A/N: So... Posting after seven reviews isn't so bad, is it? I hope not. Anyway, I'll go with waiting a little while before making it happen. "It" meaning making Max have a kid. I really wish you guys would want that since that's, like, my trademark-ish. Or not. So I'll wait awhile before asking again. At least three chapters. Remember; Review!

Fang's POV:

God, I love Max. I love how she made love, I love how she acts, I love how she looks, god, I even love how she smells. She's almost like a goddess, in some ways. She had to have had the best birthday ever. I know that if the roles were reversed, I wouldn't have gone to sleep. Of course, if the roles were reversed that'd be REALLY weird.

I felt Max shiver and I felt tears run down her face onto my chest. I looked down to see if she was awake, but she wasn't.

"Fang," she whispered. "Fang...no, please!" Max was having the same nightmare as the night before. Those same words had come out last night. Would she say more tonight?

"Fang..." Max mumbled, turning over roughly. I held her against me and she seemed to cry harder. "Fang, no! Don't leave me!" she said in a louder tone.

"No...no, please! Fang! Please, don't leave me!" Her hand shot up to the locket I had given her. So that's what was making her so upset. She was remembering when I had left her.

"Max, shhh, its ok," I whispered, stroking her hair.

"No..." Max mumbled. "No... Fang!" Max started thrashing, trying to break my hold on her, but I help fast. "No..." she muttered, softer this time. "Fang, be happy." Max started shivering as if she were standing in an ice-storm.

I shut my eyes, just in case she woke up as she had last night. Which she did, not even five minutes after I had gone into my faux-sleep.

"Fang!" she jumped and I felt the pillow move, so she must have turned to look at me. I heard her sigh and she got up as quietly as she could and walked to the bathroom, a change of clothes in hand.

I heard the quiet water go on and the shower door opened.

I stayed awake, listening to the water in the shower. I knew that Max wouldn't stay in there for longer then twenty minutes, fifteen of which had already passed, and I wasted the time by remembering the first time we'd "slept" with each other. Max had seemed much more hesitant before. I looked at my watch and turned it to the date. It was Sunday, so tomorrow we had to fly back to Arizona for school. I heard the shower water turn off and got out of bed to put some pajama bottoms on, at the very least.

Just as Max opened the door, I closed my eyes to pretend I was asleep again. She didn't come back into the bed, though. She went over to the desk and I heard the drawer open. She shuffled through some stuff for a second until she evidently pulled something out and closed it. I heard scratching as Max started writing something on whatever she pulled out of the desk. A diary? No, Max wasn't that petty. A note? Was Max unable to deal with her dreams so much so that she had to feel like she needed to write a note? Was she going to leave? I silently got up and looked over her shoulder. God, she smelled so good after her shower, but I had to focus and not let her see or hear me.

I read what she was reading over her shoulder and paid attention.

"Dear Fang," she wrote.

"If you get this message, I'm at Central Park. I needed some fresh air. If you don't then, obviously, I'm in bed with you."

Max looked at what she read and crossed out the last sentence.

"Please don't be worried. I just needed to think for a bit. Don't ask about why I left either, please. I'd really rather not talk about that.

"Come as soon as you get this note.

"All my love forever, Max"

Max looked over her note for a few seconds and I took that chance to run back to the bed without making any noise.

Evidently, though, I hadn't been quiet enough.

"Fang," Max whispered, "are you awake?" I tried to make a show of just waking up before answering.

"Uh, yeah," I said in a sleepy voice. "Why? What's wrong?" Max sighed.

"Nothing," she said, and I could see that she was crumpling something in her hands, but I didn't mention it. "I'll be right back, ok? I just need to go flying. Alone," she added as I started to get up to go with her. "I'll be back soon, ok, Fang?" She came over and kissed me before leaving.

"I'll be back soon," she said again. She put on some clothes and a windbreaker on top.

As she walked out the door, I realized something; she had taken a windbreaker without slits for her wings. I had brought two without slits for just in case I took her to dinner somewhere that slits in the back would alert security. But Max didn't know that I was planning to take her out to dinner.

Max's POV:

I was so confused. Since when would Fang just let me go out, on my own, and, to top that, without him? Was Ella right? Had I started a habit of talking in my sleep? Had I said something that told him I was dreaming about when he had left me? No—Fang had just woken up when I had said his name. But if he was that light of a sleeper, how could he not have heard me write the note?

I looked down at my hand where the note was still clutched.

"Hey, baby," I heard from behind me.

There were about five dirty, burly guys who were probably in their early 20's.

I made a show of looking around, as if looking for another girl.

"Oh, I think you're mistaken. I'm no one's 'baby,'" I said, not letting my voice betray that I was a bit scared.

"No, I think you're the chick we've been trailing," another thug said.

"She is!" a third gang member added. "And she's finally come out without her boyfriend!"

"Excuse me, I have to go now. Not that this conversation didn't make me happy that I've never skipped a day of school," I said, and I saw one of the guys try to figure that out. I tried to unfurl my wings, but my wings hit against something; the back on my windbreaker. Fang had brought one that didn't have slits!

Shit, now I was scared. I started walking away from the gang, but one of them came in front of me and I felt two arms grab my back.

"Where do you think you're going?" I heard the first guy ask.

"Home; back to my husband," I lied.

"I don't think so." I felt the arms holding me pullback and throw me on the ground.

"You know where I think you're going?" the gang member asked. "With us," the guy looked at one of his peers and the other thug took out a piece of paper and a pen.

"Why don't you do the honor of writing your boyfriend's note? It's a letter demanding ransom," the thug member said, handing me the pen and paper. The gang head still had a hold on my side, so I didn't have any other choice but to write what he told me to.

"Write, 'dear boyfriend.' Write it now." I wrote as quick as I could, writing Fang's name. "'This is,' write your name. 'I can't say where I am, but if you ever want to—' ugh, you write too slowly," the thug member said, snatching away the paper and pen and writing the ransom note himself.

"Now," the gang leader said with a wicked smile. "Why don't we prepare you to meet up with your boyfriend?"

"Why don't you learn what breath mints are?" I retorted, which was not smart. All that got me was another yank by my arms from the gang leader, who was holding me.

"Let's go," the gang leader said to his peers, putting a blindfold around my eyes. "Can't let the little babe stay here, cold, all night," the thug paused. "I'm first, just so everyone remembers." Oh no. No, no, no! They couldn't do this!

"Hey, calm down, babe. If you don't, I might hurt you accidentally," the thug warned, but I ignored him. I tried to break their grasp, but all I got for that was a hit on my head.

The walk to the gang's hideout was dreadful, but what they did inside was even worse. The thug leader threw me against something—a bed—and I felt hands start to creep around my jeans.

"No!" I shrieked. "No, no, no, no! Let me go, now!!" I heard the thugs laugh as their leader took off my jeans and I felt his one of his hands caressing my legs as his other hand took off my underwear. I screamed, praying to god that someone would hear me.

"Babe, you gotta be quiet," the thug leader said as one of his peers hit the side of my head. I felt the leader get on top of me and his bare legs touched mine, but not in the good way that Fang's did. "Spread your legs, babe," he demanded.

"No," I cried, twisting my calves together. The thug pulled my legs apart, harshly, and I screamed again.

A/N: Oooh, evil cliffy! What will happen to Max? Will Fang find the ransom letter in time? Wait and see!!