The Watterson house was quiet, Nicole was gone for work related purposes, Richard was asleep in his bed, Darwin was gone with some girl or other. Only Anais sat in the house, throwing her own tea party with Daisy and several other dolls. It was about five in the afternoon, Gumball had been gone for seven hours… And Anais couldn't deny that she was slightly worried for her older brother. The door bell rang and Anais calmly walked down the steps to the door and pulled it open. At the door was Gumball, one leg in a cast, one hand with a crutch and the other wrapped around Carrie, who supported Gumball with one of her arms and affectionately held his chest with the other. Anais stared at the pair with a perplexed face. "We'll explain later." Gumball said, which was good enough for her as she let them in, and Carrie set Gumball down on the sofa.
"Comfortable?" Carrie asked above him.
"No, I'm missing my favorite ghost." Gumball whined. Anais looked at Carrie, confused again.
"I… Gave him a third dose of morphine… He'll be talking nonsense for awhile…"
"The parrot took my cheese grader!" Gumball called from the couch before falling asleep.
"Three doses of morphine doesn't sound safe for his health…" Anais questioned looking over her brother.
"It probably isn't… but he was in a lot of pain when we began walking here," Carrie admitted.
"What did you guys do for seven and a half hours?"
"Mind your own business…" Carrie practically growled. "Where's Cierra, wasn't she here awhile ago?"
"Oh… She was, but when my dad tried to turn the house into a ghost trap my mom said she had to leave, I think she said something about finding you."
"When did she leave?"
"I don't know, right around tea time I guess…"
"Forget it… I'll just call her." Carrie grumbled and pulled her cell phone from her pocket. "Seven missed calls?" She said out loud. "Shit…" She hit the redial on the phone to be greeted with a very worried mother on the other end.
"Carrie? Where are you? We've been driving around for hours…" Her mother said.
"I'm fine mom, I just got carried away with Gumball and…"
"You what?" Her Father's voice came from the phone.
"Not like that!" She yelled back. "Look, I'm at the Watterson's house and I'm fine."
"Okay, we'll come pick you up in a minute." Her mother said before hanging up. "Will he be fine here?" Carrie asked Anais.
"He should be… My mom will freak out though…"
"That's my fault," Carrie lowly admitted. "I'll just… go then."
"Bye Carrie." Anais happily waved. "I'll tell Gumball to call you when he wakes up."
"Thank you." Then Carrie flew through the door and the Watterson house was quiet again. Anais touched her brother's forehead and startled him awake.
"Carrie?" He said looking around the room until his eyes found his little sister. "Oh… Hey where did Carrie go?"
"She just left, what happened?"
"Awesome stuff," Was all Gumball said, leaving Anais a tad bit angry.
"Why won't either of you just tell what in the world you did together!" She yelled and Gumball raised his arms in defense.
"Because… I don't know, why would you care?"
"Gumball, you have a broken leg and I've never seen Carrie so calm, even after every time you bring her here. So something happened and it clearly changed both your lives." Anais explained.
"You could say that…" He muttered. "Alright, but you can't tell anyone until Carrie is ready to talk about it, okay?"
"Okay." Gumball then began to recount the night's events with more enthusiasm and hand gestures than Anais had ever seen him talk before, all leading up to when he and Carrie decided to start a relationship and she brought him home. "So, you're dating a ghost?"
"To sum up the past half hour of me talking, yes, I am dating a ghost." The door to their house opened and a frustrated Darwin walked in. Gumball turned to him from his spot on the couch. "Hey dude, what's eating you?"
"Don't want to talk about it." Gumball and Anais shared a quick glance before shrugging to respect his privacy. "Alright I'll tell you." Darwin added. "Penny admitted she still had feelings for you today and wouldn't shut up about you… Like she forgot we were supposed to be put-put golfing. At least Rachel was cool today, people who don't stop talking about their exes annoy me, then at the end of the night, she wants me to hook you up with her on Sunday, like that'll be hard, I don't even get a goodbye hug!" Darwin complained. "Oh, Gumball by the way, you're hanging out with Penny tomorrow."
