Before we get into the new chapter, let me clear things up right now by being completely and totally honest with you, good readers--I'm having trouble staying interested in this story. If you read the notes I wrote before the beginning of the last chapter, you'll see that I've already admitted to having problems with this fic to begin with, and knowing that I need to finish it before I can really get too deep into any other story involving Tabby really makes my nose hairs twitch. How aggrivating that I need to actually INTRODUCE my character and EXPLAIN why she has been assigned Cosmo and Wanda at such a young age! Argh! Bleh. Everyone should JUST KNOW who Tabby is an every single little thing about her, just like me! Why can't you all be mind readers?; p It'd be SO much easier.

But alas, such a thing is impossible. So I need to try and get this origin fic finished. Onward we go, huh?

Disclaimer: FOP universe and characters belong to Butch Hartman, and Tabby and all related storylines and such belong to me.


Chapter 4

"Is there anything you need, sweetie?" Wanda asked as Tabby played quietly with one of her dolls. "Anything you'd like to play?"

The toddler said nothing. Her fingers never stopped moving as they gently combed through the doll's hair, and she gave no indication that she had heard the little pink haired fairy at all. Wanda frowned and moved directly in front of her goddaughter.

"I know you can hear me, Tabby," she said quietly. "Why won't you talk to me?"

Tabby responded by turning her back on her godmother, her eyes never leaving the doll in her hands.

Wanda stared at the little girl for a few seconds before finally turning away with a sad sigh. It had been three days since she and Cosmo had first appeared to Tabby, and the girl simply refused to talk to or even acknowledge the fairies' existence. The most reaction Wanda could hope for is a blank stare, and even those were few and far between.

The little pink haired fairy was exhausted, having spent hours she should have been sleeping worrying instead. Tabby had been assigned godparents because she was being neglected, and not receiving the amount of one-on-one attention a growing toddler needed to become a well-adjusted individual. Theoretically, she should have been thrilled to finally have someone who would pay attention to her. But she wasn't. If anything, she was even more withdrawn since Cosmo and Wanda appeared. Was HAVING fairy godparents more detrimental to her emotional well being than NOT having them?

Wanda frowned. Maybe the assignment really was a mistake. Maybe Tabby was simply too young for fairy godparents.

"I don't understand why she's acting like this," Wanda said quietly as she floated next to her husband. "It's been too long. She can't still be scared, can she?"

Cosmo said nothing. He COULD have said something, but recognized that the first three things that popped into his mind were not very nice, so he wisely kept his mouth shut. He may not have been very smart, but he knew his wife very well, and he knew that a tired, worried Wanda was not a Wanda he wanted to anger.

"I'm going to lie down for a while," his wife said with a yawn as she floated toward the dollhouse. "Keep and eye on her, okay Cosmo?" The green haired fairy nodded. "Thanks, sweetie." In a small puff of light pink smoke, Wanda was gone.

Cosmo turned to look at his goddaughter and frowned. It was her fault. She was the cause of his wife's troubles. She obviously didn't want the fairies around, and Cosmo would have had no trouble leaving the child to all the misery she had created for herself. Many children would have given away their little brothers to have fairies to grant them wishes, and here Tabby was, completely ignoring them and wasting the opportunity! It seemed really unfair.

Besides, not granting wishes or performing any magic at all for so long was making Cosmo restless. According to Da Rules, a godparents' magic is bound until the child they are assigned to makes their first wish. Until that time, only the barest amount of magic is available to them. If Tabby didn't want them around, the least she could do was to wish them away.

Every day was the same thing. Tabby would sit quietly for hours, combing her doll's hair or playing with her blocks, and Cosmo would sit in the corner and watch her, pouting. No matter what Wanda did, no matter how much she tried to interact with Tabby, the most she got from the toddler was a blank stare. Wanda said it was probably because no one spent any real time with her and that she didn't know how to react now that someone was paying attention to her, but Cosmo honestly didn't really care. If she didn't talk, she couldn't wish, and if she couldn't wish, they couldn't grant them. He felt useless, and if there was one thing that Cosmo hated more than just about anything else, it was feeling useless.

So Cosmo sulked. Staying detached was one thing, but being ignored was quite another.

"I'm going to see Jorgen tomorrow," Wanda said quietly. They were in bed, lying awake after another long, quiet day. "There . . . there must have been a mistake. I think she may be too young."

Cosmo rolled onto his left side and looked at his wife. The glow from the nightlight in Tabby's room shone through the dollhouse window, illuminating Wanda's face and hair, giving her a soft, almost angelic look. Shiny tracks ran down her cheeks, revealing the trails of her tears.

"I'm sorry, Wanda," he said softly as he reached over to caress her face. "You tried really hard. Maybe she just doesn't want godparents." Wanda blinked hard, setting another set of tears free.

"She needs friends, Cosmo," she whispered in a thick voice. "She needs attention. She needs to be loved. She NEEDS us!" Wanda's body trembled as she sobbed silently into her hands.

