were going down to the lobby, over the screaming voices of the others clamoring for some room, and pointedly shoved them into the opposite room. I sighed with relief for all of two seconds before they barreled right back into me. I was elbowed in the stomach more than once by Angel and Gazzy, which sent me doubling over in pain.

"I can't breathe!" yelled Gazzy overdramatically as he went under us all and crashed to the floor. We paid him no mind and kept right on shoving. "That's it," he choked from below us. "I'm gonna die before I even get to see Nudge again. Angel, help me out?" he begged.

"With pleasure," she answered. I felt another moment of peace before my mind was wiped completely blank and I was forced to stand rigid still. A small part of my brain wanted to scream and yell and elbow all I wanted to, but it was like I couldn't, and I didn't have the will necessary to resist.

The eyes of Fang and Iggy were large, round and dark, while Angel's remained exactly the same. I knew exactly what she was doing, then. She was controlling us. She was forcing us to be still so that we could all breathe and Gazzy could get off of the floor. I knew she was controlling me, but I couldn't find it within myself to be angry at her.

It continued peacefully like this until the elevator gave a small 'ding!' and we were out in the lobby. All of a sudden, I gasped as my will came back to me, and nearly fell over at the shock that I had just gotten. I wasn't calm anymore, I was furious, and the three of us descended on Angel and Gazzy.

We were breathing heavily and raggedly, and the color was slowly returning to our faces and eyes. If Fang had any difficulty, he didn't show it, but his face was as hard as stone as he turned to Angel. "That wasn't necessary," he seethed. "We don't need to be that helpless ever again. Do you understand?"

She looked away, ashamed, but he forced her head back up. "Do you understand, Angel?" he practically shouted. "This is serious! This isn't just some little game you can play with us when you want us to do something! You'll never do it again!"

She looked up at him then, pure unbridled anger in her eyes. "You're not my dad!" she screamed at him like a demon, and he jumped back. "You're not, and you never will be my dad! I don't have to do what you say! You're only my brother, so stop acting like you're all big! Just leave me alone!" she shouted, and ran out of the revolving door into the parking lot.

"What was that?" he hissed at me. "She never does that! This isn't like her, Max. She was fine a few minutes ago. She knows she's not supposed to do that!"

"I don't know what's going on," I said, "but we'll fix it. We'll fix it, and then we'll go get Nudge. I promise."

"I hope you're right," he said worriedly.

Angel POV

I yanked the door to the car open forcefully and climbed inside. I couldn't believe myself for acting the way I had. Now that I thought back on it, it seemed silly, and even immature. No more immature than Nudge had been at my age, but still like a big baby.

But no matter how I looked at it, it was true. Max and Fang were eight years older than me, but they weren't my parents. It wasn't fair for them to order me around like they were better than me, because were equal. They always seemed to forget that I was in a dog crate too. I was equal to them in almost every way, and just because they were older didn't give them the right to forget.

Now, the only thoughts that they had while they were in there, ignoring me and my tears, were of confusion and panic. I knew that they didn't need this right now, and I shouldn't be causing the problems here. That was Nudge's job, I thought with a grin.

I saw Fang coming toward the car, expecting the others to follow and punish me for my outburst. Even Gazzy acted so much older than me these days. He was only a stupid thirteen year old, and I'd always been more than him. Worst of all, he'd been ignoring me more and more since he'd been making friends, forgetting me, his only blood sister.

But when he got in the car, I saw that it was just going to be Fang. I put on my best determined face. "Go ahead," I challenged. "Tell me that I'm wrong and you have seniority. Tell me how you're sooo much better than me," I sneered.

"Drop the act and cut the crap, Angel," Fang said, "and talk to me straight for once. I don't think either one of us is better than the other. But I don't know what the hell that was back there. Someone's got to set the boundaries, and it for sure isn't gonna be you."

"What was I supposed to do? You were practically killing each other in there. I had to do something."

"Not that something, Angel. We told you a long time ago never, ever to control our minds like that unless it was a joke, like to slap ourselves or do a silly dance or something. What you just did proves that we still can't trust you."
"What the hell?!" I exploded. "How come you get to use your powers whenever you want to but I can't use mine? I have them for a reason, you know, and that reason just kept you from stepping on Gazzy and suffocating to death! I believe the words you're looking for are 'thank you, Angel'!"