"No I'm not." Gumball said sternly.
"What? But you love Penny." Darwin said confused.
"No I don't."
"Wait… how'd you break your leg? Did Carrie hypnotize you, can she do that?" Gumball played with the question for a second in his mind.
"She did, but not in the way you're thinking of." This just caused Darwin's nonexistent eyebrows to furrow.
"Uh… Alright Gumball, but you have to call Penny and tell her it's off." Gumball retained his bored expression and whipped out his phone and dialed in a number, it rang twice before Penny answered with a pleasant hello.
"Penny, I can't hang out tomorrow, I have plans." And with that he hung up. He didn't flinch, he didn't stutter, he didn't even have a voice crack. Darwin stared at him, completely flabbergasted. "Gumball, that was Penny, the girl you've loved since sixth grade, the one with the cute antlers; you know who I'm talking about, right?"
"The girl who took Tobias to homecoming because he is, quote unquote, 'hunky' that girl?" Gumball asked with growing frustration.
"He's also dating Carrie now." Anais blurted out which turned Gumball as pale as his girlfriend.
"What!" Darwin stood up from his chair. "You can't date Carrie, she's your best friend!"
"Why does that matter? Didn't you set me up on a date with her?" Gumball asked.
"Because you just don't do that, you have your friends, and then you have the girls you date, that's just how things work, like… I'd never date Penny, she's one of my closest friends."
"Uh-huh…" Gumball unenthusiastically said. Nicole arrived next, and nearly fainted at the sight of Gumball's sudden injury but he lied and said he'd already been to the doctor and just needs bed rest now.
Carrie sat in her car with what seemed to be an unmoving smile of pure joy. "Well, we're glad we found you." Mrs. Booregard said pleased to have her daughter back. "Sorry, I didn't mean to be gone all day…"
"Now you're apologizing for things? Who are you and where's my sister?" Cierra eyed Carrie closely. "My sister never smiles for that long…"
"Well, obviously something good happened to our little girl." Mr. Booregard commented from behind the wheel.
"Yeah… What happened Carrie, if that is your real name." Cierra said. Carrie slowly pushed her sister out of her personal space.
"Just some stuff, can we not talk about it now?" Carrie asked.
"Oh sure, whoever you are, we'll interrogate you later…" Cierra threatened. The car pulled up to the Booregard house and Carrie was the first to fly out of the door and into her house. Cierra followed shortly after her, the first she noticed was the house was near spotless, it had been cleaned and recently. "Cleaning, another thing Carrie doesn't do too often…" Cierra said to herself.
"Cierra? Could you help me find a picture frame?" Carrie called from her room.
"Tell me where Carrie is!" Cierra called back.
"For the love of… I'll tell you, if you help me find a goddamn picture frame." She called again.
Loretta and Benedict flew in soon afterwards to observe their daughters odd spectacle. "It's nice to see Carrie smile." Loretta chimed and Benedict simply nodded.
Cierra made it up to Carrie with a very intricate design of angels and demons. She floated through Carrie's door to find Carrie throwing the last of some chocolate wrappers away. "Carrie?" she asked. Carrie looked up from her task, rushed over to her sister and swiped the picture frame from her hands.
"That'll do," Carrie commented. "Thanks sis."She said and turned her back while she filled the frame with a mystery picture.
"I am not leaving this room until you tell me what the hell happened." Cierra stated stubbornly. Carrie heaved out a sigh and faced her sister.
"Alright but you can't tell anyone, got it?"
"Got it,"
"Gumball and I are together now." Carrie squealed with delight.
"Aw," Cierra said in understanding. "Well, I knew you liked him, but wow, I've never seen you this happy."
"I know I've never felt so… How did you know?"
"I'm your sister, I can tell when you like a guy…. Also I read your diary…" Cierra admitted and Carrie frowned.
"You realize if things didn't work out, I'd have to kill you." She said coldly.
"But everything did… For now, most High School relationships don't really work out." Cierra reminded her.