"But Wanda," Cosmo said softly as he sat up and gently stroked his wife's big pink swirl. "She doesn't WANT us. It's been a whole week and she hasn't said one word to us since the first day we got here."

"But . . . s-she's just scared and not used to—" Wanda began before another sob shook her. Cosmo nodded slightly.

"I know, she's not used to attention and doesn't know how to act," he said as he curled his arms around his weeping wife. "But you can't force her to change if she doesn't want to." The wife in his arms shook her head.

"But, maybe if we give her a little more time . . ."

"We're risking magical buildup as it is," he reminded her gently. "Even our toughest kids never held out this long." Wanda considered this as her sobs dwindled to sniffles. After a few minutes, she let out a long, shuddery sigh.

"You're right," she said quietly. "I haven't been able to make any progress with her. She won't talk to me, and barely even looks at me. She either doesn't want us here, or is really, really stubborn."

They sat in silence for a time, each absorbed in their own thoughts. Wanda felt the same disappointment she always felt when it appeared an assignment wouldn't work out—just as some fairies weren't cut out to be godparents, some children weren't cut out to be godkids—but mingled in with that disappointment was a tiny touch of annoyance at Cosmo. He was so calm about the whole subject, and just didn't seem to care. Here was a child's emotional well being at stake, perched precariously on a razor's edge of normalcy, and Cosmo didn't care. The more Wanda thought about it, the more it irritated her. How on earth could he call himself a godparent if he so obviously didn't care about the welfare of his godchild?

She almost asked him about it—the words had made it as far as her throat—when Cosmo shifted his position and rested his head on her chest. His left arm was pinned beneath him, and he managed to snake his hand into hers to intertwine their fingers, while his right arm lay gently across her belly. The fingers of his right hand softly brushed the fine hairs on her slim hip, and he was very careful not to tickle such a sensitive spot.

His gentle and loving actions dissolved any anger Wanda had felt toward him a moment before, and she reached up with her left hand to run her fingers through his soft, slightly mussed, green hair.

"My Wanda," he whispered so softly that she wondered if he was aware he had spoken aloud. "I love my Wanda. Just Wanda."

The pink haired fairy smiled as her fingers continued to slide through her husband's hair. Cosmo was so simple, so pure. He was very sensitive and vulnerable when it came to his emotions, and it usually took him a while to get close to new godchildren in the best of circumstances, so his reactions with Tabby actually weren't all that hard to understand after all. The child's strange behavior didn't exactly make Cosmo WANT to get close to her, so he wasn't as broken up at the idea of leaving her as Wanda was. Right now, Tabby was just the 'new godchild', and if she were to be replaced with a different 'new godchild', Cosmo would adjust fine. There were no emotions invested in this kid yet.

In other words, he didn't really care because he didn't have much reason to.

The gentle stroking motions of Cosmo's fingers began to slow, and Wanda could sense that he was falling asleep. She briefly considered rearranging him so that their pinned arms wouldn't fall asleep too—she hated that feeling of dead weight right before the painful pins and needles started—but dismissed it. She would suffer through the pain if it meant her husband could stay where he was. After the rough patch their marriage had gone through a few godchildren ago—during the era of Timmy Turner, how she wondered how he and his children were doing—she now relished and reveled in all the little ways he showed how much he cared. It was as though she had rediscovered the man she first married, and fallen in love with him all over again.

Her own fingers began to slow, and a large yawn escaped her. Deciding to speak with Jorgen seemed to have put her mind at ease, if only for the time being, and sleep was coming for her. With a smile on her lips, and her fingers buried in her husband's hair, Wanda went happily enough.

"You again?" the muscular Head Fairy asked as he shuffled through a pile of papers on his desk. "Weren't you just here yesterday?"

"Actually, it was more than a week ago, Jorgen," Wanda said as she floated before his large desk. A few papers flittered over the front edge and Wanda grabbed them before they slipped beneath it. "But I'm here for the same reason."

"What has Cosmo done this time?" he asked as more papers fell to the floor. As he bent to pick up the fallen ones, a new stack toppled and lazily flittered to the floor. With an exasperated grunt, Jorgen grabbed his large wand and swung it angrily over the desk. All papers on and around the desk immediately organized themselves into neat stacks, just ready and waiting for the appropriate stamp and seal of the Head Fairy.

"There," he said, mostly to himself. "I don't know why I didn't think of that sooner." He looked up and his face contorted to a look of surprise when he saw the little pink haired fairy floated before him. "What are you doing here?"

"I need to talk to you," she said with a sigh. "About our assignment." It was Jorgen's turn to sigh.

"I told you before," he said as he sat back down behind the desk. "All godchild assignments are final." Wanda nodded.

"I know that, but I think we . . . well, I think we may need a new one." The large man's eyebrows knitted together.

"What are you talking about?"

"Tabby, our new godchild assignment, well, I think she's too young," Wanda said slowly. "She's . . . well, to be perfectly honest, she ignores us." Jorgen shrugged.

"She'll come around." Wanda shook her head.

"Jorgen, I've been trying to work with her all week long," she said with a sigh. "She refuses to talk to me, and won't even look at me half the time. She really doesn't seem to even want us there." Jorgen seemed to consider this.

