Only own Gracie and Devin, blah blah blah.

From there, the whole evening went downhill.

After I pulled away, just like the other two times Fang had kissed me, I quickly got the kids and hurried to some woods by the park. They were bubbly and happy, too young to be picking up on the tension in the air. Without another word between me and Fang, we flew from Denver back to our isolated mountain house.

I entered the house first and instructed the kids to get on their pajamas, said goodnight to the flock, and headed down to my room. As I shut my door loud enough for everyone to know not to mess with me, I heard Iggy asking Fang what my problem was, Nudge wanting to know why we were home so early.

In my room, I plopped down on the edge of my bed, put my head in my hands, and groaned loudly. I hated this. Fang was my best friend, and I needed him. Our relationship was too crucial to each other, the flock, and our kids to be put in a vulnerable position. What if we broke up? Would the flock split again? I couldn't deal with that.

The worst part was that… that I thought I was in love with him, the same way Angel claimed he was in love with me. What if I gave in? If I gave in and we broke up, it became my fault.

There was a slight squeak as the door opened, and my head snapped up. If it was Fang…

"Mommy?" Gracie was in her nightgown, which was on backwards. "Can you come tuck us in?"

I stood up, brushed my hair out of my face, and composed myself. "Sure, honey. Come here and let me fix your nightgown, though."

She skipped over, the skirt swishing around her legs. I knelt down and instructed her to pull her arms out of the sleeves, then twisted the dress around. "There we go. Bed time."

We headed back to the twins' room, where Devin was looking at a picture book Mom had bought him. I tucked in Gracie and kissed her, and then moved over to Devin. "Lights out, buddy."

He closed the book and dropped it on the floor, then crawled under the covers. "'Night, Mommy."

"Good night." I kissed his forehead and headed back to the door, ready to sit in my room and think about Fang and be depressed, when there he was, standing in the doorway.

"Hey," he said, looking down at me, his eyes unreadable.

"Hi, Daddy!" Gracie said cheerily, sitting up in bed. "Are you saying goodnight?"

"Yeah." Fang walked over to her, glancing at me as if expecting me to follow, but I didn't. I left and went back to my room.

I didn't get a wink of sleep that night.

0000000000

The next day, there was only one person I could think of to talk to about my latest relationship problem. So I took the cordless phone into my room and called my mom.

"Max?" She sounded panicked, since I'd agreed only to use this phone in emergencies, in case the calls were being tracked. "Max, what's wrong? Is everyone okay? Did--"

"Mom." I cut her off before she had an anxiety attack. "Everything's fine."

"Oh," she said, confused. "Why are you calling, then, honey?"

I sighed, already wishing I hadn't wanted to talk to somebody about this, but made myself say, "It's Fang."

"Fang? Did you two have a fight?"

"No. Worse." I gulped. "He kissed me. Again."

"Again?" asked Mom cautiously. I heard her put something down. "Um, when else did this happen?"

I plopped down on my bed, resting my chin in one hand. "Right before I met you for the second time, and while we were in D.C. for the government meetings. And then last night."

"Hmm," was all she said.

"He's my best friend, Mom!" I said, jumping off my bed. "He shouldn't go around kissing me! Right?"

"Honey," Mom sighed. "This is something you're going to have to figure out on your own. I can't tell you what's best for the both of you. Here's what I do know, though: I saw you on the Valium, and I saw Fang getting worried and protective during that surgery. What conclusions can you draw form that?"

I inwardly groaned. More fortune cookie crap! "Okay. Thanks, Mom."

"Sure, honey. Let me know how it goes."

"I will. Bye, love you."

"Bye. I love you too."

I hung up and let myself wallow in self-pity for a moment more before lifting my chin up and leaving my bedroom, heading out of the girls' room and down the hall to the boys'.

From the living room, I could hear the TV, the flock, and the twins. Fang had been holed up in his room all day, the door closed. Now, as I stood in front of it, I considered backing out of this. One flash of Gracie and Devin's faces in my mind, though, and I knew I had to smooth things over with Fang. They deserved parents who could at least be in the same room with each other.

I knocked on the door. "Fang?"

The flock's conversation stopped downstairs, and I winced. I'd spoken too loud, and now they'd be gathering outside Fang's door. As he opened it and looked out at me, expressionless, I held up one finger and yelled, "Come in this hallway and you die!"

Satisfied with the nervous chuckles I heard, I stepped around Fang and into the room. He shut the door, and I sat down on Iggy's bed. "We need to talk."

He sat down across from me, on his own bed. Our knees were about six inches apart. "Okay."

"I, um… okay, Fang. Look." I put my hands on my knees and looked into his deep, dark eyes. "This, um… you know… was a little more, um, manageable when it was just us and the flock. But now, with the kids, we have to think about the future. Like, post-saving the world future. If we… got together… and broke up, and it got kind of ugly, the kids would have to deal with that for the rest of their lives. I don't want to put them through that."

Fang looked at me, not saying anything. I took a deep breath and went on. "They shouldn't have to deal with going back and worth between two parents who hate each other's guts."

Now he looked at me, his black eyes piercing. "Is that what you think would happen?"

I stared at him. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but that wasn't it. "Huh?"

"Do you really think," he said slowly, getting off his bed and moving onto Iggy's, beside me, "that if something bad happened between us, we'd hate each other?"

I bit my lip. I knew I could never hate Fang, but he had left me before. It seemed plausible that he would do it again. "I don't know."

"Max, I could never hate you," he said quietly, touching my elbow. I instinctively shrunk back. "You're my best friend. And the mother of my children."

I closed my eyes, hoping so much that he wasn't going somewhere with this. If this wasn't Fang, I would be satisfied, even pleased, with what he'd said. But it was Fang, and I had to believe there was something else.

"You're right on one part," he went on. "We have to think about what's good for the kids now. And what's good--"

"No." I snapped my head up to look at him, knowing what he was about to say: that the best thing to do, the most normal thing for the kids, was to get together. And even though part of me knew that I loved him, too, I was sure that if I gave in to my feelings, something would go wrong. "Don't say that. Just don't."

"But--"

"Fang." I looked up at him, as close to begging as I would ever get. "I can't do this right now. Okay?"

He looked at me for a long moment, then slowly nodded. "I'm not letting it go," he said. "But for now, I will."

"Thank you," I said quietly. "That's all I want."

Fang and I were about a foot apart on the bed. As we sat there in silence, he started getting closer, and then I was enveloped in his warm arms.

"Fang," I muttered, face flaming, trying to pull away, but he held me tight.

"Don't worry. We're hugging," he murmured, warm breath right in my ear. "That's all. Just hugging."

I know you probably hate me for making Max run away… again… but does the tiny cute part at the end compensate?

If not… don't worry. The major Faxness is coming.

Review!