Chapter 2 is finally up! Yay! Sorry I've been so slow to post new chapters, I've just been through a lot lately and I will try to update more often.

Chapter 2

"Can I have everyone's attention please?" Nani called from the DJ table. "First of all I want to thank each and every one of you for showing up at my sister's 'Aloha' party. Each one of you, both experiments and hometown friends have touched our lives in so many unforgettable ways, and I'm glad that you're all apart of our Ohana. Being from a broken family has been tough for both me and Lilo. After loosing out parents I didn't know how I would be able to make it raising a little sister and working to support ourselves, but after we were introduced to Stitch and then all of you, I'm happy to say I feel like we are a whole family again."

Nani paused as the partygoers erupted with applause and waited for it to die down before continuing.

"Unfortunately tonight due to a family emergency that we just discovered we're going to have to cut this party a little short. Thanks for coming everyone! I thank you, my family thanks you but most of all Lilo thanks you for being here for her. We love you all."

The people in the crowd began to look at each other questioningly and murmur among themselves as they all gathered their things and got up to leave. They made their way around the side of the house to the driveway where all of their cars were parked. Pleakley stood there on the side of the driveway making small talk with the guests and seeing them off. A few people asked him if he knew what happened but he refused to give away any information.

As the last of the guests were pulling out onto the street Pleakley watched a small squad of police cars and an ambulance drive up to the house. They were all being led in by a black Mercedes, a car whose driver the family knew all too well.

When they all came to a stop Pleakley walked up to greet the leader, a tall muscular African-American man who wore a black suit with a red tie and black sunglasses even though it was already dark outside. The man removed his sunglasses and smiled as Pleakley approached him.

"Cobra Bubbles!" Pleakley said excitedly. "It's really good to see you again, though I wish it were under better circumstances."

"Hello, Pleakley." Cobra Bubbles greeted in his deep baritone voice. "How's Lilo? I'm guessing something must have happened or I wouldn't be standing here talking to you."

"Well it is the weekend. What else could you possibly be doing right now?" Pleakley asked him

Cobra narrowed his eyes for a minute. "I could be home. Asleep in my bed. You know that I'm not a night person and that I don't like to be disturbed, especially when its after midnight." He deadpanned.

"Sorry, again." Pleakley said quietly. "A family emergency just happened to come up and we couldn't think of anyone better to call but you."

"So now that you've got me here give me the details." Cobra suggested as he followed Pleakley to the backyard.

At this time the police officers and paramedics were already in the backyard. While the medics and a large portion of the police were at the ship working on widening the entrance so that they could get their equipment to the patient the rest were interviewing the family and any experiments that had decided to stay and help.

Everyone on the island now knew that Jumba, Pleakley and the experiments were actually aliens from outer space and they were all fine with it. Public knowledge of their existence actually began around the time Leroy was created and after he had rounded up all of the experiments at the Aloha Dome to be destroyed by Dr. Hamstervielle.

A few eye witnesses had spotted Hamstervielle's ship as it floated above the sports arena and had called in the police. The whole scene drew quite a crowd, actually more than half of the town. By the time Hamstervielle and the leroys were defeated and Lilo, Stitch, Gantu and the 625 other experiments were seen exiting the dome so many questions had arisen that the next day the town's mayor had personally met with Cobra Bubbles and the Grand Councilwoman to confirm their existence and declare all experiments official residents of Earth and Kokaua Town.

Since then all of the experiments lived day to day working in their one true places and even Jumba and Pleakley contributed what they could to the community. And now it was the community's time to give back to Jumba.

The area around Jumba's ship was swarming with people, some of them Forensic scientists taking samples of various items in the ship while others wore radiation suits and looked for any possible radioactive leaks. Nani was standing right outside the ship still filling Cobra in on all of the details. Pleakley had already gone to bed since there was really nothing he could do anymore and Stitch decided that he and Lilo should do the same since she was supposed to be leaving in the morning.

High above in their rooftop dome the lights were turned out and everything would have been peaceful if it weren't for all of the activity outside. Lilo was lying quietly in her bed waiting to fall asleep. Stitch, unfortunately, was still restless and was watching everything happen in the backyard through his window on his bunk. He watched as a large gurney was taken out of the ambulance and wheeled through the backyard and into the ship. The gurney reemerged a few minutes later with Jumba's massive sized body strapped down tightly to it as it made it's way back.

