My head hurt...Then I noticed that my side and shoulder burned just as badly...Then, coherent thoughts began again. Where the heck was I, why did I hurt so much, and why in the freaking heck was someone practically attached to my hand?!

My eyes opened. Ow...Who knew opening your eyes could hurt that badly? The first thing I saw was...a pink shirt. On me...A clean pink shirt on me...That was gonna get fixed and fast. I loath pink...

Then I remembered that someone was holding my hand. I looked, moving my head as little as possible. It still hurt like heck...

I almost laughed out loud. Fang, Mr. Rock-Hard, I-Don't-Do-Soft, Basic-Black-Ensemble, was holding my hand. He was sound asleep and his black hair tussled. Unable to resist, I eased my hand out of his and began messing with his hair, something he would never have let me do when he was awake. I ruffled it up, and then combed it back down with my fingers. Given the fact that the boy never used conditioner (that's assuming he knew what conditioner was), his hair was soft. I ruffled it again, then started combing it flat once more.

"I'm not a dog, you know."

I almost jumped out of the bed, my sudden jerk making my side and shoulder sting. Dizzy, my head thumped back onto the pillow.

"Ow." I said.

"Sorry." He laughed.

"No, you're not."

"Yes, I am." He sounded offended. Faker.

"Prove it." I muttered, my head still glued to the pillow and my eyes closed.

"Okay."

Uh-oh.

He leaned close and kissed me.

'I totally take that "uh-oh"', I thought as I kissed back.

"So," I said when we parted, "Where's the rest of the flock?"

"Downstairs." Fang said.

"Where am I, what happened, why does everything hurt, have you guys been fed, how did I get here, and when can we leave?"

"The orphanage Tonks used to live at, Kieran beat the crap outta you, he scratched your side and you've lost a lot of blood, yes we have, Tonks and Keez picked us up, and when I say so." Fang grinned. "Did I get everything?"

"Yes. Why when you say so?"

"Because if you try to get out when you're not well enough, I will make you stay."

"Bossy." I stuck my tongue out at him.

"Now that was just childish!" He said.

"So?"

"Fine, if you want to be childish..." He grinned more.

"That's an evil grin..." I got the feeling that this was not going to lead to another kiss.

"Yes, yes it is."

He leaned over and started tickling me. A lot. If you can consider a tickling to be vicious, then it was very vicious.

"Stop! STOP!" I screeched with laughter. "Ow, I'm sore, stoppit! STOP!"

"Okay, if you're sore." He stopped quickly. "Sorry."

"I've had worse." I squeezed his hand. "Don't worry about it."

"We heard some sort of screech." Iggy appeared in the doorway, the rest of the flock behind him. "I take it Max is awake and bossy once more?"

"Shut up." I searched for something to throw at him.

"Yup, I was right. Again." He plopped into the chair Fang had just left in order to sit next to me on the bed.

I picked up a pillow I found and aimed to throw.

"Here, let me do it." Fang said, and chucked the pillow. Hard.

"Ow..." Iggy rubbed his head.

"I could have done that!" I said.

"You could have messed up your side more!"

"When did you become so protective?" I giggled.

"When I saw you almost die." He said somberly.

"Was I that bad?" I looked from face to face.

"Yeah." Gazzy looked pukey.

Nudge nodded.

"I've never seen so much blood in my life." Angel said, hugging Total, "Ever..."

"You felt bad." Iggy added. "I was, for once, glad I couldn't see anything..."

Wow...I was that bad...

"Hey, look who's awake." Tonks came bounding in, Keez following.

"Yup, and she's cleaned up!" Soda and Sting followed.

"Never thought I'd see the day!" Matt was behind them, along with three more Ghosts I didn't know.

"Oh, come on!" I said, "So you've never seen me clean, big whup!"

"Yeah," Fang laughed, "None of us have, either!"

"Shut up!"

"Why?"

"Just do it!" I swatted his arm. "I can't remember the last time I was this clean, though..."

"None of us can either..." Iggy muttered.

"I heard that!" I twisted to face him and gasped.

"You okay?" Fang looked at me, worried. I was unused to emotion actually showing on his face. It was sweet.

"Yeah."

"Max, do you need some aspirin?" A woman with a tight bun came into the room with a pill bottle.

"Uh...yeah..." I said. Who was she?

"Max," said Tonks, seeing her confusion, "This is Nurse Mary. She, Lily, and I patched you up."

"Oh, okay." I said.

"Here you are, dear," She handed me the pill. "I'll ask Louise to get you some water."

"Thank you." I said.

Mary nodded and left the now-crowded room.

"So," I looked at Tonks, "You and Keez brought me here?"

"Yup."

"And you know all of these people?"

"Most of them." Tonks laughed.

"Tonks?" A small, pretty blonde girl poked her head around the doorway. She can't have been any older than Angel.

"Yes, Katy?" Tonks bent, picking the little girl up.

"Do you know these kids?" Green eyes peaked out from under long lashes at me. I gave her a little wave. Her small cheeks flushed.

"Of course I do!" Tonks rubbed noses with the girl. "Do you want to meet them?"

The girl smiled sheepishly and nodded.

"Yes, please."

"Okay, then." Tonks came over and sat her on the edge of the bed, right next to Angel.

"Hi, I'm Angel. This is Celeste, and Total."

The girl smiled and gave Total a pat. He gave a doggy grin and wisely kept quiet.

"That's the Gasman, my brother, and that's Iggy, he's blind, and Nudge, who is my best friend forever, and Fang, who helps take care of me, and Max. She's almost like my mom!" Angel pointed us all out.

