A/N: For those of you who have waited on this...i bow to your patience. And i thank you for it. This has been a labor of love and chaos. Many thanks to those who helped me (you know whom you are) and as always this idea was not my own. (Thanks to kati3llen, whom let me borrow it.) I have a few more chapters to go before I can properly end this.

enjoy-twilightjunkie1313

Fang Pov:

I remember the day he left. I don't remember how much time has passed since we knew he was gone, right now that doesn't really matter. He's not coming back.

I woke up to find the house quiet and still. It felt odd, normally the house was full of energy and chaos. But that second it was silent.

I walked down the short hall, peeking through cracked doors, checking on the flock. All of them were asleep, except Max. Iggy looked out for the count, so i assumed no breakfast for a while. Fine by me, I'd do something else.

I stalked into the living room and slid into the large white sofa, fished for the remote and turned to some educational show. It felt to good to have the couch to myself. I wandered where Max was. She wasn't in here, or in her room, or in the kitchen.

I felt the hairs on tha back of my neck stand up.

In an instant i stood, spun and crouched slightly. I glanced around, trying to find what put me on edge. The door to jeb's room was cracked. I moved toward it, wondering why it was ajar. He always left it all the way open or completly closed.

Then i heard a sound.

I froze, my arm outstretched toward the doornob. It was like someone was crying, there were words, muttered to quietly for me to hear. It took a while for me to understand that the sounds were not from a man. They were from a girl.

I pushed open the door.

Max sat on jeb's bed. Her head resting on her knees, drawn up close to her chest. She was shaking, and fragile looking. I sensed that this was something I was not supposed to see. I stepped closer, and sensing me, Max looked up. In her eyes there was hurt, fear, confusion, greif and anger.

"He's gone." She whispered. The way she said it, in her broken un-composed voice made me beleive it was true. I wouldn't ask her if she was sure, I wouldn't ask her how long she had been sitting there. I unconsiously walked over to the bed, grabbed her hand and gently pulled her up.

She didn't fight it.

I managed to pull her to her feet, placing my hands on her sholders. She stare back at me, a slight energy in her eyes, an anger I couldn't place.

"They are not awake yet." I said slowly. She nodded, understanding that she had more time to grive.

"But they will be soon." I hoped she would be calm by then. She looked okay right now. That was the beauty behind Maximum, she could be unstable one moment and appear fine the next. I had learned long ago that her eyes gave her away. They looked hectic and scared right now.

There was a loud crash and we both froze. I turned slightly, hoping it was him, ready to kill him for scaring Max and leaving us...but Iggy appeared instead.

Max gasped and simultaniously Iggy froze.

"Iggy shut the door." I said calmly. He did, and then moved closer.

"What's going on?" His demeanor had switched to serious and concerned. I swallowed hard, fighting back the sinking feeling in my stomach.

"Jeb's gone." She said it so quietly that i hardly heard but somehow Iggy did.

Iggy soundlessly stepped forward and wrapped his arms around Max. As he did this I slid away from them, becoming an observer of their greiving. I slid over to the wall as they cried in silence, their bodies shaking as if their very souls were leaving them. The whole house was still.

I just stood in the shadows, watching them mourn the only father we had known. It was like someone had flooded my blood with ice, numbed my senses so much i could not feel, even if i wanted to.

Then there was a sound. It was loud and abrasive. I recognized it as footsteps, coming closer. I went to the doorway and slid out into the hall, not seeing anything, just hearing that one sound. I was in the living room in seconds.

"Fang?"

"Fang?"

"Fang, are you okay?"

I looked around, the room coming into focus. Nudge was looking over the back of the couch. I realized she had been calling me. I felt something wrap around my leg. I looked down and saw Angel. I didn't know how she had gotten there.

"Fang? Is everything okay?" Nudge spoke again. I didn't think, i just lied.

"Fine." But my voice didn't stay even and blank. It cracked and the words were lost.

Nudge stood, worry plain on her face. I didn't want her pity, I didn't need her concern. Adrenalin began to flood my blood. I stepped back from Angel, my body going into a slight crouch. Nudge's face went pale.

