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

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR:
TURNING THE PAGES

"This is news most alarming to me. To learn that Pleakley has such tragic past… (sigh) I vill never take the little stick figure for granted again." Jumba mumbled over the little black book that chronicled his buddy's life at the kitchen table late one night. Nani sat across from him, staring morosely into the steam swirling up from her cup of coffee. It had now been a week and a half since Pleakley had been relocated to Cambria, California under the protection of Cobra Bubbles. To his ohana back on Kauai, it had seemed like much longer, and the effects of his absence had taken a dire toll on them all. Lilo had become a complete recluse, walling herself up from the world around her, only opening up to others just enough to answer important questions and to communicate her wants and needs. Stitch was doing pretty much the same, although Jumba had noted that he was also beginning to regress to a more primitive state, behaving more and more like an Earth dog. He was hardly even speaking anymore, in English or in Turian. As for Jumba himself, surprisingly, he had abandoned his natural inclination to stay down in his lab twenty-four/seven, and instead spent a good portion of his days as a couch potato, watching everything from "Blue's Clues" to "Wheel of Fortune" to "The Twilight Zone." In between certain shows he would continue to read Pleakley's diary, picking over the entries and rewording them so as to make them appropriate to read to the ever-persistent Lilo. Every day after school she would come rushing into the living room and dive onto the couch, ready for the latest installment in 'Pleakley's Story.' This was the only time she would truly come alive. As soon as the day's entry was done, she would return to her sullen state and retreat to her room with Stitch, and the two of them would not be seen or heard from again until suppertime. As for Nani, she had decided to put up an indifferent façade, pretending for everyone else that Pleakley's past and his absence were of little meaning to her. For Lilo, she pretended to be strong, insisting that no one should worry about him, that everything would work out alright in the end, even though she knew it could never be that simple. Over the past few days, she had learned of the many complexities of her alien friend, and it sickened her to realize how she had always taken him for granted as a neurotic nobody. David often came to visit her, at home and at work, knowing full well how she really felt, and wishing to comfort her. Though, being the inarticulate person that he was, there was usually very little he could offer in the way of verbal sympathy.

"I feel terrible now for what I said to him last month," Nani muttered before taking a sip of her coffee.

Jumba looked up from the book questioningly. "And vhat vas that exactly?" he asked her.

"I told him he wasn't family."

For a long moment, there was silence, as Jumba continued to stare at her, waiting for her to offer an explanation.

"It was on the anniversary of our parents' passing," she whispered, wiping a tear from the corner of her eye. "I was going to take Lilo to the cemetery to visit their graves, but she didn't want to go. Actually, she just wanted to go by herself… you know, to be alone with them, but the cemetery's about twenty miles away, so we didn't have time to argue about it. I promised her I would let her have some time alone when we got there, but she was still upset and insisted on staying here. Well, we got into a huge argument, anyway, and then Pleakley comes along and calls us both insensitive and says we shouldn't be fighting on this particular day, so we stopped. Lilo still didn't want to go, so I told her I didn't want to go, either, if it meant having to go alone, so then Pleakley volunteered to go with me. He didn't know I had said that just to get Lilo to go, and Lilo finally decided to go once she heard him volunteer. I let Pleakley come along anyway, as it was the only way to get Lilo to go. When we got there, Pleakley started to follow us into the cemetery, and Lilo got mad and told him to go back and wait in the car because it was strictly a family thing. Naturally, he got a little offended, and I told Lilo that that was rude, and we started arguing again, and then Lilo started crying, and in the end I agreed with her and told Pleakley to go back and wait for us. I could tell he was hurt by that, and I never apologized to him. I was just so upset myself at the time… about our fighting, and Lilo's feelings, and our parents… I said some things I shouldn't have said, and in a tone I shouldn't have used. I think what hurt him the most was when I told him he wasn't family, and that he could never understand the pain we were feeling." Nani paused then to take in a deep breath, then expelled it in the deepest of sighs. "God, why did I say that? Why did I assume he knew nothing of pain, when he was being so sympathetic with us? On the way to the cemetery that day, I told him about our mom and dad, what they were like, and some of our best memories of them, and when I got to the end of it, with the car crash and all, I looked in the rearview mirror, and I could swear he was crying! He wanted so much to be there with us, to comfort us… and I had to do something horrible to him by telling him he wasn't family! And I never even apologized." When she finished, she sobbed, then quickly regained composure as Jumba offered his reassurance.

"I am sure he knows you didn't mean it, Earth girl. Time heals all wounds, therefore I am sure also that he has forgiven you that remark, and forgotten it."

"I don't know," Nani replied. "If it had been me, I'd still be hurting from it. And actually, at the time, I did mean it. I still can't believe I said it. 'You're not family.' God, how could I be so stupid? Of course he's family! I just can't believe it's taken me so long to realize it."

At this, Jumba leaned across the table and laid his large hand over hers in an empathetic gesture. "Vhat's done is done, Nani, and nothing can be done about that. At least you finally realized these things. Some people never do. Be glad that you are not one of them."

