A/N- Okay, back to the story that I was seriously having withdrawals from! Even more so than A.R. because I can just really feel the chemistry building as I write it. Also, I knew from the get go alot of the main things that I want to happen in this story and I already know that it doesn't end after this story cause it's gonna be a trilogy : D So needless to say, this story has me extremely stoked! The joke about Carl running is credited to my sister because she pointed out how goofy Carl looks when he's running on the video game!! And I can't help but laugh, myself, at the thought of girls acting giggly over a robot! Gotta love the future. But hey, I think I'd date Carl : P Carl rocks! Other than that...it's good to be back, so on to the chapter!

Sorry For The Words I've Spoken

Night had finally fallen in Todayland, much to the relief of Carl and Tallulah, although the two hadn't spoken more than a handful of words to one another since the incident in the lab and that was only so that the kids wouldn't get any notions of 'divide and conquer' in their scheming little minds. All of the boys had made bunk in the front room and foyer area with Carl as their chaperone, while the girls bunked in the music lounge with Tallulah.

Of course it didn't mean that everyone fell asleep immediately. Carl spent at least an hour showing off all of his built in gadgets to the curious boys.

"What about a Swiss army knife?" one of Buzz's buddies asked, wanting to know if Carl had it.

"You dweeb, he's already like a walking Swiss army knife! So why would he need one?" Buzz slapped the back of his friend's head as he said it.

"Well, uh, not exactly the nicest way to put it, Buzz, but basically it's true. I don't really need one," Carl answered.

"Well, then, how do you run!?" asked another boy as soon as Carl finished his response.

"I don't know what you mean? How do I run?" Carl was baffled by the question.

"Dude, your feet are like suction cups. That can't make it easy to get anywhere in a hurry," the boy mocked what he imagined the robot ran like as the others laughed.

"Hey! I do not run like that," Carl defended but couldn't help laugh as he looked down at his feet. "I guess I could understand why you'd think that."

"So do you have a thing for Tallulah?" Buzz asked suddenly.

"What?" the question took Carl off guard as all of them stared at him. "Well, do you have a thing for Tallulah?" Carl tried rebounding the question towards the boy.

"Totally! She's the total package," Buzz answered without even giving it another thought as the others cheered him on.

Meanwhile, Tallulah spent time with the girls doing nails and hair and talking about girl stuff. "You're so pretty," one of the girls complimented as Tallulah painted her toe nails.

"Oh, well, thank you," the comment flattered Tallulah. "But so are you. All of you."

"No, I'm not…" the girl sighed in response to the returned compliment.

"Of course you are," Tallulah insisted.

"But I have freckles and braces and ugly hair. I don't have a pretty smile or pretty eyes like you," the little girl argued.

Tallulah though for a moment as she finished up the girl's last toe. She then looked around the room and heaved an inner sigh of relief at what she noted. "Who here has freckles?" she asked and only the same girl raised her hand. "Well, what do you know? It looks like that makes you one of a kind," Tallulah said with a smile. "You know, when I was younger, my friend had braces and after they came off, I was so jealous of her. Every girl was. She had a smile so perfect it was almost a crime. As for your hair, at least you're lucky enough to have a hair color that compliments your eyes," Tallulah said in reference to the fact that her own hair color and eye hair color were extreme opposites almost. "And what beautiful eyes they are. Sparkling because they know they belong to a beautiful face."

The girl smiled a bright smile and hugged Tallulah. "I wish everyone could see what you see."

"What matters is what you see," Tallulah said warmly. "You could compliment me a million times but I could still sit here all night and points out the millions of things that I think are wrong with me. It starts with how I see myself. So how do you see yourself?"

"I'm beautiful," the girl smiled and hugged Tallulah again.

"That's right," Tallulah felt better than she had since her scuffle with Carl. However it was short lived as the conversation took a turn.

"But you are really pretty. I bet Carl thinks so too," one of the girls said with a giggle.

"Carl?" Tallulah's hear jumped at the very mention of his name as she suddenly remembered how he had yelled at her in the lab. "I don't know if that's really the case. I don't think that he thinks that I'm ugly by any means, at least, I hope he doesn't but I don't think he even notices those sorts of things."

