It had taken thirty minutes but Sam was finally ready to go back to the processing room, she struggled a little to get out of the soft cushy chair that seemed to want to keep her hostage, finally she freed herself and made her way to the door, running into Barb as she did. "Barb! How did you know I was up here?"

"I saw you." Barb replied, fidgeting with her hands nervously.

Sam looked confused. "Come up here? But you weren't looking, oh never mind, Barb I am sorry for your lost, it must have just been horrible." Sam said carefully not knowing what to expect from the ape. "If it makes you feel any better Flint and the others are waiting for us at rock candy mountain and Steve seemed to have taken quite a liking to you!" She finished saying last part with the pep of a cheerleader.

It was Barb's turn to look confused, she stared at Sam for the better of five seconds before appearing to be debating something with herself, it was a full ten seconds before she spoke.

"Um, thank you but well..."

Sam nodded encouragingly.

"Well he is, um Chester is...Fine."

Sam stared at her blankly, that wasn't possible she had seen- "No, he is-No."

"Yes, broke every bone in his body, but he's alive" Barb said, hoping the exaggeration would somehow make thing a little better. It didn't.

"Wha-" Sam took a step back, her words beginning to tumble incoherently into each other. "But he's crazy, he almost killed us-the police-my car what am I going to tell Flint?!"

Barb watched the girl yank at her hair making highly disturbing faces as she did and yelling about crab balls. Barb sensed that she should leave.

Quickly.

Producing a card Barb attempted to thrust it into Sam's now flailing hands succeeding only on the third attempt.

"Here's my card, you'll only get me when you call the number" The number actually went to the estate, but since Chester was afraid of telemarketers he never answered the phone so Barb's statement was mostly true.

"So call me tomorrow and we can sort out any legal issues, sound good?" Bard asked,trying to keep the hopeful tone out of her voice, Sam continued panicking and didn't answer.

"Or whenever you're ready..Yeah, I need to go."

Leaving Sam to freak out in the lobby, Barb went to find the medicine and glasses, then rushed back to the lounge and to her relief found Chester still awoke staring at a wall.

"Here you are, you should probably wait on putting those glasses on they might mess with your nose." She said, a bit out of breath, where was her scooter when she needed it?

Chester took them with a quiet thank you, then began watching her with a strange look on his face. "Barb, are going home now?"

"Why?" Barb asked curiously.

"Because I just remembered something important." He stated, Barb looked at him expectantly. "I left Kit Kat in the sun room he's probably torn it up, also he has no food and that was almost two days ago."

Barb slapped her forehead, she had forgotten all about him, Kit kat was Chester's pet...Something, Barb wasn't sure what he was, he looked a lot like a long legged dog and a little bit like a fox with his red and black fur, Chester never told her exactly what he was, only that Kit kat wasn't a dog or a fox. Regardless of what Kit kat was, he still needed food and water, Barb nodded and said with and irritated sigh.

"I'll have someone prepare the jet."

In the end, Barb couldn't find anyone to help her and ended up trudging to the roof and powering the jet up herself and putting in home's coordinates which was relatively easy.

As Barb was doing this, she noticed that the sun was rising, casting a warm glow on the factory pathway and surrounding jungle below.

A dainty figure sat on the pathway clutching something to this side of its head, Barb knew it must have been Sam.

At least she had stopped having a panic attack in the lobby.

Wait was she on the phone? Barb looked closer, it certainly appeared that way, Barb became worried, if Sam was on the phone that probably meant she was calling the police.

No not the police, the only policeman on the island was Earl and cell phone reception had been blocked by two small transmission blockers on the towers, so it wasn't interstate police either, that meant Sam was using a walkie talkie or something similar, unfortunately Barb took that to mean she was talking to her boyfriend and telling him everything that happened which meant he and his friends would more than likely be coming back to the factory, Barb thought this was very bad.

So, Barb ran back downstairs, put Chester back on the lab cart and threw him along with the cart into the jet, turned on the thrusters and waited for the jet to take them home, all done with speed that would impress a cheetah.

