Hey guys!

Check this out, I`m posting my new chapter one day early again! Whooo! I got some extra time to write on Monday, and I basically had the entire chapter in my head as I started; so all I really had to do was put it down on paper:)

Once again, thank you so much for all of your kind reviews! I`m so glad you liked the previous chapter, as I was really nervous on your response to Randall`s past! The sadness-level was intentional – I wanted Randall to have a tragic past, but I never would have guessed that I almost made one of you cry! I`m sorry! But I do appreciate you`re that into my story, though! Thanks! *hugs*

I also appreciate the fact that some of you are offering me ideas! That`s great! I am taking them into consideration:) I had to smile when I got a review suggesting I should put a second thunderstorm in my story, where Sulley can comfort Randall; I have had another thunderstorm planned for weeks;)

So, about the new chapter… It`s my longest one yet, and at one point I considered splitting it in two; but I chose not to do so, and hope you don`t mind – I hope you`re in the mood for a longer read today:D

Oh, and I should mention: chapter five features both a person and an event I know some of you have been waiting for;) I hope it will live up to your expectations!

I think that`s all I have to say for now… I really hope you will enjoy the new chapter!

Chapter 5: Revealed

As he was walking away from Randall`s apartment alongside with Sophie, Sulley felt even worse than he had done when he had first gotten there; Sophie and Randall`s history had really upset him, and he felt so sorry for the two siblings – although he had a hard time figuring out which of them he pitied the most.

"What are you thinking of?"

Sophie`s question drew Sulley back to reality; he noticed that they were approaching the city centre. In around ten minutes they would be back at the factory, where they were going to pick up Sophie`s son, Rex.

"What you told me in your brother`s apartment". Sulley had his eyes fastened on the sidewalk as he spoke – he didn`t feel like looking at Sophie at the moment. "I really don`t know what to say; I`m so sorry for you – for both of you".

"Thank you". Sophie turned her head to the left and looked at him; "But there`s no need to feel sorry for me; I get along fine. I have an amazing little boy – the best one in the world actually, good friends, a safe job and a well-established economy – I`m lucky. But I do feel sorry for my brother and the way his life turned out; and if you have to feel sorry for someone, you can be sorry for him, too – but please keep in mind not to blame yourself -"

She suddenly stopped walking and placed one of her hands on Sulley`s right arm (as she was too low to reach his shoulder) before she continued: "I don`t judge you for banishing him, and it wasn`t your fault he tipped over".

Her words finally caused Sulley to dare lifting his head and look into her eyes; they had such a soothing effect on him, and he was so thankful that she didn`t blame him for anything involving Randall – her little brother. He still didn`t know what to say, so he chose to let his actions talk instead; he carefully embraced her and gave her a long, warm hug.

After about a minute of hugging and ten minutes of walking, the two blue monsters eventually approached the location of their jobs. A lot of monsters where already on their way home, and nor Sulley or Sophie intended to stay for very long; they were just going to pick up Rex (Sulley had offered Sophie to come with her as he really wanted to meet her son), and then they were going back to their own homes.

The company dayscare was located on the ground floor at the backside of the massive building. It consisted of an art-room, a play-room, a music-room, a kitchen, a nap-room, a bathroom, a wardrobe and then finally a little garden with a fence around it. Everything looked very appealing and welcoming, and all the rooms were painted in bright, happy colours – the CEO, Sulley, was proud that his company had something this nice to offer his employees` children.

Sulley and Sophie made it to the dayscare`s wardrobe, and once they got in Sulley noticed that there was only one backpack left there – Rex was the last child to be picked up today. Sulley`s eyes wandered on to the big clock hanging on the wall, and to his embarrassment he saw that it was ten past five; they were ten minutes late. Sophie was looking in the same direction:

"I`m glad you`re with me now", she said with a teasing grin that caused her eyes to narrow (which suddenly made her face very similar to Randall`s), "the staff won`t dare to yell at me in the presence of the CEO..!"

Sulley let out a light-hearted laugh, when suddenly one of the dayscare-teachers entered the wardrobe to greet them.

"Sorry we`re late", Sulley started, trying to pin it on himself, "It was my fault. I had arranged to meet Sophie today, and then we had to run an errand, and -"

He was interrupted by a loud, jolly cry:

"Muuuuuuum!"

Sulley peeked over the dayscare-teacher`s shoulder, and a tiny, orange monster caught his eyes; he was running their way as fast as he could, with a big smile on his face. He had four arms, four legs and a tail, and despite the fact that he had only one frond on the top of his head, there was no doubt that he resembled his mother and his uncle. But what amazed Sulley the most about the little guy were his eyes; they were in the colour of bright emerald green, and it was just like seeing Randall`s - except Rex`s weren`t squinting.

"Rex, honey!" As Rex made it into the wardrobe, Sophie bent over and greeted her boy with a big, loving hug; "How`s your day been, sweetie? Did you have fun?"

"Uh-huh", Rex nodded, grinned and showed his mother something he had kept behind his back: "A made a pictua!" He unfolded a piece of paper and revealed a painting; well – he revealed puddles of paint randomly placed on a white sheet. "Look mum, is you!"

Sulley tried his best, but couldn`t quite see how the so-called picture resembled Sophie in any way imaginable; However, he had to smile when he saw Rex`s big grin – the boy was obviously very proud of his effort, and, apparently, so was his mum – she kissed her son as she took hold of the picture, and promised him that it was going "on the fridge" that same day.

