A.N- Sorry again that this is late, but as I've said before: I am NOT giving up on this story. I will see this thing through even if it kills me. Well, maybe not if it kills me, but... Yeah, I'm not abandoning it so have patience please:) Sorry that this one is a little boring too, but I'll try to make then next one better.

Everyone Is Okay

A few seconds of looking into the distance proved that Dylan was right, as usual, about what he saw. A van was quickly approaching, and I could see Maya's head bopping above the steering wheel. I hadn't felt this happy since we finally got out of the desert prison, which felt like ages ago.

I noticed the desert was actually ending behind Maya. It was composed of mostly dirt rather than the stupid light-colored sand we were all sick of seeing.

Everyone started to run after seeing Maya, and as soon as the gray van came to a halt a short distance ahead of us, all of the doors opened. The van had windows, so it wasn't one of those pedophile vans that kids are usually taught to stay away from. We ran the short distance we had left with all we had and all piled in when we got there. Maya closed all the doors, turned the car around with a quick spin, and sped away barely waiting for all of us to be seated.

This van was supposed to seat eight people, but we made all eleven of us fit. We'd put Fang, Gazzy, and Jake in the very back seats with Nudge and Iggy to make sure they didn't fall over and hurt themselves. Dylan, Ratchet, Kate, and I sat in the three connected middle seats that were made for three people like the back ones were. Maya and Zaila sat in the front seats. Maya drove as Zaila looked at a map and told her all of the short cuts she could find.

We hadn't seen anyone chase after us, but it never hurt to be safe. Also, decided it'd be best to not go back to our last home yet, where the rest of us were, we were going to lay low for a while and make sure no one was really following us.

We drove to a hotel and everyone got off except for Maya and Zaila. They were going to a few pharmacies to pick medical supplies up so Iggy and Zaila could do their best to heal everyone. Since it would look suspicious if two beat up women walked into a pharmacy and bought a butt load of things, they chose to take a little longer and just drive to a few. They also cleaned their faces a little; their clothes weren't too bad though.

Dylan paid for a few rooms and we snuck all of the passed out people through a side door that wasn't in sight of the front desk. It was midday and the hotel didn't seem to be very busy. Thankfully no one saw us and we were able to get everyone in rooms. The people were set up in rooms so that if someone came in, there'd still be at least two people who could defend themselves and maybe someone who was passed out. Gazzy, Iggy, and Nudge shared; Fang, Ratchet, Kate, and I; Jake, Zaila, Maya, and Dylan.

We'd sent Nudge out to wait in the lobby for the others. She probably read all the magazines they owned since Maya and Zaila took so long, but when they finally got here those of us who were conscious were super relieved. We were all more or less broken in one way or another, not to mention worried about each other. Gazzy still had that poison that we didn't know how to treat, Kate hadn't mentioned anything after she'd thought her water had broken back at that prison (I feared for the worst), and I wasn't really sure if Jake's human body could take all of what had happened to him.

Iggy and Zaila went around, checking everyone over, and since Nudge, Dylan, Maya, and I only had minor things like scratches and bruises, we all just cleaned our own injuries, and cleaned and bandaged ourselves. Zaila told us that Gazzy's poison wasn't very dangerous, and that he'd just be out for a while. She instructed Iggy on how to make a sort of 'antidote' out of things she brought back from the pharmacy, which would help Gazzy get better quicker.

While Iggy took his time measuring and mixing various liquids into a complimentary styrofoam hotel cup, Zaila was busy checking Kate out. She took her into another hotel room after asking her some questions about what hurt and things of that nature. They were gone for a while.

Iggy finished making Gazzy's concoction which looked like a green-brown, semi-liquid pudding. He rubbed some on Gazzy's swollen cheek and then put some clean gauze over it, placing some medical tape on the edges to secure it in place. He then left the passed out Gazzy to sleep on the hotel bed, moving to the next person he needed to check over.

Just when I was starting to think that someone had kidnapped them or something, the door opened and Kate and Zaila walked in. "She'll be fine." Zaila announced.

"What was it?" I asked.

"Just a bit of blood, nothing to worry too much about. Both Kate and the baby are healthy other than some bruising to Kate's stomach. What she felt earlier was blood, not her water breaking. When Fang elbowed Kate, it was too low to hit the baby or anything important." Zaila reassures us, making everyone let out an audible sigh of relief.

Ratchet had perked up a little at this conversation and he seemed more aware of everything, probably meaning he remembered things now. Kate walked over to Ratchet, who was sitting on the edge of the second double bed in the room (Gazzy and Jake occupied the first). He asked her what had happened to her, and she started to explain everything that happened after he was knocked out.