"It's all just horrible Manny." Sam sobbed into the radio as she finished the story, Manny had been the first to answer the radio and so he was the first to hear the bad news.

"I see." Manny said his voice quiet and sympathetic. "Do you wan't me to tell Flint this?"

"No, I can tell him, thanks Manny." Sam said with a sniffle and calmed down a bit. "Can you put him on for me?"

After a quick, "Of course." from Manny, Sam heard Flint's bubbly voice next, apparently Manny had done such a good job at keeping his voice even no one thought a thing was amiss.

"Hi Sam! Hows Barb doing?" The sheer innocence in his voice made Sam burst into tears again at the thought of breaking the news to him.

How would he ever move on now?

"Sam what's wrong, what did I say?" Flint asked frantically.

"Nothing, Flint you didn't say anything wrong, it's just that something horrible happened." Sam choked.

"What! Oh no Barb didn't jump into the food processor did she?" Flint asked, worry tinging his voice.

"Nooo." Sam groaned pitifully. "It's Chester, he isn't dead." Suddenly Sam became very angry and started yelling. "Why can't the bad guy just die for once!"

"Wait slow down Sam, what did you say?"

"I said Chester is still alive."

"Oh." There it was, Sam could practically hear him reliving that night's heartbreak again.

"Flint I'm so sorry-" Suddenly there was a gust of wind so strong it knocked Sam flat on her face and trees bending after her.

"Sam? SAM?"

Sam popped back up and trees shot up straight sending bushels of fruit sailing deep into the jungle, Sam picked the radio back up.

"Now their leaving." Sam said slowly for some reason this revelation caused her to wail louder than before and she laid her head back on the cement willingly.

"Sam, wait no don't do that please, I know it seems really, really bad but this isn't the end of the world I-"

"Yes it is!" She cried hoarsely, banging her head on the cement.

"No, I pr-" Flint was saying when suddenly his voice was whisked away.

"STEVE!" Steve greeted loudly.

"Steve, give the radio back to Flint." Sam instructed sadly.

"SAM!" The monkey chirped then added quite clearly. "NO". Sam couldn't help but laugh a little at that and by the time Flint had wrestled the radio from the monkey and promised they were on their way, Sam already felt a lot better.

The jet was traveling at top speed and told them they would arrive in two hours still Barb worried they weren't going fast enough and kept looking out the window almost expecting to still be on the island.

Chester was on the floor next to the lab where she had left him.

"I can't believe, you threw me down here." Chester complained.

"I didn't throw you." Barb insisted, still frantically looking out the window. "I put you down there, from a distance, there is a difference."

"Difference, what difference?"

Barb told him to be quiet and kept looking out the window Chester pouted and attempted to cross his arms but couldn't.

It was close to noon when they finally hovered over the estate, Barb who was still in a frantic rush landed the jet on top of one of the garages, Chester saw this and wasn't in the least bit pleased.

"Did you just break my garage?"

"Oh hush," Barb said, flushing. "And I'm mad at you, you know."

Chester shot her an incredulous look and Barb flushed deeper this time partly out of anger. "Just go and feed Kit Kat."

"I would." Chester drawled. "If I could get off the floor."

"Oh right."

After a while of struggling with him it was found that Chester could walk not well but it was better than having to drag him everywhere.

Kit Kat was still locked in the sun room and as Chester had suspected, he had torn it up and left many 'gifts' Barb looked at Chester pointedly, who whined and sat on the floor, the idea of scrubbing the room reminded him of his many injuries and he fully planned on using them as a viable excuse.

"I'm sick, I can't clean."

Barb looked at him angrily, because this was true and that meant she'd end up cleaning everything up.

"Go to your room."

Chester glanced at her tiredly. "I was planning to."

"Actually go to the infirmary, I need to look at your head. "

He looked at her a refute clearly on his tongue, then suddenly he stopped, looking at her with the queerest expression, the next thing Barb knew she was covered in warm smelly liquid.

This was shaping up to be a very bad day.

Another chapter very late at night, but here it is!

Do you like the idea of a pet in this story?

If you see any errors please let me know.

God bless you.