Disclaimer. I don't own Monsters, Inc or any of the characters in the movie. Though I'd like too. For I'd write a better ending for poor Randall.

I want to thank Alu In Chains for being my beta. Muchas gracias!

Also, I want to let all know that I have fan art up on DeviantART under the name BlackNaginata.

Ok Randall finally tells Danielle where he came from. Is the reaction what anyone expected?

XXXX

Those words sent chills up his spine. He wanted to continue to put explaining all the complications of what had led to his banishment off, but the with way the human was looking at him, he knew she would not be deterred. Not this time. He swallowed hard and nodded. "Fine."

The human nodded back at him. "Good. Let's go to the living room, from the looks of it, it may be long. Might as well get comfortable."

Randall didn't say anything. He just stood and walked into the living room and took his place on the couch. The human settled into the brown chair that she seemed to favor. He distracted his self by running his three fingered hands over the cushions. The cream colored couch was old but well cared for, the material still soft and smooth. He had his head down, trying to keep wits and nerves about him. He had no idea of what her reactions would be. He had easily figured out that the main reason that she had saved him from the side of the road, was that she had though he had been an animal. Though she soon learned he was not, she had still shown no indications of finishing the job, calling anyone, or even simply tossing him out. She had continued to care for him, and wonderfully he realized. The gash and cracked skull was finally healing though it was still very tender to the touch, the leg was healing nicely, the swelling down and only faint bruises. That nasty vitamin goop that she had fed him had clearly worked some kind of magic. His cold that had flared up, had backed off to the point that he only felt the slight tickle of a cough in the back of his throat.

She had saved him, not knowing about him, but now that he had shown that he was clearly not somme dumb animal she would want to know. She deserved to know, even if it was something she more then likely would regret.

Randall looked up from staring down at the carpet. He planted a detached look on his face and looked her plainly in the eye.

"You will do better by understanding this with an open mind. You understand?" he began.

The human looked unsure for a moment but nodded. "I'll have to won't I?"

"Yes," he said simply. He took a deep breath preparing himself. "You asked who I am. I am Randall Boggs and I am a Monster. I came from a place best explain as a parallel universe. This place is called the Monster World. I once lived in a city called Monstropolis, the largest in this world. There I worked as a 'Scarer'. As a Scarer, I worked in the largest scare factory in the Monster World, a place called Monsters Incorporated . There, me, along with hundreds of other Scaers, we worked to collect screams. Human children's screams. We use these screams to power our dimension. This has been happening for quite a long time. Many centuries in fact.. We, the Scarers would enter into this world via closet door, scare the child or children in that room then leave. You with me so far?" he paused a minute to allow this sink into the human.

She had been staring at him. "You are a monster. An actual species that lives on the boarder of my world. Children are basically your our own power plant. The screams you collect from scaring children are used to power your own world. Yeah, I'm with you." she said this hesitantly.

"Good, 'cause this is were it gets…complicated." he took a deep breath again. "I have been working my tail off to become what we all called, "Top Scarer". I finally did so, and held that position for a year and a half. Until a monster was hired and in a short span of a month he had surpassed my scores. His little 'friend' and assistant didn't help matters. Every time when I slipped behind, his foul mouth would fly out insults and…." Randall paused to calm his self down. It would not do to slip into a rage in front to the human. She would probably already think the worst of him when he tells her his little secret. Flying into a rage before hand…not a good idea.

"Let's just say that all he ever did was boast of how great his partner was at scaring. It began to rub the wrong way so to speak. Anyway, it wasn't long after I began to lose my top position that the CEO of the company approached me and offered me a chance. See, As years went by the children we have been scaring, it began to seem that many of them aren't that scared anymore, so the ever looming promise of energy shortage began to threaten our world, promising to send it back to the dark ages. So, the CEO gave me a promise of many things. A chance at moving up higher in a well renowned company; higher then any member of my own family had been able to get, no matter how hard we tried. An assistant's executive position in the company. And something I just wanted. Respect and admiration." Randall paused and closed his eyes, clinching his teeth. If only he hadn't been so naive. Not opening his eyes he began again, " The monster approached me because he knew about of my degree in mechanical engineering. He had an idea and he wanted me to design and build it."

"I did. You see… I've been working two and half years on an invention that he told me will reindustrialize the whole Monster World. He told me what he wanted, how he wanted it to work and I built it. I built a machine that he named the Scream Extractor. This supposed device was to extract children's screams, gathering amounts of screams all the Scarers collected in one month from just one child!"

He opened his eyes and what he had feared was written on the human's face. Horror. Her eyes were staring wide eyed at him.

A slight panicked look came over his face, "Please! Hear me out. Just hear me out!"

