Fang sped through the downpour and almost drove everyone else off the road with his truck. When we got to my house, Fang dropped me off and drove away down the street.

I ran inside, only getting mildly wet. I tossed my jacket over a chair and hurried to my room. I was so tired. Today had been great. The whole day, from waking up, to coming home, had been full of being with Fang.

Just hanging out and being us.

Nothing else better in the world.

I changed into my pajamas and jumped into bed.

I fell instantly asleep.

I didn't dream.

The next morning, when Mickey alerted me that it was time to get up and get ready for work, it was raining. Still.

A loud rumble of thunder shook the house as I dragged myself out of bed.

I flicked Mickey's tail, and he shut up. Today was Friday. The day I had the worst shift at work. See, I work at a hospital, as a therapist. From Monday to Wednesday, I do adolescent occupational therapy. Thursdays I have off, and Friday, I do adolescent physical therapy.

It's usually okay doing the physical therapy, but a lot of teens, while they're doing the PT exercises, get emotional. And you know how well I handle emotions.

Occupational therapy is a heck of a lot easier on me and the teen because we could move from one activity to another and change it to whatever. PT is required. I got dressed and got on my way after snagging a pack of pop-tarts. Breakfast is important. Even if it is pop-tarts.

I got to work just five minutes later than usual. And Rei was already in his wheelchair.

"Hey, Max." He called. I smiled. Rei was a Lacrosse player until he had gotten tripped and fell. He had ripped a back muscle and dislocated a disc. So I was puzzling how he managed to get himself in his wheelchair.

"How did you get into your chair?" I asked pushing him into the hallway.

"Carefully." He laughed.

"you shouldn't try that. You could have hurt yourself."

"But I didn't. Isn't that the point?"

I sighed. "Just, be careful. You don't want to hurt yourself again."

We had arrived at the PT room.

"What are we doing today, Max?" Rei asked wiggling in his chair.

I peeked at the wall where everybody's schedules were kept. "Water therapy."

"I've always wanted to see you in a swimsuit." Rei said cheerfully.

I was tempted to smack him. But, I can't. That would get me fired. And I like my job. It has a good pay. "You'll be too busy working your back to pay much attention to me." I said and started off to the changing room.

I changed Rei into his swim trunks and got him out of the room. I changed into my spare surf top and trunks I left at the pool in case I had water therapy. And it was a special top that made my wings practically invisible.

When I got out, Rei frowned. "I thought you'd be in a bikini." He pouted.

"Well, do you think I'd give you that distraction?" I rolled his chair over to the easy entrance to the pool.

"Can you do the backhand stroke?"

"I think so."

"Can you show me how to do it?"

"Sure." I pulled him out of his chair and got him to the middle of the pool. It was just us in the huge room.

I did the backstroke in slow-mo to show him how to do it and then in regular speed.

I swam back over to him. "That's how you do it."

"You didn't come up for air." He noted and shrugged. "But, I think I can do the strokes."

I hadn't gone up for air? Oh, I used my gills a little bit. And got caught. I hadn't even noticed.

He got the hang of the stroke pretty quickly as long as I held his back. If I let go, he would start to sink.

"Can we do some other stroke, Max? This one hurts my back." He gingerly put a hand to his back.

"How about we try floating?"

"Does it use my back?"

"In a way…"

He shook his head, causing a bunch of ripples. "You know what? I had felt great getting in, but now, I feel exhausted. And I barely did anything other than sinking."

"We'll work on it again next week. Or maybe some weight lifting." Rei perked up at that. He loved using the resistance weight lifting machine. I think it's the huge plasma TV that he can stare at while he does it…

"Awesome!" He smiled huge. That was one of the only perks. The praise of the patients.

We got showered up and back into the scrubs. Then I half-carried, half-supported him until I could plop him back into his chair.

We were almost back to the room and in the elevator when he said something. "I'm going to miss you, Max, when I'm outta here." He looked up at me.

"I'm going to miss you too, Rei. But, maybe I'll see you around, in town." I ruffled his wet hair with a sad laugh. "but we still got some time left,"

"Two months," He said smiling. "But, my birthday's in a couple weeks."

"I know." The elevator door opened and we got out on Rei's floor. "The sixteenth, right?" We were at his bed with the drapes pulled around it.

"Yep." He pulled back the curtain enough for m to squeeze us in. "And you know what I want?"

"What?"

"A DSI. You know, the DS with the camera? So I can take pictures of us. So I can remember how you've helped." I smiled.

"I'll have to mention that to your parents."

"I've already told them. They said they'd think about it." I got him out of the chair.

"Then maybe I'll talk to them." I said setting him down on the bed.

He smiled broadly. "Thanks, Max. You're the best."

I was going to have to get him that DSI. Or at least a disposable camera.

Nah, the DSI. Then he can play games on it. And I'll get the games too. I have three weeks.

I drove home and parked in the driveway. But, I didn't want to get out.

I had this feeling, like I had to go somewhere else. And that I knew exactly how to get there, courtesy of my internal-avian Garmin.

I drove away from my house, going with my gut.

I ended up at a dead end on the far side of town in an alleyway facing the southern part of the forest preserve and a brick wall.

"There should be more road…" I said.