At once all the emotions I should have been feeling, anger, loss, hurt, confusion, fear and betrayal came rushing into me. I needed out, now, i felt dizzy.

"Leave me alone." I said with a cold fury that seemed to come from nowhere. I felt like i was going to scream, explode from emotion. I stalked to my room in a few quick strides and slammed the door, so hard the walls shook.

Then, only when i was sure no one could see me, I fell apart.

I thought of Max, crying on his bed. I thought if Iggy, Angel, Nudge and Gazzy, the trust he betrayed. I began to picture the thousands of memories i could have shared with him. He could have been a father to me. But now he was gone.

I tipped my dresser over in front of my door, it made a huge crashing sound. I jerked open the drawers and began taking everything out, throwing it all on the floor. I didn't want this stuff to remind me of him. After each drawer was empty i pulled my matress into the center of the floor, and pushed the frame into the growing pile.

I wasn't done, but now there was a pounding on my door. I didn't care, until I had destroyed everything that lying bastard had given me, i would not come out. I hear voices and moved faster, the whole room had to be a wreck before I was done, his place had to look the way i felt. If he came back i wanted him to know what he did to me.

I ripped the painted black doors off my closet. Then I dumped the box of outdoor equipment he had given me into the pile. I heard a noise like breaking glass and i smiled slightly. It felt good to break this, and i turned to the walls.

The walls we had painted together.

I scrathed at them with my fingernails until i felt my nails tear away and start to bleed. I kept going, tearing harder now, because the black was being covered by red...

Then there was a crash, I heard yelling. Hands dragged me away from the wall, to the floor. I heard distinct voices now, Max ordering everyone to get out. Part of me struggled against her grasp, the rest of me was calm.

The struggling part won out over the rest.

I pulled away from Max's grip. I stood shakily next to my pile of possesions and ran a hand through my hair. She stood and walked to my door, closing it and turning to face me.

In that moment we didn't speak. I stared and she stared back. We understood that we were two people who were broken, that we expressed grief in different ways and at diffrent times, but in the end it was the same grief.

She left eventually, without a word or gesture. I closed the curtains, the only thing left unharmed, and let the blackness take me down.

Iggy Pov:

Of all of us Fang had the hardest time. He became quiet and distant. Max told me once that he looked like the angel of death, pale, haunted and sad. It was in that second i was thankful for my blindness. I didn't have to see the pain in his eyes. I only heard his quiet footsteps and felt a prickle on the back of my neck when he was near. To me, it was like living with a ghost.

Nudge was different, Fang's polar opposite. She would fill the alkward silences with words. She spent more time in the open, to keep from being alone in her room. When she was alone she would turn up the T.V. She would be the last awake, staying up until nearly all of us were asleep, making sure we hadn't flown out through our windows never to return.

The youngest, Angel seemed more affected by our greif than Jeb's departure. She would sit quietly next to us on the couch, calmly watching our forced togetherness and silences. Still, she slept restlessly, tossing, turning and sometimes wimpering.

Gazzy made an attempt to spend quality time with all of us. It was his nature. He wasn't afraid to break the fragile silence to ask me a question. He would sit with Nudge in the mornings and even sleep on the couch some afternoons to keep her company. It was odd, but somehow comforting and safe.

Max was different than all of us. I thought she would fall apart the first day. I thought she would never stop crying after i found her in Jeb's room. It was my mistake, she was stronger than i gave her credit for, she was Maximum, after all. Our born leader. Still there were days i woke to her quiet sobs, days where she stared blankly at the T.V. even if it was off.

As for me, i did what the blind do best. I listened. I listened to my family as we tried to pick us the pieces and recover from the past. I experienced my own pain, i thanked whatever's out there that i had them to help me. I felt them change, Fang spoke more, Max cracked jokes, Nudge flew alone and Angel smiled. I listened less and did more, learned to cook, pirated cable and satilie onto our T.V, sometimes I fly with Nudge.

I do listen, when nobody thinks i hear, or when the night is so still your heartbeat makes a sound. Sometimes i still see the scars that he left on us. When Fang sits quietly through a watch, when Max stares blankly into the stars. I know they are thinking of him.

He was our father after all.