Everyone's Ohana

Part IV

A Lilo & Stitch Fanfic

By Brenna "Snakelady" Dawkins

Rating: PG13

Disclaimer: Lilo and Stitch and all subsequent characters are owned and copyrighted by Disney Studios. I have made no money off of this or any of my other fanfics… pity!

Summary: Lilo and Gantu must work together to escape capture, if only they can cooperate long enough without getting on each others nerves.

When Gantu woke, again, the first thing he was aware of was the warm, humid air. That wasn't the same air he recalled from the ship. In fact, it felt a lot like the air on that abominable island he'd been marooned on forever. But that couldn't be possible. He must be delirious after all the blood loss. But there was a warming breeze and the smell of ocean- and he thought he smelled her. After getting a mouthful of her from the shirt, he had her scent damn near memorized.

'Open your eyes,' he told himself. Then, 'What for? There wasn't anything to look at. Only the stark reminder that I'm really alone after all and there's no hope.'

Something smacked into his nose painfully. His nose was ultra sensitive and he reflexively opened his eyes to see what it had been.

He saw palm trees and sand and a bouncing red ball. A small familiar figure ran in front of his line of sight after the ball. He blinked in surprise. He was back on Earth. But that was impossible! He tried to stand, but the pain shot through his body spiraling out of his back and he had to work hard to suppress a shout from it. The giant eased his hulking and aching body back down only then noticing that there was a very large and hastily prepared two and a half story tall wooden shelter built over his prone body. He swung his head around, wincing at the pain that brought in his back even with that small movement and saw a very familiar house as well.

His sudden movement had caught Lilo's attention and she puttered up to look him in the eye. She smiled.

"You finally woke up! Sorry about the nose. Hey, you want something to eat? You've been out of it for several days. You should be hungry by now."

"As a matter of fact, I am hungry."

She made to dash off into the house but he called out to her.

"Wait! How… how did I get here?"

Lilo turned around. "Found my sister, found a communicator and called Jumba. Pleakly took me and Nani back home. I told Jumba and Stitch to pick you up. Stitch carried you to the ship and Jumba patched you up in our yard. Can I get you something to eat now?"

"Um, sure. Wait… what about the ship guards?" Gantu said feeling a little overwhelmed.

"Ship guard. It was just that one robot. Stitch took care of it."

"Why'd your sister get taken anyway?"

Lilo shrugged. "How should I know?"

He watched the tiny figure scurry into the house to fill his food order, not that he had actually ordered anything. He hoped there was no baloney on the menu. He tried to get a better look of his surroundings. First thing he noticed was that he was minus one shirt, but at least still had the pants. Of course, his shirt would have been a bloody tatters by now anyway.

Why? That was what he wanted to know. Why had he been saved? After all that had happened? After all he had done to that family? He wasn't up to thinking that deeply after loosing that much blood.

But he was safe, well, he supposed he was safe. He knew it was dangerous to assume such things, but he didn't feel like being overly suspicious at the moment. Before he knew it, someone was there back in front of him. It was that older Earth woman he sometimes saw with Lilo. Was this Nani?

He eyed her cautiously, not knowing what to expect.

Nani clasped one of her arms all the while looking up at the huge alien uncertainly.

"Lilo told me how you saved her life. I owe you. I owe you a lot more then I can ever repay. Thank you."

Gantu couldn't think of anything to say so he just nodded. The movement sent a shock of pain up his spine and he winced again miserably.

"Ah, you back among the living."

Gantu knew the sound of Jumba's voice. He grit his teeth in a great effort not to swear at the scientist. After all, according to Lilo, it was the scientist that had patched him up.

"Any little movement hurts." He complained to the scientist.

Jumba nodded, "Yes, well, to be expected. All muscles connect to back. Neck, arm, leg, stomach. Back hurts, all hurts."

Made sense. At least one thing did, anyway.

"Why? Why save me?" He really wanted to know. It seemed more important than anything else, which was stupid. His health should have worried him more. But those questions had been answered, at least in part. He had no answer for why.

"For that, ask little girl." Jumba told him. "She insisted. Save you. She would not let us board own ship until we save you. So we save you. And here we are."

"On the ship… she told me no one gets left behind." Gantu said thoughtfully.

