Disclaimer: Do you think I own Fairly Oddparents? I mean, how stupid do you have to be to think I do? Because I don't (and never will).

Chapter 3: "We Now Bring You Back to Your Regularly Schedule Program, Already in Progress

Unlike Timmy, Tootie awoke quite alone. The light from the sun practically forced her eyelids open. No more Timmy blinds- a week ago, when her parents didn't come back from their business trip, Vicky barged into Tootie's room and destroyed everything with Timmy's face on it. Her room was now strangely stark, sunlight pervading every inch of open space, which woke her more effectively than an alarm clock. The thing was she no longer had a clock, anyway, since Vicky had thrown it out the window (much to the distress of some birds).

A brown cat with a little crown above his head, Tootie's godfather, Cal dug his claws into Tootie lightly to force her out of bed. He usually took the form of a cat, except when Vicky was around, and then he was a moth. Cal had only been with Tootie for a year (Fairy World was a little behind on releasing fairies to miserable children) and in the past week, Tootie had had the worst time of her life with or without his help. Vicky seemed to think that she had free reign over the house and worked Tootie day and night, even with Cal.

Tootie groaned.

"Is Vicky here?" She sat up and threw the covers to the side.

"She would have already woken me up…"

Then, she glanced over at where her clock used to be, "I think."

Cal changed into his fairy form and shook his head.

"She's over at Timmy's house, torturing him. It seems that his parents went to work early so they could get home earlier. You weren't awake when they rang their doorbell, hauled Vicky out of bed, paid $200 for her to wake up Timmy and get him to school, and then drove off."

"Poor Timmy," Tootie murmured.

"Poor you, you're going to miss the bus." He poofed her into her school clothes, poofed her a breakfast bar, and then poofed her to the street.

Tootie just barely made it. She spurted for the bus, Cal one of her ribbons, and knocked headfirst into Timmy. She shook her head, trying to shake off the pain and dashed up the steps, throwing herself down into the last seat. It was empty, of course, because people knew she sat there and avoided it. Well, actually, she'd only started sitting there recently, when she began avoiding Timmy.

It had been this which had put Tootie over the top, onto Fairy World's "urgent" list. Vicky, always wanting to deprive Tootie of that which made her happy, decided to punish Tootie for her crush. Which meant, every time she tried to escape to her room, Vicky would break down the door and scream at her for three hours. It wasn't the threats on Tootie's own well-being that made her stop; it was those threats concerning Timmy that made her acquiesce.

Tootie sighed raggedly and watched Timmy take his seat by Chester and A.J. His hat was askew, and his notebook looked banged up, but he was in one piece. From the way Vicky had been threatening, Timmy's arms would have been broken. However, there they were, working fine as he gestured and explained his morning.

Now that she'd made it through a Vicky-free morning, she wondered about the rest of the day.

---

If Tootie thought that Timmy hadn't noticed her avoiding him, she was wrong. He had noticed that and that she also walked with a pronounced limp (a result of Vicky tripping her down the stairs on the way to her room). Unfortunately, Timmy had his own problems and she barely registered for more than a few seconds. Wanda, however, worried a bit over Tootie, but then she saw the brown bow on her right pigtail and calmed.

Tootie shuffled her feet and took a while to get to the entrance, careful to be at least ten yards from Timmy. She didn't even look in his general direction, her head hung low, despondent.

"I wish I were at home," she muttered.

"With Vicky?" Cal retorted.

"Never mind."

Since Vicky and Tootie's parents had gone MIA, Vicky was given guardian status. That meant that she was to remain in a place where she could be contracted. Which, in Vicky's case, was watching SoapNet in Timmy's living room (Timmy's parents gave her keys to the house and were nearly at the point of signing over the deed and mortgages over to her). The school needn't have worried- if she were in a life or death situation, she'd probably die before Vicky got there.

Meanwhile, as Tootie was in "angst mode", Timmy was sweating bullets. Today was the day he was going ask out Trixie (figuring his birthday would imbue him more than the usual luck) and he kept rehearsing his speech, to the point Chester and A.J. were about to scream.

"Dude-"Chester started, taking a step closer to Timmy.

A.J. held up an arm. His eyes were on Tootie, who had stopped walking at the same instant Timmy and co. had, still a few yards away. He could almost see the aura of misery hanging about her. She looked up and, as soon as she saw Timmy, he caught two conflicting emotions in her eyes- desire and fear. Fear won out and she dropped her gaze.

"Has anyone noticed how oddly Tootie's acting?"

Neither boy cared and they ran ahead into the school, Timmy still chattering away.

"Hey, wait up!"

----

Timmy Turner was in the most dismal mood in the history of dismal moods. Not only had Trixie refused him (quite empathetically- it'd take months for him to live it down); Crocker gave a pop quiz on material he hadn't even taught yet; the cafeteria ran out of food and he had to eat gruel (much to Chester's delight); they played everyone against pink hat in gym dodge ball, and he was partnered with a dead ant for lab. This all, of course, had to occur on his birthday. If he didn't know any better, he'd say that an anti-fairy was following him.

Too bad he didn't know better…

The Other paced in his tiny room in Timmy's mind. He'd planned this for two years, stealing away when Timmy was asleep (taking over Timmy's body) and getting connections. It had taken two years to gain that much power and stolen funds to hire a hit-man who worked at the local McDonald's. He'd planned for Timmy's parents to miss lunch and eat it late, at the exact moment when Timmy's bus would take a detour and pass by. That way, Timmy would see his parents lose their lives. From the Other's point of view, nothing could be more delicious.

Timmy's parents pulled up to the drive-thru, as Timmy could see (not to mention The Other, who had taken control of Timmy's left eye).

They seemed to order a couple of Big Macs, when the car exploded with gun fire and explosives (a bomb had been planted in the trunk and set to react at a certain signal- "can I take your order?")

The children on Timmy's bus ducked but Timmy watched in horror as the car became a mass fireball and his parents burned. His breath caught in his throat and he couldn't breath. He couldn't stay here, couldn't let this happen. He had to do something…

"No…" Timmy choked out, ran to the front of the bus, pulled the emergency lever and dashed out, fully intending to do something, although he didn't know what. Too bad The Other had planned for this as well. No way was he going to let everything go up in smoke because of some stupid heroics on Timmy's part. He had worked too hard for his charge to die on him.

So, instead of running close to the scene, Timmy's legs, over which he had no control, took him as far as The Other could manage. Timmy fought him every step of the way, but The Other knew it wouldn't last long. The deaths hadn't sunk in yet. Once they did, Timmy would be too grief stricken to resist.

"Cosmo…Wanda…" Timmy called, the words barely made it past his constricted throat.

They appeared quickly and turned to see his parents' car completely engulfed in flames. They, for once, had nothing to say- all three just watched and listened to the pops that accompanied the explosion. Cosmo and Wanda held hands, both trembling, as they saw his parents' final moments.

"I-I did this, somehow, didn't I?" Timmy cried as his body racked with sobs.

His godparents said nothing, but gazed down at their wands. A teenager with a very similar build and appearance of Timmy but seeming to glow with evil, clad in black and minus the pink hat, plants a "smart bomb", set to explode in the trunk of the Turner family car, in the dark of the night, talks and exchanges money with a black-suited hit man; and his birth, a flash of black and blue in a transfiguration Timmy tried to accomplish, where Timmy blacked out for a few minutes: all of these appeared on their wands. What was even more disconcerting was Timmy's eyes at the moment, where they could see The Other peering out.

"Hello," The Other crooned, as Timmy's body changed to The Other's form, in a voice that sent chills down their spines. "It's time to play."