Undeterred tears continue to leak, and he hates to leave her like this. Hates to leave her when she needs him most. But he has to. "Will you be okay?" The girl starts to protest, "Not for a long, just for an hour or two?"

Her heart seizes, he wants her to be alone? He wants to leave her here alone? He wants to leave her alone, even after what she just told him? She starts shaking. "No. No, Fang, please, please don't leave me here alone." She clutches at him, "Please don't do that to me."

He pulls her closer, maneuvers so that he can plant a small kiss on her temple, "I'm not going to leave you alone." He rocks her, brushes a tear from her face, only to have another one roll down in its place. He sighs, "What if I got someone to come sit in here with you? Just for an hour or two? I'd be back before you knew it."

She tenses, but gradually begins to relax as he whispers to her. Then, finally, shakes her head, "I don't want them to see me like this." She takes a breath; a shaky, humorless laugh, "Heck, I don't want you to see me like this." Another tear leaks, "You probably think I'm pathetic now."

"No," He pulls her away so that he can look her in the eyes; those beautiful, deep brown eyes. Maya has those eyes, but somehow they don't seem the same on her as they do on Max. He had grown up with Max; he had been through a lot with those eyes.

"No." He says more forcefully, "I don't think that at all. I'd think you were pathetic if you tried to get through this on your own." In his head he couldn't help but add that he was glad that she had called him, that there was still some things that she would turn to him for.

There is a long moment of silence. Too long, the boy thinks, before the girl takes a deep, ragged breath, "Okay."

"Okay what?" The boy rubs her back, being careful to stay clear of the wings. He has a pretty good guess what she is going to say.

"Okay, you can go. Run off and slay dragons, or Dylan, whichever you have in mind." A hint of her old sarcasm is coming back, but the sadness in her tone rivals out the humor. If there even was any to begin with.

He looks down at her, sees pieces of her old-self popping back-in, she would get through this, it may take a while, but the girl he loved is still in there somewhere. He was going to get her back, but first he would kill the person who had taken her away to begin with. He would get his old-life back, he was sure of it.

A/N: So, so far so good. Four reviews on last chapter, not bad but I'm sure that we can do better. I happen to know that a lot more than four people are reading this, and I have to ask… Why not drop a word or two and say what you think about it? You've added it to your story alerts and favorite-storied it, so what's the harm in reviewing it? I swear I don't bite and we will need many more reviews than four to keep this story posting at a decent speed. This chapter is dedicated to the four who did review: faxtothemax51799, Raeofmydarkness, JealousMindsThinkAlike, and Lonewolfrox3264! Thank you guys a ton, hopefully next chapter we'll have a longer list to add to!