"…I gotta get home…I-I need get home!" the young woman sputtered yet again in alarm. As she checked the clock on the restaurant wall to confirm just how late it was, the lanky redhead let loose with a hoarse yelp of dismay as she became further consumed by the wave of utter panic that was now threatening to overtake her completely. As she rapidly became even more of a frantic wreck, her heart began pounding so hard in her chest it soon felt it was only a moment away from bursting out of her chest while she appeared to be on the verge of hyperventilating.
However, despite her wretched in condition, in all honest truth of the matter, there probably was absolutely no need whatsoever for Frances "Frankie" Foster to be even just a tad at unease at all. Alas….the poor thing had just one drink too many to be able to realize this, to be putting it lightly.
Needless to say, her date was feeling a bit too flustered for his liking as he struggled to calm her down.
"Frankie, please, " the hazelnut-haired young man pleaded for the umpteenth time as he held her by the wrist and patted her shoulder comfortingly with his free hand. "Just calm down, it's gonna be just fine. Honest, everything's going to be okay-whoa!"
With a jangle of hoop bracelets and matching earrings, Frankie abruptly attempted to get up out of her seat and stagger off towards the exit of the small restaurant. After nearly being dragged along with her, with a burst of effort, her boyfriend managed to seat her back down, to her obvious displeasure.
"Rudy, no!" Frankie yelped miserably. "Y-you don't understand! I gotta get home! I gotta…"
As the inebriated young woman babbled on, Rudy struggled to keep her in place as he turned to a plainly upset waitress.
"I thought that you told us that there was no alcohol in the peach daiquiris!" he reminded her unhappily.
Meanwhile, looking so distraught that she seemed to be ready to explode into tears, the girl who obviously was quite new to the job hugged a menu and whimpered, "I-I thought so too! I-I swear! I'm sorry, I d-didn't mean to! I-I'm so sorry! I'm sorry! It's just…I-I only started here a few days okay, and….and I…I'm not familiar with the d-drink menu yet, and…I-I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I…"
As she bombarded him with a hail of apologies, the young man banged his head against the table with a groan. He indeed had quite the ugly little mess on his hands, which was no doubt being compounded by the hefty dosage of guilt he was being forced to deal with at the same time. True, it was easy enough to pass all the blame to the waitress. However, he probably should've been the one to notice that something was amiss when Frankie gradually got chattier and livelier as their dinner progressed as she ordered more of the fateful drink…or that she continued to blather on about everything and nothing even long after dessert….or, at the very least, when she started to slur her words a little.
Rudy sighed as he raised his head and laid eyes upon the several empty glasses assembled before his intoxicated girlfriend, then promptly started hitting his forehead repeatedly on the table surface as he muttered to himself, "Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid…."
"…Sir, please!" the waitress begged shamelessly. "Honest, if only I knew that I was actually s-serving…look, look, how about I make all your drinks on th-the house? H-how about that? Please, m-my manager can't know that I-"
"Rudy, we gotta go!" Frankie implored as she stumbled from her seat and attempted to make another run for it. "I-I gotta get home…I gotta-"
"Hey!" the poor fellow yelped as she staggered to her feet and tried to yank him along with her. Clumsily, Rudy barely managed to link arms with her to hold her in place temporarily; despite her lanky appearance, the slim redhead was a lot stronger than most people gave her credit for.
"Frankie, please! Just….just wait a second, okay? Just wait!" he pleaded desperately as he dug out his wallet and began rooting through it frantically.
"Here!" the incredibly flustered young man quickly shoved a handful of bills into the waitresses' hands. "You said the drinks we free, right? Then…um…I think that should cover everything-"
"Y-you mean it?" the girl murmured incredulously as she wiped her teary eyes. "So …you're not going to tell the manager how-"
"Look, just take the money, and we'll call it ev-WAUGH!" he cried out in surprise as Frankie abruptly shot off towards the exit, dragging him along behind her.
"C'mon! C'mon!" the young woman implored as she rushed along at a drunken trot. "Rudy we gotta go!"
"Ow!" Rudy yelped in pain as she accidentally led them bumbling directly into a table, forcing her boyfriend to badly bang his leg which in turn sent several assorted drinks spilling while sorely startling several restaurant patrons.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! She's…she's just not herself right now!" he barely managed to apologize before Frankie forced him outside and into the parking lot.
"I gotta get back home!" Frankie just repeated over and over like a six-foot-tall parrot. "I need to get back to Foster's! I have to-AUGH!"
With a cry of alarm the tipsy redhead suddenly tripped over her own two feet. Fortunately, before she could do a face plant against the pavement, Rudy grabbed her just in the nick of time.
