Fang POV.

By the time we got back to our camp, Gazzy, Iggy, and Angel were already there. I guess they didn't run into anyone our the way out like we did. Nudge was just sitting around, looking like she hadn't had much success at her task.

Needless to say, they all looked a wee bit surprised to see me fly in with Max in my arms.

"Oh my god, what happened?" Nudge asked, switching right into "worry" mode. "Are you OK? Is Max OK? She didn't get shot, did she? Or get hit on the head?" She paused, her face dropping from "worried" to "startled realization". "She's not...not..." she choked.

"Don't worry," I said, putting Max down next a tree, "she's not dead. She got hit with a dart," I tossed it to her, "and she said she felt woozy while we were flying back, so I carried her. She nodded off just before we got here." This seemed to put Nudge's mind at ease. I took out the hard drive I swiped for the lab and handed it to Nudge, "See what you can do with this, I'm gonna take care of Max." She nodded and hooked up the drive to my computer.

During this time the other three had been crowding around Max, trying to find out (in their own special way) what was wrong with her.

I felt it was my solemn duty to put their minds at ease (in my own special way).

"Guys, back off and give her some air," I said, practically pulling them off of her. "don't you two have something to go explode?" I asked, of course referring to Gazzy and Iggy. The shuffled off, muttering about how they like it better with Max in charge and stuff like that.

"Is Max gonna be alright?" Angel asked, looking very worried. She'd already "lost" Max once, I couldn't imagine what it might be like for her to go through it a second time.

"I don't think so," I said lamely, mentally kicking myself when I realized I said it. Then a thought struck me, "If she's anything like the Max I've always know, she won't let this thing keep her down for long." Angel seemed to perk up at this, but she could also just be putting on a brave face for my benefit. Seeing as how she can read minds and all.

A moment later Max groaned and her eyes fluttered open.

"Uh, what hit me?"

"A dart," I replied simply.

"Did you get it's license number?" she asked weakly. We both broke out into chuckles at this.

Yep, Max was still Max.

"I'm not sure yet," I said. "Nudge is trying to crack into that hard drive we got form the lab, but it shouldn't be to much longer until get something to work with.

"Before I die, right?" she asked, voicing the unspoken thoughts in the back of my mind.

"Not if I have anything to do about it," I said resolutely. Then in a mock serious whisper, I asked, "Has Angel been giving you mind-reading lessons behind my back?"

"No," she smirked, "but that's what I'd be thinking if I were you right now." She chuckled ruefully and added, "Probably with more spazzing."

"I wouldn't have it any other way," I said, and leaned in to kiss her. I figured that since there was the possibility that this was her last night on earth, I might as well say thanks. Besides, she'd gotten to kiss me when I was battered and bruised from that beating Ari gave me.

Then I heard gagging and groaning from the bushes and my eyes shot open. (More from surprise then from being embarrassed.) I grabbed a pine-cone that was lying around and hurled it in the direction of the sound. I heard an "Ow", and Gazzy's head popped up, followed a second later by Iggy's.

"I thought I told guys to go somewhere else," I yelled at them, feeling miffed at the interruption.

"We did, but we used all our bombs to blow up the lab," Iggy said. "By the way, how was the explosion?"

"It was big, I guess. I don't know."

"You mean you didn't notice!?" Gazzy practically screamed. "Why not?" I nodded my head towards Max.

"Oh," Gazzy and Iggy both said.

"Now if you don't mind..." I said, hinting at them to leave.

They didn't move.

"GO!" I screamed, and they took off running. "Now, where were we?" I said, turning back only to find Max had fallen asleep. "See you in the mourning," I said, and sat down next to her.

Hopefully things would look better in the mourning.

---------------------------------

The next mourning, things had not gotten better. In fact you might say things had gotten decidedly worse.

Max had not been feeling good at all when she woke up, saying that she felt like she had to puke.

And she did. For a good hour, in fact.

After she was done she went back to then tree, complaining that she was to tired to do anything. While she rested I went to see if Nudge made any progress with the hard drive.

"Any luck?" I asked.

"Not much," she said. "It looks like the building was mostly used for counting money and things like that."

"You mean an administrative office?"

"Yeah, one of those. Anyways, there's still a lot of data here to go through, and I don't think there was even anything useful here to begin with." Yeah, that made things better.

"Well, keep trying, I'm going to go take breakfast orders."

Nudge squealed with delight and said she wanted waffles. I reminded her that we weren't making a fire in case anyone survived the lab explosion and went to find Gazzy, Angel, and Iggy.

When I found them they all said they wanted cereal (as did Nudge) and went to check on Max. She was still sitting by the tree.

"Hey there," she said as walked up to her.

"Hey yourself," I retorted. "I was just taking breakfast orders, want anything?"

"Yeah, pickles."

Pickles? For breakfast?

"OK," I said slowly.

"And ice-cream."

OK, I know we have to eat a lot because of our bird-like metabolisms, but even our culinary genius (Iggy) doesn't come up with combinations that weird.

"And wasabi."

WHAT!

"Aren't they those super hot peas from Japan?" I asked, flabbergasted. She just nodded.

"And oranges."

"Fine," I sighed, "I'll get those too."

Wait," she said as I started to walk away, and added "and fish-sticks."

"Anything else?" I asked, hoping against hope she was through.

She wasn't.

"Cheetos."

"FANG!" Nudge called, running into the clearing. "Fang!" (Glances over at Max) "Oh, hi Max." (Back to Fang) "Fang, I think I found something."

Finally, something good.

"Well, go ahead, spill it."

"I don't know," she said uneasily, "you might not like it."

"Nudge, any news at this point is good news." Truthfully, I just needed to hear something other than Max's grocery list.

"Well, I was looking through some of the journals of the hard drive, and I found this." She turned my computer towards me and I saw there was a bunch of text on the screen.

My heart stopped.

"Nudge," I said blankly, "have Angel watch Max, then meet me in the air." As I took off I thought, "Why, oh why does this have to happen to me?"

The journal entry....

Today I had a brilliant stroke of genius. Perhaps even my crowning achievement.

I've just come up with an idea on how to educate people on pregnancy. It deals with manipulating the hormones to simulate the more common symptoms, thereby giving the subject an idea of what is to come.

Further details as it is developed.
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Hey everyone, Layman here! Thanks for bearing with me through the first chapter. I know it wasn't laugh-a-minute thrills, (two words, di'ffrent strokes), but that stuff should be picking up from here on out.

I will be taking a breif hiatus to work on another story, but I'll try to get back to this one as soon as possible. God bless and see you next time!