A.N.- Hey guys, sorry about not updating this story in forever again. This time it's been almost two years:/ After not getting on FanFiction for so long I actually forgot my log in information, and I lost access to my account. I used a really old email account for this that I never use anymore and even forgot what that was, so I ended up making a second FF account. I was going to post a comment on this story telling you all I would continue it on my other account once I had the next chapter written and posted, but turns out I had my username and password saved on my phone. Thanks to that I was able to access this account again. I'll be trying to update this story every once in a while, and I WILL finish this story, I still promise you all that, but no promises on WHEN that will happen. I don't know if I ever mentioned this, but I had planned on making a sequel to this story, but I have no idea when that will be or anything. So you all can look forward to that if you enjoyed this story.

Chinatown

A few weeks had passed and we were all feeling pretty relaxed. It was mid June now and the weather outside felt amazing! Zaila, having decided to stick around since she had no place to go, was constantly on the lookout for any suspicious thoughts around us. So far though, no more goons had been sent for us, which was another major plus to our current situation.

The extended flock had all agreed to move from here after the new flock members joined us. We all thought about it and discussed it many-a-times. New York was simply not where we wanted to be. The constant noise- (not to mention air) pollution was horrible to our sensible bodies. Ratchet had to wear ear plugs to go to bed; and had to wear extra sound-canceling headphones over that when he went outside. Even though all the people around made it easier to blend in, it made it impossible to fly around in the day. We could rarely fly at night either because of all the lights. The winged among us found this a very large con since flying was almost like walking to us. If we didn't fly for long periods of time our wings started to feel weird.

There were a great deal of negatives, and not a whole lot of positives that we found with living here. And when our new group members came into the world, we knew there would be even more cons. A couple of the cons I thought about being: what if they were born with some power that would immediately let others around know they were different? What if my child looked like a giant malformed bird?! Trust me I've kept myself up at night thinking about that one. Not that I would love him any less, but it would probably raise suspicion...

We needed a place away from people. Far away so that flying, even in the day time, wouldn't be an issue. Yet, close enough to be able to get groceries in less than a day's trek. Somewhere with enough space to hold our ever-growing extended flock, which now also included Jake's gang and Zaila. And somewhere where we'd be comfortable with the climate. So not anywhere like Antarctica or the Sahara...

We had come to the conclusion that moving a week after the last flock member joined us would be best. That way Kate and I would have a good amount of time to recover from anything that might go wrong, and we could tend to any issues the babies might have from the delivery. We really wanted to be prepared for the worst since no experiments have ever had offspring that we know of, and we really didn't know what to expect.

My mom and sister had wanted to fly up here to be with me when I delivered my baby, but Ella had come down with a serious respiratory infection a few days ago and they didn't think she would feel better in time to be here. They both apologized a billion times each, but I assured them it was alright. Ella needed my mom right now, and even though I felt I needed my mom to be by my side too, I knew Ella needed her more.

My stomach still looked bigger than Kate's. A lot bigger now. Jake and Livy told me that babies start to grow faster the further along they were and they think I'll be ready to have my little guy by the end of this week, and Kate in about three weeks or so. That means we will probably be moving at the end of the month. So, for today, my job will be to get everyone to start packing their belongings so we wouldn't have to deal with it later.

"How you feeling?" Fang asks me as I walk into our main room.

"Like a walking yoga ball..." I tell him. We both laugh.

It was around 7 am and not many of us were up yet. Fang and I usually got up early so we were the only ones in the room at the moment. Jake and Livy were usually up by this time too. Chris and Gavin, on the other hand, usually got up later. They liked to stay up late and monitor their surveillance, and scan the web for anything important regarding Itex and their affiliated branches. Jake's group had taken it upon themselves to find us a place to live; something I really appreciated.

"Have you eaten anything yet? I'm starving." I tell him as I walk to the small kitchen.

"Nah. Waiting for you." Fang tells me.

I open the fridge and begin to take out one of our many egg cartons. I stop, look at Fang, look back at the egg carton, then at Fang again, and we both start to laugh.

Yeah, right. Like I would cook. I'd rather not burn this little place down a month before we leave... "Alright, Fang. I believe in you!" I tell him as I set the eggs on the counter and walk away.

