A/N: Well, here's another chapter! Enjoy :)

Waking up after being unconscious for awhile is not a pleasant feeling. It's kind of like emerging from a deep, dark pool after a few hours, minus the sense that you've turned into a giant prune, but with the added bonus of a killer headache and a sensitivity to bright lights.

"Ow," I muttered as I groggily rejoined the world of the conscious.

"Max!"

Before I could even open my eyes, I became subject to an excited bird kid pile- up.

"Ah!"

I forced my eyes open and found Nudge and Gazzy stacked on top of me.

"Alright, get off, you goofs." I shook them off and sat up, clutching my aching head.

When I got my eyes fully opened, I realized that there were only four people staring at me. "Where's-"

I looked to my right and found that Angel was still passed out on the floor. I rushed to her side and put her head in my lap.

I looked up at my flock (plus Dylan) accusingly.

"Why is nobody trying to help her? She's unconscious or something and-"

"Relax, Max," Iggy said. "We were worried, but...well, she's not unconscious anymore. I think whatever happened tired her out. She fell asleep."

I looked down at Angel and smoothed out her hair. Now that I looked at her closely, she was breathing evenly, and seemed calmer, more peaceful. I took a deep breath, relieved that she was okay.

I felt a hand on my shoulder and jumped when I realized it was Dylan's.

"When Angel fell asleep, we were worried about you, 'cuz you were shaking," he said, concern in his blue eyes. I didn't respond, just continued glaring at his hand. He removed it sheepishly.

Good choice.

I looked up at everyone.

"How long was I out?" I asked quietly.

Gazzy checked the clock on the wall. "About five minutes."

"We were kinda scared," Nudge piped in, her brown eyes wide. "With both you and Angel out…" She didn't finish her sentence.

None of us really liked to admit weaknesses out loud, so I knew the flock must have been pretty shaken up for any of them to confess that they were scared.

I drew Nudge closer to me, and forced a laugh. "It's okay. I'm fine," I said.

Well, I wasn't exactly known for telling the truth.

I had no idea what had just happened, and what I had seen freaked me out. I flashed to Fang getting shot at, and Ella coming at me with a knife. I barely suppressed a shiver.

To cover up my horror, I stood up and began to boss everyone around like I always did, getting everything back to whatever normalcy reigned in our crazy house.

"Gazzy, clean up the fruit. Ig, take down the video of Dylan and Nudge-" I lowered my voice. "If you don't, you know Nudge will find a way to do something way worse- the computer is her element, so pissing her off using cyberspace is not such a good idea."

Iggy raised his eyebrows.

"Good point."

The boys walked off to do their various assignments, leaving me with Nudge.

I looked at Nudge, who still looked a bit shaken.

"I'm okay, sweetie, I promise." I smiled at her.

"Go help Gazzy pick up the pieces of the bowl, okay?"

She probably would have protested, but considering how happy she was that I wasn't still passed out, she obliged.

I picked Angel up and began carrying her to her room. It wasn't until I had crossed the threshold that I sensed someone behind me. I whirled around and saw Dylan standing there.

"Need any help?"

"No," I almost snarled.

It probably wasn't very fair of me to be so mean to him. I mean, it wasn't his fault that he was made to be (cringe) perfect for me, or that now that Fang was gone, it almost seemed like he was taking his place.

Our flock was like a perfect circle, totally complete. When Dylan arrived, he hovered somewhere outside of the circle- visible, but clearly an outsider. Then Fang left, leaving a gaping hole in his place. Now, Dylan was in an awkward position- still kind of outside, but with a clear view of everything going on inside through the hole left by Fang. It was only natural that he might start to automatically gravitate towards the hole.

"Do you need something, or are you just going to stand there like a sack of potatoes?"

Like I said, it probably wasn't very fair of me to be so mean to him. Too bad I didn't really care about silly words like "fair".

"Um…I…just wanted to make sure you were alright." I turned away from him and put Angel gently into her bed.

"I'm fine," I said tightly.

He looked at me skeptically.

"You sure? I mean, back there, you put on a brave face, but you kind of looked really shaken up-"

I whirled around to glare at him, and something inside me just snapped. I let lose on him in one of my signature "Max-is-about-to-hurt-someone's-feelings-for-almost-no-reason" moments.

"You have no idea what's going on with me," I began angrily. "Don't pretend for one second that you have even the slightest clue that you know me. Because news flash, new kid- I just met you. I'm still tolerating you, but honestly, if you keep pretending that we're all buddy buddy, I'm kicking your little feathery butt straight out of here, and I won't even care if I never see you again." I paused, and lowered my voice darkly. "Because you barely even know my name, so don't delude yourself into thinking that you can know me better than I know myself."

And with that, I left the new bird kid on the block standing in the doorway, no doubt feeling more unwelcome than ever. He probably felt better than I did, though- I was still totally confused as to what had gone on with me and Angel, and the Fang and Ella things had terrified me.

But what scared me most of all was Dylan. In reality, I knew why I had freaked out at him. The truth was, there had never, ever been anyone who could see through me when I was pretending to be strong. The only exception to that had been Fang. Now that he was gone, I had assumed that I'd be able to keep my true feelings from everybody else, but Dylan had torn through my disguise like it was tissue paper. He had seen a weakness in me, and that absolutely freaked me out. Why? Well, partly because it seemed like he was taking something that belonged to Fang, and partly because, though I could never even imagine admitting it, there was a part of me that didn't really mind.