Saying Goodbye

Song: An Ideal Marriage from the Downton Abbey Soundtrack

(A/N: Okay, okay. After this one I'll go back to normal music. Just trust me. Please.)

Talon (recap: Fang and Max's son. Only here, he's older than Aero)

I fingered a lone wildflower with my hand. I was fourteen then, and I had just learned that my Mom had died. I didn't know that Dad could cry until that moment. Aero was with Mom when she was killed. I could hear my sister's footfalls behind me in the thick grass. I had been sitting in a field.

"Talon?" she called tenativly. I wiped a tear from my eye and turned.

"Y-yeah?" I stuttered, still trying to keep my wits about me. Aero sat down. Come to think of it, she looked a lot like Mom. Her brown hair was streaked with blond, and her feathers at the top near her shoulders were soft and downy, like Mom's. Dad always used to stroke them and kiss Mom lightly on the nose when he thought we weren't looking. Of course, now Mom was with Windflower. I would've hoped that Windflower could be here now. Yes, her life was too short. She was the only child that Angel was allowed to name. Auntie Angel, who were never allowed to see. We had been told that she was locked away. Deeply, I felt and knew that she wasn't. She was out there somewhere. And Mom remembered her.

"Mom wouldn't want us to cry." Aero stated, taking a seat beside me. Her slender wings were folded compactly against her back.

"Where's Dad?"

"I don't know." Aero sighed. "He went flying. Talon, I've never seen him cry before."

"He loved her. You know that."

"But he was always so strong."

I waited a moment before responding. Hesitantly, I added, "You can't always be strong."

Silence crept between us; I knew what her next words would be.

"Mom was."

Yeah, she had been. All those years. I never doubted for a moment that she would give her life for us. Only I was old enough to remember the nights that she would steal away, the full moons that caused my Dad to wake up and follow her into the moonlight. She would gaze at the sky and cry mute tears, only muttering my baby sister's name. She was heartbroken at the young death of Windflower. We all were, but I knew that she had seen enough pain and hurt to last her a lifetime. She never wanted anyone to suffer because of her. And though Fang's kisses could vanish the pain for a while, it would always come back. I remembered the way Mom's eyes lit up when she spoke of the Flock. Of Iggy, and Nudge, and Angel, and Gazzy. She always left out the parts of Fang and her. I knew that something had happened. I had glanced the ragged scars in her heart. A name she only mentioned once: Dylan. Through all the pain, and hurt, and suffering, and running just to survive another day, she had always been the strongest. Gently, I pluck a fuzzy wish-flower from the field and blow the fluff into the light breeze. The seeds float away as if carried by my thoughts alone.

Goodbye, Maximum Ride...