author avoidance = time skip

"Bye, Mom, see you after school."

Judy watched as Jimmy left the house and narrowed her eyes at him. He had been acting different for months now. Not only did he seem uninterested in going down to his lab, but he would leave at odd hours of the night. Plus, he was pregnant and he hadn't gotten any bigger. Had he gone against her and did away with the child?

"Hugh?"

"Yes, Sugar Booger?"

"Have you noticed that Jimmy is acting a little odd."

"Odd? What do you mean? You know that our Jimbo is a little different than everyone else."

"I know that but this has to do with the pregnancy."

"Pregnancy?"

Judy rolled her eyes. She loved her husband immensely but he was very dumb when he wanted to be. She often wondered how her son turned out so smart. She used to not know anything about the experiments her son did but after Sheen came back from Zeenu and his father sent him away, Jimmy broke down and told her all the things he had done. None of them were bad in a way but his thoughts of causing Sheen's stay in the mental institution seemed to make things too real for Jimmy and so he told her everything.

That being said, knowing about his pregnancy was something she needed to let Hugh know and as usual, he seemed unaffected.

"Oh, right, right," Hugh said, pointing to his head. "I remember now. Jimbo did an experiment that caused him to be pregnant with a baby. Kids are crazy nowadays…"

Judy sighed in relief. "Yes, that's right."

"What is it that's got you worried Sugar Plum?"

"It's just that it's almost four months for him and he hasn't shown any other signs of being pregnant. He was very sick for a while and suddenly he just stopped. I also have seen him gain any weight in any area of his body, but especially his midsection. I'm worried, Hugh."

"Maybe he's a late plumper. My mother told me that she didn't even know she was pregnant with me until her sixth month when I just ballooned out of nowhere."

"Hugh, your mother had been in a coma from when she fell and hit her head, remember?"

"True."

It was plain to see that she wasn't going to get any help from her husband. She was going to have to do some investigating herself.

Cindy watched Jimmy as he did some schoolwork beside her, seeming to ignore her. She was a little ticked off at him. First he tried to woo her and now he was ignoring her. Take your pick, Neutron, do you want me or not? she grumbled in her head as she did some problems herself. He hadn't met her that day she talked to Sheen and ever since then, he had been acting distant towards her, as if he never knew about the incident.

"Jimmy?"

"Yeah?"

"I know this is really out of the blue and it happened a few months back but… Remember when I had that black eye?"

"Yeah."

"Well, I was talking with Sheen and he said that he would tell you about meeting me at the lockers so that we could talk. Did he… did he ever tell you?"

Jimmy looked up at her and smiled. "No, I never saw Sheen the rest of that day. Come to think of it, I haven't seen him for a month or so."

"It's not uncommon. Sometimes his meds will do that he stays home for a while to calm down."

"Ah, I see…"

The bell rang and Jimmy stood up, grabbing his notebook. Cindy grabbed all of her stuff quickly and scooted after him, trying to keep her slip-on heels on her feet as she went after him.

"Hey, wait up!" He turned. "I was wondering… could I come to your lab?"

"My lab?"

"Yeah. Have you been doing any new inventions as of late? I mean, I know you said you wouldn't share them as openly as before but I thought you'd have something going on…"

"Yeah, I do have something going on but I can't tell you about it."

Cindy put on her best fake smile, the one she used often and far too well.

"I see. Well, I'd love to come by some time."

"Aren't you still with Nick? Won't he get angry if you are hanging around me all the time?"

"Nick and I are having a conflict of interest."

"Still?"

"What do you mean 'still'? We didn't tell anyone about it…" Cindy turned her head a little and then plastered her smile back on her face. "I must be an open book to you."

"What do you mean?"

"You read it on my face, didn't you?"

"Yeah… yeah, your expressions aren't hidden very well."

"Damn… well, don't go spreading it around, okay?"

He smiled at her. "Your secret is safe with me."

"Well, I need to make a pit stop but I'll talk to you later?"

"Sure thing."

