Author's Note: Well once again, it appears that a little rain cloud has been following me. On Friday night, I lost Internet, delaying my update slash release, but this time, upon returning from a nice evening with my nephew and family dinner, I lost power. Turns out it was only for a second, due to a little power surge, but on top of that, I also returned home feeling just, plain wiped! However, rather than explaining it in the author's note here, why not let the story do the talking, as post getting some sleep, I came up with this interesting idea to explain how I felt upon getting home last night, and in some ways, I'm still feeling a little bit of it right now. And so, because the idea was inspired by events that went down on the day itself, while it's technically the following day, I'll make this, what should have been, my update slash release for March 18, 2017, and hopefully, this is the last time I'll get behind between now and Easter Sunday.
Fatigue
Summary: We know what went down during the events of the season 6 episode, No Naps, but what happened afterwards? Did Tommy's fatigue return later that day, despite getting a nap in the end? Read this to find out! Based off of personal experiences, I hope you enjoy.
Disclaimer: I do not own the original Rugrats characters, they're the property of their original creaters.
It was nightfall. The sun had gone down in the sky and Tommy's little friends and cousin had left for home. Of course, his cousin had to be carried out to the car when her father got there to pick her up because she had fallen asleep so hard, she slept all afternoon, but as Tommy sat there on the floor in front of the television next to his brother Dil, watching a Reptar video that his mother had put on for them to watch while she went and got dinner started, he couldn't help but notice something felt off. While most of the time, Reptar flicks kept him on the edge of his seat, or in his terms, on the edge of his diapie, he found himself, blinking constantly, closing his eyes at points. After all, he hadn't had that much sleep since his nap the previous day, due to Dil crying all night the previous night, keeping him and his folks awake.
And while that was no help, it didn't help that his cousin Angelica showed up earlier that afternoon, shortly before their regular nap time, challenging the babies to stay awake if they wanted to prove themselves worthy of being grown up enough to play with Stu's latest invention, a musical horsy merry-go-round ball type toy. Tommy was actually against this plan, because of how tired he was, but Chuckie encouraged him to not give up. Yes, the tables had turned in this rare event, as usually, when it comes to that pair, the dynamic duo's thoughts are on the opposite foot. However, Tommy knew what Angelica was really up to the entire time. That's right, she was only using this excuse to trick everybody into falling asleep so she could have that toy all to herself. She got Phil to fall asleep by eating up the jars of baby food in the kitchen, she put Lil to sleep by telling her a story, and she put Chuckie to sleep with the music from Dil's moble. However, when the big brave bald leader was the last one standing, as exhausted as he was, he couldn't let his friends down.
Angelica tried every tactic possible in the book to get him to fall asleep, but he didn't let his guard down. Even a yawning contest couldn't put him to sleep, as Angelica conked out before he did, giving him full permission to play with the toy, which he did for a minute or so, and then, passed out himself. However, by the time he passed out, out of all of the babies, he got the shortest nap of them all, so while he was rejuvenated somewhat, and was more awake by the time nap time was over, that afternoon, so as to not wake up Angelica, once Stu was disappointed by his invention putting her to sleep, the adults sent the kids outside to play.
They had a grand old time, building sandcastles and playing pirates, only for the sun to start going down and for everybody to come by and pick up their kids to take them home. Just the same though, they had used up their energy playing, and while under normal circumstances, Tommy can usually get through dinner before he's ready to pass out for the night, it didn't look like it would be such an easy task this time, if he could barely stay awake to enjoy his favorite green hero on TV.
"It's time for dinner sweeties." Didi said joyfully, as she picked up her youngest son and carried him into the kitchen where she placed him in his highchair.
Stu had been right behind her, where he came and picked up Tommy.
"Up we go Champ." He said, carrying his oldest son to the table where he was placed into a booster seat.
Grandpa Lou was already seated at the table, and everyone was having a nice meal of some corn beef and cabbage, with it being Saint Patrick's Day. They didn't really celebrate the holiday, but thought they'd have the traditional meal nonetheless. However, as dinner droned on, and Tommy overheard his little brother's high pitched giggle, Didi encouraging him to eat, and his father and grandfather talking about who knows what, the one-year-old toddler slowly put fork fulls of food into his mouth and ate. He was more so tired than hungry, and at that moment, his brother was being irritating, mainly because he was feeling a headache coming on, but he wasn't going to ruin supper for everyone.
"You know Stu, we're seriously going to have to put the baby food on a higher shelf out of the kids' reach if they went through our supplies of mashed peas in one afternoon." Didi commented, giving Dil the last spoonful of baby food sweet potatoes.
"Sure Deed." Stu said, taking another bite of cabbage on his plate.
Tommy eventually cleared his plate, earning him a Reptar bar for dessert, which he sadly, only ate half of because he was too tired to eat anymore. Nobody seemed to mind though, especially his mother, who thought candy was unhealthy anyway, and she had a lot of dishes to clean up from dinner, so once it was apparent that nobody was eating anymore, Stu went and put the boys into the playpen to play until it was time for bed. However, while they were normally giggling and playing together, that's not how things stood tonight.
Dil sat there in his purple prop up pillow smiling at his brother, looking eager to play pretty much, anything a baby-baby who can't move around on his own is capable of playing.
"Tommy!" Dil cried happily.
However, his older brother, usually full of ideas and bursting with energy, was sitting on the floor, opposite his younger brother, completely motionless, as he was trying very hard to keep his composure.
