AN: Hi and welcome to my Monsters Inc. fan fiction. I know I have been rubbish with my other two fics, but I've completely lost inspiration for them, so they're up for adoption if anyone wants them. The reason I've written the fic in this way is because in loads of the MI ones that I've read, Boo just accepts Sully and Mike no matter how long it's been. I'm not slating them, because I find them really sweet, but I just wanted to write one with another beginning.

I own nothing; any recognisable characters belong to Disney and Pixar.

Chapter 1

Mike Wazowski sighed and leant back in his chair, flexing his cramped, aching fingers. He had spent the last four hours sorting out a backlog of paperwork, filing it first chronologically and then by country into brightly coloured folders. Now he was finally done and could focus on more important things. Like what to wear on tonight's date with Celia. Now that they had the kids they hardly ever got to go on dates so he wanted to make it special. As he was pondering this, his office door flew open and slammed into the wall making him jump and fall backwards off his chair.

"Mike! We gotta hurry!" it was Sully looking extremely agitated.

"Sully you big oaf! You gotta knock before coming in her! You scared the life outta me!"

"I'm sorry but we have to move! Roz just told me that Boo put her house up for sale!"

"You're telling me that a thirteen year old put a house up for sale?"

"No! Her parents! Mike I'm serious, we have to go before it's too late!" With that he took off out of the door and down the corridor.

"Sully! Wait up!" Mike yelled. He had to stop him before he went bursting in there. It had been ten years for god's sake! The kid would be a teenager now! Mike caught up with Sully just in time to see him press the button to activate the door.

"Sull, no!" he shouted and tackled him, regretting it instantly as they both crashed through the door and landed in a heap.

Mary frowned in concentration, her tongue poking out as she sketched frantically. She had had that dream again. Well, it was more of a nightmare really. It was always the same: a child would be lying in bed, and then a ferocious monster with horns and fangs roared, terrifying both her and the child. It would then turn to her and that was the point where she would wake up; trembling, terrified but safe. The sketchbook that she was using was full of her dreams, some good, some bad but more frequently, terrifying. She added a final stroke of her pencil and leant back to look at her work. It was almost a perfect representation of her dream, except…there was something almost familiar about the creature she had drawn and Mary couldn't help but think she had seen it somewhere before. As she leant in closer to look, her closet door burst open, making her jump out of her skin and fall out of her chair.

What she saw as her eyes automatically darted to find the cause of the commotion made her freeze and her eyes to widen as terror gripped her, clawing icily at her stomach, paralysing her. It was the monster from her nightmares sprawled on the floor of her bedroom and all she could do was stare as he slowly picked himself up and shook himself. His eyes opened and almost immediately found her. A frown appeared on his face and he made his way towards her. Mary found she had the use of her limbs again as adrenaline coursed through her body like an electric shock and she leapt to her feet, darted to the other side of the room and pressed herself against the wall. It looked momentarily confused then changed direction so it was coming towards her again.

"S-stay away from me!" she ordered trying to sound confident and fearless, but knowing that her voice was coming out as a terrified squeak. However, it did have the desired effect; the monster stopped dead. Then to her complete and utter amazement it opened its mouth and spoke:

"Boo? What's wrong? It's me!"

Before she could even think about how she might respond to this bizarre statement another voice came out from behind it and a small, green, ball – like monster stepped into view.

"Sully back off." It spoke surprisingly gently and moved with exaggerated slowness to lay its hand on the big one's arm.

"But Mike!" The blue one protested.

"Come on Sull" it responded more firmly, tugging its arm "You're scaring her to death." The green one managed to pull the big one back a few paces before it pulled its arm out of the green one's grip and spoke looking bewildered.

"I don't understand Mikey. What's wrong with her?"

The green one – Mikey apparently – slapped his forehead and responded in a frustrated tone:

"What's wrong with her is it's been ten years since we've seen her and you just burst into her room in the middle of the night! You've scared the life outta her!" The big one – Sully – turned to his companion angrily.

"Well what was I supposed to do Mike? Just let her go and not say goodbye?"

"Yes Sully, that's EXACTLY what you were supposed to do! Let the kid go on with her life and you do the same!"

"I can't DO that!" he bellowed back.

"Oh I know, because it's all about YOU. You can't do what's unselfish! What's right!"

Sully turned away and roared in frustration and anger, completely destroying what was left of Mary's nerves, releasing the hold the terror had on her vocal cords allowing her to emit a petrified scream that mingled with his. Sully stopped dead and then both monsters turned to face her, Sully cringing because this was what he dreaded the most: Boo was half crouched against the wall, hands pressed against her mouth, eyes wide and horrified. Even though he knew he was the reason she was so afraid, Sully found himself moving towards her, desperate to comfort her in any way. It was only her flinch and Mikey's warning hand on his arm that stopped him.

"Take it easy kid, we're going." Mike said softly.

"Mike, no!" Sully protested.

"Sull, look she's terrified, you're not doing any good staying. Just leave her be."

"Boo." Sully whispered brokenly as Mikey dragged him to the closet and pushed him through. He turned to look one more time and seeing that she was still in the half crouch against the wall, sighed.

"I'm so sorry Boo. He just misses you so much." He then walked into the closet and pulled the door shut behind him.