Author's Note: You know, there are things far more important than writing a fanfic, namely my future. That's why there's quite a gap between this chapter and the last one. But I assure you, it won't happen again. I'm kinda surprise though, there was never a Hey Arnold fanfic with an Arnold Schwarzenegger joke inside it. I probably missed it or something, or nobody actually had done it before. Whatever. This chapter in particular emphasizes family relationships. I'm not going to go further, because, just like, read it and stuff...

Legal junk: I don't own Hey Arnold, but Nickelodeon does and Mr. Craig Bartlett created it. But this fic belongs to me. Clear? Good.

Chapter 5: Morning

It was early in the morning, the sun hadn't rise yet, but Arnold woke up from his bed. This was all a daily routine for him that he had trained himself to wake up early ever since he lived here. Still sleepy, he wondered why he was in the living room as he sat on the couch, looking around. Oh yeah, he forgot that Helga was sleeping in his room. He wiped his face and rubbed his eyes, got up and walked over to the kitchen sink to wash his face to become more alert and refreshed. After stretching out his body and performed some light exercises, he then went to the computer room slash mini laboratory.

From his perspective, there was a desk to his left, with a computer, a table lamp, fax machine, assorted weird biotech devices and a telephone on top of the desk. To his right, various sorts of chemistry sets, substances and chemical materials were placed on a table. And in front of him, there was a window and a cabinet that his mother told earlier to be careful with it. The room itself was small, and the said furniture inside had just enough space to fit the room. And if Arnold wanted his guest to stay inside, he had to put the chemistry sets inside the cabinet, and the cabinet to be pushed to the left next to the computer desk, making one of its doors couldn't be opened. The chemistry desk then needed to be turned and moved and put it at the window next to the cabinet, leaving just enough space for Helga to stay.

After satisfied with his plan that he drew in his mind, he said to himself loudly as he impersonated a certain well-known Californian Governator, "IT'Z TAHM FUR AHNULD TÜ KLEEN HAUS!" he chuckled at his own humor. He then went over to the cabinet and took a pair of rubber gloves from it and wore them. Leaving the cabinet's door wide open, he then walked to the chemistry desk and carefully took one bottle at a time and cautiously put it into the cabinet. He repeated this act again and again until the desk was empty. He then threw the rubber gloves away and closed the cabinet up. He wouldn't worry about Helga sleeping in a room full of chemical substances since the cabinet was designed to be airtight and he used to sleep in this room many times. He then took a rag and wiped the desk. He put the rag away, and he went over to the cabinet and began to push it. Successful with the pushing he then resumed with the desk.

He then went to the storeroom next to the kitchen, took a broom and an inflatable mattress out with him. The inflatable mattress was currently folded and deflated. But first he had to sweep the room first. After he finished sweeping, he spread the deflated mattress out on the floor and performed an arduous process of inflating it back using the convenient manual pump given when they bought that thing. As seen on TV! The whole process took about twenty minutes or so, but in the television said it was easy and it could be done in less than five minutes. They apparently lied, Arnold thought. False advertising! After that, he took some of the couch's cushions and put it on the mattress. This should do for a while to keep his guest happy. All and all, the whole removing, cleaning and pumping took about an hour and a half, and the sun had started to rise. Not a bad job, he thought to himself.

He went out from the computer room only to see his mother brewing the morning coffee. She then took a seat on the round wooden table, waiting for the coffee to be done and stared at her son in front of her, as he looked at her back. Arnold cast a soft smile and said to her:

"I told you I'll have the room done by morning." He then took a seat in front of his mother.

"Amazing. You usually weren't this helpful before." Stella joked, "Is there something you want to prove here?"

"Mom…" he chuckled, "she's only a guest, and I'm doing the best I can to be a good host."

They then went silent, as they got nothing say. But Stella saw could see something. Something deep within Arnold by looking through his eyes, "You know, I saw the exact same thing in those eyes of yours when I met your father for the first time." She said.

He was somewhat freaked, "What? Eye gunk?" he joked. He then wiped one of his eyes with his finger to remove the morning crust, "Oh, my God! You're right mom!"

"Don't be stupid." Stella chuckled, "You know what I mean."

"Oh come on, mom. Please be realistic. She's just an old friend of mine that in someway developed antagonistic feelings towards me." He replied as he flicked the foul thing away, "How else I'd react if I saw a friend of mine who I haven't seen in years suddenly appeared from out of the blue?"

"You know, that is questionable itself. Why did she come all the way here all unexpectedly?"

