A/N- Hellooooo! I'm back, with another fabulous chapter for you guys. Er, another chapter, really xD Also, I finally got the sixth Maximum Ride book, and I am sososo happy, but I hate Dylan x) Mooooore drama in this chapter, because I love to torture, haha. Also, I have added a new point of view! Please welcome, Angel!

Memories of You

Chapter 4

Max POV

I paced back and forth across the kitchen as I nervously chewed the ends of my fingernails. They were going to look like hell, but I didn't care. Nudge and Iggy hadn't come back all night, neither one of them. I was so worried I would never see them again, and it was driving me insane. They could be halfway to Canada by now, I was so frightened. Nudge didn't remember anything and we all knew that Iggy was upset about it, but why weren't they back yet? I grimaced furiously.

I listened to whoever was on the other end say something about it having to be more than twenty-four hours before anyone could report someone missing. Meaning they couldn't look for Iggy or Nudge. I was ready to slam the phone on the ground and stomp on it already. Gazzy, Angel and Fang were all on with police officers from three other nearby towns, and I could hear them.

"Um, well, she's African-American with designer clothes and lots of makeup on…well how am I supposed to know? Hang on…" Gazzy wandered into the kitchen. "Hey, Max, Nudge is seventeen, right?" I gave him a nod and he walked back into the other room with the phone, leaving me all alone in the room with my cell phone and an idiot.

"Look, man, they're missing!" Fang yelled into the receiver as he stalked into the kitchen for something out of the fridge. He yanked the door open, found nothing, and slammed it shut again as whoever was on the other end told Fang to perform a physically impossible act on himself. "Go to hell!" he swore as he slammed the phone shut. I gave him a pointed look. How were we ever going to find Nudge and Iggy if he was going to piss off whoever was trying to help us?

"Yeah, it's a white guy and a black girl," I sighed wearily to the monkey who was trying to help me. "Well, yes, they're together," I added. "And…yes, they've been gone since last night." I paused as he made certain unmentionable comments. "Pig," I glared a few seconds later and snapped my phone shut. "Angel, are you having any luck-" I trailed off as she held up a finger and walked in. Fang and I waited eagerly –or what would have been eagerly if we had more energy- for an answer.

"Well, it's been a little less than twenty hours…" she began impatiently yet sweetly to the other end of the phone. "If you could just please help me, they're my only family…" she lied through her teeth. "Without them I'll be an orphan…" she glared as they didn't buy it, and got this weird concentrating look on her face. A minute later she hung up.

"They won't help us," she announced, "and it turns out I can't control minds over the phone."

Nudge POV

I blinked slowly as my eyes opened and adjusted to the light. I was so warm, I closed my eyes again, thinking I was in my bed at home. But as I rolled over in what I thought was my bed, I felt a pair of arms tightening around me, around my bare, unclothed skin. And the arms were bare too. Following up the rest of them, I could make out muscled arms and shoulders that were bare too.

I sat up and blinked again. My sweaty hair was all over my head and matted with dirt. My whole body was caked with dirt sticking to dried sweat. I had no clothes on at all, and I was sitting in the middle of what looked like the middle of the cornfield. I rubbed my eyes and looked down.

I screamed.

A strawberry-blonde boy was on the ground next to me. His hair was plastered to his forehead with dried sweat, and there was dirt on his body too. He, too, was completely naked. This was so not good. I started to panic. What had happened? What had I done? Why couldn't I remember?

He jolted upright, saw my terrified expression, and reached out and grabbed my hand. I blinked and jerked away. "Nudge?" he asked, and I relaxed some. He knew me.

…But I didn't know him.

It clicked then. "How do you know my name? What are you doing here? Who are you? What did you do to me?!" I shrieked at him. He sat and stared, dumbfounded, for all of ten seconds before he started cowering under my rage. "Did you strip me? Have you no shame? This…this is illegal? You're going to jail…did anything happen? Did we…did we…did we have…?" I was trembling.

"Yes!" he threw up his hands. "Yes, Nudge, we had sex. Are you happy?"

