Hiya people! I don't know why I just said that, just for fun I guess. Anyways, thanks again to my reviewers. When I started this story, I thought I was gonna get, like, 1 review. And one more thing, you'll see ... in the story signifying a change in POV.

Disclaimer: I don't own Animaniacs and no profit was made off this story. I'm just writing it for fun and to entertain people :)

Chapter 5: Sick

Yakko and Dot tried to get Wakko to tell them what the scientists did to him, but he would just shake his head and say he didn't want to talk about it. Yakko let it go after several attempts. He was just happy to have his brother back.

Buster had went home to an overjoyed Babs and the Warners had went home to the tower, where they ordered pizza and tried to forget about the whole nightmare they had all just experienced. The next morning, Yakko ran to his siblings with the newspaper.

"Check it out guys. Looks like Tamson won't be bothering us anymore."

Wakko and Dot looked at the paper.

Tamson behind bars. Arrested for illegal toon experimentation.

"How does it feel to be trapped in a cage Tamson? I bet it's not fun! I should know!" Wakko said.

"He deserves it," said Dot.

"Well, I'm gonna hang this on the fridge and maybe go shopping. We're out of hotdog buns," said Yakko, checking the cabinet.

"No hotdog buns! No!" yelled Wakko dramatically. Dot rolled her eyes.

"You guys can stay here if you want. Wakko's probably tired and I know Dot doesn't want to get off her lazy but and come with me."

"I'm not lazy!" she argued.

"Yeah, you keep telling yourself that sis," he said as he walked out the door.

And soon as he left, Dot turned to Wakko.

"What did they do to you?" she asked.

Her sudden desire to ask him questions caught him off-guard.

"What?"

"What did they do to you, ya know, in the lab?"

Wakko looked down as the painful memories began to flood back. He shuffled his feet and didn't make eye contact with Dot.

"I don't wanna talk about it," he said.

"Pretty please..."

He glanced up at her, but regretted it when he caught a glimpse of her cute face.

"Pretty please with whipped cream and chocolate and a cherry on top...?" she asked. She could see his defenses lowering.

"I won't tell Yakko," she mentioned.

Wakko sighed.

"Ok. I'll tell you."

Dot smiled, happy she was victorious.

"They gave me nightmares," he muttered.

"Wakko, I'm serious. What did they do?"

He looked at her with a serious expression.

"They gave me nightmares about losing you guys. In every nightmare, you guys would die. You and Yakko. They would keep killing you off, just to drive me insane."

Wakko looked away from her to hide his pained expression.

Guilt began to tug at Dot's heart, and she felt like she had to do something to make it up to him. She walked to his side and slowly wrapped her arms around him. He didn't say anything or try to push her off. Dot felt like she had done something right now. That this one hug was helping her brother even more than she knew. It felt good to help her brother, after all, he'd helped her lots of times before. Sure, Yakko was more of the parent figure, but Wakko could be the big brother too.

"I never want to lose you guys again," he whispered.

"Don't worry. I promise you'll never lose us again," she whispered back.

Dot suddenly remembered something from her past. The time when she realized that Wakko could be a great older brother.

"Waaaaaaaa!" a three-year-old Dot wailed as she held her knee in pain. "Yakko!" she yelled, but he didn't come.

She looked up at the swings that she had fallen off of.

Meanie swings, she thought.

She continued to cry, until she saw a figure standing in front of her.

"Y-Yakko?" she whispered in between whimpers, but then she saw the figure was much shorter than Yakko.

"G-go away Wakko! I want Yakko! H-hey! What are you doing!" she screamed as he began to lift her up and carry her.

"Put me down!" she wailed, but he carried on ignoring her constant whining.

Wakko was struggling to hold her up. He was already small, even for a five-year-old. Dot continued to scream until she was gently put down on a small blanket. Her blanket. In the abandoned building they were living in at the moment. Wakko had carried her from the park all the way to their current shelter. Wakko panted and sat down next to her.

"Yakko's out looking for food," said Wakko quietly. He didn't talk much.

Dot suddenly felt very guilty. She was supposed to have stayed in their shelter, but she had wondered off and found the park. She looked up to Wakko with thankful eyes. If he hadn't followed her to the park, she would've been all alone with a hurt knee.

She crawled next too him, being careful of her knee, and lay her head on his shoulder.

"Thanks," she said.

"Uh, Dot. You can let go now."

Dot came back to reality and realized she was still hugging Wakko. She quickly let go of him.

"Sorry," she said.

He gave her a goofy smile, his tongue hanging out of his mouth.

"That's ok! We all need a Disney moment sometimes."

"I've got hotdog buns! And ice cream!" said Yakko as he burst through the door. "Who wants some?"

"Me!" Wakko and Dot said in unison.

Late that night...

"Hellooooo Cindy Crawford!" Yakko said quietly as he stared at the magazine cover.

He loved staying up late, even if he had to go to shoot his show at five in the morning. He continued to flip through the magazine till he saw a small figure standing at in the doorway.

