The Runaways – Chapter 30

By MyNameIsCAL

-Iggy's POV-

I had no fucking idea what had happened over the last few hours. But somehow the FBI had come, they had arrived just before Gazzy and Angel's dad regained consciousness. We were sitting in the waiting room, hoping someone would tell us how Fang was doing. Max wasn't saying anything, and I knew it had to be bad.

Max's mom was on her way here now, but Max wasn't concerned about that, in fact, if you didn't know she was stressing out over Fang's condition, it almost seemed like she didn't care at all.

"He'll make it," Gazzy assured Max. "He has to."

But I knew better than to think things like that. Gazzy was just a kid. He still had his innocence. Or maybe I had just lost mine at too young an age.

"Max, your mom just arrived. She's on her way up here now." It was the same agent that had asked us questions before. Although none of us were really up for answering.

Max sat down in the seat next to me. The next five minutes seemed like eons.

And then I heard footsteps. Lighter, cautious, a woman's. Max's mom's footsteps. They started to quicken, and then it was a full out run. Max stood and I could hear both of them crying.

"Max, I'm so glad you're okay," her mom said quietly. "All those nights I spent up, I just…I can't believe you're here now."

Max was sobbing, trying to say something about Fang.

"Is…is he going to be okay?" I almost forgot that she had met Fang before we all ran.

"I…I don't know, Mom."

They both sat to my left, talking quietly. Sometimes I was glad I was blind. There was less to see, less things to get to you, and still I felt like finding my own corner and curling up for a while. Nudge took my hand some time later, resting against me.

It wasn't long until Max got herself under control. She never struck me as the crying type and introduced us with a shaky voice to her mom. Dr. M, she said most people called her. She seemed nice, but I tried not to think too much. We were supposed to be safe, but I didn't feel safe.

-Nudge's POV-

They kept us in the hospital, which was fine by me because Max seemed more relaxed around us than being alone with other people.

Fang was going to be okay, but they wouldn't let us see him. They still had him drugged, saying he wasn't stable enough. That was killing Max. And then, the agents came to talk to us again.

"We're going to bring you back to Arizona," the agent announced.

Max was the first to have her say. "No."

"Max, you have your family. But they need someone to look after them," the agent said calmly.

"I won't let you separate us!" Max was angry now. "I just spent every day for the past two months with them, and you think you can just whisk them off and away? They're like…they're like family to me!"

"Max, calm down." Dr. M spoke softly. "Look, they've been through a lot. I don't think splitting them up is a good idea, I mean, I'll watch them, I'll take responsibility of them."

"I…I don't think that's a good idea," the agent stuttered.

"Well, I don't think it's a good idea to keep them locked up somewhere because they haven't got a home to go to anymore. They need comfort and I don't think wherever you're going to take them, wherever you plan on sending them after this is over, it's only going to hurt them more."

The agent hesitated. "Alright, Mrs. Martinez. I'll talk to my boss."

"Thank you, Agent."

He nodded and left us. Max fell back into her chair eyes closed.

"Thank you, Dr. M," I said.

She gave me a small smile.

-Max's POV-

My head was spinning. We wouldn't be leaving Washington until Fang was stable enough to be moved, which wouldn't be for a while. The FBI kept us in the hospital. The staff had agreed to spare us a room and a couple beds. I lay on one, staring at the ceiling.

Three days had gone by since we had gotten here. Last night I had talked to Ella. It was a whole lot of crying and tears. I didn't know what to say to her, and she kept the conversation going. She had gotten into the college she wanted to, she had gone to prom with the guy she wanted, and in the midst of everything Mom had still gotten her a car. Talking to her had kept my mind away from worrying about Fang, but here I was again, worrying.

"Hey, Max."

I glanced at Iggy. He was across the room, draping a blanket over Nudge.

"Fang's a fighter," he said, moving to Gazzy and Angel's bed. "I mean, I know, we have no idea what kind of condition he's in, but I know he's going to be okay. If anything, he'll fight to stay alive because of you."

The door opened, a doctor walking in. Fang's doctor.

"Well, speak of the devil," Iggy said under his breath.

"You're Max, right?" the doctor asked.

I nodded.

"Your friend has been asking for you and the FBI said as long as it's okay with me, you could go see him." The doctor adjusted his glasses. "He should be waking up in a half hour. You can wait until he does."

"Thank you, Doctor."

I stepped out into the hallway, Mom was out there on the phone, probably trying to keep things together at her office.

"Max, where are you going?" she asked, putting her hand over the speaker.

"To see Fang."

"Oh, okay." She gave me an encouraging smile and I continued to follow the doctor.

There was an agent standing by Fang's door. The doctor came to a stop there, turning to me again.

"The bullet was centimeters from killing him. His knee is still in pretty bad shape. He's in a lot of pain, he's weak, but there's a good chance he'll recover without too much damage left," the doctor informed me. "Don't stress him out."

"And Max." It was the agent who spoke next, what was his name? Agent Reed, I think.

I raised an eyebrow.

"I understand that he trusts you more than anyone else," Agent Reed spoke in a low voice. I could barely make out what he was saying. "We were going to contact his parents. But when we looked them up, they're both dead. It was a murder-suicide…"

"It was the father then?" I cut Reed off. "He wasn't close to either of his parents."

He nodded slowly. "I wouldn't go telling him that, but I do have some good news that you can probably tell him."

I waited for him to continue.

"I talked to your mom. Once social services checks everything out, which shouldn't be a problem, none of you are going to have to be separate from each other."

"Thank you, Agent Reed."

He nodded and opened the door for me. I took a deep breath and stepped in.

Right, so you know, that probably would never work out in real life, being missing for so long and then coming back and some woman that you barely know would just agree to become your adoptive parent, but for the sake of the story, it'll give them all that sense of safety as they try to move on.

Thanks for reading! Next chapter should be up soon.