Chapters will now be posted every Wednesday. Hope you guys enjoy.

She felt sore all over, like someone had taken a gigantic hammer that had "Fuck You" carved on the handle and smashed her with it. Max's eyes adjusted and she could see straps dangling from the ceiling. Her leg was encased in a hard plaster cast, the white gleaming underneath the fluorescents. She tried to move her foot and found she couldn't, the cast immobilizing her leg. Her left arm was in a cloth sling and her right wrist was attached to a machine near her bedside through an IV. Max grimaced and glanced at the remainder of the room. It was stark white with beige furniture, curtains covering the window next to the steel door that she doubted let in any sunlight. Suddenly, it dawned on her. This looked very familiar.

Max panicked, tearing out the IV frantically. Her body surged upwards and she floundered in the cloth sling. The heart monitor's beeps became a string of urgent pulses as the needle was yanked from her hand and she threw it across the room. She grunted, sounds of pain and panic flying from her lips as she struggled with the sheets, the cast, and the sling on her arm.

Thunderous footsteps approached her room and the steel door flew open. In streamed orderlies and nurses and they rushed to hold down Max's flailing limbs.

She retaliated in confusion, hitting, scratching, and even biting one of the nurses that tried to hold her down. They overpowered her in her injured state; a nurse slipped the IV back into her arm and added a dose of something bitter.

As Max began to calm, no doubt from the aid of the drugs, a man in a white lab coat walked into the room. He was neither tall not short, his hair a dark, undefinable colour, and features that could just as easily have been found on someone else. He was, on a whole, unremarkable; an easy face to lose in a crowd. His name tag was illegible as Max's vision began to swim, but there was the emblem of a dark bird above it.

"I'm sorry to have to do this," he said with an apologetic expression. "We were hoping you would cooperate. Unfortunately, you might injure yourself if you're allowed to stay awake."

The doctor's figure began to twist and distort as Max forced her eyes to stay open. She managed to gather up enough energy to twist her hand in the sling and give him the middle finger.

He laughed. Laughed. The nerve.

"Goodnight," he told her. "I'll return in the morning."

The doctor left the room and Max's vision went black.

Max didn't wake until a full day later. She couldn't tell what time it was, there weren't any windows, but the clock on the wall said 2:30. Whether it was AM or PM, she would never know. Time seemed to stand still in the featureless room as if the air was holding its breath.

There was no one in Max's hospital room this time, the door shut firmly and most likely locked. She struggled into a sitting position and let herself lean back on the multiple pillows they had piled behind her. As far as incarceration in in a medical facility went, this was pretty fancy by Max's standards.

She tried to brush a strand of hair out of her face and found her wrists to be strapped to the bed. The cloth sling was gone.

Just dandy. Max rolled her eyes and let her arms go slack. These idiots have no idea who they're dealing with.

This was definitely not the School, that enough was clear. For one, she wouldn't have three pillows in a School facility, let alone one. The bed had to be at least 300 thread count and it had a blanket on it. The restraints were a joke and would do little more than a funnel dog collar would on a wolverine. Max would like to say that she could break out in a few hours, but the cast on her leg was heavy and the room was actually pretty comfortable.

She almost slapped herself for thinking that. Max didn't belong in a lab; no way, no how. But it couldn't hurt to let them fix her up. At the first sign of danger, she decided, it was go time.

Max let her head loll back on the pillows and glanced something on the ceiling. It was faint, one shade darker than the rest of the insulation tiles, but Max thought she saw a large insignia of a bird spreading its wings across the entirety of the ceiling. She squinted at it, trying to remember where she'd seen it before.

I think it's the- Bam!

The door opening startled her out of her reverie and turned her attention to the two people in navy blue jump suits that were tight enough to look painted on. They both pulled up stool next to her hospital bed and she fixed them with a critical stare.

"Hello," said one of the intruders. He was tall with a bulky upper body but skinny legs. A crop of strawberry blonde hair shot up from his head. "I'm Agent Gilden and this is Agent Temple."

He gestured to a woman next to him with dark, olive-toned skin and a black hijab that mirrored glittering black eyes. They seemed to absorb all of the light around her, like a black hole. She set up a small recording device at the foot of Max's bed.