"I bet he notices everything!" the girl protested. "He is a robot after all."

"I think he's a dreamy robot," another girl said boldly, sending the group into a round of girlish chattering on the subject.

--The Lab (2037)--

"He's been charging all night," Camila huffed. "Are we sure this is going to work?" Wilbur had remembered that the time machine could be powered for a brief period of time by an old fashioned battery source and now Carl was charging so that he could hook himself up to the time machine and act as that source.

"Face it, Camila," Lewis sighed, growing tired as the night dragged on. "Wilbur got it right. I ran all of the specs and made the necessary modifications to Carl. This should work."

"When will you learn to just trust me?" Wilbur asked Camila smugly.

"When we get back home," Camila said stubbornly, crossing her arms. "At least your grandparents aren't here. Or that could have made matters worse."

"It's a little unusual though. Mom and dad never call at the last minute to tell me I'm going to be staying home alone," Lewis said skeptically and then turned and looked knowingly at his future son. "Wilbur…"

"Okay, so I might have called grandma and grandpa and told them they won a free night's stay at a snazzy hotel," Wilbur admitted.

"A snazzy hotel? And how to pass of that they actually won?" Lewis asked, staring over the rims of his glasses.

"What do you mean?" Wilbur asked, not understanding what his dad meant.

"I mean, what happens when they get there and there's no prize?" Lewis' voice showed a hint of aggravation.

"Oh, that. Yeah, I've got that covered too. I also called the hotel and told them that a Bud and Lucille Robinson would be checking in soon and that they were the parents of the famous whiz kid Cornelius Robinson. As soon as I said that, they immediately offered them free room and board," Wilbur grinned his usual cocky grin and Lewis and Camila glanced at each other with wide eyes.

"For someone so deviously brilliant…" Camila didn't even finish. She couldn't believe it but even she had to admit that it was a clever plan.

"I won't say anything this time, because, well, it worked in our favor," Lewis said shaking his head as he did. "But seriously, Wilbur…we need to find you a better outlet."

--The Music Lounge--

The music lounge was dark; all of the girls had finally fallen asleep. However, it wasn't entirely silent. Amidst snores and a few who mumbled in their sleep, Tallulah lay awake, crying to herself as quietly as she could. But as hard as she tried not to disturb any of the children, it wasn't long before she felt a light tap on her shoulder. She looked up, turned her head and saw Talia standing beside her.

"Why are you crying?" Talia asked sweetly.

Talia couldn't help but smile, even if it was rather weakly. She wiped her eyes and sat up so that she could be eye level with the little girl. "It's nothing. I'm sorry I woke you," she whispered.

"That's alright," Talia said sitting down Indian style. "Did somebody make you sad?"

Tallulah bit her lip to keep herself from letting more tears come out. "I guess you could say that. But I'll be fine, really."

"Wanda says that anyone who makes a person sad on purpose isn't very nice."

"Well, I don't know if they did it on purpose or not. That's the thing, sweetie, they've never been mean to me before. And now I feel like they're a completely different person," Tallulah wiped away a few more stray tears. "But I don't need to be explaining all of this to you. It's late and you need your rest after the busy day we've all had. After all we've all had a very long and trying day so maybe…" she sighed as her sentence trailed.

"Don't be sad," Talia hugged Tallulah tightly. "Being sad is no fun. Wanda says I used to never cry even though I didn't have a mommy. She said all of the others did when they were babies, but not me. She said it's like I knew that being sad wouldn't change anything and so I wasn't."

Tallulah tried to swallow the lump that had risen into her throat. She couldn't feel sorry for herself anymore now that she thought of Talia and how she had no family to call her own. "You're right. Being sad isn't any fun. So if you promise me that you'll go back to sleep and get some rest, then I promise I'll go to sleep too and I won't think anymore sad thoughts. Deal?"

"Okay," Talia answered with a smile before hurrying back over to her little cot.

Tallulah laid back down on her sleeping bag, and stared at the ceiling for a few moments. Her thoughts betrayed her promise and attempted to return to how angry Carl had been with her and how much of a fool he must have thought that she was when he said what he said to her. But she refused to let the thoughts linger. "A deal is a deal," she sighed and rolled over, closing her eyes and hoping for sweeter dreams than she really expected would come.

