Thank you all so much for your caring about my parents! I told them a bunch of reviewers were telling them to get better and they thought it was pretty cool. Just so you know (in case you're even vaguely interested), mom's fine now, just a bit stressed, but dad has to wear a neck brace for about three months, and won't recover fully for six… and now I've gotta do a bunch of chores I didn't have to before and it sucks. Oh well.
Well, thanks again, and on to the next chappie.
Max POV
"You're leaving again?"
I turned to look and saw Ella, her eyes trained on the ground.
I stuck my chin out. "Yup, Ells. We're leaving. But I hope this will be the last time."
Ella sniffled, and I suddenly realized that my Flock wasn't my only family. Ella and mom, they cared for me too. And they were probably worrying about Iggy as well.
I stepped forward and wrapped my little sister in a hug. "Listen, Ella, it's okay. We're gonna get Iggy fixed, then we'll come back and I don't think we'll ever have to leave again. So stay happy, okay? We'll be back as soon as possible."
Ella looked up. "I wish I could come too."
"No, you don't. You really, really don't. Just stay with mom, and we'll see you soon. Chin up now. Stay happy for mom."
"Max, we really will miss you. But of course we understand. You need to fix Iggy as soon as possible. Just return the instant you're done." It was mom.
"Of course, mom. We'll come back as soon as we're done."
"Yeah, probably won't take too long. Just get those Whitecoats to slice me open real quick, and boom, it's over."
Fang elbowed Iggy in the ribs, and Iggy winced; Fang realized that, of course, Iggy's ribs had just been broken, and compromised by ruffling his hair. Iggy scowled.
"Yeah, it'll be real quick." I hoped.
Fang POV
We'd set off that night. Well, it had pretty much all ready been night, so it really didn't take too long to leave; all we did was go home so me and Iggy could wash all the blood off and change clothes. Then we set off quickly.
I had never seen Iggy so happy. Never in my life.
Sure, I'd seen him ecstatic, I'd seen him excited, I'd seen him eager, I'd seen him smile, smirk, grin, laugh, chuckle, guffaw, and even giggle; I'd seen him in so many good moods. But I'd never realized that he had never been truly happy at those times until… well, until now that I was seeing him truly happy.
You know how, when people are euphoric, they just never stop smiling? And their eyes sparkle, and their face lights up, and everything about them seems weightless, and they just bounce around and they're bubbly and happy and make everyone around them smile? Well, that was Iggy right now.
The sad part was that I knew the only reason he was happy was because… well, it was because we didn't want him to die, and he knew we cared. Isn't that sad? He's happy because we don't want him to die. And he's the very happiest he's ever been.
God, Iggy's such a freaking idiot.
I actually feel like crying, which would be about the second time ever in my entire life after about age six. The first time was when we found him in the School, plugged up in that tank to all those tubes and needles, naked and asleep and emaciated.
How come Iggy's such a freaking idiot?
I feel like punching him.
Of course, I would never do that with him about to die and all.
Wait…
I flew quickly up beside Max. Looking back, I saw Iggy laughing with Nudge, Angel and Gazzy, completely blissful, his eyes alight with happiness and his face lit up like the sun.
"Max," I hissed through my teeth. She glanced over at me. I could see how distracted she looked.
"What?" she whispered back.
"When does Iggy turn sixteen?"
Max froze for a second, dropping like a stone a few feet before flapping her wings harshly to rise back to the proper height.
"Why? Do you think it's soon? You don't think it's soon, do you? Oh gosh…"
"Max, calm down," I muttered frantically. "I don't know how soon it is, that's why I'm asking. Do you have any idea at all?"
Max paused. "According to Jeb's notes, Iggy actually is… well, was exactly six months younger than me. What's the average number of days in a month?"
I thought a moment. "Thirty days pass September, April, June, and November, all the rest have thirty-one, except for February alone, and that has…"
"… twenty-eight days clear, except of course on each leap year," Max finished the nursery rhyme with a slight smile. That was the very first thing any of us had ever learned whilst in the School; Jeb found it necessary for us to learn the days of the month for some reason, and ever since none of us had ever forgotten.
"Well, that means most of the months have thirty-one days, then, right?" Max continued.