"Hi Wakk. Did I wake you?"

Wakko shook his head and continued to look at the ground. Yakko noticed the stressed look on Wakko's face.

"You alright?" he asked.

"I had a bad dream," said Wakko.

Yakko motioned Wakko to the spot on the couch next to him. Wakko came over and sat down, laying his head on Yakko's shoulder.

"Do you want to tell me about it?"

Wakko shrugged his shoulders.

"It's really no big deal. It was just a clown dream," he said sleepily.

Yakko was somewhat shocked. Usually a clown dream, in Wakko's opinion, was a horrible nightmare.

"If that was a bad dream, then what's a nightmare?" Yakko asked, curious.

"A nightmare takes away what you love most and makes it seem like it's really happening, even though it's just a dream."

Yakko was stunned. If that's what a nightmare was, than he'd never had one.

"Well, if that's the case, I'm glad it was just a bad dream and not a nightmare," said Yakko, not admitting his confusion.

Wakko still seemed slightly upset about something. Any other person wouldn't have noticed the stress hidden in Wakko's eyes, but Yakko wasn't just any other person, he was a big brother.

"You ok Wakk?" he asked, concerned, but Wakko had closed his eyes and drifted to sleep.

Yakko smiled and lifted Wakko's hat off his head, sitting it on the table next to the couch. He carried his sleeping brother to his room and lay him on top of his bed. He would pull the covers over him, but his room tended to get warm at night and he would just kick them off anyways.

The next morning...

Yakko sat at the table as he ate some pancakes. He struggled to keep his eyes open.

Can twelve-year-olds get insomnia? I'm pretty sure I have it.

"Morning Yakko," Dot said as she came into the kitchen rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

"Morning," he replied.

Dot poured herself a bowl of cereal and sat down across from him. Yakko peered at the entrance to the hallway, expecting Wakko to sluggishly walk into the kitchen at any moment, but he never did. Yakko sighed.

It was because of that nightmare he had in the middle of the night. Wait, not a nightmare, a bad dream.

"Dot, will you do me a favor and go wake up sleeping beauty?"

"He's not beautiful when he sleeps! I am!" she said, taking his request into offense. Yakko rolled his eyes.

"Fine, can you wake up the sloth? Is that better?"

"Much. And yes, I will wake him up," she said, smiling with victory.

...

Dot walked down the hall to Wakko's room, when she suddenly had a random thought.

How can a hallway even fit in a water tower?

She shrugged at her own question and opened Wakko's door. He was laying on top of his covers, not unusual for him. Dot walked to his bed and climbed on it.

"Wakko... it's time to get up," she said, gently shaking his shoulders.

He just moaned, not opening his eyes.

Fine. Looks like I'll have to do this the hard way.

She grinned.

"Wakko! You know that show, Animaniacs? Yeah! We have that today! So, GET UP!" she yelled into his ear, shaking his shoulders violently.

She laughed as she ran behind his door, bracing herself for a furious brother. Her smile faded away when he simply let out a small cough and turned his back to her. Her joy was quickly replaced with worry. She walked over to his bed again, climbing on.

"Wakko? Are you ok?" she asked, concerned.

Wakko's eyes half opened, but then fell shut again.

"Leave me alone," he mumbled, but it was barely audible.

Dot was really worried now. She climbed behind him on the bed and carefully pulled him up so that his head was in her lap. She didn't know why she did this, she just felt like she had to do something. Her worry sparked when she felt the heat of fever radiating off his body. She could see sweat beading his forehead and his chest moving up and down in an abnormal pattern. Dot's tail twitched nervously.

"Yakko!"

...

Yakko heard Dot call his name, and at first he thought it was because she couldn't get Wakko up.

"Forget it Dot, you're getting him up today!" he yelled back as he read the newspaper.

"Yakko! Wakko's body is hot!"

"G'night everybody!" was his reply, but Dot wasn't laughing.

"Yakko please!" she pleaded. "He's breathing funny!"

Yakko, hearing this news, sprinted down the hall to Wakko's room. He saw an ill looking Wakko with his head on a terrified Dot's lap. He ran to the bedside and became frightened when he saw Wakko's ragged breathing.

Did I miss something? Was he sick last night? He seemed relatively fine other than the dream.

"Dot, I'm gonna call Mr. Plotz and tell him we're not shooting today. Stay with Wakko, ok?"

She nodded, and he could see tears welling up in her eyes.

"Dot, calm down. I'm sure he'll be ok."

Dot nodded again, but didn't looked convinced.

Yakko ran to the phone like his life depended on it. Hell if he was doing their show today with Wakko so sick, and Wakko was obviously unable to work today. Plotz wouldn't be happy, but hey, family comes before work... and everything else.

Poor Wakko. Anyways, sorry the update took so long. There was a power outage where I live and it erased the whole chapter, but I wrote it again and here it is! Well, I'll see ya next chapter. I'm gonna go make soup for Wakko or something. :)