At first, he paid absolutely no heed to the sound of something soft landing upon the floor; in fact, he barely even noticed it. However, suddenly the girl leaning up against him as they watched TV together spoke up and asked curiously, "Hey…where'd that come from?"

Mac glanced to where she was pointing and quickly spotted the small stuffed elephant that apparently someone had just tossed into Foster's spacious TV room for some inexplicable reason. As Goo just gawked at it curiously for a moment, the teenage boy meanwhile got up from his seat and sauntered over to the familiar-looking plush animal.

"Huh…" the boy grunted as he bent down to pick up the toy. "That's weird, what's-"

Suddenly, with the patter of little feet and a triumphant whoop, a small giggly weight landed upon his exposed back and grasped on tightly. "GOTCHA!"

As Mac dropped to his knees under the force of his surprise assailant, Goo instantly snorted uncontrollably before she was overcome with laughter at the sight. "Hahahaha! I get it! A sneak-attack! A total sneak-attack! Heeheehee-whoa!"

With a bold cry, a little blob suddenly lunged from behind the sofa onto the unsuspecting girl, or attempted to, anyway. Unfortunately, he made the error of starting to yell a good second before he launched his attack, giving the startled teenager ample time to pluck him from mid-air and unceremoniously drop him onto the couch.

"OOF! Hey! Oh, this is so not as awesome as you said it would be!" Bloo immediately starting whining indignantly to Mac's pipsqueak attacker.

The boy himself meanwhile, despite the fact he had been targeted for an unprovoked assault, just burst out chuckling uncontrollably as he felt his ambusher wiggle about wildly in an attempt to securely hang on to her far larger "captive." Moving gently, he reached behind, and in a flash he had tugged the five-year-old loose and was holding her up high before him.

"Eeek! Heehee! No fair! No fair!" his little sister squealed with laughter as she waved her arms and kicked helplessly. "No fair!"

"Well, well, what do we have here?" Mac demanded with a mischievous grin.

"Looks like a big ol' bird fell out of the sky and landed on you! Yup, that's definitely what it looks like to me! No doubt about it! Uh-huh!" Goo left Bloo to nurse an injured ego, hopped off the sofa and happily started to tease the little one.

"Nuh-uh!" Bridgett squeaked defiantly. "I'm notta bird!"

"I dunno…" Mac countered in a mock-serious tone as he pretended to examine her. "I mean, your head's covered with allllllll these big red feathers."

"No, I'm notta bird!" she tittered as he ruffled her bright crimson locks playfully .

"Oh yeah? Looks more like one of those big, fibbing Goofybirds, if you ask me!" Goo jokingly remarked as she prodded the little one in the belly. "Yeah, I'd definitely, definitely know one of those if I saw them!"

"So is that what you are?" Mac asked as he set her down upon her back. Before Bridgett could right herself back upon her feet, in a heartbeat she was squirming about like mad and shaking with fresh laughter as he began to mercilessly tickle her stomach.

"Heeheeheeheehee! "S-stop! Stoppit, Mac! Stoppit!" she begged as she tried to thrash free of his hold. "Heeheehee! No more! No more!"

"Hey, Goofybird, how about this?" he only chortled as he redoubled his efforts. "Next time you're flying around and you see Bridgett, tell her not to be such a tricky little sneak! Got it?"

"Yeeheehee! But I'm Bridgett!" she managed to cry out, to no avail at all. However, just as she started to practically shriek with mirth, her captor suddenly released his hold with a yelp of surprise. Without a word of warning, Goo had suddenly reached under and launched a surprise attack of her own, and started furiously tickling the boy's exposed sides.

"Hey, Mister Toughguy-Jerk-Meanie!" she whooped. "Don't you know that Goofybirds are endangered? We can't have super-nasty boys like you picking on a poor, poor, poor, helpless little birdie, can we? Nope! No, we can't! Nuh-uh! Not in a zillion years, that's right!"

"Yeah!" the five-year-old chimed in as she clambered to her feet and backed up a little, looking as if she was preparing to pounce once again. "You can't do that, you mean ol'-"

"Uh-uh! Now what do you think you're doing, Sillybrains?" Goo cooed as she relinquished her tickly hold.

"Um…I was gonna-"

"What, jump on the meanie here?" the teenager teased. "Aw, now why would you want to do that…when jumping on stuff that's nice and squishy is so much, much, much, definitely infinitely more fun? Especially when they're soft and blobby and blue?"

"Yeah!" the little one yelled excitedly as Bloo just gave them all a puzzled stare of total incomprehension from where he was still seated upon the couch.

