Disclaimer: I do not own Lilo & Stitch or any of the characters therein.

CHAPTER THREE:
A LIFE WITHOUT PURPOSE

"The purpose of life is a life of purpose." - Robert Byrne

It would be very late in the evening before Nani and the others returned home, Jumba was certain of that. In the meantime, he had mixed feelings about this extended solitude. Part of him was immensely relieved, but a larger part of him dreaded the state of being alone, for to him it was a scientific fact that prolonged exposure to one's self without the intervention of others inevitably caused one to go insane. Because of this reasoning, he was quite impressed with his own mental stability, for even though he had never been completely alone, he had had to endure long hours of deep, self-inflicted contemplation in the absence of company… the kind of thoughts that often drove one to suicide. Still, now was not the time to be dwelling on himself. He had hurt someone, and not just anyone for that matter. He had hurt Nani: his friend, his family, and his 'niece.' The thought of the pain he had caused her hurt him, and for both their sakes he wanted to do something to end this misery. He loved Nani very much, though hardly a thing he had said or done since moving in with her would have indicated that. Simple apologies would never be enough to reverse the damages he had caused; neither would an outright admission of his true feelings for her. In spite of what he had done to her, she had also hurt him, and he couldn't forget that so easily. They had both been so insensitive to each other, and yet Jumba could not bring himself to be angry with her anymore. There had been a stinging truth to her words, a truth that burned even more intensely once they had been given the opportunity to sink in.

The hours came and went, and when Jumba finally bothered to open the blinds and look outside, dusk was already starting to settle in over Kauai. A few minutes later he emerged from his room with a scrap of paper bearing a hastily scrawled note in his hands. In the kitchen, he attached the note to the refrigerator with a red letter J magnet before heading out the back door to his lab.

* * * *

It was a quarter to eleven by the time Nani and the others got back from town. As soon as they walked in the door, Lilo and Stitch made a beeline for Jumba and Pleakley's room, carrying between them a basket full of pineapples and ham as a peace offering, even though they knew that the argument that had taken place earlier hadn't concerned them in the least. Pleakley ran ahead of them and stopped in front of the door with his arms out as if to block them from going in.

"Hold it right there, you two!" he said sternly. "You can't just barge into MY - and Jumba's - room without asking! Especially after what happened in there earlier. For all we know, that big jerk-head in there could still be in a bad mood! What do you think he'll say when you dump a big basket of stereotypical Hawaiian delicacies in his lap? 'Thank you kindly, and please tell your sister I'm sorry?'"

Lilo appeared to be thinking. "Yeah, that sounds about right."

Pleakley grabbed the basket from her and frowned. "Not very likely! Besides, he stole my donuts, and I can't forgive that so easily." Then he made a very rude gesture at the bedroom door before waddling off to the kitchen with the food.

"So, Jumba's still in there sulking, huh?" Nani asked him as he set the basket up on the table. Pleakley grunted in response as he took the ham out and headed toward the fridge with it. Nani sighed and shook her head, sitting down at the table.

"I guess I shouldn't have said all those things about him being insensitive," she mumbled, and Pleakley turned around sharply to face her, a look of disbelief in his eye.

"B-but he IS insensitive!" he argued, setting the ham back down and draping a slender arm over her shoulder.

"He called you a monkey's cousin, and as I understand it, that's not very complimentary to most humans."

At this, Nani sighed even more deeply. "Yes, well, I probably went a little too far myself when I called him a - what was that phrase again, Stitch?"

From the living room, a bluish-gray ball rolled into the kitchen and popped open with a resounding "Meega na la queeshta!" that made Pleakley gasp and fling his hands up to cover his non-existent ears.

"Oh, yeah," said Nani, smiling at him. "Thanks. You certainly helped me get my point across… even if that point was just a little too sharp."

Pleakley's arm around Nani's shoulder tightened as he pulled her into a little embrace. "Hey, I'm sure he's been called a lot worse. With a reputation like his, he should be used to it by now. He's really doing all this to himself, you know, so don't feel too bad that you told him his fat head so closely resembles a fresh, stinking pile of trog dung that someone just recently had intercourse with."

Nani looked horrified. "Oh my God! Is THAT what that means?!! No wonder he was so pissed off!!!"

Pleakley gave her a weak smile and said, "Hey, to me that's no worse than him calling you a monkey's cousin, and by the way, the next time he says that, you tell him that that makes him a monkey's uncle! Then we'll see how well he takes that news, eh?" He tried to chuckle at his joke, but it was hopeless. Nani was still too upset about her first falling-out with Jumba to laugh at his expense. Pleakley decided it best just to leave her alone with her thoughts, so he picked up the ham again and took it to the fridge. He had just placed it inside when he saw the note on the door.

"Hey, Nani, look at this!"

"What is it?" she asked as he brought the note over to the table for her to see.

He scanned the message, a distant look in his eye as he tried to interpret his roommate's erratic handwriting. "I don't think Jumba's here right now," he said in a voice just as distant. He continued to read. "And I don't think he's coming back… ever."

