ACK! I'm SOOO SORRY. I've had summer homework to do, (I can tell I'm already going to hate my APUSH class) and for some reason, I had this entire chapter planned out in my head, but it was really hard to write. BUT to make up for my one, month hiatus, this is the longest chapter I've written!

"Today is gone,

Yet I'm the only light that you see.
You need someone
I know all you needed was me."

--All American Rejects

Chapter 14: Fang P.O.V.

Getting out of the car, I slammed the door behind and slung my backpack over my shoulder. I glanced over the top of the car at Max, who was leaning against the car door, laughing, and looking down at the Gasman.

"Hey," she said, noticing me staring.

"How was the ride?" She nodded her chin at Jeb, who had his back turned away from her.

Since there were too many people to fit in one car, we opted to take two; have Dr. Martinez drive one and Jeb another. I thought they had split up the flock a little unevenly, but Max had put herself in with her mom, Angel, Nudge and Gazzy, and left me, Iggy and Ella to go with Jeb. And I thought it was probably better not to be stuck in a small vehicle with the Gasman for more than three hours anyway.

I shrugged and looked up at the hotel in front of them. If I was all sentimental, which I not, I would've been all sad and depressed that this was the last stop before Max ships us, her family off to live with people they have never even met before. But since I was saving all of his mushy emotions for when Max finally came to her senses and talked to me, I thought it would be better to keep quiet, at least in front of Max. I knew what she was doing was wrong, and I was going to let her know. Eventually.

"Have you told him yet?" Iggy asked Max, who threw her head up to look at me.

"No," she said quickly. Iggy shook his head.

"You guys ready to check in?" Dr. Martinez asked, heading for the door, as Max walked up to me, Angel in hand.

"Hey," she said. "I wanna talk."

Angel looked up her, and Max glanced down. "Go in with Mom. We'll meet you in the room, okay?"

Angel looked at me and then back at Max. "Oh. Okay," she said, heading over to Nudge and taking Total from her arms.

We hung back in the parking lot, not talking, until they left the desk and headed into the lobby.

"So," I said. "Where to?"

"Let's just go inside," she said, and started in, not checking to see if I was following. We walked in through the doors, which lead to a huge common room, with a TV, two couches, and about two dozen neatly set tables.

She stopped and looked around for a minute. Watching as the flock got on the elevator and Gazzy pressed his face against the glass door looking above the lobby, Max smiled.

"You know," she said. "It's so easy to forget he's only nine." She gripped the handle of her bag a little tighter, and she turned away from me. "Let's sit."

Max made her way to one of the couches and dropped her bag to the ground, with an obnoxious thud. She sat down, and exhaled loudly.

"What, are you carrying around the world's largest boulder in there?" I asked, sitting down next to her.

"Only the world's second largest boulder," Max answered, without a smile.

I waited for her to start talking. It was weird to think, that tomorrow, this would be the same person who was allowing her family to be torn apart.

Because, I know Max wouldn't do that. And I knew there was something else that she wasn't telling me.

"Okay," she said. "I guess I have a lot to say."

"I guess you do."

"I just," she started, "I… don't want you to be upset. But, there's really no way avoiding that," she said, laughing nervously.

I stared at her, not saying anything.

"I mean, Iggy was pissed, and that was Iggy. You're like…" She shook her head, "Just, don't be mad at me. Please. I really… I… don't want to fight. Not now," she said, her voice small.

I rubbed my hands on my jeans. "I won't get angry."

She laughed once. "Uh… I don't really know how to say this."

I sat there, watching her. Max looked me in the eyes, her own bloodshot and anxious, her face exuding worry. She squeezed her bare knees and leaned down to scratch her ankle. I could tell she was stalling.

"You know, when Jeb and I were calling everyone's parents?" she said, looking down. "I, uh, I never talked to them. Jeb did, and I was right there listening, but I didn't know the whole story, about anyone. That's why I insisted on going. We weren't going to meet them at first."

I stared at her. I guess it made sense. Why Max didn't know Dan's story and why Henry had confused me with Max.

"You let Jeb do all the talking?" I asked. When had she begun to trust him?

Max fidgeted uncomfortably. "I wasn't allowed to talk."

"What?" I asked. "Jeb wouldn't let you?"

"Not exactly." She sighed. "The government is ordering us to be separated. I told you that. But they're… checking up on us. Like," she sighed again, and reached into her back pocket. She pulled out a business card and handed it to me.

Looking down, I read the name. Megan Kochinski.

"Who is this?" Or did Max start suddenly carrying around random business cards in her pockets?

"She's a FBI agent in charge of making sure we're "safe." Or, at least that what she says."

"You talked to her?"

Max shrugged. "I called her on my own. For someone who has the intention of splitting six mutant children apart from their home, she's actually pretty down-to-earth and all. She's alright."

