A Little "Family" Fun, Chapter 3
Remember "quotes" are spoken, 'quotes' are thoughts.
Thanks to M for some good advice.
Disclaimer: I do not own the original characters or places.
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'Ok, if you put one more baby chick or fuzzy duckling in my hand, so help me…' "Ahhhchoooo" Bosco sneezed violently. 'Great…just great.'
"Bless you." Sully grumbled.
"Oh, Maurice baby, I forgot that you were allergic to the chicks." Rose apologized and placed the chick back in its cage.
"Ahhhchooo"
"Maybe we should move on, John." Rose suggested.
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"Look at the goats, Maurice. Aren't they cute?" Rose asked.
'Adorable…adorable…garbage eating mutts.'
"Maybe we can get one closer so he can pet it, John."
"Uh…sure, Rose." Sully muttered, looking at the goats before him and wondering how exactly he was going to accomplish this task. "Shooooo shoooo.." Sully waved his arms trying to get one of the smaller of the goats to move towards Bosco.
'Now who's the moron?' Bosco commented silently, a grin on his face.
When the goat headed in the opposite direction from Bosco, Sully moved after him, nudging him gently with his hands to try to turn him. "Not that way, this way. Come on now you stubborn…OUCH! HOLY CRAP!" Sully shouted as he jolted upright clutching the back of his pants. "WHAT….HEY! STOP THAT! OWW! CRAP!"
"JOHN?" Rose stood in shock watching the scene before her.
Bosco was nearly hysterical with laughing hiccups as he watched Sully fight off the killer goat that was trying to eat the backside of his pants. 'Goats like smoothies, who woulda thought?'
Sully finally managed to get the first goat detached, only to have several others join in on the fun by licking or nibbling at his backside. "GET BACK! GET BACK! OWW, YOU LITTLE…"
"Shooo…Shooo….bad goats!" Rose swatted at the goats with her purse trying to help Sully out.
"STOP! STOPPPP!" Sully continued to shout, hitting at the goats with his zoo map, only to have one of them grab the other end of the paper in its mouth and start to tug at it.
By this time, Bosco was laughing so hard that his face turned red and he somehow managed to get strangled on his own saliva. He coughed violently between chuckles that still sounded much like hiccups.
"Maurice?" Rose called out, turning from her attempts to rescue Sully from the attacking goats and rushing to Bosco's side. "Are you ok, Maurice?" She asked in concern, lifting his left arm and patting him on the back.
When Bosco finally managed to regain some composure, he looked up, his eyes briefly meeting Sully's as the other man continued to fight off the goats. Grinning, he could not resist the urge and gave Sully a one finger salute.
Sully's mouth dropped open in shock. 'WHAA……DID…Did he just…..He shot me the bird! Son of a ….' Sully was momentarily elated. He had been hoping for months to see some sign that the old Bosco was still in there and that was definitely a sign. "Rose! He…" Sully called out to her to tell her the great news, but his sentence was cut short as one of the goats bit him on the butt, hard. "AHHHH…"
Sully turned, swinging his arms wildly at the goat, then looked back towards Bosco to see him… 'laughing….why you little….' Finally recognizing Bosco's "hiccups" for what they actually were, Sully's face grew hard as he remembered the smoothie incident and his little tumble into the turtle habitat, realizing now that Bosco was to blame for both.
His own face reddening, Sully charged forward, circling around a startled Bosco to grab the handles of the wheelchair. "COME ON, ROSE!" He shouted, pushing Bosco through the goat pen and into a long barn that had stalls filled with animals along both sides. Once they were clear of the goats, Sully stopped, moving around to face Bosco, his face now beet red
"John, what's wrong?" Rose questioned, obviously alarmed.
"WHAT'S?…..WHAT'S?…..He….." Sully stammered, then took a deep breath, seeing the confused look on Rose's face as she stood with one hand on Bosco's shoulder, looking back and forth between the two of them. How was he going to explain this to Rose? Bosco would play dumb for sure and Rose would think he was crazy. In fact, Bosco was drooling on himself again at this very moment. 'Crap' She would never believe that he had done those things on purpose. Sully stood a moment baffled about how to handle this, but then a little light bulb clicked on. 'Ok, Bosco. If you want to play this little game, that's ok. Two can play. Game on!'
Bosco tried to maintain a straight face, believing that he had won this battle and wanting so badly to smirk. But his face turned serious as he saw a mischievious grin tugging at the corners of Sully's mouth and an almost evil glint in his eye. 'Uh oh…'
"John?" Rose questioned. "Are you ok?"