Up until this point Stitch was in denial about what had happened. To him it just seemed like it was someone else this was all happening to, but everything seemed to hit home once he saw Jumba's body lying motionless on the gurney as it was being loaded up into the ambulance. The one person he had known his entire life since his creation, the one person who had fought to protect him, not only from the glitch he had suffered through all of those years ago but from a society who would shun him for being different, cast aside just because he wasn't born naturally, was now broken. Helpless. And there wasn't a thing he could do for his beloved creator.

Feeling just as helpless Stitch closed his eyes and rested his head against the cool glass of the window. He needed reassurance that Jumba was going to be alright but the problem was he didn't even know if Jumba was going to come out of this and things were going to be like they were before. A few tears trickled down his cheeks as Stitch sat there sobbing quietly to himself.

"Stitch?" A concerned voice called out to him in the dark.

"Lilo? What are you still doing awake? You've got a plane to catch tomorrow." Stitch asked her

"Can't sleep." She answered. "My body is tired but my brain refuses to rest. I've got too many things running through my mind right now; my flight tomorrow, my new life in California and all of the new people I'm going to meet, but mostly I can't stop thinking about Jumba."

Stitch watched as things were wrapped up outside. The ambulance containing Jumba was finally loaded up and slowly rolled out of their driveway. The police officers finished questioning Nani and got back into their cars to escort the ambulance to the hospital. Soon only the lonely moon was left alone outside as it shone down on the earth.

Stitch lay down on his back and stared up at the ceiling. Things were almost too quiet now. He was glad when he heard Lilo's voice again break the silence.

"I guess I don't need to ask you if you're worried about him." She said. "He's been a part of our broken Ohana now for so long that I actually think of him as a blood relative. Pleakley too. Though now that I think about it I guess he's more of a father to you and your cousins."

"Huh?" Stitch asked as he snapped his head in Lilo's direction. He had never thought about it in that way before. It was true that Jumba had successfully created Stitch and all of his 625 other experiments, and that he was also there to personally witness the birth of all of his experiments , but they had all only thought of him as their evil genius creator but never really a father figure. During their creation Jumba did clone his own DNA to make each experiment a part of him so it had to be true.

"You're lucky to have someone like him for a father. He cares so much about all of you like you were his own children." Lilo continued. "Its been so long now that I don't even remember what my own parents were like. I'll ask Nani to tell me about them every once in a while to try to remember but I only remember bits and pieces. I envy her sometimes for being the oldest and getting to know them better than I did. Then I met you, Jumba, Pleakley and the experiments and dared to dream that my family was whole again."

Stitch sighed loudly, slipping off of his bed and walked towards Lilo's voice.

"Can Stitch sleep with you tonight?" He asked her.

"Of course." She replied. "After what happened tonight I guess we're both feeling a little lonely."

Lilo flipped back her blanket and Stitch crawled up onto her bed and cuddled into her warm body. She covered them both back up and wrapped both of her arms around his abdomen hugging him closer to her and nuzzled into his soft fur. Stitch purred softly happy to be there with her. She kissed the back of his head and closed her eyes to drift off to sleep.

"Goodnight, Stitch." She whispered.

"Sweet dreams, Lilo." He replied. He closed his eyes and tried to go to sleep as well but something still disturbed him. He didn't have the heart to tell anyone earlier that night when they found Jumba lying unconscious in the ship but he could smell the unmistakable aroma of an experiment there. The scent marking was masked so he couldn't tell exactly which experiment it was but it still troubled him deeply to think that someone in his own family may be responsible for what happened to Jumba. The rest of the night Stitch tossed and turned in a fitful slumber.

The next morning Lilo was up and ready to go to the airport by 10 am. Thankfully this time Stitch was more cooperative in getting up and when he was ready he carried Lilo's luggage down the dome's elevator for her and dropped it off by the door. Nani was already up and making breakfast for them before she had to go to work.

"Morning, Nani!" Lilo and Stitch called as they walked into the kitchen and sat at the table.

"Morning you two. I hope you're hungry because I made your favorite." Nani said as she poured them both a large helping of oatmeal. "I already ate so I'll finish getting ready and when you're done I'll take you to the airport on my way to work. Stitch, here's thirty dollars so you can take a taxi home after Lilo leaves."

She handed him the money and left for the bathroom. Fifteen minutes later when they were done the three of them grabbed Lilo's stuff and walked out the door to Nani's buggy. The luggage was put into the back and they started out of the driveway onto the main road.

