Yup, we all knew it was inevitable…but that was because I said it would happen. I did make one mistake in this chapter. Marlin reads Lash's note, but Marlin really can't read… but who else would have read it? Maybe they've been giving him reading lessons… Oh, well. I didn't realize it until now, and it's a little too late to change the entire thing. Enjoy it anyways!

Since this fic will most likely be discontinued, because I'm no longer obsessed with Finding Nemo, I want to thank everyone who read this fic and especially to all who reviewed:

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Chapter 5: Runaway Fish!

It had taken a long time, but her efforts seemed basically useless. Goldie had tried to explain to Lash what had been going on without actually having "the talk" yet. He was still only the equivalent of seven years old, and much too young to get the full explanation yet. Lash just seemed confused and disgusted. He ignored his mother and his uncle for the next two days, as much as they tried to convince him otherwise.

At least after they had confessed each other's feelings, Gill wasn't spacing out in class anymore. Lash was still ignoring him, even during class, which was beginning to concern him. He and Goldie had decided it was okay for them to date, and they had made a date that afternoon to go out to a show.

---

It was Saturday already, and Goldie was wearing a string of pearls around her back for her date with Gill. A few minutes later, he arrived, holding another bouquet of fancy seaweed pieces, although this time using a few different kinds. Goldie excitedly swam up to him. "Okay, I'm all ready to go!"

"Wait a minute, what about your son?" Gill reminded her.

Goldie stopped short at the entrance to the cavern. "Oh, yeah. Gee, I forgot about Lash, he's been so quiet lately…" Being in love with somebody again was making Goldie feel much younger than she actually was, and she was beginning to forget that she even had a son. She swam back into the cavern, down the hall and into the hole leading to Lash's section. "Lash, honey? Are you all packed?"

Lash just grunted in agreement. He drifted out of the section, not even looking up at his mother.

Goldie looked around and noticed that he had nothing with him. "You don't need to bring anything? You're going to be staying with the clownfish for the whole night, so are you sure you don't need anything?"

Lash shook his head, sadly and just swam out of the cavern, turning around to face out into the ocean.

"Well, I guess we're ready," Goldie said, swimming out to join them. "Let's get going to the clownfish's."

Gill led his family through the reef and across fish streams towards Nemo's anemone. He was a bit apprehensive, since he hadn't even told Marlin of their plan to drop Lash off. He didn't think it would be a problem, but Marlin already knew what a troublemaker Lash could be, and he might be reluctant to watch him for the entire night. At last, the two and a half Moorish idols arrived outside the pink anemone.

Little Nemo whooshed out to meet them. "Hi Uncle Gill! Hi Lash! Have you guys come for a visit?"

"Well, not today." Gill hated to disappoint his little clownfish "nephew", but he should have realized that Nemo would still be looking for a visit. "How about Monday after school?"

"Oh," Nemo sounded a bit disappointed, but tried to look happy. "Yeah, okay!"

"Where's your father?" Gill asked.

"I'll go get him," Nemo said, diving back into the waving anemone.

A few minutes later, Marlin poked out of the anemone in almost the same place that Nemo had been. He smiled as he laid eyes on them. "Well, hello Gill, Lash, and…"

"Goldie," Goldie introduced herself. "You're Marlin?"

Marlin grinned and nodded. "Pleased to meet you, Goldie. So…what is the purpose of this sudden visit?"

"Well…" Gil began. "Actually, Goldie and I are going to the Full Moon Theater tonight and we need someone to watch Lash…I figured that maybe you and Dory could take care of him for the night. We'll be back tomorrow morning to pick him up."

"Well, that's fine by me," Marlin agreed. "Dory isn't here now; she went to a meeting, but she should be back before the end of the day. I think I can handle the little guy by myself until then."

Lash was staring off into the deep blue ocean. He didn't say anything, or even make any annoyed faces when Marlin called him a "little guy". He finally dragged himself over beside the anemone and stared down into the murky depths.

"We'll have fun," Marlin tried to get his attention. "You've got Nemo to play with, and when Dory gets back, we'll play a game, okay? …Lash? Hey, Lash…?" The little Moorish idol just looked away, too hurt and confused to talk to anybody. "Is something wrong with him?" Marlin asked.

"He's been like that for a couple of days," Goldie explained, although she was too embarrassed to explain what happened. "Well, at least you know he'll be nice and quiet for you."