"What are you talking about?" Nani demanded, seizing the note out of his hands and reading it for herself.

"Dear Earth family, and dearest Nani in particular,

I am sorry for way I am, and for way I have been, and for way I always will be, however there is no changing a man as stubborn as myself is. It was never my intention to bring with me this stubbornness and insensitive nature of mine into your home. I wish with all my heart that I could say I give up this Mr. Hyde persona, and consent to be quiet Dr. Jeckyll once and for all, but to do so would only be breaking of promise, for I cannot give this side of myself up without giving up the ghost as well. Again, I apologize, and retire now to better place, for a life without purpose defeats purpose of having a life in the first place.

Love to you all, my only ohana

Dr. Jumba Jookiba

P.S. Please do not be going down to lab… is frightfully messy, and I would not want to upset you all further by having to look at it."

Nani reread the letter, her eyes widening in horror at his written words. She looked up at Pleakley, his large, singular eye reflecting the anxiety in her own.

"Oh, God, Pleakley… do you have any idea what this means?"

He nodded his head slowly, biting his lower lip to keep it from trembling. In a flash, Nani jumped up from the table and bolted out the back door, screaming Jumba's name as she went. Lilo and Stitch heard her scream and came rushing into the kitchen. Pleakley, who was still at the table, turned and caught them both before they made it to the back door. Stitch struggled furiously and Lilo protested, but Pleakley pulled them both as close to himself as possible and whispered to them in a frightened voice "It's okay! It's alright! Just don't go outside! Whatever happens, do NOT go down to the shed! Stay here with me. With **Aunt Wendy**. Everything's going to be just - fine!" He choked on his last word and began to sob. Lilo and Stitch looked at each other over the alien's skinny arms and shrugged.

Nani's thick boots pounded furiously over the muddy ground as she ran down the dark trail toward Jumba's lab. Her heart was pounding even louder in her ears as she prayed "Please don't be dead, please don't be dead, please don't be dead…" In moments she had reached the little clearing where the shed stood, it's corrugated metal roof and weather stripping gleaming eerily in the moonlight with remnants of the afternoon's rain. Without pausing for breath she flung herself against the door and beat her fists against it, screaming "Jumba! Jumba! Let me in! Please! I'm sorry! I didn't mean it! Please don't be dead! PLEASE!!!"

Suddenly light-headed, Nani stopped, leaning heavily against the door until she slid down its smooth surface to the ground, where she sat panting painfully and sobbing. "No," she whispered, laying a throbbing hand against the cold metal sheet covering the door. "No…" she sobbed even harder, feeling her hot tears streaming down her flushed cheeks. Suddenly, she heard a faint clink inside the shed, like the sound of a lock being turned, and the next thing she knew, the door was opening and she was falling over the threshold and onto the cold cement floor of Jumba's lab.

"Nani?"

Nani sat up and rubbed her eyes frantically. Jumba was standing over her, one hand on the door and the other hand buried deeply in the pocket of his lab coat. Her heart soared at the sight of him. Taking his hand off the door, Jumba reached down to help her up. Nothing but the deepest concern shown in his four eyes just then as he regarded her.

"Nani, are - are you alright?" he asked softly, his voice sounding genuinely worried. Nani quickly wiped away the last races of her tears and nodded, then threw her arms around him and whispered, "I am now."

Jumba hesitated before returning the hug, keeping the one hand in his coat pocket as he did so. He patted her back soothingly, and she started to sob again.

"God, Jumba, I thought you were… you were…" but she couldn't say it.

"Vhat, did you think I ran away?" he asked her, stepping back and looking her in the face. "I left note on refrigerator for you to find. Am not good vith apologies, so I wrote heartfelt letter and came down to lab until you forgive me for being big bastard."

Nani smiled appreciatively and hugged him again. "I forgive you, Uncle Jay, and I'm sorry, too!"

Jumba chuckled. "Fine. But I was all ready to stay down here in lab in case you didn't. I've got two year supply of dehydrated foodstuffs and good-sized pond out back… as you can see, I planned ahead for this sort of thing. Oh yes, and am vorking on turning lab into fallout shelter also, in case of nuclear attack."

"You think of everything, don't you?" Nani asked him fondly. "Except how to write a decent apology letter. I thought it was a suicide note!"

At this, Jumba laughed. "My apologies again! I am not realizing my own strength vhen it comes to writing! I only vanted letter to sound as sincere as possible."

Nani raised an eyebrow. "So, did you mean it? The apology, I mean? Because if this is just some lame excuse to weasel your way back into my heart, I gotta tell you… it already worked. And I hope you do mean it, because I meant it when I said I was sorry for the things I said to you. We were both being dicks… not just you, and I hope we can put this whole thing behind us and be ohana again."

The look Jumba gave her just then was the kindest she had ever seen in the large alien. "Of course ve can, Nani. Of course ve can." And they hugged each other once more.

"Well, we'd better get back up to the house before Pleakley tears the place apart. He's the one who found the note, you know."

