Hello guys. As you could see, what happened at the end of the last chapter was kinda heartbreaking. But I had to make it that way, for the purpose of advancing the plot further.

I can't help but notice that several users have sent me suggestions for of the plot, and I think they're pretty interesting. However, I have the biggest part of the plot already thought through. Nevertheless, I might consider said suggestions.

To Zemach, I'm sorry. Penny's really dead.

Anyway, here it is. The plot advanced further. Chapter 5. Enjoy!

Chapter 5: Loraine

Almost all of Elmore showed up at Penny's funeral. Because pretty much everyone who knew Gumball, whether it be family and friends or from his shenanigans across the town, also knew Penny. There was an amount of people who only showed up because they didn't want to be impolite. But mostly, the people there really were mourning the loss of a person they knew.

Hardly anyone felt more devastated by Penny's death than Gumball was. Well, except for Penny's mother and little sister; Judith and Polly Fitzgerald. Especially Polly. Gumball could barely imagine it; she wasn't even in grade school, and she already had to see her big sister leave her life forever.

Patrick didn't show up, though.

It was a sunny day.

During the whole funeral, Gumball wasn't paying attention to his mourning relatives and friends. He wasn't even looking at Penny's grave. He had his eyes closed, remembering all the adventures he had gone through with Penny. Breaking out of her shell, trying to propose her when they were only 12, attempting to impress her by having her go around the whole town, etc. It's little to say he was crushed, by the fact that he would never be able to do those kind of things with her again.

He burst into tears. He hugged the first person next to him. It was Polly. She was also crying. And why wouldn't she? Gumball imagined she was in a lot more pain than he was. Penny was her sister, after all, and now, she was at her funeral.

Soon, all of the Wattersons and the Fitzgeralds joined the hug. They all shared the same sadness. It was one big sadness. Penny may not have left as big an impact on some of them as she did on Gumball, but she was part of all of their lives. They were no less sad about her death than Gumball was.

After the funeral, Gumball stayed at the graveyard. His family understood that he was still in deep thoughts about this and had to process it all, and they didn't want to bother him. So they left him alone.

Gumball was sitting on the ground, staring at Penny's gravestone, lost in the thoughts about her. Every now and then, he would burst into tears. He missed her. He missed her so much. He couldn't find a way to explain to himself why it had ended up like this. He knew why, but he spent time wondering if it could have happened some other way.

Then, he spoke.

"I'm sorry, Penny..." he said, staring at the graveyard, not entirely sure what he was sorry for. Everything a little, actually. "I'm sorry for..." He tried to construct a sentence that would make some sense, but he didn't know how to begin. He wasn't even entirely sure how it went wrong. And again, he really did know, but it was so inexplicably unbearable that he couldn't cope with it.

So he burst into tears once again. This time the hardest. Only now did it actually hit him that Penny was gone. That he would never ever see her again. It hurt him. It physically hurt him. So he collapsed on the ground and cried his heart out.

Then, he fell asleep.

He woke up an hour later. It was beginning to get dark. So he had to get home. Just because he was mourning, didn't mean he wouldn't have to show up to work the next day. Besides, his job made him money for what became a priority for him right now - providing a good life for his newborn daughter.

Loraine Watterson-Fitzgerald. That's the name Gumball chose. He didn't spend a lot of time picking one. He thought Penny would like it.

During the funeral, Loraine was babysit by Granny Jo-jo, so Gumball first went there, to pick her up. Richard offered him a ride back to Nicole's house, which Gumball accepted, but before that, Richard gave him a big hug. It was only then that Gumball felt a little easier. A little.

When he came home, with Loraine in his hands, Nicole immediately stopped cooking and took Loraine in her hands, because she knew her son's obligations regarding his job, she knew he had to get some sleep, and most importantly, she knew he needed some time alone.

Gumball immediately went to sleep.


The next day, it was just another day in Elmore. Everyone was back to their usual daily routine. So was Gumball. He had a job of cleaning bowling balls and the whole place and things like that. It wasn't a very difficult job. He didn't complain, as long as it made him money. His boss knew what Gumball had recently gone through, so he chose to go easy on him for a while.

Loraine was at home, babysit by Nicole. She had to take a few days off, to take care of her granddaughter, until the family could put everything in order, because of Gumball's job and Loraine. It wouldn't be easy, but somehow they had to get through it. Luckily, Nicole has plenty of experience in parenting, so Loraine should be no difficulty.

