Author Notes - Now we get to the chapter where Molly will finally confront Gil about everything that has happened, for real this time. What should you expect? I can't say a word, in fear of spoiling it for you.

Also, somewhat longer chapter than usual. Whether this means the other chapters will be this long, or return to form, is up for Future Me to decide.

CHAPTER SEVEN - FORGIVE ME?

Gil opened his eyes slowly, as the sunlight beamed through his window and onto his face. With a yawn, he looked around the room. For a moment, he nearly freaked out. This wasn't his bedroom. Then he remembered... oh yeah, the accident. That explained why his arm hurt when he stretched it.

'Arf arf!'

Bubble Puppy awoke the same moment Gil did, and gave him a good morning with slobbery licks on the cheeks. The feeling of his tongue against the kid's ticklish skin made Gil laugh, the first laugh he had since the accident that wasn't SpongeBob related.

'Okay boy!' He pleaded. 'I'm up, I'm up.'

As Bubble Puppy obeyed his owner and relaxed on the kisses, a horrible thought dawned on Gil - his friends would be visiting him again. With Dorson no doubt getting punished for his awful actions, the other Guppies would likely be the first ones to arrive that day.

'Hey Bubble Puppy, can I tell you a secret?'

'Arf?'

'I... I don't know what I'm gonna say to the guys today.'

Gil approached Deema, with the simple intent to ask her for the frisbee back, since he was the last one to have it before Bubble Puppy took it...

'ARF ARF ARF!' Only for Deema to suddenly decide to act like a dog again, this time barking loudly. Most of the other Guppies laughed...

'AHHHHHH!'

But Gil reacted like she really was a dangerous beast. He screamed the way he always did upon dealing with a scare like this, jumping back as far as his frightened little body could take him. It wasn't quite the reaction Deema was expecting.

'Uh... Gil?' She said. 'I-I wasn't actually trying to-'

He jumped back far enough to slam into the many boxes stacked behind him, hitting it hard enough to send himself to the ground. With his face landing on the pavement, he got only a split second to look up at the boxes behind him.

They wobbled, and they only had one trajectory.

'Oh no...' He muttered, for that was all he could do.

'GILLY!' Molly shrieked.

Without a moment's delay, Molly leapt from her spot and pushed Gil out of the way. The young boy hit the ground as the boxes collapsed and barely missed him.

'M-Molly?!'

Luckily, Molly barely avoided real trouble. The boxes had just pinned her tail to the ground, and while she had still broken a bone, it was much better than whatever Gil would've gone through.

'M-Molly...?' Gil said, swimming over to her. 'Why did you do that?'

She gave him a smile, despite her pain. 'It's what friends do, Gilly...'

'MOLLY!' Her mother yelled from down the hall. 'You said you wanted to get up early to go see Gil today, so here you go!'

Molly groaned as she woke up slowly. She cursed under her breath as she realised that the wonderful scene she had just witnessed was only a dream, a fantasy preferable to the real world. If only she had been a good friend like that...

'Great...'

She looked out the window to wherever the hospital was, and glanced back at her little sister. Lucky Mia hadn't woken up from her mother's yelling, and just slept like a log. Molly had never envied her more than she ever had at that moment.

'Oh no... what the halibut am I supposed to do if Gil doesn't forgive me?'

She cursed herself again, this time for still not thinking about that.

'I-I shouldn't worry.' She said in an attempt to convince herself. 'This is Gil. He'll forgive me. He has to. We're best friends.' She gulped. 'R-Right?'

'OW!'

Deema remembered her injury at the worst possible time. Apparently, even just rubbing her eyes to help herself wake up was a bad idea now. She glanced at the massive mirror she kept by her bed. Like always, bed-hair wasn't too much of a problem for her, even if those few knots did require thirty minutes to untangle. That black eye though... it was such a stain on her fair face. She could keep it open, but just barely.

