Chapter 10!

Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride

A/N

Me: Hey guys! Guess what? New chapter! That's twice in one week, I'm on a r—

BFF: *clamps hand over Wander's mouth* Don't say it! You'll jinx yourself!

Me: *laughs* Okay, fine, and thank you to everyone who has reviewed, followed, favorite, or even just read the story! Your support means a ton! Love you guys! (Not in the creeper way!)

BFF: Reviews will be answered at the end of the chapter.

Me: FOREWARNING: This chapter contains some graphic images that may be disturbing to some readers.

I don't think it's too bad, I didn't go into extreme detail, but I thought I should give some warning just in case.

BFF: Onward to the story!

Max's POV

It didn't take long for Fang's mom to come pick him up after Iggy's mother had called her about the situation. She came straight from work and looked angry and annoyed at Fang. Then, after giving her apologies to Iggy's mom, she marched Fang back home. I followed the pair, not saying a word to Fang, even though I wanted to. I really hate being an angel sometimes. Not being able to talk to my ward simply because nobody can see me or hear me and would think that Fang was insane if he did talk to me was frustrating as hockey sticks, as Nudge would say. (If you don't get the expression, look at the last chapter, Nudge uses hockey sticks to replace the word hell.)

Ms. Walker opened the door and walked inside, Fang and I followed her inside. As soon as the door shut she spun on her heel, facing us.

"Couch. Now. We need to talk." She said simply.

Fang obeyed, walking over to the couch and sitting down. I sat down beside him, not making a dent in the cushion. His mom sat down across from us, plopping onto the couch. She rubbed her hands over her face, letting out a sigh, and then looked up at Fang. She sat back in her seat, dropping her hands into her lap.

"Fang," She said with an exasperated voice. "I don't know what to do with you. I've tried to be gentle, I know you are hurting and I want to help, but you aren't letting me. You won't talk to me. You've been skipping school, not doing your homework, drinking—" Fang looked up at her suddenly, surprise in his eyes. "Don't look at me like that, don't think I haven't noticed. I was a teenager once too, you know." His mother said, Fang's gaze dropped in shame. He had not wanted for his mother to know about his drinking problem.

"I've taken away your car, your laptop, your iPod, your privileges…" She began and stopped with a sigh. "It's pretty clear to me that my methods are not working, so I guess its time to take another direction."

Fang shifted in his seat, waiting silently.

"From now on, I will be taking you to school personally. I'm going to contact the school to make sure that you're there and have them tell me straight away if you are not. I know you might not seem like it now, but your schooling is your future and I will not see you throw it away." She dictated. Fang nodded grudgingly. "You can still hang out with Iggy afterschool, I talked to his mother and I was able to convince her to allow it. I know his company is good for you and he is your best friend, the last thing I want to do is take that away from you. But if I hear of you skipping or not doing your homework, I won't hesitate to take away that privilege." I saw Fang's jaw tighten at hearing this. He did not like his time with his best friend being held hostage by his mother over his participation at school. "And I'm sending you to therapy."

Fang bolted upright, out of his seat.

"No," He said firmly. "I am not going to effing therapy."

His mother reached out to take his hand, he backed away from her.

"No." He said.

"Fang, I'm only trying to do what's best for you, dwelling on the past isn't healthy—" His mother spoke calmly.

"No." He said, anger seeping into his voice.

"Fang, it wasn't your fault—"

"No! Stop it!"

"Fang, Maya loved you…"

Fang clamped his hands over his ears. His eyes were hidden in the shadow of his black mop of hair. His knees hit the ground. I quickly went to kneel beside him, trying to comfort him.

"She wouldn't want to see you like this. She would want you to move on—"

"NO! Just shut up! Shut up!" Fang screeched. I went to reach out to him, wanting to touch him, to hold him, like I knew he needed to be, but I couldn't, and it was torture.

"Calm, shhhhh, calm down, Fang. Everything is going to be okay—" I spoke into his ear soothingly.

