A/N Sorry I be gone so much, yar. I was working on a different story with a friend of mine. Read it when you're in the mood and it's posted. At the moment, I'm still writing it. Yar. Yar is my word. It means nothing. Yar . Oh, and sorry if some of my past chapters were confusing due to random skipping around, I hear it's a lot more sensible now, though. See I use asterisks to separate my sections and also to talk about my moving, but it's not showing them when I post, SO I'm going to experiment with the little wavy things and see if they work. Oh, and it might get kind of confusing again, because Pearl a.k.a. Nana's Dreamers are going to be a significant part. Remember what a Dreamer is? Good. If not, they're like a...it's too confusing. They are normal everyday people, and Dream Sprites are the part that is really important. They take care of your dreams and feed off of them. Makes no sense? Timmy doesn't think so either.
elsewhere
An older Italian stood in the middle of a darkened room. He wasn't sure what he was doing there, and found it rather frustrating, especially since he was supposed to be out helping his stranded friend. For lack of anything else to do, he pulled out a cigar and began to pull on it. With nothing else to distract his mind, he began to brood.
still elsewhere
A young man in his early forties looked around at the dark room. There was nothing there for him to really focus on, so he gave up. Sighing he rocked back on his heels, placing his hands in his pockets and blowing a breath up to his one white lock, which was sweeping across his forehead.
and STILL elsewhere
A pretty little brunette sat on the floor with her knees pulled to her and moped. She always moped. Her second husband had left her for moping. All her friends had left because of her moping as well. The only person who had never been irritated by her moping was her first husband, but that was because she never moped with him. She moped now because of him. Because he left, and because she thought he was dead, and because she had remarried, and because he had come back. For all these things she moped. So she did just that; she moped.
where everything is elsewhere from
Timmy swung his legs off of the couch. Cosmo and Wanda had been talking a long time with the thing that looked like Trixie. They kept calling her Pearl, reminding him that it wasn't his school mate goddess, but some quack that looked just like her because he wanted her to, or something. He still didn't really get it, but he had given up trying when Pearl had decided to demonstrate.
She had instructed the three of them to stand in opposite corners of the yard and she would go to each one of them. As they moved away from her she had disappeared to Timmy. Cosmo and Wanda had assured him that she was still there, but he couldn't see her true form because he was mortal. That had really freaked him out. It took them forever to get him to stop asking questions before Pearl could demonstrate. The closer she had gotten to Timmy, the more he could see her, until all of a sudden she was Trixie. Then she had moved away, fading into nothing, and appeared as Cosmo next to Wanda. Again moving away from her mental target, she headed to the real Cosmo. Timmy had expected her to stay invisible, but had been surprised to see instead, the very image of Wanda. Wanda had seemed to melt at this, and when they were all together again, she explained why.
This was a sort of game in heaven, or wherever they came from. ((A/N ha ha!!! Now do you recognize the Pearly Gates from chappie one!?)) All participants would stand far enough apart that the thoughts couldn't be jumbled, and a Dream Sprite would pass to each one, revealing who or what they were thinking about. Ever since the first time Cosmo and Wanda had played together, Cosmo's thoughts had been about Wanda; that's actually how she found out about his feelings for her. They had very animatedly told him all about growing up together until he was sick of it all.
Now Cosmo and Wanda were starting to wind down and Pearl was starting to dwell on other things. Cosmo and Wanda came up on either side of their godchild and smiled at their friend.
"Thank you for agreeing to help," Wanda said with gratitude.
"Oh," Pearl laughed, "It was nothing. I'm sure A...everyone is okay," she covered up her mistake quickly. Timmy huffed exasperatedly.
"I wish you would just tell us," he moaned. Cosmo and Wanda looked at each other, as if debating whether to grant the wish or not. Pearl just glared at them.
"We can't, Timmy," Wanda apologized. "It just isn't right."
"Why not?" he demanded.