--The Music Lounge(The Next Morning)--

Tallulah yawned and stretched, surprised that she actually felt rested. She slowly sat up in her sleeping bag, rubbed her eyes and looked around. She immediately noticed that none of the girls were in the lounge. Panicking, she stood to her feet and ran out into the hall. As she ran towards the foyer, she heard something. It sounded like Carl. She followed the sound until she saw that it was a prerecorded message playing on the Robinson television. It seemed to be on a cycle through. As she stood there she waited for it to start again, trying not to listen as it played through.

"Tallulah, what I said yesterday. I didn't mean a word of it. I wasn't really annoyed with you. I was more annoyed by everything else that had happened, and I don't know, I guess that was just the final thing to send me over the edge. I guess even robots can only take so much. If Wilbur hadn't swiped the time machine, I'd go back and stop myself from saying it. I guess I could use the other one…so what I'm saying is I'm sorry. If you're wondering where the kids are, don't worry. I've got it all taken care of. All you need to worry about is getting to that lunch in time. I called Mr. Vantino back last night and told him that you could still make it to the lunch. And I can tell you he sounded pretty…" there was a pause, almost a moment of hesitation, "…excited. He was really nice, so I'm even sorrier if I sounded annoyed with him also. Maybe I'll take the kids to the zoo or something of that sort so feel free to bring Mr. Vantino over to look at your designs as you originally planned. This is a big chance for you and I don't want to ruin it." There was another pause followed by a sigh, "Again, I'm sorry. I hope your lunch date is so wonderful you forget about all of what you had to put up with yesterday. And hopefully by the time night falls, the machine will be fixed." The message came to an end and after a few moments, started up again.

Tallulah turned off the television and sat down on the couch. She couldn't believe what she had heard. "Oh, Carl, what are you thinking? You can't handle those kids on your own." Tallulah turned the television back on and switched it to the picture phone mode. She was about to call the local zoo and have them page to see if Carl and the children were there when the T.V. alerted her of an incoming call. She answered it and saw Johnny come onto the screen. "Hi, Johnny, I wasn't expecting a call from you."

"Oh, I know. And I'm sorry it's early. I just wanted to let you know that the reservation is still for noon. I was pretty happy to get that call from, what is his name, Carl?" Tallulah nodded. "He told me everything. Why didn't you just tell me that one of your cousin's inventions malfunctioned?"

"I thought you might think it was, you know, strange…" Tallulah admitted. She had only told him that an orphanage was staying with them, not the details of what had happened with the machine.

"Are you kidding? Sounds exciting. But I'm sure living with the famous Cornelius Robinson is full of exciting times," Johnny said with a laugh.

"I guess you could say there's never a dull moment," Tallulah smiled nervously. She then remembered her plan to call the zoo. "Hey, about the lunch. Actually, I…"

"Don't worry about a thing. I'm still looking forward to it just as much now as I was yesterday before you called me. And I can't wait to see your designs afterwards either. I'm sure they'll be amazing."

Tallulah relented. She had already cancelled once and Carl had insisted she go. He might be more upset with her if she didn't. Despite his apology, she still felt that he really had been annoyed with her and that he was just saying what he had said because he felt obligated to say it and not because he meant it. "Well, I should get off of here so I can get ready."

"Oh, I don't know. I think the pajamas are cute," Johnny teased. Tallulah suddenly realized that she was still in her fluffy pink pajamas and blushed bright red. "Hey, don't worry about it. I like it when girls don't worry about their appearance. And yet I'm in the fashion business where there's nothing but a bunch of prima donnas…and you thought your dilemma with the broken invention is strange," Johnny laughed as he said it. "So, hey, I'll meet you at the restaurant?"

"Sounds wonderful," Tallulah answered. As soon as she hung up, she couldn't help but squeal with delight. Without giving another though towards Carl or the children, she ran first to her personal fashion room, which had been built especially to help her launch a fashion career, and laid out the designs she wanted to show Johnny when they returned. She then ran to her room to prepare for the lunch.