Sudden Impulse

The first two weekdays had gone by without so much as a hitch. Bob managed Jack and the house while everyone else was off to either school or work, and he learned to play police officer when school was over (no matter how unwilling he was from the start). But when Wednesday rolled around, he was more than willing the excuse himself from the household at four o'clock in the afternoon with Lucius for another day of "bowling".

"All of you, be good while I'm away okay?" This was much more of an expectant order than a question as Bob grabbed his coat off of its hanger and opened the front door, where Lucius was waiting for him. "Violet, you're in charge…and both of you, don't forget to do your homework and that the fire extinguisher is on the shelf in the hall in case you need it!"

Violet prayed that they wouldn't. "Sure Dad, I can take care of…"

She realized that she wasn't talking to anyone; the coat rack next to the door swayed as a result from the vibrations produced by Bob's slamming of the door before it finally stood still. Dash had run to the living room and switched on the television as soon as his father was gone. Violet sighed and, figuring that she could try to be useful while both of the parental units were absent, puttered upstairs to see what needed to be done.

Out of curiosity, Violet slipped into her brother's room. It was extremely messy, with bits of random junk such as clothes and toys thrown here and there and gathered up in all of the corners. Violet walked to his desk, which was topped off with Dash's computer monitor and other clothing bits. She noticed a pile of crude and unflattering pencil drawings of Jack-Jack on top of the mess. Disgusted, she took them in her hand and crumpled them up before casting them into a nearby wastebasket.

Just then she heard her brother coming up the staircase. Violet panicked and quickly became invisible before she ran to the corner and managed to brace herself between the walls, an almost ideal hiding technique.

Dash swaggered into the room, slamming the door behind him. "Where the heck is my game console?!" he demanded to no one in particular. Violet watched as he dived under his bed and began to toss stuff out from under it as he searched. When he found nothing he got up and went to check his desk, but when he got there he noticed that something was missing. "My drawings!" he gasped angrily. Suddenly he looked instinctively at Violet's corner. "Violet, I know that you're in here!" he yelled.

Violet trembled but didn't say anything.

Dash went through the junk on his desk and withdrew a wooden ruler. He got up, walked over to the corner, and prodded Violet almost painfully in the stomach. Every part of her except her head became visible as she dropped from the wall and grabbed the ruler. "Ow! Don't do that!" she complained.

"Get out of my room!"

"What do you have against Jack-Jack?" Headless Violet asked.

"He ruined my life, that's what!" Dash yelled as he punched her. In anger Violet threw herself on top of him and they wrestled each other, trying to give the other more pain than what they were receiving. The two of them rolled around on the floor, hitting each other with the ruler, until they hit the bedside table, which fell to the floor with a loud crash. Dash and Violet froze as they could hear the sound of a baby crying down the hall.

"Oh-no! Jack-Jack!" They dropped the ruler, quickly got to their feet and ran to the nursery.

Not surprisingly Dash beat his sister to the crib. Inside of it Jack in his demonic form was howling and a few steamy green tears ran down his face. One of the bars of the crib and his pillow were scorched. Violet rushed to Dash's aid and peered over the bars of the crib. "Jack, are you all right?" She reached down to pick him up, only to be told off by an array of fresh howls. "What? Jack-Jack, it's only me!" She attempted to lift him from the crib again but he fell backwards and lashed out one of his black claws.

Dash beat her shoulder impatiently. "Why do you think he's crying? You don't have a head!"

"Oh…!" Violet quickly made her head visible and outstretched her arms toward Jack-Jack again. "See? It's just me!" she repeated, wearing a ridiculously uncomfortable grin. The baby simply gave her a scandalized look. Dash frowned at Violet and picked up his brother himself. "I think that he's been sneezing again," he said. "We should take him downstairs before he burns down his own room."

Violet agreed with him and followed Dash out of the room and downstairs, secretly enjoying that Dash cared for the baby.

Jack-Jack fought furiously against Dash as he was carried into the living room. When Dash tried to sit him down on the couch, he had to grab Jack-Jack again because the baby instantly made a mad attempt to crawl over the armrest. "Is there anything we can give him that would get him to stay still?" Dash asked crossly. "Do we have any candy or something?"

"Oh, sure! Feed him something contaminated with sugar, why don't you?" Violet exclaimed.

Dash scowled at his sister's remark. Suddenly he had an idea and, after recovering the television remote from under one of the couch cushions, switched the television back on and turned the channel to a pink-and-pastels children's show. Jack-Jack's head snapped to attention as he quickly became absorbed in the program, and the scarlet color of his skin seemed to melt off of him while his claws retracted.

Relieved, Violet sank down onto the couch next to Dash. She would have to remember all of the time slots for every day that that show was going to be on from now on.

XXXXX

All was well when Bob and Lucius had returned, with Jack-Jack up in his room napping and Dash and Violet quietly completing their homework. The two eldest children gave their father large, innocent smiles as he passed. He wasn't going to find anything burnt to a crisp today.

A/N: This will probably be finished soon, but I –might- make a sequel. Anyway, I'd like to thank Vicki for giving me the idea that Jack-Jack has a cold…such a good sister (most of the time). :0) Sooo…tell me what you think!

Rumpelteazer