A/N: I'm looking at all these sites for fathers-to-be. They're so cute! I'll put links on my profile for your enjoyment. I can see, looking at them, that not only do they have great advice, but they're great writing fodder. I can just see Trinity playing 'airplane' with one of his kids, or tickle monster, or stuff like that. It'd be so cute!

I like guys who have strong paternal instincts. It's just tooooo cute.

Of course... None of this happens yet. It's just good to be prepared. ;)

I apologize if I forget what Rockefeller was like. Last time I went there was two years ago for New Years (or was it Thanksgiving? I dunno; I go there surprisingly often, when I visit grandparents...) and we only got to go skating once. But it was awesome. And so anyway. Max and Fang are a bit OOC, but...well... JP is a Dangerous Oreo that Really Kangaroos and made it hard to capture what they're like. Gr. He's evil.

Reviews:

Maddy: It helps that there are two of us, and that we (generally) only have to do maybe a line or two, which gets the other inspired and then they belt out a huge block of text, which inspires the other… And it's a whole cycle of flippin' brilliant ideas. It's fun, too!

Ana

It was a week after everything had happened. Fang, with his miraculous healing abilities, was out of bed and able to relocate himself without much help from Max. Not that she was going to let him anywhere out of her sight, now that they were practically glued at the hip… Omega was fit as a fiddle; Jeb had even gotten him a fake tooth or something, and now his smile was as perfect as ever. Kate didn't care though. He could have been Frankenstein for all she cared, and she'd still have been holding hands and giving him doe eyes.

Trin wasn't so lucky. He'd actually died. And come back. But he wasn't going to be leaving bed anytime soon. And that was fine with me—taking care of him made me feel good, it gave me something to do. And from what Dr. Martinez told me about how babies can recognize their parents' voices, I wanted to talk with Trin as much as possible. Dr. Martinez had told me that one of her friends had played recordings of her husband reading books, all during her pregnancy, and when the baby girl had been born, whenever she cried, the dad would come up, say, "I'm here, it's alright," and the baby would calm down immediately.

That would make my life so much easier, if Trin had the Magic Voice like that.

I was with Iggy and Ella in the kitchen—getting cooking tips from Iggy for once. He was making a pie—or he was supposed to be. He seemed to have forgotten all about me though as he held Ella, having just caught her from falling and being a "real Prince Charming" according to Ella. I rolled my eyes, not that either of them noticed. Oh brother.

I decided to ditch them and go find Trin. He'd been moved upstairs, to a cleaned out room in his dad's part of the house. Which was much nicer than the downstairs improvised hospital. The bed was bigger too, which meant more room for snuggling.

And we were doing a lot of that lately.

didn't even knock when I entered, usually it was just me and his Dad who came up here, but sometimes someone else would wander up even if it wasn't that often. Something about this part of the house made them nervous, like because Angelus hadn't been here and we'd all stayed in Gabriel's part of the house so long this had become forbidden territory.

I smiled as I entered the room and shut the door softly behind me. Trin was dozing lightly, and the way the light hit his hair made him look beautiful. I slipped onto the bed and snuggled up to him, smiling as he opened his eyes and looked at me. "Hey sleepyhead," he yawned.

I reached out and tried to get his bangs out of his eyes. "Hey," I replied simply.

He stretched, and then he let his hand rest on my stomach. "And how are we today?"

I smiled and covered his hand with my own. "Full," I replied. "Gorged myself on green tea ice cream.

Trin laughed. "Did you leave any mint for me?" I grinned.

"Nope."

"Darn."

I poked his nose and then held up a book I'd brought: Dr. Seuss' Sleep Book. He loved this book, I liked it well enough, and it was something to read, and it had been free at a local library's cleanout.

He propped himself up on his elbows and I opened the book to the first page. "Do you want to read first or should I?" I didn't have to think about my answer as I nestled into his side again.

"You."

"The new just came in from the county of Keck that a very small bug by the name of Van Vleck is yawning so wide you can look down his neck. This many not seem very important, I know. But it is. So I'm bothering telling you so."

As Trin turned the page, I was smiling. Trinity had an amazing reading voice. It was deep and level and calm, and he had just the right inflection that made this book fun.

