Well, here I am again. After the rousing success of "Shattered Dreams" (check my profile for the link if you haven't read it), I had been somewhat intimidated to post anything new, lest I discover that I had hit my writing 'peak' too soon. But, nonetheless, here I am, back again. This is the first chapter of the 'origin' story featuring my OC Tabby. Keep in mind that she's Cosmo & Wanda's godchild after Timmy and his children, so this is some time in the future. (No there will be no flying cars or anything 'futuristic' like that. It's just at a time not yet named.)

I don't know how long it will take me to actually finish this thing, as I don't generally use outlines (once I get 'em down, I never actually write the story they're for) so sometimes newer chapters can be a long time coming, if at all. But I hope to kick this writer's block in the bootie to get more written for this, as well as the . . . 4 or 5 other stories I have written, to varying degrees. Ugh! It seems so daunting!

Anyway, here's the first chapter. Enjoy!

Oop, almost forgot the ol' disclaimer. FOP and all characters therein--not mine.


Oddly Foster Parents---Chapter 1

"Cosmo! Our new godchild assignment is here!" Wanda called excitedly through the house. "Oh, honey! Come out so we can open it!" She flew through the living room with the Official Godparent Re-Assignment Packet clutched tightly in her hand, a happy smile lighting her face. If her husband didn't appear soon, she feared she might tear into the package without him.

"Cosmo? Did you hear me?" she called after a few minutes when he hadn't joined her. He had to have heard, the house they had rented since leaving their last godchild wasn't that large. "Where is he?" Thinking he may have gone into the backyard without telling her, Wanda hurried through the kitchen and out the backdoor.

Once the squeaky door had slammed behind her, Cosmo floated out of the shadows on the second floor. He had heard and seen everything from his vantage point of course, but was not quite ready to join his wife in celebrating the assignment of a new godchild. Not yet.

With an almost unconscious thought, Cosmo transported himself to the attic of their little rented home. Among the cobwebs and occasional dust bunny were boxes—dozens of them—and each one was filled with mementos from their past godchildren. After a quick glance out the window to check the whereabouts of his wife (Wanda had trapped the neighbor behind them to gush about the new assignment), Cosmo used his wand as a flashlight and carefully pulled a dusty box toward him, lifting the lid to peer inside.

Memories flooded through the little green-haired fairy and he struggled to control the tears that threatened to fall. He lightly ran a finger over a single metal roller skate and closed his eyes as the image of the girl it used to belong to surfaced. Her name was Abigail, with brown hair in long braids that he used to playfully tug. She liked to play jacks and splash in rain puddles.

A tattered deck of cards lay beneath the skate, once belonging to a little boy named Jerry. Cosmo and Wanda had played countless games of 'Go Fish' with the boy when he had broken his leg one summer.

Suzie's hair ribbon had gotten itself tangled with the string of Jason's paddleball, and Cosmo carefully separated the two, smiling as the images of the children came to the front of his mind. What fun times they had all had together!

Memory after memory crashed like waves in his mind, each as clear and emotionally powerful as they had been originally. He found it strange--and a little scary--that even after who-knows-how-many years, he still felt the joy from playing tag with Suzie, the sorrow at finding Jason's hamster dead, and the pain when each child had outgrown the need for godparents. He was unfortunately very familiar with that pain.

Each time they were re-assigned, he had sworn that this time, this time he would not get as attached to the child. He would just do his job and be able to say goodbye when the time came without feeling as though a piece of his heart were being ripped from his body and ground to dust beneath his godchild's feet. This time.

But 'this time' never came. He always grew to love the boy or girl as though they were his own flesh and blood. He always did whatever he could to make them laugh and forget the bad day at school, or the horrible way the other kids picked on them, or the awful sounds their daddy made when he was drunk. And he always thought he could actually feel his heart break when it was time to leave.

Anger flowed through him almost before he could register the emotion. Why did Wanda make him do this? Couldn't she see how much it hurt him when they had to go? Didn't she care? Just because being a fairy godparent was HER dream doesn't mean it was HIS too. He wasn't sure he even HAD any dreams or aspirations, but sometimes it kind of annoyed him that he wasn't even given the chance to decide for himself.

Some fairies were just not cut out to be godparents, and Cosmo supposed he was one of them. He was too emotional, too simple. Yes, he freely admitted it, he wasn't the brightest crayon in the box--he was confused a good portion of the time, and sometimes got wishes wrong. He'd been called before Jorgen Von Strangle more times than he could remember, usually for what boiled down to the same reason—his stupidity. No matter what he tried to do, it usually came out wrong.

His whole life he had felt like an outcast. He had no friends, his teachers and classmates hated him because of his constant mistakes, and he was a favorite target of bullies. Life seemed to have played the ultimate practical joke on him—give him all the magic and power of being a fairy, but make him incapable of actually controlling it properly. Ha, ha. Good one.