"No!" I cried, and I threw my hands up. "You…you…you pig! You stole my virginity? Probably drugged me, got me drunk! Where were we? In a bar!? What…did…you…do?!" I was filled with rage. I grabbed a shirt that I recognized as one of mine, and immediately grabbed it and started beating him with it. He winced as I hit him over and over, even though I wasn't really hurting him. "Get out! Go! Leave me my sanity! Do you think it's okay, taking advantage of women this way? Why don't you say something?!"

He sat, dazed and cowering under my rant. "Yeah…wait, no! I meant, no!" He scrambled to his feet. "For God's sake, put some clothes on!" I shrieked at him as he hurried with all of his clothes. He was dressed in two seconds, as was I. "I'm calling the cops, and you're going to jail!" I seethed, then walked away.

He caught me by my wrist. "Nudge, how could you not remember? I never did that before either, you were my first! I waited so long for that, and it was the best night of my life, and you don't remember it?" he wondered more quietly.

"W-what?" I turned around to face him again.

Max POV

I was furious. Absolutely, terribly, Maxtasticly furious. Pacing back and forth, I was going crazy in my head. It was almost noon and they weren't back yet. Something had to be done. I marched into the living room. "Guys, we have to go back and look for them. I'm so worried, I can barely think, and they're our family, we have to-"

Fang, Gazzy and Angel caught me in a group hug. "Let's go find them," Fang smiled at me, and I felt happiness, despite the fact that my family was falling apart. "I know where to start," he told us. "Angel, how would you like to try your mind-controlling on those stupid-ass cops?" He grinned wickedly, and she pumped a fist in the air.

Not fifteen minutes later, we were down at the police station. Fang, Gazzy, Angel and I were in the back room with the door locked behind us. Fang pinned one of them up against the wall by their shirt collar. He grinned the most terrible, terrifying, badass grin he could muster, and it was enough to scare the guy out of his pants, but he wasn't nearly scared enough. So Fang took it up a notch.

"I'm going to ask you nicely," he smiled in a chillingly calm voice. "You help us find our family now, or so help me…" the smile was gone now. The guy, who probably had no friends when he was a kid, the big ugly nerd, raised his eyebrows at the threat. "You, sir, are threatening an officer of the law…" he began, but I stopped him.

"Let's put it this way," I offered. "You help us search now, or you're never having kids again, I'll make sure of that, and I'll use your left arm to beat you so hard that you'll give in even before we let Angel use her special stuff on you." The guy grimaced. "Special…?"

Immediately his eyes became blank as a washed chalkboard, and his face was clean of all emotion except obedience. "We want you to find our family," Angel began. "You'll never tell anyone that we threatened you. And you won't rest until you find them for us, if it lasts your whole life," she said cheerfully. Repeating everything she said in a senseless monotone, he kept his eyes on Angel the whole time.

"You…you go with him. I'll fly up and look for them myself," I said. No one in our town had ever known that we had saved the world. After lying low, we made sure that we just became regular people. I snuck out at night and flew in secret sometimes, but I don't think anyone ever saw us. I wasn't going to blow it that day. I used my wings and blew out of that office with supersonic speed, a blur to anyone who saw me. They would think it was a trick of their eyes.

Once I was above the clouds, I slowed down until I could see perfectly clear with my raptor-vision, thank God for it, or else I wouldn't be able to see anything. It was the best, being able to fly again, but I reminded myself that it was about Nudge and Iggy now, and I continued to look for them as the hours wore on. Once I even passed the flock, searching with that cop, but still without Nudge or Iggy.

On the outskirts of town, I stopped and freefell until I was able to land and fold my wings in. Walking along the road, I was ready to give up. All that was out here were cornfields, anyway. Like I would find Iggy and Nudge in a cornfield.