I turned my attention to Fang now, who I was sitting by. He was on the other side of the bed Ratchet sat on, still knocked out. I'd been by his side ever since he was placed on the bed- only moving away when Iggy needed to check him over. I moved one of the room's arm chairs as close as it would get to the bed's side and been perched on it since. Iggy had told me he had no idea when Fang would wake up, but I wasn't about to leave his side any time soon. y

Night time came and half of us went out to eat at some pizza place. Kate and I were left behind to look after Gazzy, Fang, and Jake. It wasn't too bad though, we ordered room service food for us and the others since they were most likely going to come back still hungry. We didn't want to look too suspicious so they were going to eat like normal humans tonight. We were still pretty close to that desert place after all. The hotel food wasn't the best, but it was still food and when you're hungry from running in a desert all day (not to mention living off of desert rat for a few years), you really can't complain.

Iggy, Maya, Dylan, Zaila, Nudge, and Ratchet came back about two hours after leaving, when Kate and I were about to fall asleep. Everyone was all crowded in the room Fang, Ratchet, Kate, and I were sharing, the Flock all ate the hotel food we'd left for them. Dylan walked in a few minutes after everyone else, holding three boxes of pizza.

I raised my eyebrow at him. "Lobby guy held me up." He explained. "He thought we were throwing a party and told me it was against hotel rules. I had to tell him this was just our dinner. You want some?" He tells me opening up the top one to reveal a half eaten pizza.

"Get hungry on the way here?" I ask. "No thanks though. I'm tired, Kate and I just want to go to sleep." I say, pointing a finger to Kate. I noticed she was already fast asleep on one of the hotel beds.

"Alright." He looks back to the rest of the room, "Alright, who ate the pizza on the way here?"

Nudge lifts up her from a plate of mashed potatoes, "Sorry, I didn't think they'd want it all." She says.

I smile at her, "It's fine, honey. You eat what you want, I was full anyways."

She smiles back, "Thanks, Max. You're the best!" and then she goes to the pizza box and eats a couple more pieces.

Iggy and Ratchet had taken Gazzy and Jake to their respective rooms when they were done eating so that Fang, Ratchet, Kate, and I would get our own beds. Kate had fallen asleep on the other side of Fang's bed so Ratchet later picked her up and moved her to the other bed, when everyone had gone to their own rooms and put the small number of leftovers into the tiny old hotel fridges. After he finally fell asleep, I felt like I could. For some reason, I just felt it impossible to fall asleep if those around me weren't. Unless I was dead tired, or someone else was on watch, I would always be the last to fall asleep in my flock. We had Zaila now though. She was able to sense thoughts even in her sleep, so we were all safe.

I was very thankful to have Zaila. She brought me and every one of us a sense of security that we'd never had before. She was one of the only people I'd been able to trust very quickly. It felt like she always knew what to do and thought several steps ahead of everyone. She was like me, but better. I smiled

Those thoughts were swimming through my head when I turned over in my bed, still smiling, to look at Fang. In the little street light coming in from the poorly- closed shades, I realized that his eyes were open. I gasped, "How long have you been awake?" I whispered.

He blinked, "Since Ratchet turned out the lights, I think." He tells me.

That'd been a while ago. It's weird that I hadn't noticed his breathing change or anything, but then again he's pretty much always as calm as if he were asleep so…

He reaches his hand up to my face and places it on my cheek, "Are you okay?" He asks me.

I smile again. "Yeah, I'm fine, Fang." I put my hand over his, on my cheek. "How are you? Does anything hurt? I think Iggy and Zaila left some pain killers in this room in case you woke up and-"

"I'm fine, Max." He tells me. "I don't need anything. How are the others though? Kate? Jake? Gazzy?"

"They'll all be fine. Kate and her baby were both okay, only a little bruising to her stomach. You missed anything important. Zaila said Jake should wake up tomorrow, nothing was broken or ruptured. And Zaila told me our little trooper's poison was just to sedate anyone who tried escaping from the white coats, nothing dangerous." I tell him. "And everyone else just had bruises and small cuts."

He holds me close and puts his chin on my head, "I'm glad everyone's safe- especially you and him." He says, taking his chin back down and looking down at my stomach, rubbing it lightly. I kiss his cheek lightly with a smile (I was doing a lot of that tonight). "You should get some sleep. Goodnight, Max. I'll be right here when you wake up. I love you." He whispers, and kisses my nose lightly.

I snuggle closer to him, with my head on his chest, "Goodnight, Fang. I love you." I say and fall right to sleep.

A.N- So Kate and Max should be having their babies soon, I already have a general idea of how I'm going to make this happen, but I was wondering how you all would enjoy reading it the most. Like, would you want it to start happening while they're all separated one day, back in New York? All together watching a movie at a theater? Kate and Max together at a mall? Suggest anything you think of, no matter how weird!

Q.O.T.U- How should the babies come into the world?

Love you,

~Lucy