Quote #3: When life gives you lemons, squeeze the juice in someone's eyes. That one is from me :).

Iggy POV

Being on guard when everyone is asleep is very relaxing for me. It's always so quiet. And because we're at the beach, I get to hear the sound of the waves crashing. It's very nice.

I was sitting next to Hawk, who was breathing lightly in her sleep. She's a really cool person. We sort of have a relationship going on here, but nothing like Max and Fang. But it's cool to know that I found a girl I can actually have a relationship with and not have to worry about leaving that person behind because they don't have wings. Like Ella.

Ella is a nice person, don't get me wrong. But she's no Hawk. Ella is more of the sweet stay-at-home mom type of girl. The type of girl I would have to leave behind if the flock had to leave town. Hawk, on the other hand, is a lot like Max. She can take control of a situation, but she can also be gentle. And, on the bright side, she has wings.

I slid my hand over and held Hawk's. I tried to touch her as gently as possible so she didn't wake up. At first she tensed, but then she relaxed again. I let a small smile creep up on my face, knowing that we could possibly be together… thanks to Angel. That little matchmaker.

On the other side of the camp fire, I heard someone struggling. I didn't hear any footsteps coming near the camp so it couldn't be someone trying to kidnap us. I craned my neck to hear better and heard Fang and Max's voices.

"Nightmare?" Fang asked Max. Fang must have seen the look of alarm on my face because he whispered, "Iggy, we are fine." I nodded and tried listening for things away from our camp. But listening to the quiet waves crashing didn't let me stop listening in on Max's nightmare. What a creep, that Dylan is. Did he really go into one of Max's dreams? Things have been inside Max's head before. A grin crept onto my face when Fang and Max went all lovey-dovey. Don't get me wrong, it was disturbing. But I couldn't help thinking about that being Hawk and I instead of Max and Fang. I could comfort Hawk… if we ever get that far.

I heard Fang and Max lie down and fall asleep again and I laid back. The cold sand rubbed against my bare arms. Everyone's breathing was so calming, but I couldn't fall asleep. After a few minutes, I heard someone get up.

"Iggy," Josh whispered. "I'll take next watch. You can go to sleep." I thought about it. Fang was going to take next shift, but his breathing told otherwise. He was in deep sleep. I nodded at Josh and leaned back into the sand next to Hawk. Josh walked back over to where he was before and sat down.

After lying in the sand for a couple of minutes, Hawk rolled over and rested her head on my chest. I wrapped my arms around her. Our breathing was in sync. I smiled and slowly fell asleep.

Max POV

Do you know how much it sucks to have a person shake you awake after it takes you an hour to fall asleep? A lot.

I guess Josh took Iggy's place on watch, because he woke me up at six a.m. Because Fang and I were so close, Josh woke both of us up.

"What is it?" I asked, on full alert. Fang straightened up and started looking around, seeing if everyone was okay.

"People are coming. We landed on a private beach, which means we are in deep crap if we get caught sleeping here." He whispered. Using my raptor vision, I saw that maybe fifty yards away, people were unloading coolers and chairs from a car. The car was parked in a lot that was to the right of the woods that were lining the beach. Who the hell goes to the beach at six in the morning?

I nodded and started shaking Gazzy awake, "Wake everyone up." Josh nodded and Fang started shaking everyone awake. Within minutes, we were taking off and flying again. The people below us seemed pissed about us staying and not cleaning up. Too bad.

"I'm hungry." Nudge looked at me. "Do we have any money?" I patted my pockets and grinned. The money I stole from Jeb's wallet, from when I went to look for Fang, was still there.

"Who wants to go to a diner? I think I saw one last night." I saw six faces behind me light up. Hawk and Josh were smiling. And Fang just kept his face expressionless. After fifteen minutes of searching, we found a giant diner with absolutely no one there. Just how I like it.

The hostess looked surprised when ten run-down looking kids walked in, but she shrugged it off. We were seated in a huge booth near the back of the restaurant. Each of us looked at our menus, and I swear I saw some mouths watering.

"We have $179.33. The stuff on here is pretty cheap, so order up." I smiled as my stomach growled as the scent of eggs and pancakes floated in the air.