Marlin seemed a bit relieved and worried at the same time. He swam up beside Lash as Gill and Goldie began to swim away. "Well, have fun!" he called, waving with one of his orange fins. "Invite me to the wedding!"

Gill and Goldie swam off together, waving to Marlin. When they had turned a corner and were far enough away from the anemone, Goldie glanced suspiciously at Gill. "Wedding?"

"He's just teasing us," Gill assured her.

---

"So," Marlin turned to look at the little Moorish idol beside him. "What do you say we find a spot where we can all be together for the rest of the night? Nemo!"

Nemo came paddling out of his anemone home, holding a pad of waterproof paper and a few seaweed quills dipped in octopi ink. "What is it, Dad? I have to do my homework."

"Well, we're all going to move outside the anemone for the rest of the day," Marlin told his son. "Lash is going to be sleeping over tonight."

"Oh, really?" Nemo was surprised and a bit frustrated. How come no one ever told him what was going on? He wasn't too keen on Lash sleeping over either. It had been established a long time ago that Lash was a troublemaker and a bully. As much as Nemo tried to be friendly and helpful, Lash always ignored him and just pushed him away. It seemed like today would be no different. "Are you okay, Lash?" Nemo asked. "Did something happen? You look kind of sad."

The young Moorish idol just ignored him, turning his snout away, huffily.

"Aren't you going to talk to me?" Nemo urged again, but he still got no response. "Well, at least having you ignore me is better than having you boss me around."

"Nemo," Marlin scolded. "Try to be nice to him. He is our visitor, after all."

"He won't talk to me," Nemo said. "I think he should be a little nicer to me. It's rude to just ignore someone who's talking to you."

"Please, Nemo," Marlin replied. "Just try not to disturb him. I think he needs a little time to…think things over."

At this sentence, Lash swam over to a group of lumpy, bluish coral and just stared at it for a few minutes.

Marlin sighed as a fish he knew came gliding up. "Hey, there, Hutch! How've you been? Haven't talked to you in a while. Are you going to the parent meeting on Tuesday?" Hutch was the father of Bandit, one of the students at Nemo's school. So, Marlin and Hutch got involved in a conversation, hovering just outside the anemone, chatting as parents do when they haven't seen each other for a while.

Nemo sighed. He swam over and grabbed his pad of paper and his quills, so he could do his homework. He picked up a quill, and poised it on top of the paper, ready to write his name at the top, when a familiar, unwelcome voice interrupted him.

"Hey, Nemo?" Lash finally spoke up. "Can I borrow a seaweed stick and some paper?"

Nemo was pretty shocked. He didn't think Lash would speak to him for the rest of the night, and if he ever did say anything, he didn't think it would be to ask for some paper and a seaweed stick. "Well…sure, Lash."

The young Moorish idol grabbed a seaweed stick and a few pieces of paper and began to write.

Nemo didn't think this would work, but Lash had surprised him before. Perhaps he was making a turnaround and becoming a kind, obedient fish. Nemo smiled. Maybe he was influencing him, getting him to behave by setting a good example for him. "Do you want some help with your homework?" Nemo asked. It was worth a try. "I know it's kind of hard…I have trouble spelling too."

Lash wasn't responding; he had become a stony silent statue again, scribbling on his paper. At last, he just ripped one piece of paper in half as his emotions surged through his body. He was disappointed…dejected…and angry. There was only one thing left to do. There was only one thing he could do.

"Don't get that frustrated," Nemo told him. "You'll get it, eventually. You sure you don't need some help?"

Lash shook his head, almost laughing at the goody-goody little clownfish. He still thought he was doing homework! No, there was no way Lash could do homework now. There was no reason to do homework. Homework was what you did when you had nothing left to do, and Lash had plenty left to do. He picked up Nemo's seaweed stick again and began to write in silence. Maybe if he was quiet enough and fooled Nemo into thinking that he was just concentrating very hard on his homework…

Nemo himself was concentrating very hard on his homework. He wanted to have everything perfect, so that on Wednesday, he could be one of the few students with everything right and impress the others. He flexed his left fin around the seaweed stick and carefully wrote out in dripping letters, each of the colors of the rainbow- red, that was an easy one, orange…it took a while for Nemo to remember all the letters in "orange", especially since it had a silent E. Yellow…that one was difficult too. Often times, he missed the double L in the center, but after a few tries, he thought he had spelled it right. Green…and then Blue. Nemo always had trouble spelling blue. Was it UE or EU? He stared down at his paper.