Nani nodded, "Sounds like she's trying to add a new member to our family. And you are welcome, if only you stop working against us with capturing the experiments."

Gantu was silent. It would mean quitting of Dr Hamsterviel. Not a bad thing at all, if one thought on it. But then what would he do? Where would he go? He groaned as his head swam with it all. It was too confusing. He hoped he didn't have to make his mind up right away. And anyway… if he agreed… to be a part of that strange family… what of 6-2-5? Then he wondered why he worried at all about the annoying abomination.

"You don't have to worry about it right now. All you have to concentrate on is getting better." Nani said gently.

So Gantu tried not to worry about it, but that was easier said then done. He was left alone to ponder his fate. Soon Lilo came back out with a tray.

"Don't know what you like, so I got you a bunch of different stuff." Lilo set the over loaded tray in front of him on the ground.

"Um, thanks." Gantu felt at a loss for what to say or feel. So best to say and feel as little as one could.

He ate, wincing at every movement, but relished every over cooked morsel. He was starving and didn't pay much attention to what it was he was eating. Gantu wasn't used to being cared for on any level. He didn't trust it. He had to be careful lest he slide into complacency. But it was hard. He was tired and it just hurt too much to think.

Tray finished, Lilo nodded with approval. "Cleaned your plate. Nani always gets on my case when I don't."

Gantu remained silent. Maybe she'd go away and give him some peace. Funny, how things worked. One moment he craved companionship, the next, he just wanted to be left alone. And of course, if he wanted one thing, he'd get exactly the opposite.

"I know, cards!" Lilo jumped up and ran into the house.

Gantu sighed with relief but that feeling was short lived. The Earth girl came running back with what looked like a deck of playing cards. His brow furrowed. Well, at least it wasn't checkers. He wasn't good at checkers and didn't know if he could handle losing to the girl. Bad enough that he would lose to 6-2-5. But to the Earth girl? Never!

So he was stuck with playing 'Go Fish' with her. Turned out he was pretty good at it. Of course, there was no real skill to playing the game, but any victory at the moment was a much needed ego boost. The sky started to darken before Gantu realized they'd been playing for several hours. He'd actually been enjoying himself. The pain was still there, but it hadn't been all he could think of since he started playing cards. He suspected that had been the whole point of the game. Or maybe he was just giving her too much credit. After all, she was just a child.

A very devious child.

"Dinner's ready, Lilo!" Pleakly called out from the front door.

"Okay! Almost done with this hand!" She shouted back.

"Go on. Go eat." Gantu set his cards down.

Lilo hesitated then shrugged and set her own hand down. "You need anything?"

"I don't understand why you suddenly care how I feel."

"Just… changed my mind about you is all."

Gantu was silent. Lilo went into the house to eat. He was left alone to digest that morsel.

The next day, with a little grumbling on Gantu's part, Jumba was up on the giant's back removing the old and bloody bandages and reapplying the new. It was quite an undertaking and required everyone in the house to help out.

"Finally came up with pain killer that work with your physiology. Might make groggy factor, but hey, can't all win." Jumba informed his impatient patient.

"Fine." Gantu had trouble sleeping last night from the pain. He was willing now to try anything to dull the agony. He had no choice but to trust them. It twisted something raw in his gut to do so, but it was trust or pain. He chose trust.

Jumba pulled out the space aged hypodermic which looked more like a plasma gun then anything else. Gantu felt the drug enter into his system and his body seemed to react instantly. He felt a momentary sense of panic, wondering if it had been some sort of trick, but then the drug fogged up his thinking and the pain and his mind were equally dulled.

"He'll be out for couple hours." Jumba told them.

"He looks all… goofy." Lilo stared at the drugged up ex officer.

"Pain killers often do that." Jumba said.

Gantu had strange dreams. He dreamed he was taking orders from a squat alien rodent who did nothing but scream at him and force him to chase after tiny, vile, and dangerous vermin. That he was stranded on some backwater planet and living with one of those vermin. It was almost rather funny. After all, he was Captain of the Galactic Alliance. He was respected. Even admired in some venues.

Or so he thought.

Reality came rushing back into his head uninvited. It sent him reeling mentally. It hadn't been a dream. All of it, every bit of it was true. How the mighty have fallen, he thought bitterly.