Lilo could tell Nani had a hard night also. She was a worrier and probably spent most of the night lying in bed worrying about Jumba and if Lilo was going to make it to the airport on time for her flight. Both of Nani's eyes were red and she was slow and unresponsive. Much of the car ride was spent in complete silence, which made Lilo uncomfortable.

"So, uh, what did Cobra Bubbles have to say last night after Stitch and I went to bed?" Lilo asked her, trying to break the silence.

"Oh, you, know. Just that Jumba was probably in a coma and that if we hadn't found him when we did the situation could've been a whole lot worse." Nani replied. He was pretty vague about what caused the explosion, saying it could have been a number of different things, but it was nothing radioactive or lethal."

"How long do you think he was like that before we found him?" Lilo continued.

"The forensics guess that the explosion happened about three days ago and they took some samples to analyze." Nani said.

Lilo frowned. Cobra Bubbles wasn't the only one being vague right now, and getting her sister to open up was harder than getting Stitch to take a bath.

"Do you think he'll be ok?" Lilo pressed on.

"Hard to say. Only time will tell." Nani responded.

Sighing deeply Lilo decided to give up on making conversation with her sister and stared out her window, enjoying the countryside before they arrived at the airport.

A few minutes later when they reached their destination Nani popped the trunk open and Stitch helped Lilo take her luggage to the bag check counter. With her stuff checked in Lilo made sure she still had her plane ticket and turned to her sister for their goodbyes.

"Take care of yourself now, Lilo. Don't do anything that you would regret later." Nani sobbed while drawing her sister into a giant hug. Lilo hugged her back and felt a few tears of her own fall down her cheeks.

"I want you to have this too." Nani continued as she opened up Lilo's fingers and placed a one hundred dollar bill in her palm.

"This is from all of us. We're all so proud of you." Nani said. Lilo hugged her sister again and kissed her forehead.

With most of the goodbyes already said and done Nani got into her buggy and turned back toward her sister. She reached out and held onto Lilo's hand one more time.

"The car is being flown to California sometime this week so it should arrive a couple of days after you get there. There will be someone from the airport to drive it to your house so you wont have to go anywhere to pick it up." Nani instructed.

"Thanks, Nani, for everything ." Lilo said giving her a tearful smile.

"Good bye and good luck. We'll stay in contact. I love you." Nani called as she pulled her hand back and drove off to work. She looked into her viewer and watched as her sister's image grew smaller and smaller before sobbing and wiping away some tears with her hand.

Lilo looked down at Stitch and sighed.

"And then there were two." She said.

Lilo and Stitch walked through the entrance of the airport and looked around. They had been here often when they were kids so that Lilo could take pictures of the tourists and they knew their way around. As always there were hundreds of people dashing about, in a hurry to catch their planes or to gather what they needed before their flights left.

The airport itself was a two story building, the first floor was used mainly for passengers to buy tickets or if they were just arriving to claim their bags while the second floor housed dozens of little stores and newspaper stands with a semi fancy café in the center. This was a favorite place for them to go and eat as they often did when Lilo would just receive her allowance as a kid. Stitch thought that they made the best coconut cake on the whole island here.

They rode the escalator to the second floor and walked into the café. While Lilo ordered their food Stitch found them a seat right next to a window that looked out onto the tarmac where they could watch the planes take off and land. Her plane didn't leave yet for another forty five minutes which gave them plenty of time to be able to sit down and enjoy each other's company for a while longer.

Lilo came back to the table with coffee for them both, coconut cake for Stitch and angel food for her. The two of them reminisced back to their childhood days as experiment hunters while they waited and Lilo told him what life would be like for her living in California.

"Tell Stitch again where you'll be living in California." Stitch begged her.

"My friend Annie Pacheco from high school is already living there and going to school." Lilo started. "From what she tells me in her letters, the house I'm going to be living in is a large one story building that's a part of a larger fraternity in the 'Kappa Phi Beta' family. Five of us will be living there altogether, Annie and me, and three other guys, Rick, Tony and Joe. The three of them can be quite a handful, I've been told, and at times she says that she feels like a den mother..."

Stitch rested his head on his hands as he listened to Lilo, enjoying the sound of her voice while he still could. He always liked the stories that she came up with and even though he couldn't come with her he still wished that he could so that he could meet her future roommates.