Nudge POV

"Am I supposed to remember you? I…I've never met you! I've never even seen you before, and you're telling me you know me? You…you know my name. Big deal. You don't know me. You don't know anything about me." My voice grew harder and louder. "You're probably just some pathetic stalker that took advantage of me and got me drunk or something so we could get it on in the freaking cornfield." My voice was harsh to his ears, and when he recoiled, I smiled inwardly, knowing I had hurt the bastard.

"Nudge, I never mean to hurt you, but you've been having some memory loss after that accident…"

"What the heck? What accident? I've been living at home with my family. I'm going home, and I just got out of school for the summer. I-it's May 23rd, right? What are you saying? I don't know who you are! Leave me the hell alone!" I turned around to leave, and I saw the figure of my older sister, Max, walking along the road, tired and worn out.

"Max!" I called out and ran over to her. She looked shocked to see me, but I don't blame her. I was all sweaty and dirty, I bet I looked totally horrible. She took one look at Iggy behind me and glared at him. "I know!" I said. "Max, this freak said that he knew me! He said all sorts of things, he took advantage of me…I don't even know him! He's saying sad things about an accident, and he's probably just some stalker who likes me."

Max gaped for a minute. "Iggy, you are going to die. I want you to go home now, and stay there, because you're grounded until you're forty," she said calmly. "And Nudge, I'm really sorry that that idiot did that to you."

It was my turn to gape. "Do you know him?" I asked. "Is what he said true?"

Max smiled grimly. "It is, Nudge. It really is."

Max POV

"I can't believe he did that." I shook my head as I sat on the front porch steps next to Fang. "He totally took advantage of whatever moment he had with her. She wasn't ready for that, and he should have seen that coming. Ugh, that pig." I huffed. Fang raised his eyebrow at me. I sighed. I knew Iggy had been waiting forever, and he really missed Nudge, but this had just caused a bigger mess. Now I had to deal with the non-virgin, non-remembering Nudge. Great.

"You gotta give it time," sighed Fang. "She'll remember, I know she will. We just have to give her time. It's only been a few days."

I knew he was right. "This is screwing us all up. Our sense of family, my relationship with Nudge, Iggy and the kids, everything. Even you and me. We don't even have time together anymore, and I love you," I admitted in a small voice. "I'm so worried that I'm doing everything wrong."

"You've always been the best leader for the flock," Fang reminded me. "When it comes right down to it, you saved the world, Max. When Angel wanted to be the leader and went against you, you fixed it. When you and I split up five and a half years ago, you fixed it. When Erasers were chasing after us, people were experimenting on us, and we didn't have a home, you were always with us, Max. You won't do worse now."

"What a very long, un-Fang-like speech, Fang," I mused. "We talk too much, I guess." And he leaned in to kiss me, for what felt like the first happy time in months.

Angel POV

Well, shit. This was messed up. I mean, I'm only eleven, but I know how way more stuff works. It felt like so many years since Max and Fang saved the world and got married and all that, but it was really only five and a half years. Iggy had slept with Nudge, Nudge didn't remember and was confused, and Max had to deal with it and that wasn't fair to Max at all.

I still thought I could deal with it all, if Max would just let me. She just doesn't get it. I could do it and handle so much better than her, just because I'm younger doesn't mean I'm not more capable. I'm stoic. I'm strong. I'm anything but what Max has been lately, and I don't like it. I'm so responsible enough to make sure it all works out, and she knows it.

I'm not trying to make Max sound like the bad guy here. I love her and I respect her, but she's been doing this for so many years that I'm so worried she'll crack, because no one's taken care of her since she was ten years old. I'm tired of her being the mom. That while that I was the boss was better than anything, in my opinion. But why would they listen? When Max came back, it was like they were all for her.

All I knew they was that I had to be strong. Even if only one person was strong, it would still work. I knew that Max was crumbling, Gazzy was trying and failing at being strong, and Fang was holding out so far. How much longer would it last? You don't hear Fang's thoughts, which are a lot less calm and collected than he normally is. Heck, Fang could be considered a royal spazz in his most inner thoughts.

