Hey guys… I see some of you would like the Nudge & Iggy stuff, but others would hate it. SO YES! I FOUND A WAY TO PLEASE BOTH CROWDS!! Although, one might be disappointed with the style I make it in, but… I hope y'all will forgive me. Now READ!! … OH! By the way: This is a longer recap than I thought it would be. I'll try to make this one long. OK. Now read.
o.o
Recap: (while Iggy has been taken hostage on the chopper.)
Jeb leans in close to me. I feel him breathing right next to me. "Welcome home, Iggy." I snort. Does he think home is back at the School for me? I sure as hell don't. He starts babbling and says, "You're really clever, aren't you. But I suppose you would be. I mean, you've been leading a harder life than the rest of the flock, save Max. You had to deal with being blind. I'm very proud of you and how well you've handled it." Here it comes… "But you don't have to deal with it any more. We have found a way that we're sure can fix your eyes. Just stay with us long enough to fix them, at least."
Ha. Little did he know… I actually am good at having backup plans. When my lighter was taken away from me, I remembered the Swiss Army knife I kept with me. I pull it out and right now, I am quietly hacking away at the ropes of the net. Nobody suspects a thing.
"Please Iggy, don't think of trying to cut these ropes away with that little knife of yours." Damn… "I'm seriously trying to help. Please… believe me."
Does he really think that I'm gonna trust him after he betrayed us? He better not think so. He's gotta be smarter than that. A few seconds pass and I realize he is. He whips out a needle and sticks it in my neck, injecting something that's gonna knock me out. As I slip away from consciousness, I hear him saying quietly, "I'm sorry…"
o.o
Ow…my head hurts…ugh…they changed my clothes. Even my BOXERS!! Hmph…talk about a lack of privacy. Now I'm in some ugly School hospital gown. It's really light. And the back is open. Oh, God…I hope they won't make me walk down the hall. That would be so very embarrassing. I'd probably kick their butts even more than I plan to already.
I'm in a cage. I hate cages. Why couldn't they just give me a room? Given, it would have been locked and bolted and guarded by at least five Erasers, but seriously, a cage? What is it with them and cages? Everything has to be in a cage. They're going to have a very stiff bird boy on their hands when they decide to take me out of here. I don't know if I'll be able to stretch out on the operation table when they pull me out to "fix" my eyes.
Ugh…a cage…
o.o
Wow…it's been three days. I can't believe the flock hasn't made it here yet. They probably got detoured by Erasers…and stuff. I hope they're actually coming. The whitecoats are saying they're gonna perform surgery today. I never thought there was a God, but if there's one now, I hope he's listening.
Dear Lord, please don't let me die today…
The whitecoats are here. They have a needle. I'm out cold.
o.o
(Memory Land…so no, Ig's not going crazy here.)
The flock is flying. I accidentally drop a bomb over a lake. The explosion rocked. I could feel the spray of water from four hundred feet in the air. Max is sooo pissed…
Nudge and I are trying to go out on a date. The Taco Bell we're at isn't really that awesome. Maybe we should go flying instead. A kid shoots a paint gun at us… We think it's not really gonna work out…
Gazzy and I are making our first bombs back at our old house, where we used to live with Jeb… That one was a disaster…
Fang is telling me about how he and Max want to get married…
Angel is talking to bears now…great…I think one day, one of these dangerous animals isn't going to listen to us and it'll eat us up…Then she'll know why she can't be the leader…
(You are now exiting Memory Land. Please unbuckle your safety harnesses and step off the ride.)
o.o
Oh wow…I have a massive headache now. I always get one after coming back to consciousness. I pop my neck real quick. That feels so much better. The familiar light plays against my eyelids, but it feels brighter now. Almost like somebody has a really bright flashlight and they decided to keep it in my face for a really long time. I open my eyes.
And holy crap…I can see. I'm not in a cage anymore. In fact, I'm flying. Well, technically, I'm not doing the flying…but I'm in the air. Fang has a net and I'm in it. Great…now I feel like a fish. Angel better not try to use her mind control on me…
Max and Fang haven't noticed I'm awake yet. Actually, none of the flock has yet. They all think I'm either knocked out, or asleep, or something to that effect. Max just flew ahead and beckoned to Fang to come with her. I can't believe those youngsters are old enough where they can be left alone for a few seconds without setting a bomb off…wait. That only happens when I'm around. What excitement they have with me in their lives. I don't see how they could live without me… (Major sarcasm alert!) But, seriously, how could they live?