"I know… Frankly I'm still surprised he sees anything in me… But… Maybe…." Carrie shrugged. "I don't know what'll happen, but I'm going to stay optimistic."
"For the first time in your life." Cierra laughed.
"Well, there you go, I've answered your question, now get the hell out of my room!" Carrie ordered and Cierra complied still laughing. That night, Carrie slept better than she could ever recall, like for the first time, she had no doubts things would only get better.
The day was Sunday, nobody had bothered to move Gumball from his comfortable spot on the couch and he slept right through the morning of activity. Nicole didn't work on Sundays, at least, not anymore, so life at the Watterson house was complete and wholesome. Darwin was sitting at the dinner table patiently waiting for the special breakfast his mother was cooking with Anais' assistance. Richard was in the living room accommodating for any of Gumball's needs, no one in family was sure how Gumball broke his leg or where he got his cast, but apparently Carrie had already signed it for him.
Gumball felt his eyes flutter as he began to wake up, to the site of his Father's face, full of anticipation. "Dad?" Gumball managed to say.
"Hello Son!" He jauntily greeted. "Can I get you anything?"
"Uh… I have to go to the bathroom…" Gumball uneasily said.
"I'm on it!" Richard ran out of the living room, and Gumball heard the sound of breaking pipes as his father returned, toilet in hand. "Here you go." He stood proud of his accomplishment.
"Dad… I can't flush a broken toilet…" Gumball pointed out.
"Oh," Richard said and prepared himself to take off again.
"Dad! Why don't you just take me to the bathroom?" Gumball offered.
"Oh, good idea," And with Gumball in his arms he ran to the next available bathroom up stairs and he moved with surprising speed for a fat man. As Richard waited outside the bathroom for Gumball, the door bell rang. "I'll get it!" He excitedly cheered and ran back to the door, only to crash into the door and fall on his back. Carrie flew in through the door to see what made the crash.
"Mr. Watterson?" She asked concerned for him, until Nicole walked in the check on him.
"He'll be fine… Come in Carrie, Gumball just woke up, he's in the bathroom." Nicole explained with an apologetic smile.
"Oh, thanks Mrs. Watterson, how's Gumball's leg?"
"Fine, all things considered, don't let me forget to ask how he broke it… Or where he got the cast…" Carrie awkwardly smiled and looked everywhere but Mrs. Watterson's face.
Darwin tried to hide himself ever so slightly from Carrie's gaze, they were friends, but he never forgot how hurt she was when he insulted her. Honestly he didn't see what her problem was, if she dressed emo, and acted emo, and publically stated she was in fact emo, why did she get so butt hurt when he said it.
Anais put her spatula away and walked up to Carrie. "We're making family pancakes to celebrate Gumball's good health, want some?" She pleasantly asked.
"Oh, I'd love to, but I can't eat as a ghost…" Carrie shrugged. "They look very good though."
"Thanks, mom and I made them."
"What? No sarcastic remark? Did Gumball meet another ghost who just so happened to look exactly like Carrie?" Darwin criticized and then gasped in realization. "You must be Carrie's doppelganger!" Carrie gave an annoyed look Darwin's way and he hid again. "Sorry."
Then, a wobbled step could be heard at the top of the stairs. "Um… I could use some help…" Gumball said from the top of the steps and Carrie's expression immediately went from calm and kind to ecstatic and she seemed to glow at his presence. "Hey Carrie," He said with a bright smile. Nicole was impressed, she hadn't seen that spark in Gumball's eyes since he was a child.
"Need help?" Carrie asked.
"I don't know, breaking my other leg is sounds pretty tempting."
"Not to me it doesn't." She walked up the stairs and touched Gumball's shoulder, making him intangible and they floated down together. The entire Watterson family watched the spectacle with some amount of awe, the two said practically nothing to each other, but they just seem to understand everything. Darwin wore a sour expression at the site.
"How long have you two been dating? Like five minutes, max? Don't go pretending you're already in love." He grumbled angrily.