As Stitch sat there enjoying their time together an announcement soon stated that Lilo's plane was now ready to begin boarding the first few sections. Stitch's heart sunk a little bit knowing that the time had finally come to tell her goodbye.

Lilo left a tip on the table before the two of them got up and left the café and headed to Lilo's departure gate. A line had already formed once they got there and they took their place. All around him Stitch observed the other people as they too saw their loved ones off or greet them as they walked out of the tunnel and all of the emotions that went along.

Stitch didn't know how he would make it without Lilo by his side until she was finished with college and came back to the islands, but he did know that he had to be strong and supportive; for not only Nani, Jumba and Pleakley, but mostly for Lilo. Finally it was Lilo's turn to hand her ticket over and board the plane. Once she got her ticket stub back she took Stitch's paw and stepped aside to tell him goodbye.

She squatted down to his eye level and took his other paw in her hands, her eyes had already begun to get red and tear up.

"Stitch, first off, thanks for being my friend." She started, her voice cracking with emotion. "If I hadn't met you when I did I probably would have grown up an even more screwed up person than before. I want you to know that you really have touched my life in more positive ways than you could imagine, and I'll really miss you for that."

Stitch's eyes also began to water as be cried silently. He wished he could find just the right words to say back to her but for right now words escaped him.

"Nani said that you could use her computer anytime you miss me to email me, and you already know the house number where I'm going to be living so don't hesitate to contact me." She said.

"Thanks, Lilo, I will." He assured her. He stared deeply into her eyes and she deeply into his, unspoken emotions of love, sadness and hope passed between them.

"Oh, I almost forgot to give you this." Stitch said as he let go of Lilo's hands and extended one of his extra paws. A small object that loked like a makeup compact sat in his palm, waiting for her to take.

"It's a cell communicator, exactly like Pleakley's. He already gave me one and wanted me to personally give this one to you on the day you left. Now we can call each other directly whenever we miss each other." Stitch told her.

Lilo took the small communicator from him before drawing him into the biggest hug she had ever given him.

"Thanks, Stitch." She said happily. She was so overcome with emotion that before she even knew what she was doing she had puckered her lips up and kissed him on his lips. Stitch was a bit surprised by this but still returned the kiss.

Lilo finally broke away, realizing that she had just kissed her best childhood friend in a passionate way. She touched her lips with her left hand and blushed.

"I'm sorry." She said after a minute of silence and rose to her feet.

Stitch looked up at her blankly. "Don't be." He replied

Lilo turned around, remembering that she needed to be on the plane. She picked up her small carry-on bag and put it over her shoulder then patted Stitch on the head.

"Bye Stitch!" She called as she walked down the boarding tunnel to her plane. "I'll love you always!"

"Aloha, I love you too." He called softly after her.

Stitch waited until the plane had finished boarding and watched as it coasted down the runway and climbed into the air before he started back to the airport entrance to go home. Once he arrived outside he hailed a taxi cab over to him and got in the back.

"Where ya heading to?" The driver asked him in a thick island accent.

"South Kokoua Town." Stitch replied as he buckled his seat belt. The driver pulled away from the sidewalk and into the circular roadway in front of the airport, then soon entered the main highway that would take them straight in Kokoua Town.

Stitch stared out his window and noticed dark clouds beginning to cluster behind the airport and knew that soon the rains would come. He didn't care though, he sort of liked the rain anyways and since his best friend left today he didn't care what happened. The stormy clouds were sort of an outward manifestation of the way he felt inside and he welcomed them. He took one last look at the airport before it disappeared behind a small mountain. He knew Lilo was perfectly safe on her plane as it flew toward it's destination, but for some reason he didn't feel at ease. For some odd reason he felt a premonition that he would never see Lilo alive again, but he shook it off as best as he could and tried to enjoy the rest of the ride home.

End of Chapter 2

A/N: I watched a new Lilo and Stitch music video lately at Youtube that has kind of put me in a melancholy mood. It was set to the Avril Lavigne song "I'm With You" and it really did a good job in analyzing their friendship. There are so many good Lilo and Stitch music videos set to good music there that I would really recommend checking them out if you are a L&S fan. I get a lot of my inspiration from these videos as well as from other authors here.

I promise that I will try to do a better job of updating my story more and hope that I'm doing alright with what I have already. This is my first full length fic if you don't count my Rocko's Modern Life one shot that I wrote a while ago, and I'm trying to do the best I can. Anyway please read and review.