"Is she being abusive?" he asked after a long minute. Wanda blinked. The question had caught her off guard.

"Well no . . ." she said slowly after a moment's thought.

"Has she broken any big rules?"

"No, but—"

"Has she told anyone about you two?"

"I don't think so—"

"Is she happy?"

"Of course not!"

"Then you can't be reassigned," Jorgen said with a small shrug. "The only way godparents can be reassigned or taken away from a godchild is if the godchild is being intentionally abusive and/or hurtful to the godparents, if they tell anyone their secret, if they break any of the big rules or if they're happy. Since none of those things apply to your godchild, you stay."

"But she's not responding!" Wanda cried, slapping her hands on the desk. "All she does is sit there and totally and completely ignore us! What kind of assignment is that?"

"SHE is a NEEDY and MISERABLE child!" Jorgen bellowed, and somewhere deep in the Office of Internal Fairy Affairs building, Binky fainted. Wanda wasn't nearly as intimidated. "YOU are a FAIRY GODPARENT! Your JOB is to make her LESS needy and miserable! If SHE'S not responding, then YOU'RE not doing YOUR job properly!"

"Don't YOU tell ME how to do MY job!" Wanda growled back, her hair becoming aflame. "How would YOU know what it's like to be a fairy godparent? I don't seem to recall YOU ever having any godchildren!" Jorgen's face turned bright red and a large vein throbbed in his forehead.

"HOW DARE YOU QUESTION ME!" he boomed, and the roof of the building threatened to collapse on top of them. "I AM THE VERY MIGHTY AND MUSCULAR HEAD FAIRY!"

"THEN BE A MAN AND ADMIT YOU MADE A MISTAKE WITH THIS ASSIGNMENT!" Wanda shouted, pointing her wand at her superior. "ADMIT IT!"

"THERE IS NO MISTAKE!"

As the tempers and strong wills of two of the most stubborn beings in Fairy World clashed, it caused the entire office building to tremble on its very foundation. Colorful rivers poured out of every door and window as fairy workers attempted to escape the large explosion that would inevitably come.

When you work for Jorgen Von Strangle, you learn very quickly that very loud yelling is usually followed by a very loud explosion.

"Back off puny fairy," Jorgen growled as he pointed his large heavy wand at Wanda. "This assignment is no mistake."

"Just admit it," Wanda hissed, defiantly holding her ground, her own wand held high and pointed directly at the large man's head. "Or at least admit that she's not ready for godparents yet."

"It doesn't matter if she's READY for you, she NEEDS you!"

Wanda jerked as if poked. Her brows knitted together in confusion as the arm that held her wand slowly lowered.

"What?"

"She needs you," Jorgen repeated as he also lowered his wand. "So far in her life there have been no constants. Her parents are always on the go and her nannies come and go so quickly no one can remember their names. We're not talking about some kid with a mean babysitter who occasionally needs cheering up, we're talking about a kid whose very existence seems to be easily overlooked and disregarded."

Wanda said nothing, partially because she had never heard Jorgen speak so tenderly about a godchild assignment before, and partially because she knew he was right. Tabitha's parents seemed so distracted and preoccupied with their social standing that they had barely made an appearance to their own daughter all week long. And when they had shown up, it was only to give her a pat on the head and tell her to 'be good for the nanny'. The nannies, for that matter, were usually inexperienced ladies who were too busy watching TV or gossiping with the neighbor's gardener to really pay any real attention to Tabby, and there had actually been two different ones in just this past week alone. At this rate, that little withdrawn 4 year old would become a completely withdrawn adult with no idea how to interact with other people.

If Cosmo and Wanda abandoned her now, a lifetime of misery and loneliness was all she had to look forward to.

"How do you know all this?" Wanda asked quietly as Jorgen sat back at his desk. "Normally you only have the barest amount of information on godchild assignments. But you practically quoted everything we've seen this past week. Last time I checked, you can't see into the future, so how do you know so much about this one case?"

Jorgen was silent for a few minutes, and Wanda had begun to think that he wasn't going to answer. When he finally spoke, his voice was uncharacteristically soft.

"Because I have seen a case much like hers before. If we do nothing, her life will become hollow, lonely, and miserable. No child deserves such an empty life."

Wanda studied her superior for a moment, completely taken aback by his strange behavior. This must have been a truly special case if it had caught the attention of Jorgen Von Strangle, toughest fairy in the universe.

"But why—"

"NO MORE QUESTIONS!" Jorgen suddenly bellowed and pointed his wand at the little pink haired fairy. In a blinding flash of light, Wanda was gone, transported back to the house of her new godchild.

What she found when she arrived made her jaw drop.


The pacing is coming out very fast (rushed, if you will) and for that I apologize. It's not that I don't care about getting out as good a story as I can, it's that I'm having trouble dedicating my full attention and brain-power to this when there are who knows how many other storylines rolling around in my head, clamoring for attention and writing time. But I actually have the finishing chapters done, and after a few more proofs, I'll post them for your reading pleasure.