She dragged herself out of bed. First things first, go to the kitchen and get another ice pack. If she had any hope of keeping that awful swelling down, she needed the ice as soon as possible.

'Oh Deema darling!'

'AH!

Her mother, Diane, had burst through her bedroom door far more suddenly than she did most mornings. The ice pack was already in her hand, and Deema could only guess that her mother had been waiting there for her to wake up.

'M-Momma?' Deema stammered.

'Oh, sorry for the sudden start.' Diane apologised. 'Wait, that's enough of the alliteration for now. I have your ice pack ready, and we'll be heading off to the hospital as soon as possible. Your father called Mr Grouper, and everyone has organised to go there instead of school. Do you think you're ready for that?'

Deema sighed. 'Yeah. I'll be fine.'

'You're not worried about what'll happen at the hospital, are you?'

'Nope, not really.'

Unlike everyone else, who would've been lying through their teeth had they responded like that, Deema didn't lie at all. She had no reason to fear what would happen that day when she already knew. And, frankly, she hoped it would end exactly how she thought it would.

Gil didn't deserve to have a 'friend' like her, as far as she was aware. None of the Guppies did. No one did.

'Well, we better hurry up then.' Diane said. 'We both know how long it takes us to brush those gorgeous locks of yours, don't we?'

'Yeah, of course.' She paused. 'Did we ever figure out who I got my crazy hair from?'

Diane shrugged. 'We're still not quite sure, Deema darling. We think you got it from your great-great-great-great grandmother Daniella, because she had your same hairstyle in a portrait of hers, but we can't be certain if her hair was really like that or not.'

'Ah.'

Molly was going to be horribly sick. Her nerves had never been so awful. The elevator ride went on far too long, yet ended far too quickly. All of her friends had accompanied her for their second hospital visit, but she felt like she was the only one there.

'Are you okay, Molly?' Oona asked as the elevator doors opened up.

Molly gulped down her nerves as they all swam down the hall. 'Honestly? N-Not really. I know Gil will probably forgive me, but-'

Deema scoffed, removing the ice pack. 'After what we did to him? Good luck.'

Goby nodded. 'It's Gil's choice. If he doesn't forgive us, we'll have to live with it.'

'And besides,' Zooli added. 'There's a chance he might come to forgive you guys later.'

'Zooli,' Nonny said. 'Let's not give them false hope.'

What remained of their class approached Gil's room, and Dr Apple allowed for them all to enter. Mr Grouper stayed with her while his students approached Gil. They entered so quietly that Gil didn't even notice they were there. He was finishing off his breakfast, which consisted of cornflakes and orange juice.

Molly breathed in through her nose, and worked up the nerves to speak. 'Gilly?'

Gil flinched and nearly choked on his cereal, but managed to swallow it down before anything bad happened. Both him and Bubble Puppy turned to the visitors, and Molly couldn't help noting the difference in their expressions. While Gil looked surprised, Bubble Puppy seemed just one step below growling at them. He didn't seem any better than yesterday. If anything, Molly forget just how broken his body was. Those bruises, and scratches...

'You're here, already?' Gil asked, putting his bowl aside. His eyes widened. 'Oh my gosh, Deema! You okay? I heard my brother hit you, but... geez.'

Deema shrugged. 'Eh. It's fine. It doesn't hurt so much now.'

'Good.' He looked around at the others. 'You're here early.'

Molly nodded. 'Mr Grouper let us go here before school so we could talk to you.'

'Ah. Right.'

What followed was dreadful silence. Neither party quite knew what to say. Deema drifted away from the group and perched herself on a chair, watching the scene like it was a movie. Everyone else glanced at each other while Gil tapped his fingers together.

'Sooo... Molly.' Gil said, just to break the awkward silence. 'How's your day been?'

Molly shrugged. 'Well, I-I just got up about an hour ago. Not much has really happened.'

'Oh. Right. Of course.' He paused. 'Did you-?'

