A/N It took me a little longer than usual to write this - maybe it was my subconscious trying to put off finishing this story - but here it is, the final chapter. Enjoy!

Sunlight streamed through the open window of the living room, pulling Fang out of sleep. He screwed his face up against it and ground the heel of his hand against his eyes in an attempt to rub away the dryness; he'd slept for about three hours, and on top of the chronic exhaustion that had set in over the previous weeks it made him feel almost queasy with tiredness. Max stirred slightly against him, not quite awake yet but caught in a shallow doze, and he felt a small smile tug at the corners of his mouth as he looked down at her, tightening his hold around her waist. Worth it, he thought, thinking back over the reason why he'd had so little sleep. Definitely. It had felt so good just to be able to talk to her properly again, almost as if he'd never been gone, never screwed up as massively as he had. Before she'd kissed him – she'd kissed him – the words had come so arduously, every one of them a potential mistake, the possible last straw… But then suddenly it was easy again, it flowed. Funny how something that seemed so out of reach could become reality in such a small space of time. All it had taken was that sign that said 'it's okay, stop thinking so hard'.

He let his head rest on the couch back, his fingers rubbing absentminded circles through Max's still-damp top where his hand lay just above her hip; his eyes wandered across the room slowly and came to rest on the window as he sat, content just to stay still and hold her, feel her lying against him. About half an hour later, her breathing changed as she woke up. She seemed to pause for a second, momentarily confused as she became aware of the weight of his arm lying across her stomach, then twisted her head around to look at him; a badly-concealed smile worked its way over her face, and her eyes crinkled up at the corners in just the same way that they always used to whenever she saw him, something he hadn't witnessed in a while.

'Well, hi,' she said quietly, her gaze wandering across his face.

'Morning,' Fang replied as he pushed some hair back behind her ear. 'Sleep well?'

She turned away, and he felt the muscles in her back tense against him as she stretched her arms out in front of her, holding a deep breath for a few seconds before letting it out in a long sigh as she relaxed again. Sitting up, she twisted around so that she was facing him properly, folding her legs underneath her; he missed the weight of her lying against his chest.

'Could've done with about ten more hours of it, but yeah.'

Everything was more tentative this morning, both of them making sure that the breakthrough of the night before hadn't been something that was only okay under the cover of the darkness. Her eyes still flitted over him, her face stuck in an expression that held a smile but managed to look calculating at the same time.

'You weren't cold?' he asked her, nodding towards her damp clothes as he sat up properly, resting his elbow against the back of the couch and trailing his fingers against her shoulder. For a moment her gaze was drawn to that spot, then she looked back at him and paused slightly before leaning forwards so that they really weren't that far apart at all; stopping a little way off, she took in his face for a moment before shaking her head.

'Nope.'

Moving his hand from her shoulder to the side of her face, Fang pulled her right in close, lingering for a few seconds when she was barely an inch away, just relishing her proximity, the almost inaudible catch in her breath. There was a moment when it seemed as though they were competing with each other, both of them refusing to give in before the other, then Max made a small hmph of exasperation and pushed forwards. He could feel her smiling against his mouth as his hand moved back through her hair to hold the back of her head; whilst she used one hand to balance herself leaning towards him, her other came up to barely brush against the side of his neck before shifting down to grip at his shoulder.

'Ahem.'

The sound was loud and deliberate, and Max jumped away from him like he'd electrocuted her, her face flushing.

'Iggy!' she exclaimed, voice coming out higher than usual.

'Morning Max,' Iggy replied with a snigger. 'I was just wondering if you two would mind keeping it G-rated – that's really not the first thing I want to hear when I come downstairs. Besides, there are kids in the house.'

Fang remained silent, watching in amusement as Max's eyes nearly bugged out of her head.

'Um… Wow, um…' Struggling for words, she refused to meet his gaze as she rubbed at her forehead uncomfortably. 'The thing is…' She cleared her throat, and when she spoke again it was with forced indifference. 'You know what Fang? You were right – I am kinda cold. I think I'm gonna go change.'

Iggy plastered a look of innocence – or as close as he could get to one, at any rate – on his face as Max stood up and pushed past him to the doorway, her own face still red. Fang couldn't help letting out a small snort, which turned into a chuckle when she flipped him the bird over her shoulder, not looking back as she left the room. Raising his eyebrows at the sound, Iggy leant against the armchair that sat next to the couch, staring at Fang with unnerving accuracy.

'You're sounding cheery.'

'Am I?' Fang replied calmly, twisting a little to work out the tightness in his back; not that he would've swapped the night before for anything, but sleeping half sat up on a sofa was not the most comfortable thing in the world.

'Yeah. So what, are you two together again now?'

Fang shrugged, unable to stop himself from smiling at the thought.

'I dunno. Seems like it, but can't always be too sure with Max. Guess I'll just play it by ear.'

Nodding, Iggy crossed his arms over his chest.

