Cheating Death – Chapter 19

By MyNameIsCAL

It was almost eleven when I woke up the next morning. I sat up, looking around, wondering if this was a dream, that I couldn't have possibly gotten through forty-eight hours without having some sort of intruding vision or remark from Angel, especially since the ones I had been recently had been the worse.

I found my shirt on the floor and pulled it. Max was still asleep and I couldn't help but smile at her for a while.

And as if she could sense me watching her, her eyes fluttered open. "What the heck are you smiling at?"

I shrugged. "Nothing."

"Of course not."

I leaned down and kissed her. She was smiling now too.

"No nightmares?" she asked, trying to fix my hair with her fingers.

"Nope."

"Good." And she took my hand, leading me to the kitchen. We pulled out Iggy's dessert that we had never gotten to eat last night for breakfast, sitting on the couch watching reruns.

"Mmm this is the best pie I've ever had," Max said, her mouth full. "We gotta call Iggy and thank him."

I stuffed some more into my mouth. "Maybe you oughta ask him to make more."

"Don't talk with your mouth full, that's rude!"

I swallowed and stuck my tongue out at her. Before she could retaliate, the phone rang.

"Hello?" I answered it, still grinning at Max.

"Fang? It's Iggy."

"Hey, what's up?"

"Gazzy's locked himself in Angel's room. Could you come over to his house? I don't want to do anything stupid and Nudge isn't really in the mood to deal with him anymore." He sighed. "And whenever I try to help, she just gets mad at me."

"She's still mad at you?"

"Yeah…She'll get over it. She doesn't want to admit she's wrong."

"Alright, I'll be there in a few minutes."

Max finished her last bit of pie. "What's wrong?"

"Gazzy's being difficult. Iggy wants me to go over and talk to him."

"I'm coming with you."

"No, stay here, Max."

"You're afraid he'll hurt me again, aren't you?"

"Well, yeah, wouldn't you be afraid if he tried to kill me?"

She frowned. "I'm coming with you."

"Alright, alright, let's go."

We pulled on some fresh clothes and headed out the back, taking a running start, our wings unfurling.

"And what's up with Iggy and Nudge?" she asked, watching the houses go by us below.

"Nudge told Iggy she wants to have a kid, but he told her that it wouldn't be right to have one now, not with everything that's going on."

That seemed to make sense to Max. "It had always been their plan to right after they got married. Well, that's what Nudge told me anyway. So I'm guessing she's mad because she knows Iggy's right, but she doesn't want to admit to it."

"Yeah, pretty much."

"Well, that's Nudge for yah."

I nodded and we started our descent, spotting Iggy and Nudge sitting outside of Gazzy's house. Iggy didn't even acknowledge me when I walked by him. Max took a seat between them.

"Gazzy!" I knocked on the door. "Gazzy! Let me in!"

"No, stay away from us!"

I leaned my forehead against the door. Angel, what's going on in there?

There wasn't any response.

"ANGEL ANSWER ME!"

Nothing. And then, shouting from outside.

"GODDAMNIT, NUDGE YOU THINK THIS IS EASY FOR ME TO SAY NO TO YOU?"

"Iggy, where are you going?" Max's voice now.

"I WISH I HADN'T MARRIED YOU! I WISH I RAN AWAY WHEN I COULD HAVE!" Now it was Nudge screaming.

"IGGY!" Max screamed. "IGGY STOP!"

There was a screeching of wheels and then a horn honking.

I started to pound on the door. When I broke down the door, Gazzy was sitting on the floor, holding a power chord.

"No, Gazzy…"

"She's dead…"

"FANG!"

I stared at Angel.

Max came running into the room, bumping into me.

"Iggy just…"

"Angel's dead…"

"What?"

I could hear sirens in the distance. Things seemed surreal, like time had stopped. Gazzy had just given us our death sentence.

"What…what were you saying about Iggy?"

Max choked on her words. "A…a car just…he walked in front of it…and…"

And just before I thought it couldn't get worse, Jeb showed up.

"Go to Iggy. I'm guessing they'll take him to the hospital. I'll meet you there. Take Nudge with you," I tried to not let my voice waver. "I'll deal with this here."

Max backed out of the room slowly, her eyes fixed on Jeb. He was at Angel's bedside, pulling things out of some briefcase.

"How long has she been…dead?"

Gazzy was still holding the chord. "I don't know…five…five minutes? I…"

"Can you save her?" I asked.

"I don't know, it might be too late." Jeb stuck a needle into Angel's chest. "As soon as she stopped communicating with me, I knew something was wrong. Gazzy, I need you to plug that back in!"

Gazzy shook his head. "No."

"Plug it in!" I shouted.

He shook his head, gripping onto it.

"Plug it in or this won't work!" Jeb scowled.

I punched Gazzy across the face and he slid sideways, releasing the chord. I jammed it into the plug and Jeb stood. We waited, staring at Angel's monitor. The sound seemed deafening as there was no heartbeat. Jeb clenched his hands into fists, sweat running down the side of his face.

"C'mon, c'mon," he said under his breath. "Please…"

And all of a sudden, there was a little blip sound.

Jeb let out a breath. "It worked!"

Angel's voice flooded through my thoughts. I'm okay, Fang.

And that was when everything hit me. I fell to my knees, trying to stop myself from crying.

Alright, some exciting stuff there. We'll see how Iggy is in the next chapter and if he and Nudge can fix things.