Author's Note: Sorry I didn't get this chapter released earlier, I found all 4 seasons of Doug and the first season of Allegra's Window on Amazon Prime, so relived some childhood memories until I fell asleep, so, here I am with the next chapter, and, I got an idea from one of the episodes of Allegra's Window to use in this chapter, see if you can figure out what it is. And, while Angelica didn't mind lying around with a broken leg, being waited on hand and foot, will her cousin like it too? Well, let's start the chapter, and find out!
Chapter 3, The Wrong Thing to do
A week had passed since Tommy had broken his leg. Over the course of that week, all of his friends came over to see him, and even drew things on his cast. Jesse felt so bad about Tommy's broken leg, that using an old wrapping paper roll and some white paint, he made his own pretend cast that he wore on his leg, so as Tommy wouldn't have to be the only toddler wearing a cast. Everybody came over to Tommy's house everyday and played quiet games with him. They made things out of Playdough, built towers out of blocks, played rolly ball, so long as they were careful to not bump Tommy's leg, and watched plenty of Dummi Bears, Reptar, and Captain Squash on DVD. While Chuckie didn't mind the quiet activities, and not going on any adventures, Jesse, Zack, Kimi, Bobby Generic, Dil, Phil and Lil, and even Peter were starting to get bored of just, sitting around. But while they could all take a break from playing such quiet games as putting puzzles together and reading storybooks, the one toddler who was really sick of the quiet life, was the injured toddler himself.
A week felt like a lifetime to the two-year-old, and he still had the cast on his leg. It was Saturday, March 15, 2014, and Peter was watching Tommy, his brother, and all of their friends for the day. Tommy sadly sat in the playpen, with his leg propped up on a pillow, as he watched his friends playing in the backyard. Peter walked by to see Tommy, looking sad.
"What's wrong Tommy?" Peter asked.
"Can I please go outside and play?" Tommy asked.
"I'm sorry Tommy, but you have to rest your leg." Said Peter.
"But, Phil and Lil get to play in the mud, and Zack gets to play in the sandbox, why can't I?" Tommy asked.
"They don't have their legs in a cast, you do." Replied Peter.
"This isn't fair. I want to be all better. I wanna go on adventures. I wanna go outside and play with my friends. And besides, you're just sitting around in the sandbox anyway, who says I can't do that." Said Tommy.
"Hmmm, I guess you could play in the sandbox as long as you're careful. Let's go." Said Peter, carefully scooping up Tommy from the playpen and carrying him outside, but no sooner were they outside the patio door, when it started to rain, causing everybody to have to come inside.
It was lunchtime, so Peter fed all of the toddlers lunch, then he put Tommy in his usual resting spot as of late, the living room couch, which more or less, became his bed ever since he came home from the hospital, while all of the other kids, were trying to decide on a game to play.
"Hey, I know what we can play, let's play Bugs in the Rug!" Suggested Zack excitedly.
"Yeah!" Replied all of the other toddlers.
"Hey! I wanna play Bugs in the Rug too." Said Tommy from the couch.
Everybody turned in Tommy's direction, giving him a look.
"How can you play Bugs in the Rug with your leg in a cast?" Zack asked.
"I can scoot on my tummy and use my other leg." Replied Tommy, as he proceeded to climb down from the couch, landing on his stomach. But when he tried to move across the floor over to where his friends were, the cast on his leg was so heavy, that he couldn't move.
Tommy just lay there on the floor, as he let out a huge sigh, and watched his friends play their game. He watched his friends crawl around beneath the rug in the entry hall, wondering what they could find, and longing he could join them. A few minutes later, everybody peered out from under the rug, with something in their hand. Everything from dust bunnies, to nickels, to other items that had slid beneath the rug. Bobby came over to Tommy at that point, and handed him the dime he had found.
"Here Tommy, you can have what I found under the rug since you couldn't play with us." Said Bobby.
"Thanks." Said Tommy with a sigh, as he was simply plumb bored and disappointed that he had to miss out on all of the fun.
Then, Jesse came up with another game they could play.
"I know, let's play Reptar races the horses." Said Jesse.
"Hey I wanna play too." Said Tommy, who was now grabbing on to the edge of the coffee table, trying to support himself on his one good leg.
"Again Tommy, I don't think you can play this game." Said Chuckie.
"Oh sure I can." Replied Tommy, who managed to scoot around to the end of the coffee table, where they agreed to have the starting line for the race.
Once Dil returned with a Reptar action figure and a plastic horse for everybody to race across the living room, everybody lined up next to Tommy, and started the race. While everybody else crawled across the floor with their figures, Tommy simply fell forward, his Reptar doll and plastic horse, flying out of his hand.
