A/N-Okay, so I recently fixed a couple things in this chapter. Major content is still the same. 4-15-10
They never saw it coming.
No one would have thought that after a quiet day of flying through the air, Nudge and Iggy would have embraced again, only to have dropped from 300 feet in the air.
It was a sunny day, a warm day. Even after years of saving the world and working hard, now that it was over they all still wanted to fly. Iggy and Nudge had flown hand in hand, smiling at one another and laughing with the rest of the flock. One second, Nudge had waved a quick hello to Angel, the next, she had wrapped her arms around Iggy in a hug.
The next second, their wings just stopped working. Hovering carefully so that their wings had just barely brushed against one another, their wings had just stopped working, causing them to drop like rocks.
Nudge's stomach lurched as she saw the ground coming closer. Her wings wouldn't even move, gliding down wasn't an option. Her thoughts immediately raced to Iggy. They were going to die. At least they were going together, but she still wasn't too fond of dying. Not by a long shot.
She fought back a scream of terror as they fell right through the wet clouds. This sucked so much. Nudge was wet. Nudge was tired. Nudge was wishing she had never been created with wings. She felt Iggy's hand on her hair. "You know that I love you," he told her in a somewhat calm voice, like, oh, dying won't be so bad.
Yeah, right.
"Yeah, and I love you and all, but we're going to die, Ig!" she huffed. "This is no time to be muttering your last words!"
Iggy blanked on her, slightly confused. She looked up to see Max and Fang zooming towards them about fifty feet away, but there was no way they were going to make it in time.
Ah!
Pain zipped through Nudge. She clutched an unconscious Iggy to her chest, and glanced weakly around her. She saw jet engines, and a tail, two big bulky metal wings. A plane? Nudge wondered mentally as she began to see stars. Oh, no no no no no! Nudge was silenced as everything went black.
I opened my eyes and blinked twice, taking in the sunny yellow curtains, the metallic bedrails, the white floral wallpaper and the antiseptic smell. A lab? I thought dizzily, until I saw the IV next to me. A hospital…? I sat up and stretched, falling back onto my pillow as the room started to spin. I lay back on the pillow and breathed deeply. But I smelled something. Scrambled eggs? I thought mildly.
Only then did I notice the five pairs of eyes around me. I panicked as I picked myself up and looked at them all. "W-who are you?!" I cried. "What are you doing in my room?" As my vision cleared, so did my brain and I smiled warmly. "Max…Fang…Gazzy…Angel…Total…I missed you so much." They smiled at me. "We missed you too, honey," Max said brightly. "You were in here for a while. Probably a month or two."
I panicked. "A month or two? Is that how long I've been asleep? W-What happened to me!?" I shuddered as I realized that my birthday had passed and I hadn't been there for it. "So I'm seventeen," I said faintly. "I wasn't here for my own birthday. I don't have any presents, or a cake, or anything," I sniffled.
Max put her arm around me. "We can give you all that stuff, Nudge. We have it all at home. You'll have your birthday. I promise." She brightened. "You're really lucky they could fix you. In fact, you were the first one to wake up. Iggy's still fast asleep," she added excitedly. I tried to nod. Why would I care? I didn't bother to ask what the heck an Iggy was. Probably one of those fake animals that moves and makes noises, like Angel's stuffed animals back home.
"Eh, that's great, Max. I'm sure Angel will be very happy when it wakes up."
They stared at me for a moment. "Huh?" Max asked, breaking the silence.
"Oh, is Iggy a friend of yours? A new pet you got while I was away?"
All of their mouths dropped open. They just stared at my like fish. It was really creeping me out. "Will one of you puh-lease shut your trap?" I grumbled. "Gaping at me like idiots isn't going to help me any. Do I smell scrambled eggs? Can I have some? Don't be stingy, I haven't eaten in two months!" I said excitedly as Gazzy halfheartedly handed me the breakfast tray. "Oh, and there's bacon! Thanks, you guys!"
Max dragged Fang into a corner. "She doesn't remember who Iggy is! She doesn't remember him!" Max whispered in a horrified voice. Well, duh, why would I? I've never met an Iggy! "I don't know what we should do! Iggy's going to be so crushed! Or worse, what if he wakes up and he doesn't remember Nudge? What will we do, Fang? What will we do?"
