Chapter 14 - A New Team Member

14


She stared at them all, watching as the two other fairies relaxed and poofed their strange wands away, replacing them with the normal star-topped ones. That let her relax a little more. They were really scary-looking with the other wands; fairies weren't supposed to be scary, right? Or was it okay for them because they were banished from Fairy World?

"Caleb, it's okay. It's just Tootie." Timmy told the angel-man beside him. He was only standing there, watching her with a stern look. Well, now she had a name to the strange angel that was helping her childhood crush. He gave a little shrug and folded his arms over his chest, looking away at something else. She relaxed even more; it seemed like everything was okay now, so she hurried over to throw her arms around the pink-clad boy, letting her heart soar at the contact. He didn't disappear! He was real! This wasn't a dream; Timmy was really here in front of her!

"It's you! It's really you! I found you!" she laughed in joy and relief, pressing her cheek to the soft fabric of his shirt.

Romi busied herself with bowing repeatedly to Cosmo and Wanda, apologizing so quickly and so often, the words ended up ramming into each other on their way out of her mouth.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Please forgive me! I didn't know he'd be here! She wished for someone to explain things for her and I brought her to Caleb because he was one degree away from Timothy, but I didn't know Timothy himself would be here!" she begged, "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"

"It's all right, dear. We can't really blame you. She wished it, you dished it. Rules are rules." Wanda sighed in resignation.

"Hmph." Cosmo muttered irritably, folding his arms over his chest and glaring at the floor. He said nothing else about the situation.

"It's really you...." Tootie murmured, still hugging her long-lost love. So warm; someone who was supposed to be dead for four years shouldn't be so warm. He'd been gone for so long, and she'd been so heartbroken when he died. There was a brief movement and from the corner of one eye she could see the angel, Caleb, walk silently out of the room, granting her and the boy some privacy.

"Cosmo, Wanda." Timmy murmured and Tootie turned her face enough to watch the fairy couple nod once in response to their names and fly out the door. Vaguely, she wondered how much in tune he was with his fairy godparents, to say only their names and have a silent wish be granted.

"Romi?" she whispered, wondering if her own fairy would understand her desire to be left alone. Andromeda looked at her, puzzled, then with widened eyes as it seemed to dawn on her what she wanted.

"Call me if you need anything. I can't be too far from you. Rules." she replied and followed the pink and green fairies. Tootie smiled briefly, then returned to burying her face in the pink shirt. Detergent, rain-scented, this shirt was freshly washed, and mixed with that was the scent of a living, breathing human being. Not just any human; this was Timmy Turner, the Heart of Dimmsdale.

The boy who crushed her dreams when he was pushed off the jungle gym at school, and refused to move from his prone position on the grass despite all her wails and pleas.

She sobbed as that memory dredged up still more, each driving buried pain to the surface. Endless days of loneliness and sorrow after the funeral, and with every day she went to school and found his seat forever empty, and then the grief turned to anger. She twisted the pink cloth in her white-knuckled fists, fury building at the memory of Remy's smug expression from the day of the funeral on, that look that spoke of some perverse pleasure in the knowledge that Timmy was gone, and this... this final straw!

He had been alive, all this time, and he had the gall to hide the truth from her! From Dimmsdale! From the people who lost hope because of him!

And then it all melted away again, drowned in confusion as she felt him return the hug. Not a word, not an attempt to escape her as he used to do as a kid, but just a silent acceptance of the embrace and even one of his own for her.

"Tootie, why are you crying?" he asked her softly. She managed a tremulous smile. What a stupid question... and yet he sounded as though he were trying to hold back his own tears when he asked. Maybe it was to cover up the fact that he was crying too?

"I missed you so much, Timmy. I thought you were dead. Everyone said you were dead." she mumbled and pulled back to look up at him. Her glasses were dotted with teardrops, and she managed a small laugh as she pulled them down to wipe the lenses. Slipping them back on, she pulled together her courage and looked right up at him again, her tear-stained face determined. "Why did you lie to us, Timmy? Why did you go away for so long?" she demanded, trying not to let her emotions overwhelm her again, "Four years, Timmy! You left us all for four years! Why?!"

He looked stunned, baffled even, like this was some bizarre joke she was playing and he was the victim. Then his expression changed, somber, sorrowful, regretful. He opened his mouth to speak, closed it, then looked away from her.

"Tootie, that wasn't... what I mean is...." he began and a hurt look flashed across his face, "That wasn't a lie. That day, when I fell... Tootie, I really am dead. I just... didn't stay dead...." The young Goth stared at him as he turned back to her. "I had to stay away from home, I didn't want to, but I had to. Dimmsdale had to forget about me, forget what I looked like, and I needed time to recover and learn what happened to me... when I was brought back." he went on haltingly, "And then I found out what was happening to Dimmsdale, and... I had to change, had to train and learn magic, to come back and help, and...."

