"So what's the plan, Jessica?" Woody asked.
She looked up at him. "Oh, I'm still leaving. But...I'd like a tour."
"Actually, this isn't my house; it's unfamiliar to me, too."
"No. I don't mean the house."
Woody pulled up the other boot and sat beside her as she continued, "I don't care for your green friend. He's rude."
"But that's not the only reason you're leaving, is it?" he guessed.
"No," she repeated. "I've been stuck in that box, in that storage room, for...Wait, what year is it?"
"2017."
"Then forty-three years," she continued. "I didn't even have enough room to change my position." Her good eye reluctantly met his. "I'm free now. And I'm going to go everywhere."
Woody stared at her. "I-I don't know 'everywhere'; I only know what's here. I'm sorry," he added, when she looked disappointed.
"No, no, it's okay. I've been waiting for this day for a long time."
Woody looked at her with a sad smile. "Well...not too far from here, there's a daycare. You can get played with all the time and you'll never be abandoned again. And if you like it there and you want to stay...my friends and I go there on the fifteenth and thirtieth each month."
"Played with?" Jessie asked dreamily. "By children?"
"Lots of children," he confirmed.
Her expression shifted into sadness and she sighed, shaking her head. "Nobody would play with me," she murmured. "Nobody would love me. Look at me."
"I am looking at you," he answered. "I've been to that daycare. Those kids play with all the toys."
She gazed plaintively at him.
The sound of a key being inserted into the lock frightened her, and she leaped off the boot and hid behind it. Woody did the same. With only a second to spare, the door swung open and Danny Davis walked inside. Woody and Jessica scattered as he dropped a suitcase into the closet. Pressing herself into the wall, Jessica looked at Woody, trembling in fear. He motioned for her to stay put.
Daniel closed the door and walked into the kitchen. Knowing she was visible if he looked at the closet, Jessica took advantage of his turned back and ran to Woody, concealed behind the wall.
"Dad! You home?"
There were footsteps above them, even though Daniel's shadow was still on the wall across from the closet.
"Hey," Andy said.
"Hey. What's all this doing here?" Daniel motioned to the toys.
"It's complicated - "
"I paid out the nose for them! I want them in the museum."
"It's not that easy. Uh, have a seat. There's something I need to tell you."
Woody looked at Jessica, who chewed nervously on her braid. Looking up at his weird expression, her eyes narrowed and she spat out her hair.
"Daniel...Believe it or not, earlier today, two people from my past cornered me and told me a secret about these toys. About all toys," he corrected.
"Yeah, what?" Daniel asked impassively.
"They're alive," Andy said bluntly.
There was a slight pause before Daniel's voice came again. "Nope. I'm not fallin' for that one. Didn't I tell you before, you're not funny?"
"I'm not kidding, and I can prove it." Andy motioned to the table, and Daniel looked over in boredom. His expression greatly shifted when he saw the toys looking back at him.
"Hey, kiddo," Mr. Potato Head greeted him.
Woody pulled on Jessica's hand, and the pair emerged from the closet, walking down the hallway and into the dining room. Seeing them in his peripheral vision, Daniel looked wildly from the group of toys on the table to the pair of toys on the floor.
Then, wordlessly, he turned and moved quickly to the stairs, ascending in a hurry while looking over his shoulder at them. He disappeared and then a door slammed.
"Will he be okay?" Mrs. Potato Head asked.
"Yeah, he's just surprised," Andy said. "He never reacts quite the way I'd like."
"He was pretty offhanded with Bonnie, too," Buzz informed him.
Andy nodded sadly. "I was afraid that would happen. He has some issues. I mean, he's a good person. Janey and I raised him well; but sometimes, he...takes small things too hard, or breaks things. He went to therapy once, but Dr. Kane said there was no reason to go back. Said he was normal."
"Did you hear him say that?" Mr. Potato Head asked.
"Yeah."
"Oh," Mr. Potato Head said eloquently, looking surprised.
"Maybe he was pretending to be stable," Hamm chipped in. "Just to get out of there faster."
"Oh, I don't know," Woody answered. "I think we all overreact sometimes."
The front door opened again and a pretty woman walked in, bearing a purse and a scowl. The toys dropped in place, and Andy knelt to scoop Woody and Jessica up.
Her voice was a whip. "Why is Daniel throwing his Elite Brigades onto the street?"
She shrieked as Woody and Buzz each sat up, looking at each other before racing for the door. Woody grabbed the hanger from the closet floor and jumped, hooking it around the doorknob and using it to pull himself close enough to the knob to open the door. As a pair they ran out into the street, grabbing the disposed action figures off the pavement before they could be crushed by traffic.
Looking up at the illuminated window, Woody saw Daniel look at him before closing the curtains.