Author's note: Credit to my friend, Lightning the Pikachu, for suggesting the title. Thank you!
As a side note, this is my first fic on this site, so I hope you all enjoy it.
It was a peaceful Friday night in Townsville. Everyone was sleeping soundly, including the city's heroines, the Powerpuff Girls.
Blossom was smiling in her slumber and Bubbles was cuddled up with her stuffed octopus Octi. Buttercup, however, was muttering in her sleep and punching at the air. She was dreaming. In her dream, she and her sisters were fighting a gang of escaped convicts. Buttercup uppercut one of them, but then he punched her in the stomach.
Buttercup burst awake. She winced, realizing that the abdominal pain she was having was not a dream. "I probably shouldn't have eaten that much pizza before bed," she thought to herself. She lay back down, closed her eyes, and tried to sleep, but she couldn't. Her stomach hurt too much.
Just as she was finally starting to doze off, an excited Bubbles nudged her awake. "Wake up, Buttercup! You don't wanna miss out on Professor's chocolate chip pancakes!"
Buttercup rubbed her eyes. Much to her dismay, her stomach hurt even more than it did last night, and this time, it had spread to her right side. Still, she didn't want to seem weak, so she got up. "Alright, I'm coming," she sighed.
The girls flew downstairs, where Professor Utonium had just finished making the pancakes. They had a pleasant aroma and plenty of chocolate chips, but none of it was appetizing to Buttercup.
"Aren't you going to eat yours?" asked the Professor.
"Uh…maybe later," answered Buttercup. "I'm not really all that hungry right now." She got up and excused herself to the living room. The Professor cocked a brow. Usually, she'd never turn down his Saturday morning pancakes. Blossom and Bubbles looked puzzled as well.
A bit later, the Girls were watching Blarney, the Singing Sea Serpent. Even with one of her favorite shows, Buttercup still couldn't enjoy herself. Her stomach began to gurgle. "Are you hungry now?" Blossom asked.
"No!" Buttercup exclaimed, louder than intended. Bubbles's pigtails sprang up and she looked at Buttercup.
Looking nervous, Buttercup stammered, "Uh…I-I mean…" Then she felt that horrible feeling that we've all felt; she was getting nauseous! "I have to go to the bathroom!" she yelled, and she zoomed off. Blossom and Bubbles looked at each other and shrugged, shaking their heads.
Buttercup slammed the bathroom door behind her and vomited into the toilet. She shook her head and thought to herself, "What the heck? That pizza I had last night hadn't even gone bad."
She heard a knocking at the bathroom door. Hoping that nobody had heard her tossing her cookies, she flushed the toilet and came out. There was Professor Utonium. Buttercup regained her composure and stood up straight despite how difficult it was. "H-hey, Professor. It's all yours," she said, and she started to float away.
Before she could get far, however, the Professor spoke up. "Buttercup, wait." He looked concerned. "Is something wrong?" he inquired.
"What? No way," Buttercup said, standing straight and tall.
"Are you sure?" questioned the Professor. "You haven't eaten a thing all day and your sisters informed me that you were acting strangely earlier."
"It was nothin' personal, I swear," insisted Buttercup, who was resisting the urge to hunch over from her agony. She sped off to her sisters' room before he could ask anything else. The Professor scratched his head. He didn't know if he believed her, but he couldn't figure out for the life of him what could be going on with his daughter.
Buttercup lay down on the bed, clutching her stomach and groaning. She was feeling hot, but it had been a rather chilly day, much to her confusion. If this was a stomach flu, it was one that she'd never experienced before. "Whatever. It'll pass…I hope," she tried to tell herself, though even she wasn't really sure. Still feeling drowsy, she closed her eyes. She muttered, "Oh, if there's a distress call, I swear…"
At that very moment, the hotline phone on the dresser to the right of the bed let out its familiar buzz. Buttercup sighed in frustration. "I just had to open my mouth," she thought, and got up. Blossom came in and answered the phone, as she usually does.
"Hello? Yes, mayor? Okay, we're on it!" Blossom declared. She put down the receiver just as Bubbles was starting the enter the bedroom. "There's an octopus monster terrorizing downtown," Blossom informed her sisters.
Buttercup forced a smile and fist-pumped. "Yeah, finally some action," she said, although for once, she didn't even feel like fighting.
All three Powerpuff Girls took flight. As they made their way to the scene, Buttercup was lagging behind the other two. Blossom looked behind herself and called out to Buttercup, "Come on, we gotta hurry!" Buttercup tried to speed it up a little, but it wasn't easy.
They arrived in the city. Indeed, the octopus monster was knocking buildings down and roaring fiercely. The Powerpuff Girls closed in on it, ready to attack. Blossom shot laser beams from her eyes at the monster, causing it to shriek. It attempted to swat at her, but Blossom dodged it.
Bubbles tied some of its arms in a knot, but it wasn't long before it tried to swing at her with one of its free arms. Bubbles unleashed a supersonic scream, incapacitating it. It instinctively covered its ears, or where its ears should have been, at least.
While it was distracted, Buttercup went in and tried to punch it. She suddenly felt a sharp pain. Cringing, she clutched her stomach, and the monster snapped out of it. With a mighty swing of its arm, it struck Buttercup in the gut, sending her to the ground.