"We're from the Strategic Homeland Enforcement, Intervention, Logistics Division, or SHIELD," Temple explained. "And we would like to ask you a few questions."

Max simply stared at them and didn't say a single word. She noticed the same bird insignia on their uniforms as the one on the ceiling. What was SHIELD? Why hadn't she heard of it before? As far as secret government organizations went, she was pretty much an expert.

The agents exchanged a glance when faced with Max's silence and Temple turned the recording device on. Gilden pulled out a clipboard and slipped to the second page, pen at the ready.

"What's your name?" asked Temple. Gilden looked up expectantly.

Max didn't know if she should answer them or not, but the alarms that were going off in her head told her to keep mum. She had no clue who these people were, and she didn't really want anyone to find out about her; besides, they smelled like governmental naievete. She didn't feel like turning anyone's mind to mush through revelations about the horrors in the world right now. She kind of wanted some jello, to tell you the truth.

Max stared at them and blinked.

Gilden made a notation on his clipboard.

"What's your age?"

Silence.

"What's your place of birth?"

Silence with a bit of staring.

"Are you aware of your surroundings?"

Temple seemed exasperated and with every question left unanswered her frustration mounted, no matter how well she tried to hide it. It almost amused Max and she decided to throw them a bit of a bone. Max shrugged, the restraints on the bed clinking against the frame.

Temple's expression didn't change, but Gilden began writing something down on his paper.

"Is that a yes?"

Shrug.

"Is that a no?"

Shrug.

"Can you speak?"

Yes, Max thought. She sent a burning glare in the direction of the agents. But you don't deserve to hear me.

Temple glanced over at Gilden's clipboard and cleared her throat.

"Were you aware that the cabin you entered in northern Washington on March 11th, 2014 was a SHIELD surveillance operation?"

There they go spilling all of their secrets. If Max stayed mute for the rest of the interview she might end up learning everything from their highest-ranking official to the colour of Gilden's underwear. She had yet to see her doctor again, a thought that brought her a bit of comfort even if the notion of actually having a doctor was pretty terrifying in the first place.

"Do you or have you ever been in contact with a company known as Itexicon?"

Max's mood changed swiftly, almost as if a switch was flipped inside of her. The agents took notice and Gilden began making notes once again.

There was no way they could know about Itex, Max thought. Absolutely no way. While not impossible, it was highly improbable that the agents knew what they were talking about. Itex might have hands in nearly every company in the world, but it wasn't something anyone picked up on. It was like Batman, a shadow behind every major event in the world, except not Batman because how cool would that be?

Max thought back to when she first woke up in the hospital room here. She could tell right away that it wasn't one of Itex's schools but it also wasn't a normal hospital; she had been in one of those before and usually they didn't have government agents try to interrogate you while you're healing.

"Were you on the premises of the Washington branch of Itexicon on March 11th, 2014?" Temple's voice broke Max out of her reverie. She had gotten a hook on Max and they both knew it. Max swore internally.

Max tilted her head to the side, her ear brushing up against the pillow. She tried to make her face inscrutable, her expression merely a mask, but stoicism wasn't her strongest suit.

No, that was Fang's.

The thought hit her like a ton of bricks.

"Were you aware of the fire that was set inside the Washington branch of Itexicon on the aforementioned date?" Temple asked. She knew she was close to a breakthrough, she could taste it, unfortunately she didn't know just how close.

Max could smell it now, all around her. She was back in the halls of the School, in a trashed control room with flames on every side of her. The fire was here in the hospital room, and then it was there in Itex, and then it was within her, burning her from the inside out. She felt both alive and dead at once, the awareness of her mortality edging up behind her as it claimed one Flock member, then another, and another.

The memory was stifling, she couldn't think straight. Max was near-delusional as she felt the need to lash out like a caged animal. She strained against the straps on her limbs, her body surging upwards. Temple leaned forward out of concern for Max and she rested her hand on the side of the bed. Max tried to grab Temple's arm, but couldn't because of the arm restraints and the IV that connected her to the hospital machines. Instead, she reached down and bit her, her teeth clamping onto Temple's forearm.