"Hold on a sec!" he involuntarily shouted in his skyrocketing frustration as he righted her back onto her feet. "Look, before anything else, can you please just tell me why you're so bent on getting back home-FRANKIE!"
Moving faster than the eye could follow, Frankie hastily shot off like a bullet the second she was on firm footing, bemoaning all the while, "I just gotta get back home! Where's the car? Rudy, where'd you park? Where? I gotta get-"
"I-I know! I know!" the flustered fellow cried out as he limped along in pursuit of his frantic girlfriend. "Frankie, I told you, just hold on a moment! Just calm down! There's no need to freak out, you just-"
"Where's the car?" she whined as she looked about wildly. "Where'd we park? Where-"
"Hold on!" he groaned as he closed in on her. "Just hold on-"
"Rudy, I can't find the car! Where is it?" Frankie lamented as she slowed her pace. "I…I can't find it! Where'd it go? Where's the-"
"Will you just relax?" Rudy snapped in aggravation as he finally caught up. "Seriously! Either you stop for just five seconds, or I swear I'll-"
"I GOTTA GET BACK HOME!" the young woman whirled about, grabbed him by the shirt collar and yelped so loud the heavens probably heard her.
As her chest heaved up and down while she gasped for breath, meanwhile he withered instantly like a delicate flower inside a tanning booth as he simply hoarsely, "….O-okay."
In a flash, Frankie released her hold and staggered off again, with her boyfriend now trailing much more cautiously behind her. He knew fully well that while very caring and extremely kind-hearted, the redhead was also more than perfectly capable of making herself a threat to be reckoned with when she wanted to.
And when she couldn't exactly control herself, such as now? Well…it was probably best if he didn't try and find that out the hard way, the shaken fellow figured as he called out meekly to her. "Frankie? Frankie c'mon, you…y-you gotta calm down-FRANKIE, WAIT!"
"We gotta get going." The young woman whimpered as she began clambering into a convertible whose careless owner had let the top down. "We gotta get back ho-"
"Frankie, no! No!" her hapless boyfriend shouted as he raced over to her. "Stop it! Frankie, no! That's not my car! That's not my car! Nuh-uh! Frankie, get out before-"
After she was forcibly yanked away, Frankie craned her neck around and actually bared her teeth in a fierce snarl, which of course startled Rudy soundly.
"Augh!" he wailed as he instinctively backed off a few paces. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! It's just…Frankie, that's not my car. My car is over by the-HEY! Oh, c'mon! Are you serious?"
Again, she had raced off, and started stumbling wildly about the parking lot and pulling upon the door handles of random vehicles as she bemoaned, "I can't find it! Rudy, where's the car? I can't find it! How can we get back when-"
"We won't be able to get anywhere if you don't listen to me!" Rudy moaned as he took off in pursuit. "Frankie, come back here! Frankie! Frankie! Frankie, please! Frankieeeeeeeee!"
How in the world she had managed to dash around the parking lot for so long while both intoxicated and wearing high heels without tripping again, the young man seriously hadn't a single clue. What he did know though is that it really would've been quite the help if Frankie had not been able to keep her balance so well; it would've been ever so much easier to just pick her off the ground rather than chase he as he had been forced to for Lord only knew how long.
"There!" Rudy gasped as he finally settled her into the passenger's seat of his sedan. "Finally, now let's-"
"It's so late." Frankie whined piteously as he buckled her in securely. We gotta get back to-"
"It's okay! It's okay!" he tried to plant on a weak smile and reassure her, as if he were dealing with a fussy toddler. "Don't worry, it'll be okay! See? We made it to the car, so we'll be on the road in no time at all, okay?"
Alas, his attempts to put the poor drunken redhead at ease were all for naught, for the single he shut her door, Frankie spiraled into a minor panic. "AUGH! Rudy, where are you going? Come back! Come back? W-who's gonna drive? Come back! Come-"
"Ackpth! It's okay, it's okay, it's okay!" he babbled breathlessly after dashing around to the other side of the car and clumsily throwing himself into the driver's seat. "See? See? I'm still here, it's okay! It's ok-OW! Frankie what're you-ow! Ow! Ow!"
After angrily swatting him several times on the shoulder, Frankie glared daggers as she snarled warningly, "Don't do that!"
"Okay, I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" he preferred to simply admit wrongdoing, rather that attempt to explain that he had to leave her side momentarily so that he could get into the car. After nervously fumbling with his car keys for a few seconds, he finally started up the ignition, and a minute later they were on the road.
