MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! HAPPY HANUKKAH!!! JOYOUS KWANZAA!!! HAPPY BOXING DAY EVE!!!!! HAPPY RAMADAN!!!! and any holidays I forgot!!

Disclaimer: I don't own Max or the Flock. I wish I owned Santa cuz then he could give me a ton of presents! But sadly I don't own him either.

Claimer: I DO own a new fuzzy bathrobe and Jeff Dunham's Arguing with Myself. PEANUT ROX!!

On with the story!!!!!!...


Chapter 9

The doors swung open again, and a man in a white coat and scrubs strode toward me. Instinctively I went into fight mode and my hands clenched into fists.

He's okay, Max, Angel said in my mind. I glanced down at her, and she nodded. I took a deep breath, then exhaled.

The doctor came up to me.

"Miss? Could I ask you some questions about your boyfriend?" he asked.

"Boyfriend?" Iggy snickered, I nodded to the doctor, flicked Iggy on the head, then tapped the back of his hand to say, You're in charge.

I followed the doctor through the doors into the hallway. At the end of the hallway there was a small room the size of, like, a closet, and he led me in there. There were a couple chairs and a sidetable with magazines on it.

"Please, sit," he said politely. I just stared at him. He cleared his throat nervously.

"Okay then," he said. "So we've noticed there's something odd about the anatomy of your boyfriend-"

"Nick," I interrupted him.

"Yes, Nick. Do you know anything about it?" he asked.

I sighed. Here we go.

"Yes. What do you need to know?"

"Well, we've noticed that he has wings, and that his body functions and bones are slightly different. We need more information if we're going to set his bones right." He looked at me hopefully.

"You need to be more careful setting his bones because they're porous and lighter than regular bones. Please, don't even ask about the wings," I practically begged him.

Angel, if you can, please make sure they don't call the FBI, I thought.

Okay, she replied.

I watched as the doctor got a confused look on his face, and I almost smirked, but he blinked and shook his head.

"Okay, thank you-"

"Max."

"Thank you, Max," he said.

"So what's wrong with him?" I asked warily.

"Both of his legs are broken in several places, and his pelvis and a couple vertebrae and cracked in a few places," he said. His face softened. "I'm sorry, but there's only a 30 percent chance of him surviving, and if he does, he'll either be paralyzed, or need intensive physical therapy."

My heart sank to the floor. He saw my face fall, and reached over and patted my shoulder. I almost cringed away, but I needed some comfort.

The Invincible Maximum Ride was being comforted by a stranger in a white coat. What was this world coming to?!

The doctor checked his watch.

"We're going to take him into surgery to try to fuse the bones together and set them. Is there anything else I should know?" he asked.

"Yes, he heals faster than normal, so you'll have to work faster," I informed him. I bit my lip.

"Thank you, Max," he said, smiling slightly. "And don't worry, we have a team of highly trained surgeons here. Everything should go smoothly."

Like that was going to make me feel better.

"Okay," I said, my voice marred by worry.

He smiled again, then led me from the room to the waiting area.

"Don't worry, Max," he said again, then the door closed behind him.

I walked over to where my flock was sitting and sat down in an empty chair a few feet from them. I saw them looking at me from the corner of my eye, but I ignored them.

And so the waiting began.

After an hour of sitting and staring at nothing, I paced the waiting area. Soon I got bored and sat down again, but couldn't stop fidgeting.

"Relax, Max," Gazzy said. I glanced at him, and he came over and sat next to me and took my hand. I squeezed his small fingers and he smiled slightly.

"Hey, Max," Nudge said. "Can I have some money for snacks?"

I pulled some money out of my pocket and handed it to her.

Another hour passed, but still nobody came through the doors with the news that Fang was going to recover and we could all go home and take showers.

Another passed, and I was about to run back there, grab Fang, punch a few people, then burst out of there in an overly dramatic way.

But what would happen to Fang? That plan was out.

"Max?" Iggy asked.

"Yeah?"

"Are we going to call your mom? Or Jeb?"