What I remember is that the house was really quiet that day. When I walked into the kitchen, I just found Gazzy sitting alone at the kitchen table staring out the window. When I went over to sit down next to him, he looked at me like he was looking right through me, and almost to the air, he said, "Why does life have to suck now, when everything was going good?"

"What do you mean?" I asked, tilting my head to the side.

"I mean, everything was really okay. No one knows we even exist anymore, we're doing fine. Max and Fang would have gotten married or something, the same goes for Iggy and Nudge. Now everything's ruined, and between you and me, I'm not so sure it's not permanent."

"What are you talking about? Of course it's not permanent."

"What if it's like that disease, Alzheimer's or something. She could remember sometimes, but it would never be permanent." He grabbed my shoulders and shook me as his voice grew more panicky. "What if it's like that, Angel?!"

"Okay, one, calm down," I ordered. "Two, we're all sure she'll remember, okay? It's what's keeping us strong, so shut up that kind of talk. We don't need to get Max more upset." He gave a nod. "O-okay. Thanks anyway." He grabbed a can of pop from the fridge and trudged off miserably. I'd rarely been so sorry for him. He was taking this harder than he was supposed to.

I took a deep breath and walked up the stairs to Nudge's room. I had to talk to her, because she still remembered the flock, but she still couldn't remember Iggy. Again, because she had been thinking so much about him before the amnesia. I needed to find out for myself the exact extent of this amnesia she was having. I turned the doorknob slowly to find Nudge lying on her bed, in fresh clothes and wet hair, with a magazine and a can of Coke.

She looked up when she saw me in the doorway. "Oh hi, Angel. C'mon in," she offered. She scooted over until she was on the other end of the bed to let me sit down.

"I have something to ask you," I said once I sat down. "That boy, in the cornfield that Max told me about…do you not remember him from anywhere? I mean, are you sure you don't know him? You don't remember anything?"

Nudge's face became like stone, and her eyes narrowed. "I don't remember him," she insisted. "I can't remember anything about him. I'm sure he took advantage of me, Angel. I…I really don't like to remember. It was really hard for me in the cornfield. It was all so private, and I don't even know him. I'm trying to be strong about this, because it's not like I can remember it." Her voice cracked.

"I'm sorry I said anything," I apologized.

"Don't be," she argued. "You know what's weird, though, Angel? I keep feeling like I know all of you guys, but when I think of my memories of you, there's something missing. Like there's something about one of you that I keep forgetting." She laughed. "But that's silly. I know everything about all of you." I laughed with her, even if it was as untrue as saying that Gazzy had a normal digestive system. This wasn't the end of the discussion, I thought as I closed the door.

Still, I couldn't help but feel hopeful at what she had said.

When I think of my memories of you, there's something missing.

Nudge POV

What was that all about? I didn't want to remember anything, didn't that brat get it? Had she ever been taken advantage of by some random dude, and have to put on a strong face for everyone despite your crumbling feelings inside? What was wrong with me? I had been feeling messed up all morning, and until Angel's little visit, I had almost forgotten everything, lost in the world of fashion magazines and cute outfits and Coke. Make that, my world, the way it always had been. My world didn't include that strawberry-blonde boy.

I flopped down on the bed as tears ran down my face. Curse Max and Fang and Gazzy. Curse Angel. Curse that guy who took advantage of me. Curse the whole freaking world.

Closing my eyes, I gasped out loud, but I didn't dare open them, as memories played on the inside of my eyelids. And I mean, every memory that I could remember now. Memories of the strawberry blonde one.

Memories of Iggy.

If I was going to remember, I never pictured it to be like this. I was crying as I flipped through an old photo album of mine. I could see him in all the pictures, as clear as day. I remembered everything about him, from his love of bombs to his dry humor.

I couldn't wait to see him again.

Max POV

I opened the door angrily and stamped my foot. "Where the hell were you?" I nearly shouted. "I found you and Nudge hours ago in that damn cornfield! Where did you go?" I demanded harshly to a miserable Iggy standing right in front of me. I had been worried sick about him for hours and this is the payment I get, him showing up on my doorstep hours later. I have such a great family.