'That's cool, man. But as the closest thing she's got to an older brother I feel like I've got to tell you that if you ever hurt her again the way you did before, I'm gonna have to make you pay. And it will be painful.'

'That a threat?' Fang asked, raising an eyebrow.

Iggy grinned and stepped away from the armchair.

'You bet your ass it is,' he said, his hand reaching out unerringly to slap Fang a high-five as he walked off towards the kitchen.

The heat in my face didn't cool off until I was upstairs and in my room, pulling out a clean top and sweats. Once I'd changed, I sat for a few minutes perched on the edge of my bed and mulled over the events of the past eight hours or so, sifting slowly through the memories as I relived them in my head. I remembered Fang's laugh as I walked away from him and Iggy; it really had been too long since I'd last heard that. Realising I was grinning like an idiot again – I really needed to get a handle on that – I sprung up from the bed and made my way out into the hall, giving my head a sharp shake as I walked slowly past the different doors in my bare feet. I listened hard for any sign of the others beginning to get up, but it was only just coming up to eight o'clock and everybody was still pretty exhausted. No sounds escaped into the hallway until I'd made it right to the end, and I paused at the top of the stairs, trying to make out what I was hearing.

It took a few seconds for me to realise that it was a muffled crying, and I felt my forehead crease up with worry as I moved towards the last door on the corridor, opposite the staircase: Angel's. Turning the handle, I walked into the room and was met with the sight of two heads poking up from under the covers – one small with the fuzz of newly-growing hair spread across it, and one slightly larger, blond cowlick brushing against the pillow as the boy attached to the head shook with sobs.

'Gazzy?' I whispered, my chest tightening painfully at the sight of him. He turned slightly to see me standing in the doorway, and for a moment he tried to suck in his tears and look brave, but then his face crumpled and he started crying again, louder than before. I moved quickly across the room, kneeling down by the side of the bed and brushing a hand across his hair.

'Hey, hey, hey,' I murmured softly. Looking over him at Angel, I could see her eyes closed, her undersized body rising and falling gently as she slept. 'What's wrong?'

He sniffed, trying to calm his breathing enough to talk.

'I'm scared,' he managed to get out. 'What if Angel never gets better, and she just stays like this forever? Everything's wrong!' His voice rose as he spoke, but he made sure it didn't grow loud enough to wake his sister sleeping beside him.

I stayed still for a second, crouched by the bed, then I pushed myself up onto my feet and nudged him lightly.

'Shuffle over a bit.'

He shifted up closer to Angel, and I slid under the covers and lay down beside him before letting him nestle in against me. Wrapping my arms around him, I stroked the top of his head and fought back the prickling feeling in my own eyes as he sniffled quietly; it wasn't fair. This kid had had so much more than his share of tears recently, and that was all on top of a life that had already been a million miles away from perfect to begin with.

'Alright,' I said softly. 'She's going to get better, Gazzy.'

'How do you know?' he retorted, his voice thick as he spoke through a blocked up nose.

'The doctors at the hospital checked her over. They explained everything to us and said it would just take a little time for things to get back to normal; you were there.'

'Yeah, but…' He trailed off uncertainly.

'But what?'

Gazzy squirmed slightly, and when he next spoke it was with a touch of embarrassment:

'But I didn't really understand it. They used big words and I didn't want them to think I wasn't smart enough to know what was happening to my own sister.'

'Ah,' I said, holding him a little tighter. 'Well, I'll just have to explain it better then, won't I?'

He looked up at me with a tiny, cautious smile and nodded.

'Okay, so the doctors said that Angel's got something called acute stress disorder, which is why she's been all quiet and having bad dreams and things. And that happens when someone's been through something that they can't really cope with, so their brain wants to shut it out and hole up in a cosy little nook away from everyone else. That's why she's not been speaking to anybody, because she's still getting used to the idea that she's safe and no one's going to hurt her. She needs a bit of time to readjust to being out here and with us again.'

'But what about all the tests they did on her?'

I sighed.

'Well, my mom got the details about the experiments that had been done on Angel, and basically it sounds like they were trying to find out how she could hear other people's thoughts. So they monitored her brain a lot, but the trigger for all the stress disorder stuff seems to be the more mentally-based experiments. What they did was they sent thoughts into her mind as hard as they could, and when she tried to block them out they just kind of forced their way in through all her barriers, so it gave her the feeling of not being able to control anything that was happening to her.'

I left a gap to give Gazzy time to digest what I was saying, then continued.

'The doctors told us that the best thing we can do is keep her feeling safe and comforted, and eventually she'll get back to how she was. It's like her brain started to work in a different way so that she could cope with what was happening to her, and now she's just having to re-learn what it's like to be around her family instead of being stuck in the School. Jeb and Mom are here in case anything happens to trigger any bad memories, so this is the best place she could be right now.

'And Gazzy, look at her.' I loosened my grip on him a little so that he could turn around to face Angel. 'She's getting a good sleep, and she's been eating properly, and the nightmares are beginning to die down. She started smiling again a couple of days ago. All those are really good signs that she's on her way to getting better.'