He got out a frying pan and turned on the stovetop without a word, as I walked back into the other room.

Now, since I had a little time to kill and didn't have to wake anyone up, I decide to turn our TV on and catch up on the news.

I remember Iggy and Gazzy told me they were staying up late last night to work on a new sleeping gas formula. I was fine with them staying up, I mean we didn't have any missions or anything to get up early for. I was actually happy that they stayed up. They were enjoying themselves and I loved that. I loved having these little off times from battle and terror that we occasionally had. They were rare, but great when they happened. The times where we felt safe enough to have fun and just be us.

Joining up with Jake's group and Zaila have given me a weird sense of safety that I hadn't felt since all the way back when Jeb was living with us at the 'E' house. A kind of strange nostalgic feeling came with it, which didn't feel as nice, but I tried to ignore it. Jake had told us it was only a matter of time before they found us again. The last place they saw us was not very far from here, after all. So I knew I couldn't have my guard down, no matter how safe I felt.

It was quiet around me, save the light sizzling noises and clangs here and there coming from the kitchen, until I heard light footsteps coming from my right. I turn and see Nudge coming towards the couch as she rubbed sleep from her eyes. "Mornin', Max" she says, sleepily.

I turn to fully face her and offer a space beside me on the couch. "Good morning, sweetie. What are you doing up so early today?"

"Idunno..." She shrugs, looking down, as she sits next to me and cuddles up to my chest.

I feel as though I haven't had Nudge very close in a while now and it made me a bit sad. I've always felt like a mom to my flock and recently it has felt like they're taking more care of me than I am of them. I can't just sit around in my regrets though. I need to do whatever I can for them and always put them above myself. That's who I am as a leader. "What's wrong, honey?" I whisper to her as I hold her to me with my right hand and pet her hair with my left.

She burrows into me more and I hold her a bit tighter.

"You know I'm always here for you, Nudge." I tell her soothingly.

I hear, "I had a bad dream." being muffled into my blue pajama shirt.

I stroke her hair lightly as I say, "It was just a dream, sweetie, it wasn't real. You want to tell me about it?"

She looks up as me, "I know it wasn't real, but it scared me a lot. I was so scared, Max. I woke up and I had to tell myself it wasn't real for like an hour before I could move. They caught us all again, and had you on a table, and they cut you up, Max. The rest of the flock too." She tells me, crying. "They were cutting you open to get your baby and- *hiccup* and- they wanted to cut the baby open too! Oh, Max, it was horrible! I wanted to get them to stop, I screamed at them, begged them, offered myself instead. They had me in a dog crate and I couldn't move. I couldn't even look away!"

I hold her to me again, trying to comfort her, "Shh, shh. It's okay. Everything is okay now. None of it was real. I promise none of that will happen, okay? I won't let it. Not to you, not to me, not to anyone." I kiss the top of her head and lay my head on it for a bit. "We'll find a way to stop them all forever one day, Nudge. I promise. One day we will be able to live in peace once and for all." I tell her strongly. I wouldn't promise her something like that unless I meant it. The only problem was that I didn't know how to do it just yet.

She hugs me, "thank you, Max!"

We sit in silence for a while, watching the news. She was laying her head on my lap and stoked her hair peacefully. This was nice. I wish I could get used to this.

"Food's ready." We hear Fang's low and quiet voice from the kitchen. We turn around and see him carrying dishes piled high with food. Everything smelled delicious, even from here.

Nudge hurries toward Fang as I turn the TV off. Just as soon as Fang places the plates on the table Nudge is on him, giving him a tight hug. Fang slowly wraps an arm around her and lightly rubs her back a bit with his free hand, all while looking at me and raising an eyebrow.

Guess he was too absorbed into his cooking to hear us. I shake my head a little bit to let him know it was nothing.

We all ate in relative silence, which was weird since Nudge was here. I guess the dream still had her shaken up. Half-way through our eating, we were joined by Maya, Dylan, and Ratchet. Star and Kate had stayed up and had a mini girls' night last night and wouldn't be up till later.

I had walked into the living room while they were in the middle of that "girls' night" and Kate had invited me to join. I think you could imagine what my answer was. After hearing them talk about random girly-crap while half-watching some chick-flick, and smelling the acetone from their nail polish remover, I'd just high-tailed it out of there. If anyone catches me participating in any of those activities out of my own free-will I personally give you permission to kill me...