"Um…Oh, yeah, Rose. Boy, those goats are vicious aren't they." Sully answered with a broad smile. 'Only not as vicious as I'm going to be.' He thought as he smiled back down at Bosco.
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Bosco sat nervously as Sully pushed his wheelchair, wondering what Sully was going to do. Sully had become entirely too calm and too happy.
Bosco looked up at the sign on the stall in front of him as Sully stopped the wheelchair. 'Stinky…hmph.' He jumped slightly as Sully leaned over his shoulder, reaching for one of the wires on the wheelchair's power hand control.
"Look at the pretty piggy, Maurice. Why don't you stay here and visit while Rosie and I take a look around?" Sully whispered in Bosco's ear as he yanked the wire loose.
Bosco scowled, although Sully didn't see it.
"Hey, Rosie, look." Sully put his arm around Rose, ushering her away from Bosco and towards a stall holding a cow and calf.
"Oh, isn't it cute, John." Rose commented.
'Oh, isn't it cute, John.' Bosco mocked. 'Somehow I'm thinking you're going to be better company anyway, Stinky.' He spoke silently, watching the huge pig in the stall in front of him. 'You don't actually smell that bad anyway…' he thought, then frowned as he heard a very distinctive sound coming from the stall. Wrinkling his nose up, as the pungent odor hit him, he nearly gagged. 'Ok, maybe I was wrong…Wow! What did you eat? I'm gonna be sick. Sul…Ok, Sul, game's over…..Uggghhhhh…'
Bosco reached for the hand control, frantically trying to get it to work even though he knew it would not. He leaned back, as far as he could from the stall as Stinky let another one rip. "Ugghhhhh….Suuuuuu…...Mmmmammaaa…… Jaaaa….gggffff." He tried to call out to Sully and his Ma, but couldn't get their attention. "JAGGHHHH!" Furious now at the predicament Sully had left him in, he banged his right hand hard on the armrest of the wheelchair.
"Maurice? What? Oh….John…do you smell that? Mercy…" Rose muttered, fanning her nose, as she and Sully approached Bosco. "Have you had an accident, Maurice?" She asked, looking down at Bosco seriously.
'MAAA' Bosco gave her an incredulous look.
"Let me see." Rose muttered, moving behind Bosco and pulling on the waistband of his jogging pants and the adult diaper she'd put on him to peer down them.
'MAAAAAA…STOP!'
"It's so dark in this place." Rose, being the determined mother that she was, ran her hand tentatively down into the diaper to make sure that he'd not had an accident.
"MMMAAAMMMAAAGGGHHH!" Bosco stiffened as his mother's ice cold hand touched his backside. 'WE'RE IN PUBLIC HERE! ARE YOU CRAZY!' He squeezed his eyes closed, wishing he would just disappear even though there was no one else in the immediate vicinity.
"Sorry, Baby. My hands are a little cold, huh?" Rose asked.
Sully was on the verge of loosing all control, reduced to holding himself upright by grabbing onto Stinky's stall, as he watched Rose. Finally, the look on Bosco's face became too much and even Sully began to feel sorry for him.
"Rose, I don't think it's him. I think that Stinky must have been named appropriately." Sully chuckled, pointing to the pig.
Bosco's eyes popped open, shooting daggers at Sully. 'Now you say something? You're a dead man, Sullivan.'
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"Look, Bosco. A long lost cousin." Sully commented quietly, pushing Bosco's wheelchair up beside the metal gate of the donkey's pen.
'Funny, Sullivan. That's real funny.'
"Ezmeralda? What a funny name for a donkey." Rose laughed quietly.
"Oh look, Rose." Sully motioned for her to follow him over to another stall where he'd spotted a newborn colt.
'That's great…nevermind me…I'll just visit with Ezmeralda here. You two have fun….' Bosco rolled his eyes. 'So, what's up?' He looked up at the Ezmeralda to see her craning her neck over the gate to sniff at him.
'Ok, that's close enough.' Bosco thought, but apparently Ezmeralda didn't agree. She inched forward until her wet nose touched his cheek gently. Bosco jerked his head to the side. 'Hey…whoa…that's close enough…get back now.'
But Ezmeralda would not be deterred. She brayed at him and rolled her lips up showing her teeth. Then, much to Bosco's surprise and dismay, she licked his cheek. 'Ahhh….ok, that's gross…stop that…uh uh…..get away.' Bosco leaned further away, but Ezmeralda was persistent. Moving forward, she continued licking his neck, the side of his face, even his hair. 'STOP, you stupid donkey!' Bosco raised his right hand slightly, trying to swat at the animal. Then looking across the barn he spotted Sully grinning at him while Rose was preoccupied with the baby colt.
