I'm a little surprised there isn't any Bubble Boy fic...
And I don't own Bubble Boy or Land of the Lost.
But anyway, I hope you like this little story of what could have been... please review if you like it (or hate it)
Jimmy was basking in that wondrous dream for the third time this week, the one where he had been born with immunities and he was allowed to go outside, in the sun, with the driveways and the grass and the other kids.
He always ran around in these dreams, running his fingers through the grass, over the asphalt, across Chloe's skin- but everything he touched felt like the plastic bubble he knew all too well. The sky, the flowers, her hair all smelled like his room.
It was all he knew. He knew nothing else, and in the dream, no matter how fantastic it always was, he always felt ready to go back up into his room before he woke up.
And he did, just now, to her sweet voice and the sound of his window sliding open. She called his name and he rose, turning to her as she pulled the blinds up over her head so she could come in.
She had a six-pack of what Jimmy assumed was beer dangling in one hand. She was acting kind of strange. He wondered if she was drunk. He had never seen anyone drunk before so he couldn't know for sure.
"Chloe?" he asked, still half-asleep, surprised to see her here.
She looked beautiful. He noticed the tiara in her hair and remembered that it was her birthday. She shouldn't be here. She had a party to be at, but she was here, with him. It didn't make any sense.
He kept asking about her party in a stupor as she stepped around him and toward the pair of retractable arms near his bed. Jimmy was exhausted because it was hours past his nine o'clock bedtime and he never, ever stayed up past then. It would take him a while to really wake up.
He couldn't even be sure what Chloe was saying before he was up against the bubble and she had grabbed him, pulling him toward her.
Before Jimmy knew what was going on he recoiled and couldn't do anything but stare back.
"I hate this stupid bubble," she told him as she moved around the edge of the bubble toward the hatch, "I got everything I wanted for my birthday. Except you, Jimmy. That's why I'm coming in."
Jimmy tried to stop her, telling her it was a bad idea, sticking out an arm to keep her from approaching but she just handed him a beer as he attempted to convince her that this wouldn't work.
"Don't worry," she whispered as she breathed gently on the bubble, and if it hadn't been there her lips could have been right up against his. "You can decontaminate me."
She climbed into the chamber now, begging that she let him in, but he was scared. What if this didn't work? Could she really be decontaminated? He tried to talk her out of the tube but she wouldn't have it.
Now they were close again and he wanted so desperately to kiss her as their breath steamed up the same little patch on either side of the glass barrier between them, and she closed her eyes and leaned in with her lips puckered…
But then she slumped over in the tube, passed out, and all Jimmy could do was look at her from the other side of the glass.
He grabbed a seat so he could be close to her now and his hands were pressed up against the glass, held up so that he could imagine that he was holding her there as she gently breathed in her sleep.
"Chloe… I," he said, gazing at her with that gentle longing he had never been able to explain. She was so beautiful. More beautiful than his mom, more beautiful than any drawing in his Highlights magazines, or Holly from Land of the Lost, or anyone he had ever seen pass by on the street from his window,
She was his only friend besides Mom and Dad, the only one who had ever made these marvelous feelings well up inside him, the only one who didn't treat him like a freak.
She was the only person he had ever decided he really cared about. Mom and Dad didn't count. After all, it was she who had been curious enough to come in and meet him. She could hold a conversation with him in Pakuni and play the theme song to Land of the Lost just as well as he could now. She knew him better than anyone, especially his mom, and taught him what he expected now was more truthful than the stuff his mother had told him.
He didn't want to believe his mom now. All he wanted to believe in was Chloe. She could be decontaminated. She could be decontaminated…
He wanted so badly to let her in, but he knew he couldn't.
"And then the prince let Snow White into his bubble and died," he heard his mother's voice say. It was all that kept him from opening the door. He didn't want to die, especially not if being alive meant he got to see Chloe. What if a germ got in with her? A single germ could kill him, and he couldn't risk it. Not right now.
But what if Chloe she was right? She had to be right… What if she could be decontaminated? What if he could finally touch her for real?
It was enough. He pushed the button and the chamber filled with a white mist. After a moment it had dissipated and he carefully opened the hinged glass door to the chamber.
All he could do for a moment was stare. He was looking at her now. Directly. Nothing between them. It took a long moment for him to realize that he could touch her, but he was terrified. What if she was still contaminated?
But it was too late. He reached out and slowly his hand creeped closer to hers. And then he was there, touching her hand.
He was almost shocked when he realized that her skin was just like his. Her hand was so soft, warm to the touch and smooth, and he realized at once that he could not remember ever having touched another human being.
He almost kissed her on the lips now, his lips dangling centimeters from hers, but it didn't seem right. Not now while she slept.
He got a sweet whiff of her hair as he pulled away. It was the most amazing fragrance he had ever experienced. It was the scent of apples, but Jimmy had never eaten nor smelled an apple and he was amazed by it.
"Chloe," he said now, taking one of her hands in both of his, squeezing it. Her hand was so soft.
"Jimmy, what?" her eyes fluttered open and then grew wide. "Oh my God!"
Jimmy stood as she tumbled out of the decontamination chamber and got to her feet next to him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders.
With her weight pulling down on him, Jimmy toppled over and fell lightly beside her, not realizing what she was doing until he had fallen so that his lips met hers exactly as they rolled to the floor.
This was like nothing he had ever experienced. The soft pressure against his lips sent the blood rushing to his head and made him feel as if he were floating, as if he were flying- free at last.
They rolled over now so that she was on top of him, Jimmy feeling her breasts heave lightly against his chest and a great, unspeakable sensation in his lower region that he thought he'd never understand as she moved against him.
"I pledge allegiance…" he gasped, "to the flag… of the United… states…"
"Shh…" Chloe said as she interrupted with another kiss and taught him all about the thing Mrs. Livingston had been protecting Jimmy from all these years.
"I love you, Chloe," Jimmy said when they got their clothes back on and kissed her again, relishing in how it all felt. He felt different now. Changed, like the act of their bodies coming together had imparted him with some wisdom he lacked before.
"I love you too, Jimmy," she told him and wrapped her arms around him. She ruffled his hair and smoothed it out and already it looked like a real haircut. It was amazing every time she touched him.
And then Jimmy glanced over at the wide door to the contamination chamber and noticed for the first time that Chloe had never closed the first door behind her.
"Oh my God, Jimmy…" she gasped when she saw too, "I'm…are you okay?"
He felt dizzy for a moment, like the world was going black around him but then it stopped when he caught a glimpse of Chloe. He gave his head a shake and the world stopped quaking around him.
"Yeah, I think so," he said after a moment, standing up. He wasn't dead. The bubble must've been dancing with germs now, but he was fine.
Had all of this been a lie? This whole time… but he didn't have time now to be angry with his mother.
"So… Chloe," Jimmy said, having made a decision and climbing out the tube, for the very first time, to the outside world. "You still have that party going on?"
She followed him outside, not needing to ask when she saw the odd expression grace his face. "Well, yeah, but it's just a bunch of my lame friends hanging out…"
"Maybe you could introduce me to them?" Jimmy asked, grinning.
"I'd like that," she smiled back. "C'mon," she said and showed him the way out the window, taking him into the world for the first time.