After ten minutes, a waiter and waitress walked up to us with notepads. The waiter walked over to one side of the booth and the waitress came over to my side. She was about sixty, with light gray hair and glasses that sat on her nose.

"Hi, I'm Jenny and I am going to be your server today. Do you know what you want to order, sweetie?" Jenny looked down at Angel who smiled up at her.

Angel nodded and opened up the menu, "I want the Mickey Mouse shaped pancakes, a side of bacon, a side of scrambles eggs, orange juice and a fruit salad, please?" Angel gave her a sweet smile. Jenny looked shocked, but she wrote it all down.

"A growing girl." Jenny mumbled. She looked at Xavier who set the menu down. "What do you want, darling?"

"I will have a bacon and cheese omelet, a hash brown on the side, pancakes to go with that, and a water please."Xavier bit his lip as Jenny wrote down the order on the small note pad. I had a funny feeling that many pages of that pad were going to be used once she was done with us.

Jenny nodded at Fang who took a deep breath, "I'll get the Triple Stack Burger, extra fries, tater tots, and a water."

Jenny looked at Hawk, "I'm not hungry…"She mumbled. Jenny looked at Hawk, her eyebrow was arched.

"You don't want water or anything?" Xavier looked at Hawk, alarm was washing over his features. Obviously, the owl-kids at like we did. Hawk shook her head and looked down. Jenny looked at me, finally, and nodded for me to place my order.

"Can I have a chicken salad wrap, extra fries, a coke, also one of those premium burgers. No pickles, please." Jenny nodded and wrote it all down.

"You guys sure do eat. I'm going to bring the food out, but can you pay for it. The total you have going on right now it $54.99." Jenny looked at me and I smiled.

"This is a birthday breakfast. My parents gave me money to take my cousins and friends out to breakfast so I can celebrate my fifteenth birthday." I smiled, happy with my lie.

Jenny nodded, giving me a warm smile, "Well happy birthday, then. Your food will be out in a few." She smiled and walked off. The other side of the booth was still ordering their food. The waiter was a young guy, maybe about twenty five. He didn't complain about the food order, which made me happy.

I remembered when I took the flock out to dinner in New York and all hell broke loose. The waiter called the manager on us and the police were called. They didn't know what was coming when I stood on the table and snapped out my wings. It is a funny story, if you think about it.

The waiter soon left and everyone started chatting. I looked at Hawk. Why wasn't she eating? She seemed fine moments ago.

"Why didn't you get anything? Are you feeling okay?" Xavier looked across the table at Hawk, who was looking very pale.

"C-can I talk to you outside?" Hawk said to me, barely a whisper. I nodded and slide out of the booth. Fang and Xavier slid out of the booth and let Hawk slide past them and walk out of the diner with me.

"Something is wrong." Josh said as Fang and Xavier sat down. "Something is very, very wrong."

The second Hawk and I were out of the diner doors and in the fresh, morning air, I looked at her.

"What's wrong? Are you feeling sick? Why didn't you get food? You eat like a hungry bird-kid." I tried to add a smile to the last part, but it just wouldn't come. Hawk looked at me. Her blue eyes were wide and starting to glaze over a little.

"My head hurts… I feel like I am going to—" I realized what she was saying and dragged her over behind a bush. Hawk started puking her guts out. I rubbed her back comfortingly while she did it. I felt bad for her; I hated it when I threw up, and she probably felt the same.

Once she was done, she walked over to the side walk and sat down on the curb. I sat next to her and gave her a sympathetic look. Hawk tried to stop, she really, really tried to stop, but she broke down and started crying. She put her head in her hands and tried to center herself.

Something was horribly, dreadfully wrong.

"Something in my stomach really hurts…" Hawk lifted up her dark red t-shirt and looked down at her stomach. I gasped. Underneath her bellybutton was a small square the size of a thumbnail. The square was something placed under her skin. Bruises lined the edges of the square. Had she always had that? Oh, my God. That looked awfully a lot like the chip that I had in my arm…

Hawk's eyes went wide, "What is that?" She gasped? So she didn't know about it. "That wasn't there this morning. When we got to the diner though…" Hawk took a deep breath and looked at me. "I felt like something was ripping at my stomach. It just, like, surfaced right now."

My eyes went wide and my blood froze in my veins.

Was Hawk chipped?