"Wait, what do you mean-AUGH!" he cried out as realization finally dawned upon him with the force of a sledgehammer to the gut. "Oh no you don't! Hey! Hey, no fair! Traitor! Traitor!"

For the next few moments, both teens were quaking with laughter at the sight of the small child gleefully chasing the frantic figment in circles all around the room, looking for all the world like a pair plucked out of a Saturday morning cartoon.

"Nuh-uh! I'm not a landing pad! Or a trampoline! Or…or…a…a…jumping-on…thing!" Bloo shouted defiantly as they did laps around the couch. "No way!"

"Come on, you almost got him!" Mac just cheered on.

"Yeah-huh! Almost! Gotta run just a little faster! C'mon, c'mon, you can do it!" Goo whooped encouragingly, to Bloo's plain dismay.

"Augh! Make her stop!" the blob wailed pleadingly as desperately tried to flee. "Quit it! Quit it! Quit-"

"Okay, what's all the ruckus?" a familiar voice boomed loudly from down a nearby hallway, cutting through all the commotion like a spear through cardboard armor. In an instant, Bridgett went through a rapid and peculiar transformation. As she abruptly forgot all about the chase, she tensed up with a frantic yelp, her smile vanished form her face, and as fast as a bullet she suddenly dashed to where the now fairly bemused teenagers were sitting on the floor and took cover behind them. No sooner had she hidden from sight when a lanky, red-haired woman sauntered into the room with a look that plainly declared she was on a mission of sorts.

Before anyone else could utter one sound, Frances "Frankie" Foster demanded "All right, what do we have here?"

After taking a quick preliminary scan of the room, she observed out loud, "I know for a fact that I heard both of my kids not more than five seconds ago…and there's no way one of them is leaving this room unless she's marching straight upstairs to take her ba-"

"No!" with a defiant yelp, Bridgett panicked and tried to dart for freedom. Before she could scamper off, Mac twisted around and managed to nab her by the sides, and immediately she was vocalizing her discontentment. "No! No! Don't wanna! I don't wanna!"

"Hey, c'mon! It's okay-" the teenage boy tried to console her unsuccessfully as she wiggled about like a child possessed in order to escape.

"No! No! No! I don't wanna bath! No! I don't! I don't! I don't!" she only continued to yell over and over as she rapidly worked herself into a fussy wreck with the skill only small children like her possessed. Once it rapidly became obvious he wouldn't be able to diffuse the situation, Mac took the logical course of action and promptly handed her off to the expert.

Despite the fact that that her daughter was on the verge of a mini-meltdown, Frankie didn't even bat an eyelid as she calmly took the little one into her arms and asked gently, "Aw, what's wrong?"

"I don't want a bath!" she whined piteously as she relentless squirmed about. "I don't-"

"Shhh….and why is that?" her mother asked softly yet bluntly, catching the child off guard. In a flash, she had ceased her wriggling, and actually took a moment to think about the answer.

"Because…I...I don't wanna…the soap's gonna get in my eyes…and I don't like-" Bridgett started to whimper before Frankie seized seized her opportunity.

"No one likes that, sweetie…but if you take your baths, then you get all dirty, right?" she pointed out.

"….Yeah." came the reluctant answer. "But-"

"And if you get dirty, then you start to get stinky…right? Stinky like garbage, right?"

The child couldn't help but crack at smile at the silly imagery. "Uh-huh…"

"And if you get all stinky…then it won't be a lot of fun to be around you, huh? No one likes hanging around stinky people…not me, not daddy, not Mac, not Wilt, not Goo…and if no one wants to hang around you, then how can we do this?" Masterfully Frankie went in for the kill, and for the second time Bridgett found herself the direct target of an all-out tickle attack on her exposed belly.

"Yeeeeek! Heeheeheehee! No more, no more, no more!" the child's squeals echoed loudly throughout the room.

As the little one hastily capitulated, her mother smirked victoriously and asked, "Are we going get all upset for no good reason anymore?"

"N-no!" came the quick reply, earning her a warm hug and a kiss on the cheek.

"That's my girl." Frankie cooed as she affectionately nuzzled the child, who was all giggles once again. "Not going to let a bit of soap in our eyes bother us, won't it? No we won't! No we won't, because we're-"

"Give it a rest, already!" Bloo suddenly could take it no longer, and blurted out in utter disgust from where he had taken cover from behind the couch, thus effectively killing the tender moment. Like that, the others promptly descended into baffled silence as they all shot the blob confused glances.