In the middle of this rather mundane conversation, Oona found herself unable to handle the wait any longer. She pushed past Nonny and Zooli to get to the front, where she grabbed onto the side of the bed like she was about to be ripped away.

'PLEASE, GIL!' She cried. 'Do you forgive us?!'

Everyone in the room, including Gil and Deema, were taken aback by such a sudden response. Oona herself noticed all the eyes staring at her, and she backed away from the bed just a little.

'S-Sorry...' She whispered, her voice much higher in pitch than normal.

'Well, I-I was hoping to introduce that topic a little more... slowly.' Molly said. 'But maybe we should just get it out of the way.'

Gil's eyes widened. 'Wait, we're talking about this now? I... I woke up, like, an hour ago! I just finished breakfast. That's a bit much to ask of me so early.'

Nonny cleared his throat. 'In fairness, it is the question that we all have on our minds. If we don't bring it up now, we won't be able to focus on anything else until you answer.'

Gil opened his mouth to respond, but decided not to argue with the (universally-agreed-to-be) smartest one of the band. He leaned back in his bed, and sighed. Those anticipating looks from his friends didn't make this any easier for him.

Deema groaned loudly. 'What is even the point?! We know how this is gonna go down.'

Molly turned her head to her blonde friend, frowning. 'Deema, please.'

The curly-haired Guppy rolled her eyes. Gil blinked a couple times, refusing to believe he was seeing this correctly at first. This entire situation was affecting Deema more than he thought, and he had a feeling that the black eye had little to do with that.

Molly turned back to Gil. 'So Gilly... what's it gonna be?'

Gil found himself unable to look directly at his friends, and instead looked down to Bubble Puppy. That little doggo couldn't stop glaring at the other Guppies, and every second he seemed to get closer and closer to barking aggressively, perhaps as revenge for what started this whole mess in the first place.

'Um...' He said. 'Well, I-I...'

Molly cocked an eyebrow. 'Gilly? What are you doing?'

'Just, uh, g-give me a moment...'

'Are you thinking about this?'

Gil glanced up at her, and cringed. That look on her face was of impatience at best, and one that he had never really seen on her before.

'Y-Your point being?' He asked.

'Gil, why do you have to think about this?! Shouldn't the answer come to you immediately?'

Gil sighed. 'I had this talk with Nonny and Zooli yesterday, okay? Hey, I'm not just saying no on this, alright?'

Molly frowned. 'I just don't understand why this has to be so difficult. Just pick one or the other.'

The other Guppies cringed, but none more so than Nonny. He, more than anyone else there, had a bad feeling about this discussion. Before the situation could escalate too much, fortunately, Molly's expression softened.

'Please, Gilly.' She said. 'I'll do whatever I can. I will be a better friend to you, no matter what you say. I'm your best friend, and I will prove it to you. There will be no more jokes, Gil. I promise.'

To her shock, Gil responded by cocking his eyebrow and giving her a look.

'Why are you giving me that look?' She asked.

'Why did you laugh at me?'

Molly flinched.

'L-Laugh?'

Gil nodded. 'Yep. Zooli admitted that you laughed when those boxes fell on me. Why did you do that?'

She stammered for a bit. 'Well, I-I... we didn't know how big the problem was. If we knew-'

He sighed. 'Why did that matter?'

Molly lost her words for a moment. His tone was nothing like anything he had ever spoken with before. That glare on his face didn't help matters at all.

'What do you mean, why did that matter?' Molly asked, a layer of annoyance seeping into her voice. 'You've done so much silly stuff before and got yourself hurt. How could we know this time would be any different? I know I should've stopped before it got to this point, but-'

'Okay, so you didn't realise how bad the problem was.' Gil said. 'Why have you always laughed at me? Why do you guys sometimes scare me on purpose? Why did you make Nonny do the same thing? How come this always happens to me?'

Molly grunted. 'Gilly, I-'

'And I'm asking all of you. Not Nonny and Zooli, of course, but the rest of you. Goby and Deema, why did you pretend to be a real ferocious leopard to scare me? Oona, why did you pretend to be a unicorn to scare me? Why did you do these things?'