Temple shouted in surprise and then pain. She jerked her arm out of Max's mouth just as Gilden rushed forwards to help. The heart rate monitor beeped loudly, indicating the fast pace of Max's heart. The door to the hospital room opened and in walked a nurse in light purple scrubs.

"I told them no one in the room for at least another day!" The nurse said, swatting Temple and Gilden away from Max's bedside. "Now look what you've done to her!"

Max blinked, the memory of the fire dissipating into smoke at the sound of another person's voice. She was confused and disoriented as she tried to remember where she was again but it came back when she felt the softness of the bed and the brightness of the room. The hospital.

Gilden gathered Temple's papers for her as she rubbed at the impression of Max's teeth in her arm. Gilden looked to Temple and indicated the door with his head and raised eyebrows. She stood to leave, taking one last look at Max, who jerked her head at Temple. Temple resisted the urge to flinch and hurried out of the hospital room, closing the door behind her.

"You shouldn't scare them," the nurse said. She adjusted the heart rate monitor and took a look at the IV bag. Max stared straight ahead, not looking up to acknowledge the nurse on purpose. "I know they're horrors, but they're new. Everyone has to learn sometime."

Max glanced down towards the ground, feeling scolded for her actions. She had gotten out of control, wild even, but she barely remembered why.

The nurse next to her bed was new, or at least she thought she was. Max couldn't recall exactly what the first nurse looked like before the doctor sent her into a drug-induced sleep, but she was sure that it was a man. This nurse was younger, larger, with tanned skin that matched Max's own. She had dark, curly hair that was pinned back and she spoke with a slight accent. Max spied an employee badge clipped to her pocket. It said Lena Santos, the space above her ID photo bearing the same bird crest that was on the agents' uniforms.

"I'll be your nurse for while you're here. They're low in the secure sector so they called me in. The name's Lena," she said, looking down at Max with a smile. "Shouldn't be too bad, should it?"

Max scowled, the restraints stopping her from crossing her arms. All of a sudden she felt like the sullen teenager she was supposed to be. Lena's presence had a strange effect on her, almost like being back with her mom and Ella. Almost... normal. The thought was startling to Max and she pushed back against the feeling. She needed to get out, not be mothered.

"Anything bothering you today? Any pain?" Lena asked. She picked up Max's medical chart from the end of the bed and flipped through the pages.

Max lifted her arms, indicating the restraints. The buckles on them made a light noise.

Lena shook her head. "You just bit an agent, there's no way I'm taking those off. I need to get the doctor's clearance before I do that because of what happened when you first woke up. He doesn't want you ripping out the IV or hurting yourself."

Max rolled her eyes and sighed, her eyes glancing at the restraints once more. She thought that puppy-dog eyes might work to her advantage in this instance, but it was too hard remembering what they looked like. Her chest constricted at the memory.

"Any actual pain?" Lena asked, a smile on her lips.

Max ignored her and stared off into the distance at a patch of painted cinderblock on the wall. Her body always healed quickly. It was only a matter of days before the cast could come off. Of course, they didn't know this and probably would x-ray her leg for another week. It was just a waiting game.

Lena sighed and put the medical chart back in its place. "Everything seems to be fine physically. I'd still like a name to go along with a face, mija. Can I call you mija?" Lena chuckles. "You look just like my niece; all rough and tough, but I know you can hear me. I know you can talk."

Max didn't say anything. She refused to look at Lena at this point. They didn't take her here so she could make friends. If anything, everyone working for the people that took her are her enemies. Lena wasn't her mother, she wasn't her sister, she was a nurse. An enemy nurse.

Lena sighed and looked at her IV bag one more time. "Alright, whatever you say. I'll come back to check on you in a few hours." She left the room.

The door swung shut behind her with a bang.

It wasn't until the next day that she saw Lena again. Max opened her eyes to a tray of hospital food that smelled less and less appealing the longer it sat on the table in front of her. It was nothing particularly special: eggs, jello, milk, and a muffin encased in saran wrap.

"Eat up," Lena told her. She put a mouthful of eggs on a spoon and pushed it towards Max's mouth.

Max recoiled and looked up at Lena like she was crazy. She shook her head in response to the food. The restraints were still on her wrists and even though her stomach was grumbling constantly, she couldn't bring herself to eat. It was something in her mind that told her no even when her body wanted to say yes. Plus, she'd had better shit from dumpsters on the run.

