A/N - I just want to say that the story will probably be nearing its end in the next few chapters. This was designed to be a story with one problem that would ultimately be solved or unsolved. Thanks to all my reviewers in such a short amount of time. I love this story, it's my favorite, but I have to end it sometime.

Note: The poll on my profile for the next MR story will, indeed, end May 1st, 2010. So vote if you havn't already, if you want to have a say in my next MR story pairing. I will probably start the new story on May 10, 2010 if possible.

Memories of You

Chapter 8

Nudge POV

I glanced at my reflection in the huge mirror of the hair salon. My hair was straight and cut newly to my shoulders, now drying. The noise of the whirling wind of the blow-dryer was all around me, drowning out the whole world, everything but my thoughts. I paid no attention to the scurry of people around me, my agent or even the stylist. My eyes were screwed shut and I was concentrating on my memories.

They were beginning to fade, and I knew it. This is just what I had worried about when I had left, that something like this would happen to me again, that it would be just like Alzheimer's, off and on like an almost burnt-out light bulb. I couldn't do this to my family, and I couldn't put them through so much pain, and that's why I left.

The faces of my family, the faces of the people that I had known for my whole life, who I relied on more than anything in the world, were beginning to fade. Max, Fang, Iggy, Gazzy and Angel's faces were now just a blur, as if they were standing behind a fogged window. Once again, Iggy's face was the most blurred, but now I was forgetting all of them as well. I would not allow more tears to flow. They were dried up now.

I simply wouldn't let myself go back to them. It would only cause more suffering for me and the people I knew I loved. Iggy had moved on, and the others would, too, over time. The movie premiere I was going to tonight would start my new future away from them, and after tonight, I would never go back. I had a few more hours to live in the past, and then I would allow myself to forget entirely. Literally, I would allow myself to forget the flock.

I glanced at the shopping bags that were lined up on the counter, full of jewelry, my dress and shoes, and I wish that Iggy would have been there to see it, and I wished, even now, that he would come. I ached for Iggy so much that it hurt. I still remembered everything about that night in the cornfield, despite my fading memories. I cringed at the thought that it would possibly the one memory that would never, never go away.

I remembered happier times now, the ones that had always made me smile. Max cutting in on my motormouth, claiming she had a headache, but I could see her smile. Fang and I waiting for the flock with the hawks in the cave over Lake Mead. Gazzy letting one go around me and pointedly cackling, walking in my direction. Angel and I snickering when Fang and Max told us that they'd be sharing a bedroom. And Iggy, Iggy always being the one that I could lean on. For anything. But it was all over now.

I was brought back to the real world as I felt a cool hand on my shoulder, and looked up to see my agent, and we were riding in the limo again. When had we gotten back? I found myself staring emptily out the window. I turned to her, and she smiled at me sadly, and I could have sworn it was genuine sadness. Despite her sarcastic nature and biting tongue, I heard her finally say to me, "You know…sometimes it's alright to cry."

And I leaned on her shoulder and cried and cried.

Max POV

I had sighed in relief after Iggy told me that, but I had no idea what it meant. How was he going to deal with Nudge when he saw her? Did he want her to be his friend, or just his sister, or something more? Did he have feelings for Ella, still, and what had caused him to leave? Questions were swimming through my head at such a rapid rate that my head was spinning and I wanted an aspirin so badly.

The others had tried to convince me that it was going to be fine, and cheered happily when I had announced that Iggy had said he was coming. Fang was there for support, but somehow, I always felt that he wouldn't understand. Gazzy was too young, and lately, Angel always seemed so preoccupied with Fang's laptop, it was like an obsession.

Now, at least, the kids were parked in the car with the electronics and Fang and I were sitting somewhere on the side of the road, off to the side, where the grass was tall and the wind swept around us in a way that was so familiar. I wanted desperately to know the end of it all, and I wanted even more to know that it would all be okay somehow.

