Hey guys! I was going to put this up tomorrow, but it occurred to me that a lot of you may not have time to read tomorrow, so here it is today. Happy Thanksgiving!

This chapter is really where the rest of the story begins. For the most part, the kids trust Max and Fang, and now they're in hiding, so we shall see how Max and Fang deal with this…

Enjoy!!

"Oh, man," I said. "Oh, man, oh, man, oh, man."

It had been a week since we first got to my mom's. The CSM had hurriedly moved her things out of the house, and today one of their little private jets had flown us to Colorado. Mom had actually flown out a few days before on another private jet, along with the things she had insisted on buying for us and a whole plane carrying a lot of food and supplies (we were to avoid going into town whenever possible). She'd set up the house, putting things away, then helped us get settled, but had to get back to Arizona so she could work that night. Now we were all exploring the house on our own, oohing and ahhing.

There were two stories, which included a kitchen, a living room, two bathrooms, and three bedrooms. Even the walls had been painted in every room, beds set up for us. It was great. So great, in fact, that I had to stop several times and remind myself that we were here because a bunch of mad scientist types (including Jeb-- the CSM was keeping this from him) were frantically searching the country for my little winged children.

Right now, Nudge, Devin and I had just come across the twins' room. There were two small beds, one against each wall, each with a bedside table, and two small dressers with a toy box between them. The walls were light green, a neutral color.

"Here's your room, buddy," I told Devin, plopping him down on the bed with the blue bedspread. He smiled at me. Yes, he smiled. My little boy was learning to trust me. I was still waiting to be addressed as Mommy, but you take what you can get.

"Oooh, Max," Nudge said, standing in the middle of the room and looking around. "This is cute. I mean, the paint looks good, but your mom did a really good job on the furniture and everything! And look!" She hurried over to the dressers, yanked open one of the drawers of Gracie's, and pulled out a little dress. "She picked out adorable clothes."

I smiled at her. "Yeah, she did do a good job, huh, Nudge?"

"Mommy!"

I turned around to see Gracie bounding into the room. I knelt to her level. "Hey, honey. This is your room. This is where you're gonna sleep from now on."

"It's pretty," she said, running a hand over the pink bedspread and smiling at me.

"Can I put this on her?" Nudge asked me, holding up the dress.

I furrowed my brow and glanced at Gracie, wearing jeans and a shirt and jacket. "What's wrong with what she has on?"

"Well, nothing," Nudge said. "But… this is just so cute."

I opened my mouth to protest, but Gracie crawled across the bed to Nudge. I sighed. "Oh, fine."

Nudge squealed and Gracie giggled, and then she started helping her undress. I motioned to Devin, and he trotted out of the room and down the hallway, probably going to hang out with the guys. "You girls have fun," I said, and stepped outside, pulling the door shut behind me. In the living room, Iggy and Gazzy were laughing, Angel's high-pitched one mixed in with them. I was pretty sure Fang was with them, but of course I couldn't hear him.

I hadn't had the chance to really look at the room I was sharing with the girls', what with everything going on around me. Now, I went to the room next door to the twins' and plopped down on my bed, looking around. The walls were a deeper green than the twins', and there was one big dressed for the three of us. Overall, I liked it.

The door opened a little, and Fang stuck his head in. "Hey."

"Hey."

He put his hands in his pockets and casually looked around the room. "You like the place?"

"It's pretty nice," I said.

"Yeah," Fang agreed, sitting down beside me. I looked over at him; something was up. Catching my gaze and knowing what I was thinking, he exhaled loudly. "Max, I-- I wanted to apologize again."

I bit back a sarcastic comment. Fang apologizing the first time was shocking enough; a second time was unheard of. Instead I just said, "Yeah?"

He nodded. "Yeah. I… I'm glad we rescued the kids. I guess… at first I was having trouble wrapping my mind around really being a dad, but now I'm sort of used to it, and… I like it," he finished in wonder, as if he couldn't believe this.

I looked over at him. "Really?"

"Yeah. I mean, they both trust me. Gracie's started hugging me before she goes to bed. And she always says 'I love you, Daddy.' Every time I hear that, it's…" Fang seemed to catch himself showing emotion and quickly looked down, digging the toe of his sneaker into the tan carpet.

"It's what?" I prodded softly, dumbfounded at this whole conversation.

"It's just this really… great feeling. I don't know."

I smiled and bumped his knee with mine. "It really is, isn't it?"

"Yeah." He ripped his gaze away from the floor and met my eyes, one corner of his mouth quirking up. An understanding passed between us, just knowing that we were in this together, that we were sharing this incredible feeling of getting to watch our own kids grow up.

"Mommy!"

"Here comes the great feeling," I said quietly, hearing a pounding set of footsteps in the hallway. A moment later, the door flew open, and Gracie came flying in, wearing her dress.

"Nudgie and me wanna play hide-and-seek," she said, quickly hugging Fang's leg. He didn't even stiffen, like he did at most physical contact. In fact, he hugged her back lightly with one arm. They really had gotten close in the past few weeks.

It was kind of sweet.

"That's fine," I said. "Should you see if the other kids want to play?"

"Yeah!" Gracie said happily. She made to leave the room, but then grinned toothily up at Fang. "Will you carry me in there, Daddy?"

"Sure," he said, and stood, picking her up. "Let's go."

They started to leave, and I thought again about how well Fang was doing. I didn't move from my spot on the bed, until Gracie peeked over his shoulder and said, "Mommy? Are you coming?"

And then Fang turned and gave me one of his full-blown grins. "Yeah, come on, Max."

I stood up and followed my child and their father out of the room, feeling better about my messed up mutant life than I had in a long, long time.

Next update will probably be December 1, maybe a tad later, we'll see. Review?