Chapter Nine

AN: Yes, believe it or not, but I, skamusic4, am updating two days in a row. Somebody should give me a cookie or something. Ah well, enjoy!(:

Nudge's POV

I can never have a few minutes to myself. I go to my room for some peace of mind and somebody always ends up following me. It might not bother me so much if that somebody wasn't, infallibly, Jamie.

"What could you possibly want now?" I growled. "I saved your life already. Now get out." He sighed and sat down on my bed, right next to me. I scooted away.

"I know," he murmured. "And I can never thank you enough for that. In return, I want to help you."

"Oh yeah? The door's over there." I pointed dramatically.

"Yeah," he snorted, "leaving you to sulk alone in your room is so much help. If you just talk to someone every now and then—and I mean really talk, not just spew insults—you might feel better."

I narrowed my eyes at him, glaring menacingly. "I do not need help, and I most definitely do not need it from you. When will you ever learn?" I emphasized my point by extending my arm and pushing him off the bed. He landed with a thud on the ground.

He would have been fine, but for the way his ankle was positioned. As it happened, he fell in exactly the wrong way, and he groaned when he hit the floor. His ankle was twisted awkwardly.

"Walk it off," I muttered. He grimaced, trying to stand but not being able to put weight on it. "Aw, Hell." I got up and put my arm over his shoulders and helped him sit on my bed again.

"It's probably just a roll," he mumbled. I glanced down at his ankle, which was swelling already.

"It's definitely a sprain," I said flatly. "Might be broken. I'll be right back; feel free to leave if you can."

I went down the steps, hating myself more and more with every one. It wasn't that I felt particularly bad about hurting Jamie because, let's face it, it's Jamie. I knew that when his sister found out, though, it would be her last straw. Even Angel might not be able to persuade her to stay. I felt bad because I knew how much this meant to Max, how excited she had been.

Yeah, yeah, be as surprised as you want. I might not look it, but I'm still capable of feeling some emotion.

I grabbed some ice out of the freezer and stuck it in a plastic bag, and then put a paper towel around it. I had the impulse to grab an Ibuprofin, too, but I have no idea why. What did I care if he was in pain? I just needed the injury to be less conspicuous. Still, though, I popped two orange pills into my palm.

I grabbed an Ace bandage, too, and started up the stairs. He was still sitting right where I left him, but he had a picture frame in his hand.

It was a picture of the flock and Mrs. Martinez, right after we had rescued her. Her environmental club had taken the picture for their yearbook, and Mrs. Martinez had ordered copies for everyone.

I don't know why I still had it in my room. It only upset me when I saw it. We were all huddled in close, like we couldn't bear to be apart, each with huge smiles plastered on our dirty, grimy faces. The sun glinted off of the ocean behind us, and we were all tanned from it. We were a family; a happy one. We were safe. We were doing what we loved. We were on a mission. We had hope.

All the reasons why Jamie should not have the thing in his hands. I dropped the supplies on the bed and ripped it out of his hands. The metal from the frame cut him on his finger.

"Damn it! Can't you go two minutes without getting hurt?"

"Sorry."

"You shouldn't go looking through my personal stuff, either," I scolded. "That's not cool."

"I'm sorry," he repeated, looking at me earnestly. "You just looked so young and…happy."

"Shut up. Do you want me to tape you up or what?"

He nodded and lifted his leg carefully to the bed. I wrapped the bandage tight, but not too tight, and handed him the ice and the Ibuprofin.

"Oh, thanks," he said, swallowing it dry and pressing the ice to his ankle. "I still don't get what's so wrong about being happy, though. Why do you get so defensive?"

"I'm not getting defensive," I snapped, all too defensively. "I just don't appreciate you trying to read into every freaking thing about me."

"You want to know what I think?" He asked.

"No."

"I think," he went on anyway, "that you need someone to care about you. You need someone to go, what's up with Nudge? You need someone," he leaned closer, and I pulled back, "to pull you out of the crevice."