She turned to go into the bathroom but didn't go all the way in. She watched Jimmy turn the corner and then leaned on the wall, crossing her arms.

"There is something wrong going on here…"

She pulled out her cell phone and dialed a number.

"Hello?"

"Hi, is this Timmy?"

"Cindy? How did you get my number?"

"I stole it from Jimmy's phone when he wasn't looking."

"You do realize this is across dimensions, right?"

"I don't have roaming charges."

Timmy laughed. "What's up? It's got to be pretty interesting if you are calling me."

"Have you talked to Jimmy lately? I know he was doing something with you some months back. Have you talked to him about it?"

"Nope, not a word. Odd too cuz he was having a bit of an issue. I tried to contact him about a month ago and he never answered. What about Carl and Sheen? Have they heard from him?"

"It's not that we haven't seen or heard from him it's just that he's different than he was a couple months ago. There's something strange about him."

"More than usual?"

"Yes, more than usual. I have this feeling in the pit of my stomach that something is wrong."

"Well, I don't know anything else. I hope everything's alright."

"I'll say…"

"I mean are you thinking that he's not Jimmy at all?"

Cindy hadn't thought about it but now that it was brought to her attention, she had to admit that she wondered that herself. If he was doing secret experiments then Jimmy may not even be who she thought he was.

"Actually… yeah…"

"Oh?"

"Now that you mention it… I mean, he does experiments all the time so it's not implausible…"

"I might be able to help you then…"

He was quiet for a moment and Cindy waited for him.

"Do you have a bag with you?"

"I have my purse."

"Check it." Cindy did and found a strange remote inside. "This will help you figure out if Jimmy is the real Jimmy. If he isn't it'll glow red and vibrate."

"Wow! Thanks, Timmy!"

"No sweat. So… I didn't know you had my number. Is there anyway you could convince Neutron –when you find him- to open up a pathway between worlds so that I can see you again?"

Cindy smiled. "Don't you have a girlfriend yet?"

"I do but she's on vacation overseas and I'm lonely."

"Goodbye, Timmy."

"Eh, worth a shot. Hope you find what you're looking for."

Cindy smiled and ended the call. She looked at the strange contraption and hoped it worked.

Jimmy sat huddled in the corner as he tried to block out the sounds of screaming and growling. He didn't know what they were doing to Sheen but it sounded none too fun. He could only imagine what Nick was doing, considering he found Sheen's uncontrollability exhilarating, and James seemed to just like to hear him scream. After weeks of the yelling, Jimmy just made it a habit of trying not to listen.

The days had run together, so he wasn't sure how long he'd been gone, but it seemed that James' plan of infiltrating his life was going pretty well. The only thing Jimmy wanted to know was how he was going to get away with not having a baby bump. Jimmy's pants had become too tight weeks ago and he had to unzip them to fit the growing… whatever that was inside of him. He had also never gotten over his morning sickness, seeming to vomit three times a day. He was weak but other than not feed him properly, they hadn't touched him. That being said, he was trying to figure out how James was going to pull that off.

"Ding, ding, ding! Dinner time!"

Jimmy looked up as Nick walked in with a tray of food. He walked over and put it down beside Jimmy.

"Eat up, Fatty."

"Why am I still here? Nick, what is the purpose of all of this?"

"That's for James to tell you, not me. I just get to do what I want to do and that's get Cindy back, lock you away and watch you fail, and beat the hell out of Sheen as much as I like."

"Why?"

"You ask too many questions, Jimmy." James said, coming into the room. "How's Lil Baby Jimbo in there?" he said with a mocking smile.

"I'm not sure since I haven't been checked." Jimmy growled. "Let me go."

"No, I have a plan for you. Nick, leave us alone for about thirty minutes, will ya? I'd like to talk to my maker."

Nick shrugged and left as James walked over to Jimmy and smiled.

"Yes, we have lots to talk about."

ah the plot thickens as people start to realize that maybe jimmy isn't jimmy. and i'm sure jimmy was happy that cindy hacked into his phone and took his contacts. She is smart enough to do it...