Tear In Your Hand

(A/N)- My first ever Monsters, Inc. fic! I hope you like it. Title doesn't make sense now, but it will later. Don't expect a quick update, I'm still working on my Lion King fanfiction. Reviews are greatly appreciated! :) Title is based on the song by Tori Amos.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but Sandra Clemons, Chris Wazowski makes strangling motion, and cute little Eddie :-)

Chapter 1: Annoyance and Embarassment
----

Randall Boggs had finally left the southern swamp of Louisiana. But when he found out what happened to Monsters Incorporated since he had left ... well; let's just say he didn't become one of the Laughers. James P. Sullivan and he didn't become allies, but they formed a truce. Randall was never to tell anyone about the illegal banishment and Sullivan let him stay. He had become a janitor though; he said he'd much rather be that than be making human children laugh his entire life. Inwardly, the fact that he was much too scary for the position had made him not want to try at all. He'd be the only one on the Laugh Floor filling canisters with scream instead of laugh power. Besides, he and Sulley worked out a double-pay deal since Randall could use the extra cash.

Things weren't quite as they were, but at least much was back to normal again. Anything was better than a Hillbilly's gator-infested swamp.

It was the end of the day, and everyone was heading home. But since he was a janitor now, he had at least another couple of hours till he was out of here.

"Hey lizard-freak, why don't you get a job at the zoo?" a voice asked; a monster child.

Randall quickly vanished, looking around for the owner of the voice. Then another spoke; it seemed to be coming from around the corner.

A low, deadly chuckle was heard, it was definitely female.

"Listen kids, where I've been zoos have guys like you on display."

They came into view, and Randall saw a small monster-boy, who looked like a purple Mike Wazowski. He was obviously Mike and Celia's kid. He had three other monster kids following him.

The one they were teasing was a young woman, definitely reptilian. She had a narrow face, that looked partially chameleon, but her eyes were not like Randall's; they were wide with a red cornea and black pupil. She had a purple stripe between her two eyes, which ended at her nose and atop her skull she had four fronds, but they looked rather sharper than Randall's, like red quills thinning out on the ends with a dark blue color. She was wearing a black v-neck t-shirt, and her underbelly was a pale yellow.

The only plain difference besides her face was the fact that she had only one pair of arms. And unlike Randall's three-toed gecko appearance, she had manicured claws that clicked on the tiles as she walked. The scales on her back, legs, arms, and face, were all a dark purple, which lightened to a silvery purple as it neared her face. Her tail was curled like Randall's, too.

"Nuh-uh! You wouldn't know; my Dad says you were too creepy to be on the Laugh Floor, so that means you've never been in the human world at all!" Mike's kid said in a know-it-all voice.

She laughed again, walking over to a water fountain and filling her sports-bottle with it.

"Listen, Chris, if you had half a mind you would have probably figured that I used to work there when it was a Scare Floor." She said, glaring at her bottle with a loathing stare that was probably supposed to be aimed at the monster-boy who she called Chris.

She grinned mischievously, and suddenly, she went invisible. Randall was surprised for a moment; he never met another reptilian monster who could do that, except for a few of his family members, mostly male.

Her water bottle fell onto the tile floor, its contents cascading slowly around the spot where she was standing a moment ago. Chris gave an instant look of fright as his enormous eye darted around, scanning his surroundings.

She appeared again, this time on the ceiling. She lowered her face as far as she could to the ground below, and when one of the children had caught sight of her, she let out a shrill screech resembling to that of nails on a chalkboard. Her long fangs glistened menacingly under the hall light.

The monster children scattered in fright, screaming and scrambling their way down the hall, disappearing out of sight, though their shrieks still echoed along the empty corridors.

The lizard smiled triumphantly to herself, and picked up her bottle and began to fill it once more. That was when Randall decided to show himself.

"You really should clean that up, you know?" he pointed out to the puddle on the floor. She jumped slightly, but her bottle didn't spill any more, to her relief. Quickly calming down, she narrowed her eyes at him and recognized him almost instantly; he was a janitor.

"You're paid to do it, so you should." She said stiffly, turning her gaze away from him.

He smiled slightly, "You're right." He replied, grabbing his mop. She stepped to the side as she let him clean it up. Looking at his face, she saw a long dark purple scar along his face and several small ones across his chest. She thought of it rude to ask, but it looked as if he had been attacked by something ... something rather big.

"That was ... err ... quite a scare you gave them." He commented.

She nodded, filling her bottle to the brim and releasing the side button on the fountain.