"My powers don't hurt anyone."

"Neither did mine! They just saved you, and they only help people!"

"You're not using them, and that's final."

"I hate you," I muttered.

Nudge POV

I was waiting quietly in the grand lobby of the hotel with my suitcase. I looked up at the paintings on the walls that were marvelously copied, the ionic columns and the leather furniture. Never in my life would I be in a hotel this nice again. It seemed like the best one in the world, even though I knew there were better ones.

And my heart skipped a beat in its usual way the second he walked in the door. His strawberry-blonde hair hung over his sightless eyes as he scanned the lobby, though not looking at anything in particular. I wondered briefly why they had sent the blind guy to find me. "Iggy," I called, and he made his way over to the couch I was sitting on.

"Hey," he said, and sat down next to me. We looked at one another nervously, and in an instant his lips had pressed themselves to mine and our hands were caressing each other's faces and hair. We were breathing raggedly, as though we hadn't seen each other in days, even though it had only been a few hours.

We continued until we were almost lying sideways on the couch, our breath catching messily and our heads at odd angles to get closer. A loud cough from somewhere else in the lobby sent us flying apart, trying to right our hair and smooth our clothes. "Now I know why they sent you in," I panted.

"We…they…well, we should get to the car," he said hesitantly, but not before giving me one more sweet, sweet kiss on the lips. I picked up the suitcase in one hand and grabbed his hand with the other. I got up and led him from the lobby into the California sun, where Max and the flock had moody expressions. I looked at my watch and realized they'd probably been sitting there for twenty minutes.

"Have fun?" Gazzy asked wryly as I got into the car, followed closely by Iggy. We took our place in the back of the minivan, right behind Angel and Gazzy. I blushed violently as Gazzy turned around and made kissy faces at me. I hit him over the head and put my suitcase down next to me.

"Shut up, Gazzy," Fang said easily, and I was grateful as he turned the conversation towards Gazzy. "One day you'll get a girlfriend –well, maybe, you can always dream- and you'll be all over her, you little pervert. So you just leave them alone now."

Gazzy turned five shades of red and quickly looked out the window, but not before Iggy snickered and was rewarded with a shoe chucked at his head.

After minutes upon minutes of awkward silence, I brought up the question that no one had dared to ask. "Max, where are we going after this? We…we have no home." The tears started to pour down my face, and even Iggy could tell. He put his arm around me without a word for comfort, but I could tell by how tense he was just the extent of his anxiety about the issue.

She took a deep, shuddering breath in. "I don't know," she answered. "We can't even go back to the same home. You guys…you'll have to lose all your friends. I don't know who did this, who told them. I can't believe anyone would do it."

My heart almost stopped. They didn't know, and that was why they were taking me back. They weren't angry at me because they didn't know. "Stop the car," I said faintly.

"What was that, Nudge?" Max asked absently, fiddling with her hair.

"Stop the car!" I yelled. "Stop the car, stop the car!!!"

She slammed on the breaks and pulled to the side of the road.

Max POV

I looked on as Nudge jumped out the side of the minivan and out into the tall grass by the side of the road. We looked out on her anxiously for a moment, and then followed. She stopped, suddenly, a good ten feet from us, with her back still turned. I grew more afraid when she didn't turn around. Whatever was coming, it wasn't going to be good.

It was dead silent, except for the cars going on the road behind us. That's why I remember every word that Nudge said that day, and why I got the shock of my life.

Her voice carried in the silence. It was eerie, and I pleaded with the very universe for it to stop, but it wouldn't as she finally spoke. "It was me."

No one dared to ask her what that meant, and we didn't have to, because she continued. "It was me. I gave you up. When they asked where you were….I gave them the address."

We started to protest, to speak, but she silenced us by turning around, her face contorted with rage, pain, hurt and anxiety. Her voice was little more than a whisper when she spoke again, but I heard her with no trouble. "I had no choice," she almost sobbed. "He said he'd turn me out on the street. You…you didn't want me." The tears streamed down her face freely now. "That's why…it's my fault you can't go back to your home," she cried softly. "I'm a traitor, and you can't trust me."

"Nudge, who is 'he'?" I asked cautiously.

