Author Notes - If I do this chapter right, we'll be getting a little perspective on a lot of different characters. There's a few plot threads going on, and as always for me it wasn't entirely intentional.

Get Ready for School will no doubt still be updated, but it will come out slower than this story. This is mostly because I am more invested in writing this story than that one. It evens out though, since Get Ready for School has longer chapters, and it's only gonna need a couple more before it's finished. This story, on the other hand, has shorter chapters but quite a few more of them.

OH, and a guest reviewer asked me if Molly was being abused at home. While this topic is not beneath me to depict (NOT for any personal reasons), that is not what I'm intending. However, I can see why you'd see it that way. It's supposed to be a reflection of her guilt more than anything going on at home, and I will be sure to make that more clear now.

And to the other guest who said that they headcanon Molly's parents to be, quote, 'strict AF', I totally understand why. After all, Molly is often shown practically perfect in every way (get it?). While that's not the headcanon I typically go with (see the first chapter of Get Ready for School), I wouldn't mind doing something with that one day...

CHAPTER SIX - NO ESCAPE LIKE HOME

'Now Dorson, I want you to explain to me why you thought punching Deema was the right thing to do.'

Dorson sat on his bed and pouted. He didn't want to look his mother in the eye, lest he get a glance at her angry glare. If this was coming from his father he'd be less shocked, but instead it came from the woman who Gil had clearly inherited his personality from.

'Dorson, respond to me.' Fiona said, her tone low. 'It isn't like you to punch other kids.'

'What's the point?' He muttered. 'You know why I did that.'

'I still want an answer. You don't even have to look at me. Just tell me why you did what you did.'

With a sigh, the boy responded. 'Because I wanted to teach Deema a lesson for hurting my little brother. She had to know exactly what he was going through.'

He clenched his fists. Just thinking about that curly-haired girl made his blood boil. Next time he saw her, he would really make her pay.

Fiona sighed. 'Okay. I know I already asked this, but we were both angry back then. So, I'll ask again. What did you think that was going to accomplish?'

Dorson looked up at her for a moment, with anger in his eyes. Luckily for him, Fiona was much more patient than his father Scayl.

'Answer me, son.'

He groaned, and glared right up at her. 'Life was unfair, Mom! Life punished my little brother while the one who caused the accident didn't suffer for her actions at all. I can't watch my little bro suffer while she gets to go free. Deema deserved it!'

'DORSON!'

She didn't lay a hand on him, but you wouldn't have known that by the way he flinched. As far as he was aware, his fun-loving mother yelling at him like that was the same as getting slapped.

'It was an accident!' Fiona yelled. 'And even if it wasn't, even if Deema did it on purpose for whatever reason, beating her into a pulp won't help anyone! You know what would've happened if I didn't stop you?'

He crossed his arms and faced away from her.

'I'll tell you what would've happened. You would've sent another Guppy to the hospital, and terrified her family as they feared for her life the same way you fear for Gil's. Most importantly, it wouldn't have helped Gil out at all. He'd still be stuck in a hospital bed, and he might've even hated you for it.'

Dorson remained silent, still refusing to look at his mother at all. Fiona knew exactly why - the poor kid never liked expressing his emotions in front of people.

'I... I just don't understand.' He murmured, his voice on the verge of breaking. 'Why did something like this have to happen to my little brother?'

Fiona frowned, and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. 'I don't know, son.' She said, dropping the angry tone. 'Many good people are rewarded, but many are crushed. Many guilty people are punished, but many go free. It's just how life works. But whatever Deema did was an accident. There's no need to hurt her any further than you have already, or at all for that matter. I understand that this is a difficult time for all of us, so I'll be nice to you. For now. The moment Gil gets out of that hospital, you'll be grounded for at least a month. You understand?'

'Y-Yes... I-I understand.'

Knowing what he wanted without him even saying a word about it, she left the room quietly and closed the door behind her. The moment Dorson knew he was alone, he buried his head in his pillow and cried.

Mr Grouper had called up everyone's parents to tell them what had happened. The Guppies knew this was the case when most of them got grounded for what they had done. Of course, Zooli and Nonny were spared from such a fate for obvious reasons, especially since Nonny's father Leo would have a heart attack if he ever needed to ground his kid. Deema, too, escaped the punishment, but not out of innocent or because her parents didn't like discipline. The moment they saw that bruised eye...

'You've been punished enough, Deema.' Her father Daryl said. 'But we want you to know that it's the only reason we're not punishing you for what you have been doing to Gil.'

All of them accepted their punishments. No outside play, no candies... perhaps just the bare minimum, but more than enough. Only Molly had any sort of disagreement - she believed she should've been punished more. Luckily, her parents said 'no'.

The pink-haired girl stared out her bedroom window, out to where she believed the hospital was. She couldn't imagine what it was like to stay there overnight, let alone having to stay for potentially more than thirty nights in a row.

'I hope you'll be okay, Gilly.' She murmured.

'Mah-Mah?'