"Hey, what the heck is your problem?" Goo immediately inquired as she cocked her head curiously at the clearly nauseated imaginary friend. "Who stuck a bag of bees in your underwear, huh? Well? When you weren't looking, who snuck in and shoved a whole nest inside your tightie-whities and then-"

"Come on, didn't you see that?" Bloo protested. "Frankie was all 'oh, I wuv you, mushy, mushy goo-goo!' Tell me you weren't about ready to go grab a barf bag! Seriously!"

"What's wrong?" Bridgett whimpered worriedly, earning her a quick reassuring hug.

"Nothing, Bloo's just being very….'silly'…again. That's" her mother sighed before telling the revolted blob, "Look Mister Stomach-of-Steel, I can't really do much about you getting grossed out, because in case you forgot, I'm a mom, and tough beans, I'm the kind who actually enjoys showing her kids she loves them."

"But between you and all the cutesy-smutesy-wutesy stuff that was going on before you got here, that was like, total overload!" the stubborn little imaginary friend argued. "I mean, you should've seen it! You have noidea how unnecessary it was for you to-"

"Yes, Blooragard Q. Kazoo, that's exactly right." The redheaded woman only replied dryly. "There's truly nothing so terrible as the love of a family. You definitely hit the nail on the head there."

"Just calm down, all right?" Mac laughed as he gave his unbelievable creation a pat on the head. "And we play like that with Bridgett all the time, so you really don't need freak out about that."

As soon as it became quite obvious that literally no one cared on smidgeon for his grievances, Bloo put on a sour scowl and crossed his stubby arms as he reluctantly went quiet, though not without adding with a grumble, "Well…least it's not half as bad as what you and Frankie used to be like."

"Come on, don't-" before Frankie could utter another word of protest, to her surprise Mac opened his mouth, as if to say something. However, as soon as her emerald eyes darted his way, he immediately clammed up.

"What?" she demanded as she cocked her head curiously at him.

"Uh…nothing." The boy stammered lamely, despite the fact that he knew just how futile it was to try and pull the wool over her eyes.

"Don't try and pull a fast one on me!" she shot back. "C'mon, what is it? What were you going to say?"

"I…well…it's just..." Mac fumbled over his words as he averted his gaze. "Well...it's just that...y'know..."

"See? See?" Bloo immediately piped up triumphantly. "See? I'm not the only one who thinks you two used to get all super-mushy!"

"No, it's just…well....yeah, actually…" his creator relented after stammering like a nitwit. "I…kinda agree with him on that…"

"…And just what is that supposed to mean, mister?" his "mother" demanded as she gave him a mock stern glare.

Mac rolled his eyes. "Be serious! C'mon, you know! Sometimes get a little over the top with all the-"

"Oh, that's right, I remember the total monster that I once was." Frankie countered. "Good-night kisses, hugs and kisses when you left for school, another hug when you returned home, more of the same if you were upset…oh, the horror! The horror of it all!"

"I'm not saying that was bad or anything, I'm only saying that you used to go just a little overboard with it!" Mac struck back.

"That actually upset you?" his parent exclaimed incredulously, while Bridgett grew anxious yet again.

"…You don't like Mommy?" she squeaked confusedly."

"What? No, no!" Mac hastily reassured the tot. "It's just…I mean, even when I got older, you still would treat me like I was only a little kid-"

"Pal, honestly." Frankie sighed. "I don't think that-"

"Yeah! Uh-huh! Right! He's totally right! Yeah-huh!" Goo suddenly chimed in. "Don't lie, Frankie! Whenever you dropped him off at school, if he tried to go straight inside with just saying 'goodbye', you'd be all like 'nuh-uh-uh, no way, no way,' and you'd make him give you a big ol' hug, every single time ever, and she'd never never ever let go until she gave you a big fat kiss on your forehead, and you had no choice ever if you wanted the big fat kiss or not, because she was so much stronger than you were, and a lot bigger than you were, which isn't saying that she's not bigger than you anymore, but more so back then! And sometimes, it didn't matter if you were doing something like picking us up at school because you were running errands at the time or something like that and there was a whole lot of people around, because even though Mac would get all sorta kinda embarrassed about it, you would still give him a big fat huge hug and a kiss! Uh-huh!"

