Howdy all, it's my first fan-fic so please leave me some criticism. If you don't like it, that's okay but please don't leave rude stuff. Let's play nice.

I don't own any of the main characters James Patterson created. He's awesome so he gets the credit.

Enjoy the ride!

Chapter 1.

Milk cartons, or more so the faces on the milk cartons. No one ever wishes they were the owner of the face. No one but me. At least if I had my face on a milk carton that meant someone was looking for me, someone somewhere cared for me and missed me.

I take the last sip out of the carton and crush it on the table in front of me. Don't get me wrong, I had people that cared for me, five in fact. But that was then, and this is now.

Back then my biggest problem was trying to keep my five alive. And trying to figure out how to save the world. Hah, yeah. What problems could be bigger than that you may ask. Well, right now I'm trying to think of what to do next. And being completely clueless and completely alone is in all pretenses worse. I've changed. I'm colder, I know it. I push a piece of my very stringy and messy hair back behind my ear. And right now I probably don't smell to good either. Heh.

A slight movement to my right catches my eye and I glance at the small bundle in the booth. I rearrange the blanket content with the lack of movement and continue to stare off into oblivion.

Inhale, exhale. Just breathe, Max. You can do this. You've saved the world and those you've loved. You should be happy, your mission is accomplished and for some odd reason you've survived. My pep talk to myself has failed. Remind me never to try for a career in motivational speaking.

Yeah, those faces on the milk carton have it easy.

Chapter 2.

Okay, let me not get a head of myself. It's been four years since Itex. Yeah, we blew it up, yay big deal. We thought that was the end. No, not even close.

We stayed around south Florida for a while thinking that if the erasers or Jeb came looking we could hide in the many islands off the cost.

I feel a small smile on my face. I loved those weeks. We decided early on that looking for the flocks parents would be put on hold. I just think we wanted to be together again without the fear of separation lingering in the distance. Iggy was all for that plan.

There we were. We spent the day light hours flying around the islands, discovering secret caverns that were darn near impossible to get to by foot. We stayed in a cave Gazzy found, which I must say he was very proud of. That boy can boast let me tell ya. And both Fang and I found all the coconuts and banana's a hybrid could eat. Ig tried to fish (which again, was quite a feat. I mean a blind boy trying to grab a fish…) and after a tremendous amount of coaxing we got Angel to umm politely ask the fish to jump into makeshift pan. So as you could tell, we were living the high life.

I can still remember the last night on the island. Nudge and Angel decided we needed a party. Angel said it was Total's birthday, I just think she wanted an excuse to go shopping. Nudge must have encouraged her. So we all went out and bought some nicer looking clothes for the occasion.

I have to say I looked pretty good in my light blue spring dress. Even though it was December it being Florida the summer weather never stopped. Nudge and Angel settled for skirts and tank tops of a variety of colors. They of course were adorable.

Gazzy took on the role of tourists with a capital T. He decked himself out in cotton shorts with a tee-shirt and a button down floral shirt on top. With, get this, purple and orange flowers. He also wanted a new pair of sandals. By the way, sandals are NOT the best shoes for flying. Oh no. Iggy looked very handsome with a light cotton collard shirt, green, and shorts. And Fang, Fang. He looked good that night too.

My breath catches thinking about him and that last night. He shocked all of us when he opted out of his black wardrobe and settled for a cream button down silk knock off with white light cotton pants.

He turned to me in the store smirking at my dropped jaw and shrugged saying, 'It's just one shirt. And it's Total's birthday. Special occasion.'

I don't know why but ever since I was trapped in the tank and freed my feelings about Fang were changing. I found myself letting him take on more responsibilities around the camp and not arguing with him about who's taking which watch when. And he noticed. I might have casually told him that black made him seem darker and more standoffish and how it would be nice to see him in another color, say beige or cream. I definitely think he noticed.

So we get back to the camp and the girls are off trying to make jewelry out of the local shells. They came back with a very nice necklace for me and a flower head band. They are talent wrapped up with wings. We all sit around the fire cooking our fish and enjoying our fruits.

'Max, I need to speak to you for a sec,' Fang said as he got up from the sand and walked to the edge of the shore.

I turned and check on the kids. Angel was cuddling up with Total about to drop, Nudge making a new jewelry masterpiece, and Ig and Gazzy were busy playing a game with bark, rocks and seaweed. Don't ask. I got up and followed Fang, taking extra awareness of the way his shoulders outlined that shirt and how his dark wings looked more dramatic against the lighter colors.

I stood next to him. He was staring off into the ocean. 'Yeah,' I replied, 'What's up?'

He nodded towards the sea. 'Do you feel small? Standing here looking out. Do you feel small and a little scared?'

He asked me out here to see if I felt small compared to the ocean. Taking a deep breath I replied, 'Naturally. I am nothing compared to that big thing out there. We are all small compared to it. But that's not what you wanted to talk about is it?'

