awakening might be.
Suddenly, the door to the operating room opened. A nose emerged from the crack between the door and the door frame. This caught Jenna's attention.
"Balto?" she asked herself.
The door opened further and Balto emerged from behind.
"BALTO!!" Jenna exclaimed with delight. She was also relieved that the whole wait was over. Her exclamation startled Mika awake.
While nobody waiting was looking, Balto's blood pressure returned to normal and he had started to wake up. One of the doctors who was still in the operating room came out to tell the good news. The apparent cause of his slow awakening was a form of hypertension.
Jenna bounded over to the doorway. Balto was still a little drowsy, so his reaction to Jenna's delight was slightly slower than usual. They nuzzled each other, happy tears streaking across their faces.
Mika slowly climbed out of the chair he was sleeping in and onto his feet to see what was going on. When he saw what all the excitement was about, his face brightened and he breathed a sigh of relief.
Everybody in the room starting petting Balto, unable to say enough of how happy they were that he was okay. Rosy and her parents made it through the crowd to see them and Rosy herself couldn't be happier with the outcome.
Attu, Dingo, Kiska, Kodi, and Saba came over to greet their father upon his exiting from the operating room. Eventually, Mika made his way through the crowd, albeit staggering slightly from the effects of the alcohol and the lack of sleep he had gotten over the past few days.
"Thank God you're okay!" Mika lightly exclaimed as he hugged Balto. "Oh, guess what! The murder charges against me stemming from the alleyway incident have been dropped. I'm a free Finn!"
"That's great to hear!" Balto replied.
"I know, it is," said Mika. "Uh-oh!" he added as he put his right hand over his stomach.
"What uh-oh?" Balto asked.
"Stomach bug is acting up!" exclaimed Mika in response.
"What stomach bug?" asked Balto.
"I think that bag of beef jerky I had with me on my return must have expired," added Mika. "And I think it's been made worse by my recent vodka binge."
"What vodka binge?" Balto asked again.
Jenna explained to Balto that David had died from his battle injuries and that Mika's brief excess boozing was because of that.
Just then, Mika started making a noise that sounded like he might start to puke at any second now.
"Hey!" exclaimed Balto. "Don't you dare throw up on me!"
"Oh, I don't know for sure if that's where it's gonna come out," Mika retorted.
Immediately, Balto herded Mika towards the bathroom, pushed him inside, and shut the door behind him.
"Come on, boy" said one of the doctors who worked on Balto to remove the bullet. "We just need to do a quick physical evaluation and then you can go."
Balto went back with the doctor for the evaluation and returned a few minutes later. He was grimacing in a little bit of pain from the cracks in his ribs left by the bullet wedging itself in between them.
Mika, meanwhile, was still puking his guts out in the bathroom.
"Is he really that ill?" asked Jenna.
"Apparently," replied Balto.
They nuzzled again. This time while in the sitting position.
"I'm so glad you're okay," said Jenna as she pulled her head back. Next, as if on impulse, she took him in her still tear-soaked paws and kissed him long on the lips. Balto was caught by surprise and almost didn't return it.
"Hey, guys," said Kiska as she walked past. "If you're gonna do that in public, be younger. And not my parents."
Balto and Jenna looked at each other in a very confused manner. It was as though they didn't understand a word their daughter was saying.
"Sure feels good to be out of there, Jenna," said Balto. "They had me so drugged up from that knockout stuff while in that operating room I didn't know whether I was coming or going."
"Oh, Balto, try not to worry about that," Jenna replied. "I'm just happy you're still alive."
"Me too," added Balto.
Impulsively, she embraced and kissed him again. He, too, was flooded with emotion: back from the dead, his beautiful mate filling his front paws, saving him from the jaws of the abyss at the last possible second. Overwhelmed, unable to even speak, he held her tightly, both of them blind to everything else that was going on around them. Or at least they were until they moved apart.
"Best kiss of my life," said Jenna, smiling.
"Best kiss of your life so far," Balto added. He, too, was smiling.
Just then, Mika came out of the bathroom not looking too pleased.
