Whoaaa, all these reviews! Seriously? 18 of them? I love you guys too much. Besides that, sorry about the one day late update, exams are coming up soon and I'm cramming as hard as I can so I can pass, you know? Well, to everybody else out there that's still in school, good look on midterms! :) So, before study hall is over, here is the second chapter!

Disclaimer: Unless I suddenly became JP someday, then I will never own Maximum Ride.

Chapter 2

After I dropped Angel, Gazzy, and Nudge at their households, I went back home planning on taking a long shower and taking an even longer nap.

Unfortunately, those plans were cast aside after I saw three extra cars parked in my driveway.

Since right now we were on Fall Break, I was currently staying at my old house, aka the house that Fang and I lived in for about half a year. It still had all our furniture and all the same things were there, except I didn't dare go near Fang's room. For all I knew, it could be a cockroach den by now, but I think that he would've liked it best if it had remained untouched.

The only thing missing was his car.

The car that had been lead to destruction, on that morning of that accident.

I shook my head clear of everything, and bravely strode into the house where both my parents and Dylan's parents (and him) were sitting on the couch, exchanging business talk.

"Oh, Max," Jeb said, making me twitch, "welcome back. These are Dylan's pare-"

"What are you doing in my house?!" I shouted, cutting him off and making Dylan's parents blink in surprise, which made me very pleased.

"Max!" he scolded before turning back to Dylan's parents. "I'm sorry, our daughter is still… recovering."

"That's fine," the mother said, sickly sweet, "I'm sure that the incident must have taken a piece of her with it." She turned to me. "I am Mariam Jensen, though you can just call me Mom."

The husband just grunted.

On the other hand, Dylan literally stood up and walked to me and said, "Hi Max! It's great to see you after all these years!"

Memories of when I met Sam again for the first time in high school made me shudder as I recalled the words he said to me so long ago.

"Well," he [Sam] laughed nervously, "you know Dylan right?"

I tilted my head. "Yeah, no duh. He's in our grade."

"Well," he propped himself up against the bed, "he called me a week ago."

"And so? Get with the point already," Fang said irritated, motioning him to continue. Of course, Fang knew what had happened between Sam and I so I didn't need to explain anything to him.

"Well, he said that he would pay me ten thousand dollars to capture you," he pointed to me, "and bring you to him, and only give you back if your family paid a five hundred million dollar ransom."

"What the fnick?" I said. "Dylan wouldn't do that. Why would he need that money?"

"I don't know."

Despite that, I forced a smile on and chocked out, "Yeah, same to you."

"Look at that," his mom said, "they already get along so well!"

"Yeah," my mom echoed weakly, "So well."

"Yup!" Dylan said cheerfully.

Just like that, he leaned in for a hug and for a few moments we touched until… Fang appeared in my head and I drew back as if he were a snake.

"Max!" Jeb admonished again.

"Oh," I said, blushing a little, "Sorry."

"No it was my fault," he said. "How about we take a walk outside? It's a little… muggy in here."

I nodded, and before we could walk away, my mom stood up and tapped me on the shoulder with a cough.

"Mom?" I questioned, turning around to look at her.

"Yes, Max, I want to speak with you before you two go outside, okay?" she said, nodding at Dylan to go ahead, while steering me into a different room.

"Max…" she said, looking at me, her hands, reaching up to cup the sides of my head. When did I become so much taller than her? "I'm so sorry I couldn't do anything to prevent this from happening." A few tears dropped from her eyes and before I knew it, I was hugging her hard and feeling so glad that she was there.

"It's okay mom," I murmured into her shoulder, "It's not your fault."

"But-" she said, her eyes weathered with sadness.

"Don't worry, I'll marry Dylan and carry on the family business," I said, trying my hardest to assure her even the tiniest not to feel sorry for me.

"Are you sure? I know that you love Fang," she said, her eyebrows crinkled in a tiny frown.

"Yeah, I'm sure, so… don't worry, okay?" I said, hugging her again before pulling back.

She nodded and wiped away future tears, and to my surprise, smiled.

"You've grown up so much these past years, you know?"

…

"So…" he said, after we had strolled down the dirt road leading into the woods. "Wanna go to the lake?"

"Huh?" I said dumbly.

"You know… the lake where I first confessed to you," he said casually, his face turning red.

"Oh that one!" I said. "Sure, why not?"

It turned silent again and after many twists and turns, we finally arrived at the lake, it's water glimmering like crystals and the trees surrounding it like a barrier. If I think of it now, it looked more like a maroon or a pond… but whatever.

"Still as beautiful as ever, huh?" I said, laying down on the soft grass. Flowers surrounded me and, closing my eyes, all I could hear what the faint sound of water lapping at the bank and birds chirping happily. If you ever get the time to, I highly recommend trying it out sometime.

"Well, Max, you know that I love you right?" Dylan said, shifting a little bit, as he walked to a nice rock and sat on it.

"Uh huh," I replied. Where exactly was this conversation heading?

"Well, I wanted to say that even if our feelings aren't mutual, that this is for the good of our two companies," he said business-like.

"Yeah, I know. It's called a business marriage for a reason."

"And you know that I love you?" he repeated.

"Yup."

He sighed. "Well, even if your heart belongs to someone else, I wanted to say that with our two companies' alliance, we could make it even stronger than ever before. It's our duties as the heirs."

I was silent for a moment again. For some reason, I felt a stabbing pain in my chest. Was it regret? Sorrow? Fury?

"I'm… going to head back," I said, standing up.

"Wai-" he said, reaching out an arm to me.

Without looking back, I looked up to the sky and walked back towards the house following the invisible trail Fang told me about.

For the sake of the business, I would marry Dylan.

For the sake of love, I would always belong to Fang.

Whew, one chapter done in pretty much… three hours? Not too shabby! However, this chapter was actually pretty short (it was only about three pages on Word), and I'm really sorry for this, but I probably won't be able to update until after exams for my own sake. As a treat, though, I'm going to make a Christmas/ New Year's special one shot or something, maybe based on this story (depending on if I finish or not). I'm not too sure yet, but if you have any requests don't stop yourself from giving suggestions!

Oh, and if you were wondering, the chapters that I referred to were Chapter 14 (the lake and confession) and Chapter 18 (Meeting With Sam).

And with that, I hope ya'll liked this chapter! R&R?