As Frankie wrung her hands, squirmed uncontrollably in her seat and murmured anxiously to herself, Rudy groaned in despair. There was no other real way to plainly put how things were other than by saying that simply, this was bad, very bad indeed. He didn't think he had ever seen Frankie this drunk before ever since…wait, no, scratch that. he had never seen Frankie drunk until now, period. Well, at least finally he knew why she never really drank at all to begin with, or at least one of the reasons. The Frankie whom he knew would probably be absolutely appalled if she ever came face-to-face with the inexplicably frantic, whiny mess that was sitting beside him in the car right now.
"Can't you go any faster?" Frankie suddenly demanded impatiently with a noticeable slur as she toyed with one of her bracelets.
"Can…can you please just tell me why you're in such a rush to-" he attempted to inquire meekly when she blurted out,
"I gotta get home, Rudy! I gotta get back to Foster's! I gotta…I gotta check up on Mac, and-"
"That's why you're so upset?" Rudy replied incredulously. Of course he knew fully well that she deeply cared for her charge…but still, the answer nevertheless took him off guard. "Wait…wait, hold on, Frankie…why? I don't…I mean, he was just fine I picked you up, why wouldn't he-"
"Rudy I need to get back home!" Frankie just stomped her foot and yelled urgently. "Now!"
"All right! All right!" he yelped as he dropped the subject. "Just…just try and calm down a little, okay? Look, how about…uh…how about some music?" he suggested as he tried to force on another weak excuse for a smile. "Huh? How about that? Would some music help you relax? Please?"
Frankie just grunted something incomprehensible as she stared remorsefully out the window. Taking that as a yes, he turned on the radio and began flipping through the stations.
"Let's see…how about…no, no that…hold on…" he murmured with a slight quaver as he searched for something suitable. "How about…there we go! How about this? Huh? Nice and soothing, right? Ri-"
"We interrupt this broadcast for a public service announcement." A stern voice suddenly interrupted the music. "It is now 10:30 PM. Do you know where your children are?"
Instantly Rudy froze in horror. After mentally cursing his unbelievably foul luck, for a few seconds the mortified young man kept his eyes locked straight on the road, for he feared what he would see if he looked back to Frankie. Finally, after gathering up the courage, he turned his head and said softly, "F-Frankie? Frankie are you-"
Immediately he winced; wait awaited his gaze was not a pretty sight. As the tears started to trickle down her cheeks, the young woman looked like she was ready to burst out sobbing as she started whining hoarsely, "No…no…no, I…I-I don't know where he his right now…I-"
"Frankie…it's all right…" he began patting her shoulder. "Mac's right at home where you left him…h-he said goodbye to you before you left, remember? He's still at-"
"But I don't know that for sure!" Frankie wailed miserably. "I don't really know! W-we've been gone for…f-for hours, and…"
Absolutely wracked by guilt, she hit her head against the car window and bemoaned, "I'm such a bad parent!"
"No, no, no, no, no!" Rudy babbled as he struggled hard to calm her lest she burst into full-fledged sobs. "No, no! That's not true, Frankie. It's not true! You're-"
"If it's not true…" she whimpered despondently, "Th-then why aren't I h-home yet? Why am I still out when I-I-I should be-"
"No, it's okay! Look! Look! Frankie look!" her boyfriend cried out in relief as a familiar towering Victorian mansion loomed into view. "See? Look, we're almost there! See? Foster's is just up ahead! See it? See?"
Unfortunately, Frankie was already long gone as she whined dejectedly, "Oh, what does it even matter now? I've already been out too late…I-I'm telling you, I'm the…the worst-"
"No, no you're not!" Rudy groaned as he pulled into the driveway of Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends. "I mean…look, we didn't mean to stay out this long, okay? So you had a little bit too much to drink, and you're just a little tipsy right now, but that doesn't mean that-"
"I'm…I'm…I-I'm drunk?" she gasped as her emerald eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets in her genuine shock. Ironically, she had been so intoxicated, the fact of the matter hadn't become clear to her until now.
"Oh...no…" he whined in dismay once it became apparent that he had just unwittingly made the situation just a little bit worse. "Frankie-"
"You mean I-I'm not just getting back home late…I'm getting home…drunk?" she whimpered heartbrokenly.
"I-I…well, it's just…" Rudy struggled to find the right thing to say to try and prevent the oncoming sob-fest, but to no avail at all.
"Holy jeez! What is wrong with me?" Frankie moaned as the hot tears started to really streak down her cheeks in twin rivulets. "Why am I such a…a…oh, God!"
As she broke down completely, her boyfriend hastily put the car in park, ripped the keys out of the ignition then clumsily embraced her in a comforting hug.
