A/N: Yeah, it's been a long time. I can't even be bothered with excuses this time but I'm tired so I'm sorry if this chapter is awful.
Part 2
I woke up in the morning curled up next to the now blackened and cold remains of last nights fire, Fang must have moved me here after I fell asleep last night I thought, stretching out and giving my shoulders a little roll to stretch my wings out before tucking them in to the tight confines of my finely toned back.
I got up and did a quick automatic 360 of the area, checking there were 5 heads in sight, most of them were still snoozing away, and I got the feeling that after the last few exhausting days they could sleep all week, it almost killed me to have to wake them, so I figured that I would wait a little longer, at least until breakfast was ready, I could tell it wouldn't be interesting as Iggy hadn't needed to light the fire and cook. He had his back turned, preparing something or other while Fang was gathering the flock's belongings and stuffing the hole-ridden backpacks; we ought to think about getting new ones soon.
He'd obviously flown over to the nearest town this morning dumpster hunting - I guessed by the lack of exciting things, truthfully, we didn't really have any money at the moment, which I really wanted to do something about as it wasn't just the backpacks that needed replacing, clothes were tattered and food was reaching desperation point, I clocked all of these things in my mind in a few seconds, everything going on auto-pilot in my brain.
I smiled over at Fang remembering lat night's bliss and letting that thought linger over for me for a moment longer than I would normally, just to put me in a better mood. That day, we had some serious Mom hunting to do. Now let me think? Where would an evil new power in the form of Brigid Dwyer hide two people (possibly three, who knows what's happened to Jeb and what side he was on, all I know is that I don't trust anything the Dwyer's told me about that mumbo-jumbo crap.)
Fang gave me a light-hearted grin as I could tell he was remembering the kiss last night as well and his grin went right inside me and made my heart soar and gave me a fuzzy feeling, needless to say, Fang's grins were still a rarity. He walked over to me in one swift movement; the only other flock member awake was the blind kid we had to remember, so maybe another kiss wouldn't be so bad? Fang had beat me to this thought though and leaned down to kiss me firmly, yet softly on the lips, brief but sweet and tender, and then pulled me into a big bear hug.
"You ready to fight the world today Max?" He asked me softly, already making me feel good about the day by his being there.
"Me? The Maximum Ride. Of course! Get ready for some Mom-finding action." I grinned up at him determinedly.
"That's top of the list then?"
"Yep!" I was damned if I was going to let anything get in the way of me and finding my family now.
"Something's changed between you two," came Iggy's voice from where he was still working on breakfast, we'd forgotten that he may be blind, but he's not stupid.
"What do you mean Igs?" Fang asked, looking at me with an expression that matched my own, one that wanted to know how he knows these things but that was also screaming out, Busted! His arm still tightly wrapped around my shoulders.
"Something in your tone, your movements, its different, less hostile. Let's face it, I know you guys inside out by sound, so if there's a change in anything I'm gonna know about it." He was looking straight at us, well, looking being a term used loosely, he still managed to locate us exactly with his eyes, but he didn't see us.
"Well, umm…" Fang started. How did we explain this? Did we even know what had changed between us? I mean, we hadn't exactly had the whole dating discussion now, had we? So were we?
Just then we were saved though by a stirring from the camp, Angel was moving, rubbing her poor young eyes that had already seen far too much for a six-year-old's.
"Maybe later Igs," Fang continued, ducking out of this one. Iggy seemed to catch on and went back to breakfast.
Of course, hiding something from a six-year-old mind-reader was a different story; Fang had dropped his arm now and was standing about a foot away from me, but nothing got past her. She looked at us with her big, dark, knowing eyes and grinned from ear to ear, I mean, it was as though me and Fang were screaming it in our heads or something, ok, we were doing nothing to hide it.
She skipped up to me and grabbed my hand in her little one, and I noted how grubby she was, how grubby we all were, and decided that when this mystical money appeared, we'd all need showers. Then she grabbed Fang's hand in her other, and pulled us along to a log, resting on it in between us, happy that we had this kind of togetherness going on, still gripped our hands excitedly. "What are we doing today, Max?" She asked sweetly, after I sent her, 'Not now we'll talk about this later' thoughts.
"We're going to look for Mom and Ella sweetie. Did you pick up on anything from the Dwyers?"
"They lied about Jeb, they want you to think he's evil, but he's not, he's locked up in their family beach house in Miami with your Mom and Ella," She said nonchalantly, as though it was unimportant chit chat. Me and Fang exchanged a quick glance, Angel still had a lot to learn about morals. "Max, if we go to Miami, can we go to Disney again? Only it's not that far, and last time our trip there got cut short," She was giving me bambi eyes, but I was too stunned by the announcement a minute ago.
"Angel honey, why didn't you tell us about Mom and Jeb before? It would have been really useful to know that," I tried to sound encouraging, but it wasn't working, but at least we had a lead now, I tried to tell myself. Fang had already swung into action mode.
"Iggy, make that breakfast to go," He ordered, before marching over to Nudge and Gazzy and rubbing their backs in soft circles, gently easing them awake, they always woke in a better mood if you didn't rush them.
It looked like we were out for a long flight today, it was probably a good two day journey over America to Miami flying, so I made sure Fang had packed us something to eat. They were someone else's leftovers, or crisps and energy bars that had gone past their expiry dates, dates we usually ignored in a dumpster, if it smells ok, it's edible. I chucked everyone their bags and Iggy handed us sandwiches a la Iggy, which consisted of bread, with the green bits cut off, soft, out-of-date crisps, some perfectly good ham that someone had thrown out after their dinner, that tasted, looked and smelled perfectly fine, I mean what a waste! No wonder the planet was in trouble if people just threw away Anything.
We swallowed down our breakfast in less than a minute and kicked dirt over the fire, getting rid of any traces that we'd ever been there, before doing a quick U and A and heading out, our internal GPS's pointing the way east, I looked across at Fang, and could tell he was filled with the same pride as me that the flock were so good at this now, so good at not asking questions, so good at the long-haul flying thing, until they got bored and hungry anyway. We flew above everyone else, so close that our finger tips touched at the very ends, and our wings beat in unison.
This was going to be a long journey, but at least I had the flock safely, and at least I had Fang here with me.
