Chapter 5.
Foreshadow.
They had finally got done explaining with Cortez about the scene that was to take place next week. And by the time they finally finished, Yakko and his siblings were finally on their way out of his RV. Rachel was waiting for them to come out of the RV and rejoin her in the Escalade. Soon enough, she saw her husband, and the Warners walking out of Cortez's RV. She immediately pressed the unlock button on the passenger side door. And sure enough, the doors to the vehicle opened up and closed as Jasper and the Warners got in. As Jasper put the gears into 'drive' mode, Rachel couldn't help but look behind her towards the back seats of the vehicle and see that Yakko, Wakko, and Dot were all snuggled up against each other. Dot snuggled up against Wakko, and the immediate older brother snuggled up against Yakko. Rachel then was about to say something when she realized why the siblings were snuggled up, buckled in their seats. She saw right away that they were all asleep. As she got ready to turn herself around, she saw that Dot had snuggled up against Wakko a little bit more, and suddenly, the middle sibling smiled slightly in his sleep as he felt his little sister snuggle up against him. Wakko immediately opened up his eyes slightly and saw that Dot was snuggled up against him more. He immediately placed a brotherly kiss on her head. Dot immediately smirked as she too opened up an eye and looked up into her immediate older brother's eyes. Wakko then sleepily smiled at his sister.
"You okay Dot?" Was all Wakko asked her.
Dot then yawned as she soon put on a smile. "I'm good. Just tired after today."
Wakko then gently placed Dot's head onto his left side shoulder. Dot soon found herself closing her eyes again as she felt her head on her immediate older brother's shoulder. Then she smiled as she felt Wakko gently place his head on hers. Then his ears pricked up as he heard Jasper's Escalade stop. He immediately reopened both his eyes, and lifted his head off of Dot's. And suddenly, both Yakko and Dot jolted awake as they too felt the vehicle come to a halt. Yakko then yawned as he shook his head.
"Where are we?" Yakko asked sleepily.
Jasper then unlocked the door. "Our place."
Yakko then saw right through the window that they were. He read the little ingraved sign that read, Burbank-Kell Private Investigations. Dot then rubbed her eyes as she about fell asleep again. As soon as they got out, Jasper and Rachel helped Yakko with his younger siblings. Jasper carrying Wakko, while Rachel gently placed a now once again sleeping Dot into her arms and carried her inside the building. Yakko then opened up the door and once everyone was inside, they immediately went into the living quarters and had Wakko and Dot placed on a bed for two. And as soon as Wakko's head hit the pillow, he immediately closed his eyes and smiled. Once Rachel had covers placed over both younger Warner siblings, Yakko then walked out into the living room area with Jasper and Rachel. Yakko wasn't really surprised to see that Fay, and Grace were not here. Jasper took one look at Yakko, and he knew what the eldest Warner was thinking.
"Rachel has them staying with her folks up in the Central Valley area." Jasper said as he looked out a window.
Rachel then took a breath. "They're staying up there until this whole thing with the saboteur flys by."
Yakko then reached into the cabinet and grabbed himself a cup, then filled it up with water from the water cooler. As soon as he took a few sips, he cleared his throat.
"Whereabouts in the Central Valley area?"
"Fresno." Rachel answered.
"And where are you two goin'?" Yakko asked.
Jasper immediately got himself a cup of water from the water cooler also.
"Ray and I got to assist Sergeant Fontana, and the Unit with the breach tonight."
Yakko immediately had a confused look on his face.
"Excuse me? Ray who?"
Rachel then laughed out loud, but not loud enough to wake Wakko and Dot up.
"That's Jasper's nickname for me."
"Oh, I see now. Short for Rachel." Yakko suddenly chuckled.
"Yes, now you get it." Jasper told Yakko.
Rachel then looked at the time on the stovetop.
"Jasper, we better get going before they start."
The man then grabbed his jacket and pulled it on. Rachel then grabbed hers and as she and Jasper rushed to the doorway, Jasper turned around and looked at Yakko.
"If your siblings wake up, you all don't have to fall back asleep, you know that, right?"
Yakko suddenly nodded his head. "Yeah, sure."
Then as Jasper and Rachel closed the door behind them, Yakko suddenly walked over to the couch and sat down in it. He thought about what he was going to do since his siblings were sleeping. Yakko then grabbed the remote to Jasper and Rachel's living room television on turned it on. And the first thing that came on was the latest news reports on what had happened in Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Missouri with the tornadoes that had taken place just days before.
Sheesh. Poor folks. They never asked for this. Yakko thought.
And this is why I hate tornadoes. They're destructive, and lethal.
As Yakko kept on watching the news reports, his heart grew sad as he heard that at least, ninety people had been killed by the storms.
Oh for the love of the Holiday season! And right in time for Christmas, unfortunately. These people definitely didn't ask for this. Stupid tornadoes!
Yakko found himself wiping a few tears from his eyes as he continued on watching the news. As he about to turn off the television, he felt something, or more like, someone join him on the couch and snuggle up against him. Yakko immediately looked to his left hand side and saw that his brother, Wakko had decided to join him on the couch. Yakko suddenly smiled.
"Just couldn't sleep, could ya baby bro?"
As for an answer, Wakko then snuggled up against Yakko more, smiling as he did so. Yakko immediately wrapped an arm around him, pulling him closer to him. Wakko then opened his eyes and saw that Yakko was watching the latest news reports.