I do their cooking (except when we're at somebody else's house), I bring excitement (mostly having to do with bombs and destruction), and after trying to live without me, we were all miserable. Yes, I know that the heartbreak would have happened if anybody else left, but still. Since I was the only one who tried not being with the flock, I claim the heartbreak all to myself. They can't have it. So there. (I am sticking my tongue out, but you can't see it.)
Anyway, I was eavesdropping on Max and Fang before we took that enjoyable detour. Hmm…It seems Max is worried. Fang too, for that matter. It's weird to see Max worry, but even weirder to see Fang admit to being worried. Max kicks off the conversation. Here's how it goes:
Max: "Fang. Do you think the Whitecoats know?" Her eyes were wide, man. She's totally freaked.
Fang: "Know about what?"
Max: (punch)
Fang: "Just joking…geez. God knows we need a little bit of laughter around here. And…I don't know. They know basically everything else, so why wouldn't they know about this? Unless, of course, they honestly butted out of our lives for long enough for this to happen."
Max: "Yeah, right. I don't think they ever counted on this to happen. But if they ever find out, which is very likely, what will they do? I can't let them know this. We have to try to lie low until this is over."
Fang: "But after it happens, nothing will ever be the same, Max."
Max: "I know. But as bad as it seems for us right now, I'm actually really excited…I can't wait."
Fang: "Neither can I."
Max: "Fang…can you believe it?" Her eyes glowed with pure joy. I knew it was coming… "Fang…we're gonna be parents."
Fang: "Yeah, I know." He looked straight ahead, wistfully. "We might even be having twins… I hope Dr. Martinez is right about that."
Max: "Yeah…This is gonna be great."
Fang: "So…when're we gonna get married?"
Max: "As soon as Iggy wakes up. We're gonna go to Vegas... or maybe we'll do something else. Vegas is overrated. Let's go to…Atlantic City."
Fang: Smiling.
Max: Smiling, too.
(Yeah…I knew y'all saw it coming…Now stop reading these random author's notes and keep reading the story!!)
Wait. Did she just say I'm not awake? She's looking right at me and she can't tell I'm awake? Crap, crap, and more crap. That means I'm dreaming. Which means…We're going to Atlantic City! But is this going to happen tomorrow? Or just sometime soon? I hope it's really soon.
I'm going to be an uncle!
(We are now exiting Iggy's Dreamland/Futureland)
o.o
Now I'm waking up for real. How can I tell? Well, I have that giant headache and the drowsiness of waking up when I don't really want to wake up. At least I'm not in a cage. I'm in a cot. And the cot is in a room. Hopefully, it's not a room with bars, otherwise that would mean that they just upgraded my cage and made it bigger. But a cage is a cage. I get up and walk to a wall. I touch it. It's a wall. There aren't any bars. I'm in a room. And it's not a cage.
I hear a door swing open and shut. Somebody walks in. Well, they more stomp in than really walk. Whoever it is grunts like a big gorilla and has giant nails that really hurt. I might be exaggerating about the hurting, but they really did have giant nails. Ugh... Eraser claws. I've gotten gauged by them before, and it was not a pretty sight…at least, it felt ugly. I didn't really see it. But the others were pretty disgusted. It was hilarious sitting there listening to them go, "Eww…"
The Eraser who's walking me around the building is grumbling something about "not a freak-baby-sitter…" and "just wanna get the job over with…" Naturally, that's gonna spark my curiosity. Job? I wonder what it is… It wouldn't have anything to do with little old me, would it? Naw… Aw, shucks…It's good to know they care about me so much! Ha. Sarcasm is the greatest.
