Baby Blues

The sun had barely risen above the mountains when Finn set out for Marceline's house. The vampire queen had called him the night before talking about how she'd found something that might cure Simon of his curse. She'd asked if Finn could come over first thing the next day and he had readily agreed. He was curious to what the thing was she had found.

"Probably a scroll, or a book, or a magic stopwatch you click to stop time," he said. That last idea was from a movie he and Jake watched, though he couldn't remember the name. Finally he reached the cave and began climbing up to reach the opening. "Note to self, get Marcy a rope ladder for her birthday."

After reaching the top, Finn began to hear an echo coming from deeper inside the cave. Heading further in he noticed that the closer he came to Marceline's house the louder it became. Soon the echo around him began to die out and the noise became clearer.

Crying.

Jogging the last few yards to the door, opening it Finn was greeted by a little girl in a blue dress crying her eyes out next to the couch. He came closer and knelt down.

"Hey, what's wrong?" he asked softly. The girl's crying began to lessen, and she began sniffling.

"Puppy won't come out," she said, pointing under the couch. Getting down on his stomach, Finn could see that Schwabl was curled up next to the wall. Crawling around to the side, Finn reached under and was able to get a loose grip on the poodle's collar and slowly pulled the small dog out. "Puppy!"

Finn smiled as the little girl began hugging and kissing the dog. Looking closer he noticed that she was very pale, with pointed ears, and pointed teeth.

"Oh Glob," he muttered. "What's your name? I'm Finn."

"Me Marcy," she replied, before going back to showering Schwabl with affection.

"That's nice, how old are you?" he asked.

Marcy looked down, and scrunched her eyebrows together in thought. Finally, she put the poodle in her arms down before holding up one finger on one hand and two on the other.

"This many," she said.

Finn felt his head began to hurt, how could this have happened? Had Marceline been messing with whatever it was she'd found and accidentally made herself younger. So caught up in his thoughts, Finn didn't notice that Schwabl crawled back under the couch, causing the tiny girl to start crying again.

Snapping out of it, Finn scooped the crying girl up and began rocking her.

"It's okay it's okay, you can return the book next week," he said softly, using his librarian voice. Soon the crying stopped, and was replaced by Marceline's stomach rumbling.

"Want spaghetti-O's," she said, pointing at her open mouth.

"I don't think I have any of those," he said, putting her down on the couch. He took off his backpack and began digging through it. "Want an apple?"

she wrinkled her nose at the red fruit.

"Blegh!" she exclaimed, sticking out her tongue. Finn took a bite before tossing it back into his backpack. He kept digging and pulled out a tupper ware container.

"Chicken and mushrooms?"

Marcy covered her mouth, and began shaking her head.

"Uh….. all I got left it a half-eaten candy bar," he said, holding it out. Within seconds it was snatched out of his hand and devoured just as fast. Reaching into his backpack again, Finn pulled out his phone and quickly dialed the treefort. "Hey Jake, can we have spaghetti tonight?"

"You're in luck buddy," Jake replied. "That's exactly what I was planning to make."

"Great! Thanks Jake," Finn said, hanging up. Marceline had managed to smear chocolate all over her face. Chuckling to himself, Finn pulled a hanky from his pocket and began wiping off the little girl's face. It too longer than expected, she kept laughing and putting her hands up. "Hold still, almost done. There we go!"

Standing up, Finn stretched.

"Come on, we're going back to my house," he said. Marcy hopped off the couch and grabbed his hand, her tiny hand wrapped around two of his fingers.

Leading her outside, Finn went down through the opposite way, not really looking forward to trying to scale a cliff while trying to hold a squirming 3 year old. Coming out into the sunlight, the two began the long trek towards Finn's home.

"I think you're gonna like my house," he said. "I live in a tree with my brother, his name's Jake, and BMO, he's a tiny robot."

"Why?" she asked, looking up at him.

"Um…. Because…. Hmm," he mumbled, how was he supposed to explain that to a 3 year old. "I don't know."

Marcy nodded.

"Want juice, Finn," she said, stopping.

"I don't have any juice, Marcy," he said. "Or really anything to drink. Come on, I'll get you some juice at the treefort."

"Want juice now," she replied, stamping her foot. Finn could see a tantrum brewing.

"Marcy….. I don't have any juice," he said slowly, trying to keep her calm. "There's juice at home. Okay?"

In response to this, Marceline flopped down on her butt and immediately began to cry and scream.

Trying to keep himself calm, Finn looked around for something to stop her crying. Fortunately for him, his prayers were answered.

"Hey Finn," the human turned to see Tree Trunks and Sweet P coming towards him. As they came closer the tiny elephant noticed the crying child and smiled. "And who is this?"

"This is Marcy, she wants juice," he said, holding up his hands in defeat. "I don't have any to give her, so this happened."

"Oh ho you poor little thing. Sweet P, run home and fetch mama a bottle of apple juice," she said. Immediately the giant boy sped off. Tree Trunks came closer and began patting Marceline with her trunk. "There there, little darlin', everything's gonna be fine."

Finally, Marceline's crying fell off into hiccups as she hugged the tiny elephant.

