Chapter 51, Part 1

I hugged the idiot to my chest, squealing and screaming at the same time, "Iggy!!" Max was ruffling his hair as tears seeped out her eyes. She clung to Fang's chest happily. Derrick stood off to the side for a while, but sat by me, touching my arm in a small, subtle comfort to show that he was happy for me. And the little kids and Total (I had completely forgotten about that black puffball!) all, excuse the pun, dog-piled on top of me.

Iggy choked out through the stranglehold I had on him, "Kari . . .! I'm being suffocated by your cleavage!" I let go and he shook his head. "Not that I don't mind," he said cheekily, grinning at me. But no, this time I didn't hit him, this time I clung to him, still crying, stroking his head with one hand. He wrapped his arms around me and laid his cheek on my head. "I like holding you Kari," he said comfortingly, "But why's everyone crying? Did Total die?"

"Hey!" said the dog, "Shut up! You've been out, sorry, COLD for 3 days now and you're thinking it's me?!" He chuckled as only a dog could and let Angel hug him.

Iggy pushed away from my firm grip on him (it was amazing he did it with my death hold on him) and looked me in the eyes, "Hold up. I've been out for the count for 3 DAYS?!" Time to do the explaining.

"Ig, do you remember when you realized you were allergic to gum?" Max stuttered, still weepy, "And the Sound of Music girl gave you a pill?"

"Yeeeeeeees," Iggy drew out impatiently.

"It kinda like put you in a coma from the cold sickness in the pill," Nudge explained, "And Max and Fang went to go get the cure! And Kari kept you warm by screaming for 3 whole days! Man, she must love you a lot! She didn't get much sleep! But anyway, here you are awake finally!" Wow. The entire time she was holding her speech back, and out it came. "You could've died but you didn't and I'm so happy, I mean what would happen if you died? There would be no one to build bombs with Gazzy or kick butt with Fang or bother Max or love Kari!"

Blah. Blahblahblahblahblah. Blahblahblahblah! Blah. BLAH! Is basically all I could hear. Yeesh.

Max poked me in the shoulder, "Tonight. We need to talk. There's something you need to know." I watched her warily. What was so important? How did it concern me? What happened on their way to get the cure?