"Thanks," she said, "But that's nothing compared to the grief those twerps will give me tomorrow."

Randall gave a look of confusion, "But they have school, don't they?"

In the middle of taking a gulp of water, she shook her head. Taking it away from her mouth, she replied, "Wazowski's kid's got another year here before he's off to kindergarten. Till then, it seems I'm their pre-school." She said exasperatedly. "I'm in Roz's old position, and I've got them in the back room of my office."

Randall was about to speak when Mike Wazowski's voice was heard from a nearby speaker. "Sandra Clemons, to the front desk, NOW! Thank YOU!!" he shouted; it was obvious that he was rather annoyed.

She sighed "Oh well, got to go. You know my name, thanks to the talking beach ball, so what's yours?" she asked before heading off.

"Uh, Randall Boggs." He replied.

She nodded with a small smile, "Nice to meet you." She said and turned a heel, heading in the direction to her expected fate. At least Celia would be more on her side; she knew very well that her son could be a little brat when given the chance to exceed to that level.

Sandra had really wished she didn't meet him at that time; she'd much rather have someone to talk to around her besides a bowling ball with limbs, and that was only because she had the 'pleasure' of babysitting the little brat.

She was really starting to consider the janitor job. At least she'd have some kind of a friend named Randall in that department. But she guessed that if he wasn't a lizard, he'd probably tease her about being one like the monster children did.

--

Luckily, it came out good for Sandra, mainly for the fact that Wazowski can't resist his 'Shmoopsie-Poo' when she'd try and reason with him. And the last thing he wanted was for her to get angry. She was a real fireball when it came to that, and Sandra had known enough by once catching the two in a battle. Actually, it couldn't be called a battle; Mike would cover in a corner that she scared him to and Celia would shout, red in the face and snakes tails' rattling and hissing to express her point.

It's not like the monster children were a big hassle to care for. She just had her office to make sure Laughers signed in. If they didn't, simple, they were marked absent and it would count against their record. There were no more Assistants; therefore there was no more paperwork. Life being an everyday employee at MI was so simple, everyone wanted to work there. So, new employees rarely came: Mike Wazowski would personally interview every applicant thoroughly. That way only experienced, pardon me, 'Really good', as Mike Wazowski had so professionally put it.

Good pay or not, Sandra was fed up with being a mommy for children who had one already. Chris, who was annoyed after being scared out of his wits the other day, was extremely bent on making her life a living hell. After a few times she'd went in there to check on them, after being hit with three building blocks, a toy truck, and being stamped on the toes at least twice, she simply threw in a few boxes of Monster Crackers and locked the door.

That didn't stop the purple eyeball from kicking the door every few seconds. He stopped after fifteen minutes though (Sandra timed it), and as she had foreseen, his foot must've ached too much to continue the annoyance.

Soon after, she heard the quick nervous rapping of a small fist coming from the room. It was followed by a small voice, "Miss Clemons, I need to go potty!" It was Fungus' boy, Eddie. Sighing, she opened the door and picked him up, and locked it again.

"Whatever you do, do NOT go potty on me." She warned. Peering out her office door, she saw that Fungus was busy on the Laugh Floor.

"Okay, your Daddy can't bring you so you'll have to use the girl's bathroom." She said through gritted teeth; she knew what was coming.

"Nuuu!" he whined. "I need to use the boy's bathroom!" He complained, eyes filling with tears. He was the sweetest of all the kids' she baby-sat, so she didn't want to see him upset. She looked back to the Laugh Floor.

"Ugh, alright!" she said finally, "But you'll have to go in the locker room by yourself."

"Nuuu!" he whined again.

"Fine then, no potty." She said; there was no way she was going into the men's room.

"I'm scaared. It's scaary when no one's with me." Eddie whined, beads of sweat rolling down his forehead. Not wanting him to 'go' on her, she skittered on all fours as quick as she could to the men's bathroom.

Thankfully, it was empty, but just to be sure she went invisible as Eddie rushed into a bathroom stall. She gave a long sigh of relief, when it was cut short by the thudding of footsteps.

She held her breath, being very grateful that she can turn invisible.

Randall! Oh shoot, she wanted to die right there. That's all she really needed in her life: the only other lizard in Monsters Incorporated who seemed like a nice guy found her in the men's bathroom! That would certainly make her look like a weirdo!! Shoot, double shoot!!

Her eyes widened as a flush was heard, meaning Eddie would come out right ... now. Oh great.

"Miss Clemons?" he called as he exited the stall. He peered around, when he saw Randall at the sink. He froze; obviously Eddie knew 'Miss Clemons' would be embarrassed to be found in this bathroom.