"It's okay! It's okay! Frankie, it's all right!" he showered her with the same reassurances he had been using all night, still with no success to speak of. "It's-"
For a few seconds, the absolutely miserable young woman allowed him to hold her. That is, until she realized something, or at least thought that she did.
"You!" she sputtered accusingly as she broke away from the embrace, to his dumb surprise.
"What? Me?" he answered stupidly.
"Yes, you!" she snarled as she tried to wipe the tears from her eyes. "How could you?"
"Huh? Wait, how could I what?" he implored as his head spun in absolute befuddlement. "Frankie, what're you talking about?"
"Don't play dumb with me!" she snapped. "You're a social worker!"
"Um…well, yeah…" he whimpered. "Frankie, what does-"
"You can't fool me!" Now…now you're gonna go report on me, and…and now you're…you're gonna tell everyone about what I did, and…and then after you tell them, they're gonna come and take away-"
"WHAT?" her flabbergasted boyfriend yelled. "What makes you think I'd actually-"
"How could you?" she wailed. "How could you even do that to me? How?"
With a stifled sob, she put her badly impaired motor skills to work and start clumsily struggling to try and undo her seat belt, while Rudy tried to explain to her, "Okay, c'mon! Look, you seriously have no idea what you're talking about anymore!"
"Yes, I do!" she hissed. "How could you just go and tear my family apart like that?"
"Look, just calm down, and let's just try and-NOT AGAIN!"
With surprising sped and agility for one so inebriated, Frankie opened the car door and bolted out into the front yard.
"Oh, gimme a break!" he whined as he stumbled out and took off after her. "Frankie! Frankie, get back here! Where are you even going?"
"How could you?" Frankie just demanded yet again, despite the fact that her foes were completely unfounded. "Rudy, how?"
"I never even said I was going to do that! I never said that I was going to do anything!" he gasped as he trailed behind her.
"I hate you!" she just snarled. "I hate you! I hate you so much….if you invited me to the movies, I…I-I probably wouldn't even go with you!"
"What does that even mean?" Rudy implored in despair. "Seriously, just calm down! You're….you're not yourself right now, okay? Now please, just-OW!"
Without a word of warning, the young woman managed to take off one of her high heels and quickly sent it flying his way, scoring a hit to his gut.
"Come on!" Rudy begged shamelessly. "Frankie, I swear, I'm not going to get social services involved! You're freaking out for no reason-"
"Yeah, that's what you want me to think!" she shot back with a scowl as she struggled to get her remaining shoe off. "You can't fool me! You work for them, I know you do!"
"I know that! But that doesn't-whoa!" With a hasty dodge, he just barely managed to evade the next incoming missile. Once Frankie was out of ammo, he quickly seized his prime opportunity and poured all his energy into a speedy dash. Luckily for him, Frankie had already forgotten that she had thrown both shoes, not just one, and thus was taken completely off guard as she just stood in the middle of the front yard, staring dumbly at her bare feet.
"Gotcha!" Rudy proclaimed triumphantly as he nabbed hold of her. Before the startled redhead could react, with a burst of effort he hefted her over his should and resolutely marched off towards the front doors of the mansion.
"Put me down! Put me down!" Frankie hissed as she started wriggling about like mad. "Put me down! It's bad enough you're gonna try and-"
"For the last time; you're just making all of that up." he implored as he hefted her over to the front porch, where he was forced to awkwardly keep a hold on Frankie while searching through her purse for her set of house keys.
Meanwhile, Frankie forgot while she was trying to free herself in the first place, which actually wasn't all that great, seeing as how she only started whining again. "Oh God, what time is it? The lights aren't even on in the house…everyone's probably gone to bed already, and I'm just getting home…I am the lousiest guardian ever, I really am…"
"Shhh!" her near exhausted boyfriend wearily shushed her as he finally unlocked the front doors and entered the moonlit foyer. "You want to wake everyone up? Now c'mon let's just get you to bed, all right? Everything's gonna be okay, you just need to keep quiet while I take you to…uh…"
It was just about then that he realized that in all the time he had been dating Frankie, he had never been up to her room for any reason. In other words, he hadn't a single clue where he was supposed to drop her off in the expansive, cavernous mansion that she called home.
"Uh…Frankie?" He meekly asked, while praying fervently that her memory wasn't badly affected by all the alcohol she had inadvertently consumed earlier that evening. "Where is your room?"
"Huh? My room?" she murmured. "It's…uh…it's…just a few floors up…I think…"
"But which floor?" he demanded a little impatiently.
