Why was it so damn hot? The bed was up against the wall, and I was leaned against the window there, my cheek sucking up all the cold from the glass for as long as I could. It was nearly three in the morning and I'd woken up from a dead sleep hot as hell and extremely uncomfortable. It was a weekend, so Nudge and Angel, who'd been staying in the room with me, had fallen asleep on the floor in Ella's room. But I was a big fan of beds these days, believe it or not…
Thankful they weren't there, I moved slowly and quietly to lock the bedroom door before making my way back to the window, cringing a little as it scratched the windowsill as I pushed it open. But, dear lord, that winter breeze felt so nice…
The last time I had been this hot was when I got my super-speed. But this was different. Then, I'd woken up feeling like my skin was burning off. Right now, it felt like I was sitting way too close to a fire, the flames nearly licking my skin itself.
I reached over, pulled my pillow further down the bed so I could lie directly in front of the window, hoping to fall asleep.
-x-
"Max." Someone banged on my door and I rolled over, groaning, only to squeal when my bare skin touched the ice-cold wall behind me. "Max!"
"What?" I called, my voice shaking from the cold and probably low blood sugar to be honest. A draft directed me to the open window, which I immediately closed, and I was reminded of how hot I'd been the night before. Why couldn't my body find a happy medium?
"Breakfast," Iggy called.
"I'll be right down." I flew around the room, collecting my pajamas and putting them back on, savoring the feel of the warm fleece.
"You okay?" He called, voice softer and a little concerned.
"Yeah."
He left. Thank God. I pulled the sleeves down so that it covered my fingertips and opened the door, not wanting to feel how cold the metal would be. The door swung open and I was met with Fang as he walked towards the stairs.
"Jeez, Max," he mumbled, wrapping his arms around himself as the cold air from my bedroom hit him. "If you need to warm up, just climb in the freezer."
"Put come clothes on," I snapped, smacking his bare arm. He wore nothing but a thin black short sleeve shirt, and a pair of navy flannel pajama bottoms.
He recoiled from my hit. "You're hands are cold!"
I pulled the sleeves down again and shivered. I wascold.
As soon as the warm eggs and bacon hit the inside of my mouth, I was warm again. The hot right-off-the-stove heat burned my tongue as I shoveled more and more food into my mouth, but I could feel myself warming to a more comfortable level, though the hot flash of the previous night still concerned me.
"Why is it so cold upstairs?" Nudge asked, rubbing her arms as she joined us in the kitchen. She took a plate of food from Iggy and sat down.
"Max had the window open," Angel said, following Nudge's example of collecting food from Iggy and sitting at the table.
"Why did you have the window open?" Dr. Martinez scolded from across the table. "It's the middle of December!"
I glared at Angel, receiving a lopsided grin in return. We'd have to have a talk about opinions and their importance. Mostly, how important it was to keep her opinions of my activities to herself.
"I got hot," I mumbled with a shrug, adding more salt and pepper to my eggs. Was it a crime to be overheated in December? Maybe if the room hadn't been 80-something degrees I wouldn't have had to sit in front of the window nearly naked.
I heard Angel begin to choke on her eggs as she was eating and snickered to myself. Serves her right for invading on my privacy.
"You okay?" Nudge asked, eyeing Angel as her coughing turned to laughs.
"Don't," I hissed quietly, pointing my fork at her.
"What?" Fang and Nudge asked in unison.
"Don't," I said a little louder. It was one thing for her to get that little mental image, but another for her to share with the class.
Angel just shook her head and began eating again. "You owe me, Max."
"Nope, pretty sure you still owe me, Kid." I ignored Fang's questioning stare and returned to my food.
-x-
"Can I talk to you really quick before you leave?" I mumbled from the doorway awkwardly as Mom stood in front of the mirror in her bedroom, pulling her hair back.
"Sure," she replied, putting the brush down on the dresser to wrap the tied from her wrist around the ponytail. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong," I defended automatically, stepping inside the room and closing the door.
"I'm sorry, Sweetie," she laughed. "You just have this look on your face like something is wrong. What's up then?"
I sighed and rolled up the sleeve of my shirt, revealing a fairly new scar on my forearm. "When I was taken, they replaced the chip in my arm."
Mom frowned and stepped closer, taking my arm in her gentle fingers to examine it. "Did you find out what it was for?"
"Tracks changes in my body and stuff," I explained quickly. "Which doesn't sound all that bad but—"
"It could be sending them information, essentially becoming a GPS for you," Mom nodded, understanding quickly. "Do the others have these chips?"
I shrugged helplessly. "I have no idea. I just want it out."
Mom nodded again and pulled her coat out of the closet. "I'll look into it when I get home and we can see about having them removed." She paused, hesitating, and I watched as she grew a little more apprehensive. "Max, I wanted to talk to you about something. Something I've been thinking about for a little while now."
"What's wrong? "I asked, trying not to sound demanding, but her tone was doing nothing to comfort me. Were we about to be kicked out?
"This three bedroom house was nice for Ella and I, but I feel like in a bigger place, with more yard and space, the rest of you guys would be a little more comfortable," she explained, standing in front of me. "I was thinking of selling the house and we can find something bigger."
My mind went blank. What? An adult wanted to do something nice for us? Something like buy a house? "I can't ask you to do that," I sputtered quickly. "Really, we're fine here. We love it here." A new though plagued my brain then. "Are we making you and Ella uncomfortable?"