Fang was massaging the spot in between my wings like he knew I liked, and it always managed to calm me down, but right now I was just too worked up. Being in the School had been nothing compared to this. My own mother being captured by Mr. Chu had been far less than what I was feeling now. This was my flock, my family, that was at stake now.

Fang reached around and turned my face toward his. He took a deep breath. "Listen, Max, you know that you and I will do anything to get our family back together, because it's the one thing that we can never give up. We're all fighting for it to be alright again, and when it's you and me, it's never gone wrong before. We always make it out okay, and it's not gonna change now, not when we've come so far.

"I love the flock more than anything, and I love you more than that, and because we love each other like that, nothing like that can happen. And I know that's a little optimistic and out of character for me, but we're gonna make it out okay, because you're leading us there." He grasped my face tightly in his hands. "Don't ever forget that."

"You…you really believe that?"

"Have I ever lied to you before?" And he leaned in and gave me a tender, loving, powerful, heart-stopping kiss. I kissed him back with determination, and pulled him closer and closer until I thought I'd explode. Electricity ran through us like never before, and our lips moved in sync for more than a few minutes.

Most couples would be torn apart by what we'd had to go through in the last years. This was only bringing Fang and me closer.

Angel POV

I glanced over at Gazzy peering out the window. That was so immature. I'd had to grow up a long time ago from Max and Fang's thoughts, and now it hardly bothered me. In fact, it didn't. I was perfectly happy for them, that they had a love so strong. But apparently, Gazzy was not nearly that mature.

"I wish they'd quit sticking their tongues down each other's throats already," Gazzy commented, momentarily forgetting his DS game.

"You're getting your ass whooped by Bowser," I announced, much to his horror. He picked up the DS and continued on.

"How's your plan with Ella going?" Gazzy asked as he switched off his game and looked over my shoulder at the laptop.

"Wanna see?" I asked, and flipped it open. "This is in the living room. Basically, I have cameras all over the house. And I know Iggy's coming, but I'm still gonna make her pay. She's gonna wish she never messed with me – ah, I mean Nudge."

"Uh-huh, yeah, right," he said scathingly, which I dismissed. I glanced at the laptop, which was, indeed, in the living room. Ella and her mother were sitting quietly –er, somewhat quietly.

"I swear," Ella almost shrieked, with bloodshot eyes that looked like they hadn't slept for days. "Someone is out to get me! Earlier today I had all kinds of pranks! The weird texts, the pranks in my stuff, the giggling in my window, the snail I barfed up, not to mention that I kicked Iggy so hard he's probably never having kids again!" her voice rose higher and higher until I thought my ears were going to bleed any second.

"Why did I do that, Mom?" she asked worriedly. "I never wanted to kick him or eat the snail. I don't even remember it! It's like I was possessed! And then this weird voice told me that revenge is coming or whatever, and I was so scared! What's going on?!"

"Honey, calm down," Dr. M said nonchalantly. "I think you're just having a panic attack. Lots of people have overactive anxiety, it's a common problem. Although I have no idea where you get it from, they do make pills for this kind of thing…" she trailed off uncomfortably, clearly disturbed by Ella's outburst. Gazzy snickered, and so did I. The whole thing was driving her crazy, on the verge of being mentally ill.

Gazzy glanced out the window to make sure that Max and Fang hadn't heard or seen anything. "Gazzy, don't-" I began, but it was too late. He jumped back from the window, his hands over his eyes.

"Fang had his shirt off and they were in the grass and oh, my God," Gazzy almost gagged. "These are not good mental pictures! I mean, I know she's depressed and everything, but don't you think they could at least get a hotel room so that the unsuspecting don't just happen to look over and see Fang with his shirt off feeling Max up? Jesus!" he cried, falling off the seat dramatically.

"Gazzy," I waited patiently for him to get it, but as usual, he was as intelligent as a brick, "I have the freaking mental pictures everyday from Max and twice as much as usual from Fang!"