I didn't look at the book as he read, instead I let his voice become a gentle lull in the background as I watched him--the way his eyes followed the words on the page and the way the words rolled off his tongue…and the way he smiled when he saw me watching him.

Eventually, he finished, closed the book, and leaned down to press his ear to my stomach. We had no idea about how the development would go—nineteen years ago, they didn't have such advanced technology available for bird kids on the run, so keeping track of prenatal timelines was sketchy at best. Same with my parents; though they hadn't been on the run as much as Trin's parents, they hadn't exactly been chummy with doctors.

"The hearbeat is three to four months, the site said," I reminded him. "That's still like, a month away at the rate we're at."

He shrugged, giving my stomach a kiss.

I looked away at the door, my blissful smile turning into a slight frown. "We're so peaceful…what do you think they're up to?"

"Making out," he replied immediately.

I rolled my eyes. "Gasman? Nudge and Angel? Catlyn?"

"Nudge and Angel will probably be making out with their posters of RPatzz and Taylor Lautner," Trinity reminded me. "Gazzy will be moping around, and then he'll start talking to the adults about stories from their 'glory days'. I don't know about Catlyn. Maybe she's working on her entry for the duct tape prom outfit contest."

"I wouldn't blame them for Taylor Lautner, but RPatzz is the ugliest thing I've ever seen in my life. And how much do you wanna bet she's mummifying Bruno as we speak with that duct tape of hers instead?"

"You know, if that insane woman Hardwicke really wants one of her 'usual' actors to play Fang, she should have Taylor Lautner. Not a good fit, but better than RPatzz. He's got the right skin tone. Sort of. Not quite." Trin thought for a moment, shrugged, then answered the rest of my question. "Poor Bruno."

I nodded. "Thought so--what do you think she'll move onto next?"

"Beth."

I shook my head. "No, remember what happened last time Beth messed with Duct tape? It took forever to get you off that wall…"

"And a day longer to get it out of my hair. We had to cut most of it out, remember?"

"Yeah, you looked like Buzz Lightyear."

"So, I guess they're evenly matched," he mused.

I laughed. "With KIX stuck in the middle."

He shrugged. "I think Catlyn's accepting that now, actually. I don't think she has the attention span needed to hold a grudge."

"True." I snickered. "She's an airhead."

"But a strangely magnetic one." We both nodded in agreement.

"I guess we all have our quirks." I reached for the book and he handed it to me, and I set it on the nightstand, choosing to turn and smirk at him rather than get up and put it away. "But you are probably the quirkiest."

"Is that even a word?"

"Surprisingly, yes. I think Fang had to sweet talk the dictionary person or something, but it's a word."

He laughed and held out an arm. I let him pull me onto his lap, facing him. For a moment he just looked at me, and then he pulled me closer and grinned. "I hope they have your eyes," he said. "I don't like mine. But yours…"

I kissed him, causing him to shut up. "I like your eyes, and of course the baby will have mine at first. All baby's have blue eyes at first, right?"

He shrugged. "I don't know, we should ask Sable, and then again it's different for us avians. Look at Lily."

"True."

"Of course it's true." He reached out and tugged me back for a kiss. Soft and sweet—just like Trin. Somehow, it wasn't fulfilling.

Being the mind-reader he was, he pulled me closer, so that we were both lying on our sides on the bed, bodies practically entwined. I had my fingers tangled in his hair, and he was pressing me as close as he could to him; his hands were light, however, giving me the option of escape. Like I wanted to.

Not.

I pulled him on top of me, slipping my hands up his shirt. Hey, we were practically married! I was having his freaking kid! I could get away with this stuff. Right?

Well, I might have, if it hadn't been for the fact that somehow or other we accidentally bumped his injured shoulder, and he yelped like how KIX does when you step on his tail.

I let him go immediately. "Sorry! Are you OK?"

He nodded, but there were pained tears in his eyes. He knelt there, above me, one hand clenched on his shoulder, the other propping him up. Finally, the pain seemed to wear off and he lowered himself onto my body, hugging me tightly and resting his head under my shoulder. "Now I feel like a hurt puppy," he groaned. "All empty inside. Wah."

I swatted him on the head, but hugged him back. "Hurt puppies don't get ice cream."

"Oh?" He looked at me. "I thought there wasn't any left."