He grinned. 'You were gone, Max. You left us. And the only way I could really tell that the fake Max wasn't you was from her insisting on cooking. I'll never forgive myself for not noticing sooner.' He shook his head and his eyebrows came together. He glanced at me and then back out to sea.

'Fang, they had a fake Max. I was even having a hard time remembering who was who, and I'm the original! I don't blame you Fang, so neither should you.' I was shocked. He blamed himself, and to top it off he admitted it! This boy who won't open up even a crack.

He turned and stared at me. His eyes looked so serious. He just stood there and stared. He took me in I could feel his gaze go from my face down to my bare feet. I started to feel a blush rise to my face.

Oh the things that boy's look could do to a girl. I shifted my wings, nervous habit but I kinda wanted to cover up my body from his piercing eyes.

'Fang..'

'Max, I do feel responsible. You need someone too, you need a protector. You need your own Max. And I feel like especially lately that I'm that person. I don't know when it happened and I don't care, but I am him.' He took a deep breath and continued, he looked almost in physical pain.

'Life is too short, Max. We are too small against the bigger picture. We are nothing and yet you are everything. You've been told that you need to save the world. But you don't Max. You just need to save yourself and stay alive because to us, Max, to me and to the four kids up there you are the world. You're our world. And when I found out you weren't you, that I had no idea where the real Max was I was scared to death. For the first time in my life I was scared beyond anything else I've ever experienced. And damnit Max, I'll be damned if I let anything happen to you again. So there, I just wanted to let you know that. You are the leader and protector of the flock and I'm the protector of you.' He was looking at me waiting for a reply.

Fang doesn't talk. I mean he does but not really. I couldn't believe all the words that came out of his mouth, so taking those words and understanding them was more unbelievable. He wanted to be my protector, my hero, my Max.

All of a sudden all we've been through crashed down on me on that very moment. Our first meeting at the school, our life with Jeb, what we went though to get Angel back, Anne, the high school, Lisa, Sam, the chip, the beach, the kiss, the hall way in Anne's house… the kiss, his comment on my eraser face being cute, him kissing my head, him catching me when I fall, him being there during my lapse in judgment with the chip and shell, just him in general. I shook my head in disbelief. He already was my hero in so many ways and just didn't know it. I said it before and I'll say it again, I couldn't imagine my life without Fang. It wouldn't be worth living.

'Umm, Max. What are you thinking about?' He looked a little worried with his hands shoved in his pockets.

'Fang, if Lisa and I were dangling from a cliff and you had time to save only one of us which one would you choose, and no I don't have wings.'

'What! What type of question is that.' He looked bewildered.

'Just answer it okay. Please.' I was pleading and my body was jumping on the inside which I'm sure was reflected on the outside.

'Max..', He took a step closer still shaking his head.

'Fang..' I did the same.

'Well, if for some insane reason that was the case, I would pick you. Like I said you are my life.' He paused. 'That sounded really cheesy, didn't it?'

'Yeah,' I grinned and took another step towards him. I glanced down at his lips and back to his eyes. They were fixated on my mouth as well.

'Well this changes things.' He whispered.

'What does?' I murmured loving the feel of his hand as it touched my cheek.

'This.,' And with that he leaned in and kissed me.

It started out a nice innocent kiss. But I think I made it not so innocent when I launched my body into his and grabbed hold of his head with both hands. Oh, how I melted into him. I needed him and I finally had enough guts to admit it. He pulled me closer with one hand while the other took hold of my neck and turned my head for a deeper more, well, everything type of kiss. And get this, my knees actually went weak. He tasted of Fang, sweet and dark. He smelled of Fang. I wanted to get closer to immerse myself in him. But like all things in my life this good moment was short lived.

'Ahem… um guys,' Gazzy smirked.

We jumped away and Fangs hand shot out to steady me since I still felt like jelly. Now I really did blush and from what I can tell Fang was a few shades pinker himself.

'What Gazzy!' I practically shouted, but was out of breath so it sounded like a wheezing monkey.

'We just wanted to let you know that we are going to bed now, so yeah,' He was trying to speak but his laughter was making it difficult. His shoulders were shaking so hard I thought he would pull a feather or something.

'Thanks Gaz,' Fang replied. He let go of my arm went back to his Fang look of a half smirk and all attitude.

Gazzy went back to the fire and I could hear Ig ask, 'They weren't- were they-no.. I don't want to know.'

Thank god Nudge and Angel were already asleep. I'll just have to intercept those two before they could tell the girls in the morning. I turned to Fang who just looked at me and smiled.

'What?' I smirked back. His smile always makes me feel things. Odd things.

He took a hand out and tucked a piece of my hair behind my ear. 'Your hair and my wings. That'll be good.' He took my hand and started up the beach.

'What's my hair and your wings? What are you talking about?' I was confused to put it lightly.

'What they'll look like. It will be several years from now, but I think that's the best combination.' He lowered his voice as we got closer, his fingers interlaced with mine.

'Who?' I was getting irritated. I like to have straightforward answers to my questions.

'Our children.'

Okay, that was very straightforward.