"The…um….the same floor as…uh…well, my room's by the…" she stammered as she struggled hard to sort through the foggy mess her mind was at the moment. "Wait…by the…right near…"
Suddenly, her eyes bugged wide open once she realized, "Right by…right across the hallway from Mac's room! Mac! Oh God, I almost forgot!"
In a flash, keeping a grip on her became as easy as trying to grab onto water. Before Rudy knew it, she had slipped free and was staggering up the stairs as quickly as she could go with her poorly functioning motor skills. Before he could shout out her name and yell at her to stop, the young man quickly realized that by doing so, he'd possibly wake half the house. Thus, he could do little more than clamp his mouth tightly shut, emit a muffled moan of despair, then take off after her for what he hoped would be the last time that night.
"Frankie!" he whispered frantically. "Wait! Wait!"
Unfortunately, and also somewhat embarrassingly for him, it didn't take long for her to actually somehow stumble out of sight. Thus, Rudy was force to make due with relying on following the direction of the racket she made in her drunken haste. After scaling one or two flights, he managed to track the frantic redhead down a darkened hallway.
"Frankie?" the young man gasped for breath as he wearily jogged in the direction of what sounded a lot like someone accidentally bumping into a wall. After bumbling about, her turned a corner just in time to spot something not too far down the hall slip into a room. Despite the fact that his legs now ached uncontrollably from all the running he had unwillingly done that night, he put on one last burst of speed to catch up one final time.
"Frankie!" he wheezed as he stumbled into the bedroom doorway. "What are you-"
"Shhhhh!" Frankie whirled about and hushed him into silence. As he obediently went quiet, she turned back around and carefully attempted to tiptoe over to the sole bed in the room, in which lay a slumbering little boy. After quietly though not at all gracefully making it to the bedside, moving with the most delicacy that she could manage in her state, the redhead gently shook the child as she whispered ever so softly, "Pal?"
A moment later, Mac's eyelids fluttered open halfway, and with a groan the semi-conscious child rolled over so that he could look up at her, face-to-face. "Hmm?"
The second their gazes met, Frankie leaned in close, ruffled his hair, and then announced bluntly, "I'm home, Mac….I'm home."
"Oh…" the drowsy child murmured with a sleepy grin. "Okay, Frankie."
Once this simple exchange was over, Frankie sighed heavily in relief, then suddenly lit up the room with a toothy smile that stretch across her face from ear to ear, as Mac simply yawned, rolled over, and shut his eyes tightly once more. Meanwhile, to Rudy's indescribable surprise, the boy's redheaded guardian seemed to have gone through quite the remarkable transformation. Just like that, the frantic, badly stressed redhead of just a few minutes earlier had vanished without a trace. True, Frankie was still very much a little too drunk, but at least she was looking much more at ease now, and even quite content as she started stroking the little one's head as she hummed a gentle tune. In a matter of a minute, Mac was in a deep sleep once more, though that didn't do much to prevent her from sticking around for a few minutes longer.
Finally, Frankie tucked the child in, planted a light kiss on his forehead, then began to slowly make her way out of the room just as silently as she had entered.
"Frankie?" Rudy just whispered as he gawked bewilderedly at her. "What the…what was-"
Frankie held up her fingers to hush him yet again. After she clumsily reached around to shut the door behind her, she took a deep breath, placed a hand upon the closest wall to steady herself, and then starting murmuring, "You see, Mac…well, he's a….he's a good kid, but it's just-"
"Yeah, but-"
"No, see…ever since his mom…uh….y'know…basically, whenever I stay out longer than I tell him I will, he…Mac tries not to, really, but…well, he can't help but get a little nervous…especially if I forget to call, or anything like that, so…so I…I like to try and make sure I get home when I tell him I'll be back so….so he doesn't start to freak out at all and think that anything…y'know…bad happens to me….see?"
That young woman had made their night out quite the trying ordeal in almost every way imaginable. Rudy had chased her several times, accidentally provoked the inebriated young woman into physically attacking him at least twice, and had spent half the time trying to unsuccessfully calm his frantic girlfriend down in ways that were oddly reminiscent of all the times he had baby-sat his five-year-old niece…amongst other things. At the very least, he should've been exasperated with Frankie at this point, if not flat-out aggravated.
Yet…try as he might, the young man found that now, after it all, he could do little more than smile weakly at the shamelessly devoted redhead who still managed to put her family above all else, even if she didn't exactly have much of a clue what else was going on.
"C'mon…" he whispered as he grabbed her by the hand. "Let's get you to bed, okay?"
" 'Kay." Frankie grunted as she let him guide her across the hall and into her bedroom, where after drawing deep from depleted energy reserves, he managed to heft her onto her bed with one inelegant movement.