The human swallowed hard and her lips trembling, she slowly nodded.

Randall quickly started again, almost in a rush. "Me and the CEO was to test it with one of my regular children. A child that could help us with all our problems. Understand that once used the child was to be sent back to her room, possibly shaken, but not harmed. I never wanted any long-term effects or dastardly effects such as….nothing was supposed to happen…but what happened was that when I went to get the child she was gone from her room. Somehow she was let into my world where she caused havoc among the monsters. I found out that it was the two monsters that had bumped me from Top Scaerer position had let her out and was carting her around. Why, I didn't know, not until later. They were trying to put her back into her door. If only I had realized this and allowed them to do so, that particular child would not have had any harm come to her. It all boiled down to where the machine was just about to be used on her. I was too deep into this pit; I was beginning to feel physically sick from all of this. By then I just wanted to get this over and done with. Right before the machine reached her the monster that the human child had bonded to appeared again. He snapped the machine off of it's hinges and almost crushed us. I was then ordered to 'make sure of no witnesses'. I gladly attacked the big lug. I will not lie. All the years and hard work and lost sleep and personal sacrifices was destroyed in a mere ten seconds. I gladly beat the giant fur rug around. The chase then led me on through the factory where the final confrontation happened. I almost had him, I was too stressed out to care at this point of course. I wouldn't do this at all normally, but I tried to send him to a certain death. All I wanted was to get him out of the way so I could take the kid back to her door. I never wanted anyone harmed, and by then the child was useless. The monster had seen to that when he destroyed the machine. But the child finally pushed her own fear of me aside and…. distracted…. me long enough for the monster to pin me. It was over. They choose a door and threw me through it and from there I was beaten upside the head and dumped. Then you found me." Randall fell quiet staring at the human.

She was staring at him, her face blank. A first he wondered if she didn't understand until a very familiar look came on her face.

Fear.

He could see her shaking in the chair slightly. He stayed as still as he could. The world seemed to slow and Randall could feel his heart beat heavily in his chest and blood pound in his ears. He found that he cared what she thought about him.

A sharp intake of air had him refocusing on the human. She had stood up and very shakily moved so that she was past him and was standing in the wide doorway of between the kitchen and living room. He tensed his muscles. "Pleas-"

"Stop. Don't say anything. Don't talk to me. Don't talk to me….at least not right now. I-I need to be alone." her once pleasant alto voice was rough and scratchy with fear and unease.

He watched as she turned and darted into the kitchen and he heard the back door slam.

He winced at the noise. He had told her. And her reaction was something he should have expected. He, like other monsters had thought humans were unfeeling and not sentient. But in the short time he had spent watching that human child and now being in the care of this adult human, he now saw them in a different light. All those history books and evolution tales about them being evolved from humans were now beginning to make sense. Humans were beginning to seem just like monsters.

But he was still hurt by her reaction. He felt his jaw clinch. So what, he thought. He may be slightly evolved from humans, it didn't mean that he was one. Randall snorted and crossed his arms, stood and began to pace the room deep in thought. Just because they are clearly sentient, we ,I, am much more evolved. Better then them. Anger and irritation rose. That was fine by him. It was a feeling that had been becoming more and more familiar in the past years. He stopped pacing and looked around. The clock on the wall read almost 5'o clock in the evening. The day had past in a blur. He looked toward the window and saw that the setting sun lit the room ablaze. He shuddered feeling a strange shiver crept it's way down his spine. He flicked his tail in annoyance and ran a hand over his head, brushing his fronds back. He paused when he felt the raised puckered stitched flesh of the gash. He shuddered again as he stared out the window, almost into the setting sun.

He should have been dead.

Dead.

If it wasn't for Waternoose, Sullivan and Wazowski, he'd still be back Monstropolis. If everything had gone right and Waternoose, had delivered on his promises, he'd would've had the life he'd always dreamed of. If it wasn't for Sullivan, and Wazowski he wouldn't be banished. All assistants knew which door led were. It was their job. Wazowski had picked out the door and he was banished to a place he had INTEND for him to be killed. He was thrown into a trailer located in in this God forsaken Louisiana state. He was almost killed too. The cracked skull told him that. He tossed his head back and at the last minute the frustrated scream he was planning on letting loose was turned into a loud gurgled growl. He had caught sight of the human crossing the yard and walk around the back. He whipped his head around and looked to the kitchen where the back door was. When he had turned his head, the light from the setting sun caught his eyes and the emerald green coloring flashed to a reddish gold.

He turned away from the window, feeling his frustration and anger fade. He felt…drained. Tired and helpless. He was fully lost and as much as he hated it he depended on the human. Her reaction was understandable. Let her think, hopefully she'll prove still forgiving and at least not turn him out. At least not yet.

