Author's note: I'm so sorry I haven't written anything in a while. I've been super busy with finals and studying for my MCAT. Finally managed to finish this chapter, which is a lot longer than I anticipated, but hopefully it answers some questions and makes you ask some questions. I do not own any Care Bear original characters or content.

Chapter 3 - Dreams

James and John followed Dawn to her room. James still crushed the purple hat in his hands, angry at himself for not being able to save Christy. How many times would he be unable to help her?

John looked over at James and silently patted his shoulder. "We'll get her back."

"What did that shadow look like?" Dawn looked back at the pair.

John looked up at the sky, "It looked like a woman wearing a dress. She had a flame where her heart should be. Kind of like a hole. And there was fire all around her, so I couldn't see a face, but the weird thing is the fire didn't burn anything."

"I heard laughing." Dawn rubbed her arms, "It was like a woman, malicious, but I didn't see her."

The three walked quietly towards Dawn and Christy's cottage. The girls shared a cottage, but Chirsty was usually at James' place since he was head counselor and had his own cabin. Dawn opened the door quietly and the trio entered the room.

"So," John scratched his blonde head, "how do we call them?"

Dawn smiled and went to one of her drawers and pulled out a red heart the size of her palm. "Noble Heart Horse gave me this when they last visited. She said that if we ever needed help, we could call them."

John took the heart and held it up to his face. "Yes, but how does it work? Will it even work? I mean we're not exactly kids anymore. I passed that threshold when I got my official subscription to Playboy."

"You're impossible," Dawn snatched the heart from John's hand and looked at the shining heart. "Should we tell someone about Christy?"

"No," James held out his hand for the heart, "We need to find out what happened before we tell someone."

Dawn handed James the heart. "Then we better call them and find out exactly what happened."

"Someone needs to stay here," John rubbed his arms, "Besides; I don't know how the Care Bears will like the 18 year old version of me."

Dawn hugged her brother, "They wouldn't care, but you're right, someone needs to check to see if the kids are all right and if the other counselors ask we need to have some sort of excuse."

James placed a hand on John's shoulder, "Thanks man, I really appreciate your help."

John patted James' shoulder, "We'll find her."

Dawn took James' hand, "I know we will."

John took a step back as Dawn whispered something into the red heart. Slowly the cabin started fading and clouds started appearing.

James' feet sunk a little into the soft cloudy floor. He looked up at the clear starry night sky. The last time he was here….

"James," Dawn tugged on James' arm, "Come on. I don't like to wake them, but this is an emergency."

James shifted nervously as he followed Dawn's lead. They were in the gardens of Care-A-Lot castle. Lush green trees and bushes sprouted almost magically out of the clouds. The smell of flowers hung in the air.

"I thought I heard intruders!" A rough voice emerged from behind the orange tree.

"Grumpy Bear?"

A small blue bear with a thundercloud on his stomach peered around from behind one of the trees. He squinted at the pair, "And who are you? How do you know my name?"

Dawn giggled as she ran and picked up the pint sized bear and squeezed him, "Oh Grumpy Bear! It's been so long!"

Grumpy Bear tugged and struggled out of Dawn's arms, "Put me down you crazy dame!" Dawn gently put the blue bear down on the clouds. "What are you trying to do?" Grumpy Bear coughed, "Squeeze the life out of me?" Grumpy Bear breathed deeply and looked up into Dawn's big blue eyes. "Great Wishing Star, Dawn?"

"The very same." Dawn smiled and kneeled down, "I've missed you so much. I never forgot any of you."

"Yeah well," Grumpy Bear scratched the back of his head and looked at James, "Oh. It's you."

"Hello Grumpy Bear." James knelt next to Dawn.

"You still human?" Grumpy Bear poked James' arm.

"Far as I know," James grinned.

"Well," Grumpy stepped back, "how'd you two get here, neither of you are kids."

"Something terrible has happened," Dawn sniffled, "Christy was stolen, we think it was because of a dark shadow."

"Christy?" Grumpy Bear looked at James, "you mean the girl who got us stolen and then helped us out? Dark shadow? I guess I should go wake up Noble Heart Horse and True Heart Bear. Follow me," Grumpy Bear pointed his paw at James, "and don't stray."

Grumpy Bear lead the two into Care-A-Lot Castle towards the main room where a large heart shape table took up most of the room. Two small hearts emerged from the corners and approached Grumpy Bear, "Go get the leaders will ya? It's an emergency." The two hearts sped off towards the rooms of the castle. "They'll get Brave Heart Lion and Tenderheart Bear too. They're second in command for the Cousins and the Bears."