"There we go." He gasped as he tried to draw up the covers for her. "Back home, and nice and safe, okay? Now let's just-"
"Rudy?" the lanky redhead whispered as she sat up a little.
"Hmm?" he yawned.
Despite the fact that she looked ready to pass out into a deep sleep then and there, Frankie still managed to sit up in bed a little and murmured gratefully, "Th-th…thanks for getting me back home…"
As she wrapped her arms around him in a clumsy hug, he lit up the room with a blazing blush. "It…it was nothing really…no problem Fra-WAUGH!"
Without warning, Frankie lifted the unsuspecting young man off his bed and onto the bed with her, where she promptly tightened her thankful squeeze.
"Ackpth!" he gasped under the force of the ridiculous strong grasp; skinny as Frankie was, she had the grip of a black bear. "Frankie…that's…that's enough….c'mon, you can let go now….Frankie? Frankie!"
Despite his begging, the redhead just shut her eyes, giggled lightly, and snuggled up tight as if he were only a giant stuffed animal, to his growing alarm.
"Please! Frankie, please! Let go! Let go!" he whispered urgently. "C'mon, I-I really need to get home! That's enough! Frankie, that's enou-"
The second the lights were flipped on, it immediately became quite clear that his begging had been too little, too late.
"Miss Frances?" a nightshirt and matching nightcap-clad rabbit inquired as he hopped into the room. "Miss Frances, would you assist me please? I was awoken by this awful clamor not five minutes ago, and have so far been unsuccessful in finding the source of…"
Mr. Herriman stopped dead in mid-sentence as soon as he laid eyes on the spectacle before him. With a surprisingly shrill yelp, the resident caretaker's boyfriend wrenched himself free in his panic, only to tumble off the bed and onto the floor in a heap.
"Miss…M-Miss Frances? Master Rudy?" the imaginary rabbit gasped in appall. "Good gracious, in the name of all that is decent, WHAT on earth where you doing? I…I-I…wait, did you two just get here? I thought you would return no later than-"
"N-nothing was going on! Nothing!" Rudy blabbered as he shakily climbed to his feet. "We were just…uh….j-just…okay, so we got b-b-back a l-little later than expected, but…b-but I can explain, just-"
"Hiya, Mr. H." Frankie sat up to wave at her startled boss with a whimsy giggle and a stupid smile. The instant he saw the glazed look in her eyes and her overall unusually foolish demeanor, Mr. Herriman's jaw nearly hit the floor in his incredible shock.
"Good heavens, Miss Frances!" he exclaimed. "Are you…are you intoxicated, young lady?"
Instead of even attempting a reply, Frankie just shrugged and started tittering goofily, thus confirming the blatantly obvious.
"She didn't mean to!" Rudy babbled in her defense as he broke out into a nervous sweat. "It…it was an accident…it's not like we went out to a bar or anything, she's the only one who drank tonight…a-and…no, n-no! No! Wait, d-don't think that I meant to get her liquored up or anything, h-honest! It just….see, w-when I saw that sh-she was drunk, I immediately tried to g-get her back home and into bed-"
"Excuse me?" Mr. Herriman involuntarily shouted in disbelief.
"Not like that! Not like that!" the young man cried as he shook his head furiously. "I mean get her to bed so she could sleep it off, and…and so…but then…then I was in the bed with her when…I mean, after I got her home…b-but…but only because she was the one…who….a-and I….I just…and the….th-the….h-h-had to get her home, s-so we…uh…"
At this point, the poor fellow was quaking uncontrollably from head to toe, while his heart was going a mile a minute. While Mr. Herriman nearly skewered him on the spot with his piercing, outraged glare, the young man backed against the wall, took a deep breath, than begged meekly in his despair, "If…i-if you don't mind, s-s-sir….I k-kinda would l-like to throw m-m-myself out the window n-now…"
Considering the vicious tongue-lashing he had received the night before, and one that had lasted for nearly an hour at that, it probably would've been wise to assume that the poor young man wouldn't want to step within an inch of Foster's for at least a week. Mr. Herriman's lecture had been so particularly ferocious, many a brave fellow would've understandably been frightened away for good, much less Rudy, who wasn't exactly the courageous type, to say the least.
Nevertheless, in probable defiance of all logic and common sense, early the afternoon the very next morning, there he found himself warily entering the front gates of Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends. As his stomach nervously bunched itself up into knots, Rudy struggled to try and keep a hold of his nerves as he cautiously began to make his way up the front walk.
