Yeah, I know. This is a really short chapter. But it's really just filling up the holes that Fang missed.

Chapter Forty-Six

Max

I screamed again and squeezed Fang's hand as the pain shot through my body again. He winced as my bone-breaking grip crushed his fingers.

I'd had a bunch of painful stuff happen to my body in my lifetime. I'd been shot, punched in the face countless times, and broken most every bone in my body. I'd been injected with hundreds of needles. I'd even tried to dig a chip out of my arm with a shell. All of those hurt like hell.

This was an entirely new form of pain.

"Max, honey," Dr. Nicholson said, pulling my attention away from the pain for a second. I turned my head toward her, breathing raggedly. "You have to push for us again."

I nodded weakly and took a deep breath as she and my mother counted to three. I squeezed my eyes shut, hoping that the darkness might take some of the pain away.

It didn't do very much for me.

"AAII HATE YOU!" I screamed at Fang, all but tearing his arm off of his body. He gently squeezed my hand in reassurance as my grip lessened, and it really did help. I was about to say something else, but my mom and Dr. Nicholson were counting again. I pushed.

"Oh, Max, honey, you're almost there!" my mom said.

"Just one more big push and we'll be done," Dr. Nicholson said.

I nodded. I couldn't tell if I was crying through all the sweat on my face. "It hurts so bad," I whimpered to Fang. He took a cloth and ran it over my forehead with his free hand.

"You'll be okay," he told me. I nodded again, took a deep breath, and gave the last push my all. My mom gasped and started to cry, Dr. Nicholson still had her No-Nonsense-All-Business face. Nudge was holding my hand with one hand and wiping her eyes with the other.

Dr. Nicholson wiped off the baby, wrapped it in a blanket, and put it in my arms. As she brought it to me, it was wailing like a banshee. But the second she put it in my arms, it stopped. I looked into its face, and started to cry my eyes out. Fang kneeled beside the bed.

"Max? Are you okay?" he asked. He sounded worried. Very worried.

I just shook my head. I felt so choked that I couldn't speak. I wanted to say why I was crying, but I just couldn't get it out.

My baby was a mirror image of Ari.