I do not own Maximum Ride! :D

A Lifetime by the Bedside
Chapter 3: Angel – Won't do anything

Cuddling up to Max has to be one of my favouritest things ever. I picked at her hair, pretty hair, and let it fall on my face. I scrunched up my nose, it tickled.

'Careful,' Gazzy warned, 'or she'll attack!'

Gazzy did some silly karate chops in the air, thinking he had gone all ninja. After this he continued to inhale what must have been his tenth triple chocolate cookie. He had a big chocolate-y moustache and I pointed at it, bursting into a fit of giggles. Iggy tickled me and I squealed like a little pig.

'Iggy!' I moaned, thrashing my arms out on the bed, trying not to hit Max.

'She won't attack, she won't do anything,' Nudge said quietly. She was sitting cross-legged in the corner, all alone. Well, that spoiled the mood.

Fang tensed at this and bowed his head lower. If it got any lower it would have been resting on Max's arm.

'Yeah, no-one would want to mess with you,' Gazzy cackled. 'You scary.'

I spat my tongue out at him and kicked out, but my legs were too short to reach his stupid face.

'She's just really tired,' Iggy bent down to Nudge, giving her a little squeeze.

'She'll wake up soon?' Nudge mumbled gripping him tightly, her dark hair pouring over his shoulders.

Iggy hesitated, it was so obvious, but he eventually said, 'yeah, soon.'

Fang rushed out of the room then, looking very stiff and tense. Frowning, I rolled off the bed and followed him. Up the corridor I found him leaning against the wall, staring at the floor. Skipping up to him I asked nosily, 'what ya doing?'

He shrugged, 'looking at the floor.' I already knew that, boys. He looked really sad though and that made me sad. Fang was known to be a bit gloomy but this was something different.

'You know she loves you?' I asked, standing closer so I could rest my head on his arm, 'she won't leave us.'

I was certain of this. Max was Max, reliable Max. Admittedly she would often make silly avoidable decisions which I could have easily avoided if people would just listen to me more often, but we needed her here, she was the glue which kept us all together. Fang patted my head lightly and sighed.

'Trust her,' I beam up at him before skipping away to anywhere a bit happier and a little less gloomy.

Nudge – Bribery

I didn't feel like talking. Cradling my knees to my chest I buried my head, unable to look at Max like this. Iggy had said that she was sleeping, but I knew that wasn't it. To make him feel better I went along with the charade, but I think deep down he knew the truth. I don't think Gazzy understood though.

'Hey Max,' he smiled at her, 'do you want a cookie?'

Obviously there was no response, so, shrugging dismissively he shovelled another dozen into his mouth.

'Save some for her,' Iggy cautioned, smacking Gazzy's hand out of the packet.

Gazzy pouted and, seeming bored, flipped open his DS and continued playing some game. What game, I didn't know and I didn't care. I wanted Max back. I wanted her to stroke my hair and tell me everything was going to be ok. I wanted her to take me on that shopping spree I had tricked her into promising. I wanted to shower her with gifts, give her all of my shoes, even though they were two sizes too small for her, give her anything and everything so that I could somehow bribe her into staying with us just a little bit longer.

Fang came in then. He had left before, quite suddenly. His eyes looked red and he returned to his usual position at Max's bedside, taking her hand, muttering things to her which were incoherent to the rest of us. Crawling out from my corner I plonked myself on his lap. He smiled at me and I smiled back. They were brave smiles, forced smiles, false smiles. Resting my hand on top of his which was on top of Max's I prayed that somehow she knew we were here, waiting.

A/N hope you liked it :) As you can probably tell, the chapters with the rest of the flock in the real world will be somewhat shorter because I am confining them to Max's room, for now. If you think that these are too short then please let me know and I'll do something to try and fix that ;)

Members of the flock will be making appearences in Max's dream world too! So please keep reading! :D
Again, all reviews are appreciated ;)

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