Christopher Robin came to after a few minutes. He was shocked to see that the sudden reappearance of his childhood stuffed animal friends wasn't just a dream and it took a while for Roo, Pooh and Winnie to calm him down. After Christopher Robin had absent-mindedly poured them coffee he picked up the phone and called his doctor. It went to the answer machine. "Hi, doctor, its Christopher Robin Milne here. I think I need to have my brain checked. My old stuffed animals have come alive and now they're in my house. I'm having an episode with them right now. We're sitting in my living room, drinking coffee, except the stripy kangaroo, she doesn't seem to like it. Please call me back!" Christopher Robin then put the phone down and turned back to his old friends. For a minute he sat silently before screeching. "OH MY GOSH! WHAT IS GOING ON?!"
"Calm down!" Roo hopped over and put a paw on his human friends shoulder. Christopher Robin took a few deep breaths and calmed down.
"I can't believe it. My mother made me spend hours in therapy, convincing me that you guys didn't exist. I just made you guys up," Christopher Robin said, half to himself.
"No, Christopher Robin." Pooh padded over and looked into his eyes. "It was real!"
"No, it wasn't real, I dreamed about the times I had with you. You are not a living stuffed animal. You're. Not. Real!"
"If I'm not real, how am I standing here? You can see me," Pooh placed a paw on his shoulder. "You can feel me. You can hear me. So how can I not exist?"
"Fair enough…" Christopher Robin glanced at Roo and Winnie. "You must be Roo…an older Roo. But I have no idea who you are," He got up and walked over to Winnie, who looked at the ground, shyly.
"This is my half-sister Winnie. She's mom and Tigger's daughter," Roo explained. Christopher Robin chuckled in amusement.
"You sure are cute." Christopher Robin knelt down and stroked the top of Winnie's head. "But I want to know why you're here," The man added, looking at Pooh.
"Well, we think we're here to get you to believe in us again," Pooh replied.
"And since you're looking at us right now, you must believe in us!" Winnie exclaimed. Christopher Robin just stared at the floor.
"I'm sticking to what my therapist told me. There is no such thing as living stuffed animals and this is just a dream," The man returned to sipping his coffee.
"Man, that's one really convincing therapist," Roo commented. The kangaroo turned back to the boy. "C'mon Christopher Robin, you have to remember all the good times we had together…" Roo tried to think of a good memory. "Remember when you helped us all get Tigger down from the tree. I was so little back then. You used your coat to catch us and Tigger was a huge fraidy-cat!" Roo recalled.
"Yeah, I remember mom telling me that story. Dad denied everything," Winnie giggled.
"Actually, I do remember that!" Christopher Robin exclaimed. "Tigger said that if he got down he would never bounce again and Rabbit almost made him keep his promise. Then we all bounced together. That was great…" Christopher trailed off. Something flicked in Christopher Robins mind, a happy memory of his childhood friends. He remembered his therapist's words: 'The good times you had with your toys was all just a dream'. This memory felt so real, though. He could practically feel his therapist's words slithering from his mind.
"He's remembering!" Pooh whispered to Roo. Suddenly the four friends heard a cracking noise. They turned in the direction it was coming from. Christopher Robin's jaw dropped as one of the windows began to crack. He let out a whimper as a long green scaly animal slithered through the hole in the glass. Snakes. He hated snakes.
"This isn't happening, this isn't happening, this isn't happening," The man kept repeating to himself. Pooh stepped in front of his three friends, ushering them up against the wall as more snakes slipped through the window. Christopher Robin began hyperventilating, fearing that he would have a panic attack or something.
"Listen to me, everyone. Stay away from those snakes. Make your way to the door; I'll make sure they don't get to you," he commanded them, his eyes glimmering with seriousness. Christopher Robin found himself nodding almost against his will. He wanted to wake up from this crazy nightmare right now! "Above all, keep away from those orange snakes, their bite is poisonous!"
Christopher felt like he was going to faint. This was not real! It couldn't be!
"No sudden movements," Pooh hissed from the corner of his mouth as the four companions shuffled towards the door.