"Okay, Max, breathe," said Fang calmly. "I'm sure that once they're around each other enough to spark a memory, it'll all come back," he answered, biting into an apple. "Take it easy! It'll all work out," he stated lazily, putting his feet up on the footrest next to the hospital chair. He switched my television back to NASCAR. I wasn't really surprised, this was so Fang.
Max was beside herself with worry. "How can I deal with this when you're being such a jerk?! You're being totally irresponsible about your best friend, Fang! How could you? Think of how much this would mean to them? And they would owe you forever!"
I rolled my eyes. "Max, I don't know what you're talking about, but I'll never owe Fang anything!" I stated lightly, hoping that she would let it go. She was kind of bumming me out with talk of stuff that I didn't even understand. "I'm sure Fang is right. It'll all be fine," I said in a warning voice that even nineteen-year-old Max understood to mean "shut up now".
Max stopped her fretting and wandered out of the room, muttering something about "wonder if they have extra Valium," and left. I cracked up, because Max hadn't had any Valium since Dr. M took that chip out of her arm. "You love me this much!" Fang yelled after her. I smiled. "She really does, Fang," I said.
Max and Fang had bought a house together right after they turned eighteen, and we had all moved in with them away from Dr. M's, who waved us goodbye happily. No, Max and Fang weren't married, but they were living together, so you can all guess what that means. Let's just say whenever going into their room, always knock. Always. Knock. Don't come crying to me when you walk in on what I did last summer.
Of course, we still saw Dr. M as much as we wanted; she was kind of like a young grandmother. At least, we saw her before I had my coma. But I'm sure we still did. I'm sure of it. Nothing had changed…right?
Gazzy was thirteen, and Angel was my age the year we saved the world. I couldn't believe it, but she seemed as eternally young as ever. I smiled, remembering she would turn twelve in a few months. I reached out to Angel for my pink DSi, and she scowled as she handed it over. I stuck my tongue out and resumed playing some prissy girl game that I couldn't remember, but that was alright. It was bound to be like this.
Total swiped a piece of bacon off my plate, and I didn't complain, he had gotten a lot older. He was much more dignified than me, not to mention married, when I didn't even have a boyfriend. I smiled, remembering Total and Akila's first litter of puppies. Maybe I would have a family someday, but for now, I was so ready for summer, with nothing to do but go to the beach and find me a boyfriend. I was seventeen, tall, and quite pretty, after all.
After I got the high score in my game, I handed it back to Angel, who complained that I stole all the good levels from her. I laughed as she tried to get Total to use his little paws to play the game, but he complained, "Grown dogs do not play video games".
I stopped laughing and looked up as I saw a beautiful guy in the door. True, he was in a hospital gown, but he was tall, and the sun shone down gracefully on his strawberry-blonde hair. He had piercing gray eyes, and a smile that could shatter your heart. He looked upon me with complete adoration, probably thinking I was cute. I offered him my best flirty smile.
He walked up to Fang and tapped him on the shoulder. Fang jumped two feet off the floor and handed the hot guy some jeans and a T-Shirt. "Dude, get out of the hospital gown. Don't you feel…a breeze or anything?" he asked with a roll of his eyes. The cute guy blushed and walked out with the clothes. A few moments later, he was back.
He walked up to me, took one look, and a smile lit up his face. "Fang, dude, I knew she'd come around. I knew she'd get better." I flashed another smile at him, hoping I didn't look too bad. Geez, what a first impression. He smiled back. "It even looks like she remembers me. Don't you, Nudge?"
What?
I stumbled around the hospital endlessly. I couldn't believe it. I just couldn't believe it. How could Nudge forget Iggy? Had Iggy woken up? Had she broken his heart? I was completely out of it with worry. This was so stupid. I should have caught them. I should have fixed it.
Walking down endless halls, I finally ended up right back where I started, outside the hospital room. I took a deep breath before I walked in, and entered to find Iggy yelling at Fang. "She doesn't remember me, you insensitive jerk!" he grabbed Fang by the shirt collar and dragged him into the hall. Iggy pressed Fang against the wall and bellowed, "I love her and she doesn't remember me! Fix her! I don't know what to do!"
Fang threw Iggy back against the opposite wall. "This isn't my fault! It's not my fault that your wings won't work, or that your girl doesn't remember you! Wait it out, Ig! Wait it out, and maybe it'll go back to normal!" He was punched down by Iggy, fully recovered. "You don't believe that anymore than I do, loser!"