"You know Tommy, I really don't think this is such a good idea." Said Chuckie.
"But... But..." Tommy interrupted.
"Why don't you go watch some of those Reptar videos." Suggested Zack.
"But I've seen them all already." Snapped Tommy.
Just then, the doorbell rang, and Peter walked into the living room, to find Tommy on the floor.
"Now Tommy, you're not suppose to get up from your resting place, unless I or one of the grown ups, is here to help you." Said Peter, scooping Tommy up in his arms, and going to answer the door. It was Bobby's older brother Derek, coming to pick him up.
"Well well well, if it isn't King Peter and the sticky fingered mummy man." Said Derek.
"Now Derek, don't call Tommy a mummy man. He's just got a cast on his broken leg that's all." Said Peter.
"Oh yeah? You'd better watch out Sticky Fingers, cuz soon that cast is gonna cover your whole body, and then you'll become, The Mummy Man!" Said Derek, as he let out an evil laugh.
"You know Derek, you're a dork, and I don't appreciate you being mean to Tommy like that." Said Bobby.
"Shows how much you know Dweeb, Sticky Fingers is gonna turn into the mummy man, and there's not a thing you can do about it." Said Derek.
"Please you two, we really don't need this today." Said Peter.
Just then, Tommy stuck his tongue out at Derek, and blew him a rathberry.
"Good going Tommy, stand up for yourself, even if you can't exactly stand on your own two feet right now. And Derek, thanks for coming to help Bobby walk home across the street in this rain, even if you two can't get along for two minutes." Said Peter.
"Oh, shows how much you know. Bobby and I can get along just fine." Said Derek.
"I've babysat for you two when Kelly had to work and your parents had to go out. I know for a fact you two are just, incapable of getting along. We'll see you later Bobby." Said Peter.
"Bye Tommy, bye Peter, bye everyone." Said Bobby.
"Come on Dweeb, let's go." Said Derek, as he opened back up his umbrella, grabbed Bobby's hand, and left Tommy and Dil's yard to head across the street to their house, as they lived across from the Devilles, and next door to the Carmichaels.
Peter closed the door and went and put Tommy back on to the couch. He sat down in a nearby armchair, unsure of what to do next.
"Now what are we gonna do?" Phil asked.
"We can't play outside, it's raining." Added Lil.
"Hey I know, let's all get out of here and go check out that new indoor play place, Discovery Land." Suggested Peter.
"Oooh! I love Discovery Land, I went there with my mommy and daddy and Phil and Lil, and they have all sorts of stuff to play on! A bouncy castle, slides, ball bins, and tunnels to crawl through. It's fun fun fun!" Said Jesse, jumping up and down, even in his pretend cast.
"How can you jump up and down in a cast?" Kimi asked.
"Hello, mine's pretend." Replied Jesse.
"Yeah, well mine's real and I won't be able to play with you guys." Muttered Tommy, as he slumped back against the pillows on the couch.
"Maybe not Tommy, but you can watch your little brother and friends play. Come on guys, I think we could all use a change of location, even Tommy here." Said Peter, as he got everybody's raincoats, and summoned Mickey Mouse, who had joined him that day to help with babysitting the kids, to get everybody into the toon car, and drive the gang to Discovery Land.
Location: Discovery Land in Yucaipa, California, on the afternoon of March 15, 2014
Once at the play place, Tommy was seated in a chair next to Peter, who was texting everybody's parents, letting them know where they were for the afternoon, while Chuckie, Kimi, Zack, Jesse, Dil, Phil, and Lil were all playing on the giant play structure. Tommy sat there, watching his friends and younger brother play, wishing he could be up there with them at that very moment.
Then, as Tommy watched everybody play, he couldn't help but notice that the Mcnulty boys were also there.
"Uh oh, this can't be good." Tommy thought to himself, as he watched his friends play.
He really wished at that very moment, he could join them, and then, an idea came to him.
"Hey! Maybe I'm all better, and I just, don't know it." Tommy thought to himself, as he had a flashback to when he had his first cut.
Begin Flashback.
In the flashback, Tommy was at the park, and he and Chuckie had just finished rolling down a hill, where Tommy got a second cut on his finger on the opposite hand from where his first cut was.
"Oh no Tommy, you've gots a booboo." Cried Chuckie.
"It was worth it Chuckie, even if all my blood comes out and I get an inflection." Said Tommy.
"Why would that happen Tommy?" Chuckie asked.
"Cuz I got this booboo, while you were at your grandma and grandpa's house." Said Tommy, showing Chuckie his finger with the bandage on it.