"Aw, look who's woken from his nap. You look so cute all drugged up like that." A familiar yellow furred face swam all unwelcome into view through his messed up vision.

Gantu sighed. "What are YOU doing here?"

"Hey, you know me and how I hate to miss a party." 6-2-5 said too glibly. "So, word on the grapevine is you're quitting Dr. Hamsterviel? Man oh man, would I PAY to see THAT call!"

"I've not decided anything!" Gantu said with his usual fierceness, angry at his business being everyone's business.

"Hey, relax, Big Guy. Don't get your undies all knotted in a bunch. Anyways, can't be too difficult to find a job on an island, right?"

Gantu snorted. A job? Here, on this planet? It would mean he'd admit to defeat. That he'd have no choice but to settle down on a planet he hated. He didn't want to think about it, about any of it. All it did was churn his stomach. All it did was remind him that he was a failure. That he couldn't even be successful at taking orders from a foul tempered rodent. His vision and his mind fuzzed up again making him feel woozy. After affects of the drug, he supposed. He clenched his eyes shut, waiting for the feeling to pass.

"Leave him alone, 6-2-5."

"Sheesh, fine. Got the baloney I ordered?" He heard the rodent ask.

"In the house. Go."

Gantu waited a few moments longer. The feeling finally subsided. When he opened his eyes again, 6-2-5 was no where to be seen. For that he was thankful. She was there. The older Earth girl. She'd ordered 6-2-5 to stop messing with him.

"Hey, you thirsty?" Nani asked him.

"Please no more wet shirts."

"Pardon?" Nani quirked an eyebrow and smirked.

Gantu didn't get the implication.

"We got an old iron tub out in the back when we replaced it with our new one. I can fill that with water and you can drink out of it. Um, kind of like a trough." She said the last sounding embarrassed.

Gantu sighed. Well, what was one more bruise to his already damaged ego? With Jumba's and Pleakly's assistance, they maneuvered the empty tub within Gantu's reach. Then Lilo took the hose and filled the thing with water. Well, Gantu thought, better then sucking on a shirt.

"Wanna continue our card game?" Lilo asked.

And so that's how Gantu spent his days as he waited for his back to heal. Admittedly, with the exception of the pain and daily bandage changes, it felt like a vacation. He was actually settling into a routine. It worried him the first time he noticed it, but then after waiting and waiting for something bad to happen to him, he had to finally just let it go. He needed to save his energy for healing, not worrying about something he might not be able to do anything about anyway.

Nani and Lilo kept 6-2-5 mercilessly away. He wondered what the little trog was doing there in the first place and asked Nani since she was the next person he saw when that question was on his mind.

"Lilo's idea. You know how she is. She went to pick 6-2-5 up when it was clear you'd be here for a while."

"Why'd she do a fool thing like that?" Gantu grumbled.

"Ask Lilo. I'm late to work. I'll be back after dark." She waved to him then got into her car and drove away.

He was used to being alone. He sometimes wondered if he was just meant to be alone for the rest of his life. Maybe he should just resign himself to that distressing fact. It might just end up making things easier. Why did he always end up expecting to get something out of life? Expectations only led to disappointments.

So he lay there, healing, thinking. A body could go crazy if you're left alone with your own thoughts for too long. He often wondered about his own sanity at times. Especially now that he was actually contemplating staying there.

Lilo was off at school, Jumba was doing his scientist thing, Pleakly was playing little Miss Homemaker, and who cared where the trog 6-2-6 was at the moment. And what of him? If he joined them, what would his place be? He'd be just another freak. But that house, it was the perfect place for freaks if nothing else. He should actually just fit right in.

Fine. He made up his mind. He'd call Hamsterviel that very day with the news. A black part of him secretly relished the outrage that would cause the delirious rodent. Then what would he do? He sighed.

Finally Lilo came up the drive on her way home from school.

"Hey, Gantu."

"Lilo." The huge alien said in greeting. "Your sister is at work."

Lilo nodded suspecting as much. "I got so much homework to do." She sighed like the weight of the world was on her shoulders. Gantu would have willingly traded problems with her. "Anything you need before I hit the books?"

"A communicator."

"What for?"

"To tell that miniscule rodent that I quit."

Lilo looked pleased. "You're staying with us?"

"I guess."

"Gee, you could be a little bit more excited."