'You think this is funny, huh? Yeah, it's really funny. I'll get you back for this, Sullivan.'
'Payback, Bosco. Oh, what fun. Yeah, this little day trip was worth it after all.' Sully laughed quietly, seeing the look on Bosco's face and knowing how furious he must be. But then it got even better as a look of horror came over Bosco's features when Ezmeralda began to nibble on his ear.
'WHOAAAA! WHOAAAA! OK STOP! STOP RIGHT THERE! STOP, YOU CRAZY BEAST!" Bosco shivered violently. 'Ok, I'm not really into this, Ezmeralda. You're not my type, ok. Hablo Ingles? No likey donkey. Not my type!' Looking back to see Sully laughing at him, Bosco again shot daggers at him with his eyes.
'Boy I wish I could read your mind right now, Bosco.' Sully's belly jiggled as he tried to suppress his laughter so Rose wouldn't notice.
'Man do I wish you could read my mind right now you fat lazy donut eating piece of …' Bosco jumped as Ezmeralda nibbled his ear lobe once more. 'You're a dead man, Sullivan! A dead man!'
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"Well, that was fun, wasn't it, Maurice?" Sully asked as he waited with Bosco in his room, while Rose went to get a wet cloth to wipe his face before putting him down for a nap. Seeing Bosco yawn, he added, "Need to get you down for your nap, so Rose and I can have a little 'quiet' time." Sully wiggled his eyebrows at Bosco, earning another glare.
Sully chuckled, then seeing the wire hanging down from the wheelchair's control box, he stepped forward. "I guess we'd better connect this back so Rose doesn't notice it, huh?"
'Yeah, you'd better.' Bosco thought, waiting anxiously as Sully reconnected the wire. Once he did, Bosco grabbed for the control, thrusting it forward, ramming the chair into Sully until he had him pinned against his dresser. "JAAAGGGHHHH" He screamed at a very surprised Sully.
"WHOA! BOSCO!" Sully reached down grabbing for Bosco's hand, trying to stop him from running the chair into him over and over.
"JAAAGGGHHHUUHHH"
"STOP! Stop, Bosco! What are you doing?" Sully shouted. He finally managed to grab the control and move the chair backward, but when he did Bosco caught Sully's arm with his right hand, twisting his sleeve and hanging on to him, their faces only few inches apart.
"JAAAGGGHHHHH….JAAAGGGHHHH"
"What are you trying to say, Maurice?" Sully asked quietly as Bosco turned red.
"JAAAGGGHHHH…"
"Come on, Bosco. COME ON! SPIT IT OUT!"
"JAAAGGGHHHH…..OGGHHHHH"
"WHAT? I don't understand! COME ON! SPIT IT OUT, SONNYBOY!"
"JAAAGGGG…OFFFHH!" Bosco spat, then suddenly grew quiet, a startled look on his face.
Sully stared back at him, shocked as well, then he began to grin.
"Jaaaggg…off." Bosco repeated, almost in a whisper, hot tears suddenly finding their way down his cheeks.
"Well it's about time. Welcome back, Bosco." Sully replied quietly, clapping Bosco on the shoulder with his free hand.
"John? Maurice?" Rose stood in the doorway, staring at the two of them, seeing Bosco's red tear stained face, his grip on Sully's arm, and Sully hovering over him. "What's going on?" She asked, somewhat alarmed.
"Maybe Maurice should tell you." Sully answered, stepping back as Bosco released him.
"Maurice?" Rose looked at Bosco confused, reflexively stepping forward as his gaze met hers.
"MMAAAAA"
Rose froze, her mouth dropping open. "Maurice, you're talking. Oh, my baby, you're talking!" Running to him, she cupped his face in her hands, kissing his forehead and his cheeks frantically. "You're talking." She laughed between kisses.
"Maaaa" He said again quietly. "Maaa….sstt…oppp."
"Don't you 'ma stop' me, Maurice Boscorelli." Rose instructed, standing back and looking at him with her first real smile in months. "It's a miracle." Turning to Sully, she added, "Oh John, it's a miracle. My baby's back."
"I know. I know, Rosie." Sully replied, pulling Rose into a hug.
Rose pulled back slightly, looking up into Sully's face. "You said from the beginning that he'd get better and you've stuck by us, John. Thank you." Rose almost whispered, leaning in and kissing Sully's cheek before wrapping her arms tightly around him.
'Hey….hey now, wait….what about me…I'm the miracle here….what….great…that's just great.'