While Deema already expected a response like this, Oona and Goby didn't. They glanced at each other in silence before looking to the floor in shame.

'And you.' Gil snapped, staring directly at Molly.

The pink-haired Guppy felt like she was staring down the barrel of a gun. It was just as capable of ending her entire world.

'M-Me?'

'You know what you've done, Molly. Every day, something would happen to me. Sometimes you'd help me out, but that's always after you're done laughing at me. Usually, I don't even get that. Heck, you might even take my animal crackers away from me, even though you had your own box.'

'What?!' Mr Grouper yelled from outside the room. 'Molly, I - uh, I mean, the Oyster Bunny - wanted every Guppy to have a box. Why did you take Gil's when you already had your own?'

Molly couldn't answer his question, preferring to ignore him. 'I-I'll buy you another box, okay?'

'You shouldn't of taken the first one away from me to begin with!'

Molly frowned, adopting a look more befitting of Mr Grumpfish than the natural-born leader. Everyone else backed away.

'Why are you doing this, Gil?' She asked. 'I'm just trying to make amends and you're just... just... deflecting it all!'

Gil sighed once again. 'You really think buying a box of animal crackers will reverse all of this? This has been happening since nearly the beginning. You seem to think that you can change all that over just a single day, but you can't.'

'Gil, you're being unreas-'

'Molly, I don't wanna be saying this. I know you're a great friend. I know how much you help people, like Sandy or Princess Demanda or even a pop star like Stylee. But... I just don't feel like you do the same for me.'

Molly's jaw dropped. The other Guppies gasped. Sensing the rising tensions, Goby got between the both of them and gave them the most genuine smile he could possibly manage.

'I, uh, heh heh,' He said. 'I-I think we should take a step back and think about this first.'

Unfortunately, neither of the 'main characters' paid him any attention and just looked around him, like he was a telephone pole in the way of a perfect shot. They gave each other the same look that the Montagues and the Capulets would've given each other.

'Gil, I am trying to make up for all of that!' Molly claimed. 'I will bend over backwards and do anything for you.'

'But that's the problem, Molly!' Gil cried. 'You can't just give me things and expect that to make everything better. I'm not like Mr Grumpfish, and even then it wasn't you who cheered him up that first time. It was Deema's idea to give him that pizza to begin with. But he doesn't matter right now. What matters is you. You're trying to do something awesome to win me over, cos you don't want to deal with me not forgiving you.'

Molly flinched. 'W-What?! Gilly, I-I would never! You know how hard this has been for everyone, and-'

'HA!' Gil bellowed out a sarcastic laugh. 'For you? Everyone else, sure, but you? Molly, nothing is hard for you. Think about it. We all fell into honey during that Bubble Bee-Athalon while you just dropped the honey thing. You were on the cover of a popular fashion magazine. You showed off at the Super Ballet Ball. You got to sing onstage with a famous singer, while we were stuck in the audience. You get way more solos than the rest of us combined. You're a princess, for cod's sake!'

Everyone else backed away, unwilling to be in the crossfire for what was clearly going to be an intense fight. Oona grabbed Goby by the wrist and pulled him away, lest he get stuck in the middle of a war.

'Heck!' Gil continued. 'I even remember one time where a cloud refused to rain on me, moved over to you, and then rained on me after I handed you my umbrella!' He gritted his teeth. 'It was funny at the time, but thinking about everything else... the universe really does just revolve around you, doesn't it. Me? Not on my life. I started to realise that during that cloud incident. Then, when you laughed at me for throwing the frisbee too hard but not at Oona for making the same mistake, I had a feeling. But this? Molly, if you were under those boxes, someone would've swooped in to save you. And even if that didn't happen... we wouldn't be laughing at you the same way you all laughed at me!'

