please help with thickbox modification

I tried to integrate thickbox with node images using the modification provided by tic2000. It displays the photos in a slideshow type gallery but does not count them properly. For instance, when 2 pictures are uploaded, it says there are three. And when cycling through the images, it displays the 2nd picture, but lists it as the 3rd (ie 3 out of 3).

Before modifying Tic2000's code, it would list double the amount of pictures uploaded. IE, if 4 were uploaded it would says 1 out of 16. If 2 uploaded, it would say 1 of out 4, and so on.

By adding the $output .= $output .= node_images_gallery_thickbox($node); before the return $output; I managed to get it to fix that doubling bug, but as I mentioned before, it still adds one phantom picture to the total.

The solution must be something simple, but darned if I can figure it out.

Can someone take a look and see if they can't figure out a solution? This would be a very cool feature to the already brilliant node images module.

function node_images_gallery_thickbox($node) {
  if (empty($node->node_images)) {
    drupal_set_message(t('No images uploaded for this content.'));
    if (user_access('create node images') && node_access('update', $node)) {
      $output = t('Click <a href="!url">here</a> to upload new images.', array('!url' =>   url('node/'.$node->nid.'/images')));
    }
    return '<p>'.$output.'</p>';
  }
    $node->node_images = (count($node->node_images) > 1) ? array_slice($node->node_images, 1) : array();
  foreach ($node->node_images as $id=>$image) {
    $output .= '<a href="'.file_create_url($image->filepath).'" class="thickbox" rel="'.$node->title.'" title="'.$image->description.'"></a>';
  }
  return '<div id="thickbox_image_gallery" style="display:none;">'.$output.'</div>';
}

function theme_node_images_view($node, $teaser, $page, $format = NULL) {
  if (arg(2) == 'image_gallery' || empty($node->node_images)) return;

  $output = '';
  $i = 0;

  // set maximum number of images for teaser/body
  $view = ($teaser ? 'teaser' : 'body');
  $count = variable_get('node_images_'.$view.'_images_'.$node->type, 2);
  if (isset($count) && $count === 0) return;
  if (!$format) {
    $format = variable_get('node_images_'.$view.'_format_'.$node->type, 'thumbs');
  }

  foreach((array)$node->node_images as $id=>$image) {
    $description = check_plain($image->description);
    $pattern = '<img src="%path" alt="%description" />';
    $thumb = strtr($pattern, array('%path'=>file_create_url($image->thumbpath), '%description'=>$description));
    $fullsize = strtr($pattern, array('%path'=>file_create_url($image->filepath), '%description'=>$description));

    if ($info = getimagesize($image->filepath)) {
      $width = $info[0] + 36;
      $height = $info[1] + 36;
    }
    else {
      $width = 420;
      $height = 315;
    }

    if ($format == 'thumbs') {
$output .= '<a href="'.file_create_url($image->filepath).'" title="'.$description.'" class="thickbox" rel="'.$node->title.'" >'.$thumb.'</a> '.' ';
    }
    else {
      $output .= $fullsize.' ';
    } 
     if ($count>0 && ++$i >= $count) break;
  }
  $output .= node_images_gallery_thickbox($node);
  return $output;
}

Here is a screenshot of when two pictures are uploaded to a node, 1st picture selected:

http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/75/nodeimagesthickboxmodnd6.jpg

Here is a screenshot of the same node, but with the 2nd picture selected:

http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/7561/nodeimagesthickboxmod2xm6.jpg