This is basically a filler chapter I guess... I just wanted to show you what's happening with the rest of the flock. the next few chaps after this are all Max and Fang, I promise!

Dylan was worried about Max.

She'd left an unclear note that she was going scouting, and that Dylan should just move the kids from inn to inn every night, that she'd be back before she expired, and that he needn't worry. Well, he did anyway. Plus, Fang had mysteriously disappeared overnight too. The two were pretty obviously connected.

Dylan wondered if it had anything to do with the fact that the doc had set the condition that Max had to have kids with Dylan before he gave her the serum, to rule the world after the apocalypse. He wouldn't mind the condition so much, but he knew Max did, so he did too. He knew Max was too young to have kids. After all, she was ninety-eight percent human, and only two percent animal. She should be treated like a human. The doc was a total jerk. Still, Dylan felt some weird disappointment, like Max had rejected him.

Right now, he was sitting at the continental breakfast at a table beside Maya. He'd tried his best to answer everyone's questions, but he knew they weren't satisfied with his answers. He wasn't even satisfied with his answers. Now everyone sat scattered around the breakfast table, eating so much food that the chef's eyes looked like they were about to pop out.

"That doctor guy is watching you," said Maya, sipping her hot chocolate. Dylan turned and looked at Dr. G-H. He was staring at Dylan, and didn't even try to look like he wasn't. Creepy.

Dylan turned back to Maya, his heart as usual beating a little faster as he looked into her heart-shaped face. But this wasn't Max, he reminded himself.

"So you're a clone too, hey?" Maya said, rather glumly, out of the blue. "Join the club."

"Yeah," Dylan replied. "I was cloned off some guy who died in a car crash."

Maya looked surprised. "He's dead? Damn, you're lucky. It's hard when the person you're cloned from is alive."

Dylan nodded. "I kind of understand." He thought about it for another moment. "But not really."

"You wouldn't," sighed Maya, swigging her hot chocolate. Dylan shrugged.

"Dylan?" asked Angel from beside him.

Dylan turned to see Angel looking up at him. She looked the same on the outside as she had before, yet at the same time she was a lot... fresher. She wasn't a manipulative, backstabbing schemer now. But if the doctor was right, she would quickly regain her memories and with it, her old personality. "Yeah?" he said.

She made an "eew" face. "Dr. Gunther Hagen is thinking icky things about you and Max."

Maya looked at him quickly for his reaction, and he couldn't stop himself from flushing red. He may think of the doctor as his father, but that didn't mean the doctor thought of him the same way. To the doc, he was just an experiment.

"We're all experiments to them," Angel said, looking so miserable that Dylan reached out and patted her curls.

"It's okay," he said. "That doesn't mean we can't beat him up if we wanted to." Angel offered an adorable grin, and went back to drinking a carton of milk.

"You're good with kids," Maya said with real admiration in her voice.

Dylan, startled, felt warm inside. Max never seemed to admire or appreciate him, but here was her clone, praising him. Maybe there was hope in the world after all.

I have a mental list of nicknames for Dr. G-H I use in this story. I SOOO want to use Dr. Genital Herpes, but I'm betting JP wouldn't write that ... sigh...

So hear we have Maya and Dylan having a heart-to-heart. Yawn. Think they should be together? R & R! You guys rock!