"Everything will not be fine!" He yelled at me. I flinched a little and then froze. He had just spoken to me in front of his mother. Crap. Crap. Crap.

I turned to read Ms. Walker's expression, she hadn't noticed anything. I breathed a soundless sigh of relief.

"Maya is dead! And it's my fault!" He yelled and then seemed to lose all spirit and fell into whispering sobs. "It's my fault. I killed her. It's my fault."

"Fang…" His mother said softly, placing a hand lightly on his shoulder, but he shrugged it off and flew up the stairs to his bedroom. (Not literally flying, just running really fast)

I glanced at his mother, she looked hopeless, and then I sprinted up the stairs, up to where Fang was.

I found his bedroom quickly. It was the only one with a door that was painted black. Kind of obvious as to which one was Fang's don't you think?

I checked the door out of curiosity and found that it was locked. Understandable. Fang had just had a mental breakdown. Who would want to face anybody after that? Not me.

Without another moment's hesitation I phased through the door and entered his room. Like the door, the rest of his room was black as well. Black walls, black furniture, black carpet… As I looked around I noticed a trail of light streaming down across the carpet. I followed it with my eyes and found that it led to the open doorway of a bathroom. I could see, inside it, Fang standing in front of the sink, his back was to me.

I walked up to him and peered inside the small room.

What I saw next horrified me.

Fang was leaning over the sink with a razor blade in his hand. Two thin red lines on his arm were bubbling up and dripping into the sink, quickly. His hand reached over with the blade to make another line. Panic bloomed within me.

"No!" I yelled, racing forward and knocking the razor out of his hand and into the toilet. Fang looked bewildered and embarrassed, but then he reached for the blade. I yelped and quickly flushed the toilet, effectively keeping the blade from Fang. He growled and threw open a drawer, his arm still bleeding, revealing a small stash of razors.

He went to grab another.

"Fang! Please, don't, please." I begged him, feeling tears I hadn't noticed earlier cascade down my face.

I couldn't lose another, not after Zeph. Not like this. Never like this.

I can't lose Fang.

Fang paused and then closed the drawer, but there was a scowl on his face.

"What are you doing here?" He growled.

I couldn't tear my gaze from his bleeding arm. There were white lines all up and down it. Scars. The sight tore at me. The tears ran freely across my skin.

"I'm your Guardian. I'm supposed to protect you." I whispered.

He scoffed. That just made me feel worse. I'm a terrible Guardian, my last ward was killed because of me and I couldn't even protect my new ward from hurting himself.

But I had to do something. I had to do something to try to fix this.

"Close your eyes." I told him.

"Why?"

"Just do it for me, okay?"

He sighed and closed his eyes.

"Don't freak out."

"Now you're starting to scare me."

Quickly I got out hydrogen peroxide and gauze for wrapping his arm, ignoring his comment.

"Put your hand under the faucet."

He did and I turned the knob and let the water wash away some of the blood. I then wiped away the rest with a towel and opened up the hydrogen peroxide bottle.

"This might sting a bit." I warned him. He nodded in response and then I poured the liquid over his wounds. A small, involuntary gasp escaped his lips. I looked up at him and my eyes searched his face, settling on one area in particular. I stared for a moment before realizing it and turning away.

I had been staring at his lips.

What is wrong with me?

"Sorry." I said softly in apology, pouring a bit more of the liquid onto his arm. The cuts bubbled and fizzed with a whitish foam that was slightly stained by the blood that was still leaking from his body.

"S'okay." He said through gritted teeth, his eyes scrunched up a bit, still closed.

After a minute or so I had him put his arm under the water again to wash away the burning liquid. Then I took the gauze in hand, and careful to touch him only with the gauze, I wrapped the gauze around his arm, not phasing through him once, not even grazing his skin with my immaterial form. Afterwards I found a piece of strong tape and fastened the gauze wrapping together with its stickiness.

I backed away from him a step. His eyes were still closed.

"You can open your eyes now." I said. He opened his eyes and looked down at his bandage. Then he twisted his arm around, testing it out.

