Scene at the clinic

Chapter 29-30

Maximum Ride: Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports (book 3/6)

Fang's perspective

AN: This was initially a school project, and I wasn't really planning on putting it up here. It's not amazing, I'm not sure how well I stuck to Fang's character, but read anyway please and let me know what you think[: DISCLAIMER: I'M NOT JAMES PATTERSON. If I was, this would be a heck of a lot better.

Dr. Martinez explained what she was going to do as she shot Valium—a pain killer, I think?—into Max's veins. I could see her tense, grabbing at the edges of the table, and really, I couldn't blame her. That antiseptic smell was making me on edge, and I wasn't the one on the table.

"This is great," Max murmured, suddenly calming down. "I feel so…calm." That Ella girl patted her shoulder reassuringly.

"You're okay, Max," she said. She didn't grow up in dog crates, being tortured 'in the name of science.' She didn't understand, clearly.

"You still want to do this? Bark once for yes," I said. Lame. I was so lame. She stuck out her tongue immaturely. Then the doctor put the little Velcro thing over her wrist, bolting it to the table.

I saw a quick flash of panic light her half-open eyes for a split second. I'm guessing nobody else would have seen it, but I knew Max too well. So I instinctively grabbed her free hand, momentarily forgetting that she'd just totally rejected me, what, yesterday? I braced myself, waiting for her to yank her hand away disdainfully and make some snide comment.

But then she didn't. She surprised me by smiling, this drunk looking smile.

"I'm so glad you're here," she mumbled. Shoot, was she okay? That wasn't a very…Max-like comment. "I know everything's fine if you're here."

I felt my face get hot—how embarrassing—and hoped she was too drugged up to notice. The puffy redness on my knuckle from punching the cave wall was proof enough to me that I shouldn't read into things. I was her best friend, that's why she said that. She didn't mean anything else, at all.

"Hey," she said, her voice lacking its usual steel. I looked down at her to see the doctor poking needles into her arm, again.

"That's just the local anesthetic. I'll give it a minute for it to take effect," the doctor explained to her.

"Oh, look, the lights are so pretty." I blinked, just staring down at Max. I almost asked, 'what are you on?' but then I remembered, oh yeah, Valium. Now she was randomly smiling, like someone had just hugged her. Wait, that was a stupid analogy. If someone hugged Max, she'd kick their butt.

The doctor started picking at her arm, and I craftily adverted my gaze. Watching someone rip Max's arm apart was not in my life goals anywhere, thank you very much. Plus, it reminded me of when she tried to rip her own arm apart to get that God forsaken chip out, and I could do without that.

"Fang?" I looked down at the sound of my name, still avoiding looking at Dr. Martinez.

"Yeah," I said. "I'm here."

"I'm so glad you're here," she slurred, looking right through me.

"Yeah, I got that." The whole situation just screamed uncomfortable at this point.

"I don't know what I'd do without you." Okay, so now my face was utterly burning. This is me, we're talking about. Stoic, emotionless Fang. And now my face was probably turning purple.

"You'd be fine," I managed.

"No," she scoffed, almost offended-sounding. "I would be totally unfine. Totally." I could have said responded to that (uncomfortably, nonetheless) but then I made the mistake of peeking at her arm. It wasn't the bloody, gory mess from that time on the beach, but it was still pretty gruesome.

"It's okay. Just relax," I said awkwardly, almost talking more to myself than her. "Just…relax. Don't try to talk." Really, I wanted her to shut up so that she'd stop giving me false hope.

"I don't want my chip anymore," she told me sadly. Then she made a face. "Actually, I never wanted that chip."

"Okay. We're taking it out."

"I just want you to hold my hand," she proclaimed, as if that wasn't precisely what I was doing.

"I am holding your hand."

"Oh. I knew that." Sure you did, I thought as her hand tightened around mine a little.

"Do you have a La-Z-Boy anywhere?" she wondered randomly. Ella, the doctor's daughter, made one of those she might be crazy faces.

"Um, no," she said.

"I think I would like a La-Z-Boy," Max mused, her eyes slowly shutting. "Fang, don't go anywhere."

"I won't. I'm here." I tried to sound reassuring, but again, this was me. I didn't do that emotional stuff very well.

"Okay. I need you here. Don't leave me." I tried not to let it show how much that meant to me. Because, deep down, it really meant a lot.

"I won't," I murmured, for sake of better words.

"Fang, Fang, Fang." My heart leapt over the way she drawled over my name, all dreamy. But nothing compared to what my heart did the next time she spoke. Eyes still closed, she said, "I love you. I love you sooo much!" She pushed against the strain of my hand and the Velcro straps, trying to hold her arms out.

Holy crap.

Oh my God.

Max just said she loved me!

For the moment, I didn't even care that she was drugged up. I didn't even care that just yesterday, she rocketed off when I tried to kiss her. I didn't care about anything, but the fact that she'd just said the words I'd been waiting to hear from her for so long.

And then reality hit.

Here we were, in a room with a doctor and a normal girl who both thought we were brother and sister. I really, really hoped they hadn't heard that. Plus, she did have Valium coursing through her veins, and that did matter, because it was screwing with her brain. She'd just requested a La-Z-Boy, for Christ's sake!

"Oh jeez," was all I could choke out.

"Okay, we're done," Dr. Martinez said, saving me a little. "I'm going to unfasten your arm, Max, and then I want you to wiggle your fingers." I peered down to see that Max's arm was all patched up and non-bloody. Thank God.

"Okay," Max said, wiggling the fingers that were still in my hand.

"The other ones," I told her.

"Okay." We all waited, staring at her hand, which was unmoving.

"Go ahead and move them, Max," said the doctor.

"I am moving them," she said, her hand still limp and lifeless. Every face in the room (besides Max's, including mine) was masked in sheer horror.

"Oh. Oh, no." The doctor's words voiced my thoughts.

Later, when Max was coherent, she begged me to believe that she didn't mean a word she said. Just to mess around with her, I said I didn't, and that I knew she really looooved me.

But then I heard her crying in the bathroom. Max crying! And that's when I realized how truly sucky her day had been. So I decided to leave her alone (for now). She'd come around eventually.

So maybe she didn't mean it today. But I'd wait. And the next time she said it, she'd mean it with all her heart.