Four sleepy figures emerged behind the two hearts.

"What's the big deal Grumpy Bear?" A small lion yawned as he approached the company.

"What's the emergen-" Noble Heart Horse stopped as she saw Dawn and James. "Dawn? Is that you?"

Dawn giggled and ran up to the figures and gave them all a big squeeze. "Oh yes yes! And James is here with me. John stayed behind to make sure everything was all right. But there's been an incident and only you all can help us."

"Slow down," Tenderheart Bear gasped, "What seems to be the problem?"

Dawn released the four. "Christy was stolen and we think there's an evil force behind it."

"Christy?" True Heart Bear looked up at James, "I thought everything was going okay?"

James sighed and approached True Heart Bear, "I woke up and the next thing I knew Christy was gone. I couldn't find her. John and I went to the lake to see if maybe she was there and I missed her. But when we got there, there was this fire and a shadow. It pointed towards the center of the lake and there was a bright light and Christy was being pulled up in the light. I jumped in, but I couldn't save her. I swam and tried, but I couldn't save her." James held back the tears that were forming.

True Heart Bear patted James' shoulder and looked up towards Grumpy Bear. "Best go check on the cubs while we decide what to do about this."

"Oh sure, make me guard the castle, then make me check on the kids just when its getting good."

"Grumpy Bear," Noble Heart Horse brayed.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm going." Grumpy Bear grabbed a bag by the table and walked off towards the nursery where the little ones slept.

"You said a fire," Tenderheart Bear looked quizzically at Dawn, "Did it burn the whole forest?"

"That's what was weird, it didn't burn anything. It was a lady in a dress with a flaming area where her heart should be."

"We need to help them," Brave Heart Lion pounded his fist into his paw, "We can organize a search party and find her faster."

"No."

James looked up at Noble Heart Horse.

"I don't mean to be callous," Noble Heart Horse looked towards the nursery, "We have new cubs and we can't risk them getting hurt. The last time we were pursued for a long time by Dark Heart and we had to leave the little cubs many times. We can't risk them being hurt like that."

"Noble Heart Horse is right, we can't do this again," True Heart Bear shook his head, "I'm sorry, but we can't help you."

James took their paws and hooves into his hand, "Please. She's my everything, She's the one person who believed in me when I was evil. Please."

Tenderheart Bear wiped a tear, "We can send one Care Bear or Care Bear Cousin down. Just to see what happened."

Noble Heart Horse and True Heart Bear looked at each other and back at James. True Heart Bear looked back at Noble Heart Horse, "We need to find out what the evil is. We need to inform the Great Wishing Star."

Noble Heart Horse sighed and nodded, "Yes, we could send someone, but who?"

The cabin room materialized before Dawn, James, and Grumpy Bear. John sat on the bed, a beer in hand and looked up at the three. "There is some weird shit going on."

"Who's dopey?" Grumpy Bear lumbered cautiously towards the blonde-head boy and sniffed before scrunching his face.

"Is that a Care Bear?" John leaned towards Grumpy Bear and patted his blue head.

"Hey cut that out!" Grumpy Bear swatted John's hand away. "And what the heck are you drinking?"

John smiled and reached over and opened a beer and handed it to Grumpy. "I am handing you nature's medicine to getting away from reality, or some weird shit."

Grumpy sniffed and sipped the beer cautiously, sipped it, made a face, and then sipped it some more. "This stuff tastes like piss," he sipped it again, "but I guess its fine."

"Its Bud light," John sipped his beer, "that's the only thing that was in Jake's fridge, otherwise I'd be drinking a nice dark ale."

Dawn grabbed the beers from the bear and the boy, "this isn't the time for drinking John. What's going on that's so weird?"

"Well other than Christy being taken by a strange shadow creature, everyone's asleep."

"How is that weird?" James took the beer from Dawn and took a swig and handed it back to John.

"No you don't get it," John took the beer from James and took another gulp, "They are asleep, they won't wake up, even the other counselors. Plus none of the clocks have moved, not even my cell phone, and it won't make any calls. It's like Sleeping Beauty only time is really standing still."

A small baby blue head popped out of Grumpy Bear's pack.

"Oh!" Dawn reached into the pack and pulled out a small care Bear with a rainbow moon on its belly. "How cute!"

"What?" Grumpy Bear turned and stared at the young Care cub, "Dreamy Bear, you naughty cub, I oughta give ya a spanking."

"Oh don't do that," Dawn tickled the small cub and the cub cooed back at her before yawning, "He's so sweet."

John smiled, "The last time this happened we ended up caring for a bunch of them."