"Liar!" Tootie shrieked at him in sudden rage. Did he honestly think she would buy this load of garbage?! Cute he may be, but that didn't excuse the hell he put everyone through for four years! Especially the hell she went through over him! "You're not dead! You're here, alive, talking to me!" He stepped back, startled, maybe even a little afraid. Good! He deserved it!

"No, that's not it! I really did die! Some friends of mine, friends that aren't really human themselves... they helped bring me back to life!" the boy stammered. Tootie flipped her hand at that, snorting in disdain.

"Yeah, yeah! The angel Caleb and that Danny Phantom guy. Romi told me all about it." she declared, "I'm twelve, Timmy Turner, not stupid!" She shook her fist at him, the fury returning. He just left the city without a single explanation; he didn't even leave her a good-bye note! Weren't they supposed to have been childhood sweethearts?! "You standing there is not something a real dead guy would do!"

"But...!"

"No!" Tootie snapped at him and started pounding on the boy with her fists, venting the hurt and frustration and pent up sorrows, "Liar, liar! You're not dead! Do you hear me?! You're not dead!" She only barely registered that Timmy was just blocking her blows, deflecting a few here and placing his palms out to take several there, silent the entire time. "You were just a stupid coward in a stupid pink hat who staged a stupid plot to run away from home with your lousy fairy godparents and because of you...!" She jerked away from him, shaking violently from the hurricane of emotions, one fist still raised for another futile attempt to inflict some kind of physical pain to the boy who stood before her. "Because of you...!" Tootie choked out, dropping her fist to point accusingly at him, "Because of you... everyone in Dimmsdale lost their hopes, their dreams! They're all suffering because of you!"

He flinched at the verbal dagger she plunged into him and she managed a vicious smile of victory. Finally! A response! Now she was getting somewhere! Drill it into this boy's thick head and drag him home, announce it to the city, to the world. Timmy Turner still lived; the Heart of Dimmsdale still beats!

"What do I have to do?" he finally asked softly. She stared at him, uncomprehending, and he took on an aggravated expression. "Tell me, Tootie! What do I have to do to prove I'm dead?!" he snapped at her and she shrank back, eyes wide. This was new. This wasn't how Timmy reacted to yelling; he hid behind things, panicked, fled to avoid confrontation.

This wasn't the Timmy she remembered.

"Never mind. I think I know." the brunet muttered and closed his eyes. Tootie watched him take in a sharp little gasp of air, then exhale slowly. For a minute, he was still, calm and perfectly relaxed. Then, "Tootie. Come here. Do me a favor, okay?" he murmured and opened his eyes, holding out his hand to her. She looked at him warily, unsure. What else was he going to do, this boy who had Timmy's name and appearance but not his personality?

"Why?" she shot back and yelped when he grabbed her arm and pulled her back into a hug.

"Just shut up for once and listen. What do you hear?" he growled. Tootie blushed despite wanting to stay angry with him. How could she, when a warm feeling was flaring up in her cheeks and her ear was pressed against his shirt so closely?

"I don't hear anything." she managed to stammer out after a moment, "What am I listening for anyway?"

"A heartbeat."

"Oh, well, in that case...." Tootie smiled and pressed her ear closer. Maybe this was just an excuse to get close to him, riling him up enough to want to prove... he... was....

Something was wrong.

She halted her train of thought, brought a rein on her emotions for a moment. Something wasn't right.

Timmy said to listen for his heartbeat.

She was listening, but she wasn't hearing it.

There wasn't a heartbeat to listen to.

Timmy didn't have a heartbeat!

"Aaaiiee! What's wrong with you?!" Tootie screamed in alarm and horror, shoving herself away from him, "Your heart! It's...!"

"Not beating. I know." he sighed, leaning back against the computer and its many charts and graphs still running on the screen, "I don't have a pulse. I can force a heartbeat if I need one by doing a self-electrocution with a Lightning spell, but if I relax my body completely, the current fades and my heart stops." He looked straight at her, locking eyes with the young Goth to be sure his words, their meaning, truly got through to her. "My real heartbeat ended four years ago, the day I fell from the bars at school."

She looked down at her boots, taking it in. That was proof enough. How could anyone just stop their heart like that and continue to live, if they weren't already dead? Simple. Romi and Timmy were both telling the truth; Timmy Turner had died, but through the actions of others was brought back to the world as an immortal, doomed to live a life with a potential for endless pain.

Like that night, when he ran almost two whole city blocks with her while pouring half his blood all over Dimmsdale's streets. And only minutes later was completely torn into by golden ninja robots, left for dead on the asphalt. This was the new reality of Timmy's life, and she wasn't helping ease his future pain by whaling on him like this.