"Because it's an invasion of privacy," Cosmo explained. "Besides, it's not allowed."
"That's right," Pearl chirped. "And now, I will be going. My Dreamers need me, and you're all on the right track to fixing your little problem."
"What?" Cosmo panicked. "But we still need you."
Pearl, who had been dematerializing into a wisp of vapor, stopped and stared at him incredulously. She quickly slipped back into the body of Trixie and glared at them, hands on hips.
"I can't believe you people!" She exclaimed. "I have three Dreamers I need to take care of, two of them being extremely volatile, and you want me to sit around and take on a fourth; one that's not even in my other three's time line, no less!" The three on the couch stared at her in shock for a moment. Finally Timmy broke the silence.
"Jeeze," he grumbled. "Why is she acting so huffy?" Cosmo and Wanda shot worried glances at each other. They had both noticed a sickly hue starting to creep over Pearl's body, and as the tint of it got deeper, her temper began to fowl. Both agreeing it was time to let her take care of her own business, they consulted with Timmy.
"Honey," Wanda suggested, "Maybe we should let her go. We can try to look on our own, after all."
"Yeah," Cosmo agreed, "and if it doesn't work, we can always call her back." The three looked over at Pearl for verification, but she was gone. Timmy sighed.
"Well," Timmy admitted, "I guess we have no choice."
Pearl materialized in a dark room as a cloud of smoke. She felt sick. She had begun to notice the sickly tint to her skin after breakfast with Cosmo and Wanda, and it had only escalated from there. As she looked around she could feel all three entities in the room, but they couldn't feel her or each other. She sighed sadly as she looked in on each of her Dreamers. She wished she could tell them, let them see, but it wasn't possible; the Regulations would never allow it. Two of the three seemed little more than bored, though one was brooding nastily, so she left them to their own devices for a while longer as she headed for the third. Entering the dream room of her only true Dreamer, she smiled.
"Beth," she whispered. A normally perky little brunette turned to face her, misery written all over her beautiful features. Pearl felt her heart break as the part of her attached to her sister's Dreamer saw the image. She forced that part of her down, knowing if she didn't she would begin to contract more signs of the plague. She forced the part connected to her brother's Dreamer down as well, and focused solely on her own; this woman before her. The woman seemed to brighten at the sight of her Dream and even cracked a smile.
"Pearl!" She breathed with relief. "I was afraid you'd left, too." Pearl smiled and wrapped herself around the middle aged nurse. She forced happy thoughts on the woman and felt herself begin to heal slightly.
"I would never leave you, Beth," she cooed. The words themselves seemed to take an even bigger effect on Beth as more of her pain vanished. As Pearl encircled her Dreamer she felt all the sorrows that the woman had been dwelling on engulf her, making her physical image spin wildly. She tried to concentrate on one, but it was too difficult, so she chose her own.
Beth saw the mist envelope her. She knew it was Pearl, she always did. This had been part of their ritual ever since her first husband had gone off to war. She tried to relaxed and pick a thought for Pearl to focus on, but she couldn't. She was just too depressed. She felt the overwhelming sadness start to wash over her again when Pearl suddenly picked a form, and stood before her. The form didn't help, but she loved it anyway; it was her favorite and Pearl's too, for some reason. She sighed and fell forward into Pearl's arms. Something about the form, though it hurt to remember, also helped lift her spirits, and chase away her sorrow. Even though it was just a dream, she felt so safe and secure again. She felt blissfully overjoyed. Snuggling into the forms strong chest she smiled.
"Oh Al," she sighed.
Pearl chose quickly and waited for Beth to react. As she fell forward into Pearl's outstretched arms, the Dream took its leave. It was a trick she'd learned back in the beginning; she would take the form of her sister's Dreamer, Beth's first husband, Al, and then would leave to go retrieve the man. Pearl would go to Al as Beth in whatever mood she was in and fall into his arms. Only a few times had he ever missed the opportunity to hold her, and those were times when she had neglected to calm his nightmares before they got unruly; instead opting to take care of her other two charges first. She knew better than to do that again.