Molly turned around, and saw her baby sister Mia awake and looking out her little crib. It managed to put a smile on the big sister's face - she couldn't be any happier that her parents let Mia sleep in her room. She looked even more like Molly than she did the day she was born, but there was one little difference: she had her father's pink spotty tail instead of her mother's blue swirly one. The baby seemed a little worried for her big sister.

'I'm okay, Mia.' Molly said. 'It's Gil I'm worried about.'

While Molly always adored her little sister with all of her heart, there were the very rare moments that she envied her. This was one such moment. All Mia knew was that something was wrong, but not what and certainly not its scale. If only Molly could return to a time of being blissfully unaware of the wrong in her world...

'Ee-wee?'

'Don't worry about Gil, okay? He'll be fine. And anyway, it's my job to worry. Not yours.'

'Ee-wee!'

Molly chuckled. Listening to her sister try to pronounce her friends' names was one of the most adorable things she had ever heard. Ee-wee, Ooby, Eeba, Oo-wah, Oh-ee, Oo-wee... 'Bub-bah Pub-pah' was pretty dang close. No one had any doubts that the first word she would manage to say properly would be 'Molly'.

'I did something to Gil that I'm not proud of.' Molly said. 'And I want to make it up to him however I can. But I'm not sure what I can do...'

Mia reached her arms out of her crib and moved her fingers about. It didn't take Molly long at all to figure out what the little girl wanted, so she swam over to her crib and lifted her up. The baby giggled and cooed as Molly brought her into a soft hug.

'Mah-Mah! Mah-Mah!'

Molly giggled. 'Aw, you always know how to make me feel better.' She sighed. 'I just don't know what to do if Gil doesn't forgive me...'

Mia frowned a little bit, but quickly returned to her big smile. It convinced Molly that she could talk without upsetting her too much. She brought her little sister up to the window, where upon the baby pointed at the birds flying by.

'Bir!' She yelled, in a manner similar to Bambi.

'Mr Grouper told me that Gil might not forgive me tomorrow. And... and I want to say that he's wrong, but I don't know.'

'Buh-buh-by!'

'I'm not sure if Gil will forgive me for what I've done to him. So, not only do I need to think about what I'm going to say to him tomorrow...' She paused, before sighing once again. 'I need to think about how I'll take it if Gil doesn't forgive me. I just... I hope he at least forgives everyone else. Or at least Goby. Those two were so close. I can't imagine what it'd be like if they never played construction vehicles ever again.'

Mia frowned again. She might not have understood most of what Molly was saying, or the full extent of the situation, but she definitely understood when her sister was sad. And that made Mia sad too.

'Mah-Mah?'

Molly gasped. 'Oh, sorry Mia! I don't mean to make you upset. I just... need someone to talk to right now, and I always feel comfortable talking to you.'

Mia lifted up her arms and wrapped them around Molly's chest to the best that she could. Molly held onto her tighter, tearing up at the display.

'It's good to know I can be honest with you, Mia.'

She stared out the window once again, unable to focus on anything that was outside.

'And, if you'll let me be honest... it's not thinking about what I'll say to Gil tomorrow that's being so difficult. It's figuring out what I'll do if he doesn't forgive me. I've never had to deal with something so difficult, and I...' She choked back a sob. 'I don't know if I'll be able to handle it. In all honesty, all I've thought to do is hope he will forgive me. So if he doesn't...'

She didn't want to think about it any longer, not with her little sister in her arms. The baby girl didn't need to see her crying her eyes out even more. Mia didn't need to be a part of any of this. Thinking about it made Molly just a little more guilty: should she really talk to her little sister about this kind of stuff, even if the little girl didn't understand the conversation completely?

'Mah-Mah! Bir, bir!'

Molly saw what Mia was pointing at - ducks. One of them had to have been Beep, but he certainly wasn't the tiny duckling that Molly knew. He was a fully-fledged 'man' now. In fact, Molly was certain that those ducklings following him were his kids.

'I'll be strong for you, Mia. I don't want you to go through what I'm going through right now. You're too young for that.'

'MAH-MAH! Me-ah wub Mah-Mah!'

'Aw... I love you too, Mia.'

If Nonny thought he was worried about the fate of the Guppies' friendship, he didn't know half of what Zooli was going through.

Zooli sat on her bed, stroking the head of her cat. Little Gingersnap purred as he lay in her lap, while Izzy the frog watched from her glass cage. The big Labrador puppy, Lassie, lay in her doggy bed looking as sad as a dog could. Perry the parrot, who would normally flap around like crazy in his cage, just sat on his perch with his head down.

'Thanks, guys.' Zooli said to all her animal friends.

Stroking Gingersnap's fur while listening to Izzy's croaking always calmed her down, and she needed it.

'I know I don't have to worry about losing Gil's friendship.' She said, her attention drifting out the window. 'But... I'm worried about the others.'

As opposed to the others, who had been friends with Gil for months, Zooli had only known him for a few weeks at most. It didn't mean he was any less of a friend, but it made her wonder just what the others were going through. If she was heartbroken enough, the others must've been going through so much more.