"See, everything's okay, Sweet P will be back with some apple juice for you," she said, within a minute or so, Finn could see the former Lich coming back. "And there he is."

Opening the bottle, Tree Trunks held it out to the small girl, and smiled when she took it and began to drink.

"Thanks for this, Tree Trunks," Finn said, as the two walked away.

"Don't mention it, Finn," she replied. "You've helped me plenty of times."

Finn felt a tiny hand pulling at his shirt. He looked down to see Marcy holding out her hands.

"Up!" she exclaimed.

The human chuckled, before picking the girl up. Immediately, she began to snooze.

"Have a good nap, Marcy," he whispered, kissing her head.

When they finally reached the treefort, Finn's arms were getting sore. Marcy didn't weigh that much, but, after several miles it started adding up. He opened the door as quietly as he could, the smell of spaghetti and garlic bread made his mouth water.

"Jake, come here," he called, trying to be as quiet as possible. Within seconds his dog friend appeared at the top of the ladder. "Can you give me a lift?"

"Heh, lift," Jake laughed, he stretched down, shaping his body into a flight of stairs. Finn took them 2 at a time. "Where'd you find a kid? Is she Marceline's?"

Finn shook his head, and turned, letting Jake see her face.

"Not exactly," Finn said, as Jake's mouth fell open. "I don't know what happened, I just got there and she was already like this."

He carried her across the room and carefully placed her on the couch, and covered her up with a blanket.

"Maybe PB can help figure this out," Jake said. He went back over to the stove and began moving things over to the table. "You got some good timing though, dinner's almost ready."

sitting down at the table, Finn dug through his backpack for his phone and dialed Bubblegum's number.

"Hello?" she said. In the background Finn could hear the sounds of heavy machinery.

"Hey PB, it's Finn," he replied, he looked back at the couch to see Marcy was slowly beginning to wake up. "There's been an….. accident, with Marceline."

"What kind of accident?" she asked. "Serious accident, or she did something stupid accident."

"Technically, its kinda both put together," he said. Behind him, Marcy began to whimper and whine. "I'll come by first thing in the morning, bye."

He hung up without waiting for her to reply. Making his way over to the couch he scooped the 3 year old up and began to rock her. She buried her face in his neck and sniffled.

"There there, everything's okay," he soothed, rubbing her back. "Hey Jake, come here for a minute."

He turned Marcy around just as Jake walked over.

"What's up?" he asked. "Hey, little Marcy."

Immediately, her eyes lit up.

"Puppy!" she squealed. Holding out her hands. The yellow dog took her and found himself bombarded with kisses and head scratches.

"Heh, this is kinda fun," he said, blushing slightly.

"Do we still have that old baby seat?" Finn asked.

"Yeah, it might be somewhere in the junk closet," Jake said. He stretched his arms up and began rocking Marceline back and forth. "Hey look, Marcy can fly!"

After several minutes of digging, Finn found the baby seat buried under several piles of junk. He carried it over to the sink and washed and dried it.

"Okay, we're ready for dinner," he said. "Come on Jake, stop messing around."

Jake, who was letting Marceline ride him like a horse, trotted over, allowing Finn to put her on the baby seat. While Jake set the table, Finn began looking through the cupboards for a cup for Marcy to use.

"Here it is," he said, pulling out a red sippy cup with pictures of ducks on it. "Why do we still have this?"

"I got it for the kids, that was before I knew they would grow up so fast," he said, setting the food on the table.

"Marcy, do you want milk or juice?" Finn asked.

"Juice!" she exclaimed.

"Let's see, we have, wow we have a lot of juice," Finn mumbled. "Jake, why do we have so much juice?"

Jake looked up from where he was chopping up Marcy's spaghetti in smaller pieces.

"It was on sale, and I love cranberry juice," he replied.

Finn pondered what to give the 3 year old, before settling on raspberry. Filling the sippy cup, Finn screwed on the lid before setting it down in from of Marcy, along with her food.

"Where's BMO?" Finn asked, looking around. The tiny robot was nowhere to be seen.

"He's probably outside somewhere with Neptr," Jake replied, sitting down and digging into his spaghetti. "So Finn, what did you find at Marceline's house that turned her young?"

"Honestly, I completely forgot to look," he said, pointing at the 3 year old messily devouring her food. "That, was distracting."

"I bet," Jake laughed.

Later, after dinner was finished and the dishes were washed and put away, Finn put Marceline on the couch and tucked her in.

"Good night, Marcy, sleep tight," he said, kissing her on the forehead. As he stood up to go upstairs, he felt a small hand grab his. He looked back to see Marceline ready to cry.

"Wanna go with Finn," she said, tears were beginning to well up in her eyes.

Finn smiled and sighed in defeat, picking the 3 year old up. He made his way up the ladder to the bedroom. Jake was already asleep as Finn crawled into his sleeping bag. He covered Marcy with several blankets before zipping his sleeping bag all the way up.

"Goodnight, Marcy," he said again, kissing her cheek.

Marcy didn't reply, she only rolled over and snuggled closer to Finn.

END CHAPTER 1