I smiled. "There wasn't any mint chocolate chip to begin with, but if you'd like vanilla…and there are Oreos…"

He leaned up to kiss me again. "Alright, I'll let you leave. But you have to promise to get back soon," he murmured.

I felt my face begin to heat up. "Can't walk, still?"

He shook his head sadly. "If I could, I'd be dancing with you right now."

I sighed. "I'll go get the ice cream."

I made my way out of the room without further ado, only to be grabbed and pulled to the side the instant Trin could no longer see me. I bit the hand over my mouth just as the door swung closed. "Ana!" Gabriel--Dad hissed, catching me off guard. He let me go instantly but still kept his voice down. "Calm down."

"Maybe!" I hissed back, my hands on my hips. "If you tell me what that was about!" For a moment, he was silent.

"Would you believe me if I said you sounded exactly like your mother again? I must have been deaf before…" He sighed as I continued glaring and raised up his hands in an attempt to calm me down. "Hush, I need to talk to you. Can we talk?"

I shrugged. "We're talking now," I said, but toned down the snark.

He nodded, acknowledging I was right. "Yes, but I mean really talk." He glanced back at the door. "Preferably where there are no other ears, but considering this involves him...I don't know." He ran a hand through his hair, seeming at an utter loss for words. "I've never had to play this role before, never had the chance, and I always expected I'd be threatening the boy..."

"But in this case he's a good guy, and your brother's son." I nodded. "I can understand that. Let me set my personal ground rules: No tongues, no hands up my shirt, no hands down any pants. All clothing remains on at all times. Edge of shoulder under the wing, or close to the spine underneath the wing, off limits. Really hot and heavy, out of the question—I'm not risking unlocking Alpha. Beta was bad enough. Besides, I'm pregnant, remember? And don't worry. Trinity is like, as celibate as a monk. Not really, but you get what I mean?"

He nodded uncomfortably. "Yeah... Well, remember that." You had to pity the man, this couldn't be easy.

I hugged him tightly. "Thanks, though," I told him earnestly. "Really."

He rubbed my back. "Yeah. You're welcome." He held me away from him and smiled. "I think you should get the poor kid his ice cream now."

"While you go in there and scare the living daylights out of him. Good idea, Daddy!" I ran off before I could see his face. The extra D-Y I'd tacked on to the end of 'Dad' had been completely accidental. I'd sounded like a goofball.

But it felt nice to say it.

I couldn't help smiling to myself like a complete dork as I got the two bowls full of ice cream—I wanted some too!—and grabbed my secret stash of Oreos. Normally, I wouldn't share them, but I felt generous right now. When I got back upstairs, Dad was nowhere to be seen, and Trinity was grinning like heck. I handed him a bowl. "Spill?" I asked.

"No way." He snorted.

I scowled. "Please?"

"There are some things you really don't want to know about men, Ana," he said solemnly.

I sat on the bed next to him and held the ice cream just out of his reach. "You want it or not?" Of course he grabbed my Oreos and just gave me one of those looks. "Oh, fine. Here. But fork over the Oreos."

He did. After taking a handful and crushing them over his bowl. I muttered at him. He raised his eyebrows at me. "If you didn't want me to eat them, you shouldn't have brought them in the first place."

"I was going to share with you until you started being all tight-lipped."

"Can't be helped." He shrugged.

I sighed and shook my head, deciding to give up. "Guys. Gosh."

"We're not as complicated as girls."

"Tell me about it." I felt like glaring at myself. "I can't figure myself out anymore, sheesh."

He laughed with me and reached over to add Oreos to my own ice cream. "Just eat, Ana."

Sometimes Trinity has the greatest advice in the world. We set the bowls on the nightstand along with the book when we were finished, and I simply laid back and let him stroke my hair. "Trin?"

"Hm?"

"It's seriously too quiet."

"Ana!" He groaned.

The reason why Fang and Max were so quiet was because they weren't even in the house. They were down at Rockefeller Center, renting skates and putting them on. Max was having a hard time with hers, so Fang silently knelt down and helped her.

"No problem." He grinned at her. "Just learning, after all. And it's not like I would mind anyway. It's nice helping you for once, Miss Ride."

