Wow, um, call this inspiration, or most likely boredom…but I'm pretty sorry. I try to write when I feel like it. But school's tough and distracting now. Oh yeah, and if you've read the latest book, please don't give anything away, I only realised it was out today, so I've ordered it. But it won't come for a few days, so give me a bit

I woke up with more energy than I'd had in a long time to the smell of Iggy's cooking -this was a bad thing, it struck me - we must have slept longer than planned, but I checked round the room and Angel was still sleeping, so I guessed the guys had taken Sarah downstairs, and let it slip, I felt better for the sleep.

Reluctant to leave Angel on her own up here, I dressed quickly and shook her awake gently.

"Come on honey, it's time to get up, we've gotta go look for Nudge," I smiled at her sweetly, knowing she wasn't a big morning person, but she surprised me by jumping straight out of bed and running to get dressed.

She saw me looking confused and ran over to give me a big hug, "I miss Nudge," she explained. I wondered how she must have done for the last 2 years without Nudge -Nudge was like a big sister to her, and of course she must have missed her a lot.

We both went downstairs together, I was eager to see Sarah, having already become more attached to her than I'd ever imagined or knew was good for me, but didn't want to let Angel out of my sight, I guess my mothering the flock over the years made it come natural to me around Sarah. As I'd expected, Fang was in the kitchen feeding Sarah, whilst Iggy cooked some eggs, they smelled so good, and I can't believe how much I've actually missed those.

When Sarah saw me, her little arms outstretched toward me and her hands made grasping movements, for a small second a little tear came to my eye, before I blinked it away, remembering to keep it together for the flock. Fang helped her down to the floor, and she stepped excitedly towards me, I'd never get tired of seeing that, when she was close enough to reach, I grabbed her up in a big hug and kissed her nose, watching her face light up and she reached a hand to my cheek.

We had a fairly quick breakfast that morning, and then grabbed what we needed from the house, because I figured we wouldn't be stopping for a while now to get supplies at least. This was when we made the discovery – as we'd run out of baby food – that Sarah would wolf down almost as much bacon and eggs as the rest of us. I still wasn't sure if this was good or bad, or highly unorthodox, but she was becoming more and more like one of us every day, much to my delight.

We managed a fairly quick getaway that morning in the usual formation. This having the flock back together thing was beginning to feel really good, ok, so no, really good was an exaggeration, because my stomach was filled with worry for Nudge and dread for Gazzy, but my heart was filled with hope again, after two years of nothing, I couldn't believe how easy it was. There had to be a catch, I mean, if it was this easy all along, then why the hell hadn't we found each other already? Maybe it took time apart for people to find each other again, clearly I hadn't found myself in my solitude, heck, without my flock, I wasn't myself. Maybe that was the important message here. But whatever it was, I was learning, fast, and I was struggling to keep up with the advances we were making day by day. Needless to say, things have never been easy for us. So something told me it wasn't about to last.

We'd been heading west for so long now that I couldn't admit to the flock that I didn't know why west, it had seemed like a good idea this morning, but as we headed over Nevada, and I realised Nudge would never be there, it sort of hit me, we had no choice but to go to California to look for her, it was that or admit I didn't have a clue, and hey, why not California, she'd love LA that girl. So heading slightly more south-west than before I was happy, we were aiming somewhere now.

As I flew Sarah grabbed a handful of my hair and mumbled into my back, I grinned, feeling my heart soften, who knew? Maximum Ride has a maternal side after all. As we flew, Angel got closer to my side.

"I think Nudge would like California too," she smiled, genuinely, and I knew she wouldn't give away my lack of knowledge here. We flew in silence for a few minutes, I'd almost missed Angel reading my mind for so long.

"I tried looking for you all once," she admitted after a bit. "I've never found mind-reading so exhausting. I picked through every head I could find looking for one of you. But I always gave up in the end, my head started to hurt, and I hated it, Max." She was barely whispering this above the sound of the wind. I suddenly felt overwhelmingly sad for her, my poor Angel must have been more frustrated than any of us, she had the power to hear us when we weren't trying, it must have killed her to stop.

"I had to Max," she muttered, a tear verging in one of her young blue eyes. "I couldn't stand it anymore…I really thought you'd all been…" She didn't speak the word. She didn't have to.

I reached a hand out as best as I could and held hers. "We all did Ange." I tried to comfort her, sending her encouraging thoughts.

Again after a while, she grinned at me. "She really loves you, you know," Angel glanced at my back, and with her free hand waved at Sarah. My brain froze, Angel could hear her then? She grinned at me again and nodded. "She loved you from the start, she doesn't care about the other stuff," – referring of course to my lack of parental responsibility. I smiled to myself at this, though thinking it wasn't right, and I still had a hell of a lot to repay her. "Fang never stopped loving you either," she whispered.

"I know Angel, I know exactly how he feels."

"You two are so meant for each other, you should get married." I stared at her in alarm, Ok, even I had limits, 16-year-old mutant-bird-kid-with-a-kid on the run here, we'd been together for days.

"I mean, you know…one day," she smiled. Relief passed for a second, though I still couldn't be sure with that girl.

We coasted down to a town on the edge of California for lunch when Iggy started to moan at me to rustle up some grub. He was used to having a kitchen to cook his own meals for a bit I guess, and was starting to sound more like the Ig I knew, with a tinge of sadness that we all felt edging his voice, worse for him of course.

Not long now until we found Nudge right? I hoped.

After "rustling up some grub", we lazed on the grass for a bit. Ok, we'd crossed America in a matter of days, we needed a rest sometime. But like I said, we're the flock, nothing good lasts… Angel looked up to the sky before any of us.

"Uhh, Max?"…