(Later in the day)

"So you really think oranges, tangerines, and clementines all taste the same?"

"Yes, Fang. I mean, some of them are more sweet or sour than others, but it doesn't really have to do with what type they are. Sometimes I'll have an orange that's super sweet, sometimes I'll have one that's super sour. Same with all those other orange-colored citrus fruits!"

"What I'm saying though Max, is that they were all made to have different tastes. So they each tend to have different tastes."

"Yes. Tend to. As in: not always."

"Fine, I can agree to that."

"So where are we anyway?" I ask, finally looking around our surrounding.

"Uh. I'm not really sure." Fang says realizing, himself, that we were in a place we'd never seen.

Guess we'd both been really invested in that weird and pointless debate. I really have no idea how it came about... So don't ask...

I'm sure we could both easily find our ways out of here, but everything looked kind of interesting.

"We might be in chinatown, actually." Fang says, noticing some signs with symbols on them.

Personally, I'm horrible at distinguishing between languages. Especially ones with this kind of symbols. I know they're called something special, but as you know, we bird-kids are not very educated... Well at least I'm not...

"Yeah that sign is in Mandarin, so I'm betting this is chinatown. Thought it was bigger than this though..." Fang continues.

"Isn't mandarin one of the orange-colored citrus fruits?" I ask, confused.

Fang laughs. "Yes, Max. It's also the official Chinese language haha."

"Oh." I whisper. "How do you even know this stuff anyway?!"

"I think I looked it up at some point when I had my blog. People from all over the world would read it and comment in their native languages, so I would have to translate." Fang explains while we continue walking.

"Makes sense." I say. I had been looking around while we walked and couldn't help but think how cute it was. There were kiosks selling fresh fruits and veggies. Some little stores were selling meats, and others had displays with big paper-fans or things that looked like paper wind chimes. I had never seen little markets like this before where they sold food and things out in the open. It just reminded me of some movies I had seen in the past, which for some reason made me feel happy. "Everything looks so cool here, Fang."

"Yeah, it really does." Fang says.

We'd both seen some cool things we wanted, but decided on passing for now. We'd be moving soon and we don't want to have to carry anything more than necessary.

It was nice hanging out with Fang like this. Walking around without having a destination, and just enjoying each another's company was always nice. We used to do this kind of thing when we were younger. Back at the "E" house we would sometimes fly together at night and just enjoy the air and stars, while the others slept.

It was also nice to have a boyfriend who wouldn't talk about my pregnancy every chance he gets. I've heard some guys get overly clingy, and I understand that they're just trying to look after you and what-not, but that would eventually get old. Ratchet is a bit like that to Kate. Not in a super annoying way, but it's not hard to see that Kate gets a bit uneasy when he starts to get like that. Asking her if she needs anything every five minutes or offering to do every little thing for her seems to aggravate her the most. Kate is the type of person who will let you know when she needs help, but is too nice to get mad when you're trying to help too much. On the other hand, I always hate asking for help. And I'll sure as heck let you know if you're overdoing it Even when I need it. It's a good thing that Fang has known me forever and picks up on things quickly. If I ever need help, he'll help; but he's not overly clingy about it.

After a bit of walking around, we start to see places closing down. "I guess it's getting late. We should start to head back home." He tells me.

I nod, and suddenly I feel something weird. I hesitate for just a second, but think it's nothing so I keep going.

Fang looks at me for a moment, but continues talking and doesn't say anything.

I feel the same thing again and stop walking for a second. It felt like the normal discharge I get some times now. I know, I know, T.M.I, but whatever. I keep walking.

"What's wrong?" Fang ask.

"Nothing." I tell him, as we continue walking. If it was just discharge, there was no reason I needed to tell Fang. This stuff happened all the time, and even though it usually didn't feel like this, it really wasn't anything to worry over. It usually wasn't this much though... Every few steps it felt like more came out. It wasn't stopping... What is this?

Crap.

What if this isn't discharge...

I stop walking, and Fang comes to a halt. "What's wrong, Max?" He asks, more concerned this time.

"Fang." I pause for a second, while looking at him. "I think my water just broke."

Have a wonderful day,

~Lucy