The Runaways – Chapter 31
By MyNameIsCAL
-Fang's POV-
I felt like I was in a haze when I opened my eyes. Max had her head rested against the bed I was on, her hand in mine. There were these tubes up my nose and I took in a breath, feeling this numbing pain in my chest. My leg hurt too. It took me a while, but I got the strength to squeeze Max's hand.
She stirred, slowly, eyes fluttering open.
"Oh my god, Fang!" Max sat up, squeezing my hand back.
"Hey, Max…" I felt like it wasn't me talking.
Max smoothed out my hair. "Shhh…don't talk."
"What…what happened?"
"Fang, you got shot in the chest," she sniffled.
It suddenly came rushing back to me.
"The others…"
"If things go well, Mom will have legal guardianship over them," she assured me. "We're gonna be okay, Fang, don't worry."
"Will you stay here?" I asked weakly.
"Of course," she said. "I'm not going anywhere."
Things blurred together. According to Max, they had me on all kinds of medication, and I tried not to wonder about it too much. Time blurred together, but Max always made sure I knew what day it was, or she tried to make sure I knew.
Some days went by, or maybe even a week. I still wasn't lucid enough to make sense of anything. When I did manage to hold onto consciousness for a while, Max was always there, ready to talk, telling me about anything she could think of, promising me that I'd be okay.
-Gazzy's POV-
Max's mom was really nice. She got us food from outside of the hospital, she didn't talk to us like we were little kids, even though that's exactly what we were. The FBI agents didn't tell us much, but she made she we knew what she knew.
We sat in our makeshift bedroom where they kept us in. The hospital gave me this feeling of anxiousness though, and so I stayed inside even though they said that we could go out and walk to stretch our legs. Iggy preferred to be familiar with his surroundings, so he often would let Nudge walk him around. Sometimes Angel would tag along with them, and other times, she'd sit here with me.
Max joined us for dinner tonight, which was fast food from some place down the street. We sat around a small table, using two of the beds as seats. Angel was squeezing ketchup for Iggy, telling Max how the last time he tried to do itself he squirted it onto Nudge.
"How is Fang?" Iggy asked quietly.
Max let out a breath. "The doctor told me today that he most likely won't ever regain the use of his leg. There was just…a lot of damage."
"Does he know?"
She hesitated. "Yeah, he does."
Iggy shook his head. "I'm guessing he didn't take that well."
"No." Max began to eat her food.
Dinner went on silently.
Later that night, I lay awake, like I'm sure the others did too, thinking about Fang. He could have ran away without us, he could have left Iggy to try to figure out a way to save us, he could be happy with Max instead of suffering. There was no reason for him to be the only one who walked away with scars, and I wondered what he thought about us now. I almost asked Max today if he had mentioned us, but I decided against it. I didn't need to upset her too.
But Iggy kept us assured that he would be okay, and I really hoped that he wouldn't look back at this all and regret it.
-Fang's POV-
"You should go home, Max."
But she shook her head. It had been weeks now. Maybe almost a month. Her mom was back and forth constantly, but Ella could take care of herself, Max had told me.
"I can't leave you here." Max took my hand, resting the back of it against her cheek. "Fang, you wouldn't last a day here alone."
I closed my eyes. "Yeah, you're right."
"Another week or two and we can go home." I felt her smile. "We'll get you some real food, we'll get you back on your feet."
"Your optimism is promising," I whispered.
She let herself laugh. "C'mon, Fang, it's not so bad."
"We gotta deal with school and college."
"That's the last thing you need to worry about."
"Would you worry about yourself first?" Max let out a sigh.
I opened my eyes. "Alright, Max."
She gave me a small smile.
"How are the others holding up?" I managed to ask. It was only the other day that I saw them, but I needed to talk about something else.
"Well, Mom takes them out. The FBI questioned them the other day. Things seem to be tying up, Fang."
The agents had talked to me too. But they caught their killers, Gazzy and Angel's parents. There wasn't much to say, and I wondered whether I should have mentioned my father.
-Gazzy's POV-
We were finally going back to Arizona. They had Fang in a wheelchair, and he didn't seem too happy about it. Well, he didn't say much. The brief time we spent with him every now and then each week since the doctor started to let us see him, he usually carried on a conversation with Iggy, a half pained expression on his face. However he really felt, Fang was good at hiding it. But my worries of him regretting everything had been put to rest.
"You're all still in one piece," Fang had said, a look of amusement breaking through that grimace he had. "I'm glad you're okay."
"Hey, Man, what about you?" Iggy took a seat on the opposite side of the bed from Max. "How do I know you're not in two pieces?"
Fang rolled his eyes.
Nudge was the only one brave enough to say anything more to Fang than he had asked. She actually thanked him, and he gave us the beginnings of a smile, telling her that he was glad we were okay again.
Thanks for reading! Right now, I've got a lot of school work to finish up, but if you follow my other stories, I might be slower updating some compared to the others. I'm updating based on what I have written already. I haven't had the time to write much, but I'm hoping to find some time to sit and write a whole lot out. Anyway, thanks again! I'll have a new chapter up soon, hopefully.