Ed works on the finishing touches of the bear, plucking one more button from an Emperor penguin's Napoleon-style coat - where did Oswald find these things? - and sewing it onto the new Pooky Bear. The buttons have to come from that coat. Pooky Bear's eyes are blue - Leslie had been adamant about that.
He finishes the last stitch and looks at his handiwork. There hadn't been enough material for the ears. He frowns. He hopes they're not too disappointingly small.
"Can I give it to her?" Eddie asks.
Ed thinks about it and decides 'Why not?' He looks over at Lee sleeping on the sofa. She is tossing and turning, mumbling a bit. She's probably just starting to wake up.
"Sure bud, give me a sec. Then you can blaze on in here," Ed quips, referring to the blinding headaches they get while in the midst of a switch. He sits down beside Lee on the sofa and rubs her shoulder to wake her. Except it's not Lee who's inhabiting her body when she awakens.
She squints into the rays of the setting sun that are somehow still streaming through the sunshades and asks, "Can you get me a drink?"
"Hello, Doc! Aren't you a sight for sore eyes!" He is really happy to see her. He's missed this part of her - the part he's gotten to know best. Yet . . . how long has it been? Less than a day since they were resurrected?
"Hey, Sailor," she says with a sultry smile.
"Uh uh, not going to work on me," Ed says. "You already played that game with The Riddler last night. You'll have to try something else with me."
"Prude."
He chuckles in a way that almost turns into The Riddler's signature laugh. Where the hell did that come from? "Nope. Not quite, Doc. I'm far from a prude - I'm a tease."
"Really now?"
Okay, this isn't working. He's getting way off track here and he's truly not in the mood for sex right now, although the thought does make him grin. No, he's in the mood to give Leslie her new Pooky Bear so that they can get to exploring the main house that night without any major chaos raining down on them.
"Doc, can you let Leslie out? We have something for her."
She sighs dramatically as if she's very put out. "Fine Ed. For you."
"For Leslie."
"No, for you. I want control of this body right now. I've been in the shadows for far too long. Be sure she returns it to me when you're done, okay?"
"Sure."
The Doc sits up, presses her palms to the side of her head for a moment, and then Leslie emerges.
"Mister?" she asks looking up at him.
"Hi!" Eddie says cheerily. He had made the switch from Ed's consciousness quickly as Leslie was emerging. "I'm Eddie. I'm twelve. We haven't met yet."
He holds out his hand for her to shake. She eyes it warily.
"You look way too old to be twelve."
He harrumphs. "Then, how old are you?"
"Ten."
"Well, you look way too old to be ten," he says and sticks out his tongue. "You're an old lady."
"Am not!"
"Yes, you are. But it's okay. As Ed keeps reminding me I'm in an adult body. Whatever that means. . ."
Leslie looks down at herself and pouts. "Guess I am too."
"We'll make the best of it, no worries. Ed and I made something for you."
"You did?" She gets on her knees and bounces a little on the sofa in her excitement. The wicker doesn't appreciate her very adult weight and creaks in protest. It's really not made for that.
"Yeah, hang tight," Eddie says and runs to grab a sack from behind the bar.
"What's that?" she asks, trying to grab at it once he returns to the sofa.
"Wait."
"Why?" she asks and gives him an impish grin.
"Good question," Eddie says and gets caught up in a thought.
"Stop daydreaming and gimme!" Leslie screeches, grabbing at the bag again. The contents - Ed's rendition of her Pooky Bear and a scalpel and stethoscope - fall out. Miraculously, the scalpel falls to the floor without managing to cut anyone on the way down.
Eddie can hear Ed exclaim to the other one in his head, "Why did you put that in there?"
"So she can cut you."
"Not funny."
"Yeah, it's not," The Riddler says and then hisses. "She cut me, not you. Remember that."
"Shut up, you two!" Eddie says, annoyed. "Nobody cut anybody."
He hadn't been there to know any better.
"Yes, they did," Leslie says ominously.
"What are you talking about?"
"I - um, I guess we're a 'we' now . . . We -" She stops suddenly, tilts her head, and sighs dramatically. "Okay, fine I won't."
"Won't what?" Eddie asks.
Leslie looks back at him. "She doesn't want me to talk about it with you. She says only she or The Doc can have that conversation with one of the adults inside of you. But not with you."
"What conversation?"
"I'm not allowed to say? Oh, come on!" Leslie says in utter frustration to someone in her head. Turning back to Eddie she says, "It's a no go. Mum's the word."
She draws a finger across her lips and then pantomimes throwing away a key.
"You know we rob banks, right?"
She just looks at him.
"A key means nothing to me."
She chuckles.
"I'm going to make you talk." He jumps on her and starts a tickle fight. Now the wicker's really protesting.
And their screeching is getting on The Riddler's last nerve. "Eddie!"
No answer.
"Eddie!"
He's itching to get back to the main house now. Leslie hasn't even noticed the teddy bear that Ed had jury-rigged for her. What the hell were they doing wasting time like this?
"Eddie, knock it off right now or else I'm coming in there!"
"Apparently you're not enjoying having a little kid with us as much as I am," Ed says smugly. "The little one's sure getting under your skin."
The Riddler snarls. "I'm fine with it, Ed. He's just - just - Oh, Eddie just hurry up and give her the bear!"
Somehow that gets through to him. The Riddler and Ed watch as Eddie stops tickling Leslie, graciously admits that she has won the tickle fight, and then scoops up the bear in his arms to present it to her.
Her eyes go wide as she reverently holds her hands out for it.
As Eddie places it gently into her hands she coos. She actually coos. Eddie's smile brightens up the whole room. He's delighted. "See, Ed? We did good."
"Pokey Bear!" Leslie exclaims.
"Excuse me?" Ed says in his head as Eddie tries to stifle a giggle. An inappropriate giggle. He knows better now, but still, he has to bring a hand up to cover his mouth and hold it in.
"Well, I can't call him Pooky Bear, Eddie. He's still alive, I just know it, so they can't share a name, but they can be similar. Like you and Ed or me and Lee."
"Yes, but 'Pokey' Bear?" Eddie asks, raising his eyebrows.
"Sure, wasn't that fun this morning?"
Eddie blushes to the roots of his scalp and nervously pushes his glasses up the bridge of his nose. He's so confused. What is he supposed to say?
"Looks like Little Leslie's as perverted as the rest of them in there, eh?" The Riddler jests, smugly crossing his arms and shaking his head. "Unbelievable. From the mouths of babes . . ."