'I-I want to help my friends out, but I'm not sure what I can do. I just don't know Gil nearly as well as they do. And every time they mention something that happened to him, I feel so... left out.'

Lassie whimpered. Gingersnap gave her a look that most would interpret as 'you idiot', while Zooli knew it was one of love.

'And I know that's selfish to say! I shouldn't complain about being left out when Gil's in the hospital, but... every time I hear my friends talking about what they've done, I feel like I'm in a bubble that stops me from hearing anything that they say.'

'Meow.'

'Gingersnap... that really doesn't help me.'

'SQUAWK! Zooli not happy. SQUAWK!'

'Percy, you're not...' She sighed.

That was the downside of pets, it seemed. They were wonderful to talk to, and had a calming effect just by existing, but there wasn't really much they could say. Well, aside from Percy, but he never came up with his own ideas and just copied off other people instead. Even Lassie, who normally couldn't be quiet for a moment, was as silent as everyone else.

'You think Gil's only being nice to me because I haven't known him for as long as the others?'

'Arf?'

'I laughed at him too when those boxes fell on him. I don't think I'm as innocent as he thinks I am...'

She watched the sun set behind the mountains off in the distance. It reminded her that all of this happened in the span of a single day. On the bright side, that meant that her mother Phyla would be returning from her job soon, albeit smelling like a zoo. That was not an insult - it was just a side effect of her new job with Zookeeper Jo.

'Dinner's ready, sweetie!' Her father Darwin called from the kitchen. 'I know you've been through a lot today, so I cooked your favourite!'

Lassie's ears perked up at the word 'dinner', and she charged out of the room and into the kitchen.

'Well,' Zooli said. 'I guess that's my cue to go.'

Gil stared up at the ceiling. It was long past his bedtime, but despite the soft moonlight peering through the window and the utter silence of the sleeping hospital, he just couldn't get to sleep. Even with Bubble Puppy cuddled up close to him, even though he was still exhausted after everything he had gone through... he just couldn't sleep.

He had a good feeling why. After what his big brother did, the rest of his family had gone straight home. Nonny and Zooli had to return home to their parents, leaving him and Bubble Puppy as the only ones in the room. It left him without his warm glass of milk, a nightly 'tussle session' from his brother, and even a bedtime story read to him.

He winced as thoughts about his big brother came back. Of course he'd forgive Dorson eventually. After all, Gil knew he had good intentions. Still, going so far as to injure another kid... it boiled Gil's blood. It was certain to be an interesting conversation next time the brothers met, and Gil knew that the only way he'd be able to forgive Dorson for it was if he showed remorse for his actions.

Bubble Puppy had fallen asleep an hour ago. All that doggy needed to sleep was for Gil to be nearby, and the Guppy boy envied him for it.

A TV remote lay on the bedside table, next to the phone. With a shrug, Gil reached over with his one good arm - the one that didn't hurt him to move - and grabbed it with just a little bit of struggling. The first thing he did after turning the TV on was turn the volume all the way down until he could just barely hear it, before he searched through the channels.

SpongeBob SquarePants was on, and it seemed to be season eleven. It brought a smile to Gil's face. The first episode playing was 'Appointment TV', one that he really liked. It was the one where SpongeBob really wanted to watch a special episode of his show, only for him to miss it thanks to his friends taking advantage of his kindness. His favourite part was the ending, where all of SpongeBob's friends came together to put on a play for the guy. Somehow, he couldn't help thinking that his own friends - if they were still his friends - were going to do the same thing soon. If only it were that easy in real life...

Better yet, he knew that the very next episode would be 'Karen's Virus', one of his favourites in the entire show. Hopefully, he'd still be awake enough to enjoy it.

Author Notes - This whole 'quick look into how things are at home' chapter partially exists just because I wanted to include Mia in this story. I am so glad they brought her back for Season Five, even if it only ends up being the episode 'Super Baby', as Mia is super freaking adorable and must be defended at all costs.

The short bit with Gil is to show that he's doing just fine, for someone with crippling injuries in the hospital. Because making Gil, of all characters, mope about his situation when he's known as the 'Turbo-Charged Boy' would be off. Obviously I want some degree of drama and angst, but not so much that it ruins Gil as a character.

Also wanted a bit more focus on Zooli, since she hasn't appeared in many fanworks so far, and her perspective of being mostly new compared to the others is an interesting one that I think deserves some attention. Imagine that you had to stay at home from school cos you were sick, only to find out that the school had burned down during classtime while you were gone. On one hand, you'd be thankful you were out of danger. On the other, you can't relate to all the other kids talking about their experiences.

Oh, and the same way the name 'Zooli' comes from the word 'zoologist', her parents have names related to zoology. 'Phyla' is the plural form of 'phylum', one of the higher taxonomic ranks, while 'Darwin' is named after Charles Darwin, who was important when it come to understanding evolution.