After a moment she looked up at him and smiled appreciatively, laying her other hand over his and giving it an affectionate squeeze. Jumba smiled back and continued scanning the pages of the diary. Having finished the portion regarding Pleakley's stay aboard the Kaizaxx ship, he had decided to keep reading in case there may be more crucial information in later entries. So far, nothing… except for the single entry that briefed Pleakley's appeal. Although there had been no tangible evidence to present (seeing as Le'Kruune had ingested part of it), a surveillance vid taken at the negotiations contained enough confessions by the Kaizaxx leader so as to turn the outcome of the appeal in Pleakley's favor. On top of his pardoning, he had been promoted to second class agent, a position which he had been holding for the past nine years without any further promotion. Sure, there were a few entries that Jumba found rather amusing, but nothing important. One entry, written about three Earth months later, described in giddy detail a date with a lovely young woman who, he wrote, reminded him of his mother. Jumba wondered if he had been foolish enough to tell her that, even though he had meant it in the most flattering way possible. She, too, had had a not-so-perfect past, one filled with pain and devastation, although Pleakley did not elaborate on it. It was only said that her remarkable strength and optimism were so much like Vay's, that he couldn't help but admire her for them. Why Jumba bothered to read about this girl was uncertain, even to himself, but when he stumbled upon a startlingly erotic passage, his attention was fully locked, and he continued.

"She is the most beautiful woman I've ever seen, no contest. Funny, as a child, she wasn't much to look at. I'm not saying she was ugly or anything. She used to be so plain and now… now she's gorgeous! How and when that happened, I've no idea. True, I've known her for years; first as a familiar face, then as an acquaintance, then as a sort of friend. Then, all of a sudden, she blossomed. It seemed to happen the moment she first asked me out. I looked at her, stunned by her question, then by her beauty. And not just her face, of course. Suddenly I noticed other things… things which declare her a woman… a gorgeous, voluptuous woman, and I blush to write this now. Just thinking about her…those slender legs, those lovely breasts…arouses me. I just can't believe I never noticed it before. But it's not just that that I'm interested in. We've been friends for so long, I've seen the beautiful soul that lies inside that body. She is so much like Mother, and for that I could not possibly allow myself to get lost in lust and forget who she is. I long for her, body and soul, and sometimes I wonder which has the greater longing. I have never been in love before, never like this, anyway. Is this true love, then? I am so confused. All I know is, I have never felt this way about anyone. I wasn't even certain of this feeling until last night when she kissed me for the first time. Well, not the FIRST time. She had done it once before about a year ago, on a bet. She won fifty terzeks (about twenty American dollars) for using her tongues, but it was all done in haste and she generously decided to split her winnings with me. We never spoke of it again until last night, when she just HAD to bring it up. As for our second kiss…I have to say it went a lot better than the first one. It lasted a lot longer as well. And yes, tongues were involved, and it was magic. Pure magic. After that, I knew it had to be love."

Eagerly, Jumba read on, watching Pleakley's passion for this woman grow by the page. One passage in particular caught his attention:

"My body screams in agony to be near hers, and even when I'm with her, I am suffering. What is it about her that makes me want her even more when I already have her in my embrace? What is it that draws me to her like the gravitational pull of planet and star? What is it that makes my head swim with the intoxication of champagne even when I am sober? What is it that she is doing to me that makes each day in the wake of that nightmare bearable? What is it about her that makes my heart sing with such ecstasy that for once in my short and so far pointless existence, I actually WANT to live? Oh, Leera, what have you done to me? I am a wreck now, with and without you. You have called into question everything I thought I knew about the universe, and now I no longer know when I am awake and when I am dreaming. I invoke the Lord to both bless you and condemn you for the soft yet firm hand you have laid upon my heart."

Such deep poetry to be flowing from such tortured soul. I would never have guessed that he had it in him, Jumba thought, taken aback by these words. From that point on, the diary talked of nothing but a girl named Leera for several entries in succession. After a while it appeared that he had been obsessed with her. Some pages here and there had been torn out, and accounts of later dates with her became less explicit in detail, as if he had been too embarrassed to write certain things. In the end, Jumba got the impression that Pleakley must have gone all the way with her. As much as he had written about this 'Leera' chick, it came as quite a surprise to Jumba that any mentioning of her stopped abruptly after nearly thirty entries. They had been dating for about four Earth months, then nothing. No pages appeared to be missing, but there was an empty space in an earlier entry where a photo of her had obviously been placed, then later removed. Jumba deducted that the relationship had gone sour and that the two had broken up. Such is often the case with first loves, he thought. Probably he could not bear to remain with same girl with whom he lost virginity, especially girl who is not being virgin herself. Going by the descriptions of her… her lack of shyness, peculiar interests, and her wild, outgoing personality, it seemed only fair to assume that she had already been around the block at least once before meeting Pleakley. After all that he had read about her, it felt oddly sad to Jumba that Pleakley had suddenly stopped writing about her, without so much as a hint why. No matter what had happened, he could not understand how such an important person in Pleakley's life could just disappear from it entirely. In a diary, of all places, one would expect to find answers, but there were none. On one page, Leera was his best friend in the universe, aside from his mother… on the next page, she was his angel, healing his scarred heart… on the next page, his better half, the light of his life, his soul mate… then on the next page… nothing. Not even a passing reference. It was as if she had ceased to exist.

For the rest of the night, Jumba could not help but wonder what had happened between them… where Leera was now… and why he even cared. It was hard to picture Pleakley as ever having been in a romantic relationship, but to picture it being ended, and so abruptly, was even harder. He continued to turn the pages, reading them over and over, combing them for more crucial information about the Kaizaxx… and for another mentioning of the mystery woman known as Leera.