"You have to eat something, mija, or you'll waste away into nothing." Lena put the spoon back on the tray. She picked up the muffin and began to unwrap it. "Muffin?"

Max shook her head again.

"I am not your mother, you know," Lena told her, muffin in hand. "I don't have to be nice to you, but I want to, so you should be nice back. I know that sounds like something you learn in kindergarten, but it's true."

Max shrugged with a face that said 'my hands are tied' in the most innocent way possible. The irony wasn't lost.

Lena picked the tray off of the table in front of Max. "Whenever you get hungry, just call. The doctor will be in here for a checkup in around an hour. Be ready."

The doctor was less impressive than she had remembered. He was still completely unremarkable, with dark hair and eyes that she couldn't place. Max guessed that it was probably good that someone like him was working for a place like this: no one would be able to pick him out in an office party, let alone hunt him down in the city. The doctor sat down on the chair next to Max's bed.

"Hello," he said, glancing at Max's medical chart. He pulled a pen out of his lab coat pocket. "I see you haven't been eating..." He continued to read. "Or talking." The doctor raised his eyebrows and lifted his head to look at Max. "I'm Dr. Bahar. I'd love to hear your name."

You and me both, buddy, Max thought almost conversationally. She couldn't stand the look on his face; that expectant tilt of the chin as if she was going to comply at the drop of a hat. She could tell that Bahar was over all of this, all of her. She didn't hold his interest besides a routine check-up on their newest detainee, if she even was one at that.

"Right," Bahar said, almost to himself. He set the medical chart aside. "I'm just going to check your injuries to see the progress." He placed his fingers along either side of Max's neck. They felt like ice and she resisted the urge to hiss at him.

Couldn't the guy at least warm them up first? She was already annoyed with him and he was only here for two minutes.

Bahar began to massage those areas, looking for something that Max wasn't quite sure of herself. He made a few notes on his clipboard.

"The burns from the upper body appeal to have been healed much faster than normal, with the lymph node swelling reduced," he said almost to himself. Bahar pulled off a bandage on Max's upper arm to see that there was nothing but a faint scar. "And the bullet wounds from the bicep are gone completely. Highly unusual."

Yeah, get on my level, Max thought to herself.

Bahar untied a section of her hospital gown to check the wounds in her stomach. "The grazes have healed but-" He uncovered a piece of bandage to check the site of a deeper bullet wound that was still all blood and gore. "-the deeper wounds are still present. Have a nurse change the dressing."

He made a few notes on his clipboard before noticing Max's arms were held down.

"Why are her arms still restrained?" He asked a guard over his shoulder.

"Sir, there was an incident-"

"I don't care if there was an incident, I told you to unlock the restraints hours ago." Bahar was agitated as he asked the security guard for the key. The guard reluctantly pulled the key from his pocket and unlocked the restraints.

Max felt a rush of triumph when her wrists were free. The restraints had left shallow marks from where she had pulled against them earlier and she rubbed her wrists lightly to smooth them out. Max knew that somehow they were trying to gain her trust long enough so she would tell them any piece of information that she knew, or even just to confirm an assumption that they had already thought.

Bahar took her left arm in one hand and moved it around in soft circles. He looked to Max's face to see if she felt any pain but all she did was send him an icy glare. "The dislocated shoulder has also healed nicely in the past 24 hours."

Max didn't appreciate all of the poking and prodding, but it was better than what she had experience elsewhere. So far, there weren't any needles besides the IV in her arm and she didn't see any shock treatment in her near future. Add another pillow and this could be a five-star resort in Barbados.

There was still a lingering suspicion that settled at the back of her mind in a way that she couldn't brush it off. That was good, it kept her vigilant, especially when Bahar began to attack something to her IV that was tinged an odd shade of blue.

Max lunged forwards with both of her hands out and grabbed Bahar by the collar of his sickeningly familiar white coat and jerked him forwards, his stomach slamming against the side of her bed with a thud. She relished for a moment in the mobility of both of her arms and the feeling of something, anything, other than those ridiculous restraints.

"Hey, hey," Bahar's voice was low with a defensive edge. She could tell he was trying to placate her. His arms were up in the air on either side of him and the grip on the medicine was loose. "I'm just trying to help. I'm just trying to make you better."

