Izzy breezed back into the arena; it felt good to be back. She had already talked to Johnny about the guys’ schedule and caught herself up on Joey’s stuff for him that day. Izzy waved to some of the guards and crew with a huge smile on her face. Everyone was happy, but a little shocked to see her. She made her way back to where she knew the guys would be. They had some down time and were hanging out in their ‘quiet’ area. She didn’t bother knocking on the door and just walked into the room. They were all there and were shocked to see her. She went directly for Joey,
“Hey Joey-bear, here are some things I need you to look over for Jim and then you need to call mama Fatone and Kelley. Kelley sounded really urgent, so you might want to do it soon. Also don’t worry about that thing with Cindy; I already took care of it. I’m gonna go to the bathroom real quick and be back in a minute.” She winked and breezed out of the room. She almost had to laugh at their shocked faces when they saw her walk in the door. Though seeing JC made her heart race, she had missed him so much. He was all she had craved last week. Hopefully Joey was making that phone call to Kelley, if he knew what was good for him. Izzy quickly went pee and then went back into the room with the guys. Joey was arguing on the phone with Kelley,
“Kelley I swear, no, I didn’t do that! I’ve been here all week! Come on!” Izzy walked over to Joey and took the phone from his hands,
“Hi, Kelley? It’s Isabella. Look I want you to take the next flight to Cleveland, Ohio. Joey will be there to pick you up, bring Brianna too. You and Joe can spend the day together because he had some unexpected time off. Talk to you later, bye!” Izzy hung up the phone and tossed it back to him, “Really Joey you just have to know how to talk to her.” She turned back to the rest of the guys, “You guys are needed in make up in twenty.” She said and walked out of the room again. This time Joey followed her out,
“Izzy! Wait up!” She turned around,
“Is there anything else you wanted hon?” She smiled,
“What the hell is going on? You leave for a week without a word and now you breeze back in here like nothing happened. I don’t understand.”
“Joe, I went to Edwards. I thought I wrote that in my note.”
“I know you did, but you had us all worried about you, especially me when I saw how bad you were and now you’re normal.”
“Is that a problem?”
“No, I just want to know if you’re really okay and not trying to push it aside with work.” He said gently and laid a hand on her arm,
“I’m fine, Joey-bear. Greg took care of it and made everything okay last week.” Joey looked puzzled and Izzy hugged him, “Oh, Joey-bear, for once it was something you couldn’t fix. Only Greg could make me feel better and he did.”
{Flash Back}
Izzy stared at the box that Greg’s mother had given her after the funeral. She was back in her room at the theta omega house trying to decide whether or not to open it. Finally she took a deep breath and ripped it open. Inside the box was a videotape that read,
‘Watch this before you do anything else’ written in Greg’s perfect handwriting. She gently ran a hand over it wishing with all her might that he was alive. She stood up, put the tape in the VCR and turned on the TV. Quickly Greg’s face appeared on the screen. He looked really sick, his face was a bit gray and all his hair was gone. He had heavy bags under his eyes but his face lit up when he smiled into the camera and waved. She laughed at his goofy expression and a tear slid down her cheek,
“Hey Isabella,” he paused to cough a little, “I’m guessing that by time you get this that you’ve already heard about me and probably been to my funeral. Was it standing room only? I hope so, that would have been so cool.” He laughed a little causing him to have another coughing fit. He regained his composure and looked back at the camera, “I hope you’re not too mad at me for what I did, I had my reasons. It’s not your fault at all Izzy, I don’t want you thinking that, so stop.” Greg knew her too well, “As you can see I’m not exactly the Greg everyone knows and loves. You see my body is riddled with cancer; most in my lungs, liver, and finally it’s reached my brain. It’s completely inoperable and the doctors are surprised that I’ve lasted this long. Izzy I didn’t want to die in a hospital connected to all those machines, slowly and painfully, that’s no way to die. It’s the reason why I did what I did. This is also why I’m glad that you didn’t stay here with me in Edwards. It would have made it a lot harder for me to do and for you. So I guess things have made sense again.” He paused as if to compose himself from crying, “Izzy you gave some of the happiest times in my life. I really don’t think you know just how wonderful you really are. I hope you never change because you are perfect just the way you are and don’t let any one tell you different. In fact I don’t know how to repay you for everything you’ve helped me with. All I can do is pray that you have a happy life. I’ll be watching over you to make sure of it.” A tear slipped down his face, “Now I’m gonna start a little early and give you some advice. The only regret I have in my life is that I let you go and didn’t tell you how I felt about you. Now listen carefully, always tell the people you care about how you feel about them, because you’ll never know when they’ll be gone.” He stared at her seriously for a second and then smiled one more time, “Okay that’s guardian angel’s advice for the day. Just remember if you ever need me, just whistle, you know how to whistle right?” He winked and she let out a little laugh remembering how he used to quote his favorite classic movie, ‘To have and have not.’ “I’ll always be close by, love you. This is guardian angel Greg signing off.” He saluted and the tape cut off. Izzy stopped the tape and looked into the box and saw that his dog tags were in there with a small note attached to them. She pulled it out and read the note,
“I wanted to give you something of myself to you so that you’ll always know that you’re never alone. –Greg”
She grasped the dog tags and smiled to herself. A calmness swept over her and she didn’t feel sad any more, leave it to Greg to be the only one who could make her feel better.
{End Flashback}
“I don’t get it how did you talk to Greg?” Joey asked completely confused,
“He left me a tape and other things.” She said non-chalantly,
“And what did he say?”
“That it wasn’t my fault and that he had his reasons.”
“That’s all he said and everything’s okay, just like that?”
“No, but that’s between me and Greg. It’s the way he wanted it to be.” Joey still looked upset, “Joey-bear, I’m sorry I didn’t call. I was just too overwhelmed with everything going on and I forgot. Can you forgive me?” She smiled and he grinned,
“We sure did miss you.”
“I missed you and the guys too. It was way too quiet for me.”
“So you’re really okay?”
“Yeah, I am. In fact, I haven’t been this okay in a long time.”