AN: Thanks to Lizzaranda for clearing up the whole "story life" incident… Haha, yeah… So anyways, here's my new chappie!

………………………….…………Max's POV…….…………………………………

As soon as we landed, we were greeted by four familiar faces. "Max!" they yelled. "FANG!!!" they yelled even louder.

Fang was tackled and lost in a massive dog pile of happy children. Of course, Iggy was too cool for that kind of thing, so he hung back with me. We laughed at the struggling Fang while he glared at us.

"Good to have you back. I suck at the whole 'leader' thing," Iggy said to me.

"It's good to be back," I said with a smile. "Did you find anything suspicious while we were gone?"

Iggy shook his head. "No. Not unless you count Jeb trying to be nice to us as suspicious," he said with a frown.

I turned to him, curious. "What do you mean?"

He grinned. "He tried to take us to Put-Put Palace. It was hilarious. Half the time, we 'accidentally' whacked Jeb in the back of the head with our putters and the other half we just sulked." Haha, that must have been awesome. I can just see Jeb's face getting red and the vein in his neck popping as he tried not to lose his temper.

"Sorry I missed it," I muttered. It actually would've been fun to mess with Jeb.

Speaking of the devil, Jeb came out of the cottage just then. He smiled when he saw me. I stared back, narrowing my eyes. Hey, I'm tolerating him—that doesn't mean I have to like him.

As he approached us, the younger kids got off Fang and came to stand with me and Iggy. Fang stood at my right, Iggy at my left. Angel squeezed between me and Fang and held my hand. Nudge and Gazzy moved to the left of Iggy.

I missed you, Max, Angel said in my head.

I missed you too, sweetie I projected back to her.

Have you told Fang about my vision? she asked unexpectedly.

I was quiet. I hadn't told him yet; it just didn't feel like a good time.

Good idea, Angel thought. No need to worry him yet. But we should tell him soon, Max. He needs to know.

I sighed. I really didn't want to think about that right now. It just felt good to be with my flock again. I wanted to enjoy it and live in it always and never have to face the truth. Too bad my life wasn't like that. I had to deal with everything or else it would come back and hit me in my face when I least expected it. We couldn't let that happen with Fang.

"Well, Max, I'm glad you made it back safely," Jeb said, bringing me out of my trance. He didn't greet or even acknowledge Fang.

"Yeah, good to see you too, Jeb," Fang mumbled. Jeb ignored him.

"I suspect Dylan is close by?" he asked. He shaded his eyes with his hand and peered at the sky, as if expecting Dylan to appear.

"Actually, I don't really know where he is," I admitted.

Jeb froze and lowered his hand slowly. He turned to face me. "What?" he whispered. He looked like his eyes were going to pop right out of his head.

"I don't know where he is," I repeated slowly.

"How did you manage to do that?" he bellowed. I tried to hold back my smile.

"I kind of ditched him."

"That's very irresponsible, Maximum."

"What's it to ya?" I asked, knowing it would bug him to death.

"He was my son!"

"He was your experiment."

Jeb opened his mouth to argue back, but not a sound came out. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath as I've seen him do many times when he gets frustrated.

"When was the last time you saw him?" he asked calmly with his eyes still closed.

"Yesterday night."

"Where did you leave him?"

I shrugged. "Some cave. He'll know how to get back here."

"And he was fine when you left him? No injuries?" Jeb asked. Fang winced, drawing Jeb's attention. "What?" he asked Fang.

Fang looked away, ignoring the question. Angel gasped, obviously reading his mind.

"What? What's going on?" I said, turning to Fang.

Fang looked down at the ground, not answering.

"Fang beat up Dylan and told him to stay away from Max!" Angel blurted. My jaw dropped along with most everyone else's.

"Tattle tale," Fang grumbled.

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