Gumball was doing his regular routine, preparing all the things necessary for the hundreds of people who would show up, most of which didn't know the first thing about bowling. As time passed, Gumball saw all kinds of talent at bowling that day; some of the teams that showed up were extraordinary, some were terrible, and there were of course all those teams that were something in between. Gumball was in charge of kind of surveying everything, making sure nothing goes wrong for the players.

And as ironic as it could get, it went wrong for him.

In the middle of his day, Gumball was just doing his job. The two teams that were competing each other were both actually quite good. The better one of them, in fact, beat the record of the bowling arena.

And suddenly, a shout was heard from just outside the bowling arena.

"YOU!"

Everyone else turned around in confusion, wondering who it could've been said towards. But Gumball was frightened, because he knew it was for him, from the seriousness of the voice.

The figure that shouted came closer, and - you guessed it - it was Patrick. Full of rage, full of anger, ready to destroy anything he even thought about. And he looked at Gumball.

Gumball couldn't even move.

"YOU PIECE OF SHIT! YOU KILLED MY DAUGHTER!" Patrick yelled at him. Gumball could barely even take a step back, before Patrick slammed his fist against Gumball's face, so hard that it sent Gumball to fall backwards, hitting a wall. Everybody in the bowling arena stood there in utter shock, for they were just witnessing a one-sided fight that was happening for what they thought was no reason. Nobody even dared approach Patrick, let alone try to stop him from beating an innocent man. And this, sadly, did so much good for Patrick.

After Gumball was thrown to the wall, his heart was beating fast, he was breathing heavily. He tried to say something to Patrick, he tried to shout please, but he was just too scared to do that. Or to even stand up.

And this also, sadly, did good for Patrick, because at the peak of his rage, he took the heaviest bowling ball out there, and threw it on Gumball's right ankle.

The only thing that could be heard next was:

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Unbearable doesn't begin to cover the pain that Gumball was in. And since his body wasn't able to take all those hits and beatings - he passed out.


When he opened his eyes, the first thing he did was try to catch some air, but he saw he had an oxygen mask on his face.

He realized he was in a hospital bed.

His boss was standing right next to him.

"Oh, you're alive," the boss said. "I was almost worried for a second that you would die."

Gumball just uttered: "Yeah..." and sighed. He looked at the screen that showed his heartbeat, just to make sure he was still alive. He was.

"That idiot was arrested," the boss said. Gumball felt a little relieved by that.

But then, he remembered something. He hadn't seen Loraine since he left the house that morning. In fact, he had barely even seen her at all since she came to this world. Which made him feel awful again.

Suddenly, the door swung open.

"Where's my son?!" It was Nicole. She rushed to the hospital as soon as she heard what happened. She saw her son in the hospital bed, all beaten up. She had no other choice but to feel sorry him.

"There you are, my beautiful little angel," Nicole said to her son, patting him on the head. "I'm gonna kill that bastard," she said angrily.

"Not literally, I hope," Gumball's boss gulped. Nicole looked at him roughly. He panicked a little. "Ms. Watterson...?"

Nicole sighed. "No. Of course not literally," she said. Then she turned back to her son. "We hope you'll get better soon. Loraine is not letting us sleep."

"Yeah, I bet she-" Gumball began, but then he panicked. "Wait, where is she?!"

"Oh, I left Darwin and Anais in charge of her," Nicole said happily.

"Mom..." Gumball said suspiciously. "Are you sure that was a good idea?"

"Well, no," Nicole said, "but it wasn't exactly like I had time to make a choice. I had to rush here, honey."

"Yeah... thank you," Gumball said. Nicole then kissed him in the forehead.

"I love you, honey," she said.

"I love you too, mom," Gumball said back. "I'll be back as soon as I can, I promise."

"Please, be," Nicole said desperately. "The house is a complete mess right now."

Gumball laughed. Nicole then did, too.

"Sorry, I have to go back to work," she said softly. "See you later."

"Bye," Gumball said. And Nicole went out.

There was a long period of silence afterwards.

"So..." Gumball's boss then said, "You're still coming to work tomorrow, right?"

Gumball then went back to sleep.

This concludes chapter 5. Again, I will consider some of the ideas you've sent me. Until chapter 6, leave reviews and see you!