"Watching to see if gas prices go up any crazier?" Wakko whispered sleepily.
Yakko suddenly scoffed.
"Ha! Not really. Was wanting to know if the local news stations are gonna talk about what's going on with the saboteur. But all I'm hearing are the reports on the tornadoes that touched down in Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, and Tennessee."
Wakko immediately widened his eyes open and sighed sadly as he soaked in the words that his oldest sibling had just spoke to him.
"So unfortunate. J-Dog said that there was a tornado that went right through four states. Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, and Tennessee as a matter of fact."
Yakko suddenly cringed at the thought of hearing what Wakko just told him.
"Two-hundred mile path as a matter of fact," he told Wakko.
Wakko then bore a sad, cross look on his face.
"Wish there was a way we could help," the middle sibling whined.
"Don't tell Dot. But I paid for several hundred dollars' worth of supplies for the victims of these storms, through Convoy of Hope." Yakko spoke in a low voice.
"I heard that, Yakko."
Suddenly, both Yakko and Wakko yelped and jumped as they heard their sister's voice penetrate the living room. They immediately turned themselves around and saw that Dot was looking straight at them, and not with a look of anger, but a look of happiness. Both boys took a deep breath. Dot then rushed over to the couch and joined them as she snuggled up against Yakko on his right.
"I'm so glad you did that Yakko." Dot whispered into the eldest's ear.
Yakko suddenly smirked as he turned the TV off with the remote and wrapped his other arm around her. Dot snuggled up all the more next to him, smiling as she closed her eyes again. And for several minutes or so, Yakko just soaked in the moment as he felt the warm bodies of his young siblings snuggled up against him, one on each side of him. Just as Yakko was about to doze off, Wakko suddenly started coughing. Yakko—going into his older brother protective mode—immediately reopened both eyes and gently shook the middle sibling, but he just wasn't waking up. Dot—at this point—had immediately snapped her eyes open and looked up Yakko, then saw that Wakko was tensing in his sleep. Yakko suddenly shook Wakko again, but a little more firm this time. The middle sibling kept on coughing, and was now gasping for air. Yakko then shook his brother again, this time, not so gentle. And immediately, Wakko took a deep breath, then reopened his eyes. Yakko immediately grew concerned about Wakko as he glanced out of the corner of his eye and saw Dot looking on, concern evident on her face.
"You okay Wak?" Dot asked her immediate older brother.
Yakko gently placed a hand on Wakko's shoulder. The younger Warner boy then closed his eyes and coughed a little more.
"Baby bro?" Yakko asked, upon seeing his brother coughing again.
Wakko immediately stopped coughing, and looked up at Yakko.
"I'm good. Just a bad dream, that's all."
Dot immediately grew even more concerned about Wakko. She came over and sat next to him and snuggled herself up against him. Wakko then smiled.
"It's okay Dot. I'm fine now. It was just a bad dream, 'kay?"
Yakko cleared his throat.
"I would ask you what you were dreaming about, but I don't need to. I already know."
Wakko immediately cringed at the memory of what they had been through just weeks before for their original show's season two's second episode.
"No. Actually, I wasn't." Wakko whispered softly.
Dot immediately stared him dead in the eye. "Then what was it about?"
Wakko then placed his forehead against hers. "It was nothing really. Don't worry about it, 'kay?"
Yakko suddenly looked down at Wakko's sweater and saw that there were a stain on it. And it was right next to his right kidney area.
"Wak? Is that just an ink stain from a pen, or are you bleeding?"
Wakko immediately looked down at his sweater and touched the area where Yakko had spotted it. He then placed a finger on the stain and took it off. He immediately sniffed it, then upon recognizing what it was, Wakko suddenly chuckled and wiped it off with a Kleenex.
"Ain't no ink stain. And I'm definitely not bleeding. It's just the charcoal toothpaste that I've been using."
Both Yakko and Dot sighed in complete relief. Wakko then got up and ran into the bathroom. And about a minute later, he returned, his sweater now cleaned off where the toothpaste stain had been. Then he sat where Dot had been sitting, on the other side of Yakko. Feeling Wakko snuggle up against him, Yakko then wrapped an arm around him and pulled him in close. And sure enough, the younger Warner boy closed his eyes and as he drifted off to sleep, the eldest's eyes slowly closed as he too felt the weight of sleepiness overtake him. When they had finally drifted off to sleep, Jasper and Rachel had returned and had entered the doorway. Just as Jasper was about to flip a light switch on, he saw that all three Warners were all snuggled up against each other, sleeping, and on the couch. Rachel was about to say something, then Jasper whispered to her.
"They're asleep Ray."
Rachel immediately smiled as she saw that they were indeed, asleep on the couch. She then turned around and walked over to the hallway and opened up the closet and pulled out a couple of blankets. And when she returned, Rachel had Jasper help her place them on the Warners very discreetly without waking them up. As soon as they got done with doing so, the couple then took a seat on another couch and smiled as they watched the siblings dozing off.
And the unfortunate thing was that none of them were even close to prepared for what was to come later on that evening…
Especially the Warner siblings…
Especially them…
Sheesh. This sounds fun, yah? Hopefully, I can get another chapter of Here and Now done before the new year. And if I can, well then, congratulate me on this task. Tsk tsk, well… as my usual…
God bless,
JalcoFox.