"Dilly's getting on my lastest nerves." Tommy thought to himself, his eyes barely open at this point.
While he had an excuse earlier in the day to stay awake, if for no other reason, to keep his cousin from getting that toy to herself, right then, he admitted to himself, that had Angelica not come over, he would have gotten his entire nap and not be in the mess he was in at that moment. He couldn't wait to go to bed, and he only hoped it would happen soon. However, it would be a little while, so in the meantime, he'd better find something to do to keep busy.
Ordinarily, this task wasn't hard for him, he could always find something to do to amuse himself, but at that moment, he sat there, the world appearing almost fuzzy, as he sat there, motionless, his mind a blank.
"I don't know what to do." Tommy thought to himself, silently staring off into space.
"Tommy! Tommy!" Dil cried again, giggling playfully.
"Yep Dil I'm here." Tommy replied in a quiet, deadpan voice, with no cheeriness to it what so ever.
At this point, he was only hoping Dil would remain calm, and not do anything to set him off, as he was finding his baby-baby perkiness more irritating than cute right then, but didn't wish to upset his brother, plus, he was barely able to hold his head up, nor could he think of anything fun to do, so, he remained on the floor, motionless, for what felt like an eternity. While he was drained of energy though, Dil had other ideas.
While the three-months-old baby couldn't reach to too many things, there were a few simple toys scattered about the playpen within his reach, which included one of his raddles and a few wooden blocks. While most of the gang had a hard time reading his thoughts, because he was so little and couldn't say too many words yet, on the contrary, he was much smarter than anybody gave him credit for. Well, everyone except his big brother, who never lost faith in him, and always stuck up for him if anybody, usually Angelica, made fun of him doing nothing besides constantly pooping and drooling. Dil knew how to get his brother's attention, and it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out. He picked up the raddle in one hand, and a wooden block in the other, and threw them directly at the top of Tommy's head.
"Mine!" Dil cried, tossing the two toys across the playpen.
However, as they hit Tommy smack hard on the top of his head, totally startling him from his spacious fatigue, under normal circumstances, he would pick up whatever Dil threw and return it to him nicely, reminding him it's not nice to throw things. That was not the case tonight though, as the overly exhausted toddler felt those toys hit him hard on the head. Post throwing them, because they were now out of his reach, Dil started crying at the top of his lungs. However, so did Tommy.
Yep, that's right, too exhausted to come up with anything fun to do, the poor child reached his breaking point when he was hit in the head. Overhearing their boys crying from the living room, Didi stopped doing the dinner dishes to go see what was going on.
"Oh my goodness, what's the matter?" Didi asked, upon running into the living room to hear both of her boys crying.
She picked them both up in her arms and started trying to comfort them, but it didn't seem to get them calmed down. Tommy and Dil both, continued to cry until it hit her, maybe they were tired, and glancing up at the clock on the wall, she did see it was getting close to bedtime.
However, she, too, was feeling tired, after not sleeping very well the night before, as even for her, a nap didn't completely put her back on her feet. She took the boys upstairs and got them ready for bed, though while she was putting the boys into fresh diapers and putting Tommy into a pair of pajamas, he could care less if he wore PJ's or his signature sky blue t-shirt to bed, he was exhausted.
Finally! It came time for a story, and for once, Dil was being quiet, as no sooner had Didi lay him down in his crib, when he yawned, closed his eyes, and fell asleep. However, the same held true for Tommy. No sooner had Didi lay him down, when he more or less, closed his eyes.
He heard the first few words of Didi reading to him, but not much, as he was more or less, out like a light. Didi however, went on reading, oblivious of the fact that she was reading to nobody, but noticing her boys were asleep when she finished, she quietly tip towed out of the room, turned out the lights, and went to bed herself.
Sometime later on during the night, Tommy awoke, noticing his diapers felt wet. It wasn't so bad though he couldn't sleep through the rest of the night, and he didn't wish to cry out for his mommy and daddy and possibly awaken Dil, but trying to change his own diaper was going to be difficult, when some of the supplies he needed, was out of his reach, and moving furniture to help him reach up high to the changing table, or getting Spike's attention, might also cause Dil to wake up, and if there's one thing he's learned in the short few months he's had a brother, is that he doesn't always go back to sleep very easily. So, as he lay awake there in the silent dark room, he decided, he'd turn over and go back to sleep, in hopes that by the time the sun awoke, he, too, would feel awake, refreshed, and ready for a new day of adventures.
The End
Author's Note: I know, probably not some of my best work, and I'll admit, last night, nobody threw anything at my head, and nobody made me cry, but I did find my nephew irritating at points, and was doing everything to keep my composure, and upon getting home, when trying to think of something to write, as it was after nine at night, meaning I'd have to keep it short if I wanted to get it up before midnight, I'll admit, my mind was literally, a blank. I couldn't come up with anything, I felt like I could barely move, and all I wanted to do was sleep. So, I went to bed, after booting up my computer only to have it shut off because of a power surge, and upon awakening a couple of hours ago to do my business, this idea came to me, and well, I hope you enjoyed it. Also, I always sort of figured that during the events of, No Naps, Stu and Didi when they went and put Dil down for a nap upstairs, must have also gone upstairs and taken a nap too, since they were hardly around during most of the episode. Not sure if I'll do any other stories involving events that take place shortly before or after the events of an actual episode, but it was an interesting concept nonetheless, and it's only a matter of time, if I should do more of these in the future. Thanks for reading, and I hope to be back with more material sometime very soon.