Fang scowled. "The thing is, Iggy, it's the only thing we can do. There's no memory growth pill or anything. There's no medicine that can fix her. Snapping her out of this could by worse for her. The only thing to do is wait, and Nudge will come back to you, if you love her. If you love her, she'll love you," he said, not looking at Iggy. That was perhaps the most un-manly thing he had ever said. Iggy nodded, knowing Fang would never put his dignity on the line like that unless he was telling the truth.
I picked Fang up off the floor as Iggy went back to his room, pretending he hadn't just had a major meltdown. I walked back into the room with Fang, only to see everything the same. No one had heard that, which I found impossible. Nudge's eyes lit up as we walked in, and the first words out of her mouth were, "Who was that hot guy? He was waaaay hotter than you, Fang. All that strawberry-blondeness. Could you introduce me to him? He seemed to know you."
I slapped my palm over my head. This was going to be a long memory gaining.
I piled into our car with the rest of them. We were finally going off to our house, and I was so happy. We would finally be a family, and I would have birthday presents and a cake and a happy sweet seventeen. A smile stretching from ear to ear, I hugged Gazzy and Angel as I got into the backseat of the minivan that we drove around for the convenience of space.
I saw Max talking to the strawberry-blonde as Fang was getting my things, and afterwards, he walked off in the opposite direction while we drove off. "No fair, Max," I pouted. "You have Fang, so you don't get another guy. Besides, what's with stealing the hotter one?" Max seethed and rolled her eyes. "I'm not 'stealing him', Nudge, he's just our friend. We were just talking," she growled as Fang practically giggled like a ten year old.
As I walked into the door to our house, I ran and jumped onto the couch, burying my head in the scent of our home, of explosives of Gazzy's, of Total, of orange soda and whatever food Max had burned this morning. It sounds totally disgusting, but this was the home that I missed. "My room!" I cried, running up the stairs. "Actual clothes!" I shrieked, ripping off Max's spare clothes and dressing myself in clothes that I would want to be seen in, not holey T-Shirts and distressed jeans.
I walked down the stairs slowly, when I suddenly froze. "I told him to come home later," Max said quietly to Gazzy. "You let a blind guy loose around town?" he wondered. I heard a smack, and Gazzy held his newly whacked head. "He knows his way around, we've lived here for four years, damnit," Max managed to get out. She walked into the kitchen. "Oh, God, I need an aspirin."
I shrugged and walked downstairs with my cell phone, newly charged and not a tad dusty. I had hundreds of texts and missed calls from my friends, but that was to be expected. As I sifted through which ones were important, Angel tapped me on the shoulder. "Max says to ask you if you want pink frosting or white with the rainbow sprinkles," she informed me. I sighed. Angel was so annoying sometimes. "Surprise me," I murmured dryly, and continued sifting.
The floor creaked as a loud boom! came from the basement, followed by Gazzy's cackles from hell. "It works! It works!" he shouted. "I am a true genius!" I huffed, putting the phone away. There were too many distractions here. "Gazzy! Keep it down!" I shrieked at him, fed up with it all. I wanted to do my normal stuff, damnit! I'd missed out on enough of it.
"Sorry," said a charred Gazzy as he trudged up the stairs. His hair was spiked and no longer blonde, and his clothes were utterly ruined. "It works is all. I'll have to tell Ig-eh, nevermind." He scuttled away. Ugh! What was with everyone avoiding me and hiding from me and not telling me everything? I flew into the kitchen. "What's the story?" I demanded of Max, who proceeded to turn on the electric mixer. "Whaaaaat?" she yelled. "I can't hear you!" she grinned cheerfully over the noise.
I unplugged the mixer. "What's going on with you? Why do you all keep running behind my back? Tell me the truth!" I demanded of her. "I'm seventeen, Max! I'm not twelve anymore!"
"It was eleven when I didn't trust you," corrected Max.
"Whatever," I brushed it off. "The point is, you're hiding something from me. I heard you talking to Gazzy. If you don't tell me what it is, I'll find out!" I threatened, knowing Gazzy would do just about anything for food. Now, if I could just find out where to get some rare kind of food…
Max sighed. "Sweetie, you just don't remember much. We're trying to keep it as basic as possible until you can remember everything."
I argued. "What are you talking about? What is it that I don't remember?"
The doorbell rang. I ran to get it, and Max followed me. I opened the door, and Mr. Strawberry-blonde was there again. I smiled at him, but this time, he didn't offer one.
"That," Max answered softly, "Is what you don't remember, Nudge."