Chapter 1

Woody smiled and applauded with the others as Buzz and Jessie finished their dance. They held hands and took elaborate bows, blowing kisses at the audience.

A twinge of melancholy pressed against his chest but he found himself chuckling at Buzz's antics. It was amazing how much his space ranger buddy changed when he switched over to the Spanish mode.

Woody turned away as Buzz dipped Jessie back and gave her a long kiss. Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head were fussing over their three alien children, still thanking them for their heroic act at the dump. Rex and Trixie headed off toward Bonnie's computer.

Woody climbed up Bonnie's bedspread, onto the bed, and leaped up to the windowsill. He settled on its edge and stared out the window. It was a Saturday afternoon and Bonnie was at the movies with her parents. She probably wouldn't be back for hours.

It had rained earlier in the day. The lawn sparkled with countless water droplets against the emerging sunlight and the air was scented with damp grass and flowers. Clouds, which had transformed from bruise-gray smudges into billowy white puffs, scurried across the bright blue sky. It reminded Woody of the wallpaper in Andy's old bedroom…

He struggled to force back the memories. He was now Bonnie's toy and had to move on. Andy was a part of the past, as was…

Bo. His eyes grew warm and moist as thoughts of her, which he'd struggled to suppress this past year, crowded his mind. Had it only been a year since that fateful yard sale when Bo was purchased by an elderly woman who collected antique lamps and dolls?

A few years ago he and the others had agreed that, once Andy and Molly started getting older and gradually choosing to get rid of certain toys, rescues were futile. They quickly realized that any toys spared from one yard sale could only hide for so long before they were discovered by members of the Davis family and just placed in the next one. So the day Bo was sold, the same day they'd also lost Wheezy, Etch, Mr. Spell, and RC, Woody could only stand at the window and watch. Watch as she was wrapped up, placed in a box, and driven away, out of his life forever.

That had been the second time he'd shed actual tears, something that was rare for toys. The first had been the night Andy's father, who'd been his previous owner, had died. Molly had only been a few months old then and Bo was there to comfort him. He closed his eyes and remembered her cool, porcelain touch as she had held his head against her shoulder, allowing him to weep until his eyes ran out of tears.

"I still should have tried to rescue you, Bo," Woody whispered to the window. "Why did I insist on sticking to that stupid pact?"

That had also been the first time he'd admitted that he'd loved her. Why had he waited so long? That was one thing he'd tried to advise Buzz about Jessie. Just because they were toys and believed they were immortal since they never aged, they could still be separated by their owners. The worst part was that he hadn't even said it directly to Bo, just from the window while she was down at the yard sale, about to be taken away. He doubted she'd even heard him. How could she have?

More memories flooded back, as if a dam had burst in his mind, things he had pushed aside during their ordeal at Sunnyside Daycare and nearly being destroyed in the incinerator. Those events had occupied his thoughts for several days, even invading his dreams. But now that he and the others had settled in at Bonnie's, Woody's reverie turned back to Bo.

He caught himself smiling and rubbing the back of his head as he thought about how she would often surprise him by looping her crook around his neck. Sometimes it hurt but he had to admit that he enjoyed it. I was almost as bad as Buzz was with Jessie, he thought, remembering how just looking into Bo's radiant blue eyes used to reduce him to a stammering, incoherent wreck.

Then there were the games she used to play with her sheep, making them hide and then urging Woody to help her find them, and having them hold up the mistletoe at Christmas so she could cover him in kisses. His insides tingled at the thought. He also couldn't forget the frequent sing-a-longs with Wheezy. Woody often felt embarrassed since Bo had a beautiful singing voice while his always came out flat and dissonant, even worse than his pull-string one. But Bo had been nice enough not to point that out.

"Woody, what are you doin' up here all by yourself?" He nearly jumped at the sound of Jessie's voice. The cowgirl scrambled onto the windowsill and plopped down cross-legged beside him. Buzz quickly followed.

"O-oh, hey, Jessie, Buzz," Woody stammered, scooting over to make room for them. "I was just thinking, that's all."

"Is everything all right, Sheriff?" asked Buzz, his face drawn with concern.

"Yeah." Woody returned his gaze to the window. He swallowed. Most of his friends didn't bring up Bo, knowing the subject was painful for him. "I-I..." He rubbed the back of his neck and forced the words to come, words that felt heavy on his lips. "I was just thinking about her. About Bo."

Jessie and Buzz exchanged glances. They briefly grasped hands before Jessie draped an arm around Woody's shoulders. "We all miss her," she whispered, her tone unusually subdued. A shadow of sadness flickered in her bright green eyes. "She was a great friend."

Woody blinked hard and focused on the sky, watched the clouds scuttle across it. A late summer breeze stirred the branches of the large tree in Bonnie's yard.

Jessie started to giggle. Woody turned back to her in surprise. "I was just thinking about the time she lent me her staff so I could try it out on you Buzz, do you remember?"

Woody couldn't help but smile when he saw the space ranger's cheeks flush. "I do remember that," Woody said with a laugh that surprised him, momentarily brightening his mood. "She was always teasing you, Buzz, remember? Wondering what you were waiting for with Jessie." He felt his face burn as soon as the words were out of his mouth.

