Disclaimer: I claim no right to the Maximum Ride Universe. Careful. This chapter contains some adult content. Much Love and Please Review!

Bright light stung his eyes as Fang cracked them open. His head was pounding and he was intensely displeased to realize that he couldn't move. As his eyes adjusted to the glare, he could make out the outlines of lamps and mechanical arms with all kinds of tools attached hanging over his head. Rolling his head to the left, he saw Iggy still unconscious and strapped to a metal table. Max lay beyond to him, her body totally slack and her face paler than he'd ever seen it. Gazzy and Nudge were also knocked out, their roughed up faces scrunching as they dreamed of something unpleasant. Glancing around the room, he took note of Total strapped to a table across from them and quickly counted the windows and doors. Of which there was a total of one.

Keeping his head still to ward off the nausea that was sweeping through him, he took a few steadying breaths. The smell of antiseptic and bleach was thick in his nose and fear for the flock was a knot in his chest. Carefully, he started testing the restraints around his wrists and ankles. Little bits at a time he worked his wrists in different ways to search for weak spots.

Soon he felt the weight of a familiar gaze on his face and he looked up to see Max watching him with dark bruises staining her pale skin. He couldn't stop the relief he felt at her revival from bleeding into his eyes. It was mirrored in her own.

Her cracked lips shaped the far too often inquired "You okay?" She looked like she was going to lose her lunch at any second. He nodded once, his head spinning with the slight motion. She answered his silent question on the others with a short nod of her own and her gaze left his to wander around the room. He didn't stop straining against the restraints even as he watched her reactions play across her features.

When her eyes opened wide in horror and she locked gazes with him again, the fear in hers made his blood run cold. He raised an eyebrow in question and she mouthed two words he had never hoped to consider again.

"The School."

Nick jerked awake, expecting to see bright lights and a sterile room of stainless steel and white linoleum. Instead, the familiar cracked ceiling of his own bedroom stretched over him, taunting him with its mundane familiarity. He was simply crazy. There was no School to go back to.

Rolling his head to the side, his atomic clock informed him that it was 9:15. He blinked hard and refocused on the date. It was nearly three days after he had stumbled home close to 5 in the morning after reuniting with the people that were his true family. He sat up quickly, his head screaming at him and his stomach turning in unpleasant flips.

Ignoring the pain in his head, he headed into the bathroom and stripped his clothes off with violent tugs. As he was reaching for the taps to turn on the shower he so desperately needed, he noticed a tiny hole in the back of his hand and faint traces of medical tape still sticking to his skin. He turned his arm over and saw another puncture in the crook of his arm.

Thankfully, the toilet seat was up as he whirled around and heaved up whatever was in his stomach. He sank to his knees on the cold tile and tried to quell the shaking of his body. He had no idea if it was due to rage or fear, but he didn't like it all the same. Sitting up suddenly, he spent nearly twenty minutes going over every inch of his body that he could see and reach, searching for signs of evil scientific experimentation. Finding nothing else, he flushed the toilet and climbed into the shower, turning the water as hot as it would go. Hissing as the water scalded his skin, he grabbed his soap and scrubbed himself all over to get rid of anything that might have been left behind from wherever he had gone. He hated that his thoughts felt thick and slow as he tried to remember what had happened. He hadn't found any marks other than those that looked like standard IV punctures, but he couldn't be sure of anything that had occurred over the last couple of days.

Standing still under the boiling hot spray, he let the water sluice over him as he tried his damnedest to remember even a bit of what had happened. Just like his actual memories, he got bits of scents or snippets of conversations, but they all faded away as soon as he tried to focus. He could smell coffee, but he didn't know where he had gotten it. He could hear the clink of metal on metal, but didn't know what it was. With a snarl, he slammed his hand against the tile in frustration.

Feeling as though he had cooked himself enough, Nick shut the water off and grabbed a towel from the rack. He wrapped it around his waist and moved through his apartment to the kitchen to grab a glass of water. Even though there was quite a lot to consider, his thirst was quickly becoming the number one aggravation.

He pulled a glass from the cabinet and turned the tap on to fill it, gulping down the water eagerly as soon as it was full. Three glasses of water later and he finally turned the tap off and set the glass aside. Taking a deep breath, he leaned against the counter and tried to quell the panic threatening to take him over. As he forced his brain into some semblance of order, there was the soft sound of metal scraping against metal at his front door and he crept over.

The soft click of his lock turning surprised him and he was thankful that the door opened toward the kitchen so that he could surprise whomever was trying to break into his apartment. The door knob turned silently and the door creaked softly as it swung open into the living room. Nick stayed just behind the edge, waiting for the intruder to show his face.

A hand slid past the door and then an arm, and Nick grabbed hold of the arm, jerking it and its owner forward and into a iron grip against his chest. His body recognized her before he did and the swift elbow to the side and leg hooked around his brought his mind around quick as Max threw her body to the side and took them both to the floor. He twisted as they fell, ensuring that he would land first and that his body would cushion her fall. He released his tight grip and just kept his hands on her to keep her close.

"Whoa, Max!" he managed before the impact forced a grunt from him. Her body instantly relaxed as his voice broke through her instinctive fighting mindset.

Max lifted her head from his chest and stared at him in shock. "What are you doing here?"

Nick raised an eyebrow, suddenly very aware of his current state of undress and the wonderful weight of her slight body pressing on him. "I do live here," he said.

Her lovely eyes were swimming with a thousand emotions as she stared at him and the hand she had put on his chest curled into a claw, her nails digging into his skin. "You've been gone for three days. I thought that they had - why aren't you wearing anything?" Her face went from worried rage to shock. She quickly scrambled off of him and turned her back.

He gave thanks to the gods that his towel had managed to stay around his hips and got to his feet with some very careful movements. "I just took a shower. What are you doing breaking into my apartment? You can turn around."

Max's composure was back, though he did notice that her cheeks were tinged pink and her eyes kept drifting down the length of his body as she faced him. "I couldn't get a hold of you and, considering our past experience… I-I thought they had taken you again." She took a deep breath and her usual attitude was back in place. "Clearly, I did not anticipate your presence."

He checked the towel around his waist again and inclined his head. "Clearly."

She pulled her gaze away from him and glanced around his living room and kitchen, her sharp eyes not missing a detail now that her concentration had returned. "So, where were you?"

"Not quite sure," Nick said honestly as he moved toward his bedroom, waving at her to come with him. "The last thing I remember is crashing after leaving your place. I feel like there's something more, a lot more, but I just can't-" He couldn't find the words to go on. The pounding in his head was increasing again and he sat down on the bed with his head in his hands.

Max sat next to him and hesitantly placed her hand on his shoulder. Soon after, he felt the soft pressure of her cheek and then her lips against his bare skin in the lightest touch. "I know."