Gazzy nodded, not saying anything as he watched his sister sleep.

'How's your scar?' I asked him.

'Fine,' he said, twisting his head around to face me. 'How about yours?' He reached back to poke at the pink line that Not-Ari had left across my cheek.

'Fine too,' I replied with a little laugh.

'It looks cool. Tough.'

I leaned my head down to his ear as if I were about to tell him a secret.

'I am tough,' I whispered. 'And so are you, and so is Angel. She's going to be fine.'

I leaned back to take in the picture of the two of them, and seeing them looking so young and wounded suddenly brought back a memory, one that I'd buried in the back of my mind a long time ago.

'Hey, do remember that song Jeb used to sing when we were upset or he was trying to get us to sleep?' I asked, and the Gasman wrinkled his nose as he thought back.

'Maybe sort of,' he said. 'I think I remember a few words.'

I gave a small nod and began to sing quietly, not quite hitting all the notes but managing to reach something that half-resembled a tune.

'Hush now my child, don't believe that we're done,

Though the wind's getting colder and night has begun.

There'll be clear skies at morning, you'll be safe and warm,

I swear that you won't feel a thing, I'll protect you from the storm.

So hush now and rest, my love, don't be scared of what will be,

And I'll stay with you while you're sleeping, just you wait and see.'

I was surprised by how easily the words came to mind, flowing through my memory after having been hidden away for ages. Clearly my singing needed some work, though, because the supposed lullaby had the exact opposite effect that it was meant to; Angel stirred as I finished the song. Blinking drowsily at us, she breathed in deep as she nuzzled up against her brother.

'Gazzy.'

The word was quiet, barely audible, sighed as she dropped back into sleep, but it was there. It was the first time she'd said anything, given any sign that she truly knew who any of us were. I felt my throat close up, and squeezed Gazzy's arm lightly before slipping out from between the sheets; he was lost in his sister, his wide eyes fixed on her, so he didn't even notice as I padded across the floor and left the room, closing the door silently behind me.

That evening, we just about managed to pack everybody around the kitchen table for dinner. Sure, we had to bring some side tables down from the bedrooms for people to sit on, but they worked just as well as any chair, and once everyone was sitting down you couldn't tell that we'd had to improvise.

Angel sat next to Gazzy, one arm linked around his for the whole meal. She hadn't said anything else since she'd whispered his name that morning, but it seemed as though the very act of saying something, breaking her silence, had calmed her; despite the noise in the kitchen, she didn't appear to be distressed or unhappy. On the contrary, she sat and ate her lasagne with a small smile on her face.

The room was full of chatting and laughter, and at one point I stopped eating just so I could look around, take in the cheerful faces of everybody around me. Everyone, safe and happy. Fang touched my knee, and when I turned to look at him there was a questioning expression in his eyes. I realised I'd been sitting without touching my food for a while.

'I think I'm just going to step outside for a bit,' I said, lowering my voice so that only he could hear me.

He frowned slightly.

'You okay?'

I smiled at him.

'Yeah, I'm fine. Just going to get some air.'

He nodded and I pushed my makeshift chair back, trailing a hand across his shoulders as I left the table. Moving through to the living room, I slid aside the big glass door and stepped out onto the decking in the backyard. I breathed deep, taking in the crisp evening air as I thought about the people laughing and eating inside; I'd known some of them my whole life, some of them for a year or so, and some of them for less than a month, but they all felt like my family now. I think it would be difficult not to feel that way after everything we'd been through together. There was a rustling sound out in the darkness of the garden, and I spotted Kokoe bouncing happily through the bushes, raising my hand in greeting before turning to face back towards the house. Looking through the glass in front of me, I could see right through the open door of the living room, across the hall and into the kitchen; standing there, watching them all from a distance, I suddenly felt more at home than I ever had done in my life.

I knew our troubles weren't over, and I was right: in the years to come, I would still wake up in the night with dreams of the School haunting me; Nudge never did recover from breaking her back, and her wheelchair became a permanent addition to the house; although Angel slowly made her way back to herself, there were still moments when we watched her retreat down into her own mind, if only for a short while. But she could always be brought of it, and Nudge fought hard until she worked out how to fly again despite her paralysis, and Fang was always there to calm me down when I came around from a nightmare. We'd all been to hell and back, but we were still together and still supporting each other, and we'd managed to battle our way through everything that had been thrown our way.

Making my way back through to the kitchen, I bent to kiss Fang quickly before sitting down, ignoring the knowing smiles that were shot in our direction; I didn't care anymore. We'd finally been given a chance to just live, just be, and I wasn't going to waste it worrying.

And this is where I leave you, folks. To everyone reading this, thanks for sticking around. It's been an awesome, crazy ride, but everything has to end somewhere; we've all got lives to live, and it's about time I started living mine at last.

So up and away, fly on, and give 'em hell.

Max out.

A/N The end. :D