Just when Mac thought he found on ally, however, she gleefully submitted to temptation and began babbling, "But don't think you're totally off the hook here! It's not like you were always like, 'no, no, no, not that, anything but that,' but you liked it, yeah-huh! Sooooo much, which isn't like, weird or anything because you're family, but just saying that every time Frankie was all ready to give you a hug, most of the time you hugged her right back without saying anything! Don't deny it! I remember, there'd be days like you'd be all down in the dumps, then once we got home from school Frankie would be right there, ready to give you a super-big hug, and then you'd be all like nothing ever, ever, ever, happened, and…"

As she chattered on and on, Bloo made just another face in revulsion as the cutesy memories started to flood his mind. "Seriously, do you have to remind us?"

"Okay…look, I'm not going to say none of that happened." Mac continued to argue doggedly as he hoped his embarrassed blush didn't become too noticeable. "It's just that sometimes, it was…a little bit too much. Y'know, I'm only getting older-"

"Oh yes, you're such the old fogy now." Frankie teased, causing Bridgett to squeak with laughter. "You used to say it all the time; we're family, so there's nothing wrong with-"

"There was something wrong when you would treat me like a total baby!" he argued doggedly.

"Maybe you felt that way," she granted, "But if you ask me, I think you're-"

"But still…okay, you have to admit…I mean, how long did it take for you to stop insisting on good-night kisses?" the boy pointed out. "Even when I started telling you I was getting too old for that, you still kept doing that until-"

"So…you're saying you miss those?" Frankie asked as she sprouted a mischievous grin.

"What? No!" In an instant it became more that obvious to the agitated teenager that she wasn't even trying to sincerely argue with him on anything; if anything, she was only milking this all for a bit of fun, to his dismay. "Come on, all I just wanted to say was that you used to-"

"Aw, my poor little guy…" Frankie only cooed jokingly. "Sounds like someone thinks he's going to have trouble getting to sleep tonight unless he-"

As Goo burst out tittering uncontrollably at the sight, Mac whined anxiously as his cheeks went flush, "Hey…hey come on, you know I don't like it when you act like-"

"But butt it's only family, Mac!" Goo reminded him in a singsong tone of voice. "Nothing wrong with-"

"Okay, forget about it! Just forget about it!" the frantic boy hastily began gesturing like mad for them to cut it out. "Look, forget I said anything, okay? Just-"

"Hey, you know what? Seeing how it's starting to get a little late…and there's no rule saying I can't get my goodnight kisses in a little early in the evening, isn't there?" Frankie giggled as she tried to make her tone as nauseatingly sweet as possible. "How about that, so I don't forget later?"

"What? Oh, no way!" Mac yelped as he swiftly sensed an incredibly embarrassing moment speeding his way like a freight train. "Forget about it! I told you, forget about it!"

"Nighty-night kissy-kisses all around for my little ones!" she announced in a sickeningly sweet fashion that far from how one would expect the President of an institution like Foster's to behave. "One for you…"

After pecking Bridgett lovingly upon the cheek, getting a happy squeak out of the child, she gently passed off the little girl to Goo before turning to her adopted eldest with a wickedly mischievous grin. "Your turn!"

"Augh! Wait, wait, don't!" Once it was clear she was going to stop at nothing at affectionately embarrassing him, Mac took off with a yelp with the redhead in close pursuit.

"C'mon, kiddo, just like old times!" she laughed as once again, the room housed a ludicrous chase that would expect to find only in cartoons. "Cmere!"

"No! No! No, no, no, no! Please!" Mac cried out as he rapidly went as red as beetroot. "Stop! Just stop it! Stop! Stop!"

"He's going around the couch! Quick, cut him off!" Goo hooted with glee at the ridiculous sight. "Quickquickquickquick, gogogogogo!"

"Get him, Mommy!" Bridgett shouted as she joyfully clapped he little hands.

"Cut that out!" Mac begged shamelessly as they rounded the sofa again. "That's not helping!"

"Hey, move those legs! Move it! Move it!" Bloo was the only one rooting for his best friend, which he did so quite frantically. "Come on, she's gaining!"

"I'm gonna getcha! I'm gonna getcha!" Frankie cackled merrily as if playing tag with a toddler. "C'mere! I'm gonna getcha!"

"Wait, no, no-WAUGH!" Mac cried out on last time before she finally decided to stop toying with him and bring the ludicrous pursuit to an end. Without warning, she picked up the pace and easily ensnarled him in a tight squeeze. Quickly, Mac shut his eyes tightly as she drew her catch in close…and did nothing more than give him a warm hug.

"…Only kidding, pal." She whispered happily before bursting out laughing as soon as she realized that his cheeks had turned so scarlet, they nearly matched her hair color.

"You go a pretty long way to just kid around." He groaned miserably as she give him one more affectionate squeeze before releasing her hold.