"Okay, okay, just watch," he commanded, and we looked at the screen. "I don't need to be on medication!" Ella screamed. "Someone's messing with my life, and I want them out! Out, out, out, out!" She stomped her foot with each word.

"Ella, calm down."

"No, you calm down, Mom! I'm not a psychopath! I don't have ADD! I'm not crazy! Listen to me, that stuff really happened!"

"Sure it did, sweetie."

Ella gave a sigh of despair, stomped her foot and ran upstairs. Doctor Martinez winced as a door slammed.

Nudge POV

It was happening faster. Earlier today, all the memories were in place. A few hours ago, they had started disappearing, and now, I couldn't remember my own childhood. It was all a blurry haze. I knew that I didn't have much time left. I tried not to cry. In a matter of hours, I wouldn't remember anything, and I'd be forced to live in the present my whole life.

We had never thought that we'd make it past age fifteen, but we did, and Max and Fang and Iggy had never thought they'd make it to age twenty, but they did, and I didn't want to make it past age seventeen without Iggy in my life, but I had to. If I didn't have my family, I didn't have anything.

My agent walked into the hotel room where I was staring blankly at the TV, even though it was off. I probably looked like a crazy person, watching it that intently. She blinked a few times, and then stood by the TV and waved a hand in front of it. I snapped back to reality and stared evenly at her.

"We have a problem," she said, and I laughed harshly.

"You mean one other than the ones we already have?"

"Yes," she rolled her eyes. "Remember my stepfather, that crazed man who grabbed your neck and made you tell him the location of the flock? He's sent out dozens of search teams, and you know they found nothing at your house. They're looking all over the country. There are wanted posters of the flock."

"But they didn't do anything wrong!"

"I know that, but someone might actually turn in their location. The flock's now in danger of what you described, being hunted down and in the public eye for the rest of their lives. And it isn't like fame, Nudge, when it's that kind of publicity, it's much harder."

"W-what can I do?"

"That's the point, Nudge. You've done all you can do."

Max POV

I had blushed from the moment we got into the car until we had arrived at the park, and it didn't help any that Gazzy was smirking the whole way there, and I knew he had obviously seen. When we got out of the car, I ordered the younger kids to go play, and I wasn't surprised that Angel brought Fang's laptop with her.

Gazzy gave me a wink when I got out of the car, and I gave him a death glare so scary that Fang himself couldn't have done it better, and he scurried quickly away. Gazzy, being thirteen, and 'much too old' for playgrounds, sat absently on the swing playing his Nintendo thingy. I rolled my eyes as I turned back to Fang.

"They don't seem to be that worried."

"What do you expect?" he asked. "They're only kids. They don't get how serious it could be, and they may not even care. To them, it's all going to be alright, and it's that way to me, too. But unlike you, they just don't know how serious it could be. They expect Nudge to always be around."

The wind picked up, and I could tell that autumn was coming soon, whether we liked it or not. I enjoyed it for a few moments until a piece of paper fluttered down from the trees, floated lightly in the air and whipped around our heads. Fang walked a few steps and picked it up. I waited anxiously for a moment as a look of dread crossed Fang's face, and he looked up at me.

He held out the paper in his outstretched hand, and my trembling one took it. I almost fell down from shock, even though I knew I should have seen this coming. There, on the paper, were pictures of me, Fang, Iggy, Gazzy and Angel, wanted for a reward of $10,000 dollars by the U.S. government.

"What do we tell the kids?" I asked, my eyes wide with fear. "That there are literally people trying to get us, for money? People are going to be chasing us, all over again, Fang!" I gasped as I saw the papers just like this one all over the park, on trees, on lamp posts, and on the playground. Gazzy came running back to us, one in his hand.

"This is so cool!" he exclaimed. "We're wanted, just like in those old western movies! They're even offering a reward! That's two thousand dollars for one of us! I'm worth two thousand dollars!" He pumped his fist in the air and the grin on his face was huge. I looked gravely at him.