Barely had he sauntered ten feet when all of sudden, three veritable blurs rocketed by in speedy succession. Since he had been too preoccupied going over what he'd say to a certain authoritarian rabbit when the unpleasant encounter inevitably came, the young man was quite startled, and with a yelp his entire body jerked in surprise.
Promptly one of the blurs came to a quick stop, revealing itself to be a pigtailed little girl who instantly burst out chattering excitedly once she recognized the familiar face.
"Oh, hiya Rudy! Hi!" Goo bubbled, as meanwhile her friends, a little boy her age and an azure blob continued to race here and there around the yard. "How are you? Good? Bad? So-so? Hmm? So whatcha doin'? Huh? What're you up to right now? Anything? Something exciting? Something not so exciting? Boring, same ol' same ol' stuff? Hmm?"
On and on she babbled like so, while the young man just waited patiently until she paused to take a breath, finally giving him the chance to get a word in.
"Well, this may come as a surprise,' he joked with a weak chuckle, "But I'm here looking for Frankie, and-"
"Really?" Goo interrupted. "Well that makes four of us now!"
"…Wait, huh?" he gave her a puzzled look. "What do you mean-"
"Found you!" Mac's triumphant cry rang out from clear across the lawn. As Goo instinctively shot off with a wild whoop, Rudy glanced up just in time to watch a familiar redhead dart out from behind a clump of shrubs with a squeal of laughter.
"Ha! Game's not over yet, guys!" Frankie giggled as she bolted from her hiding place and dashed off towards the towering willow tree standing in the middle of the yard.
While Mac just happily took off in pursuit, Bloo began waving his stubby arms wildly as he whined, "No fair, no fair, no fair! You have those tall skinny legs, no fair! Quick, quick! Before she touches base! Get her!"
"Heehee!" the caretaker, looking and acting very much like herself to her boyfriend's relief as he watched, chortled merrily as she paused her race to safety and began racing around her chasers in a few circles. "Well, how about this? Huh? Think you can catch me now? I'd try and make it easier for you guys, but then I'd probably have to talk my legs off for that! Ha!"
"Don't be so sure!" Mac laughed as he made an unsuccessful grab, which his guardian dodged with ease.
"What's the matter, slowpoke? Is that the best you can do-OOF!" Without a burst of effort, Mac made a terrific lunge for her, nabbing the young woman tightly by the waist and thus finally making the tag. For a moment Frankie stumbled about clumsily, desperately trying to regain her balance until Goo finally arrived on the scene and likewise latched on with a victorious squeak.
"Heeheehee! Now we gotcha!" the little girl yelled as Bloo finally caught up and latched onto one of her arms. In an instant, Frankie ungracefully tumbled flat upon her back. As the little ones exploded into a chorus of triumphant laughter, they all unceremoniously consolidated their victory with an impromptus dogpile.
"Who's the slowpoke now, huh?" Mac chortled impudently as Frankie began wrestling them off, starting with her own charge whose belly she began tickling furiously.
"Oh, that's it! Now you're all asking for it!" Frankie giggled. "Watch out, now you're really asking for-"
The instant she spotted the young man standing not ten feet away, the redhead went silent with surprise as he she finally noticed him for the first time since he had arrived.
"…Rudy?" Frankie murmured curiously.
"Yeah-huh!" Goo affirmed happily. "Yup, he just got here, like, right before you were all 'Oh, no way you're gonna get me,' when really you were a big Miss Easy-to-catch, 'cuz-"
"Oooh! Oooh!" Bloo suddenly piped up excitedly as he received an epiphany. "Wait, wait! Oooh, perfect! Two-on-three soccer! Remember, last weekend? Mac, Goo and me, us versus the old folks? Remember? Hey, can we do that again?"
"Yeah! Hey, yeah! Yeah!" Goo bubbled happily.
"Could we, Frankie? Mac actually took the time to ask politely.
"Well…you, I guess we-" no sooner had his guardian answered when the trio all clambered off of her and shot off towards the garage to fetch a soccer ball.
In an instant, the redhead was left all alone with the young man, who shuffled anxiously from foot to foot for a moment or so before trying to sport a wan smile raising his hand and waved weakly with a nervous murmur, "H-hey Frankie-"
He had barely finished saying her name when the redhead in subject climbed to her feet, bounded over, threw her arms open wide and ensnared him in a warm hug. Taken aback, for a moment he froze in shock, thus leaving him perfectly exposed for a quick kiss on the cheek.
"Whoa, whoa!" he yelped as Frankie released him with an amused chuckle. "What…what was that all about?"
Grinning from ear to ear, she replied calmly, "Well, what else? For getting me back home last night, of course."
To say that he was absolutely flabbergasted would've been one of the understatements of the century. "I…but…but I…I-I….wait, really?" Rudy sputtered incredulously.