When the two were in sync with each others' dreams, she would place them together. Both thought that it was Pearl before them, when in reality it was their true soul mate, but Pearl could never tell them that. It wasn't allowed. What she did wasn't technically allowed, but they loved each other so much, she couldn't help but bend the rules.
As Pearl worked the plan in her mind, she entered Al's dream room. Quickly assuming the guise of Beth, she rushed at him, like a child who didn't want to be separated from a loved one.
"Oh Al!" she sighed, flinging herself in his waiting embrace. As his arms moved to encircle her, she transported him to the real Beth, and left them on their own. Another benefit of this was it made two of her Dreamers happy, while keeping them occupied so she could spend time with the third. She zoomed down the imaginary passageways to her brother's Dreamer and quickly dropped all guises as she entered his chamber. She loved this Dreamer because there was nothing for her to be in his dreams. Sometimes she was his wife or his daughter, but he usually didn't remember them, leaving her to be herself. This was allowed in the dream realm, thankfully; if it weren't she'd be in quite a mess with this one.
"Hello Sam," she greeted as she entered the room. He turned and smiled at her.
"Hi Pearl," he replied. She smiled and called up two chairs and a table from the ground. Sam seated himself in one of them as Pearl took the other for herself. Sam called up a pot of coffee and poured himself a cup, passing the container when he was done. Pearl smiled mischievously.
"Why didn't you just do that while I was gone?" she teased. "Were you trying to make me feel sorry for you or something?" Sam looked at her over the top of his cup as he took a swig. Placing the cup back on the table he sighed.
"You know I can't do that when you're not around," he replied.
"Only because you won't let yourself," Pearl countered. "It's a dream Samuel. You can do anything you want." Sam shrugged.
"Even dreams have rules," he said.
back in Dimmsdale
"This stinks!" Timmy yelled. Cosmo and Wanda tried to calm him down, but to no avail. The eleven year old was irate, and it was all they could do to keep him from making a stupid wish.
"Timmy," Wanda said, trying to console him, "she was acting funny before she left; maybe there was something wrong with one of her dreamers." Cosmo nodded in agreement. Timmy looked at him oddly for a moment. Ever since that lady had come around, Cosmo had been acting really smart. It was kind of weird.
"What's going on?" he asked suddenly. Both of his fairies were startled by his sudden change of topic and looked at each other hesitantly for a moment.
"What do you mean?" Wanda finally stammered. Timmy glared at her.
"You know what I mean," he retorted. "Why is Cosmo being so smart now? And why are you two being so edgy? What aren't you telling me?" Wanda started to object, but Timmy would have none of it. "I WISH YOU'D TELL ME!!!" he shouted at her. He smirked as she squirmed; knowing she had to tell him now that he'd wished it.
"What we're doing isn't allowed, Timmy," Wanda answered finally. "We could get in a lot of trouble if anyone found out about this."
"Found out about what?" he asked naively.
"Bringing Pearl here," Wanda explained. "We're not supposed to interfere with each other, and this is considered one of the strongest forms of interference." Timmy stared at her with a confused look on his face. He was so wound up in what Wanda had just said that he completely forgot his first question. "Anyway," Wanda rushed on, "we can probably finish this without further help from Pearl."
"Huh?" Timmy exclaimed.
"Getting your Dream Sprite back," Wanda said. "Didn't you understand? That's why you've been having such bad dreams lately, Timmy; your Dream Sprite is missing."
"Oh," he replied weakly.
"And it's up to us to find him!" Cosmo cheered. "Or her!" He stopped for a second to think before adding, "Or maybe it."
A/N O my gosh! Sorry it took so long, but this chapter just wouldn't come out right. Hopefully the next one will be better. R&R!!!