"Hey, Lash, do you think blue is spelled B-L-U-E or B-L-E-U?" There was no answer from the Moorish idol, as usual, so Nemi just moved on to the next word- purple, but that wasn't any easier. At last, Nemo decided to put his homework aside for the moment. Maybe he would be able to think better after a little break.

"Lash?" he called. "Can I have that seaweed stick back now?" There was no response. "Lash?" Nemo glanced around the area, frantically searching for something that resembled a young Moorish idol. "Lash, where are you?" He put his fins up on his sides, growing frustrated. "Stop hiding on me! That's not nice! I need that seaweed stick back!" Still, Nemo could hear nothing but the fluctuating water and his father still chatting with Hutch.

"Oh, all right, all right," Nemo finally decided. "Whiplash, get back out here!" He expected to see Lash any moment, zooming out of a patch of coral, holding his seaweed stick and laughing at him, but no such rude actions came.

Finally, Nemo noticed his seaweed stick, almost out of ink, sitting on one of the blue coral pieces Lash had been floating next to minutes before. Next to the stick, Nemo saw the piece of paper Lash had been writing on, but it didn't look at all like homework. It was some kind of note, but Nemo couldn't make out what it said, as much as he squinted at it, and tried to pronounce the words.

"I'm back," Marlin announced, gliding into their section outside of the anemone. "Sorry, I took so long. I just had to talk to Hutch. He had some good ideas at the last meeting I went to…" The clownfish parent glanced around the clearing. "Hey, where's Lash?"

"I don't know," Nemo bluntly answered, still looking at the note, trying to decipher what looked like letter code.

Marlin instantly sprang into panic mode. "What do you mean you don't know?! He was just here a minute ago! Wasn't he back here with you?!"

"Yeah," Nemo answered. "I was doing my homework. I asked him several times if he needed help, but he didn't answer. When I looked back up again, he was gone. He wrote this note."

Marlin ripped the note from Nemo's grasp. "I run a way. I no cum bac. U no ned me no mor." Marlin stared at the paper in disbelief. "I run away? I no come back? You no need me no more??? He…he ran away?! He ran away!!!" He threw the paper to the sea bottom and grabbed his son's full fin. "C'mon, Nemo, we've got to find him before Gill and Goldie get back! Do you know where he might have gone?"

Nemo shrugged his little shoulders. "No. I don't know Lash that well. I have no idea where he could be."

Marlin took a deep breath and tried to relax. "Okay. We'll search the surrounding area and see if we can find him. He couldn't have gone that far…" The two clownfish swam around the area together searching every nook and cranny, bump, ridge, platform, and hole in the reef, periodically calling his name. Fish that swam by were sure to hear either Nemo's little voice, or Marlin's worried tone calling, "Lash! Lash, where are you? Come out, Lash! Are you down there, Lash?"

"Ollie ollie oxen free!" Nemo called. "Hey, what does that mean, anyway? Dad, what does…?"

"Not now, Nemo," Marlin brushed away the question partly because he was so frantic and afraid and partly because he didn't know. "I have to find Lash! I was supposed to be watching him…I shouldn't have let him out of my sight…" he put his head in his fins and sighed. "This is all my fault." He sucked in a deep gulp of water. "LASH! IF YOU CAN HEAR ME, GET BACK HERE RIGHT NOW OR YOU'LL BE IN BIG TROUBLE WHEN YOUR UNCLE GETS BACK!!!"

There was no response. No annoying little voice yelled back at him, no striped body came barreling up to them; dead water answered Marlin desperate call.

At last, the two clownfish began to swim back towards their anemone. "Well, when night falls, he'll probably come right back here, looking for some food or somewhere to sleep," Marlin said, partly to himself. "…At least I hope."

---

Meanwhile, in another part of Eco Valley, Gill and Goldie were resting on clamshells in front of a huge, flat rock stage. The moonlight filled the stage with light, the perfect spotlight for the play that had just begun.

Goldie snuggled up beside Gill as she watched the actor fish flitting around above the rock stage. The Full Moon Theater was a very romantic place, and the play was an enjoyable one. Goldie was enjoying the play, and she thought this was a wonderful place, but…her mind just wasn't on it. She kept worrying about what was happening at the anemone. It seemed a little selfish of her to just dump Lash off somewhere while she went out with her boyfriend, especially when he wasn't feeling right. She was even more worried, remembering her son's condition. His low spirits had even been her fault! Slowly, Goldie sighed and lifted her head from Gill's side.