"Oh, I mean, other than being wanted and stuff. That's bad," he said, like someone had just slaughtered a puppy.

"Maybe you'll think this is bad," hissed Fang, and pointed around us, to the other people in the park. They were all looking at the flyers, and getting excited at the idea of a ten thousand dollar reward just to capture a few mutants. "Get in the car," Fang hissed. "Gazzy, Max, get in the car now!"

I sent a message to Angel with all my power. Angel, get in the car now!

"Why, Max?" she hollered, and I slapped my forehead.

"Max?" someone asked, hearing her, and followed her eyes to where they were latched on me. "There they are!" cried someone, and everyone came rushing toward us. A homeless man, who had also heard, ran up and grabbed Angel by the arm.

"Come 'ere, girly," he said eagerly, his teeth missing. The look of disgust on her face was unbelievable. "I'll take ya in to the police and everything'll be alright, now," he grinned mechanically. Angel pulled away, but he was stronger. He dragged her away with him, to Gazzy's horror.

"You let go of her!" he screamed, and ran at the homeless man. Ripping his arm away from Angel, he urged her to run, but she stayed anyway. He kicked the man straight in the chest, toppling him over. "Run, Angel!" he shouted, and they ran toward our car.

A million hands were on Fang and I, pulling us every which way. There were only about ten or fifteen people, but they were swamping us, and we were drowning under the weight of their bodies. Fighting over who was to claim the prize, they tugged and pulled on us. Fang swung wildly, and I kicked and clawed with fury, but they wouldn't go away.

Gazzy ran toward us, Angel in his hand, and thrust her in the doors on the other side of the car. Grabbing an overlarge tree branch, he swung at our attackers furiously and with such rage that they jumped back, surprised, giving us all the time we needed to jump in the car and drive away.

Angel POV

I grabbed the hand sanitizer in the side pocket of the car as we drove away from the screaming people, who ran after us in an enormous herd. Quickly we broke free on the main highway and sped away. I rubbed the sanitizer all over my hands and arms, determined to get the feeling of his dirty fingers off of me.

"Angel, are you alright?" Immediately there were three faces up in mine, and I screamed at Fang to watch the road. They seemed to understand that I was fine now, so they all went back to worrying about what it all meant, that the search party had come to our house and found that we weren't there, and now they were coming for us. I gave a worried glance at Max, who had her head in her hands.

"Max, it was never going to be normal," I grimaced.

Nudge POV

A silky smooth strapless black dress hung on my frame, and black wedges were on my feet. Bracelets and necklaces clinked noisily on my hands and neck, and my hair hung straight over my shoulders. I stared into the mirror, and a stranger stared back at me. A few more hours was all it would take for me to forget it completely.

I looked out my window and saw my agent in the limo on her phone. I saw the sun setting, and I saw traffic heading downtown to the movie premiere, where I was the honored guest, the one people wanted to see more than the stars of the movie. I should have been happy, but all I felt was emptiness and what could have been.

She motioned for me to come down, and I walked out of the room, with more hesitation than ever. The elevator ride was much too short, and all too suddenly, I was downstairs, and walking toward the limo and my new future. It may have been just a movie premiere, but to me, it was something I never wanted to experience.

I wanted to be home, in my room, and with Iggy there talking to me, holding me, loving me as he always had before. I wanted to see Gazzy and Angel fighting, and I wanted to walk in on Max and Fang making out in the kitchen. I wanted to rip Ella's head off, and go to Dr. M's to eat the best chocolate chip cookies ever.

But I couldn't do any of that, because I found myself in the limo on the way to the movie premiere. A few moments later and we were there, and I didn't know why we had gotten there so fast. I looked at the clock and it said it had been ten minutes, but to me, it felt like a few seconds.