He held out a hand for her, but she ignored it, and stood up, clunking her way to the door to the rink. Fang followed her more gracefully; as she hung on to the edge of the rink and attempted to get her balance, he simply skated out into the sweeping crowd, did a quick lap, and then slid to a halt beside her.

She stared at him, open mouthed. "Since when can you skate?"

He shrugged. "Since now."

"Typical." She held out a hand. "Well, since you're so great..." She blushed again and he laughed, so she plowed on with her words. "Oh, just teach me already."

"OK, come away from the edge." He pried her away from the wall, and showed her how to stand. "Knees bent slightly, like this. Now, just slide one foot forward, then the other. Ever roller-bladed before?"

"At Mom's, yeah, with Ella once…"

"It's just like that. Move your feet in that sort of V-motion. Try it."

Max wobbled dangerous. "Maybe this is a good time to mention that I stunk at roller-blading?" Fang laughed and caught her elbow as she began to topple over.

"Well I wasn't there was I? Trust me, you'll do fine."

"Easy for you to say. You're a freaking ballet dancer."

He smirked. "I have to say, that line was a stroke of genius."

"Yes it—WAS!"

Max had taken two steps, and then slid forward perfectly. Fang clapped. "Perfect, Max!"

"Luck." She huffed and blew a strand of hair out of her eyes. "And you know I don't have much of that. Now watch me fall on my butt."

"Come on Max." He skated around her in a circle, still smiling. "Stop snarking and come on. You're the amazing, indescribable Maximum Ride."

"I'm pretty sure that both 'amazing' and 'indescribable' are descriptions," she grumbled, but after that kept her mouth closed as she took two more slides—and then Fang was keeping up, and soon they were racing, laughing, sliding to stops and slamming toe-hand-first into the walls, just for fun.

Eventually, when he began to become tired from all the racing, despite how much joy it brought him to see her smile, he grabbed her hand when she tried to take off again and pulled her around so that she was beside him again. She pouted. "What?"

"I'm wiped. Hot chocolate?"

She thought about it for a minute, and he saw the battle on her face. Stay here and skate some more or hot chocolate. Yummy hot chocolate. Possibly with marshmallows. She nodded vigorously. "Yup."

They carefully stepped back onto solid ground, and it was hard for Max to keep from moving her feet in the sliding motions she had been for the past hour or so. She grinned as Fang tripped and only barely caught himself before he did a face-plant into a bench.

"Smooth, Fangalator."

He scowled. "I told you not to call me that."

She shrugged. "Ok then, Mister Ninja."

"Better," he sighed, and patted the bench next to him. She sat down and set about the task of untying her shoes.

After a few seconds of watching her he followed suite, and a few near silent moments later they'd traded their skates for their regular shoes and were making their way over to get some hot chocolate.

Fang bought two paper cups, with marshmallows, and even if it wasn't the best hot chocolate in the world it was delicious. Max exhaled after her first sip, throat pleasantly warm after breathing the cold air for so long.

Fang copied her breathing, and Max eyed the giant white cloud that passed his lips. She grinned, took another sip of her cocoa to warm her up, and then exhaled through her nose. "Look! I'm a big scary dragon!" she teased.

Oh yeah?" He grinned. "I bet I'm scarier." He took a big gulp, crossed his eyes, and exhaled in a huff—AKA making the funniest face Max had ever seen him make. She sniggered.

"Oh goodness, the ninja has a sense of humor. Who knew?"

He stuck his tongue out at her. "I did."

She smiled, eyes twinkling. "Of course."

He took her hand and they strolled off towards a giant candy cane. "Max…" He paused, and then looked at her piercingly. "Could you… Just tell me if I'm doing something wrong, OK? I want to know if I'm getting too mushy for you, or something. Like, what was I doing wrong the times I kissed you and you flew off?"

She looked away, smile gone as she bit her lip. "I don't really know what you were doing wrong, I don't think it was you…It was me, I wasn't really there yet and…it just felt like you were pushing to hard." She looked back at him, brow furrowed. "I don't think I'll run away anymore. I don't think that'll be a problem any more. I'm starting to like the mushy."

She was so dead pan when she said that last bit he couldn't help but grin and pull her close in a tight hug--careful not to spill the chocolate. "That's good. Very good."

