Little green fingers came out of the grip space as Rex peered through. "I don't see anything."
"That's the backseat, bozo," Mr. Potato Head admonished.
"Wait here," Andy said, unbuckling. "You'll have your friends back in no time."
"Oh, Mr. Lightyear!" Mrs. Potato Head trilled. "I'm so happy for you!"
"Yeah, yeah, just do us a favor and get a room," Mr. Potato Head added.
Buzz chuckled and hoisted himself over the box. As he perched there on the edge, he saw something in the bushes. Something...familiar.
He waited for a flash of lightning. Yes! Jessie's boots.
He grinned and dropped onto the seat, approaching the interior door handle. Climbing up he scaled the small glass barrier and dropped to the wet pavement, hiding behind one of the tires as a truck drove past. Running across the pavement he stopped and turned, checking for traffic as he backed into the bushes.
Jessie's boot caught his leg and he tripped, landing on his rear. He was clicking his armor back into place when he looked up - and froze.
Jessie's legs were unattached. Stuffing oozed out of the torn, gaping ends.
He launched himself onto his hands and knees, gathering the stuffing and disembodied legs in his arms. Standing straight, he carried her lower half through the foliage, until he caught sight of her braid poking out from underneath some of the twigs.
Lifting the branches out of the way, he was so paralyzed by the sight of her that he dropped her legs.
She was dirty and wet, and her nose was chipped. Her hat was gone, and her left eye was cracked so badly that it wasn't even responding to her commands. She lay unconscious in the bushes, her functional eye closed, her shattered eye staring, unseeing, with a look of terror frozen in place.
My Jessie...
He dropped to his knees and touched her sweet face with both hands. His fingers lightly brushed her damaged eye, staring into the darkness above. And as he knelt beside her, taking her lifeless hands in his, he felt something that was not plastic break inside of him.