Gantu stared down at her, "What am I supposed to do when I quit? Mow your lawn once a week?"

"Jumba has a robot that does that." Lilo shook her head. "Well… you could always help us out catching the experiments. I mean, work with us, not against us."

Gantu's expression might have been alien, but Lilo knew it for what it was.

"Really, Gantu. Maybe the reason why you haven't succeeded is because you work for the bad guys, not the good guys."

"But I AM the good guy." Gantu frowned.

"Good guys don't try to hurt the other good guys."

Gantu slightly turned his head away. "I used to be the good guy."

"You're just hanging with the wrong crowd is all. Stay with us, it'll all work out." Lilo said too freely.

How could he trust it? How could he trust anything anymore? Not when nothing was making sense anymore, not his thoughts, not the way things were taking shape.

"I'll go get the communicator. Be right back!" She ran into the house.

His mind was spinning. Things were going too fast when a moment ago they crawled. Seemed to happen a lot when the Earth child was there. She was back too fast. The communicator was shoved into his view. He stared at it a moment as if he didn't know what it was.

"Quite stalling and tell him!" Lilo demanded.

He was embarrassed. That was exactly what he was doing. He didn't want to make the call. The call that would change his life. Again.

"WHAT?" The familiar bucktoothed visage of the foul tempered rodent filled the small view screen after he'd called the number by heart. "You! What do YOU want, you insignificant underling? I spit in your general direction! You disgust me!"

Gantu felt his ire rise. He grit his teeth and balled his fists, almost trembling at the effort to keep from screaming back at the rodent.

Lilo saw the effort and patted his arm in camaraderie.

"Just calling to tell you that I am no longer available to be berated by you."

"What are you saying, you irrefutable baffoon?"

"I quit."

"You can't DO that!" The rodent screamed. "You can't quit until I fire you! And YOU'RE FIRED!"

"I quit before you fired me, you moron!" Gantu screamed back.

"Well, don't expect any references from me, you fat ignoramus!"

"He's not fat, just big boned!" Lilo shouted into the communicator.

"Don't interrupt, you insignificant Earth creature! If I found you on the bottom of my shoe I wouldn't even bother scraping you off!" Hamsterviel shrieked.

"Yeah? Well, you know what I say to that?" Lilo shouted back.

"What!"

Lilo punched the off button. "That's that." She smiled in satisfaction.

Gantu exhaled. He felt almost dazed. Just like that, his life was changed. It was scary. Now what?

"Welcome home!" Lilo said brightly, grinning at him broadly. Then she went off into the house to let him digest his new situation.

Gantu had to admit he was feeling somewhat better. He could move a little more then he had been able to the past few days. That treatment Jumba was giving him seemed to finally be taking affect. So that, coupled with quitting, it'd been a long time since he didn't feel like utter crap in one way or another. He stared up at the house, into the windows, viewed the bustling activity going on inside and was glad. It could be much worse. Much, much worse! In fact, he knew he'd have a hard time trying to find better.

No more Hamsterviel. He was finally free.

Gantu was feeling downright chipper when Nani finally drove in from work late. Gantu knew that it was past Lilo's bedtime, so there wouldn't be much of a commotion when she returned like there usually was. Jumba and Pleakly were still up, he could tell by just watching through the windows.

Gantu had to wonder what it felt like to be missed.

"Hello, Nani." Gantu said mildly in greeting.

She'd been moving slowly and even in the dark he could see she was preoccupied with something. He had pretty descent night vision. He caught her swiping her eyes with her hands, like she was wiping away tears.

"Oh, hello, Gantu." Her voice was strained and he had a feeling she was trying to hold back from weeping.

"You want to talk about it?"

"Talk about what?" She sniffled.

"Whatever's bothering you."

"You? Want to talk with me?" She sounded incredulous.

He didn't blame her. He was amazed he laid the offer out on the table himself.

But instead of whirling off into the house, Nani found herself sitting at his elbow, not saying a word, just staring off into the patch of palms beyond. Wondering why, of all people's shoulders she should cry on, it'd be Gantu's? But Gantu had… changed. She sensed it as she watched the huge alien interact with Lilo during his rehabilitation from within the house. It'd often brought a smile to her lips to watch. Lilo, so eager to make friends, was able to forgive and forget. If Lilo could do it, then so could she.

To be continued…