She went on ignoring me. "And they sent out a team to search for you. I was," her voice broke, "I was so happy when they told me you weren't there, but they would have turned me out on the street then if I hadn't had my agent stand up for me."

She slumped to the ground and cried. I wanted it to stop so badly, but she kept sobbing. When she looked up, her face had heartbreak stamped all over it. "And you know the worst thing?" she hissed. "I can't remember it all, Max. And I never will. The memories are all fading. All of them, not just the ones with Iggy. They'll be gone by tomorrow, and there's nothing I can do!" She screamed the last part at the sky.

Iggy stumbled forward, feeling blindly until he found her and slumped down with her. He held her firmly as huge sobs wracked her body, and I soon realized that he was crying too. I had almost never seen Iggy cry in his life, and during the past few months, it was more than ever.

She pushed him away limply. "Get away from me!" she hissed at him. "I betrayed you! I betrayed all of you by giving you up! Drive away and leave me here!" she bit her lip. "I don't want to cause any more trouble for anyone. I thought I could lie to you, but I can't! So leave me here!"

"No!" he shouted. "There's got to be a way to get your memory back! This is like surviving the whole Titanic thing and dying a day later of a heart attack. We've come way too far for this to happen now!"

"Face it!" she yelled at him. "It's a lost cause with me! I'm going to forget everything in a day, and there's nothing, nothing that we can do." She buried her head in her hands in despair.

Angel's eyes lit up then. "You know," she said thoughtfully, "I've been a real brat lately. I just yelled at Fang and Max, and only yesterday I practically got Ella on medication for stuff that's not her fault. Not that she didn't deserve it, of course.

"So, now I'm going to do something for the good of doing it, something that'll make a hell of a difference to all of you, and something that'll put my powers to good use. I don't know if it'll work, and I'm powerful, but I'm not a miracle worker. And I'll admit it, if it doesn't work, Nudge is right. She'll be a lost cause." Upon hearing this, Nudge sobbed even harder.

"But if it does work," Angel said quietly, "You'll get your memory back, Nudge." When she looked up, there was hope in her eyes.

"Let's do it," Nudge said quietly.

"Max, Fang, Iggy, Gazzy, I know it sounds weird, but put all eight of your hands on my head, right now," she commanded. I looked up hesitantly and slowly moved forward to put both my hands on her head. The others did the same until we were completely covering her head. "Make sure the hands aren't layered," she commanded, and we made sure they weren't.

"Now, think quickly, think of every memory you've ever had of Nudge. She's never had an important memory that we weren't there to see. Fang, remember the memory with the hawks, Iggy, remember your love for her, Max, remember our experience in Europe with Ter Borcht, and Gazzy, remember all your pranks on her, all the bombs she watched you make, her birthdays, anything. You guys get the picture. Remember, and remember hard."

Slowly but surely, I imagined all my times of Nudge. I saw her with Iggy, and I saw her sarcasm. I saw her laugh at our humor, and I saw her flying in the sky with grace and poise. I saw her falling onto the plane. I sent all these memories floating into Angel's mind. She was grimacing while trying to receive all these new pieces of information, but she was taking it all in, I was sure. I sent everything I had and more into Angel, and put one hundred and ten percent of my effort into making it work.

All the while, I was praying. Please, God, let it work.

Angel closed her eyes. After a few more moments, they flashed open. "Now, take your hands off. It's enough."

"Wait!" Iggy said. "Um, Angel, this is going to be embarrassing, but…" he lowered his voice. "Can I give her the night in the cornfield?"

Angel laughed. "Believe me, Iggy, thanks to Fang, there's nothing I haven't seen." And he sent her that memory too.

"Now, come over here, Nudge," she ordered, and placed her hands on Nudge's. We all took a deep breath as Angel spoke. "I'm going to see if I can transport these memories into her. Whenever she's losing some, I'll always be able to transport more in. My brain stores memories more than anything else, because I have a mental power rather than a physical one."

Nudge's hands trembled violently under Angel's, and I found myself praying again. "Close your eyes," Angel soothed, and Nudge did.

I don't know how long I waited like that. It could have been seconds, or hours, or even days. It could have been a whole lifetime, but I don't think it was.

In three minutes and seventeen seconds, Nudge opened her eyes.

And we draw closer to the end! What will happen AFTER Nudge opens her eyes, hmm? Review!

~Rachel