Disclaimer: I don't own the characters or the setting. Just the plot.

It was a warm Florida night. Mosquitoes and other bothersome insects buzzed around our tiny camp. The ground was damp and springy, making for a nice bed beneath us. The Flock lay asleep around our tiny smoking fire. All except for me.

There was something wrong with me, I was sure. I felt sick, not like vomit-y, but, I don't know. It was a strange and unwelcome feeling. I felt... empty.

It wasn't that I hadn't eaten. I had had near a pound of Oscar Myer hot dogs just a few hours before. This was something different.

Perhaps you're lonely. My Voice whispered in my ear. Almost drowsily. Did the Voice sleep?

I am not lonely. My flock is here. We're safe. Not lonely.

Whatever you say, Maximum.

I sighed loudly. Wrapping my arms tightly around my stomach, I tried to flip around on the ground to find a more comfortable position. Flopping around for a few more minutes, a fish out of water, I heard a noise close behind me. Shuffling in the dirt and moss, kind of squirming. I stayed absolutely still, keeping my breathing deep and at a slow pace to mimic sleeping. Whatever it was kept coming closer until I could feel it right next to me. Then I was poked sharply in the small of the back.

"Trying to sleep over here. Could you keep it down? Hey, what's wrong?" Fang had crept up until he was parallel with me. I turned over to face him. About a foot away from me, my night vision could still make out his furrowed brow and dark eyes, curious and searching.

"Headaches?"

"No... Stomachache."

He scoots back a little. "You aren't gonna throw up are you? I told you you shouldn't have eaten all those hot dogs."

"Not sick-sick... It's a weird sick. I don't know. I feel... Hollow." I know, I know. Ooh you're telling all this to a guy? Ooh. The truth is, where most girls have a diary, I have Fang. I tell everything to him.

"Anything I can do?" He asked quietly. Better than a diary, he talks back.

"I don't think so." I answered.

He began to scoot back over to his original spot on the ground, and somehow I felt worse.

"Wait." I hissed urgently. He rolled over to look at me and I beckoned him back.

A blush came to my cheeks as I thought of what I was about to ask. "Could you stay with me?"

He looked at me. Without answering, Fang set his jaw and slid closer to me, so he was maybe half a foot away. What he did next surprises me still.

His arm wrapped itself around my shoulders, propping my head up. He scooted closer and turned my head so it would rest on his upper arm and shoulder. I looked up at his face, confused as I was.

He was tenser than usual, if you believe it. His jaw was set and his eyes stared out into space. Fang's arms were harder than usual. It was like he was fighting ten Erasers.

I was tense too. This was weird. And then it wasn't.

I felt myself loosen. My stomach didn't ache so much now. In fact, not at all. My eyelids began to droop. Finally they closed. I don't know what happened that night that made my stomach hurt like it did. But, I do know what made it stop. Fang.

He made me whole.