Frankie sighed and rolled her eyes before responding sarcastically, "Just kidding, I'm actually going to scream my head off at you now because you had nerve to get me to Foster's as fast as you could, safe and sound. Yes, of course! What, do you expect me to do?"
"Well….it's just that…I mean, you got a little…uh…tipsy on my watch, and-"
Frankie blushed a little in embarrassment. "Hey…you weren't the one actually chugging down the peach daiquiris; if anything, it was my fault too....you think I would've figured out that I was tossing back-"
"Yeah, but…well, anyway, I thought that…I just thought…" he stammered uncontrollably. "I mean…Mr. Herriman probably…y'know, told you all about how…uh…how he woke up and found….uh….told you about what he saw last night and I thought that…maybe you'd think that…uh…"
"That I actually believed everything that the rabbit told me and now seriously think you of all people were up to no good last night?" Frankie interrupted and put it all rather bluntly.
"Uh….y-yeah…" he murmured as the redhead just broke out into a smirk.
"Hey, give me a little bit more credit here; I honestly like to think I know you better than that."
"So…so you believe me that I was only trying to get you home like you asked?" Rudy asked anxiously, unable to believe how simple this all was. Frankie chuckled as she ruffled his hair playfully.
"Well, if you really are just a sleazebag, then what in the world are you doing stopping by to check up on me?" she teased.
At this point, he blushed so brightly that in a flash he resembled a ripe tomato fresh for the picking. "I…I-I….just…well…"
As she leaned over to calm him down with another hug, her finally managed to saw with a weak grin, "Well….someone's gotta look after you."
"Oh, excuse me?" she shot back in a mock huff as she promptly undid her hold. "Hey, in case you've noticed by now, I'm not exactly the damsel in distress type. What about all the times I've had to yank your butt out of the fire, mister?"
"Oh c'mon, I haven't needed you to stick up for me for any…." Rudy's first instinct of course was to try and defend himself, but once he gazed into her knowing stare, he hastily relented and admitted honestly, "Okay….okay, so you were the one who stopped my ex-girlfriend from bothering me…but...but it's not like I need you for-"
"MASTER RUDY!" the stern cry rang out, reducing the young man to a cringing wreck in a matter of moments. While her boyfriend shuddered violently with a hoarse yelp of fright, Frankie whirled around and looked towards the house, where she spotted a familiar furry face poking his head out of his office window.
"My word, just what on earth do you think you're doing here?" Mr. Herriman roared disapprovingly. "I thought I made it perfectly clear last night-"
As he remembered the lecture he had endured yesterday evening, Rudy winced as he tried speaking up in his own defense, "Yeah but…but I told you, I…I wasn't up trying to take advantage of anyone, I was only-"
"I'm now quite perfectly aware of that. However, that does not change the fact that you allowed Foster's resident caretaker to drink herself to the point of complete and utter intoxication!" the imaginary rabbit yelled back. "Like I was saying, I thought that I made it quite clear yesterday night that you were not allowed back here for no less than three days so that you could think about what you did, and thus understand what it means to have some sense of responsibility! It is your duty to look out for Miss Frances' well-being when she is with you, and you need-"
"Oh for crying out loud, Peter Cotton-Butt, give him a break!" Frankie interrupted with a growl. "It wasn't entirely his fault that I got drunk! I was the one who-"
"Miss Frances, please! Now is not the time for shenanigans!" Mr. Herriman scolded from afar. "I have to make Master Rudy perfectly aware that if he really thinks he can be such an utter rapscallion and let an evening out turn into a total and complete catastrophe, then he certainly has another thing coming! If he ever again is as callous as to-"
"I SAID LAY OFF OF HIM!" Frankie suddenly bared her teeth and let loose with a vicious, spine-chilling snarl. Just in case that didn't do the trick, she narrowed her emerald eyes and boldly gave the startled figment a fierce glare.
Maybe had her tone not been so frighteningly startling, Mr. Herriman would've quickly countered right back with a reprimand for taking back. Alas, such was not the case, and for a moment, the stunned imaginary friend just gawked in shock at the bristling redhead.
"Er….n-never mind, Miss Frances…" he murmured as he quickly shut the window and was gone from sight.
With a nod of satisfaction, Frankie promptly burst out smiling again as she turned back to Rudy and said calmly with a grin stretching from ear to ear, "Now then…you were saying?"
The young man stared blankly at her amazement and then finally just accepted it all with a weak laugh as she playfully tousled his hair again. Well…I gotta admit, at least it's nice to know it's hard for me to get picked on now…"
The End