Who Framed Roger Rabbit Fanfic
Title: Metamorphosis
Summary: Roger wakes up inside the trunk of a car. But before he can get out and find Eddie, he needs to face some issues first –particularly that of his wife's supposed adultery.
Author's Note: "I knocked him out and put him in the trunk so that he wouldn't get hurt," one of Jessica's famous lines. The movie has tried to be funny by depicting Roger's faithfulness against incriminating evidence as childlike and idiotic. But what if there's more to it than meets the eye?
Hope you'll enjoy it. Don't forget to read and review!
BetaRead by AFictionalWriter. She helped this fic become more readable in a way I would not have thought of.
Roger awoke to a sore spot on the top of his head. He blinks, his blue eyes beginning to focus in the darkness. He remembers Eddie telling him to watch his back. He remembers driving away his uneasy nerves by hyping up on the task, declaring himself unsurpassable. He remembers a clanging noise –a clanging noise that sounded like metal meeting his cranium.
A groan comes out of his lips as his head throbs at the chain of memory recall. Roger shakes his head fervently until the pain dissolves away in a matter of seconds. A single thought pops in his mind.
Where's Eddie?
He searches blindly in the darkness, his arms sweeping through the surrounding area. Attempting to get up, a rather loud thump is heard as his sudden movement causes his forehead to collide with a very low ceiling. Shaking away the pain again, his feet touch yet another wall as his yellow-gloved hands run across the clothed covering of a wall brushing against his head.
He's either in a trunk of a car or in a coffin that smells like one.
Roger's first instinct is to panic; he screams out before choking on the sound as though suddenly afraid to fill the dark, confined space with anything else. After several frantic thumpings of further sensory assessment, he stills. Roger forces his breath to even, trying to recall the breathing exercise he used long ago for stage fright.
He got whacked obviously. Someone has put his unconscious body in the trunk of a car. Lifting his feet to what little space available, he thumps the ceiling.
The lid barely budges. Roger rolls his eyes at his own inability before thumping the lid with aggravated machine gun continuity. First, he can't project stars after getting hit by a refrigerator, and now this. Ignoring his rising frustration, he focuses on attempting to force the trunk lid to open.
He thought he was over it already. But if he isn't upset about Jessica anymore, he would have had his toon strength by now. Stars would be dancing around his head when he got-
The thumping stops as he stills at a flash of memory. Before his lights went out, he can remember the feel of velvet gloves grabbing him by the ears before dragging him away…
Of course, he can instantly recognize whose hands they were without the need for further evidence; Roger has a vast amount of memories of those hands from all those times they would-
Warm hues of red color his cheeks and he squashes his thoughts with a noise barrage of bunny feet. This is definitely NOT the time for that.
Still, the lid won't budge. Roger stops, panting. Herman would be throwing a world-class tantrum by now. And since it only made sense for one of them to go crazy at a time, normally Roger would be the one to calm the other down and focus on once again getting down to business.
He does the same now as settles in his position, quieting the emotional maelstrom coursing through him. Blue eyes lock at the trunk lid as though seeing it for the first time. The sadness is still there, staring at him in the face. If he wants to get out, he has to go through it first.
Why?
Why did she do it?
He remembers when his feet led him to Acme factory last night, he has plopped on the crates wondering when did it stop being real.
When did she start pretending?
He remembers his hands holding their photos together. Despite being black and white, the memories were vivid and brightly colored with her smile, her laugh, her voice.
When did she stray from the person he thought he knew?
Roger shuts his eyes tight against the image of Eddie showing his photos of contradicting evidence. For once, he wished he wasn't water-proof and could let the rain wash his paint away.
Sobs shake his body as he clenches one bunny ear over each eye, slumping over. The weight of the day settles heavy on his chest making it hard to breathe.
Rain continues to fall in rhythms and ripples all around him. Lit windows in the factory darken here and there as moments tick by. The cold begins to settle close to the ground and stuff the lungs of those staying outside. A dog howls in an alley.
Suddenly his head snaps up. Jessica would never do that. All the time he has known her, Eddie's pictures are only a pinpoint of stark contradiction of the woman he loves.
Jessica had once point blank asked him if he was being friendly merely because he wanted to "fuck" her. The bewildered look on his face was all the answer she needed before he could say no.
Jessica always keeps her promise. She says with the way life works, the only thing she has is her word. He reminded her she has friends. She has him. Jessica did not respond, but the flicker in her emerald eyes kept him awake that night attempting to decipher their hidden message.
Jessica had been brutally frank to him when she told him about her past. She did not color things lightly. She was giving him a way out in case he changed his mind about her. He didn't.