School was a daily nightmare; filled with failure after failure, screw up after screw up. Nothing he did ever came out right, and he had overheard the administrators talking to his mother one day about possibly kicking him out and binding all but the barest minimum of his magic. That scared him badly, and he had spent most of that night in his room, crying and wondering just why he was the way he was. At that moment, he hated himself. He hated how stupid he was and especially hated the fact that he had no idea how not to be stupid.

He had tried tutors and special classes, all-night study sessions and self-help books. Nothing worked; he just couldn't focus. His mind seemed to be constantly and completely random, unable to hold a single thought for too long without giving him a migraine.

Defeated, Cosmo resigned himself to the idea of being a failure. He quit going to school and applied for a job at the local diner, despite his mother's constant tearful objections. Having a job gave him a sense of purpose for the first time in his life, and he discovered he was surprisingly competent at it, mostly because he didn't need to use magic. It would seem that being a failure as a fairy suited Cosmo well. Who cares if he wasn't happy? He was useful, and that's all that mattered. Right?

Life moved on without him, his days filled with waiting tables and filling orders, his nights booked solid with feeling sorry for himself and cursing his stupidity, his cowardice, and his very existence. Not a bad routine, if he didn't stop to think about how miserable he was.

Then he saw her for the first time.

Wanda. Any anger that had surfaced a minute ago now receded quickly at the mere thought of his wife's name. Wanda, the woman who always stood by him, no matter what mistakes he made. Wanda, the only fairy who'd ever treated him like a real person instead of just 'that idiot'. Wanda, the one woman he had fallen head over heels in love with at a mere glance. From the first moment he laid eyes on her, he knew she would be the only girl he could ever love.

She had walked into the diner on a particularly bad afternoon—Cosmo had already broken three dishes and forgotten 2 orders completely—with two of her girlfriends. They sat down at a booth and chatted merrily as he watched, dumbfounded. The girl with the swirly pink hair was quite possibly the most captivating creature he'd ever laid eyes on. Sure he had thought other girls cute, and even asked a few out—only to be turned down flat, usually with a healthy dose of laughter thrown in just for fun—but none of them could even come close to comparing with the vision in booth number 5.

She smiled warmly as the stammering green-haired waiter took their order, and didn't seem to mind when the same slightly befuddled green-haired waiter accidentally spilled her order all over her and himself a little later. He apologized profusely and tried to help clean her, only to end up making things worse by smearing the mayonnaise from her burger more effectively into her hair. So much for first impressions.

The two girls with her began to laugh hysterically, a sound that rang shrilly in Cosmo's ears. He knew when people were laughing at him, and it always hurt, but this time was different. This time she was there to see it. She had a front row seat to his stupidity, and the idea that she may soon join in with her own laughter caused his chest to tighten. Horror gripped his throat as he realized that he was about to start crying, right now and in front of her. So he did the only thing he could think of.

He bolted.

Cosmo blurted out one final apology before making for the door, shoving past and through anyone in his way. The tears were starting to fall, but he managed to collapse behind the diner before letting out the first sob.

"I'm so stupid!" he cried, burying his face in his hands. "I'll never get another chance to talk to her! Why am I so STUPID!"

"Excuse me?" a voice called from behind him. "Are you all right?"

He froze, eyes wide. With some concentrated effort, Cosmo managed to turn and face the owner of the voice. His breath caught in his throat as an ice ball fell into his stomach.

It was her. Her swirl was mussed, and there were bits of food still clinging to her hair as it hung in clumps, but Cosmo still thought she looked beautiful. Her eyes matched her hair color, and in them he could see concern and compassion—two emotions he had never seen directed towards him before.

"Are you all right?" she asked again, going to her knees before him. Cosmo heard the worry in her voice, and barely restrained an urge to reach forward and kiss this wonderful girl, right here, right now.

"I—I'm sorry," he said quietly instead. "I didn't mean to . . . I mean, I was only trying to . . ." She waved her hand in a dismissive way, smiling.

"Oh, don't worry about that. It was just an accident. Could have happened to anyone!" She held up her hand and effortlessly summoned a stack of napkins. "What's your name?" she asked as she gently wiped at the mess on his face.

Cosmo could only stare blankly. He could hardly believe the incredible turn of events the past few minutes had taken. Just 5 minutes ago, he never would have guessed that he would be sitting behind the diner, with a girl, both covered with her order. And she wasn't mad! He had dumped her order all over her head and she wasn't yelling at him or calling him clumsy or stupid or anything. She was even asking—

"My name!" he cried as he finished his thought out loud. "You wanna know my name!" She nodded, an amused smile curling her lips. "It's . . ." For a split second he drew a blank before yelling, "Phillip! NO! COSMO!"

