Cheating Death – Chapter 20

By MyNameIsCAL

"Fang!"

I wrapped my arms around Max.

"Angel is okay," I whispered.

"What?"

"I don't know how he did it, but Jeb saved her."

Max rested her head against my chest. "You're certain she's okay?"

"I talked to her on the way here. Jeb is still there with her."

"What about Gazzy?"

I rested my chin on top of Max's head. "Jeb said he'd find a way to let Angel communicate with Gazzy, to calm him down."

"You trust him?"

"Angel does."

Max was totally leaning against me now.

"How's…how's Iggy?"

"I don't know, Fang. It was bad…he flat lined on the way here. I already gave him blood."

Angel? Tell me Iggy's gonna be okay.

It took a while for a response. I can't tell. It didn't happen when, well, you know, I wasn't really here.

I let out a sigh. "What about Nudge?"

"She's a mess. She had to fill out paperwork for Iggy."

Max pulled me onto the couch, shaking against me. We had nothing left to do but wait and hope that we'd make it through today.

"Is there a Mr. Ride here?"

I sat up straight. "That would be me."

"Would you come with me, please?"

"Why?"

The doctor let out a sigh. "Your friend is asking to see you and only you. He won't cooperate with us unless he talks to you."

"What about me?" Nudge spoke up. "I'm his wife."

I watched the doctor shift his weight. "I'm afraid he said he didn't want to see you."

I stood and followed the doctor, feeling Max's hand slip from mine as I left.

"Please don't upset him. I know he'll probably recover, but you know, I don't want anything to happen and…"

"I know," I cut the doctor off. "Thank you."

Looking flustered, the doctor nodded and opened the door, leaving me alone with Iggy.

"I thought I'd end up dead." Iggy looked terrible. It looked like he was bandaged head to toe, his eyes unfocused, searching for something that wasn't there.

"Nudge is worried about you."

"I don't want to talk to her."

"Then why do you want to talk to me?"

He took in a deep breath. "When I get out of here, I don't want to go home. I need you to keep Nudge away from me."

"I can't do that."

"You will if you know what's good for you."

"Iggy…"

"Don't…don't argue with me, Fang. Just go home now. Tell Nudge to go home."

I stood there, hesitantly. "Okay."

Iggy closed his eyes and I left, wondering how five minutes of Angel being dead could have made everything fall apart so quickly.

The fact that Iggy was no longer talking to Nudge meant that Nudge was no longer talking to me as I took his side. We brought Iggy home today. With all the injuries he suffered, it was a slow process for everything to be healed, and he was in a wheelchair now, but another week and he'd be back to normal. At least physically.

"Iggy, you can't ignore her forever," Max said, pushing him into the kitchen. "She's your wife."

"Then I'll divorce her and she can go run wherever the hell she wants, away from us."

"She didn't mean that. She was just angry."

"Well you know what, Max? That hurt a lot to hear, whether she meant it or not."

"Maybe some time apart is good," I managed to say.

I half expected Iggy to disagree, but he didn't. "Yeah, maybe you're right."

I sat down across from Iggy and Max took a seat next to me. We had nothing to eat really and Iggy wouldn't be cooking. But still, Max asked him what he wanted to eat.

"Can we order a pizza?" he asked. "I'd really like to have pizza."

"Of course." Max went to the phone, leaving me with Iggy.

Iggy leaned against the table, massaging his temples. "If it takes me getting hit by a car to make Nudge forgive me, then where would our relationship be heading if I didn't?"

"I'm sure she would have forgiven you," I said stiffly.

He shrugged and Max returned to the table. We sat without talking until the doorbell rang.

Nightmares. They started again, but they weren't the ones Angel projected to me. They were my own. I didn't realize how afraid I was that Iggy and Nudge might really split. It worried me more than it worried Max, and I tried to tell myself I was just being paranoid. But Angel said she couldn't see anything about it, that it didn't endanger our lives. And she had nothing to tell me as Nudge kept to herself at home and Gazzy, now better that he could talk to Angel for a short while every day.

Ella would be coming tomorrow. It made Iggy anxious because he didn't want Nudge to get the wrong feelings about him being here when Ella was here. Which only proved he still cared about Nudge. And yet he refused to see her. Although I had to agree with him that Nudge had been the stubborn one in the first place.

As the days had went by, Iggy cooked a lot to keep his mind off of things. It kept him happy, for the most part, so we let him, even though our fridge was now overflowing with food. Late at night, Max and I found ourselves trying to eat it or get rid of it in a discrete way.

"Ella can help us eat," I said, finishing the last piece of the fifth pie Iggy had baked today.

Mom was up late with us too. She just seemed to be taking everything in, not trying to interfere too much. Well, mostly because we didn't really tell her what was going on and she knew that we were keeping things from her, and still she accepted it.

"She might like that," Mom said tiredly.

Max sighed, tossing her fork into the sink. "Iggy better not cook breakfast tomorrow."

She stood and headed down the hall, muttering a goodnight to Mom.

"Well, goodnight," I said after a while.

Mom nodded and I went down the hall, finding Max curled up on the bed.

"Are you okay?" I put my arms around Max. "Well, okay, I don't think any of us really are, but you know, I'm just worried…"

"No, I'll be alright," she said, turning to face me. "We just…need to get through this."

Max kissed me goodnight and I closed my eyes, wondering if I should even bother to sleep.

A lot happened in this chapter here. Hopefully Nudge and Iggy can fix things between them. Jeb will be coming back into the story soon and Ella will be around next chapter. Exciting stuff ahead, well at least I hope so. Thanks for reading!