Crap, I hadn't thought about calling mom.

"No," I decided. "I don't want her to worry."

"Okay," Iggy nodded.

I heard the doors open behind us, and the whole flock got up and whirled around to face whoever it was. A woman in scrubs spotted me and walked over to us.

"Max?" she asked.

"Yes," I said curtly.

"Will you come with me please?" She gestured to the doors. I nodded, and the flock started to follow me. I turned to them.

"Stay here," I told them.

"No, Max," Nudge said. I scowled at her, but she just gazed back at me. I sighed.

"Fine."

"Max?" the nurse said. We followed her through the doors and through several hallways. The antiseptic smell made my stomach clench, and the fact that there was a bunch of people in white coats walking around. I shuddered.

The nurse led us down another hallway, past a bunch of rooms that were unoccupied. Something prickled at my memory. I'd think about it later.

She finally stopped outside a room and gestured for us to go inside.

As we entered the room, all of our eyes fell on the person lying in the bed.

Fang was lying there, unconscious, with tubes in his nose for oxygen, and he had an IV in his left arm. Under the blanket his legs were bulky from the casts on them, and there was a weird metal thing wrapped around his hips. A machine next to his bed was beeping in time with his heartbeats quietly. The beeping was slow and shallow. The whole picture made my stomach tighten and mu heart hurt.

The flock gazed at him solemnly, and went to sit down on the sofa by the window.

"Max? May I speak to you?" the nurse asked. She gestured outside the room. I walked out and stood by the doorway.

"Max, I'm so sorry but something went wrong during surgery," she said.

My stomach plummeted.

"What?" I asked sharply.

"We discovered that some of the bones in his legs were shattered beyond repair. We managed to set the rest of the bones before he healed too quickly. But the damage to his spine was irreversible. I'm afraid if he recovers the best state he'll be in is paralyzed." She watched for my reactions with a sad look in her eyes.

My mind was reeling, and I felt like I was about to throw up.

Paralyzed? Oh, god. If he was paralyzed, he wouldn't be able to fly, his beautiful dark wings would be reduced to feathery limbs. He would be devastated. I was already devastated.

"Wait," I said, realizing something. "If he recovers?"

"He also suffered massive head trauma in the areas of the brain that control mobility and bodily functions. His systems are slowly shutting down, but we're trying to figure out a way to stop it," she explained.

I was speechless. All that from a stupid rock? Anger boiled inside me, but I kept my face smooth.

"I'm so sorry, Max," the woman said with feeling.

I was still speechless, so I just nodded.

"By the way, my name's Carmen," she said. "If you have any questions, feel free to ask."

"Okay," I said, my voice empty. I walked back into Fang's room and saw the flock looking at me. Angel's eyes were filled with tears.

Tell them in their minds, I told her. I…don't feel like talking.

I felt more like crawling into a deep hole, curling up, and crying until I died. But I couldn't, I needed to stay strong.

That was beginning to get really tough for me lately.

I dragged one of the faux leather chairs over from the corner next to Fang's bed, sat down, and gently picked up the hand that didn't have an IV. I squeezed his fingers.

Angel came up to me and wrapped her arms around my neck. I hugged her close with one arm. We didn't say anything, because we didn't need to.

She reached over and grabbed a couple of Fang's fingers and squeezed them.

"Are you getting anything from him?" I asked her softly.

She nodded. "A little. Mostly it's just shapes and colors. I think it's all the morphine they gave him." She paused.

"And there's something else," she said, concentrating.

"What?" I asked her.

"There's this weird darkness he's seeing, but there's, like, light he's seeing, too. They look like little stars, and some of them are moving."

My heart sped up. Was that the new ability Fang was talking about?

"Hmm," was all I said.

Nudge and Gazzy had found the remote for the little TV in the room, and were now arguing quietly over what to watch. Iggy had found a magazine and was flipping through the pages, feeling the colors in the pictures. Angel was content to sit in my lap and watch for any sign of movement from Fang. Occasionally I would squeeze his fingers to see if I could get a reaction. Nothing. Yet.

