A/N: A very evil cliffhanger at the ending here, even if you can probably figure out what happens, there's a real twist next chapter.

Faded

Episode 9: Liquor

One week after that case had passed. Jimmy, or to the rest of the world 'Conan' as he was known as, had come down with a small cold. Runny nose, slight fever, he had it all. It wasn't going away as fast as he would have liked it to, either. But the fever wasn't so bad today.

Rachel had visited him almost every day when she'd get home from school. He was always happy to see her, even if he didn't quite remember her.

Anyway, on this particular sunny say, Jimmy was feeling lazy laying on the couch and watching tv, when his mother answered the door and an unfamiliar voice answered.

"Hello, Mrs. Kudo," a male voice greeted. "I just wanted to stop by and see if your son Jimmy was home."

"I'm... I'm afraid he's not," Vivian said with a bit of hesitation, glancing at her shrunken son before back at him. "He's on a difficult case."

"I see," the boy, no older than eighteen, frowned. "I was in town for a while and hoping to meet him. They call me Detective of the West."

"That must mean you're Harley Heartwell," said Vivian. "I've heard quite a bit about you."

"That's right," Harley extended his hand, and Vivian shook it. "Nice to meet you..." Harley's eyes drifted over to 'Conan', who was now sitting up and looking at him curiously. "And who's that?"

"This is Jimmy's cousin, Conan," Vivian replied walking over to him. "We're taking care of him for now because he was in a pretty bad accident and we can't find his parents. He has amnesia."

"Oh?" Harley frowned and looked at Conan. "That's too bad. I bet he's as smart as Kudo, though."

Vivian smiled. "Oh yes. Jimmy taught little Conan how to be a great detective."

Jimmy hid slightly behind Vivian when he was close enough and off the couch. He didn't remember this Harley person, and by the looks of things, he had just met his mother which meant it was very likely that he didn't know him before, either.

"Aww, I think he's scared of me," said Harley as he kneeled down so he was at Conan's eye level.

"You shouldn't be scared of Harley, J- Conan, he's a detective, just like you," Vivian said, ruffling her son's hair. He scowled and she giggled.

Harley noticed the almost sip of the tongue. She had said J, like she meant to say Jimmy instead of Conan. It couldn't be...

No, that was impossible. He needed more proof than just a name slip. An almost name slip.

"You're a detective?" Conan asked, looking up at him. Harley grinned.

"Yeah. You're cousin Jimmy and I were always being compared to one another," Harley replied, patting his head which just made him scowl more. "I was Detective of the West, and he's Detective of the East."

"So I guess that means you're a good one." At that, Harley nearly did an anime fall. Vivian sweat dropped.

"Of course. And you're cousin is, too."

Conan nodded and stared at Harley a minute more before he went out from behind Vivian, who smiled. "Well, why don't you both come into the kitchen? There's still some cookies left if you both would like them."

"Sure," the two detectives said at the same time and looked at one another, before following Vivian into the kitchen. Booker looked up from his laptop at the new face, but it looked familiar and he knew who he was instantly.

"Harley Heartwell," Booker nodded. Harley nodded, taking off his baseball cap.

"Mr. Kudo. Nice to meetcha."

"What brings you here?"

"I heard Jimmy just up and disappeared, and I thought it was strange no one even put him on the missing persons list," Harley said looking around. "I thought it might of been a joke or something, but neither of you seem too worried."

Booker glanced at Vivian. The boy was smart, he could easily find out who 'Conan' really is if he tried hard enough. She nodded.

"Jimmy should hopefully be home soon. We're here for a vacation of sorts ourselves, looking after little Conan. It will be a nice surprise for Jimmy to see us home after so long," Vivian smiled and watched the two boys take a seat at the table across from Booker. She served them both cookies and milk just as there was a knock on the door.

"Hello? Jimmy? Mrs. Kudo?"

Conan's eyes widened after biting into his second cookie and quickly got down from the chair, rushing over to the door. Vivian looked nervous until she saw he was whispering something into her ear. Harley looked at Vivian with a raised eyebrow. "Oh, he's taken a shine to Rachel. She's the first one he saw when he woke up at the hospital."

