This is my third update today! Yeah!

Fang isn't in this chapter in the book, it says he's off playing poker… so here's the poker scene. Again, I have no idea how to play poker, so if it's messed up, sorry.

While the rest of the flock and most of the scientists were on the deck in the cold, I had joined Iggy and Angel in their poker game against Brigid and Brian. When I sat down with them at the small table, Brigid looked up at me and smiled, and I felt mildly ill. I stayed, though, because of my recon, but also because there was this little part of me that saw hanging with Brigid as an alternative to hanging with Max, which I knew would be awkward under the best of conditions.

Unless Max came to her senses and saw that we really should be together. I knew she loved me, too-- the Valium incident played daily through my mind. It was her subconscious talking; that little fact just hadn't made it into her loudest thoughts yet. It would, though. I was confident in that.

"Fang?" Brigid asked, peering at me through long eyelashes. "Your turn."

"Oh. Um… fold." I put my cards down on the table while everyone raised their eyebrows at me.

"What?" I asked, looking around at everyone. Iggy looked smug, Brian was laughing silently, Brigid was smiling, and Angel was grinning like a maniac.

That last one is never a good sign.

"I win," she announced, taking everyone's money and counting it. "Awesome. Hundred and fifty. Bye, guys!" With that, she skipped merrily out of the room, grabbing her heavy coat on the way.

"Well," Brian sighed, standing up and dusting his pants off, "I feel sort of stupid."

"Losing to a six year old?" Iggy asked, starting to push the cards into a pile that was so neat you wouldn't have thought it was made by a blind guy. "Get used to it. When she reads your--"

I kicked him under the table. I didn't know if these people knew about Angel's abilities, but if they didn't, I wasn't about to tell them. Especially not Brigid.

"Er, I mean, she… can read your cards," Iggy said hastily. "Yeah. I mean, she doesn't really, but, um, it's like she can. Yeah."

I ducked my heard, my bangs falling over my eyes so I could roll them. This was the reason Iggy wasn't the one to tell the complex lies when we needed them.

"Hmm," said Brigid, obviously finding this explanation, well, less than explainable.

"Well, I'm going to check out some stats on my computer," Brian said, heading out of the room. "And make that report."

"See you later," Brigid said, smiling at him. As the door shut behind him, she turned to me and Iggy. "Well, what's going on with you two?"

The way she phrased it, I thought she was talking about me and Max, and I instinctively went on guard. Then I realized she meant it in a 'what's up' way, and answered coolly. "Nothing much."

"Really? I heard otherwise," Iggy said, and I elbowed him. He cackled. "You and Max--"

"Shut up," I hissed. "I mean it."

"Fang?" Brigid looked so concerned that I had to remind myself it was probably just an act. "What's going on with you and Max?"

I was tempted not to answer, but again, I remembered I had to look calm, like I wasn't totally onto her every suspicious move. "We just had a little bit of a fight."

"Oh? Over what?"

I shook my head. "It's stupid."

"Their romantic ten--"

"Iggy!" I muttered. "Shut. Up. I mean it."

"Romantic… tension?" Brigid raised her eyebrows in surprise, but it looked sort of like she was faking it to me. That's impossible, I told myself. She couldn't possibly know anything about me and Max. That's just… impossible.

"It's not important," I said, standing up. I started heading toward the door. "Ig, let's--"

"No, wait." Brigid moved over to me as Iggy hurried out of the room, anticipating something he apparently didn't want to be part of. "I want to talk to you."

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