I wanted to hug him so badly. It hurt how much I wanted to hold him, touch him. It was a throbbing pain in my chest, a feeling I had been, for the most part, unfamiliar with, and I didn't like it. The feeling made it hard for me to breathe. It made me feel as if I was drowning.

"Please, don't do that again." I said to him. I couldn't lose another ward. I had failed too much lately. But this was different. Fang was different. Losing him would be worse than just mere failure. Worse than losing Sam. Worse than losing Zeph. Losing him would…losing him…If I lost him, I would lose myself.

I couldn't explain why this was. I didn't know how such a thing had come to pass.

But somehow, I was linked to him, in a way I had never been linked to anyone else before, angel or human.

And it scared me.

Fang didn't reply to me for a long time, his features were stoic, but his eyes were stormy with indecision.

Then he turned and left the bathroom, climbing into his bed and pulling the covers over himself. Not bothering to change into pajamas. It was still midday, so that made sense to me. Although something told me that Fang wouldn't want to leave his room for the rest of the day.

I followed him, and sat in a chair that stood by his bedside. It was black and it swiveled like an office chair, but much fancier and comfier. I settled into it, watching over my ward with a new perspective that had just been shown to me.

Fang was a cutter.

I didn't have to ask why. I knew why.

Maya.

Poor Fang. To have love ripped from you at such an early age, I can't imagine the pain. He blamed himself for her death, but I knew it wasn't his fault. The angels would have told me if that was the case, and even if they told me it was, I wouldn't believe them. I couldn't.

I needed to show him that. I needed to show him that it wasn't his fault.

I gazed out the window. The sun shone brightly through the clouds in little streams of cascading light.

"Hey?" I heard Fang say, grabbing my attention, I turned to him.

"Yeah?"

"I feel like an ass for not having asked you earlier, but what's your name?" He asked, his gaze trained on the comforter of his bed. (I realized a couple of chapters ago that I never had Max tell Fang her name. Whoops. But this way is actually not all that bad, if not better because Fang's newly found knowledge of Max's name now kind of signals a beginning to a solid relationship between the two of them.)

A little smile tugged at my lips.

"Max." I answered.

Fang sat there for a moment. "Max." He said, testing out the name. "Max." He said again, this time with more confidence. "I like it."

I flushed, and my heart skipped a beat and then started racing. All of a sudden I felt jittery and nervous.

What the heck is going on with me?

Fang settled into his bed, getting himself comfortable. I could see the gauze wrapped around his arm. No blood had seeped through. The bleeding had stopped. Thank the heavens.

I looked out the window once more, gazing at the beautiful sky.

"Max?" Fang said, I turned back to him. His voice was soft, his eyes were deep. "Thank you."

A/N

Me: So what do you think, folks? Personally, I enjoyed writing this chapter, but I'm hoping to hear what you have to say about it, so please, pretty please, review!

BFF: Eeeeeeeeee! I can see a bit of Fax over the horizon!

Me: Yup, but now Fang has more problems than before. I wonder how Max is going to juggle all of this? And then school and therapy? Not to mention a slew of other things. *wicked smile*

BFF: You sadistic little Fanfiction writer!

Me: That's me. *smirks*

BFF: Anyways, onto the reviews.

Me: Shout out to Daniel! I'm not sure who you are, but Sapphira Volkov loves you so you must be a pretty cool dude.

Sapphira you are totally right, I should have made the explosion bigger.

Iggy: Damn right, you should have made the explosion bigger.

Me: Shut up, Iggy, I know! He's been nagging at me about it ever since I posted. *sticks tongue out at Iggy*

Thanks for the gift btw! Sorry I haven't replied yet to it or the one before, I keep forgetting. Sorry!

Guest – You're a Shinedown fan? That is freaking awesomesaucery! Shinedown is my favorite band! Have you seen them in concert? If not, You. Need. To. Go. I went a year or two ago for my birthday. Best. Birthday. Present. EVER!

Well, I hope you all have a wonderful night!

BFF: May you dream of Faxness! PLEASE KEEP REVIEWING!