Two Years Later:

Max POV

"Mommy, I can't do it," whined my little girl from her seat on the toilet. I did not recall Angel being this hard to potty train. Gazzy, well that's a different story, but also for a largely different reason.

"Rose, honey, please try," I pleaded. She was the spitting image of Fang, only she had my easily blushing cheeks, the reason for her name. "If you go potty on the toilet you can wear your pretty red dress I got you!"

Yup. That's right. I'd had to bribe my daughter to get potty trained. Well, she was going to preschool in the fall, I really couldn't let her go without being potty trained.

Ring, ring!

"I'm going to go get the phone, you try to go potty," I told her.

"Hello?" I asked, picking up the phone.

"Hey, Allie," my co-worker, Jess, said, using my fake name though she didn't know that it was fake. "The boss laid me off, so you're on tonight. I can take care of Rose, though."

I exhaled a sigh of relief. I was a waitress at some local Irish pub and my boss, Mr. Hannigan, was constantly firing waitresses because he got so drunk drinking his own scotch that he didn't know what he was doing. I hated working at the pub because of the alcohol, bringing back extremely painful memories, but it was the only job I could get. Looking like I was at least twenty-one helped, though.

"Alright, sounds good."

"Great, do you want me to come over there and hang out with Rose now so you can get going?" Jess asked. She was always really helpful and sweet.

"Sure, sounds good."

"I'll be there in five minutes."

I hung up the phone on the hook and walked back to the tiny bathroom. "Did you go?" I asked her, hoping against hope that she had.

She shook her head glumly.

"It's okay, sweetie."

"I want my diapes back on," she said, referring to her diaper.

"Okay, c'mere." I pulled her off the toilet seat and quickly fastened her diaper up. I couldn't even remember Angel having these. Of course, Jeb probably always changed her back then. Even so, Angel had been potty trained fairly quickly.

"I have to go to work tonight, Rosie, so Jess is going to come over here and play with you," I told her.

"Jess?" her face lit up instantly with delight. Jess was probably the best possible babysitter. She loved kids and had actually gotten a degree in college for being a preschool teacher. That's what she did during the day while at night she worked at the pub with me. Preschool teachers' salaries aren't exactly the best.

"Yup, you and her are going to have a lot of fun!" I leaned down and kissed her forehead as the doorbell rang. "See? There she is now, why don't you go run and open the door for her."

Rose waddle-ran down the hall, her little two-year-old feet not taking her nearly as fast as she wanted to go; her almost black hair flying out behind hair, highlighting her olive-toned skin. I sighed. I would never get over him even after everything he had done to me.

Before Rose had been born, I'd hated him with everything I had. Every fiber of my being was centered and focused into hating him.

But once I'd held my newborn daughter in my arms, I couldn't hate him anymore. I loved her too much to hate him. I didn't understand how that could be possible, but I felt like I was holding a little baby Fang in my arms.

I quickly changed into my uniform and grabbed my wallet and keys.

"I'll see you soon guys, okay?" I told Jess and Rose.

"Mmhmm," they both said, too immersed in the little dollhouse in the corner to pay me any attention. I just shook my head and smiled, thankful that I had Jess and Rose.

"You're late," Mr. Hannigan waggled his finger at me and swayed.

"Sorry, sir, I was just getting Rose set," I replied, trying to look meek and pathetic.

"Oh, that's alright then, just be sure to cover the entire left half of the room tonight, Jess hasn't shown up," he said, then danced up to the bar, serving more drinks. He doted on Rose and couldn't hold anything against me that concerned her. But according to the 'Jess hasn't shown up' part, he didn't remember that he'd fired her, even if he was drunk now. I made a mental note to tell her that.

"Hello, sir, what may I get for you this evening?" I asked a brooding and tall man at a table in the very far back sitting by himself. He looked like the very essence of glum and "in need of a drink".

"Nothing," he said, looking down.

