Disclaimer: I claim no right to the Maximum Ride universe. Please review and sorry about the wait! I haven't abandoned this story. I'm just having a lot of trouble keeping things straight and finding inspiration. I WILL finish...someday. Thanks for continuing to read. Much Love & Please Review!
Nick was just starting to doze off when Max shifted where she lay across his lap. Untangling his fingers from her hair, he forced his eyes open to watch her reaction as she woke up.
Max lay still for a few seconds, absorbing the wonderful feeling of a headache free skull and the sense that she was completely right with herself again. Joints popped as she stretched out, a small frown tugging on her mouth when she couldn't move her wings. With a groan, she sat up and rubbed her fingertips vigorously along her scalp. Her movements stilled as she finally felt the weight of Nick's gaze on her and she cautiously turned to look at him.
Before he knew it, she was in his lap, her considerably long limbs wrapped tightly around him and her face pressed into his neck. Her arms were so tight that his vision started to blacken at the edges, but he didn't much care. He only circled her waist with his own arms and squeezed her back. One hand slid up her back to the base of her skull, his thumb rubbing small circles on either side of her spine. He couldn't process the thousands of sensations bombarding his brain, so he just closed his eyes and held her, hoping that it wouldn't tear him apart.
The dull throbbing at the base of his skull grew more insistent the longer she clung to him, but he set his jaw and pushed the pain back. It felt better than he could have ever possibly imagined to have her in his arms. It felt right.
After a while, her arms loosened by degrees and she moved back just enough to look at his face. This close he could see the tenuous tension that kept the moisture in her eyes from spilling down her cheeks. The throbbing grew into a sharp constant spike, but he kept his eyes open and on hers. She seemed to be waiting for something from him. "Max," he whispered and the floodgate broke.
Tears flowed down her face in such a torrent that he was amazed that it kept going after a few seconds. Moving his hands from her waist up to cup her cheeks, he did his best to wipe away her tears with his thumbs. He didn't say anything, having no idea what to say, and just let her cry. Her hands came up to wrap around his wrists in a death grip and he let her squeeze the feeling from them without a second thought.
"I thought I'd never find you," she sobbed. "And now you're here, completely by accident, and -"
He stopped her words with the soft pressure of his thumb on her lips. "And it's okay." He wiped more tears from her cheeks and sat still, letting her decide the direction things would take.
When she looked at him again, he was surprised to see the slightest hint of something different in her gaze. She didn't look older exactly, but there was a deeper knowledge and wisdom in the emerald depths that hadn't been there moments ago.
"How much do you remember?" she asked softly.
He shrugged. "I'm not sure. I remember the smell of antiseptic and cold metal. I remember pine trees and the wind rushing over me." Nick grasped her left wrist and turned it over so that the dark slash was visible to the both of them. "I remember this."
She tried to pull away from him, but he refused to give quarter. "Not my finest moment," she admitted.
He pressed a gentle kiss to the mark and let her have her hand back. "I remember that Iggy didn't have an accent."
Max snorted and shook her head at that. "Yeah, they thought it was funny cause he's, you know, a redhead. The others actually have accents, too. Except for Angel. Most of her conditioning didn't stick."
Nick raised an eyebrow and waited for her to explain.
"You know how they supposedly implanted completely new memories over our old ones?" She waited for his nod before continuing. "Well, they didn't want us all on the same continent and most of them, us, were made to think we were natives of these particular countries. Nudge was stuck in Denmark until we found her. Angel was in Egypt. Gazzy was in Australia. Iggy, as you know, resided in Ireland and I actually lived in Thailand for a few years. My 'parents' were missionaries."
He leaned back and let his head rest on the couch as she spoke, his headache getting worse with each name that fell from her lips. Black spots danced at the edge of his vision, but he would be damned if he was going to let that interrupt the conversation with his newly rediscovered soulmate. "So, you speak Thai?" he managed.
She nodded. "Mee khrap. It means 'Yes, I do'," she explained. Then her eyes narrowed in suspicion. "You hurt, don't you?" Her fingertips smoothed over his skull, pressing gently, and her frown deepened at the slight tightening of his jaw every time she touched a tender spot.
He pulled one hand from its exploration and squeezed it gently. "I'm fine, really."
"One of the last times I heard that from you, we ended up in a hospital for three days," she admonished, her tone disbelieving. Her eyes flickered down to his side. "I suppose it was too much to hope for that you'd lose that annoying habit."
The dark spots were growing larger the longer he fought and he hated that he had to start regulating his breathing just to keep himself in control. Colors flitted across his vision, interspersed with the black spots, and if he concentrated hard enough it was almost like watching a movie on fast forward. He heard Max's voice right above him, calling for someone, for Iggy, but he was already gone when the redhead reached them.
He stood on the wrong side of a security fence, inside of it and looking out at the road. A blue car wound down the way and with a jolt, he recognized his own car, his parents' car. His gut twisted and his side burned as he realized exactly what he was seeing. Even as he watched, the car swerved around the last turn and flipped over on its side. It slid 100 feet and crashed into the guardrail and he raced to the fence, grabbing the wrought iron as he saw his own body catapulted from the car.
He struck the fence as his body twisted in the air, getting closer and closer, and the blue sedan burst into flame. He heard his own scream as the fence bit into his side, but instead of the screams of his parents, he heard a quick hiss.
"You should have told us you were hurt!" The voice sounded so familiar.
The image before him flickered and became transparent. Through the thin smoke he could see the highway. The car wavered in and out of his vision. He turned to see his fourteen-year-old body lying next to where he was standing, dark blood seeping out to stain the sand.
As he watched the fence around him, the shapes of five figures huddled around him bled through the smoke. Blonde hair streaked with pink hung in the face of the girl pressing her hands to his side, her hands covered in red. White and tan mottled wings extended above her head, but she paid them no mind as she waved at the redhead, Iggy, to pick up his feet. Her face was a mask of fear and determination. He could see her trying to keep it together for the younger ones, but the looks passing between her and Iggy caused the bottom to drop out of his stomach. He hated to see her scared.
The group gathered around him looked up as one at the jogger after a quiet word from the youngest looking blonde. With the jogger's entrance into the picture, all the layers over the memories faded and he could see clearly for the first time. The fence and the burning car were gone, leaving only the six winged children huddled on a beach, fearing for their lives.
He could hear the the blonde, Max, arguing in an odd language with the next oldest looking blonde. The African-American girl joined in, her jaw set and her eyes narrowed in defiance as they snapped back. Max growled lower, the tension in her body indicating her displeasure with a snarl.
The scene started to fade away and he grasped at the tendrils in the hopes of keeping them with him. Though it wasn't a great memory, he wanted to make sure that he had it with him in the morning.