Roger understands that Jessica didn't express herself much. So when she says sorry, thank you or I love you –his chest twinges at the memory–he knows she means it.
Even if Jessica has lost her feelings, she wouldn't go behind his back. She'd say it to him. After everything she said and did, Jessica would be true to herself… and him.
That gave him the strength to find her.
So why does he still feel upset?
Roger scowls at the trunk lid as though it's what's really keeping him there. Why did Jessica have to knock him out?
He can hear Eddie's gruff voice in his head. "Isn't it obvious? They need the fall guy."
Roger shakes his head. Jessica was hiding something from him; he just couldn't figure out what.
He should have known something was wrong. He should have known something was driving her away. For the last few weeks, she'd be coming home late and if she wasn't busy, she was tired. Roger should have been more worried about the growing distance. He thought they could always catch up – until he saw the Toon Town Gossip Column.
Something was driving her away and he wasn't there to protect her.
A cold stone suddenly settles into his stomach at the thought. How alone did she felt for the last few weeks? What had she gone through all those times he was blissfully ignorant?
"DANGIT!"
Floppy rabbit feet thumped against the trunk lid with a deafening bang as Roger continued his attack on the trunk lid. His legs burn. His knees throb as they accidentally bump meet metal. His heels scream in protest from the abuse. But he stubbornly pushes on, uncaring at the moment. After giving the lid one last kick, silence ensues.
Roger pants and instinctively, he shakes his legs. The pain and bruising dissolves in an instant, mocking him of his masochistic punishment.
"Alright, Roger," he says out loud, "You can either beat yourself up or do something about it."
He pauses, mulling for a second, before giving a tired laugh as he wondered what Herman would say about his cursing. Herman's right, he swears like a child.
He coils back his legs again and thumps the lid. Determined, he coils them back again.
THUMP!
He has to get her out of this mess.
THUMP!
He has to get back to Eddie.
THUMP!
The hits become more precise.
THUMP!
With each thump, he detaches himself from the throngs of his panic and guilt.
He has to stop the Judge before he hurts her.
THUMP!
The smallest crack of light appears at one side of the trunk. A surge of encouragement swells inside his chest.
THUMP!
He has to face the Weasels before they do anything.
THUMP!
He has to see her again.
The last thought fuels his legs with firepower and the trunk lid opens with cacophonous bang.
Roger jumps out with a whoop. The excitement of simply flying through the air and seeing new sights courses through him – even if he just came from the car trunk.
He takes a deep breath and clenches his fist. He may not know everything but he now understands what matters.
Then he stiffens, every hair of his fur standing on its end. His eyes bulge and he gulps his breath as it quicken. He is going to face the Judge and the weasels… and the Dip. They might as well dump a vat on him.
Roger hurriedly pushed his fears away. He has to find Eddie or his wife first.
Dancing buildings and zooming toon cars tells him he's in Toon Town. He pokes his head to the front to see the car's bumper mashed into a truck of overused gags. He looks behind him to see Eddie's car.
Put two and two together and you've got Eddie who followed Jessica and are probably together nearby. Quickly, he jumps into Eddie's car.
As he attempts to drive –or rather, crash the car to every pole, fire hydrant and building wall –he remembers the time he told Herman he was going to marry Jessica.
Herman looks surprise but Roger was too busy jumping, whooping and being giddy. When Roger calms down from the excitement, Herman gives him a look.
"Roger, I once heard her say she'd do anything for you," he looks at him pointedly, one eyebrow arching, "Anything."
A moment pulses. The weight of that one word settles heavily between them. Roger gives him a reassuring smile at the question slinking around them like a restless cat. Are you sure?
"Aw, c'mon Herman. She may look like she's burning down a barn. But I know she'll have a good reason for it."
The "Baby" stares at him as though wondering if they're in the same page. But Roger refuses to further elaborate. Finally, Herman shrugs and lights another cigar.
"You're an idiot to marry someone that crazy."
Coming from a guy like Herman, that's his own version of a blessing. Roger couldn't be happier.
CRASH!
Roger blinks, having crashed the car into another brick wall. After fumbling with the stick, he backs away the car again and cringes as it impacts into a stop light.
The rabbit shakes his head, wondering why that memory surfaced at such time.
The idiot and the crazy.
For a rare moment, his smile is dry but sweet. What a fine pair they make.
Author's Note: oh, the irony. This is just an insight to Roger's head. What moment stuck with you the most? If you have any constructive criticism, I'll be happy to read them. Thanks for reading this story and I hope you enjoyed it.
Next would be Jessica's perspective. Hope I can push it through.