He glanced over at her. "Goldie? Is something the matter, honey?" It was the first time he'd used that word, and it was the same word he couldn't have imagined someone saying to him.

"Well…it's just that I'm worried about them."

Gill didn't need any specifications; he already knew who "them" was. He nodded. "I was a bit worried myself, but I didn't want to say anything to disturb our evening…"

They both glanced back at the stage where two swordfish were pretending to have a swordfight. One "stabbed" the other and he fell over, playing dead. They looked back at each other.

Goldie shook her head. "I have a really bad feeling."

Gill frowned. "Me too."

Goldie began to swim away. "This is useless. It's no use watching a play if you can't enjoy it. C'mon, let's go back to the anemone. I need to check on them." The two of them silently left the theater and navigated their way through the reef in the darkness of night.

---

Marlin had given up. It was nearly 10:00 and Lash still hadn't come crying home, begging for food and shelter. Dory hadn't come back either, and that was something more to worry about. Maybe Dory had found Lash and the two of them were hopelessly lost trying to find their way back to the anemone.

Marlin had even zoomed along the reef, calling to Eco Valley's residents, "Has anyone seen a little Moorish idol with a confused regal blue tang?" No one had.

Marlin just lied on the soft interior of the anemone, regretting what he had done, saying over and over again that he should have been watching Lash and that he shouldn't have let him have the chance to run away. Nemo kept assuring his father that it wasn't his fault and that he should have been glancing up every now and then to make sure Lash was still there.

"It's nobody's fault," Marlin decided. "The kid was depressed and desperate for attention. Unfortunately, he resorted to drastic measures…at least he didn't try to kill himself…although he may be dead right now for all I know!" Marlin shamefully buried his head in the anemone's tendrils.

Soon Goldie and Gill had reached the patch of coral where Nemo and Marlin's anemone sat. "Hello?" Goldie called into the waving forest. "Lash?! Lash?! Whiplash? Are you here?"

Marlin and Nemo popped out of the anemone. "Gill! Goldie!" Marlin cried. "You're back already?!"

"We were too worried," Gill explained. "It's no good trying to watch a play when you keep worrying about the child that's staying at someone else's house."

"So where's Lash?" Goldie asked.

Marlin stared at the ocean bottom. "Well…he…he sort of ran away."

Goldie's face fell. "What do you mean by "sort of ran away"? Where is my son?!"

"We don't know where he is," Nemo said. "We've been looking for him all day."

"He left us this note," Marlin said, pulling out the piece of Nemo's paper.

Goldie grabbed the paper and read what her son had scrawled in almost illegible handwriting. "I run away. I no come back. You no need me no more. …I'm running away. I'm not coming back. You don't need me anymore." Goldie dropped the piece of paper. "Oh, no! This is all my fault…"

"Your fault?" Marlin spoke up. "How is it your fault? I'm the one that let him get away, I should take full responsibility…"

"No, no…" Goldie replied, her voice beginning to crack. "I should have been paying more attention to him. I shouldn't have forgotten about him like I did…" Suddenly, she began crying, and Gill put a fin around her. "It's my fault. My son ran off on me. He probably thinks I don't care about him anymore… Oh, Lash. He was my only child, and now he's gone too…"

Marlin suddenly felt incredibly guilty.

Gill stared down at the bright merging colors of the reef, thinking about the past few events. He was the reason Lash had run away, barging in on this family and trying to force his way in. It was partly his fault. At last, he pulled away, giving them a determined look. "No. I'll go find him."

Goldie reached out to him. "Gill? No, you stay here. He's not your child; he's my responsibility." She began to swim off towards him, but he pushed her back.

"No, Goldie, I don't want you in danger. I'll find Lash. I promise; I won't come back until I find him!"

"Gill!" Goldie cried, but it was too late. The determined Moorish idol was already a black-and-white speck against the many swirling pastel colors of the reef. "Oh, no…" Goldie stared down into the reef community, now stony silent and dark. "Now both of them are gone…"

"It's okay," Marlin tried to comfort the worried mother. "I bet Gill will be back tomorrow with Lash. You watch."

Goldie didn't look too confident. She bent her fins in, thinking about all the bad things that could happen to the two of them.

"Tell you what," Marlin said. "We'll stay with you until they come back. They'll be back soon, I know they will." However, Marlin had no idea what he was getting himself into.