With his rant finally over, he breathed heavily as he glared directly at Molly. Silence befell the room once again as everyone looked to the pink-haired Guppy. At first, Molly just looked shocked. That tirade left her speechless. She looked to the floor to gather her thoughts, but even her mind had been rendered quiet.

'I... I...' She stammered.

Gil's expression softened, just a little. The others, including Mr Grouper and Dr Apple, watched the scene with their jaws wide open. Even Deema, who thought she expected the worst, had her jaw practically on floor. For a few moments, it seemed like Molly's entire soul had broke from that speech.

Then, she clenched her fists.

Her expression turned from stunned silence to fury.

She gritted her teeth.

Her blood boiled.

Before anyone could prepare themselves for the inevitable...

'WHY ARE YOU BLAMING ME?!' She shouted loud enough for the entire hospital to hear her. 'I wasn't the one who put you here!' She growled. 'If those boxes had never crushed you... IT'S ALL DEEMA'S FAULT THAT ANY OF THIS HAPPENED!'

Silence.

Shocked stares.

Regret.

If everyone wasn't stunned before, they certainly were now. They all looked like they had seen a dead body, even Nonny. Molly maintained her furious glare, but on the inside she already regretted those very words. Her guilt only grew when a quiet sound filled the empty silence.

Deema was crying.

'M-Molly?!' Gil gasped. 'Are... are you trying to say that it's Deema's fault that I won't forgive you?'

'What?! No!' Molly cried. 'I-I-I...'

She gave up on trying to explain herself. What could she possibly say? The others waited for Deema to charge out the room, just like she did the day before, but it never happened. She turned away from her friends - ex-friends as far as she was aware - and cried into her hands. The thing that hurt her the most was that, from her point-of-view at least, Molly was right.

Gil readopted the angry glare, and pointed to the door. 'Out.'

'G-Gilly, I-'

'I said, out. Every one of you except for Deema. I want all of you out, right now.'

The Guppies had nothing to say to such a serious tone, and so each and every one turned around and headed for the door without another word. Deema knew all her ex-friends were leaving, but decided that it was for the best. If only Gil could leave her too.

'Mr Grouper,' Oona said as she approached her teacher. 'What should we-?'

'We're going back to school.' Mr Grouper answered, cutting off one of his students for the first time in forever. 'There is nothing I can do other than that.'

'B-But Deema...'

'I don't like saying this, but I think Deema and Molly need to spend some time apart. In fact, I think they need to spend some time apart from everyone else.'

He directed a glare at Molly, and she did nothing but hang her head in shame. Even if there was something she could say, she didn't want to say a word. The regrets and guilt nipping at her conscious kept her silent. Though her body was quiet, her mind certainly was not.

Oh no... what have I done?

Author Notes - Random fun fact about me: my favourite episode right now is Season Five's 'The Good, the Sad, and the Grumpy'. The main reason is Sheriff Molly. After spending four seasons being the definition of perfect, it finally gives Molly a flaw. That being, when she doesn't know what to do she gets grumpy. Seeing Molly herself succumb to her frustrations was not only much more powerful for the message than if they used, say, Gil or Deema, but it shows that Molly is not perfect.

Molly is so used to everything going her way (singing on stage with a famous pop star, anyone?) that when something doesn't go her way, she gets grumpy. So... what if I threw her into another situation where she doesn't get her way? I went down this path, cos I figured that having Gil forgive all his friends this early seemed too easy. It would be a little too, what's the word, wishy-washy for me.

BTW, can you tell that Molly is my least favourite of the Bubble Guppies? I certainly don't hate or even dislike her, but the show spent sooo much time building her up as the most perfect being who always had things go her way. I think it was about time that someone called her out on that.

Oh, and that 'Molly got more solos than the others combined' comment? I checked to make sure I was right, and even counting single lines like Oona's in 'Home', if you minus Mr Grouper's solos, I am correct. Molly gets about 60, which is a little more than Gil-Deema-Oona-Goby-Zooli-and-Nonny's all combined. I was not exaggerating.