"Darwin, don't be so cruel." Nicole ordered. "Carrie, would you like to stay for breakfast?"
"I'd love to." She nodded. The table was set for six, and Carrie help the crippled Gumball into a seat and the family soon followed. Anais sat next to Carrie apparently fascinated with her new attitude.
"Are you gonna be like my sister?" She innocently asked that caused both her and Gumball to turn scarlet and awkwardly laugh. Nicole noticed their unease and moved to intervene.
"So Carrie, what do you have on your pancakes?" She asked and Carrie looked even more uneasy.
"I can't eat without a body…" Carrie said again and Gumball coughed as if to remind her he was there. "Oh no, not a chance, not after last time," Then a pancake was slid right in front of Carrie, laced with chocolate chips, butter on top and coated in silky syrup. Carrie was entranced by the fluffy breakfast food and she poked it with a fork. Her mouth began to metaphorically water until Gumball put his hand on her shoulder.
"I trust you." He said again.
"Jesus Gumball you have to be the most optimistic person I know." She still had second thoughts, if she hurt Gumball again, she'd never forgive herself. "Alright, this pancake looks really good."
"I'll always be here when you need me." Gumball reassured.
"I think I'm going to be sick." Darwin called from across the table. Carrie took a deep breath, though technically she doesn't breathe, and flew in Gumball once again.
Unlike every other time such an event had taken place, Gumball didn't black out; he was perfectly cognitive. He looked around to see his entire family staring at him. "What's up guys?" He asked, but his voice sounded different, he could still hear his voice, but it was as if he spoke with Carrie's voice as well. "Whoa…" Was all he said and looked at his hand, it was still clearly blue, but also appeared to be transparent. The whole family stared at had just happened, Richard's jaw dropped to the table.
"Carrie, get out of my brother!" Darwin snapped and Carrie quickly came out of Gumball. Both were inhaling at an incredible rate, and looked terribly uncomfortable. "Damn, I'm out of breath…" She said between breaths until she realized what she said. "I'M OUT OF BREATH!" And she seemed to practically glow with joy. Carrie picked up the pancake and bit right through it. "I tasted it! And… I'm less hungry, but still hungry!" She turned to Gumball and lovingly hugged him around his neck.
The rest of the Watterson family held a small meeting. "Okay… What the just happened?" Nicole asked.
"Well, Carrie couldn't retain any food in her body because she had no stomach and was transparent, so when she went into Gumball and they shared a body for a short period of time, she must have taken a little bit of him with her, though the affects may not be permanent since this is a unique case that science can't really explain it, so if I had to guess, I'd say that as long as Carrie and Gumball are in a given vicinity of each other, it is possible they will actually share organs, or the other possibility of the Carrie has regained a small amount of her life essence and has regained use of her organs before she, or a prominent family member, died." Anais said all in one breath and left all of the family looking at her with a mixture of pride and shier confusion. "I mean… Lollipop!" Anais tried to cover her tracks as a genius.
Carrie and Gumball spent the rest of their Sunday together, their main activity was getting Carrie readjusted to being slightly more alive than she was. The five senses were easy enough to master once again, there were certain smells that Carrie simply could not bear however, such as Gumball's three week old dirty laundry which they both helped in washing it. By far the most tedious of lively pursuits that Carrie had to master was going to the bathroom. There was the suggestion to use diapers, but there are some lows no teenager should be put through, wearing a diaper being among them. But the night came all too quickly for the two and Carrie bid him farewell, until their next test as a couple came. School.
Gumball was lying in his bed, waiting for sleep but it simply wouldn't come, he couldn't tell if it was nerves or excitement, but sleep evaded him. Then, his phone buzzed from where it was charging and he lazily picked it up and looked at the small screen. There was a message from Carrie.
"Can't sleep…" It read.
"Ditto… Wanna start planning on how we'll get detention tomorrow?"
"I thought you'd never ask."
They both stopped keeping track of what time it was, minutes slowly turned to hours and neither really knew when they actually fell asleep, but tomorrow morning was going to be a bitch.