I just remembered. Am I still wearing the open-back hospital gown? Without my boxers?!?! Phew… I'm in jeans now. They're actually really comfortable. But…they forgot to give me a shirt. No wonder it's so cold…
We finally reach our destination and the grumpy Eraser swings open the door with quite an attitude. Looks like somebody woke up on the wrong side of the test tube this morning. He really needed to go to some anger management classes. He shoves me onto a hospital bed and snarls, "Don't move a muscle, freak. Or I'll be glad to have my job. And you'll be sorry." Geez…he sounded like something out of a really bad action movie.
He shuts the door and I stick out my tongue at him. Childish, I know, but I never really grew up. I hope I don't really have to. And if I do, I hope it isn't for too long. It seems like I'm going to have to be a little grown up while I'm still with the Whitecoats and all, but I'm gonna keep it to the absolute minimum.
Somebody walks in the room. There's a lack of door-slamming so I'm assuming it's not the Eraser, or the Eraser took a thirty-second anger management class that doubled in how to close a door calmly. Somehow, I get the feeling that the first choice is the right one…
And the cookie goes to: IGGY! Yeah…It's not an Eraser. It's our old buddy, Jeb. Of course it is. Who else could I have been expecting? Maybe I was hoping it would be my fairy godmother, come to rescue me from this hellhole. I sigh. What a waste of dreams. My heart's wish will never come true…Cinderella was right about one thing, though. Dreams do come true. At least, mine do.
I twist my neck both ways so the bones in there make little popping noises. Jeb says sharply, "You shouldn't do that. It's bad for your neck."
I snort. "What's it gonna do? Kill me? I'm not afraid. I'm not gonna die today."
Jeb is silent. I hear a scratching sound as he writes something down. I can just imagine him in a white coat with a clipboard examining the "patient" and scribbling down notes. I always wondered if they were scribbling down notes or just doodling on their pads. I mean, really. All you need to do is take one look at me, see the wings, and then be like, "ok…this is not a normal patient."
Anyway, Jeb decides to ignore my odd comment and continues scratching something down. That scratching sound is so annoying. I want to take that pencil out of his hands and snap it in two pieces. I have a gigantic headache right now and that irritating sound is not helping.
I refuse to let Jeb see me clutch at my head in a desperate attempt to tune out the scratching. So I sit there and stare straight at where (I think) he is. Apparently people are freaked out when I do that. I stare straight at them and they realize I'm blind and it's all great fun!
Jeb comes at me and places something cold on my chest. It's a stethoscope. I yawn. We're back to the good ol' days…Well, those days weren't really good, so I guess it's just the "ol' days".
He finishes up the check-up. Then he pulls up a chair and sits directly across from me. Yes. I can tell the position of where people are… It's called instinct. And I gotta say, mine has gotten better. I used to be a pampered, caged princess, what with these scientists jabbing and poking at me. Now I am a completely different person. I have had to learn how to get my own food…or at least ingredients so I could cook. I'm thinking about opening my own restaurant.
Jeb kicks off the conversation. "So, how's Max and the rest of the flock?"
I "look" at my nails and pretend to be busy polishing them. Of course, they're perfectly clean. I happen to be a neat freak when it comes to my hands. I don't mind getting them dirty as long as they're clean afterward. Weird, I know. Gazzy wonders what I'm high on.
"Iggy. I need to make sure they're ok. I haven't been getting anything from Ma— " He cuts himself off abruptly, as if he is about to let me in on some super secret.
"You haven't been getting anything from Max? Or is it Max's chip?" Silence…Hmm…Maybe he doesn't know we know…Let's make sure… "Oh yeah. We found out about it a while ago. Is that how you've been tracking us? How about how the Voice got into her head? She's been driving me nuts talking to herself, you know that?"
"So Max has a Voice too…Just like Ari…Just like…Maybe it's hereditary…"
I wonder if Jeb's really in his right mind. I mean, how could it be in Ari too? The Voice? In Ari's head? It must have a load of space to run around in up there.
o.o
Hmm…yes…inconvenient ending, huh? Well, I couldn't think of where else to go with this so I'm just going to end it here. Maybe I'll get some inspiration for the next chapter somewhere…Maybe a few cookies will help me along…I've got other stuff to do right now otherwise I would start the next chapter… But you'll have to content yourselves with this one for now. Now GO REVIEW!!!