Max was flying high, enjoying the feeling of wind in her hair and ruffling through her feathers when her mother called her. Hearing her name, from her mother no less, caught her completely off guard. Looking around she couldn't see anything but clouds and the tiny trees and buildings below.

"Max!" How could her mother be up here anyways? She couldn't– "Max, wake up!"

Jerking unconsciously Max's eyes flew open and focused on her mother who stood next to her bed with a concerned expression. The worry lines in her face were pronounced and Max was shocked to notice. It wasn't often Max saw sign of her age, but distress always seemed to bring it out.

"Mom what are you doing here?" She questioned and looked around, finding the nurse standing a few feet behind her mother.

"I was at work and the school called," Max rose a brow at this. If her mom came flying to the school every time the school came calling with news of one thing or another Max had gone and said or done to tick a teacher off, her mom would end up spending more time at Max's school than she did at work. "They told me you'd been hurt during PE," Her mother explained, "and that you had received a concussion. I was worried you might need medical attention." Max was about to make a comment rather dryly that she didn't have particular need for her mom's kind of doctor. She didn't fancy seeing a vet, after all, when the implication struck her.

Depending on her injury – perhaps she had been lucky, in a sense, that it was her head she had injured – she might have required more extensive help. If rather than hit by a ball she had, say, taken a tumble and dislocated her shoulder, the nurse may have insisted she take off her jacket or shirt to determine the extent of the damage.

It's not as though the likes hadn't happened before, as she had explained to Fang. Max didn't fancy explaining a few extra appendages adorning her back. That conversation always tended to get a little messy.

"Everything's alright, Mom." Max assured her with a small smile and a shrug. "Just a small bump on the head is all."

"I wouldn't quite call it small, Mrs. Alvarez," the foreign name was awkward to hear and Max had to remind herself that was her mother's name now, "but Max seemed to be alright. She may suffer a mild headache for a few more hours and I imagine her temple will be sore for a long time to come, but overall she doesn't appear to have suffered anything too terrible."

"Thank you for seeing after her," Mom smiled at the lady and the nurse nodded.

"Happy to help," she reassured, "I'm glad it wasn't any worse than it was." Turning to Max she donned a semi-serious look, "And you, Max. Be more careful, alright? I don't want to see you coming back through here any time soon!" Max nodded and her mother and the nurse continued talking for a little while until the topic didn't involve Max in the slightest and still they kept going. Just as Max was considering another go at that nap the two seemed to finish and her mother turned to her.

"Alright dear, time to head home." Max nodded her accent and followed after.

"Ella and Iggy?"

"Alexander told me a nice young boy would see to it that Iggy was taken care of for the remainder of his classes and see him to the bus. Ella, I'm sure, will be quite fine on her own," she gave Max a subtle look that seemed to remind her Ella had been by herself yesterday considering Max's untimely skipping. Max conceded the point and wondered how Iggy would hold up with Fang walking all about with his near silent demeanor. Could Iggy follow one person's footsteps in a giant crowd of others? Surely Fang wouldn't be that inconsiderate.

Max brushed the thought off. If anything went amiss between the boys she was rather confident, given all the looks that had been shot his way during their first period, some selfless female would gladly step in to lead Iggy wherever he needed to go. Max idly pondered Ella's reaction when she realized Iggy would, apparently, be a rather popular individual among the school's female population. She wagered it wouldn't be good.

Max had never been fond of cars so when she started to nod off as her mother was taking her home it came as a surprise to both of them. Her mother started off trying to ask her how her day had gone – before being hit in the head with a hard as rubber ball, at least – Max had had little to say on the matter. She mentioned that Alex seemed like a pretty cool dude and her first period teacher much less so.

Her mother reminded her that not all her teachers could be her favorite, and that she should still be polite and do as they say. Max was never very fond of this either, but conceded to her mother's authority and typically better judgement. The drive was a fairly short one but Max had nearly passed out by the end of it.

With her mother's aid she made it in the house and up the stairs before falling unceremoniously onto her bed. Given a couple more seconds she would be out faster than a light. As her mother left the room she mentioned something along the lines of food, but Max was too far gone even to catch what she had said. Her mother flicked off the lights and Max was dead to the world.

She woke a few hours later feeling more than a little groggy as she sat up and looked around. Taking in her room she vaguely recalled making it back home and she definitely had no trouble remembering the events that had led her there. Checking her bed she saw she had received no nightly visitors. Stretching several creeks out of her bones Max hopped out of bed and opened her door cautiously. Checking the hallway she saw no lights on their floor or coming from downstairs.

Edging into the empty hall she took a quick detour and peeked into her younger sister's room. Angel was in her own bed tonight and seemed to be sleeping peacefully, clutching her precious teddy. Seeing all was well Max backed out of the room quietly and closed the door again.

The house creaked a good deal but Max did her best to remain silent on her feet and tried to remember which of the stairs creaked the most. She sort of regretted all the times she'd jumped clear over them and landed with a thud at the bottom of the stairs. Trying that at midnight would no doubt wake the entire house. Pasting herself to the side of the stairs she put as much weight as she could on the wall (which wasn't much, given gravity and physics and the like) as she stepped down gently.

Reaching the bottom she assumed she had had enough of stealth and went straight for the fridge. She made it halfway across the room before a piece of paper set on the otherwise empty counter caught her attention. Stepping closer she snatched it up and read in her mother's fancy cursive: Leftovers in the microwave, Max. Well, didn't her mother know her so well?

Changing direction she checked the microwave for its contents and, low and behold, her mother had set three healthy (which may be the wrong word) servings of lassignia. The microwave beeped, switching off of warming mode and Max was thrilled to find she didn't even need to heat it. Sitting at the counter on one of the stools Iggy seemed to favor so much Max dug into the beautiful concoction of cheese, sauce, beef, and spices.

Gosh her mom was an awesome cook.

Eighteen years hadn't been enough to cure her of her positive delight when her mother pulled together some of her more impressive dishes. She certainly hoped she never was. It only took ten minutes or so to polish off all three slices and Max found herself adequately sated for the moment. Grabbing a glass from the dish drain she rummaged through the fridge long enough to pull out a jug of milk and pour herself a glass. That, too, she finished off in record time.

Taking a second to rinse out the glass (she had long since learned the dangers of not doing so and facing her mother's wrath) before plunking it down in the sink. Checking the house again for sounds of like she was satisfied that those living where very much asleep. Feathers ruffled under her jacket (which she was feeling rather gross in, having worn it to bed) and she pulled it off and threw it over the back of the couch with little thought.

The door she was happy to see opened with ease and not even the barest hint of sound. Reveling in the night as she walked into the yard Max checked one final time that no lights were on in the house. Angel's and her mom's she checked especially. It wouldn't do for either of her new family members to find out quite so abruptly about her little bit of extra. Confident that neither were awake, or at the very least gazing out the window or up at the stars, Max unfurled her wings and reveled in the glorious feeling of stretching them out after so long.

Sooo…I've apparently been gone a while. 11 days by the last review. Now would be a good time to mention that I'm really bad at time management. As in, I usually update TTtB when I'm putting off going to sleep.

Which I rarely do.

I'll try to be a bit better! You guys should be seeing 2 more chapters following this one, once they're properly edited. Happy trails.