Max POV

We flew around the corner in the minivan. Angel and Gazzy were getting dressed in the back, too mortified to look at one another, and I was trying to get changed in the front. Fang kept looking, and each time I had to slap him. Now I was messing with my heels and jewelry, and at the same time trying to fix my hair.

I took no time to admire myself, or the dress, or Angel or Gazzy. We all looked cute, but that wasn't the point. The point was that we had to get Nudge back, or nothing would be right. I hope that Iggy wasn't lying when he said that he would come. I hoped that he didn't choose Ella.

Slowly, Fang and I treaded places as he got out his tuxedo and tried desperately to get it on. Angel and Gazzy both looked away, claiming that Fang was small and that no one wanted to see that. Fang argued that he was wearing underwear, and no he was not small just for their information.

I took the wheel in a hurry and swerved as I was trying to get adjusted. In an instant Fang had his tux on and I was trying desperately to fix his hair, which Gazzy and Angel both snickered at.

We sped around another corner, and there it was, the black limo that Nudge was climbing out of. We pulled in right next to it and put it in park, not caring who saw us or where anyone wanted to pull up. What we didn't expect to see was Iggy jumping out of another car at the same time, looking as beat-up and horrible as ever, but he still ran toward Nudge.

We got out of the car, transfixed, just standing there, as Iggy reached out and grabbed Nudge's hand. With a look of utter surprise, sadness and happiness swimming in her eyes, she yanked her arm away and hissed, "What are you doing here?"

"I came to get you!" he said. "And don't say anything just yet. I want to tell you that I've made the most horrible mistake, and I don't expect you to forgive me at all. I was so lonely because of your memory, that it drove me right to her, and it's the worst mistake I've ever made. I didn't mean to leave you or hurt you, I love you more than anything in the world."

She glared at him. "You shouldn't have come. I…I moved on, Iggy. I'm fine without you. I came her, and I'm going to be famous, and my memory's even fading a little bit, so I don't have to remember you, and you can go back with Ella and forget me." She spat the words out like poison, and I could tell they were for her.

"I don't love Ella! I'm not making excuses, either! What I did was wrong, but I did it because I was lonely and scared that you would never remember. I never loved her, I never even thought of her that way! I only love you!" Hurt shone in his eyes.

Tears poured from hers as he continued. "I need you to make myself whole and complete, and we all need you to come home. I don't care about your memory, even, because I love you with or without it, and I'll do anything I can to make you remember again. I know they might be off and on, I've thought it all through. I just want to be with you, only you, forever."

"No!" she cried, breaking into tears all over again. "I won't ruin your life for you by coming with you again! You need someone normal, someone to love you always and never forget how lucky they are, and just by looking at you now, I've fallen in love with you all over again!"

"Then don't leave," he whispered, so low I could barely hear it. I squeezed Fang's hand slightly, and he smiled at me. "The only way you could ruin my life is to stay here where I can never see you again. Come back, Nudge. I love you so much."

She threw her arms around him and kissed him full on the mouth, and his eyes widened in surprise, but his arms came around her and held her so close that it seemed like he would never let go. Her hands ran through his hair and they looked like they couldn't hardly breathe, but they still held each other close like they needed each other to survive, and they probably did.

I turned to Fang, and he looked the happiest I had ever seen him, other than when we moved in together. He was actually smiling, this huge, happy, goofy grin. I understood why he didn't smile a lot, it made him look like a clown. But I didn't care. He was my clown, and I captured him in a hug. He leaned in, his lips to my ear.

"Max," he began.

"Yes?" I asked, my smile simply glowing.

"Do you love me?" I looked up at him. "More than anything."

"Then marry me."

I stood on my toes and kissed him like never before.

Now, how about that ending?

Think back a little bit on the story, now that it's almost over.

What was your favorite part?

Who was your favorite character?

Did you enjoy Angel's plans for Ella?

Would you read another story somewhat like this?

~Rachel