"Alright, who use up the toilet paper and didn't replace the roll?" he asked.
Before he could further inquire about the toilet paper, Mika couldn't help but notice what Balto and Jenna had been doing. There wasn't anything going on right then and there, but he could tell what had happened.
"Hey, you dogs are really good," Mika said while scratching his head in a state of disbelief. "How the hell do you do that?!"
"Same way you humans do it," Balto replied. He was already facing Mika, so he was able to say it right to his face.
"Okay, I'm gonna pretend I never saw that," Mika added as he walked towards the doorway, shielding his face from them. The crowd was still out there.
"Why is that crowd still out there?" he asked. Then he remembered his own prediction of what they were there for when he first saw them.
"Oh," he said to himself. He then opened the door and stuck his head through the doorway to give the crowd the answer to what they were waiting for.
"He's OK!" Mika exclaimed as he gave a thumbs up with his right hand.
Right then and there, the whole crowd started to clap. But the they didn't really get excited until Balto appeared in the open doorway. Jenna followed him out. Mika joined them. The crowd then broke out in a thunderous applause.
"Hey, look!" somebody in the crowd exclaimed. "It's the Soviet slayer!"
"You mean the same kid who shot my son in that alleyway skirmish!" yelled the mother of one the victims who survived.
"Who cares about that!" said another voice. "I hear he was acquitted."
"More importantly, he just whooped an entire band of extremists and saved us all!" added another voice.
Quite a few "Yeah!"s rang out.
"That formerly accused killer is a hero!" rang out the same voice who said "Who cares about that!"
At that point, both of Mika's fists shot upward in triumph. He even exclaimed "YES!", but it largely drowned out by the roar of the crowd. A huge grin emerged on his face. It was one that had not been there in a very long time.
Mika's parents, brother, boss, and even his band mates were among those who had congregated outside the animal hospital. He eventually went over to where they were standing. Along the way, he stopped to accept several congratulatory high-fives, handshakes, and the like.
"Way to go, man!" Colin exclaimed as he patted Mika on the back.
"Alright, Flying Finn!" yelled Ryan. "Or should I say 'The Wild Child of Vaasa province'!"
"Ryan, I don't give a rat's ass which name you refer to me by," Mika replied as Keith an Kaj grabbed his wrists and raised both arms in victory.
From the deck of the animal hospital, Balto and Jenna watched the whole scene unfold right in front of them.
"Well, how about that?!" said Balto. "I think Mika's finally got what he's been after all this time that he's lived here."
"What's that?" asked Jenna.
"Respect," replied Balto. "And not just by a select few."
Just then, Boris, Stella, Muk and Luk came bounding through the crowd, all the while, calling Balto's name. They had been waiting outside for word on how Balto was doing and were delighted to hear that he had survived.
"Way to hang in there, tough guy!" exclaimed Boris.
"We're so happy you're alright!" Muk added.
The foursome couldn't help but hug Balto. Luk's grip was the strongest. It was so strong, Balto started gasping for air.
"Let go, Luk, let go!" he said, albeit almost muted out. "It's bad enough I almost died once. I don't need for it to happen again."
Hearing those words, Luk relaxed his grip. Jenna managed to get in on the hugs. Meanwhile, Mika was still out in the crowd enjoying the moment. The last time he got this level of attention from an entire town was back in his glory days as a hockey player in Kokkola. He didn't expect to get this when he returned to Nome. But he didn't mind that at all.
Even though most of Nome of in ruins, nobody seemed to mind for the time being. But the long, hard road to recovery would have to begin soon.
Up on a mountain ridge on the outskirts of town, Aleu and what was left of her pack listened in on what was happening. She was relieved to hear that her father had survived his ordeal. She wanted to go into town and see him and her old family. But uncertainty over how the town's human residents would react got the better of her. All that remained for her now was to start rebuilding her pack, which as mentioned earlier, had been reduced to half of its size before the battle.
Will the town of Nome ever get back on its feet? And what other surprises lie in waiting? Find out in the tenth and final Invasion chapter: Picking Up The Pieces.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1422 visits
Report this fanfic