"Tell me." she murmured, lifting her gaze at last, "Tell me everything. I want to know why this happened to you, why Dimmsdale is losing touch with magic, everything." The boy looked surprised, then relieved. He waved a hand towards a nearby table and they sat together.

She listened to the story, the whole thing as far as Timmy himself could remember. How he was brought back to life; what the fairies did to cover up his death and his godparents' interference with the laws of nature; the judgment and sentence; his having to remain in New York to hide from the world; his training to use healing arts to keep himself whole if ever he were injured; then, finally, why he returned to Dimmsdale. She took that in, pushing her glasses up and letting them fall several times as she absorbed the story. She watched his face alternate between emotions as he explained his new life, mostly a deep sadness and a vengeful anger. And when he was done, one hand threaded through his hair as he propped himself up tiredly on the table, Tootie moved around to his side and gave him another hug.

"It doesn't matter anymore. You're here, you're alive, and you're helping us all." she told him, blushing as he made no move to escape her. She especially liked that new aspect of his personality; made it easier for her to resume the chase. "So what if you're the boy who can't die? You're still my hero and my favorite cutie!" she added cheerfully. She laughed as Timmy groaned at her words.

"How embarrassing." he muttered and lifted himself up, giving her a serious look, "This is important, Tootie. You can't tell anyone about me! No one must know that I'm alive again." She nodded and pulled away, pushing her glasses up one more time as a smile grew on her face.

"Okay! Promise! We'll tell everyone after we bring down the anti-magic barrier!" she agreed. Timmy stiffened, eyes narrowing.

"'We'? Excuse me, but there is no 'we'!" he pointed out incredulously, "I'm trained to fight and use magic; you're not. And we're not telling anyone about me ever!" She only stared at him, puzzled, and he waved his arms excitedly at her. "Don't you get it?! If people found out I escaped Death and became this un-killable, immortal being, what's to stop secret organizations from grabbing me to do weirdo experiments and tests on me forever?!"

"They wouldn't do that! You're a hero!" Tootie replied confidently, "Besides, if they tried, you could just escape with your fairies' help!"

"And expose them? No!" he shot back, "Cosmo and Wanda can't be taken from me, but if they get revealed or anyone finds out I'm existing beyond Death's reach, then all of Fairy World is exposed! And all other active fairies will be instantly recalled, not to mention that other people tied to me now will also be exposed!" Tootie repeated her earlier look; what again? He sighed and pulled his hand down over his face. "That means you lose your fairy. And so will everyone else in the world who has one." he told her slowly. Tootie gave a small gasp, eyes wide. Romi! If anything like that happened to Timmy, she'd lose Romi forever?!

"I can't let that happen! I finally have you back and I'm not losing you again!" she yelled determinedly, "No way! If you're going to fight, then so am I! We can't let Remy get away with being the only guy who can make wishes! And we can't let Crocker seal away Dimmsdale's magic and make every kid there miserable forever just so he can prove fairies exist and take them from us!" She sighed and shook her head, looking exasperated with him. "Oh, Timmy, how did you get yourself into this mess? It's because you didn't listen to your girlfriend long ago, that's why!" she scolded gently, then smiled, "But don't worry, 'cause I'm going to be right there with you from now on!"

"Why do I feel like everything I told you just flew through your ears without hitting anything?" Timmy grumbled as the three fairies poked their heads into the room to see if it was safe to intrude on them. Tootie motioned to her fairy with a smile.

"Romi! Guess what?! We're gonna help Timmy fight back against Remy and Crocker!" she exclaimed, "Isn't that gonna be so cool?! And romantic!" she threw her arms around the boy again and squealed. "The two love-struck heroes, defending magic and freeing the town, together, forever!"

"God, I wish I could die right now." Timmy muttered and twisted his face in frustration as Wanda opened her mouth, "I know, guys! You can't grant it! Geez!" He glared down at the little Goth hugging him tightly. "And you're not getting involved! It's too dangerous! I can't die, but you can!"

"Remember that night on the street? When you said you'd do me a favor, anything I wanted, if I listened to you then?" Tootie murmured coyly, tracing a small heart on his shirt, "I'm calling it in. Let me help you!"

"I thought you'd forgotten that, but I guess I should have been a lot more specific with my wish." Timmy groaned in defeat, "All right, fine. You can help. But try not to get in my way too much and at least wait until I learn a spell to keep you safe!"

"That clinches it! Romi! We're teaming up with Timmy, Cosmo and Wanda!" Tootie whooped, thrusting a fist into the air in triumph.

"We're going to fight Remy and Crocker?! With the Outcast Ones?!" Romi squeaked and fainted, flopping back onto the floor in a dark blue and silver heap. Tootie giggled as she returned to nuzzling the brunet in her arms.

"That's right!" she laughed, "We're gonna save the city with Timmy!"

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