Here it is!! Chapter 14!! Wow- thank you so much to everyone reviewing and reading!! kashiena- I'm sorry i made you cry!!!! But that's never happend before as far as I know so thank you! Wow, I never knew my writing could do that to people... well, I often thought my writing could be so bad and awful that it would make people cry- but that's different! More believeable lol!!

~Fang POV~

Max was sitting across from me in an armchair sipping coffee- silently. She had been quiet ever since we had left my parents. Actually no- that wasn't true: she hadn't been quiet, she had been silent. Deathly silent as a mute or mime artist. That wasn't good- wasn't all that normal either. It was usually me that sat in silence, not Max. Max planned. Yet, I could tell from her revered state that she wasn't planning right now. No, she was just completely lost in thought. Fully absorbed in her own mind- in thoughts that caused a frown to mar her troubled face.

I could more or less guess what she was thinking about too. Her lack of a family like mine, perhaps... I daydreamed for a minute, letting myself got lost for a short while too.

Daydreaming, imagining Max moving here after the battle.

My parents- my mum especially- loved her. I could tell. Max could have everything here- she could have parents, a house... I would gladly share everything I had with Max without a second's hesitation; my family, my home... even me.

It surprised me that she had no idea what power she held over me. She didn't even realise how far gone I was when it came to her- I was in so deep that to go back would surely break me apart. She had no clue, and I knew that she probably never would. I also knew that it wouldn't change a thing. Weren't there songs about this kind of thing? I was sure that Allie's stereo had played something along those lines- Hopelessly Addicted? Hopelessly Devoted? Hopelessly Freaking Stupid? The last one would clearly have been written with me in mind, had it ever been a song.

Max was still silent. Her frown made me want to grimace myself. There had been a time when I knew everything about her- I had known her better then she had known herself. Now I hadn't a clue- it was like looking at a stranger sometimes, it killed me to admit it. But one thought gave me hope- it hadn't been long since I had known Max inside out, and I truly believed that it wouldn't take me long to get back to that stage again. The troubled mute was still trapped in the confines of her own mind. Now would be a good time to remind her that she did have a family. I might not be able to see deep into the depths of her soul anymore, but it didn't take a genius to guess that Max would still be torn up over not being able to find her own family after successfully managing to find everyone else's. now would be a good time to remind her of her family- an opportune time to remind her of the Flock.

"So," I began, awkwardly shattering the weighted silence that had settled down upon us like a thick, smothering blanket. "I was thinking that we should get the rest of the Flock up here soon. Get cracking with a plan. If we could-"

Max gasped loudly and slammed her mug down on the coffee table. Her hands gripped the arms of the chair with such force that her knuckles turned white and the leather creased inward like a tightly-clenched sponge.

I rushed over, kneeling on the floor beside her. "Max? Max, look at me! What's wrong?" I sounded frantic, I felt worse. How did she not manage to realise how much she affected me? If I went around with a sign printed on my forehead that proclaimed MAX, I NEED YOU emblazoned on it- I actually think she wouldn't notice.

"I'm...... fine," she managed to gasp. Her entire face was contorted as she tried to draw in panting breaths. Oh hell, she was having a coronary. She was going into cardiac arrest, or having an asthma attack or a brain haemorrhage or… or… something that required a paramedic!

"Yeah right!" I shouted at her. Typical Max- deny the pain. Pain is a message, one could ignore the message even if it was ridiculously obvious. Her face was screwed up in awful, searing discomfort. Her brow furrowed and eyes squeezed shut tightly. Her whole body was rigid, arms digging into the chair so hard that I was surprised the leather didn't bruise.

What was I supposed to do? Ring an ambulance? How would I explain the wings? Or the erratic heartbeat? The bird DNA?! Was this how Max had felt when Ari sliced me in half n the beach? How did she cope?!

Suddenly Max exhaled. The rigid state of her set spine crumbled and her head flopped forward. Her body almost collapsing with the renewed ease it acquired. Releasing the couch with clawed unease, her hands came up to cradle her head. Max's fingers hid her face from me as she continued to breathe in deep irregular heaves.

"Max..." I spoke tentatively. I wanted desperately to reach out and just touch her skin- let her know that I was here for her. Maybe pull her hands away from her face and hold her trembling fingers in mine. But I couldn't. It was hard enough getting her to stay here- try anything like that and she would run for the hills without ever looking back.

"I'm fine," she repeated dismissively, removing her hands and shaking her hair out. "Honestly, it probably won't happen again for a while anyway."

"What won't happen again?!"

Her moist eyes locked with mine. I could see the pain in those dark pools. Damn, but I wanted to be able to make it go away. "The Voice," she answered calmly. "That was me- well, blocking it out."

"You can block it out?" That wasn't what I expected to hear.

"Yeah well it got very annoying and I got fed up of collapsing in a screaming fit of pain. So one day I just snapped, couldn't bear it anymore. Turned out I could block it out. I don't know why." How could she pass this off so flippantly, as though it were nothing?

"This anything to do with Angel not being able to read your mind?" I asked. I had never really known what to make of that.

"Yeah, it happened round the same time. Maybe you should just start calling me Super Brain?"

Joking. Max's way of trying to change the subject. Angel had stopped reading Max's mind over a year ago. The same time we split.

How much of her life had I missed?

Her life or her pain? I couldn't help but ask myself.