"Now, I've gots this one." Continued Tommy, as he showed him his new cut.
"Listen, Tommy listen. I had a booboo just like that once. Let me show you something!" Said Chuckie, as he ripped the bandage off of Tommy's finger.
"Ow! Why did you do that? Now the blood's gonna come out." Replied Tommy in a panic.
"No it won't. See? This one's almost gone." Said Chuckie, showing Tommy his finger, no longer bleeding.
"Then, this one's gonna be ok too!" Said Tommy, holding up his injured finger.
"Hey guys, it's a mirable, my cuts gone!" Said Tommy.
"A mirable!" Said Phil and Lil, who pulled off bandages from their foreheads.
"Didn't we have pretend booboo's?" Lil asked.
End of Flashback, returning to the present.
At that very moment, Tommy overheard something he didn't like.
"Hey! Give me back Super Thing!" Cried Kimi from inside one of the tunnels on the play structure.
"Make me." Said Timmy Mcnulty.
"Oh no, my sister's in trouble, but that tunnel looks too scary." Cried Chuckie from inside a ball bin.
"Too bad Tommy's hurted, he could save Kimi from Timmy." Said Phil.
"Yeah, too bad." Added Lil.
"We'll help." Said Zack and Jesse simultaneously, as they crawled through the ball bin over to a tunnel that led them over to the bouncy castle portion of the play structure, where they found Timmy inside the opening of the tunnel, clutching on to Kimi's Super Thing doll, which she had brought with her to play with at Discovery Land.
"Give it back!" Kimi demanded.
"No, I don't think I will." Said Timmy.
"You leave our friend alone." Zack demanded.
"Oh, we'll see about that." Said Timmy, as he grabbed Zack and Jesse's shirts, nearly choking them.
"Let go!" Cried Jesse, as he managed to punch Timmy in the chin, and break free of Timmy's grip. He grabbed Zack's hand, and the two of them ran off, to a slide on the other side of the play structure from the bouncy castle, where they slid down, and found themselves, in the video game arcade portion of Discovery Land.
"Now where do we go?" Jesse asked, looking around the video game arcade.
"I don't know Jesse, but I'm glad we're far away from that Timmy Mcnulty kid. I don't like him." Said Zack.
Tommy saw everything going on, even Timmy, who was now bouncing up and down in the bouncy castle, still clutching on to Kimi's doll, and his friends and little brother, over in the ball bin, too scared to stand up to Timmy, and Tommy, wasn't going to take it anymore.
"I don't care, I've gots to save Kimi." Tommy thought to himself, as he started to pry his cast off, using a combination of his screwdriver and his fingers. The cast ripped into several pieces that fell on the floor, but eventually, Tommy had the cast off.
At this point, Peter had gotten involved in a conversation with Conny Mcnulty, the mom of Timmy and his brothers, so Tommy knew he wouldn't get caught. He climbed down from the chair where he had been sitting, and crawled over to a set of round hand and foot wholes on a plastic piece, that led up to a slide, that would send him down to the bouncy castle where Timmy Mcnulty was.
Tommy started to climb the hand and foot wholes, when he started to feel a sharp pain in his leg.
"Maybe it's not all better after all." Tommy thought to himself, as he made his way to the top of the slide. Once he reached the top of the slide, he stood there, the pain intensifying in his leg. Biting his lip, trying to keep a straight face, he didn't care if his leg was still broken. He had to save his friends, and that's exactly what he was going to do.
Tommy slid down the slide, and landed on the floor of the bouncy castle, where he bounced all the way over to Timmy, who was twirling Super Thing in the air, like it was a conductor's baton.
"Pickles? Word at the park is, you gots a broked leg." Said Timmy.
Tommy, now standing, faced Timmy, looking angrier than ever.
"You leave my friends alone." Tommy snapped, the color quickly disappearing from his face, as the pain only got worse. But Tommy kept calm. He knew if he let out a single wimper Timmy would simply laugh at him.
"There's nothing you babies can do to make me give up this doll." Timmy scoffed.
Tommy stood there, facing the evil red headed five-year-old, his balance about to give out, but determined to win this fight. Quickly thinking, he punched Timmy in the stomach, causing him to fall backwards on to the floor of the bouncy castle, where he lost his grip on Super Thing, sending it flying through the air.
Tommy caught it, and clutched on to it tight, till Timmy got up, and tried to grab it away from Tommy.
"Hey! That's mine!" Cried Timmy.
"No! It's Chuckie's sister's, and you leave us alone." Snapped Tommy.
"Fine, but you won't be so lucky next time." Said Timmy, as he ran to the other side of the bouncy castle, and went down the slide that led him over to the video game arcade.