"Well, if you don't get anything, my boss will probably make me ask you to leave, and that would be a shame, sir, considering that you seem like a lad in need of a drink and - "

"I will get a drink," he interrupted me, obviously annoyed with my babbling Irish accent. Apparently, according to Mr. Hannigan, I needed an Irish accent to work in an Irish pub. Thank God I'd learned from Gazzy how to imitate that specific accent. It worked like a charm in most places.

"Good, sir, what would you like?" I leaned down to try to hear him better as the music was relatively loud, but as I did so, I gasped.

My notebook fell to the floor as did the pen with a small clatter.

Then, everything went black.

"Hello, Allie? Are you awake Allie?" I heard a dim voice in my ear. Who's Allie? I thought.

"Max?" I heard an extremely worried voice say. Max...that's me! I wonder who it is. I miss being call Max, I mused.

My eyes fluttered open, revealing a very worried looking Fang standing over me.

I screamed. "Get away from me!" I cried. I struggled to stand up and burst through the crowd hovering over me, out into the back alleyway.

I collapsed against the wall and leaned my head against it, sobs issuing from me. How could he have found me? I'd hidden myself extremely well. I thought I had at least. Sure, my last name still said Ride on everything, but my first name said Allie. Ride is a common last name, isn't it?

Footsteps clattered on the damp cobblestones.

"What are you doing in Boston?"

"What wouldn't I be doing here?" I snapped. Seeing him all over again brought a new rage to me. All the colors of the surrounding setting had evaporated and were replaced by a bloody looming red, hovering over everything.

Except for this man's face. I knew it too well. He was only sixteen, yet he looked like he was twenty-three. He had grown. He now seemed to be at a height of 6'10", possibly surpassing even Iggy. His shirt didn't hide his muscles, if anything it accentuated them. The deep gravelly voice was so familiar I wanted to block my ears and scream as loud as possible, drowning out that unholy voice. His eyes were the most familiar, though. They could pierce right through to your soul only after a moment of looking into them. But they held thousands of unspoken emotions as well, as long as he was not bottling them up currently.

I shrieked. "Get away from me!" I had lost all reason.

"Max, wait," he said, grabbing my arm as I turned away.

"No, I will not wait! You should have waited two years ago!" I cringed. Though it was inevitably going to have come up, I didn't want to bring it up. All I wanted was him gone. With that, I could go back and live my life with Rose in peace.

"I have spent two years looking for you!" he shouted, grabbing hold of my arm tighter.

"You obviously cannot have looked very well because I said I would never be far, and look, I am not. I've been here for the last two months, as have you and the Flock. I never left you. All you had to do was look around up in the sky. You would have seen me!"

"No I wouldn't have. You have always been fabulous at hiding," he said, and took a step closer to me. My eyes widened in fright. The last time I had been this close to Fang, it had been a mere nine months later that Rose was born.

"Get away from me, you have no right to be near me!"

"No, I don't," he stepped away, a tear escaping down his cheek. Was that remorse I saw? Did he actually care? "But the Flock wants you back, badly, Max. They've been crying themselves to sleep for the last two years. Not Iggy, but everyone else has. You missed Nudge getting her period, God that was so freaking hard to deal with! You missed Angel's and Gazzy's first day of school. You missed Iggy's and Ella's first kiss. You missed a whole hell of a lot, Max! And I know it was mostly because of me, but you didn't have to run when you did! You could have stayed and taken care of everyone!"

Tears were now raining down my face. "How could I have done that, when everyday, I would be reminded of the one thing that had broken me so completely? How could I have done that, when I knew how my life had been affected by the one person I thought I could always count on and completely trust with my life?" I whispered, almost tauntingly. The shock had started to wear off. Now, all I wanted to do was make him regret ever having talked to me in the first place. I wanted him to feel so much remorse it killed him from the inside out.

"I was drunk," he tried.

"Get away from me you bastard," I snarled.

"What about our kid?!"