Max leaned in close and observed his expression. Her breath fanned out across his face and he flinched involuntarily. There wasn't any malicious intent here, that much she could tell, but she also knew that doctors made the best of puppets and where there's a puppet, there's someone to pull the strings.

Pathetic, Max thought to herself when she released him.

Bahar stumbled backwards, falling into his chair and sliding several feet. The security guard leaned down to help him but Bahar waved him away. Bright red marks began to appear on his neck where Max had pressed too hard with her thumbs. They were sure to bruise later and the thought warmed Max a little bit, just enough to lift her out of this sour mood.

The doctor smoothed out his coat and picked up the bottle of medicine once again, but Max's arm shot out and stopped him. She looked him dead in the eyes and shook her head no.

"It's a simple antibiotic, nothing more," Bahar told her. "It's not going to turn you into the Hulk. All it's going to do is prevent infection."

He seemed so calm and assured, like his job meant his life to him, but all Max could think of is a man that was the exact same way, but ended up betraying her entire family. But this doctor wasn't Jeb; she doubted Bahar could even dream to make hot chocolate as good as his, and it pained her to even let someone who reminded her of a ghost have an inch of control over her.

Fuck this, Max thought as she turned her head away from him. She let go of her grip on his arm and slowly moved her hand to be IV-up and put it in front of Bahar's needle.

A few days later they transferred her to another room. This one was smaller, older, she could tell by the smell in the air. Before she was isolated from other patients, now she saw them all the time. There was a window next to her bed and the curtains were open ever since they moved her into the room.

Lena wasn't the one that had transferred her, which felt odd. After only a few days Max could say they were sort of friends. Well, as close as a girl stuck in a government hospital with no friends could become. She had learned all about Lena's nieces and nephews, her cousins, her sisters. There weren't many boys in her family and Max reflected on how nice that must've been, how quiet.

She never saw a patient below the age of 20. At least, none of them seemed to be children; they were all athletic-looking and fairly healthy. Occasionally she spotted an amputee or someone in a wheelchair, but everyone else looked to only have minor wounds. It struck Max as odd. What kind of hospital rarely had sick people?

There were more agents like Gilden and Temple running about outside. Most of them didn't pay her a second thought, but a few had the gall to stare before Max lost her self-control long enough to stare back. The agents always seemed to be in a hurry to get somewhere, with a mountain of paperwork in their arms or a visitor with a bright, shiny badge in tow. Max knew she had been moved from the secure sector when she noticed that across the hall from her was a cafeteria, which she found ironic. Ever since she had arrived, Max had refused to eat.

"Here you go, mija, your very own." Lena dropped a notebook and a pencil onto Max's lap unceremoniously. "You're a lucky bitch, too, because I pulled so many strings to allow you within ten feet of something sharp. The higher-ups had all of these requirements about what kind of pen you could have before I said I could just get you a pencil. I don't know why people that don't know the first thing about being doctors are hired here but, whatever. If you can figure it out, tell me."

Max smiled slightly at Lena's frustration. She worked hard for the one patient that caused her the most trouble. It was an admirable quality in a nurse; in anyone, really.

Lena crossed her arms and looked at Max like she'd just grown a third eye. "Go on, write! I didn't slave over a paperwork desk all day for nothing, mija."

Max rolled her eyes and opened to the first page, but Lena continued to stare. She waved the nurse away and Lena sighed, exasperated, before turning to face the window.

"You better be writing a novel, alright? An Ode to Lena with backup dancers and sparklers." Lena made hand movements that almost had Max laughing as she put pencil to paper. After a few minutes, she turned back around.

Your fly is down, was all that was etched on the first page.

Lena glared at Max, who only offered an amused smile in return. "Yeah, yeah, I'm wearing scrubs so I know you're just spitting lies." She sat down in the chair next to the bed and crossed her legs. "Tell me something useful. What should I call you? Bird girl is so passe."

Max touched the tip of the eraser to her bottom lip and thought for a moment. Lena's good, and that's something rare to Max. Lena also has her trust, another hot commodity. Max scrawled out another word and held it up for Lena to see.

My name's Max.