"And thirty-one times six is…" It took a few minutes of her furiously calculating in her head. I waited patiently; she was faster at math than me, so it would've taken longer if I helped. "Um… one hundred eighty-two days, give-or-take… I'm pretty sure I'm wrong. Anyway, now he's five hundred days older than that, so he's… um…" a few more minutes of mental calculating… "I think about three hundred twenty days older than me. Which is like, eleven… no, a little more than ten months. And, um… my birthday…" she frowned and turned to me. "So… when was my birthday?"
I thought a moment. We knew Max's exact birthday because of the knowingness of Dr. Martinez (after all, she had given birth to Max, so she would know). Max had just turned fifteen a while ago. "Um…" I continued, wracking my brains, trying to remember the exact date. After all, we had used her made-up birthday for most of her life. "Wasn't it, like, five weeks ago?"
I remembered now. It had been about a month after we'd rescued Iggy, and he was still pretty thin. For a present he'd gotten Max a pendant with these wings he'd made himself. There were six of them, one black, one creamy with strawberry and golden specks, one fawn-colored, on brown and white with black tips, and two pure white ones; each was perfect size in proportion to their model (aka, me, Gazzy, Nudge, Angel, Max, and Iggy himself). The color was enamel, and he'd done it perfectly one these perfect wings. It had been beautiful; I'd wondered at first where the heck he'd had time to make it, what with recovery and all, but he'd told me he'd made it almost four months prior to the entire incident when he'd been forced to go to art class my Dr. Martinez. Anyway, Max had been mega pleased with the necklace and wore it always. All of us had spent practically the entire remainder of Max's party stuffing Iggy with as much junk as possible in an effort to get him to fatten up.
I smiled slightly at the memory; it had been fun, with Iggy back and all of us doing stuff together again.
Then my blood went cold, and when I glanced over at Max, I realized she had realized the same thing; her face was stricken.
Because if Max's birthday was over a month ago, that meant, due to all of our rough calculations… that Iggy had less than a month until he turned sixteen.
Iggy was going to die in less than a month. Well, unless we got him fixed up. Which of course we were.
Max POV
Angel? I thought.
Yeah, Max? my baby answered.
You know about Jeb's notes, right? I thought she would, what with all her mind-reading powers.
There was a pause, then her voice appeared in my head again. Yeah, Max.
That's okay, Angel. So you know everything Fang and I do about Iggy? You know all about Jeb's notes?
Yes. I'm sorry, I was just so curious and I wanted to know what was wrong with Iggy… I'm sorry I didn't listen to you.
I grinned. Angel was so sweet sometimes.
Absolutely fine. I knew you'd find out through our minds. Actually, I wanted you to know anyway, I just didn't want to leave out Gazzy. He'd have gotten jealous.
Ah. Okay Max, I totally understand.
Good. Listen, since you know, you're going to be me and Fang's main confidante. Will you be able to do that? It means if we need to talk about something in the notes, or if we need someone else to do something about it, you'll be our first choice. We don't want to tell Nudge or Gazzy. And we need you to help Iggy out. Okay?
Of course, Max! I'll do anything for Iggy. I love him, you know?
Yup, I sure do honey. We all love him.
I let out a sigh of relief. I knew with the whole Iggy-now-has-less-than-a-month-to-live-unless-we-get-him-to-the-School-in-time-and-manage-to-convince-them-to-take-out-the-hing-they-put-in-him-on-purpose stuff, Fang and I would need help with someone else who knew about the notes. I mean, we weren't about to tell Nudge ore Gazzy because they were young, they would treat Iggy differently, and because it would be unfair to Iggy if everyone in the Flock knew but him.
Wait; did Iggy know? Maybe he did. Maybe he did and had just never told us? I wondered if that was even a plausible idea.
But it didn't matter anymore. All that did matter was getting Iggy to the School and making them cut him open and take out that machine… wow, that sounded worse than it was supposed to. Anyway, that was all that mattered for now. I'd deal with the whole him-maybe-knowing think afterwords.
My bottom lip quivered as a tiny little thought entered my mind; what if we don't get there in time. Or what if we do, but the Whitecoats won't perform the operation? But I couldn't think such sad thoughts right now.
Because Iggy only had less than a month.
Thank you for reading. I hope to include a happier chapter in the near future in which the Flock goes to an amusement park for Iggy's benefit (sure to be interesting). Anyhoo, thanks for reading… but I already said that… well, please review and stuff. Yeah. Seeya.