She blushed. "I mean, I can still kick ass and have mushy moments, right? Like Trin, sort of."

"Dude. He can kick serious ass." Fang winced at a memory.

Her brow furrowed in confusion in response to his wince. "So can I. What's wrong?"

"Got a memory of the Coliseum, that's all."

"Ah." She frowned. "Sorry."

"Nah, it's fine."

She scowled, sipping her hot chocolate. "Wonderful way to change the topic. I'm an idiot. Sorry."

He sighed. "Max, you're not an idiot. And if you are, you're my idiot, so stop self-bashing."

Max looked at him for a minute, thinking, studying his face...Then she nodded. "Fine." He stared at her in disbelief.

"Excuse me?"

She was exasperated. "Well, there's no point arguing with you, we both know how well that works by now."

Fang stared at her. "Are you sure you're alright?" he demanded, flabbergasted.

She smacked him. "'Why do you have a stick up your pants'?" she snapped.

"Because I'm an awesome ninja of course, duh."

She felt her temper rising, and she knew that she shouldn't get mad. She held up a hand and closed her eyes. Calm down, Max, she told herself. The stick in the pants thing and his comeback were funny, not meant to be an argument… Calm down…

Good job, Max! the Voice applauded.

Thanks, she couldn't help but say; the Voice was silent again for the moment.

"Max!" He took the hot chocolates and sat them on the bench, spilling them a bit and turning to grip her shoulders. "Max, you ok?"

"'Yeah. Hold on." She kept her eyes closed. They stood like that for a long moment, Fang's tension becoming tangible. She suddenly snapped her eyes open and pecked Fang on the lips, beaming. "Ok, I'm good."

He scowled. "Not funny."

She looked at him, nodding slowly. Her eyes were dead serious again. "I know. But I'm better know."

There was a long, heavy moment of silence in which he didn't let his grip on her shoulders lessen. "Max II?"

She nodded slowly, giving him a 'Duh. Who else?' face which really wasn't fair--She had The Voice after all.

He sighed and looked down at his hands, which were stinging and now pretty sticky. "Yum, hot chocolate covered fingers," he said sarcastically.

Max grabbed his hand and touched it to her cheek, then she liked one of his fingers, seemed to think about it again, and nodded. "Yup. Still good. Ninja flavored."

She looked back at him when he didn't laugh—or have a witty comeback—and found that he was staring at her, a flush that wasn't just from the cold gracing his cheeks. She tilted her head to the side, confused. She couldn't think of anything she'd done to make him blush. Let alone that Fang could blush. "What?"

"Your tongue feels really weird," he managed to choke out.

She raised her eyebrows. "That's because it's out of practice," she replied smoothly.

He reddened further—to her giddy, evil delight.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and rested her head on his shoulder as she breathed into his ear, trying for all the world not to look as scared as she felt and hoping that Fang would get even redder as she spoke. "You would know, Fnick."

He shuddered—actually shuddered!—and it was all she could do to keep from laughing at him. She leaned closer to his jaw, so that her lips brushed his skin as she spoke. "How about we practice?"

He pulled her away enough to kiss her roughly, but no tongues were involved. Nevertheless, she felt thoroughly satisfied when they finally pulled away.

"Was yours peppermint hot chocolate?" she questioned, wiping some of her hair out of her eyes and wishing she had gloves.

"Yeah." He smiled, euphoric. "Not that it would be fair for me to guess yours, considering I'm the one who bought it."

"Maybe I should start stealing Nudge's flavored lip gloss," she teased.

"I think that would be a little too girly," he shot back.

She shrugged. "All well."

Fang looked up at the sky. "We should probably be heading back… Any idea when we're leaving for California?"

"As soon as Trinity can walk again." Max took a sip of her hot chocolate. "Where's your dad been, by the way? I haven't seen him lately."

"He's settling things at the bank, and all sorts of adult stuff. He's been in and out of the house—via the roof. Hasn't come downstairs."

She nodded absently. "Makes sense. After what he's been through it'd be hard enough to adjust back into a normal household, not that mess--did you see the gorilla thing before we left?" She shook her head and laughed. "How in the world does that girl get all that stuff on the ceiling?"

"Poor Bruno…"

"Bruno?"

"Bruno the Brute—The gorilla."

"Ah."

"Yup."