"It turns out she was right." Buzz grinned and looked lovingly at Jessie, an expression that caused a brief shiver of jealousy to pass through Woody. He forced it back.

"Are you talking about…Bo?" asked Mrs. Potato Head as she climbed up onto the bed with her husband following close behind. Woody's throat tightened. He gulped and nodded. "I sure miss her. She was such a sweet girl."

"Sweet, yeah," grumbled Mr. Potato Head, striding forward. "But she did have a temper. None of you have ever been whacked by her cane." He rubbed his head.

Woody laughed. "It's not like you didn't deserve it, Potato Head. You two sure got into some heated arguments at times."

"She was always kind to me," Rex said timidly as he waddled up to the foot of the bed.

"Me too," added Slinky, his tail bobbing.

Bullseye softly nickered and lowered his head. His large eyes were sad.

"Who are you all talking about?" asked Mr. Pricklepants, stepping out from the corner where he had been working on a monologue.

Woody could feel the familiar melancholy worming its way back into his chest. Pricklepants, Dolly, Buttercup, Trixie, the three peas in a pod, Chuckles, and even silent Totoro had gathered in a group and were all staring up at them.

Woody tugged at his bandana and looked down. "Just an old friend," he murmured.

"Woody's old girlfriend," said Hamm from his place on Bonnie's desk. "Her name was Bo Peep and—"

"Like the nursery rhyme?" asked Pricklepants.

"Yeah, like the nursery rhyme," Woody mumbled.

"What happened?" asked Dolly, her button eyes glinting.

"She was sold at a yard sale, ma'am," said Slinky, seeing that this was too painful for Woody to explain. "About a year ago, I'd say."

Bonnie's original toys gasped in horror.

"Ah, a tale of star-crossed lovers," breathed Pricklepants in a dramatic tone, "torn apart against their wills by a cruel twist of fate. It would make an excellent play—"

"Hey, show a little respect, will ya," snapped Buttercup, poking the hedgehog with his horn.

"Why don't you try to find her?" asked Dolly.

"I-I wouldn't know where to look." Woody could feel his eyes growing hot and moist.

"It shouldn't be that difficult," Trixie said. "Do you have any clues about the person who bought her?"

"Yeah." A faint hope leaped in Woody's chest. "She was an older woman, a collector."

"A collector." Trixie looked thoughtful. "That's a start. I'll just hop onto the Internet and—"

"We're going to find Bo and bring her here?" shrieked Jessie, jumping up. "Yee-haw!"

"No," said a firm, solemn voice. Everyone turned to look at Chuckles who wobbled forward on his large feet. The clown's usually sad face was set in a stern expression. "There are rules about this sort of thing."

"Rules? What rules?" shouted Buttercup.

"You did say that she was sold at a yard sale?"

A sinking feeling filled Woody as he reluctantly nodded.

"Then she has an owner. To take her from that owner would constitute stealing."

"I've never heard of this cockamamie rule before," snapped Mr. Potato Head. "Remember when Woody was kidnapped by Al?" A stab of pain prickled Woody's chest. He still experienced pangs of guilt over the time when he'd almost gone off to Japan with Jessie, the Prospector, and Bullseye, even though that had happened so many years ago. Bo had been at the back of his mind then but he'd had to admit that he'd been more concerned about getting ripped up even more, abandoned by Andy, and letting Jessie and the others get put back into storage. Bo had forgiven him when he eventually worked up the courage to explain this to her but he could still see the hurt that had lingered in her eyes. He felt a sinking in his chest whenever he thought of that, as if his voice box had been yanked out. There was a part of him that believed Bo's loss was some sort of karmic punishment for his willingness to just leave her without ever saying goodbye. Perhaps on some level he deserved never to see her again. "We all went after him and brought him back."

"And brought us back too," added Jessie, smiling down at Bullseye.

"So you were stolen," continued Chuckles. "That's different. This Al wasn't your true owner. Andy still was and you were just being returned to your proper place. But if you take a toy away from someone who paid for them or received them as a gift, then you are stealing. It's different if a toy is lost or abandoned…" Chuckles' voice broke. He turned away, no doubt consumed by thoughts of Lotso and Daisy.

Woody sank back against the window. The sun felt warm against his vinyl skin but he wanted it to go away. He longed to curl up in a dark toy box and not speak to anyone as he'd done during those horrible days following Bo's loss.

An ephemeral tremor of helpless rage passed through him. True, he still loved Andy and adored Bonnie but his fate, along with those of the other toys, was all determined by the whims of these humans. He thought about how heartbroken Jessie had sounded when she had talked about Emily and how Daisy's abandonment had turned Lotso into a monster. He shuddered. Did Molly realize that, by outgrowing Bo, she had ripped Woody apart inside? Of course not.

He felt a firm hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry, Woody," said Buzz with a glint in his pale blue eyes. "That rule must have a loophole. Every rule does. We just have to find it."

"You think?" Woody sat up straighter. The flicker of hope that had been doused by Chuckles had returned.