"Why are you like her mom?" Katy crawled onto my lap and asked me.

"Well," I put my arms around her, refusing to wince. How the heck was I going to explain the 'my mother willingly conceived me with a scientist for the sake of genetic experimentation and then let me live in a dog cage' thing to this kid?! "My mom and I were separated, and the rest of us were all separated from our moms, too. I help take care of all of them."

"Oh." Katy nodded as though this made absolute perfect sense. Maybe it did. To her, anyway.

"Do you really have wings?"

"Yes." I said. Man, was she curious.

"Can I see?" She asked. "Please?"

She was so adorable that I wanted to comply immediately!

"I'm sorry, sweetie. I hurt my wing. Angel can show you hers, though." I figured that Angel's pure white wings would be most comforting to her.

"Sure!" Angel said. She let her stunning wings out very slowly, and only unfurled them half way.

"They're pretty!" Katy touched the primary feathers. "It was nice to see you guys! I'm going to go play with my friends!"

I gave her a hug.

"Come back and see us, if you want!"

She nodded, and then sprinted off. I gave a grin and looked around. Everyone except Tonks, Nudge, Gazzy, and Angel were ogling at me.

"What?" I got slightly defensive, "She's adorable!"

"Yeah, but you managed to not freak her out and treated her like you do Angel. You treated an outsider like one of the flock. That's…Very un-Max-ish." Iggy said.

"She. Was. Adorable! If you could have seen her, you'd have taken my side!"

"She's got a point, the kid looked almost like Angel's double." Fang said.

"But without the wings." Angel said.

"Oh, my goodness!" Another woman, this one older, had entered the room. Some strands of gray hair were escaping from her salt-and pepper bun. "You can't all be in here, she needs her space!"

"I'm fine, really." I said.

"You can't possibly be awake!" She seemed to notice that I was, in fact, up and alert for the first time. She checked her watch. "You should have been out for another half-hour, at least!"

"Due to my…condition, as you'd call it, my body rejuvenates much faster than normal." I told her, "How long do you expect I'll be here?"

"Well…Over two weeks, I should think!"

Translation: Six to ten days.

"Okay. Um…May I ask your name?"

"Oh, well, I'm Mary, and all the same, I think some of these boys need to go get rest of their own." Mary said, keeping order.

Every Ghost's eyes went to Keez. He flicked his head toward the door and they filed out, as obedient to Keez as my flock was to me. Soon, everyone but my flock was out of the room.

"I think you should really leave, too, honestly." Mary put her hands to her hips.

"I'm sorry, but they stay with me. We're a family." I told her calmly.

"But-"

"I think you should listen." Iggy said.

"Well…all right. But they'll have to leave when we get you into pajamas."

"Technically…"

"Don't start, Iggy." I told him. "Nudge, smack him for me!"

She did. Iggy whined.

"Well, then. I'll send Kathy up with some night-clothes for you." Mary said, then left us alone again.

"Let me see your wrists." I told Fang, suddenly remembering.

"Huh?"

"Just give me your wrist!" I grabbed it and held it at eye level. I sighed.

"What?" Fang said.

"You brought me here, got me fixed up, made sure I was fine, and did nothing about these gashes? Which could possibly have rope-fibers in them?"

"Well…"

"He was worried, Max." Nudge said. "We all were."

"Well, none of the rest of you were bleeding…"

"Max, I'll be fine."

"Fine." It's always been pointless to argue with Fang, and I wasn't starting now.

"Lord, you sound like a bickering couple already!" Iggy laughed.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Fang said, putting his arm around me, "She can bicker with me all she wants. It means I'm special."

Iggy snorted.

"Actually, he's right…I don't argue with any of you near as much." I told him.

"Wow, that's so cute Max! So are you and Fang gonna be together forever and ever? Are you gonna have a happily ever after, like all the fairy tales? Cause that would be really cool, you know? I mean, it would be sweet and perfect and you both would have earned it cause of what you've been through! It's just so amazing, you two finally getting together! You know? It's just-" I held up my hand to stop Nudge before she started comparing us to every fairy tale couple in existence.

"Thanks Nudge, but a happily ever after would kinda mean ditching saving the world. And ditching you guys, in the end…"

"And we are not about to do that." Fang finished for me.

"Okay. Then maybe you can just stay with us and-"

"We'll see." Though I'd been unconscious for at least an hour, I was so tired I couldn't keep my eyes open.

"Here you go dear, a clean nightgown." A blonde, plump woman came in and set a light-blue nightgown on the foot of my bed. Much better than pink.

"Thank you."

She nodded and left.

"You three, out." I gestured to the boys.

"But I can't see anything!"

"Out!"

They left, and I started to lift my shirt up over my head, then almost fell backwards from the rush of pain.

"Nudge, Angel…"

"We'll help you, Max." Angel said.

"Thanks."

After several, very embarrassing minutes, I was in the nightgown, my wing and side stinging, my head throbbing.

"You guys can come back in now." Nudge told the boys through the door.

"Thanks." Fang walked over to my bed. "Scoot."

"What?"

"I say if anyone gets the bed it's the one who was taken hostage." He said, matter of factly.

"Fine." I scootched. "There."

"Thank you." He lay on his side next to me, gently, and oh, so carefully, putting his arm around me.

"Mm-hmm."

I heard the flock settling in around the bed in chairs or on the floor. Total curled up in the crook between my shin and ankle.

"Night, Max." Fang breathed in my ear.

"Night."

"I love you."

"Love you, too."

Night closed in, softly and slowly. And, not to sound mushy or anything, but I had never been so comfortable in my life as I was that night in Fang's arms.