"Can I help it that embarrassing your kids is one of the best perks of being a parent?" She only chortled as she plodded back over to Goo, who was doing a very poor job of suppressing her mirth.

"You could try." Mac reasonably pointed out.

"Yeah, but there's no fun in that." Frankie laughed before taking charge. "Okay, enough messing around. To make sure we all don't waste half the night here tormenting each other, I think someone still needs to take her bath."

"Aw…" her daughter immediately let out a low whine of disappointment over the fact that she still remembered. "Do I?"

"Like I said, we can't have you being a stinky little mess, can we?" Frankie reminded before looking to Goo and announcing dutifully, "Good thing that it's summer and the days are longer. Seeing how it's a school night, I think a little Miss Chatterbox needs to-"

"I know, I know, I was just about to bike on home, don't worry! No problem! Not at all" Goo chirped as she gave everyone a wave. "Bye! See you all tomorrow!"

"Say bye-bye." Frankie cooed to Bridgett, who needed do second bidding and waved furiously in reply as the teenage girl skipped over to Mac and grinned at him broadly from ear to ear.

"See you in the morning." She bade with a coy smile before puckering up.

"Ew, don't tell me after everything else you're seriously gonna-hey! Hey! Oh, c'mon, now I can't see!" Bloo started whining as Frankie wordlessly clapped a free hand over the eyes of the ever-frustrating little blob, successfully preventing him from watching the quick peck Goo dotted his creator's cheek with.

"Bye, Goo." Mac said softly with an uncontrollable smile as she headed for the foyer. Once she vanished from sight, leaving the odd little family alone to get ready and turn in for the night, Frankie couldn't help but smirk at her charge, "So…it's just fine if you get a kiss from your sweetheart, but as soon as I try to-"

"That's…that's different." Mac protested as he averted his gaze a little, while Frankie just burst out chortling as she affectionately ruffled his hair.

"Don't worry, I'm still just teasing." She chuckled.

"All the mushy gunk is the same, if you ask me." Bloo commented to himself, which the others promptly ignored. As they all started heading together in a little pack for the main staircase, Mac couldn't help but grimace apologetically.

"I…I'm sorry if I was a little…y'know, rough with-" Before he could go any further, Frankie transferred Bridgett to one arm and drew the boy close into another quick hug.

"It's okay, we were only joking. Besides, it's not like you're the only one who's been telling me that. It wasn't like Kathy's been drilling the fact that I'm a bit much into my brain for years."

"Forgot about that." As Mac returned the embrace quickly before they continued on their way.

"It's all right, Mac. I know, you're growing up whether I like it or not-" Frankie went on.

"Not!" Bridgett squeaked, thinking her mother was asking a question and getting a burst of laughter out of the others.

"Guess we can't argue with that." Mac joked as together they strode into the foyer and headed upstairs.

"Pal?"

Frankie inquired softly with a gentle knock on the door in a hushed tone. After waiting for a few seconds without any response, she cautiously opened the door and took a peek. Once she came face-to-face with the darkness that enveloped the lightless bedroom interior her eyes picked up the audible, rhythmic breathing of someone in a deep sleep, it quickly became clear that Mac had long since called it an early night.

For a few moments the nightgown-garbed woman just remained where she stood in the doorway, waiting patiently for her emerald eyes to adjust. After briefly checking on the very dozy five-year-old that was leaning heavily against her shoulder, Frankie slowly tiptoed across the floor until she was at Mac's bedside. After carefully pulling up the sheets around the slumbering teen, she paused for another second to see if he would wake up or not.

When nothing happened, she whispered softly, "Mac?"

Still, no response. Again, she calmly waited for a few moments, as if she had done this dozens of times before. Finally, she inquired a little louder, "Mac? Mac?"

Again, no reply at all. Once it became apparent that nothing was going to awaken him anytime soon, the redhead woman couldn't help but break out grinning. Moving with the ease that only experience could provide, she gently brushed some of Mac's aside, then planted a quick but tender good-night kiss upon his forehead.

"Love you, pal." She whispered as she slowly began to back away. To her slight surprise however, a soft giggle suddenly rang in her ear, and a moment later Frankie remembered that Bridgett hadn't fully fallen completely asleep, seeing how the extremely sleepy little girl was looking straight at her through sagging, half-shut eyelids and grinning dozily at her crafty mother.

Smiling warmly at the child, Frankie held a finger to her own lips and whispered softly to the little one as they exited the room. "Let's just keep this our little secret, okay?"

The End