He slowly made his way through the living room and began his search of the human.

XXXX

She didn't know what she expected to hear. What she was told was something so farfetched that she couldn't help but believe it. A parallel universe. A place called the Monster World and a city called Monstropolis. It sounded completely ridicules, but she believed it. If some human had been telling her this, she'd tell them that they have a very active imagination. But this was told by the 'animal' she had saved. Even when he had started talking she still didn't know what to think.

So Randall isn't some government experiment, but an actual separate sentient species. One that lived on the edged of a parallel universe. Actually a monster.

That though wasn't what bothered her. It was what he told her what had led him here. True, she never cared for children, finding her own niece and nephew little terrors, but she never wanted any harm come to any child no matter how much of a brat they were. This, monster, Randall, had been part of a race that scared children to get energy, and that he had helped build some machine to take even more screams. It sounded barbaric.

As Danielle walked around her property then headed to the barn , she found she didn't know what to do. She walked in, flipped the large power box. The barn lit up. She wandered in and walked up to the stall that once housed Swamp Thing two years ago and then most recently Randall. The old blankets that she had used to spread over the dirt was still lying there. She hadn't had time to remember them and pick them up. She did this now, her mind on automatic. She opened the door to the stall and walked in and picked up one of the blankets. She shook it out and half folded it to make carrying it easier when she would take them in to wash. The next one was a old white blanket. She did the same, she picked it up and shook it out but stopped when she saw the large dried blood stains. She held the blanket and looked down at the rusty brown stains. The blood would never come out now. It was ruined.

For some reason this made her want to cry.

She sank down and ended up sitting in the dirt, the blood stained blanket still clenched in her hands. She still didn't know what to do. Most people would call someone or throw him out. But, a little voice whispered to her, most people wouldn't have even helped him to began with. You did.

Yes, she did. Not knowing what he had done. He could've easily lied, that was easy to see. He could've spun a lie so great that she'd believe it. But he hadn't. He clearly must have told her the truth. He clearly wanted someone to hear his side of the story. But she couldn't get the thought out of her head. What if he had succeeded? What if the machine had worked? Her own little niece and nephew would be two of millions that the machine would've been used on. And the very monster that she had saved would've been behind it.

Danielle shudder violently. She should just send him on his way. She won't call or tell anyone, but she should tell him that he should go. That's what I should do. She thought, but even as she thought this her legs wouldn't obey her commands to stand. She was still sitting on the dirt.

She looked back down at the blood drenched blanket and shuddered, biting her lip. Even if he had done all that, did he deserved to be banished and tossed into a place where he had almost died? She knew those people. They ate gaters. The stupid people must have thought he was one. She had at first. It then dawned on her. They would've ate him. A sentient creature that other then looks and some special abilities, was just like a human, and they would've ate him!

Danielle felt her stomach lurch and she fought to kept from even gagging. She remembered how he looked when she had first saw him. He had been borderline malnourished and much too thin for his size. He still was but was getting better. He had been sick as well. That didn't click right with her. If he had enjoyed every minute of that machine then he wouldn't let himself go so far. That CEO of his must have pushed to him almost to breaking point.

She remembered his face when he began to tell her. It had been blank at first, but the expression had changed. she had seen anger at the two other monsters that he had mentioned. But he had pushed that down. She had seen him struggle to get his emotions under control, when he had mentioned that one of the monster would insult him. There was something else there. Like he had always had to deal with such…people. She had seen the pride when he had mentioned the he was entrusted to build that….Scream Extractor. She shuddered at the name. she had never even seen the thing, and even she, an adult found the mere name of it terrifying.

She had seen the pride, but she had also seen that the pride had turned to disgust at it. Danielle held onto that image. The disgust at the machine. And when he told her that he had never intended anyone to be hurt, he had stared straight at her, his face and eyes showing full regret.

Danielle dropped her head into her hands and groaned out loud. She stopped when she heard the barn door creak open. She was up in a flash and looked nervously toward the doors. She saw Randall poking his large head around the door, his eyes scanning the barn. He spotted her and slowly slipped inside and carefully and slowly walked toward her.

Danielle shook but stood her ground. He stopped right outside the closed stall door. He just stared at her.

"So now you know."

Danielle saw that her hesitation was beginning to get to him, so she quickly answered. "Yes." Then she couldn't help it anymore. "Are you freaking kidding me?" she screamed.

Randall blinked at her and opened his mouth, but she wasn't done. "I mean, you could've said no! You didn't have to build it!"

His eyes narrowed in aggravation.