I stared at her. Not only was she completely passive about this whole thing, but also Max was actually trusting a government official. I couldn't believe it.

"And you can just trust her after one conversation?" I asked, incredulous.

Max shrugged again, still looking down. She hadn't even glanced at me through this entire conversation. "Well, Jeb does--"

"And you trust Jeb? Since when?" This is getting all Twilight zone. Max would never trust Jeb.

She didn't say anything. She fingered the hem of her shorts and bit her bottom lip.

"Max?" I asked softly.

"I just don't know what to do," she said. She took a deep breath. "Technically, it's against the law for someone under 18 to live with an adult without their parent's permission. They can be considered a runaway or it could be considered a kidnapping. Depending on how you look at it. It's illegal for the flock to stay with Mom.

"The only choice there is was to find their parents. Especially since the school that they supposedly built for us was made into a boarding school. There's no other way around it. So, that's why Jeb took so long finding all the old files. The School hadn't gotten rid them; they had everything backed up.

"Which is also one of the reasons why Jeb never went to jail. He had too much valuable information and was never directly involved with the experiments."

For a moment I didn't know what to say. "How do you know all of this?"

"Jeb told me some, and Megan told me some." Max turned away from me, and watched as an old man and his baby granddaughter, stumble over to the small snack bar. "I guess… there is one way around it."

She looked at me for the first time. "But you have to promise to be open-minded. I didn't tell Iggy, because I didn't know how he would react."

I nodded and let her continue.

"Tomorrow night, after everyone meets their parents, whoever doesn't want to stay, can leave and go with you. You can find a safe place to stay the night and then leave the next morning. I'll stay to calm everyone down."

"When would you meet up with us?" I asked, considering her plan.

She looked down again. "I wouldn't."

I blinked, and everything began to make sense. She wasn't putting up a fight because she didn't want to. She didn't want to run anymore, even if that meant being with us. She just didn't care.

Max looked up at me, and then she looked alarmed. "Fang! I want to go with you. I would never just ditch you," she said urgently. "But I can't."

"And why not?" I said angrily.

She paused her rubbed the back of her neck. "Um… I have another chip. A different one."

I paused. How could she have another one?

"We all have one, except yours are all deactivated. Mine's the only one that works. That's how I hear the Voice. So if they deactivated it, I wouldn't be able to talk to it. Which wouldn't be a bad thing, but Jeb is 100 percent against that."

"Where is it?" I said, after a moment.

"In the back of our necks. It was supposed to program the expiration dates also, but once you deactivate them, they go away. Which is a plus," she said.

"Why won't you be able to come with us?" I asked.

"It tracks me. And in order to not be thrown in jail, Jeb had to hand over all information. Which includes how to find out where I am. Therefore, if I left with you, Megan has the resources she needs to find you."

"I thought you said she was nice," I said.

"Well, she is. But that's her job. Believe me Fang, I want to stay altogether, but there's nothing I can do."

"No," I said, "No way."

"What?"

"I'm not leaving without you."

She looked at me, not saying anything. A moment later, she said, "You would rather be split up completely, then just lose me?"

"Yup."

She shook her head. "That's ridiculous."

"I promised I would never leave you," I said.

"But you're going to anyway!" Max said, and then she sighed. "I'm sorry, I just…" She bit her lip and looked down.

We sat there for a minute, neither of us saying anything. Then I stood up.

"Come on. Let's go upstairs." I waited for her to rise, and watched as gripped her bag.

We headed towards the stairs, when she stopped. "Do you know what room we're in?"

"I heard the guy at the desk say 826."

"The eighth floor? Let's take the elevator," she said, and she turned around and pressed the button. We waited as people filed out and we walked in, and Max pressed the button and smushed herself against the wall.

"Are you sure you don't want to leave?" she asked me.

I nodded. "Positive."

She sighed. "That was my only idea…"

The doors dinged and we walked quietly to the room. Max knocked and Nudge answered in that way-too-hyper manner of hers.

"Max! We're going downstairs to the pool. Wanna come?" she asked, as we walked in.

"Sure. Give me a minute to change."

Nudge turned to me. "Are you gonna come, Fang?"

"Yeah, okay." I went through the door to the conjoined room where Iggy and Ella were sitting on two chairs, talking quietly. I nodded at them and Ella smiled back.

I flung my duffel bag onto a bed and walked into the bathroom to get changed. When I came out, Ella was gone.

"Hey," Iggy said. "What did Max say?"

"Everything you already know," I said. I didn't want to tell him about Max's idea. It wasn't going to happen anyway. I wasn't going to leave without her.

"Oh," he said, as Max walked in.

"You going swimming, Ig?" she asked.

"Nah, I'm going to watch a movie with Ella," he said, standing up from his chair.

"Ah," Max said, wiggling her eyebrows. "A movie date. Why didn't you say so?"

Iggy rolled his eyes. "It's just a movie."