James shifted nervously as Grumpy Bear eyed him suspiciously and took the beer from John and gulped the rest down. "Best we go look at the kids then." Grumpy Bear crushed the empty can in his paw and sauntered out the door towards the other cabins.

"Wait, was that the grumpy one, he hasn't changed much since a cub has he?" John rose off the bed, grabbed his flashlight, and stumbled out the door to lead the way to the first cabin. Dawn stared at the crumpled can in awe before being pulled by the arm by James.

The nearest cabin was filled with kids, all fast asleep. Grumpy Bear gently patted the nearest child's head. Dreamy Bear squirmed out of Dawn's arm and landed onto the bed and cooed. Dawn smiled, "I guess that means this one's having a good dream." She picked up the cub and moved towards another child and placed the cub boy's chest. The cub cooed and Dawn picked the cub up again, "this one is too."

John frowned as he shook the same kid. "See, and I know he's a light sleeper because he's always bugging me that someone's snoring is keeping him up."

"I wonder what his dream look like?" Dawn put the cub on the boy's chest and moved and stroked the young boy's hair and startled, snapped her hand back.

"Dawn," John steadied his startled twin, "What's wrong?"

"Hrrrumph!" Grumpy Bear turned his head towards Dawn, "I guess we know which of you is the smart one."

"I saw his dream." Dawn looked at the sleeping boy. "I saw him playing with a dog."

"A dog?" John furrowed his brow, "What kind of dog?"

"I don't know!" Dawn shook John off.

"Try again then," Grumpy Bear took Dawn's hand and put it on the sleeping boy's head and stepped back, picking up the cub as he moved.

Dawn kept her hand there, but shook her head, "I don't see anything now."

Grumpy Bear sighed and put the squirming cub back down on the bed.

"Wait, wait! Keep Dreamy Bear there, I can see the dreams now." Dawn closed her eyes, "It's a black and white pit bull. He's calling it Chance."

"Chance? That sounds familiar." John shined the flash light on the boy.

"Let's look at another kid." Grumpy Bear picked up the cub and moved to the next bed, so no one had to lift him for the sleeping child on the top bunk. He put the cub back down on the boy's hand and Dawn covered the boy's head with her hand.

"He's making cupcakes with his mom."

"His mom?" John turned his flashlight on the boy's face, "He's mom died of breast cancer last year."

"What about this one?" Dawn moved towards the next bed and repeated the process with Dreamy Bear. "I see an old man, his grandpa, they're mixing concrete."

"His grandpa died before he came to camp." John moved towards the first child's bed, "I remember Chance, his dog got run over by a car earlier this year, the kid was devastated."

"Is it only the kids?" James walked out of the cabin and moved back towards the counselor's cabins. He slowly opened the door to Jacob and Bill's cabin. A loud snoring sound came out from the room. Dawn carried the young cub and placed him on Bill's chest and placed a hand on his head.

"I see a girl with long blonde hair. They're…oh…oh!" She grabbed Dreamy Bear from Bill's chest. "Well that's not proper for a baby."

"Blonde?" John chimed in as he walked into the cabin, "Oh that's Shirley, they broke up, he's been moping around since then."

Dawn moved towards Jacob and tried reading his dreams, "Oh this one's PG. It's a dark woman, she looks Indian."

"Trisha." John sighed as Grumpy Bear pushed past him, "She moved back to India to help her parents out, but that was like last year."

"Well they all seem to be happy." Dawn picked up the yawning cub and cradled it in her arms.

"But why won't they wake up?" Grumpy Bear scratched his chin.

"Because they'll lose the person they love again." James put his hands in his pockets and stared at the floor.

"Whaddya mean James?" John scratched the back of his head.

"Think about it," James looked up at the group, "the kid who lost his dog, the kid who lost his mom, the kid who lost his grandpa, Bill and Jacob lost the loves of their lives. All of them have been heartbroken in some way and they're dreaming about being with their loved ones again. Waking them up would be cruel."

"And how do you know that?" Grumpy Bear walked towards James.

"Because it's something Dark Heart would have done." James kneeled down to Grumpy Bear's level, "But I'm not that entity anymore. I've changed. I would never do a thing like this."

"What happens if they don't wake up?" Dawn kneeled besides James.

"I don't know," James looked up at the sleeping bodies, "but my guess is if we don't wake them up soon, they won't wake up again."

Author's note: Man, such a downer, I need to get James to lighten up. But I do love John now that he's older. Please leave some feedback, comments, questions, likes/dislikes, hope you'll join us next time! Oh and as far as I know (as in I don't keep up with the Care Bear Franchise much these days) Dreamy Bear is my OC. Ain't he adorable?