"They're beautiful," Roo breathed as several purple snakes entered the room. Pooh nodded in agreement, despite their current situation. Christopher Robin just wanted to make a bolt for the phone so he could call animal control. Instead he was being bossed about by a massive bear and two kangaroos. This was insane!
"One more thing, stay away from the big spotted ones," He whispered. Christopher examined the room full of snakes, resisting the urge to get the heck out of there.
"What big spotted ones?" He squeaked, feeling uneasy when he couldn't find a snake that matched the description. Almost as soon as the last syllable escaped his mouth, something long and pink whipped through the window and shot towards the four companions. Christopher leapt away from it, swearing violently as he slipped and landed on his rear. Unfortunately for Winnie, she wasn't quick enough and the whatever-it-was wrapped around the little hybrid's legs, knocking her to the floor and dragging her towards the window, squirming and screaming. Roo lunged forward and grabbed Winnie's shoulders, gripping them so tight it looked like it hurt.
"What's that!?" Christopher Robin jumped up and quickly rushed to help Roo with Winnie. Winnie let out a shriek of terror as the slimy pink thing tightened its grip on her.
"Get it off!" she howled, tears cascading down her cheeks like waterfalls. Pooh looked frantically around for something to help as Christopher Robin and Roo tried desperately to free Winnie.
"Oh my God!" Christopher Robin exclaimed as the head of a long yellow snake with purple spots burst through the window. The man looked pale and his eyes rolled back into his head as if he were about to faint.
"That's the last thing we need to happen," Pooh thought as he quickly trampled over the snakes to get to the door on the other side of the room. Glancing around, the black bear recognised that the room was a kitchen and kitchens had the exact thing he was looking for. Pooh stood clumsily on his hind legs and began pulling drawers out one by one, not caring if they crashed to the floor or not. He found towels, snacks, cleaning supplies and then-
Knives!
Pulling out the biggest knife he could find in his jaws, taking care not to slice his tongue, he sprinted back into the living room, where Winnie was screeching through her tears, Christopher Robin was barely conscious and Roo was pulling his sister towards him with all his might. Pooh quickly prayed that Christopher Robin would forgive him for the mess he was about to make before rushing over to the others, raising his neck before thrusting the knife down on the huge snakes tongue, splitting it in half and spraying blood across the carpet and all over him. The snake let out an angry hiss before retreating through the window once again, leaving a trail of crimson blood in its wake. The three friends on the other end of the tongue fell over in a domino fashion, Winnie on top of Roo and Roo on top of Christopher Robin, the latter slamming his back into the wall.
Pooh threw the knife to the side and leapt to the others' side, ushering them to their feet and paws before shoving them out of the door and into the apartment hallway, no longer caring about the 'no sudden movements' rule. He quickly closed the door behind them and leant against the wall on the opposite side of the hall. Roo quickly sat beside him, huddling against his bushy coat while Winnie nestled in her older brother's arms. Christopher Robin was in the middle of the hall on his hands and knees, breathing deeply.
"Are you okay, Christopher?" Pooh asked, reaching out a paw to comfort his old friend. However, Christopher flinched away from him and stood up, beginning to yell.
"NO! I'M NOT OKAY!" he bellowed, throwing his arms into the air. Winnie jolted with fright at his sudden outburst and buried her face in Roo's chest, still snivelling from her near death experience.
"Hey, what's gotten into you?" Roo snapped at Christopher, rubbing his little sisters back. Christopher let out a sarcastic scoff at the kangaroo's question and fixed all three of them with hard stares.
"What's gotten into me? What's gotten into me!?" he echoed Roo before clenched his fists. "Stuffed animals from my childhood have magically come to life, found me and tried to sabotage my life, there are snakes in my apartment, we almost got killed by a vicious killer python and you're asking what's gotten into me!?" he ranted. Winnie looked up from Roo's fur.
"Please stop yelling," she pleaded. "It scares me."
"Well, tough kid, life's full of scary things! LIKE SNAKES! Oh my God, I have to call somebody!" he began to panic again. Pooh, Winnie and Roo all turned to one another.
"When did he become such a jerk?" Roo looked at his human friend with disgust. Pooh shrugged and patted Winnie's head with one of his massive paws.