"Where do you think? At the neighborhood bar getting hammered," he replied easily.

"What?!" I shouted, almost jumping out of my skin. "You did what now? You're…you're not even twenty-one, Ig! How the heck did you get anything to drink? It's illegal!"

Iggy snorted. "It doesn't have to be legal when you're this tall and you look this miserable. What can I say? The blind guy has this effect on people."

"Nudge still doesn't remember," I pulled him inside, speaking tonelessly.

"I know she doesn't. Why the heck do you think I was drinking in the first place?"

"She'll remember. It's been three days."

He slammed a fist into a wall, but lightly, thankfully, so it didn't exactly slam into the wall. "Max, you keep saying that, and I don't believe you. The more you say it, the more it seems like it's never gonna happen," he sighed. "What am I going to do? Just move on?"

"Ella's coming over later," I offered quietly.

His eyes narrowed. "Are you still on this? You always used to go on and on about how I would be better with Ella, but I know it's only because it would be less weird for you. Think about how weird it is for all of us that you're sleeping with Fang!"

That stung. "Whatever. She'll be here in a few minutes. I might as well tell you now." I got up and walked away.

Angel POV

The best thing about our house is that there's a balcony right above our living room, and my room is upstairs, near Nudge's. I can see everything going on downstairs and no one will ever see me. But…sometimes I see things I don't what to see. Like what I saw that day, for example.

Ella had gotten there later that afternoon. Max and Fang were gone to a movie, and Gazzy was with his friends. Nudge was somewhere sulking, no doubt. Of course I was in the house, but I was only eleven. That means that once Ella got there, she was alone with Iggy. My job was to make sure that nothing happened.

Ella always loved Iggy. Ever since she met him, she thought he was the perfect guy, and to be honest, he really is. I love Iggy. Out of all of us, he's always been the best-natured about dealing with the hardest. But he's just the best for Nudge, and he always will be, and not even Ella can change that. As she grew older, she had become more and more of a little slut, and I knew what she'd do to Iggy if she got the chance.

They sat in the living room awkwardly for a few minutes, with absolutely no idea that I was there watching them. "Soo," Ella said after a while.

"So," Iggy said right back, unenthusiastically. Score one for Nudge.

"It must be hard, about Nudge," Ella began. Iggy nodded, and she pressed on. "I'll be honest and blunt with you, Iggy," she started as she moved to sit on the couch next to him. Uh-oh. "I don't think Nudge will be okay. I don't think she'll ever remember," Ella said with fake sadness. "A-are you okay with that?"

"I don't know," Iggy said blankly.

Ella tried again. "Iggy…I'll be honest…I think you have to let her go. I know you have history, but…but so do we. You need someone who will stay loyal and never get hurt. Iggy, I…I think I could be that someone," she whispered, and trailed her forefinger along his arm.

Iggy kept a straight face, even though I could hear his thoughts, some of which were not me-appropriate, and I knew that Ella was a pretty girl. But he also loved Nudge. Don't let her win, I prayed in my own mind.

Ella leaned forward and brought her lips to his and pressed herself into him. He pulled her closer, much to my horror, and she parted her lips with a gasp as he ran his tongue along her bottom lip. I gagged to myself, wanting to stop it, but I was frozen to the spot. She was practically sitting in his lap now, with her fingers in his hair and his arms around her waist. This was so wrong. I knew that after months, Iggy needed someone, but this was all too much. "Iggy," she whispered, "Is anyone home?"

"No," he whispered back, lying through his Ella-covered lips.

"Is…Nudge home?"

"No," he answered her.

"Do you…" her voice trailed off to my ears as I picked up on another thought.

Oh, my God. OH MY GOD. No. No, no. Oh, Jesus.

Tears ran down Nudge's face as she ran past me, down the stairs and out of the house.

Sorry for Ella's bitchy-ness, but on the bright side, this is my longest chapter ever written! I's so happy, bwahaha. Revieeeew! x)

~Rachel