Of course. This had happened before, when we had been driving to Itex after we had stolen that van. I had been following my instinct, and my instinct had wanted me to go directly there, but there had been no roads.

Fang had said I was going by my internal compass.

"And my internal compass works better when I'm flying." I said to myself. I put the car in park and turned it off. I jammed the keys in my pocket and got out. I had to go to this place. And it seemed the only way to get there was by flying.

I was in the air in an instant. There was a clearing in the distance, and a figure in the clearing. The figure stood tall and still, black in the distance.

I landed in the forest surrounding it. And there Fang's truck was. Fire decals on the sides and a pair of wings in the back window that he had hired someone to put up. Because he had no artistic talent other than the art of street fighting.

But you can't street-fight decals onto a truck.

I followed the tug in my gut to the clearing. And there he was. Tall, dark, and handsome. My fiancée.

"Hey, Max." He called smiling his crooked little half smile. My heart fluttered.

"Hey."

"How'd you know I was here, and that I wanted you here?"

"I had this feeling." I shrugged. "but ya know, weird stuff happens with us all the time."

I closed the twenty feet or so between us and wrapped my arms around his neck. He wrapped his arms around my waist and held me close.

"That must be why I know what you're thinking right now."

Okay, before you kill me, I've had a LOT going on. If ya'll wanna know about it, tell me in a review and/or such. I'll write it up.

Alex: I think they deserve an apology and not just an excuse.

Me: are you my mother?

Alex: -studders-

Me: but—I'm sorry peoples. I've let you down and hanging. -sigh- But, here's what I'd been working on when I wasn't working on this:

(There's more where this came from…)

Drakewren

"Come on guys! This could be my—our best chance for an adventure!" I said.

"Nice save." Tyler said next to me. I stuck my tongue out at him.

"No." Hope said next to him. "I am not, repeat, not—"

"Not." Tyler said seriously.

Hope slapped him. "Going in that filthy pit." She finished.

"Pretty please?" I asked them. Tyler shrugged. He hopped down and looked back up.

"You want to join?" He asked. I looked over to Hope. My best friend's heart shaped face looked worried. Her blond-red hair was pasted to her head, her amber eyes troubled.

"Please?" I asked. Hope sighed.

"Just this once." She said holding up a finger. "One time."

"Okay." I said with a smile. "You first or me?" I asked her looking down into the hole where Tyler was looking up at us.

"Me. I'll just get it over with." She said and jumped in. She landed on Tyler's shoulders. He stumbled around for a minute then fell to the hard packed dirt ground, while Hope managed to get off of his shoulders and onto his back.

"Ow!" Tyler yelped. "Get off!"

"That was a good landing. You're pretty soft for being thick-headed." Hope said looking up at me.

"Ready down here." She called as I swung my legs down into the hole.

I fell into it, taking a boney something down with me.

"What is it with you two constantly dragging me down with you?" He asked sharply, standing up. "I really don't like being tackled into the ground."

"Sorry." I said standing up and looking down the tunnel that we hadn't seen from up top.

"Let's go!" I said as I began trudging down the tunnel.

"But—Kierlynn!" Hope called taking out a flashlight. The tunnel looked really old, like it had been there for at least fifty years, maybe a hundred.

Hope shone the flashlight down the tunnel, running after me.

"You need to see where we're going." She said shyly.

We had found this hole together, during a spring cleaning gardening spree. We had dug a hole for a new sapling, but the ground had fallen in as we cleared it out. Tyler had been helping with the manual labor, so he saw too. Tyler, Hope and I—Kierlynn—have been best friends since the first grade, when Tyler and Hope were fighting over the monkey bars and I stopped them.

Tyler was excitable, wisecracking, and really fast. I mean, try playing tag with him—you'll either never get close, or always get caught. He had dark red hair and deep blue eyes. He was the tallest kid in the eighth grade, and he liked it that way. He was also really competitive, so he didn't like losing.

Hope was the exact opposite of Tyler: Levelheaded, laughed at jokes but didn't deal them, and was really slow. She was more of the academic type where Tyler was athletic. She had strawberry blond hair and light amber eyes. Most average and down-to-earth kid in the eighth grade. She liked to stop to enjoy the flowers, while Tyler just trampled on them.

I was almost a mixture between the two: Brownish hair that shone red in the right light, greenish blue eyes, and a taste for sarcasm. I had a number of labels: Bigfoot, geek, clumsy, emo, etc. I was the tallest and weirdest girl in the eighth grade. I liked MCR, Nickelback, and Linkin Park. Whereas they, the preppies, liked Paramore, All-American Rejects and Owl City.

So, back to the hole.

There was a solid dirt wall. And there were three glowing thingies.

"Do you see what I'm seeing?" Tyler asked suspiciously. I nodded.

"I see three glowie, shiny thingies embedded in the wall?" I said. I say weird stuff—get over it.

"What do we do?" Hope asked looking between Tyler and me.

"We see what they are." I said stepping closer to the packed dirt, laying my hand on it. I felt a tingle course through it. I yanked my hand back.

That was odd. REALLY odd.

And those who read Mission Impossible: I'm working on it. It'll be up within the next week or so.

Fang: Can I get on now?

Me: fine. In a minute. Sorry again. Bye.

R&R for DSIs!

(Oh and for ShadowCat, if you read this one, before I forget, here's your cookie!)