"I see," Harley said as he watched the two. He raised an eyebrow when Rachel gave the kid a kiss on the cheek followed by a hug, and watched as Conan's cheeks flamed when she stood back up and took his hand, walking into the kitchen with him.

"Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Kudo," she said with a smile, helping Conan back up onto the chair before taking a seat in the only empty one left.

"Hello Rachel dear. How was school?" she asked placing some more cookies on the table.

"It was fine. Boring as always, except Serena won't stop asking me where Jimmy is," Rachel sighed and took a bite out of a cookie.

"Who's Serena?" Jimmy asked, looking over at her. She smiled.

"Serena Sebastian, my best girl friend in school. She's also quite rich."

"Oh..." He let out a few small coughs which caught Harley's attention. He looked up and over at him. "Got a cold, kid?"

"Yeah..." he said with a small frown, looking over at Harley. The boy grinned and took out a bottle of something. He didn't know what. "Here, this'll cure you for sure."

Conan took a hold of the bottle, looked at it once before taking a drink of it. He winced instantly after. His throat was on fire now! Just what kind of medicine was this?

"Well?" Harley asked expectantly.

If it wasn't the burning of his throat, he was feeling weird. He got up from the chair and started stumbling around the room, cheeks flushed. Rachel quickly made her way over to him and put her hands on his shoulders.

"Conan, what are you ...?"

"Hey there, beautiful....hic," he said looking up at her. Her cheeks instantly flamed, knowing it was really Jimmy who had just said... wait a minute...

"Just what was in that medicine?" asked Vivian as she walked over and snatched the bottle from Conan. Her eyes scanned it before widening. "Liquor! Harley Heartwell!"

Booker just looked on, quite amused. He wasn't going to get involved in the women's wrath...poor Harley.

"What? It helped when I had a cold," said Harley with a nervous laugh.

It didn't help ... my throat's on fire... thanks a lot, thought Jimmy, when suddenly he felt weird. His eyes widened when he felt a pulse of pain go through him, then they closed and he clutched at his chest.

"Conan?" Now everyone was worried, even Booker, who looked up from his work for more than a few minutes, and Harley. The liquor never did that to him...

Conan got out of Rachel's hold, now starting to sweat quite a bit. He didn't know why, but he had a strange feeling he needed to get away from here. He couldn't let them see what was about to happen.

Even though he had no idea what that was.

"Conan?" Rachel whispered, biting her lip as she watched him walk out of the room, a hand clutching his chest. His eyes were closed most of the way as he made his way to his room once more.

"I'm fine....just going to l-lie down for a bit."

It had been at least half-an-hour since Conan had walked back up to his room. He had locked the door and closed the window, before collapsing on his bed, sweating and panting.

Rachel bit her lip in worry. He was probably just taking a nap, right? So then why was she so worried?

"I...I think I'll go and check on him," she spoke up, quickly leaving the room. Harley stayed behind with Vivian and Booker. He hadn't left yet, he wanted to make sure he'd be okay. He was worried about the effects of the liquor...he'd never seenanything quite like that before.

Rachel rushed up to Jimmy's room, only to find it locked? She knocked on it a few times.

"Jimmy? Jimmy are you alright?"

At hearing no answer, she frowned and closed her eyes, standing back and kicking down the door. When she saw what was inside the room however, her eyes widened and she let out a scream.

There, laying on the bed, covered in sweat, clothes a few sizes too small resting next to him, was Jimmy Kudo. He was unconscious, and the strangest thing?

He was seventeen again.

A/N: Sort of like No Immunity for the Diplomat, episodes 49-50, minus the mystery plus Booker and Vivian. :3 I hope you enjoyed the super long chapter. I got out of my sudden tired spell while writing this too! I've been getting sudden bursts of energy and wanting to do something anything, then they could disappear in like ten minutes or so. Its all because of the stupid synthroid dose I'm on too -___-;;. Its making me have awful hot flashes, and what makes that even worse is that the weather's been awesome out lately, but with my added temperature I've been feeling more hot than I need to and not even a shower will cool me off. D: Oh well...enough of my rambling....review on your way out and check out my other fanfiction, Fairly Odd Detective!