"He's just been through a lot, today, Roo Boy. He'll get over it," he replied. Roo felt tears welling up in his eyes. Pooh calling him 'Roo Boy' made him long for Tigger. He wanted Tigger so much, and Kanga, and everyone else.
He wanted to go home!
"Pooh, why can't we just go back?" he sobbed into Winnie's head. Pooh put his arms around the two kangaroos and pulled them in for a literal bear-hug.
"We'll get back eventually. I just know that if we get Christopher Robin to believe again, he'll restore the Hundred Acre Wood to its former glory and we'll be able to go home. I'd bet all the hunny in the world that I'm right," he assured the siblings. Roo wiped his eyes and squeezed Winnie's paw, feeling comforted at Pooh's words.
"Pooh's right," he told the tigger/kangaroo. "If we work together we can do anything, right Christopher Robin?" Roo looked to the side where Christopher Robin had been, only to find out that he was no longer there. Looking down the hall, Roo saw the human retreating as fast as his legs could carry him. Pooh was soon off with a shot, pursuing the man until he was close enough to grab the hem of his shirt in his teeth.
"Get your paws off me!" Christopher struggled as Pooh began to haul him back to the others. "You animals may not know this, but you're not supposed to treat people like this!"
"This is not over until we get home, Christopher!" the bear spoke through his clenched jaws. Christopher tried to tug his shirt free.
"Well it is over for me!" he insisted, sounding strained because of all the effort his was putting into getting free of the bears iron hold. Pooh shoved the human down to the floor beside Roo and Winnie. Christopher Robin looked like he was about to stand up again, but noticed the threatening look in Pooh Bear's eyes and decided to stay put, wringing his hands in the silence. He was actually surprised that no one had come out of their apartment's to complain about all the noise they were making. For a few minutes, Christopher Robin, Roo and Winnie sat side by side, not saying a word, while Pooh stood watching the three of them. Finally Christopher Robin raised his hand, getting up.
"Does anyone want lemonade?" he asked, obviously looking for some excuse to get out of there. Pooh snarled at him and he quickly sat down again, whistling nonchalantly. He looked up at pooh with begging eyes. "Please, Pooh, playing with you guys as a teenager ruined my life!" he recalled. He didn't want all his time in therapy to be for naught. Pooh looked insulted.
"It ruined your life?" he gasped. "I sat under our tree every day, hoping that you'd show up. I fell down a crack because you were forgetting us. I was transformed into…THIS! And you have the nerve to say that your life was ruined!"
Christopher Robin's eyes glistened with tears. "I was still young…but not young enough. My mother and father wanted to pull me away from you…and I let them. A therapist forced me to believe that you weren't real…the other kids picked on me for believing in you…I was all alone," he sniffed.
"I was all alone, too," Pooh sat beside Christopher. "For years."
"I-I…I'm scared…" the man admitted, looking down at his shoes. Roo put a paw on Christopher Robin's shoulder, his other one lightly stroking Winnie as the little striped kangaroo looked up at Christopher with those big beady black eyes of hers.
"It's okay, Christopher Robin. We're scared, too," he smiled up at him. Christopher only looked at the kangaroo for a moment before looking back down. "But if we get you to remember all the good times you had with us, everything will be alright again," he added. Christopher Robin opened his mouth, speaking hoarsely through his dry throat.
"B-b-but what if something happens to me? What if I have to go through all that therapy again? What if I'm sent to a lunatic asylum for this?" he fretted, gripping his hair. Pooh looked down at him with comforting brown eyes.
"You won't…" he said in his new gruff voice. "…because I won't stop trying."
"Me, neither," Winnie put her paw out and Pooh Bear place his larger one atop it. Roo put his paw in, too.
"I won't stop either," he promised determinedly. The three animals looked at Christopher Robin, who just sat there, looking like he was debating something in his head.
"Come on, Christopher," Pooh prompted his human friend. Christopher Robin bit his bottom lip, whimpering before shakily reaching out and placing his hand on top of his friends' paws. Pooh smiled as the four of them finally teamed up.
From now on, they were all in this together!