"Charming," I sneered. "Too bad the world is taken over, because otherwise you'd have a great future with Hallmark."

"That's it, isn't it?"

"What?"

"You're depressed because you don't think you have a future anymore."

"Shut up before I knock you off my bed again," I hissed.

"No, that's definitely it. You miss being free and having your life ahead of you. You miss having something to do with your time. You miss adventure and maybe even danger, and—"

"Get out of my room!" I cried. He stared at me for a long moment before sliding off my bed, and hopping out of my room on one foot.

He even closed the door behind him.

I kept my gaze fixed on the door for a few minutes. Then, I grabbed my pillow, stuffed my face into it, and screamed at the top of my lungs.

It felt damn good.

Because he was right. The little rascal was completely, dead-on right. It disturbed me deeply.

Something needed to be done.

Suddenly, I just needed to get out. I glanced out the window and saw snow everywhere. Maybe it was unsafe, but I didn't care anymore. I put on so many layers of clothing that I could hardly move my arms, and poked my wings through the slats that lined up on each layer.

When I was to the point of heat exhaustion, I opened the window and weaseled my way out, closing it behind me. With that, I was off.

Jamie's POV

I hobbled down the stairs, clutching the railing as I went. There were a few people in the living area (Mel, Jared, Ella, Iggy, Charlotte, and Juan) and they all looked up as I struggled down the stairs.

"What now?" Mel demanded furiously.

"I slipped in the bathroom upstairs," I lied easily. "I think it's sprained."

"Jesus, kid, what is up with you?" Jared muttered. Melanie sighed.

"You are just unlucky lately, aren't you?" I nodded, glad that she wasn't suspicious of Nudge.

I couldn't focus though, because Nudge was all I could think about.

I had finally figured her out. I ought to have felt triumphant but…I didn't. I felt awful. I felt like an intruder, breaking into someone's house when they least expect it and stealing all the things they hold dear. I was a thief. I'd robbed Nudge of her privacy, and I felt horrible about it.

"Are you okay?" Melanie asked, noticing my mood.

"Yeah, I'm just…tired. It's been a rough day so far," I mumbled. She nodded in understanding.

"Here, why don't you lie down? Jared and I can go start dinner or something."

"Yeah, we've been bums all day," Jared agreed. He got up, and he and Melanie helped me over to the couch so that I could rest. I wanted to go apologize to Nudge, but I knew I would only make things worse.

I fell into a shallow, dreamless sleep, and when I woke up it was only Angel and Wanda in the room with me.

"Hey, sleepy-head," Wanda said. "I see you've gotten yourself into more trouble, huh?" I rubbed my eyes wearily.

"Yep."

"You seem sad," she noted, coming over to sit closer to me. "What's the matter? Is it Nudge?"

"Yeah," I sighed. I couldn't lie to Wanda. "I finally figured out why she acts the way she does…and I feel bad about it. I feel like I've done something wrong."

"'Indeed, I am very sorry to be right in this instance. I would rather be merry than wise,'" Angel chimed in, reading from the same book as before.

"Would you please stop with the Jane Austen quotes?" I muttered. She shrugged and went back to her book.

"Isn't this what you wanted, though?" Wanda wondered, genuinely confused.

"Yeah, but now that I have it…well, what good does it do me? Nudge hates me more, and even if she didn't, I doubt I could help her. I can't give her the world back."

"It'll all work out eventually," she insisted with that infallible optimism she'd been plagued with ever since her rebirth. It was like, things worked out for her and Mel, so she figured they would for everyone else.

"Sure it will."

"It will," she insisted. Before I got a chance to respond, though, we were interrupted when Max came pounding down the stairs.

"We have a situation," she said quickly.

"Which is?" I asked.

"I went to get her for dinner and she wasn't in her room we looked everywhere but we can't find her anywhere there's a blizzard outside it's so dangerous!" It all came out in a rush, the type of sentence you'd see in a 'correct this' grammar exercise.

"Slow down," I said with a sinking sense of dread. "What's going on?"

She took a deep breath. "Nudge is missing."