"Bah, I advise you that you should not produce any supposition, mother." He said in a formal tone to humor his mother, "I'm sure she's here for a foreign exchange program and she's probably doesn't have a place to crash in for today or something."

"Denial, denial." His mother said in a singsong voice, "What else she'd be doing here?"

"You're just assuming mom." Arnold laughed, "She can't be that crazy to come all the way here. Besides, if she really has feelings for me, hypothetically speaking, she would've told me earlier." Stella couldn't believe how exceptionally dense her son was. Must got it from his father, she had thought. Arnold then got up from his seat and he said, "And if you'd excuse me, I'll be leaving this somewhat awkward conversation behind and to my—"

"Room?" she interjected as she looked at her son with a sardonic smile on her face, "Must I remind you there's a guest in your room and it would be inexcusable if you'd just barge in there and invading her privacy?"

Arnold stopped at his tracks, and grumbled as he went back to his seat as Stella continued to smile snidely at his son. "Are you going to lecture me about her again, ma'am?"

"Nope." She replied, "I want to talk about you, and your responsibilities for today. A reminder for you before you start your day today Arnold, there's a shipment full of medical supplies coming at the airport right now and I need you to take them and bring them to Red Cross Camp South—"

"You mean your camp?"

"Yes, my camp, and to Father Campbell's place. I want that medicine to arrive at the camp before ten o'clock sharp, okay? It's very, very important that I have my hands on that thing as soon as possible. I have a patient who's coming down with a case of malaria and she needs that medicine badly."

"But what about Helga? I can't just leave her here all alone."

"Well, you said you wanted to be a good host, so why don't you give her the tour of the country after you've done with your errands? You can ask Eduardo for a map and directions."

The coffee machine then made a noise and there was a light blinking from the 'Done' indicator.

"Coffee?" Stella asked, smiling.

-

Meanwhile, thousands of miles away…

After spending two nights at a motel, Bob then decided to come back home that morning, in hoping that the mess in his house with his wife and daughter would clear up by its own. He drove in front of his house, and he could see the light inside the living room was still on. It surprised him since usually the people inside his household would still be asleep at this hour. Maybe the girl forgot to switch it off, he thought bitterly. He then pulled the car into the garage and shut it off. Taking a deep breath, he then ventured in the house and into the living room, only to be greeted by the glare of his wife and the frown of his eldest daughter.

"You callous, insensitive, incompetent man!" his wife shouted angrily at him as she walked over to him. "Our daughter has run away and what did you do? Fueling yourself with booze!"

"Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey!" he sneered, "don't you ever accuse me like that, Miriam!" he pointed at her with his stiffed index finger. "Don't you forget you're the one who—"

"OH!" she exclaimed disbelievingly, "so it's my fault then? What about you, you big oaf? You're the one who put her into the cold!"

"Shut up!" he roared, "Don't you see how inexplicably rude and disobedient that girl was? If only she were at least half as good as Olga—"

"Don't you dare play favorites!" his wife retorted back, "Regardless what she behaves, Helga's still our daughter, Bob! Don't you even care about her? Don't you even give a thought in that little brain of yours that she's somewhere out there alone struggling to survive when you decided to throw her out?"

"I will not be made—"

"You see this?" she pointed to her face. Miriam was very tired, weary, her hair was scruffy, and her eyes were all bloodshot, "I've been up all night with Olga searching for her! And how come I don't see you even lift a finger?"

"Shut up…" he grumbled.

"Oh yeah… that's right. How could I forget? Because you're the one who KICKED HER OUT FROM THE HOUSE!"

"I SAID SHUT UP!" by now Bob had his hand high in the air, ready to strike her down. Miriam braced for the worst.

"Daddy, STOOOOOOOOOOOOP!" Olga shouted pleadingly, begging for her father to end it. Bob halted his hand as he looked back at his daughter with his glare and his clenched teeth. Miriam was shedding tears as she looked uneasily at her husband, with her left arm over her face as to block him to strike her. Time stopped all of the sudden in the Pataki household, as no noise was heard, everybody was holding their breath, and nothing moved. It was all static. Bob's stiffed and trembling palm slowly turned into a clenched fist, and he took it away far from Miriam. Just looking at Olga made his heart gone soft, as he wouldn't want to upset his daughter. Olga was looking at his father uneasily, as she did not know what his next move would be next.

Yet, her heart was burning in anger and dismay of her so called father trying to do to her mother. Maybe this was the Bob Pataki that Helga told her about. Selfish, callous and cruel. Bob could see Olga's disappointment by looking at her eyes. Those piercing brown eyes. She was crying, all because of him. Bob scoffed softly, left the living room and went upstairs. Olga quickly went over to her mother and tried to comfort her.

