xXx

Nudge could barely contain her interest as she covertly glanced once more in the direction of Max who was making a sand-castle with Angel right by the water. Every few minutes Nudge would catch Max's eyes darting up to Fang's silhouette just barely visible on the high pile of jagged rocks right where the beach ended and the dense forest began. An amused smile tugged at her lips, growing every few minutes when Max couldn't help herself from lifting her eyes.

Something had happened – that much Nudge was certain about. Yesterday Max and Fang were still blind to the connection they shared, passing it off as a very good friendship but now…well there couldn't be any other reason for Max to constantly seek him out and look so angry at herself when she realised what she was doing.

She barely contained her laughter when Angel waved her hand in front of Max's face to gain her attention and, turning a furious shade of red, she scowled at the sand in her hand as if it were the reason for every problem in her life.

"What are you giggling about over here by yourself, Pudge?" Lisa dropped down beside her grinning friend and followed her line of vision but saw nothing except Max pounding sand into place rather violently.

Slightly alarmed Lisa raised her eyebrows, "Care to share the joke? I know our dearest Max is a bit of a spaz but there's no way that's the reason you look like the cat that got the cream. Spill missy!" flicking a small shell at Nudge's leg Lisa did her best to put on a stern expression but failed miserably when Nudge burst into hysterical laughter, collapsing back onto the sand as tears poured from her eyes.

Her little fit was so loud that it even made Fang look up from his hunched position doodling to find out what was going on.

Lisa laughed at Nudge and waved off the boys' highly confused looks.

Once Nudge had herself under control once more she swiped the tears from her face – only succeeding in getting salty sand in them. "Ow!" she squeaked, blinking furiously as more tears surfaced to flush out the offending grains.

Lisa shook her head but waited until Nudge was taking deep steadying breaths to regain her composure before she asked again. "So? What's up?"

Grinning like the Cheshire cat Nudge leaned in close and whispered to Lisa her latest observations. Lisa shot up straight, green eyes the size of saucers and her mouth popped open as she gaped openly at Max. When she caught her glancing up to Fang and let out a cry of triumph and jumped to her feet, dancing around Nudge in celebration. "Yes! Yes! Yes! I knew it! I knew it I knew it I knew it! Aaah Nudge this is amazing!"

xXx

"They've officially lost their minds." Iggy observed on approaching Max and Angel.

"Agreed. Though that does imply they had minds to lose in the first place which is quite doubtful. It's possible they were just born with insane." Sam noted, running his available hand through his wet brown hair.

"True. Very true. So listen Maxie-dearest, Sammy over here turns out to be a damn good surfer and we're heading out for a bit. Wanna come?" Iggy shoved the board he was carrying into the sand and wagged his eyebrows at Max earning an eye-roll.

"Nah I'm good. I figured I'd go help Dr M with lunch. Feel kinda bad leaving her all alone constantly." Max shrugged like it was no big deal but internally she was fighting back the urge to wince.

Iggy and Sam groaned but after a very pointed look from Angel that said 'back off' they picked up their boards and dashed into the water.

Once they were gone Angel and Max put the finishing touches on their sandcastle and sat back on their heels to admire it with pride. It was absolutely terrible. One of the four towers was leaning precariously to the left and as they watched the entire front collapsed but that was quickly fixed by making it a bigger entrance. "I think we make a darn good team. What do you think, Ange?" Max stuck her hand out for a high five which Angel eagerly accepted.

"Next time Fang can help!" Angel enthused, blue eyes bright with happiness and a toothy grin.

Max nodded, ruffling Angel's thick curls fondly. "Okay shrimp. I'm heading up to the house. You wanna come?"
Angel shook her head and gazed longingly at the thick white hand of shells running the length of the beach that were deposited during high tide.

Max chuckled. With a smack of her hands to get rid of the wet sand she stood up, "Okay. Remember –"

"No going into the water without telling someone." Angel chimed, already halfway to the shells. "I know."

"Of course you do." Shaking her head Max bit back a smile and walked in a wide arc around Lisa and Nudge. They kept looking at her funny and giggling – it was highly unnerving.

Unable to stop herself Max looked over at Fang one more time, chastising herself even as she did so, before running up to the house.

xXx

The usual clanging noise emanated from the kitchen when Max entered the house from the beach. She could hear soft music being played in the background and if she wasn't mistaken Dr M was also singing. Curious to witness Dr M in her native habitat Max crept into the kitchen to find the older woman twirling around the kitchen with two trays in hand, her hips swaying and head bobbing as she moved about, oblivious about her guest.

With a laugh Max picked up the pot of stew Dr M was going for, starting the woman out of her zone.

"Oh, Max! You startled me." With a warm smile Dr M urged her to take the pot of steaming deliciousness that she was currently holding to the massive hostess tray beside the door. "Now what has brought you inside on such a wonderful day? Surely you have something better to do than help an old bat with the cooking? A hike perhaps?" Dr M's eyes glittered knowingly at the suggestion making Max blush a deep red as she hastily tried to explain her reason for being inside for the first time since her first day on the island.

"I, uh, thought you could use some help. No one's ever around so I figured you'd like some company for once." Max shrugged, tugging at her ponytail.

Dr M beamed, "Thank you, darling. Would you mind chopping up some strawberries for desert? It would save me an hour."

"Sure, no problem." The two got to work, chatting animatedly as they went about their delegated jobs and by the time everything was done Max found that she'd actually enjoyed helping. Not that she did much more than cut things up – she didn't get on particularly well with any kitchen appliance that required any actual cooking skill which included an oven – she was glad she'd decided to come up to the house.