"Hey, you lost kid?" He asked. Eddie was lost, for words. He began to stutter, as he always did when he got way past nervous.

"Err ... I ... uh ....umm ...." He fumbled.

Sandra felt sorry; if it had been Chris he would've blurted it out right then and there, and he would be oh-so-gleeful to do so. Not wanting to leave the kid stuttering all day, she reappeared, preparing for the embarrassment that she would soon endure.

"I'm right here, Ed." She said, and he ran over to her, hugging a foreleg. "I'm done." He said quietly, trying to hide himself from Randall's view.

"Erm, he had to go pot- - to the bathroom, and I had no one to take him, so ..." she tried to explain, Eddie snuggling beside her.

"You're just lucky everyone's on the Laugh Floor right now." He said with a chuckle.

Sandra bit her lip and blushed slightly, but smiled back. Her mind was chanting different cuss words, some much too vulgar to list, and a lot you may know already.

"So, who's this kid?" he asked, looking over at the now trembling monster child.

"This is Eddie. He's always shy, when he doesn't know someone. He's Fungus' kid."

Randall's eyes widened as much as they could, "Fungus?"

She nodded, putting her hand on Eddie's head, trying to calm him, "Yeah. I'm guessing you know him?"

"Fungus was my Scare Assistant ... when I was a Scarer." He recalled. Wow, he thought. Fungus used to be the guy who'd freeze up every time he was around a girl ... now he's a father?

"I was a Scarer too. But you wouldn't see me making a kid laugh, would you? Half the kids I watch are scared of me, and they're monsters." She said, eyes carving a hole in the floor which she should fall through. If only. You wish.

"I gotta bring him back to my office." She said abruptly, rather grateful to have an excuse. The position of being in a men's room talking to a guy, who was truthfully sort of attractive ... it was all too awkward.

"Bye, then," she said, picking Eddie up from under his arms and carried him back to her office. She didn't know if he said goodbye, or anything, but she sped out of there as fast as her reptilian feet could carry them. She couldn't blame Eddie, and she wouldn't, but that had to be the most embarrassing moment in her entire life.

--

"I'm sorry I have to keep Eddie here," Fungus stammered, "I mean, if Betty were home I'd leave him there but since she's got a new job, I don't want to leave him with a babysitter, I mean, I trust you more and everything ..."

It was the end of the day once again, and everyone who had children in her care had already retrieved the little bast- - cough babies. Fungus, as always, was the last one to get his son and he would always apologize over and over about keeping him here.

"Look, Fungus, it's not you who should be apologizing." She said finally, cutting him off where he was going on about him not being around to bond with Eddie. He saw the glare in her eyes as she looked into space, and almost immediately he knew who she was talking about.

"Young Chris Wazowski?" he questioned, already knowing the answer.

"Again." She said glumly. "That kid's temper is so foul he has his mother hanging from her tentacles."

Fungus laughed lightly, almost nervously, "Well, he has the sarcasm of his father and the courage of his mother."

Sandra nodded, smoothing back her quill-like fronds. "Oh," she said, just remembering, "I met Randall the other day, and I saw him today, too. Randall Boggs." She saw Fungus' eyes widen suddenly, "He said he knew you ... why do you look so scared?" she asked.

"Randall?" he asked incredulously. "Randall's been gone ever since Waternoose was put in jail! I- well, he never liked me much, really, but are you sure? I thought he was dead! Describe him!"

"Well ..." she paused. "Four arms, four legs ... three fronds on his head ... purple, with a light blue down his back ... err ... gator-like teeth, and he had a bunch of scars on his body." She finished.

Fungus cocked a brow, "Aside from the scars, I'm pretty sure that's him. But how? I thought he was dead!"

"Why, what happened?" she asked.

"No, I can't tell you." He said, adjusting Eddie so that he wouldn't slip out of his clammy hands. "I promised never to ..."

"Come on, Fungus, tell me. It can't be that serious!" she exclaimed, losing her patience.

"I can't." was all he said, "Just ... well, for your safety, I mean ... I think you should stay away from him." He said in a grave tone.

"Why?" she asked, getting more and more agitated.

"Just stay away from him." He said seriously, and headed down the hall to the front doors. Sandra watched him till he left the building.

Never, in her entire life, did she ever see Fungus act this way. But she needed to find out, even if it meant asking Randall Boggs directly.

----

(A/N) - Click that button please! I love reviews! Update will be as soon as possible!

---