"I'll be okay. I'll be okay." Miriam said as she lifted her glasses and wiped her tears away. Holding her mother's hand with one of her hand and the other she put on her shoulder, Olga brought Miriam to the nearest couch and sat on it. Olga quickly grabbed a box of tissue and she tried to wipe her mother's tears away as she gazed at her in worrisome sadness.

"I… I can't do this Olga." Miriam spoke weakly, "Not with that husband of mine here…" the word 'husband' was spoken venomously.

"Mommy… I know these are hard times… I…" Olga tried to be optimistic, "I… I'll try help as much as I can… help you, daddy and find Helga…"

Her mother sobbed, "Thanks honey… I'm sorry if I—"

Suddenly they both heard footsteps coming to them. They looked at the entrance of the living room, and saw a shadow. Miriam and Olga held their hands together, clinging tightly. Olga edged closer to her mother, comforting her as they embraced together, giving each other strength. There was Bob, but the look of his face changed. He had a melancholy, yet sort of guilt look on him. To the shock of them both, his eyes were all misty, as if he wanted to cry. He came forward slowly to them, as Miriam and Olga stared at him in disbelief, yet they were cautious about him. Bob stood in front of them, looking at his wife and daughter with his remorseful eyes. He suddenly kneeled down, and grabbed both of his wife's hands.

"I'm so sorry… Miriam…" he pleaded for forgiveness, "I'm so… sorry…" a trail of tear ran down from his eye as he look deeply into Miriam. Miriam never saw Bob behaving like this before. It also baffled Olga too as she looked at his father, acting all weirdly like that. Still having no response from Miriam, Bob drowned his face onto his wife's lap, sobbing. Touched by the display of emotion, Miriam slowly took her trembling hand away from Olga and slowly put it on the back of Bob's head, caressing it. She then brought her hand to his chin, and gently lifted his head and brought their eyes to face one another. Then there was silence as they looked at each other with forgiveness, regretful and love.

They kiss.

They hug one another, embracing each other tightly.

"I'm sorry Miriam… I didn't know what came over me… I was—" he said sobbing, holding her wife tightly.

"Didn't I tell you to go to those anger management classes, you idiot?" a moment of humor from Miriam, and they laughed softly.

Olga wiped the tears of delight and happiness away from her eyes as she looked at her parents with a smile on her face. Not interrupting the mood, she slowly got up and left the living room.

"Hey, hey, hey. And just where do you think you're going, missy?" Bob said, "We still have Helga to find."

-

San Lorenzo…

"Has she waked up yet?" Miles said as he read the La Isla, the only newspaper in circulation in the country. Arnold's family was in the kitchen sitting at the breakfast table, eating breakfast that Stella had prepared from them, with a little help from Arnold of course. Stella's cooking could be described as abysmal to put it mildly, so that was why Arnold helped her a lot by putting some other ingredients in the cooking without her knowing to make them better. It was all encouraged by his father.

"Dad, she'll be here when she wakes up." Arnold said to his father.

"She better be." He grumbled.

Noticing the unpleasant tone from his father, Arnold quickly replied, "Dad, Helga is not Bob Pataki. I know you and Bob had some differences in the past but please don't take it out on her."

"I'm not saying that, Arnold. It's just…" Miles didn't know how to put the correct words, "Bob…" he said irately through his clenched teeth.

"Dad, please…"

Miles rolled his eyes, and continued reading the newspaper. Among the headlines in the paper were 'New 4-Star Hotel opens soon: Generating employment', 'UN promises more peacekeepers' and 'Yesterday's Presidential banquet a success' but of course, they were written in Spanish. The last headline made Miles scoffed, as he knew that banquet was a huge failure since only a small amount of people went there yesterday. That was what you get for reading a very pro-government, rightwing media, he had thought. "Yeah, right… success." He muttered, and he folded the paper and put it on the table. "Why can't they just tell the truth?"

As Stella occupied herself with the stove, Arnold set the table and Miles poured some orange juice in the glass, they could hear a door opened, coming from Arnold's room. That must be Helga, finally woke up from sleep, they thought.

"Okay guys, please don't freak her out with your questions, I beg of you, especially you dad." Arnold said to his parents as he had his palms touching each other together to plea to them, "Pretty please?" he gave them a nervous grin.