"No, no," Mom interjected quickly. "It's nothing like that. I found a five bedroom home a little ways outside of the city. A lot more secluded, lots of trees across the street, huge front yard. It's just under seven hundred, but it should be plenty of space for everyone. We can always turn the evtra living room into a sixth bedroom if—"
"Mom, no," I gasped, the pieces of what she was telling me finally clicking into place in my brain in a single moment of understanding. "That's way too much money and I can't ask you to do this—"
"You're not asking me," she whispered, a sad smile on her face now as she took my face in her hands. "I'm asking you. Max, when I helped Jeb with the recombinant DNA project, I was well compensated. I haven't touched that money for various reasons, and even taking out Ella's college, there is more than enough for this house."
My heart raced over this, pounding loudly in my ears. "Why are you asking me?"
"I had never planned to use that money outside of Ella's education—and yours, too, if you'd like it. Any of you," she started slowly. "But when I met you I knew I would never use that money, money they paid me to keep quiet about what we'd created, and what it did to you. I want to use that money for you now. To help you."
I jerked forward and wrapped my arms around her waist, swallowing hard. "Thank you," was all I could manage. I pulled away and smiled up at her. "You've never needed to use that money? You just stashed it all away?"
"I never did it for the money," she admitted. "And I make pretty good money doing what I do." She glanced at her watch. "Speaking of which…We'll talk about the chip more when I get home."
She leaned forward and planted a quick kiss to my forehead. "You have no idea how grateful we all are to what you're doing for us," I murmured, pulling her in for a hug again. "Thank you. For everything. Even if it could end up…"
Her arms tightened around me. "Don't worry about any of that, alright, Max? Ella and I are capable of handling ourselves."
-x-
And so I waited. And waited. And waited…
Do you know how boring it can get when you're stuck at home while your little half-sister is at school and your mom is at work? Fang and Gazzy had discovered Ella's ancient PlayStation in the basement and were absorbed entirely in that—thank god, because Fang still looked like death. Nudge and Angel were watching old Disney movies on the only other TV—the classics, Ella had called them.
I got up from my chair in the kitchen—I had dubbed it "Max's Thinking Chair"—and headed for the front door when I bumped into Iggy.
"Where're you headed?" I asked.
"Lunch."
"How long 'til it's ready?" I asked, really wanting to go for a fly. Sitting indoors for the last few days was making me jittery and I was getting hot again, that fever-like warmth spreading through me slowly, growing.
"'Bout a half an hour. Why? Where are you headed?" He walked around me and opened the fridge, gently feeling around for what he needed. Ella had labeled the important, common things with different combinations of colored tape so he could find what he needed quicker.
I pulled on my sneakers and a light sweater. "I'm going for a quick fly. I'll try to be back for lunch."
-x-
Let's just say that the cold air in my face felt so good that I didn't make it back for lunch. Or dinner. Or bedtime.
But I did make it back. And the minute my feet touched the ground in front of the house, I felt terrible. I immediately knew exactly how stupid that had been, that I was supposed to be waiting for Mom to get home from work to talk about the very-important-chip situation. And also because I'd recently been sprung from The School, so there was that unnecessary worry I probably put everyone through.
But damn, the chilly air was like heaven and the pounding headache made it hard to think straight at all. And right now, all I could think about was the inevitable embarrassment of an explanation I'd face in the morning, not just with Mom but the rest of the Flock.
The house was dark and silent, and I almost felt a little suspicious that no one was awake for me. Maybe I hadn't worried them as much as I thought? And suddenly I didn't know which I feared more, being forgotten or having my Flock become so complacent they didn't worry when I didn't come back.
Luck on my side for once, my window was still unlocked from the night before, and slid open easily. After climbing in, I immediately made my way out into the hall, quietly peeking into the girls' room to see them all asleep. Satisfied that they very clearly weren't out looking for me, I headed down the stairs as quietly as I could to put my sweater in the hall closet and my shoes by the door, planning on grabbing a quick sandwich before going to bed myself.
"I swear, if you get pneumonia, I'm going to kill you. What were you thinking?" a voice hissed behind me, making me jump. I spun around, fist flying out to punch anyone behind me, but Fang caught it, close and towering over me.
He must have been waiting up. He was in a pair of pajama pants and no shirt.
"Jeez!" I growled, pushing him gently away from me so that I could walk down the narrow hallway towards the stairs. "You scared the crap outta me!"
"You scared the crap out of us!" Fang followed me up the stairs. "Where the hell did you go for ten hours?" His hand pushed the door back open when I attempted to slam it in his face. "Do you know how hard it was to keep everyone here? As much as it kills me, I couldn't go look for you. It's not safe, Max." I rolled my eyes and stepped away from the door, heading to sit on the bed. "If you hadn't come back by morning, Iggy was going to take Gazzy and Angel and go find you."
"If you must know, I just went for a fly."
"Just?" Fang angrily jerked a hand through his hair, clearly seething. He turned and shut the door quietly before turning back to me, hand pinching the bridge of his nose. "Max, we just got you back, you can't do shit like this."
"Why are you treating me like this?" I demanded quietly, aware that the others were sleeping a room over. "I'm not one of the kids, I told Iggy where I was going—"
"You told him you'd be back by lunch," he threw back. "Max, please be rational and see how it looks. If any of the others had done what you did today, you would have gone and dragged their ass home."
"I'm sorry," I ground out, looking up at him and wishing he would leave so I could stew in my own embarrassment and go to sleep. "You don't think I know I royally messed up? But I'm okay, I'm fine."
Fang walked over and sat next to me on the bed, our thighs bumping. "Where did you go?" he asked softer, "for ten hours?"
"I got hot again," I said simply with a shrug like it was nothing and absolutely had been concerning me for the last 5 hours…
"Max, this isn't good," he sighed, but stopped when I yawned. "We'll talk more in the morning, I guess."
"Sure," I mumbled, watching as he walked out of the room and shut the door behind him. I'd have to ask Angel for a little favor. Fang didn't need to know that for three of those ten hours I'd been flying around completely nude…
