I take no credit for the idea of the WABAC Return. That concept came from the absolutely incredible fic called Peabody Lost by 1234BlueLagoon…which may or may not have influenced this story's title as well, hehe. GO READ IT. It's amazing.
If there's one thing Mr. Peabody hadn't discovered yet, it was the fear a parent feels when their child is whisked away from them, but he was about to...
It was a Saturday in July, and Mr. Peabody, the world's one and only talking genius dog, was in his penthouse at the top of his company, Peabody Industries. He was working on a new feature for his WABAC time machine, called the WABAC Return, a remote control device that will recall the WABAC to the time and place of the person holding it. At the moment, he was about to go into the WABAC and install the receiver in it, but stopped when he noticed his son...
"Sherman! What are you doing?! You mustn't touch that!" Peabody's 5 year old son quickly drew back under his father's stern gaze as he hurriedly replaced an orb shaped object he had been curiously examining back in its place on the shelf.
"M'sorry, Mr. Peabody, I just want to help." Sherman said meekly, looking down at the floor of his father's lab, wringing his fingers in his white shirt, his favorite orange dinosaur stuffed animal in the crook of his arm. But really, what could a 5-year-old do to help a genius dog fix a WABAC?
Peabody's stern gaze relaxed into a soft smile as he looked at Sherman. He was so adorable when he was like this, and he WAS just a curious little boy.
"Ok, Sherman, you can help me. You can pass me my tools, come on." Peabody said as he picked up his toolbox and a transceiver looking device from the table he was standing next to and started walking out his lab to the WABAC room.
"Really Mr. Peabody?!" Sherman said excitedly as he followed his father onto the platform which started moving towards the WABAC.
"Yes, considering what I will be doing, it will make my job easier to have someone hand me my tools." Peabody stepped up into the WABAC and Sherman followed him.
"What are you doing, Mr. Peabody?" Sherman sat down next to the toolbox on the floor of the WABAC and placed his dinosaur toy next to him as Peabody knelt down and removed one of the metal plates from underneath one of the side displays that encircled the inside of the WABAC.
"I…" Peabody grunted as he put the plate off to the side and looked into the space beneath. "...am working on a safety measure for the WABAC. It will allow me to recall the WABAC to the exact time and place I am if anyone ever steals it."
"Oooh, that's cool." Sherman said as he leaned in and looked into the space next to Peabody.
There was all manner of wires, fiber optic cables, and circuit boards running up, around, and all over inside the space, with different colored blinking lights adorning the area like a Christmas tree.
Peabody leaned in and began to work on the equipment inside and Sherman returned to his place next to the toolbox.
Peabody held out a paw behind him. "I need the one with the flat end," he said, describing it because Sherman certainly wouldn't know what the tools were called.
Sherman picked it up and handed it to him. He continued handing Peabody each requested tool until Peabody finally leaned back.
"All done." Peabody replaced the panel. He started marching out of the WABAC.
Sherman quickly followed him. "But Mr. Peabody, aren't you going to test it?"
"There's no way to actually test it, Sherman. Someone would have to steal it first." Peabody chuckled as he looked at him.
"What if I took it?" Sherman quickly amended his statement before his father looked at him. "I-I mean not steal it! Just take it somewhere and then you can see if it works."
Peabody knelt down and placed a paw on Sherman's shoulder. "It's ok Sherman, I know you would never purposefully take the WABAC," he said as he smiled at him. "But I can't let you go in the WABAC by yourself, even if you and I both knew exactly what you were doing. I could never forgive myself if something happened to you."
"Ok."
Reassured, Sherman smiled and bounced over to the elevator. "I'm hungry, Mr. Peabody, is it almost time for lunch?"
Peabody checked his watch and smiled as he walked up. "Yes it is, what would you like for lunch?"
Sherman smiled. He knew he had his father wrapped around his finger. He gave him the best puppy dog eyes he could muster.
"Can I have a tuna sandwich?" he said, blinking quickly for effect. "It's Saturday and I love tuna!" He added quickly as a backup in case the eyes didn't work.
But he didn't need to, the eyes worked. His father smiled at him. "Of course," he said as he joined his son in the elevator.
"A break from making something extravagant and thus extra time to look over the blueprints for the new hoverboard R&D has been developing on the 34th floor would be nice," Peabody said as he hit the button for their penthouse one floor up.
The elevator reached their home and Sherman bounded out.
"Why don't you go play in your room while I make it?" Peabody suggested as he headed for the kitchen.
"Ok, Mr. Peabody." Sherman bounded off to his room, but then suddenly skidded to a stop. His arms were empty.
He could've sworn he was missing something. Oh right, his dinosaur; he left it in the WABAC. He ran over to the elevator again and hit the button to go down. He exited and ran over to the artistically misshapen large red door that housed the WABAC, which had of course shut closed after they had left. But Sherman knew the code and quickly typed it in, sliding in and stepping onto the extending red platform.
As he entered the WABAC one of the displays near the back beeped and changed. Sherman was momentarily distracted by the pretty light display and stared at it in interest for a few seconds before turning around.
As he turned, his feet caught on the toolbox Peabody had also left in the WABAC and started falling. He put his hands out to catch himself but it was too late. His hands slapped and depressed the large red button that Mr. Peabody had told him he could never touch.
The WABAC's doors closed shut and as he got up he noticed the craft whirring and starting up. He looked out the front window and noticed little strands of blue that signaled the WABAC's entry into the time stream.
And there was nothing the 5 year old little boy could do to stop anything. Because he didn't know how.
Peabody hummed to himself as he spread tuna over a piece of bread. He normally would've made something really extravagant for lunch, but seeing as it was a Saturday, and his son had been really good about trying every new cuisine placed in front of him recently, Peabody figured he could give Sherman a break and make his favorite.
He finished and placed the sandwich on a plate with some chips and a pickle and put it on the table in the dining room in Sherman's normal place. He walked over to the hallway and called Sherman's name.
"Sherman! Lunch is ready!"
He walked back into the kitchen and began preparing his own lunch. It was a few minutes before he noticed that there hadn't been any sound from the dining room. Sherman always made a ruckus no matter where he went, and seeing this was his favorite meal, Peabody imagined he would've come running in, making at least some noise.
He walked back into the dining room. Sherman's sandwich was still sitting on the table, untouched and Sherman was nowhere to be found.
Peabody walked through the hallway over to Sherman's door.
"Sherman?" he asked as he opened it and peeked in.
The room was empty. Sherman's bed was perfectly made of course, per Peabody himself giving Sherman a good sense of responsibility. But the immaculate bed didn't even gain Peabody a proud upturn of the lip as he was more concerned about his adopted offspring's whereabouts at the present moment.
He walked through the house, calling Sherman's name the whole way. He wasn't on the terrace, on the golf course, or anywhere on the upper levels. Peabody finally surmised he must have gone back down to the lab and WABAC room. The why Peabody couldn't possibly fathom.
He went over to the elevator and took it down to his lab and looked it over. Sherman wasn't hiding behind any of his plants, any of the test tubes, or anywhere in the lab.
Peabody felt his heart jump into his chest as he wondered if Sherman had gone into the WABAC. He ran over to the door and rapidly punched in the code, having become slightly agitated when Sherman was not in his room, now slightly below a panic attack.
It swung open and Peabody felt his heart jump further up into his throat.
The WABAC was gone.