"You know she'll have to tell us why she's here sooner or later eventually." Miles replied, looking at Arnold with an eyebrow lowered. Helga finally arrived at the kitchen, only to see a wholesome, friendly, yet somewhat creepy grin from them. She stared at them quizzically for a moment and greeted, "Good morning Mr. and Mrs. –"

Arnold sneezed unexpectedly.

She continued as she looked at Arnold with a disgusted look, "…and Arnold." With any luck the family would receive her with welcoming arms, she hoped.

"Hungry, Helga?" Stella asked, "Want some pancakes?"

"Trust me you don't want 'em." Arnold said with a smile, "Ow. Mom…" Stella threw him an oven mitt, and hit his head. Stella giggled softly, and Miles chuckled behind the paper. Arnold looked at his mother and shook his head as he smiled back. He then grabbed the mitten on the floor and put it back on the table. To Helga, Arnold's family was wholesome, perhaps too wholesome, she had thought. Probably because they were separated for so long that they became close to each other, that it strengthened their bond rather than broke them apart. It was something that her family would never be. She envied him so much for having such a great family, rather than her dysfunctional one. If only her father wasn't such a blowhard or her mother was a – no, no. She must put the thoughts of her family behind. She didn't want to think about them, even the slightest.

"So Helga, what say you?" Stella asked again.

"Yeah, thanks." Helga cast a smile at her, stroking her messy morning hair back. Thankfully, Arnold's family was an accepting lot. Arnold pulled a chair next to him and offered her a seat. Delighted, and yet somewhat reluctant, she proceeded to take the seat he offered to her. Stella put the pancakes onto the plate and served them to her. Helga could only look at the half-burnt breakfast in shock. She wondered just how many cute kitties were sacrificed in making of this breakfast. Arnold went closer to her and whispered, "Told ya."

"So, Helga…" Miles said, "How was your trip yesterday? Was the flight okay?" Arnold frowned at his dad.

"Uh… yeah." Helga replied as she poked some of the char away. "I had a wonderful flight." Her answer was the complete opposite that she gave to Arnold yesterday, but Arnold kept quiet about it.

"Do you have any plans planned for today?" Stella asked as she took a seat.

"Well, no… actually I…" She replied uncertain sounding like, "Yeah, I got nothing." She shrugged.

"Well, Arnold had a great idea that he told to me earlier." Stella replied, "Go ahead Arnold, tell her."

"What? It wasn't my id—", he paused as Stella gave him 'the look'. "Yeah, I'm planning to give you a tour around the country." He replied, nodding nervously, "Would you like that?"

Good, Helga thought. The more she was away from the house, the more Arnold's parents wouldn't bug her on why she was here. Plus, she would have Arnold all by herself. Still, she had her doubt though, as she could accidentally blabber about her troubles and her secrets to him that she felt was too early and too soon to reveal to him. Better take her chances with Arnold rather than his parents, since she knew the blonde teenager well. "Yeah, I would like that." She replied finally, "I really would like to see the country."

"A'right." Arnold said, "We'll move out after you've showered and everything."

Miles took a glance at his wristwatch and said, "Well, I'd better get going. There's a major dig going on today and I don't want Eduardo to have all the fun. See you guys later."

"Ed is at the excavation site?" Arnold asked.

"Yep. He's going to supervise it."

"Convenient." Arnold replied, "It shouldn't be that far from Father Campbell's place. After I sent the medicines to him, I can go straight to the dig site and ask him for the map." He said to Helga.

"Hey, don't look at me you dolt." Helga said as she looked at him quizzically, "It's not like I know anything about this place."

"Well, in a couple of minutes you soon will be." Arnold replied back, grinning.

"God, stop grinning like that you creep. You're weirding me out."

Wow... I made Bob cry. I don't think he's out of character though. I mean, it's creepy to see a tough guy like Bob to cry and all, but even when a guy is facing the toughest period in his life, he'd too break down crying. Settle for a divorce you ask? Oh come on. That's boring, it's the easy way out. Where's the drama, man? 'Sides, it's tad cliche. I mean, I'd love to see Bob cry begging for forgiveness from his wife rather than him shouting at her at every opportunity given. The tables have turn! That should be the last about Bob and Miriam, since I don't want it to disrupt the flow of the story and it to steal the light from Arnold and Helga.Anyway, I like to introduce new things on every chapter, like in this one, we get to first time hear Miles' dislike for Bob. It will be elaborated further in later chapters. Eduardo will make his debut on the next chapter, and this character I created, Father Campbell will have to do something with Arnold's parents. Until then, thanks for reading, and please leave a review.