"Cosmo? Are you sure?" she joked. He smiled as a light blush crawled across his cheeks.

"I—It's Cosmo," he said quietly. "Sorry. I get confused sometimes." Her warm smile returned, making his heart flip.

"Well, it's nice to meet you Cosmo. I'm Wanda. And I'd like to apologize for the two girls I was with. It was mean of them to laugh at you like that. I'm sorry if they hurt your feelings."

Cosmo barely heard a word. The gentle pressure of her fingers on his face as she wiped away the food was enough to send his heart into advanced acrobatics. Wanda, he thought deliriously. Her name is Wanda and she said it's nice to meet me!


"Cosmo?"

He didn't want to answer. He didn't want to lose his hold on such a happy, wonderful memory.

"Cosmo?"

He clamped his eyes shut tightly, trying to shut out the voice. The memory of their first meeting was starting to break apart, floating back into the unorganized subconscious of his mind.

"COSMO?"

This cry could not be ignored. Wanda was back in the house calling for him, and she was starting to sound worried. With a heavy sigh, Cosmo replaced the lid and slid the box back where he found it. His mind had wandered again, taking him along for the ride. That sometimes happened a lot.

After a concentrated effort, Cosmo pushed the sadness and despair away and poofed himself downstairs, just as Wanda floated hurriedly into the living room.

"There you are!" she exclaimed, the worry on her face quickly exchanged for relief. "I've been calling for you! Didn't you hear me?" Cosmo offered her an embarrassed smile.

"I was upstairs," he said with a slight shrug, as if that explained everything. His wife fixed him with a thoughtful look, and he shrank slightly from her gaze. "What?"

"Are you okay?" she asked quietly, the worry edging back into her voice. "You look . . . sad." He shrugged again.

"I'll be okay," he said, giving her a genuine smile. "Just some pre-godchild assignment jitters, I guess." She studied him for a long moment, and the weight of her gaze began to make him feel guilty. "Really, sweetie, I'm fine. Now let's see who the next lucky godchild is, huh?" He smiled widely at her, feeling more love than he thought possible rise in his heart. She was worried about him, all from one look on his face. How could he have gotten so lucky?

"Okay," she said slowly, still giving him a concerned look. "If you're all right." He nodded happily as he floated next to her.

"With you, babe, I'm always all right!" he said and kissed her cheek noisily. She laughed and gently shoved him away, a light blush moving across her face.

"You big goof," she said as she ripped into the packet. "What am I gonna do with you?" Her husband wiggled his eyebrows at her.

"Whatever you want, hot stuff!"

She laughed again and pulled the re-assignment paperwork from the envelope, scanning quickly to the middle of the page where the specs of the needy child were printed.

"Let's see," she muttered, speed reading through the formalities. "Location . . . name . . . birthdate . . . oh. Wait a minute." She knitted her brows together, looking confused.

"What?" Cosmo asked, leaning close. "What's wrong?"

"There must be some mistake," Wanda said with a headshake. Cosmo perched his chin on her shoulder as he read the Fairy Godparent re-assignment form from behind her. His lips moved silently as he read, his bright green eyes moving slowly across the page.

"Nope! Look, it says right there 'Cosmo and Wanda' and that's us!" he said as his finger jabbed the page. "No mistake here!" His wife shook her head again and gently took hold of his still pointing finger.

"No, not there, sweetie," she said as she guided the tip to the line on the form that read 'GodChild Age'. "There."

"Oh," the green-haired fairy said with a slight blush and examined the new line. He furrowed his brow as he read and re-read the information printed there in the neat, slightly curled handwriting of the Assignment Secretary Fairy. 'GodChild Name: Tabitha, GodChild Age: 4'. Everything was filled in fully, right down to the kid's birthdate and shoe size. What had Wanda seen that made her think there was a mistake?

"Oh, yeah," he stammered after reading it for the 10th time and still not understanding the problem. "That."

Wanda nodded, too distracted by whatever problem she had seen to notice the way the blush on Cosmo's cheeks intensified as it worked its way down his neck. A knot had formed in his stomach, and the familiarity of it made him want to scream. It was the same knot that always appeared when he felt particularly stupid. There was apparently something wrong with the form, or the information on it, and Wanda had seen it immediately. But he just couldn't figure out where or what it was.

"We have to see Jorgen about this right away!" Wanda cried, and raised her wand to poof them both to the Office of Internal Fairy Affairs before Cosmo could open his mouth.

Seeing Jorgen was not on his 'things to do today' list.

End of Chapter 1


Yeah, I know. This kind of wandered everywhere, didn't it? Well, that's how it came out and I thought it kind of worked, considering it was mainly from Cosmo's POV, and his mind tends to wander like that.

Toss me a review if you please!