Suddenly he curled his body backwards in a quick slither and leaped over the door. He had annoyance and hurt plastered on his face. He leapt over the stall door and grabbed a hold of her and pushed her back into the far wall. The force sent herself and him flying into the barn's wall. He stood on his back legs, lifting her and pinning her on the wooden surface.

Danielle gasped. The suddenness of it had startled her and with the shuffling, dust had stirred up making it hard for her to breath. She began to cough and wheeze. She felt Randall's hand reach into her right pocket and fish out the gray inhaler. He let go of her right hand and handed it to her. She jammed the inhaler into her mouth and fired a blast off and into her lungs. After a few minutes her coughing and wheezing eased.

"Better?" the question was cold and Danielle winced but nodded.

If he is thinking this little stunt is earning him any brownie points then he'd better think again. She didn't voice this thought though. The annoyance on his face told her that it would not be very smart if she did.

"Now. I want you to understand this. I could've said no, that much is very true, but understand that, WE, I thought you humans were just some stupid species. I know you thought I was too. Yes, we used your children for power by scaring them. But I have NEVER harmed any child. I NEVER planned to. The machine I built was never met to harm any children. Even the other two monsters I never wanted harmed."

Suddenly he sighed heavily and lowered himself away from her, letting her feet drop gently onto the dirt. He still kept her shoulders pinned to the wall with his top arms. He looked at her. "Please understand that I never intended for it to go that far. When the machine was destroyed, I snapped. I had worked for two and half years on the thing. It was my breaking point and not a finer moment I will admit this. If it makes you feel better, I will confess that it is partly my fault for not listening to my gut and not watching the signs."

Danielle stared back into his eyes uneasily. Her mother had always told her, that while the face and voice can lie, the eyes never could. His green eyes were staring right back into her own.

She could see it.

The hurt, the remorse, the sadness, the hopelessness, the anger. He was begging her to believe him.

The eyes does not lie.

She believed him.

Danielle sagged, her own energy gone. "How do you want me to help you?"

"You believe me?"

Danielle nodded without hesitation.

Randall breathed a great sigh of relief and a half choked sob of disbelief croaked out, "Thank you."

"Oh Randall. Well, I think the first step is to help you get back on your feet. You still have a ways to go before you're fully healed. Then we'll think of some way to get you back." Danielle brushed herself off.

"Really? That would be wonderful. I really do appreciate this." Randall couldn't help the big grin of relief from splitting his face in two.

"You better." Danielle poked his chest. "Because I sure didn't appreciate being shoved like that."

Randall froze. "Oh that. I am very sorry about that." He sent her a look.

"No, no don't give me that look. Now let's go in. It's going to start to get cold." Danielle shivered.

"Cold? It's not that cold." Randall eyed her as he followed her out of the stall.

"Yes it is to me. When you've been here a little longer you'll began to think it's cold too." Danielle snorted, "I've seen Northerners come down here in March and April wearing t-shirts and shorts, while the rest of us is freezing our tails off."

Randall sniggered at this image but otherwise kept his mouth shut. They walked out of the stall and Danielle bent to pick up two blankets. She shoved a blue one into his arms.

"Here hold this." She then took another one that was white and had the blood stains on it.

He looked at it and shuddered. "Is that….?"

Danielle nodded. "Yes. You lost a lot of blood that night. The blue one is not ruined too bad, but the white one is." she wadded the blanket up and shoved it into a barrel. "I'll burn this tomorrow morning. Come on."

Randall followed her out of the barn still carrying the dusty blanket. He waited as she turned the lights out and closed the barn doors. As she turned the latch she laughed suddenly.

"What?"

"I was just thinking. All that you told me…it was beginning to sound a lot like a movie." She sniggered to herself a bit more. She was still slightly at unease but they would have to work on trust now.

Randall just shook his head as he followed her across the yard limping slightly with the cast. A thought can to mind. He hadn't mentioned it even though it used to be a rather big part of the monster's life. "Well, how about this? Ever since monsters were little we were told that you all were toxic."

Danielle froze and turned back looking at him with a 'are you kidding me' look.

He smiled at her. "You heard me. I used to believe that human children were toxic. It was actually a lie created long ago to help keep our world separate from yours. I believed this lie until…." his smile fade some, "I was recruited to build the machine. The CEO told me of the lie." he took a deep breath then the smile returned. "We have been taught since our own early childhoods how awful human children were."

Danielle looked at him as if he had grown chicken out the top of his head then burst out laughing. "Oh my god! Really? They all believed we were toxic?"

Randall grinned. "Uh-huh, I will admit I believed it too though I had my own suspicions."

Danielle turned back around and began walking back to the house. She shook her head and called back still snickering, "And now?"

"Not so much." He answered as he entered the house behind her and closed the door.