"Here Kimi, catch." Shouted Tommy, as he threw Super Thing in the direction of the tunnel where Kimi was watching everything.
"Tommy?" Kimi cried in surprise.
"Uh, yeah." Replied Tommy in pain, as he was to where he couldn't take it anymore.
"Come in the tunnel with me Tommy, it's like a cave." Said Kimi.
By this time, everybody else had left the ball bins and were on their way over to the bouncy castle, when Tommy painfully made his way over to the tunnel where Kimi was.
"Hey! This bouncy castle's fun!" Said Phil, as he bounced up and down in the bouncy castle next to his sister.
"I don't know, I'm starting to feel my lunch again." Said Chuckie, who was also in the bouncy castle, mainly cuz he didn't wish to be all by himself in the balls bin when Dil, Phil and Lil all escaped to the bouncy castle.
Tommy made his way into the tunnel, but as he climbed into the tunnel and started to crawl through it, he heard a crack from his leg, and felt another shot of excruciating pain shoot through it. Kimi, who was at the other end of the tunnel, about to go down a slide at the other end, where Jesse and Zack were watching from down below, noticed Tommy was way behind. She turned around to peer back into the tunnel, noticing Tommy, lying on his stomach, motionless, with a tear rolling down his cheek.
"What's wrong Tommy?" Kimi asked.
Tommy couldn't take it anymore. He responded with a loud scream of pain.
"Come on guys, we've gots to save Tommy." Cried Chuckie, as he bounced towards the entrance of the tunnel, Phil, Lil, and Dil following close behind.
Peter overheard Tommy's cry, and noticed where it was coming from. Then he looked over next to him, to find Tommy was gone, and all that remained, were several ripped up white pieces of what was once Tommy's cast.
"Kids! Stop!" Shouted Peter, who looked to see that Chuckie, Phil and Lil were about to try to help Tommy get out of the tunnel.
"But we're trying to help Tommy, and he's my bestest friend." Cried Chuckie.
"Guys, Tommy's definitely hurt, just let him stay there. I'll get a paramedic here to help him." Shouted Peter.
Just then, Peter pulled out his phone and dialed 911, in hopes to get someone to come to Discovery Land and rush Tommy to the hospital right away. Once the call had been placed, and an ambulance and paramedics were on their way, Peter got any and all kids who were on the play structure at the time, to get off, and got all of his toddlers gathered up, and into their raincoats, as they would soon be heading to the hospital, and because Peter was all alone at this point, as Mickey Mouse had to head back to the land of Disney upon dropping them off at Discovery Land, this would be all of the Rugrats first time riding in an ambulance.
Five minutes later, paramedics had arrived at Discovery Land, and they were making their way over to where Tommy was in the tunnel. After bouncing several times in the bouncy castle, a paramedic managed to get Tommy on to a stretcher, and with the help of Peter and two other paramedics who arrived at the scene, they helped the rescuing paramedic and Tommy, get out of the play structure, and everybody, got into the ambulance, and headed to the hospital.
Location: Yucaipa Hospital, on the evening of March 15, 2014
When they got there, Peter and the other rugrats were seated in a waiting room, while Tommy was taken back for another x-ray. Half an hour later, everybody heard a familiar voice.
"Peter Albany?" Said Lucy Carmichael from a doorway.
"Look kids, it's Doctor Carmichael, Susie's mom!" Said Peter excitedly, as he gathered up all of the other toddlers, and everybody followed Lucy back to a room, where they had Tommy resting in a bed, with a new cast on his leg.
"Well, good thing you got Tommy here. It appears that his broken leg, which, Didi told me about earlier in the week, has only been injured worse." Explained Lucy.
"What do you mean doctor?" Peter asked.
Lucy put the new x-ray pictures of Tommy's leg up on to a screen, and explained.
"Well, as you can see in this picture, now Tommy's leg is broken in two places, and looks like he's going to be in his cast for another five weeks." Lucy explained.
"Well, I'm not surprised, Tommy did pull his cast off and tried to use his leg before it was completely healed." Said Peter.
"Seeing that he is such a young toddler of only two, I recommend he stay indoors at his home, until his leg is completely healed. We'll see him back here in five weeks for another x-ray." Said Lucy, as she left the room.
By this time, the gang would simply be waiting for their parents to show up, so Stu and Didi could sign the release forms, and check Tommy out of the hospital, again. Peter got the other toddlers situated with some crayons and coloring books he had managed to pick up and stash away in his gray confederate uniform, and used this opportunity, to go over and talk with Tommy.
"Tommy! What were you thinking?" Peter asked.