Nudge came in, followed by Gazzy and Angel. "What movie?"

"No clue."

"You guys ready?" Max asked.

"Oh, Nudge. Isn't there something you need to tell Max?" Iggy asked, and Nudge shot him a wasteful glare.

"No," Nudge exaggerated, and Iggy raised his eyebrows.

"What is it?" Max asked, moving closer to her. Nudge turned away.

"Nothing," she said quickly. "I'll tell you later."

"How about now?" Iggy said.

"Iggy," Nudge warned.

"Let's go down to the pool!" Gazzy jumped in, and Nudge shot him a grateful glance. "But don't think you'll get out of this one," he said to Nudge. "I just want to get her face on tape." He laughed and high-fived Iggy.

Max put her hands on her hips. "Nudge…" she started, but she and Angel were already out the door.

We walked out, and Gazzy ran to catch up with them, who were already down the stairs. Max turned to look at me.

"Do you know?" she asked.

I shook my head.

"Well, she's not the only one who's hiding stuff from me," she said, her voice harsh.

I straightened, but kept walking. I couldn't tell her now. She would kill me. And then she would torment me and try to make me escape with the flock later tomorrow night. And I couldn't let that happen. Not without bringing her with us.

"You had some secrets locked away," I pointed out, pushing open the door to the stairwell, and Max stopped walking.

"That was for protection," she said. "I couldn't tell you. How did I know if you were going to tell anyone else?"

I have to admit, that stung a little. If Max didn't want me to mention it, I wouldn't bring it up. She should know that by now.

"Come on," I said, "I wouldn't tell anyone if you didn't want me to."

"I know, I just…" she said, "I didn't want you to get upset." She leaned against the wall, and crossed her arms.

"Because keeping it from me was so much better," I said, just now, beginning to get angry.

She slammed the back of her head against the wall and squeezed her eyes shut. I could see her shoulders rising and falling and I moved closer to her.

"I don't know what to do," said Max, her voice shaking, "On one side, I have my family being torn apart, with me not being able to do crap about it. I mean, come on. If this were last year, we would've booked out of here about three weeks ago. What is up with that?"

"You have a weakness," I said, "It's trying to please everyone."

She laughed without any humor, her eyes still closed. "Yeah. Except back then, it wouldn't have matter if they were mad at me; I still would've ran. It was about protection."

"They're older now," I said.

"By like, what, a few months?"

"Physically. But we've been through a lot. You said it yourself. They're not normal kids. It's not easy to forget that."

She didn't say anything, so I kept talking, taking another step towards her. "Look, I know this isn't normal for you; just letting things happen without you're control. But maybe it's better. For you, and for us."

Max kept quiet. I placed my hand on her shoulder. She didn't seem to notice.

"Max," I said, and then paused, "You don't want them to leave."

"No," she said, her voice quavering. Her eyes were wet and her face was flushed, "I don't."

"And I know they don't want to leave either. I don't want to," I said softly, "But we are going to."

She took in a shaky breath and didn't say anything.

"You can't do anything about it," I said.

"I know," she whispered.

"Stop trying to make it work. Just because they're leaving doesn't mean you'll never see them again."

"I know," she whispered again.

"There's email, and phones, and we can still fly. And there's plenty of weekends," I said.

"I know."

"It'll be okay," I said.

"You don't know that," she said, frustrated.

"I know everything." Max tried to smile. I brushed a strand of hair behind her ear.

"It'll be okay," I repeated.

"I'm losing them," she said.

"No," I said, and squeezed her shoulder. "We're just moving away. Friends move away. It's not the end of the world."

"It is for me," she said and my breath caught for a moment.

"Max," I started, but she stopped me.

"I can't believe you're giving up," she said angrily, her eyes still closed, but tears spilling over the edge.

"You did first," I said, but then backtracked, "I mean, I'm not giving up. I'm just… accepting it."

"Why?" she asked, outraged.

"Because there's nothing we can do," I said quietly, "You said it yourself."

Her shoulders fell, and she exhaled sharply.

"I know," she said, "It just sounds worse coming from you."

I laughed quickly, and leaned forward a little.

"You know I'm right," I said.

"I guess."

In an instant, I made one of those spur-of-the-moment decisions that I usually regret later. I leaned down a kissed her cheek, but only for a second. When I pulled back, I rubbed her arm, as she opened her eyes and stared at me.

"It'll be ok," I said, for what seemed like the millionth time in the last five minutes.

"I know," she breathed out.

Next chapter is going to be pretty short, so I'm hoping to update by tonight, or early tomorrow. NO JOKE. And whoa, I just kind of realized IT'S SEPTEMBER. Not cool. School starts on Thursday…. And whoa, I published this story exactly one year ago, and I'm only on chapter 14.

I suck. BUT I WILL UPDATE SOONER I SWEAR!