This continued for the rest of the day and into the night. I'm guessing Angel made the doctors and nurses ignore us when they came in to check on Fang's progress, since nobody asked us to leave. I didn't even try to stop her mind controlling this time.

We found some extra blankets and pillows in the small closet in the room and settled down for the night. Angel and Nudge fell asleep on the couch, and Gazzy curled up in the other faux leather chair in the room. Iggy ended up on the floor, but he couldn't exactly fit anywhere else. I stayed in the chair next to the bed, and fell asleep with my head half on the mattress, still holding Fang's hand. The only sound in the room apart from out breathing was the dull beeping of the heart monitor...


Fang POV

I was floating in nothingness, but there was an odd sense that I should be in pain, but wasn't. In this nothingness, it felt like there was a weight pressed against me, almost suffocating. I struggled against it, but it wouldn't lift. I couldn't feel my body, but I could hear noises that didn't fit in this nothingness. Somewhere close by there was an annoying beeping sound. I could also hear steady breathing close by my ear. The weight was lifting, and as it did I could feel feeling coming back to my body. The first thing I felt was warmth in my hand, and my fingers twitched. The next thing I felt was pain in my head and in my back. I became aware of a light overhead, and my eyelids twitched. I slowly opened them, and even though the light was low, it burned my eyes. I closed them again.

Where was I? The last thing I remembered was…Max. I remember watching as the rock fell toward her while she just stood there and stared at me. I slammed into her to knock her out of the way, then there was an incredible amount of pain. Then nothing.

Where was the flock? Where was Max? Where was I?

Then the smell hit my nose. That horrible antiseptic, floor cleaner, hand soap smell. It almost made me gag. There were only two possible places in the world I could be: the School, or a hospital. Hopefully the second one.

I slowly lifted my eyelids again, letting my eyes adjust to the light. My head felt like it was in a vice with spikes in the clamps. Ow.

I was staring up at the ceiling of the room I was in. I glanced around the rest of the room.

I saw Nudge and Angel curled up asleep on the sofa in the room. Gazzy was also asleep in a chair by the couch. All I could see of Iggy was his feet on the floor. I assumed he was sleeping, too.

Something by my right arm moved, and something clenched my fingers tighter. I looked down and saw Max curled up in a chair next to the bed I was laying on, her head resting on the mattress, and her hand curled gently around mine.

She looked so beautiful when she was asleep. During the day tension and anxiety were etched into her face, but even so she was still beautiful. As she slept, all that melted right off her face. God, I love her.

I tried to rub her fingers with my thumb, but it was hard to move my fingers. All I could do was gently squeeze her fingers.

She stirred a little, then slowly lifted her head. Her eyes focused groggily on my face. I tried to smile, but my head and face hurt trying. She blinked.

"Fang?" she whispered.

"Hey," I croaked. It was barely audible and slurred a little, but I think she heard. Her eyes widened, then she beamed, her eyes all teary. She gently threw her arm across me, and pressed her face against my stomach. It hurt a little and I winced.

"Oh, Fang!" she cried softly.

"It's okay, Max," I whispered. I laid my hand on her back and rubbed the spot between her wings. She lifted her head to stare at me, and leaned back in the chair. Tears were still streaming from her eyes as she gazed at me sadly.

"No, Fang," she said. "It's not."

"What do you mean?" I asked, confused. My voice was still only a whisper.

She bit her lip, then took my hand again.

"Can you feel your legs, Fang?" she asked. That was a weird question. I tried to move my legs, but I couldn't. In fact, I couldn't feel anything below my waist. My eyes widened and I just stared at her, still confused.

"No," I said.

A pained look came across her face.

"Max, what happened to me?" I asked, trying to keep my voice calm while I was horrified.


Wow that was long. Keep in mind I don't know crap about medical stuff so don't get critical about it.

There's your guys's Xmas present!!

Fly free and watch out for Santa Claus!

-C