"Kimi was in trouble, I had to save her, cuz, Chuckie and my other friends were ascared. And, I thought maybe my leg was all better. Back when I had my firstest cut, it was Chuckie who showed me that it disappeardid." Replied Tommy.
"Yes, I understand that Kimi was in trouble, and it's great that you want to help your friends. Also, I can understand that it's not easy having your leg in a cast, and it's especially not easy at your age, but speeding up the recovery process, and ripping off your cast, was the wrong thing to do. As you can see, broken bones don't heal as quickly as cuts do, and as a result of your actions, now your leg is even more broken than it was before, and you're gonna be stuck in that cast for five weeks." Explained Peter.
"Five weeks?" Tommy asked.
"Uh huh?" Peter replied.
"But, that's practically forever!" Tommy cried.
"I know it might feel like forever, but let me show you something." Said Peter, pulling a calendar, a red pen, and a black pen out of a pocket of his gray Confederate uniform.
"What's that?" Tommy asked.
"This, is called a calendar. See? Each square represents a day. Here's today, and here's five weeks from today." Explained Peter, as he went to the square that was five weeks away, and made a black dot in the corner of the square.
"Now, using this red pen, we can make an x on each day, till we get up to the day when it will be time, for you to have another x-ray, and hopefully, remove your cast." Continued Peter, as he made a red x on the current date.
"Well, ok." Tommy said with a shrug.
"No worries Tommy, if we do this everyday, I promise, the time will go by a lot faster. And over the next five weeks, your friends and I are going to do everything in our power, to make you feel comfortable." Said Peter.
"But I don't wanna watch Reptar, do puzzles, and sit around doing practically nothing. I wanna go on adventures. I wanna play at Discovery Land. And I wanna play the stuff I like to play." Cried Tommy.
"Look, Tommy, I know this might be hard to understand, but sometimes, when you're hurt, you have to give up some of the games you usually like to play, but your cast will be off soon enough, and everything will go back to normal." Said Peter.
"It will?" Tommy asked.
"Sure it will, and we'll be there every step of the way, cuz that's what friends are for." Said Peter with a smile, as he gave Tommy a hug.
"But, but, what about the mummy man? Bobby's olderer brother Derek, said I'd turn into the mummy man." Said Tommy.
"He was only kidding. You know how Derek is? He's, well, a lot of times, like a male older version of Angelica. Just ignore him." Said Peter.
"Ok, I suppose I can try." Tommy said with a sigh.
"That's my Tommy." Replied Peter, as he turned around and looked up to see that Stu, Didi, Chaz, Kira, Betty, Howard, Laura, Dana, and Aunty Celeste, had all come into the room.
"Ready to go kids?" Betty asked, as she scooped up Phil and Lil.
"Are we ever." Peter replied.
"Is everything alright?" Stu asked.
"Not exactly." Peter said, as he continued to explain to Stu and Didi everything that went down at Discovery Land, and that Tommy would be in his cast for another five weeks, as a result of making his injury worse.
A little while later, Stu and Didi signed the release papers, and the Pickles, Finsters, Barrows, Wehrenbergs, Devilles, and Peter Albany, had all left the hospital, and were all headed, for their respective homes, and Tommy was headed down a long road of broken bone recovery.
So, how will the next five weeks go for Tommy? We'll begin his journey towards recovery a second time, beginning in the next chapter.
Author's Note: Ok, for starters, if you didn't figure out what I took from Allegra's Window, the part where Jesse wore a pretend cast so Tommy wouldn't be the only one in a cast, was what was inspired by Allegra's Window. There was an episode, where Lindy hurt her paw, and had to wear a bandage, soAllegra also wore a bandage, pretending to have a booboo, so Lindy wouldn't be the only one. And yes, there was an episode of Little Bill with the same title of this chapter, and, it did take place while his arm was broken, only he did something different as a wrong thing in that episode, while in my story here, I had Tommy do what I would have expected Little Bill to do, taking his cast off and trying to use his broken body part, thinking it was all better, only to learn the hard way, that it was far from being completely healed. And the place they went to play, called Discovery Land, was inspired by a similar place I went to play as a child, called Discovery Zone, which like the play place in this chapter, had similar things, like slides, ball bins, and tunnels to play in. I don't recall it having a bouncy castle, but decided to add that in for good measure, and to make the place more of my own, not to mention, more exciting for the rugrats. Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed that chapter, which, I might add, I started out by typing it up on the iPad, only to get frustrated with my Bluetooth keyboard constantly giving me sticky keys, so finished it up on the computer, and, if I can manage to not have it be cold by the computer from now on, I may just use it from now on, but anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and, I should hopefully, have more chapters, up sometime soon.