That did it. Buttercup couldn't stand it anymore. She shrieked in agony and writhed around, clutching her abdomen. Much to her horror, she felt that familiar sensation inside herself. "Oh, no…not now!" she thought, but then it happened. She violently vomited all over the pavement.
Now her sisters knew something was seriously wrong. Her unusual behaviors that day all added up. Blossom and Bubbles flew over to Buttercup. "What's the matter?!" Bubbles exclaimed. Buttercup couldn't answer. She just kept rolling around and yelping. Blossom tried to pick her up, but she accidentally poked Buttercup's belly. Buttercup screamed even louder and fainted.
Her sisters were horrified. They looked up and saw that the monster was looming over them. It began to slam its arm down to crush them. Blossom picked Buttercup up and the sisters flew out of the way. "You try to fend it off! I'll call the hospital!" Blossom ordered Bubbles. Bubbles nodded and returned to the battlefield.
Soon, an ambulance arrived and Buttercup was put inside it. When it reached the hospital, a doctor gave Buttercup a CT scan. Upon closer inspection, he found out the source of the issue. He had a nurse call Professor Utonium.
"Hello?" replied the Professor when he had picked up the phone.
Then the nurse said something that made the Professor's jaw drop. "I have bad news. Your daughter, Buttercup's appendix has burst."
"What?!" gasped the Professor.
"She requires an emergency appendectomy," she said.
The frantic Professor dashed to his car and drove to the hospital. In the waiting room, Blossom and Bubbles were there, and they were just as terrified for Buttercup. Bubbles was clinging to Blossom, who could do nothing but hold her close. The Professor sat in the chair next to them.
"Is she gonna be okay?" whimpered Bubbles.
"Well, assuming there aren't any complications-" Blossom began, only to be interrupted by the Professor wrapping his arm around them. The Utoniums held each other.
Sometime later, the procedure was over. Buttercup's eyes slowly opened, and doctors were surrounding her.
"What the…" Buttercup muttered.
"Your appendix is out now," one of the doctors told her.
A nurse let the Professor and the other two Powerpuff Girls inside. Blossom and Bubbles were very relieved and flew over to her.
"Whatwasitlikehowdoyoufeelnow-" Bubbles rambled.
"She couldn't feel anything, Bubbles, she was under sedation," Blossom said to Bubbles.
The Professor cleared his throat. "Buttercup Utonium?" he asked sternly.
Buttercup looked up. The Professor had a very grim expression on his face. Ashamed, she shrunk into herself.
"Why didn't you tell me something was going on?" he questioned.
"Well…uh…you know me. I'm supposed to be the tough one," Buttercup answered, turning away.
"Tough? Tough?!" growled the Professor, getting angrier each time he said it. "This isn't a matter of strength, young lady! You could have died!"
Buttercup felt her eyes welling up. All the physical pain she had been through, doubled with the humiliation of vomiting in front of her sisters, the fact that the Professor was now angry with her, and the reason she was pretending to be fine in the first place was becoming too much for her. She put her face in her hands and began to sob.
Everyone went silent. "Aw, Buttercup, you know you can tell us anything," Blossom said, putting a hand on Buttercup's shoulder.
"B-but I can't," hiccupped Buttercup. "How will anyone respect me?"
Bubbles looked confused. "What are you talking about?"
"Y-you have your cuteness, Blossom has her smarts. What do I have that's cool?! I don't even have a unique power of my own, and no, rolling my tongue doesn't count!" Buttercup yelled, tears streaming down her face. "I wanted to be strong to look special, and now-" She couldn't say anything else, she broke down in tears.
Bubbles and Blossom looked shocked and saddened. Bubbles almost looked like she was tearing up as well. The Professor's anger had diminished into nothing now that he had seen how demoralized Buttercup was, and his expression had softened considerably. He reached his arms out, silently offering a hug, and Buttercup accepted this invitation. She buried her face into his chest, sobbing, and he held her close to his heart.
The Professor wiped tears from Buttercup's face with his thumb. "Buttercup, you have more than just your strength to rely on."
"How?" Buttercup sniffled.
The Professor stroked Buttercup's hair. "You have a strong sense of justice. You've gone through ice and fire to help those you care about. You're a member of this family and I love you for who you are."
"Y-you do?" asked Buttercup.
"Of course I do. You're my daughter," said the Professor, smiling at her warmly.
Buttercup smiled back at him, though she was still a little teary-eyed. She gave him another hug, and they cuddled each other. Blossom, Bubbles, and even the doctor who was in the room were quite touched by the Professor's words.
"I love you, too…dad," Buttercup sighed.
The doctor approached Buttercup and the Professor. "Buttercup will be able to go home in the morning," he informed them. The Professor nodded.
Later, when Buttercup had fallen asleep, the Professor briefly left the hospital to get something. When he came back, Buttercup was still asleep. The Professor had retrieved Buttercup's old green blanket and he slipped it under her arm. She snuggled up with it in her sleep and smiled.
The Professor smiled fondly, gave her a small kiss on the cheek, and went home for the night.
"See you tomorrow," he whispered. Things were finally peaceful in Townsville once more.