The Runaways – Chapter 27

By MyNameIsCAL

-Angel's POV-

A week had gone by. We were on the beach, well, some secluded area of beach, the van parked a few yards away. Fang had his arm around Max, as usual. You got that feeling from them that they were inseparable, that either of them would put the other before themselves, and yet you knew that they would put the group as a whole before their relationship. It felt safe knowing that. When we had made our escape that night two months ago, I hadn't believed we would make it far.

Tonight we were talking around the fire as a whole group. Usually, we would break off among ourselves, Max and Fang going to plan what was going to happen next, to get some time by themselves. Nudge spent a whole lot of time describing where we were to Iggy. She was sweet like that. And yet now, for the past couple of days, we had started talking to each other for a while before we took time to ourselves.

"You're like the family I never had," Nudge admitted one night.

That caught Fang's attention, and he was totally agreeing with her, his expression said it. And yet Iggy had the opposite expression. It still hurt him that his parents were gone, that he hadn't even been at the funeral.

And yet he still spoke. "I'm glad it was you all that I'm with."

Nudge squeezed his shoulder.

"Well, I wish you were my family," Gazzy remarked. He still had some balled up anger inside of him, and I couldn't blame him.

"You're all sure as hell the closest thing I got to family," Fang stated, something none of us we had expected for him to admit to all of us out loud.

"I…I'm going to miss all of you when this is over," I managed to say.

Max shook her head. "We'll stick together, even after this is all over, I promise. I'm not going to leave you in the hands of government authority. They're not going to put you in a better place than you were before."

That was a big promise to make, but the idea of running without stopping wore me out. We could only go on for so long, and even if Max couldn't keep us all together, at least I would know that someone cared about us.

-Iggy's POV-

I couldn't tell you what time it was, but I remembered it was cooler than LA. We were moving north, the weather no longer similar to the Arizona dry heat, no longer hot or humid as it was near Hollywood. It was breezy here and Nudge was asleep against me. Fang was up, somewhere, keeping guard with me. We couldn't just sleep out in the open on a beach without anyone keeping watch.

"Does Max really think she can do that, Fang?" I asked quietly.

His footsteps approached me and I felt the sand shift around me as he took a seat. "She thinks she can convince her mom to take us in."

"Well, if that doesn't work out, we'll be old enough to look after ourselves, and I don't care where you're going, but can I come with you?" I let out a sigh. "I'm not going to let myself get stuck in some assisted living place. I'm too young for that."

"Of course," he said, sounding amused. "You think I'm just gonna take off and leave you helpless? That'd be a pretty cruel thing to do…and I don't want to be like…"

"Your father," I finished for him.

"Yeah, that son of a bitch," Fang sighed. "And you know, even if things don't work out the way Max says she wants them too, I'll find a way."

"Do you think Max will be able to convince her Mom?" I was thinking about Gazzy and Angel. I might be blind, but they were the youngest. And Nudge, I knew she could take care of herself, but the thought of leaving her was too hard to comprehend.

"I…I know she will," Fang's voice suddenly started to waver. "Ig, I called her after our first month gone. She told me that when we came back, there'd be a place for all of us there."

"You…you called her?"

"Shhh…" he hushed. "You can't tell Max."

"I…I won't."

"But if it helps you sleep better at night, then I thought you should know," he muttered. "And don't tell the others."

"I wasn't planning to."

Fang stood again, leaving me without another word.

A short chapter, but they're all worrying about the future here and Fang's finally admit what he's done. But you get the idea, I don't want to split them all up. They've been through enough already. And now that I've got some time, I've been thinking about how to end several of my stories so I can make way for new ones. Of course I won't end a story for the sake of ending it. It needs a feeling of completeness before I do. Well, this one's still got a while to go, but I'm just rambling, sharing my thoughts. Stay tuned for the next chapter!