"Ah, yes," Jumba replied, looking preoccupied all of a sudden. He took a step backward into his lab. "Ehh, listen. You go on ahead. Tell him I'm alive and vell, and I vill be up in a few minutes myself to prove it."

"Why don't I just wait right here for you?" Nani asked him. "Then we can go back up together. It's very dark, and I didn't bring a flashlight."

Jumba retreated further into his lab, not turning his back on her for a second. His right hand remained firmly planted in his pocket the whole time.

"Ehh, actually… No. Not a good idea for you to vait. I, uh, have some things to take care of in here. Nasty things. Dangerous things, even. Things that are best kept in secret classification for time being…" he started to shut the door, but Nani stopped it with her boot and forced her way inside.

"Oh, no. I'm not going back up to the house alone," she told him. "As your landlady, I need to run a check on this place… see what kind of nasty, dangerous things you're harboring on my property…" her voice adopted the sneaky tone of her sister as she said this. Glancing around, she saw nothing out of the ordinary… a long table piled with beakers and vials filled with chemicals… a ten foot high bookcase crammed with books and some science instruments… a Bunsen burner on another table… cabinets filled with dehydrated food, specimens swimming in formaldehyde, and God knows what else… and a large, empty, fifty gallon fish tank sitting on the floor in one corner. As Nani looked around the room, she watched out of the corner of her eye as Jumba pulled his hand out of his pocket, extracting a small glass vial, then turning toward the counter to stow it in the cupboard. She whipped around suddenly to see what it was and startled him. Jumba jumped back, dropping the vial. It landed on the counter, then rolled off and shattered on the floor. A white, slimy-looking ooze splattered over the cement.

"What the -?"

"Dammit!" Jumba swore, frowning down at the mess. "That vas not easy acquiring sample!" he snapped at Nani, searching the lower cupboards for something to clean it up. He found a small dustpan and handheld broom, but refrained from using the latter as he attempted to scrape it up with the dustpan, grumbling profanities in his native tongue as he did so.

"What was that stuff?" Nani asked curiously, not bothering to apologize. Jumba stood up straight and said "Is none of your business, that's vhat!" before turning to dump it in the garbage can. Nani took a step back in surprise. Jumba seemed extremely agitated by this, but after he went over to the sink to wash his hands, he appeared remarkably calmer.

"Apologies once more, Earth girl," he sighed. "That vas something you vere not meant to be seeing. That vas - how do I put it? - very personal fluid sample, and not always so easy to obtain, if you get vhat I mean? Eh?"

He gave her a suggestive sideways glance that made her stomach squirm.

"Oh!" she blushed. "Oh, you mean it was s- Oh. Uhhh… okay. Wow." Nani shifted uncomfortably at the thought of it. "Well, ummm… I'm s-sorry I made you drop it, then. I was just wondering what it was you were hiding and - wow. I'm really sorry, though."

Jumba chuckled, amused by her embarrassment. He waved a hand dismissively and told her, "Is okay, Nani! Is no big deal, really! I have plenty more vhere that came from, and I shamefully admit that I look forward to acquiring new sample! Heh- heh! I should perhaps be thanking you, then!"

He reached out a hand to pat her shoulder, but Nani avoided it.

"That's - okay, really! You don't have to thank me." She eyed his hand suspiciously as she edged towards the door. Jumba noticed this and looked slightly offended by it.

"Vhat is wrong vith touching, all of a sudden? I vashed my hands!"

"Oh, there's nothing wrong… I just think it's time we went back up to the house… don't you?"

"I think… you go. Tell everyone I'm fine, and not to be coming down to lab for rest of the night. If they should ask, just tell them I am vorking overtime, and only you and I vill know the truth of it!" He gave her a wink as he picked up an empty vial from a rack on the counter.

"Okayyyyy…" Nani replied, edging further way from him, but not turning her back on him until she was outside of the shed. Just as he was closing the door, she stopped, then turned to him with an odd expression on her face.

"Umm, Jumba, if you don't mind my asking… what exactly do you need that - ahem! - sample for?"

"Sorry, my dear. Is top secret, like most goings-on in this lab." He flashed her a crooked smile before wishing her goodnight and locking the door.

* * * *

Hmmmmmmm… that was interesting, now, wasn't it? Creepy, yet oddly interesting…

Regarding **Aunt Wendy** for a moment… well, anyone who saw that episode of "Lilo and Stitch" with experiment 032 "Fibber" should know what I'm talking about. And for those of you who didn't, I'm just gonna spoil it for you and tell you right now that Pleakley's first name is actually Wendy! I'm still LMAO about that! I just thought that was the most hilarious thing when his relatives revealed his true name to Nani and the gang. And BTW, I LOVE that name for him! Please don't ask me why… I've been asking myself that and apparently I'm not about to crack. I actually like it a lot better than the name I made up for him: Pleakley Nn-Llewellyn-Xinth-Vay (this is in my other story, "Pleakley's Story") … so did anyone else here see that episode on November 7th? Tell me what you thought of it… personally I'm still in 'stitches' over it!!! (Please pardon the pun!) Oh, and big thanx to WeyrdChic for the opening quote!