Dr M was such a warm motherly person with her warm smiles and protective fluttering about like a mother bird that it was comforting to just be in the same room as her, doing a menial task like cleaning potatoes. Max couldn't remember the last time she'd felt mothered.

Her father did his best, of course but an awkward air always hung around him when he tried to take on the role of mother. There were certain things fathers should truly never try such as discussing periods and safe sex on the same afternoon when all she had was bad stomach cramps – especially to a ten-year-old whose mother had died only six months before. It was absolutely horrifying. Since then there was an unspoken agreement between father and daughter; motherly stuff was left to her friends moms and the rare times she saw her grandparents.

Thinking about her father and his poor attempts at being a single parent made Max's chest ache when she acknowledged that she would probably never see him again. Shaking her thoughts off Max wiped her hands on her jeans, staining them red with strawberry juice.

"All done. Thank you for your help, Max. It was greatly appreciated." Dr M chirped happily, pulling Max into a tight embrace.

Max sunk into the hug, clinging just as tightly to Dr M before pulling away to ask the question that just popped into her mind. "Dr M, are we really the only ones on the island?"

Dr M raised a questioning eyebrow, wondering where that had come from so quickly. Besides us there are five more people."

"Where?" Dr M held up a hand for Max to wait and disappeared from the kitchen quickly only to appear a few minutes later with a map in hand. She spread it over the spotless kitchen counted and pointed out four locations on the vast island map.

"Whoa. It's so big!" Max hadn't expected their small little tropical get-away to be quite this large so she simply stared at it, nearly salivating at the hiking possibilities. She'd have to drag Fang out again soon, once she could face him without turning into a stuttering idiot after the kiss. If she tilted her head to the side the island looked like a giant light-bulb with five or so smaller islands within swimming distance on the opposite side of the island from where the house was built.

"Max?" Dr M snapped her fingers to draw Max's attention back to what she was saying and with a sheepish smile Max encouraged her to go on. "There are five smaller home-steads scattered across the island in the best areas should any disaster befall where we are now. Each is stocked with all the supplies we have no and a variety of others. They're looked after by what I suppose you could say are the staff of the island. Men and women that have been here for years preparing this site and learning everything that could about it. Dr Williams is the resident geologist. He is stationed in the centre of the island." She pointed the area outlined on the highest mountain dead-centre in the middle of the island. "Dr Thompson is a marine-biologist. He tends to the harbour on the western side." The smaller area, what Max thought of as the screw-in socket of the light-bulb, was pointed out. "Then there are the archives –"

"I thought the room downstairs was the archives?"

Dr M chuckled and shook her head. "Oh my dear, that is simply an extended library. A copy of nearly every book every written is buried beneath this island. It took the longest of all the preparations for coming here permanently."

Max gaped as Dr M outlined the entire island, informing her that the archives were five hundred meters deep and spanned the entirety of the island. "Holy crap!"

"Language." Dr Mr said sternly making Max instantly shut her mouth. "Dr McGregor cares for the archives and is our resident art history expert. There is only one entrance to the archives as the contents are in carefully controlled air-locked systems." She tapped a high-lying, flatter area about three kilometres away from the Geology site to the west. "You'll find more than books in the archives. When Paris was bombed six months ago the Louvre's contents were switched with fakes and the originals sent here along with a variety of other artefacts."

"How on earth did they pull all this off with no one knowing?" Max breathed, brushing her fingers over what looked like such a simple little island. No one would suspect it hid so many secrets.

Dr M sighed sadly. "The world powers foresaw this war decades ago, Max. Since the first world war there's been something similar to this in the wings. When the nuclear and atomic bombs were created…not a moment was spared when it came to preparing for the eventuality of having such devastating weaponry."

"This has been going on since the forties? Wow. That's amazing but completely freaky at the same time." Max shook her head in amazement. "Okay, so who else and what else is there?"

"Dr Esserton is a botanist. She researches and cares for the islands' native plant life. She is based on the eastern edge of the island. She is actually our closest neighbour." Sure enough the botany camp was only about a kilometre from the house but was hidden by the thick forest. "Last is Dr Günter. He is an expert in ancient and modern weaponry as well as a highly accomplished Physicist."

"Hey, didn't he die a year ago?"

Dr M nodded with a smile, "Fewer questions are asked if someone passes on instead of disappearing."

Max could see that. She wasn't particularly interested in physics or science of any type but even she knew who Dr Günter was so there was no way he could have simply 'gone missing' without rousing suspicion.

"And that is everyone, I'm afraid. For now, anyway."

Max examined the map closely before lifting excited eyes to Dr M's. "Can I have this map? It would really help with the hikes if I knew where I was going. Could I go to one of the bases? Can I tell Fang? What about the others?"

Dr M laughed at the girl's enthusiasm, "Slow down, Max. Perhaps you should keep this to yourself in the meantime. I don't think the others fully comprehend the reasons for being on this island and to show them the magnitude of the situation…I think it would do more harm than good. For the time being. As for the bases I shall check in the doctors and see if they are open to the idea and you cannot simply go whenever you wish. I need you to tell me before you leave should they agree to it. Is that a deal?"

Max nodded vigorously, snatching up the map. "Thanks, Dr M!" just like that she'd disappeared upstairs leaving Dr M smiling fondly after her.

Hello everyone. so, a longer chapter this time and the first time i've really done a third person from someone other than Max's side of things. I hope you enjoyed it and are intrigued by the latest info about the island. Let me know your thoughts!

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