When the fingertips of dawn found their way through the windows in the living room early the next morning, Max and Fang were stretched out on the couch covered by a blanket. Maximum Ride's mouth stretched open in a deep yawn as her eyes tightened even more before she opened them to see just why she felt as if she was sleeping on warm tree branch.

Her eyes slightly widened as brown met deepest black and she felt a faint blush creeping up her cheeks. She climbed off of him and he smiled as she stretched and yawned yet again, ruffling her feathers as she reached for the ceiling.

"Tired?" Fang asked, amused. She nodded in response and rubbed her eyes with her hand.

"What time is it?" Max asked, trying in vain to hold back another yawn.

"Around 5:45," Fang responded, rubbing the sleep out of his own eyes. "How did you sleep?"

Max found her way to the kitchen as she said, "Okay, I guess. I don't know why, but it feels as if I only got 5 minutes of sleep." She grabbed the coffee grounds and started making a fresh batch – it was one of the extremely few things she could make in a kitchen besides a mess.

"Hmm," Fang said quietly. "It might have had something to do with why you were practically kicking me in your sleep. Or maybe why you were murmuring too." Fang stretched his wings out and yawned. "You kept me up half the night."

"Stop doing that!" Max said, then added as she saw Fangs confused eyes looking at her from beneath his unruly hair, "Yawning. It's making me yawn more."

"Yeah," Fang said. "Yawning is contagious." Max looked at him unbelievingly. "No, I'm serious."

"Uh, huh." She said. "Whatever you say, McGoogle."

"Where'd that one come from?"

"Oh, I don't know. I think it was from some TV show. . . I don't remember the name."

Max grabbed a coffee cup from the cupboard and filled it with the now strong brew. She sat down at the table as Fang produced two boxes of waffles from the freezer.

They continued to eat their breakfast in peaceful quiet until around 6:15 when Doctor Martinez came walking down the stairs in her bathrobe and slippers.

"Good morning, Max. Fang." She said with a whisper of sleep still in her throat.

"Morning, mom," Max got up to give her a hug. Fang nodded his acknowledgement. "Hey, I was wondering," Max started, "would you mind if we took Ella for a flight up to Lake Mead tonight? It's supposed to be perfectly clear."

Doctor Martinez looked thoughtful, still sleepy, and said, "Let me think about it. Oh, look!" she said. "You made coffee? Thank you, Max." She smiled and sat down with a cup of her own and chuckled as she saw the two empty boxes of waffles.

Max replied with a simple, "My pleasure," and then turned her head to see who was coming down the stairs this time. Nudge was stumbling down the stairs in her purple 'pop princess' pajamas with sparkling purple slippers; her hair up in a sloppy bun with many wisps flying every which way.

"You could work at chick-fil-a, Max," Nudge said groggily. "I think they say that every time they serve someone. I remember going there sometime when we were on the run, remember? Cause I got like, 10 of those carrot salad things and fries and a huge sweet tea and you guys nearly ate out their supply of chicken."

"Okay, Nudge," Max said. "Still a little early for rabbit trails."

Nudge nodded quietly and grabbed a medium sized mixing bowl and filled it halfway with her favorite cinnamon toast crunch cereal.

Iggy came bumbling down the stairs behind Angel with the Gasman following.

"How about some French toast and eggs, Ig?" Gaz was asking with sweet 10 year old innocence. Angel agreed, as the three of them made their way to the table.

"So that only leaves my other daughter." Valencia Martinez murmured to herself, sighed and upon seeing Max looking at her, nodded and said 'fine.' . Max, upon hearing this, laughed and got up.

"Great! I'll go wake her up," she volunteered, cheerfully, and every member of the flock either smirked or cringed. Valencia's smile faltered, but then came back.

Maximum Ride practically skipped with glee to the window, causing Dr. Martinez to laugh a wary laugh and say, "Max, her room is upstairs." The younger members of the flock laughed at her behavior, only Iggy was worried.

"Did I just hear Max go out the front door?" everyone in the room said "Yes." In different tones.

Once outdoors, Max took a running leap into the air and unfurled her wings. She circled the house for a minute, still in her camisole and sweatpants, and then dropped down to her sister's window. The sun, warming her back as she gazed into Ella Martinez's bedroom window, cast her shadow to fall right across Ella's sleeping, blissful face, causing her smile to falter.

Max's fingers drummed a tune against the window, inaudible for regular humans, but perfect for Fang and Iggy to hear; they had worked this out a month or two ago with each other so they knew exactly what Max had meant by that little tune.

Max heard them sneak up the stairs and creep into the doorway to Ella's room.

She crouched – in mid-air – right outside the window and knocked on the window loud enough so Dr. Martinez could hear downstairs. Ella rolled over and put her pillow over her head, murmuring, "go away."

Max knocked harder still and this time Ella sat bolt upright in bed, staring straight at the window where Max had been not 2 seconds ago. "Huh?" Max heard Ella say, laying down against her pillow again.

Max waited 20 seconds and sprung back up to the window and drummed her fingers against the window with a different tune, one just for Iggy and Fang. They nodded and she struck her knuckles on the window another time for Ella to jump up again and stare angrily and confusedly at the window, looking from it to her doorway – the boys had slunk around the corner to avoid being seen.

She laid down one more time, looking around her room warily before closing her eyes. Max clutched her sides and flew above the house for a second to giver herself a moment before entering the last stage of her wake-up call.

Max, back to her . . . coffee-high-normal self, hovered outside Ella's window one last time, she tapped the window to give the boys a heads up and slid open the bedroom window with breaking in expertise that only a mutant bird-kid could have. She slid in without a sound and took a loose feather from one of her wings, and clutched it in her hand. She walked forward and gently left it on the floor beside her bed and sprawled out on the floor, wings out.

This time, the knocking sound came from the hallway, and Ella jumped up with an exasperated sigh. "What!" She yelled. "What is it?" She broke off and inhaled as she saw a feather lying next to her older sister, who had let out a little snore and made her breathing deep and even.

"Max, oh Max," Ella whispered. "What I'm going to do with you, no one knows."

"Except for Angel"

"God, Max!" Ella cried, jumping backwards, followed by the click of a camera and the shuffle of feet going downstairs. "Was that really necessary?" She asked, her heart hammering against her chest. She gave her half-sister a look of complete and utter frustration mingled with confusion, yanked open her bedroom door and ran right into Fang. "Gah!" She spluttered. "Fang, I'm sorry, but could you PLEASE let me out of my room? And drag your girlfriend out while you're at it."

"Whatever you say, Ella." Fang said, completely surprising Ella with a huge, un 'fang' like smile.

She gaped at him while he sidestepped into her room, then jumped out the window.

"These guys are gonna give me a heart attack." She muttered, putting her hand on her forehead.

A/N:

Whoever can tell me what the nickname McGoogle came from will be given a chapter dedication :)

Anyway, sorry guys, no reading in this one. But I wanted to update and the reading part just wasn't ready yet. :/

It will be ready soon though okay?

I want to see some good reviews comin my way for this chapter. I had a LOT of fun writing it! xD

Bee tee dubs:

Happy Halloween! I hope everyone had fun! I know I had a lot of fun carving my owl in a pumpkin! ^_^

Fly on!

~Jezi Raewin