Just then, Rex noticed that his mother had brought someone else along to pick him up; he looked at Sulley for a moment, with an alarmingly insecure expression on his face, before he hid his face behind Sophie`s back. She patted him on the head and stroked his frond as she explained who the stranger was:

"Rex, this is Mister Sullivan! He`s mum`s friend, and he really wanted to meet you..! Won`t you say hello?"

Rex showed no sign of saying anything. He clung to his mother with all four of his hands and closed his eyes tightly, before he suddenly seemed to disappear in thin air – Sulley giggled; this was Randall`s nephew, alright.

"Rex?" Sophie was clearly used to her son disappearing, as she showed no sign of freaking out, "This is not very polite..! Now, re-appear immediately and say hello to Mister Sullivan!"

No response.

Sulley felt like saying something, although he wasn`t sure of what; he wasn`t that good with children, and hadn`t really been talking to a child since he sent Boo back through her door a month ago.

"Hello, Rex!" he said eventually, revealing a bit of insecurity in his voice; "I`m happy to meet you; your mother told me so much about you! I`m Mister Sullivan, but my friends call me Sulley – you can call me that too, if you want..!"

No response.

Sophie was about to talk to her son again, until she noticed that the dayscare-teacher looked a little impatient; so all she did was apologise and say goodbye, lift up her invisible son and carry him out through the door – Sulley followed with the backpack, and he too apologised to the staff; he was wondering how many times he had said he was sorry for something that day.

The trio walked through the factory together, and Sophie was still carrying Rex. He was still invisible, but Sulley noticed that parts of his body showed up every once in a while – his camouflaging skills clearly lacked training, although he was very talented for his age.

As they reached the mailroom, Sophie stopped and bent over; Sulley guessed that she was putting Rex down.

"Okay Rex", she started, "now we are going home and make some dinner. But first, I want you to say goodbye to Mister Sullivan – I`m sorry - Sulley".

No response.

"Rex, I`m serious; Do I have to get angry now? Look, I`m going to give you to the count of three; one… two…"

Sulley placed a hand on her back: "Look Sophie, it`s okay! I know I can look intimidating to a little child, he doesn`t have to talk to me if he doesn`t feel like it. I`m sure I`ll get to see him again on another occasion".

Sophie smiled up at him; "Thanks, Sulley; for everything. I must admit, I was not looking forward to this day, but it turned out better than I could have hoped for! Thank you!"

She hugged him, and he hugged her back - patting her back to make her feel better. As they embraced, Rex clearly thought it was time for him to say hello to Sulley:

"Hello!" He suddenly re-appeared as he jumped high up in the air – the little guy really had good physics.

Both of the adults turned around to look at him, and Rex obviously enjoyed the new-won attention; he was putting up an improvised dance-show, and Sulley couldn`t help but laugh.

"So there you are!" He smiled at the little monster, who answered him with a big grin;

"Hello!" Rex said again, waving to Sulley as he continued to jump up and down and dance randomly; "Wanna see wha I can do?"

He didn`t seem to have the time to wait for Sulley to answer, but started showing off right away – it wasn`t every day he had a new audience;

The little boy climbed onto the way using all of his arms and legs, and climbed higher up until he was as at the same level as Sophie`s head – then he carefully let go of his arms, so that he ended up hanging from the wall by his legs.

"Be careful, honey". Sophie`s look expressed a little concern, but she had nothing to worry about; her son knew what he was doing.

Rex, very concentrated, climbed down again, using only his four legs, and got himself safely back on the ground, while looking at his audience with anticipation. Sulley applauded him:

"Yay! That`s very good! Thanks for showing me, Rex!"

"That`s good Rex", Sophie agreed, "but now we really have to go; we`re going home to make dinner!"

"Bye Rex! Nice to meet you!" Sulley waved at the orange monster.

"Bye Ulley!" Rex waved back at him with three arms – he probably would have used the fourth one too, if is mother hadn`t grabbed hold at it to lead him out of the factory and home.

Sulley smiled to himself as he walked towards the counter at his local supermarket – despite the grief he had felt after hearing Sophie and Randall`s sad history, his day had actually been really good; meeting Sophie had been nice, and meeting Rex had been incredible – what a funny little guy!

The thought of Rex suddenly made Sulley feel a little down again; Randall couldn`t possibly have known what he was missing; Imagine having a nephew that sweet and full of life, only to choose not to care about him! Sulley was torn between his own feelings; a part of him was angry at Randall for neglecting Rex, while the other part felt sorry for him – an inferiority complex of that size couldn`t be easy for anyone.

Sulley started loading his groceries up on the counter; he was going to make dessert tonight, and had to buy some ingredients for it. Mike had told him that he wanted to cook his famous slime-burgers to celebrate the re-opening of Monsters Inc., and then Sulley had offered to fix them a sweet treat to complete the meal. The two friends had been very busy over the past weeks, and Sulley felt that he hadn`t spent an evening with his best friend for ages. He missed goofing around with Mike, listening to his funny stories, and he had high hopes for tonight – slime-burgers and a movie sounded pretty good after weeks of work.

"That will be twenty nine ninety five". The teenager behind the counter spoke with a voice that changed from low to high pitch as he spoke.

"Alright." Sulley reached for his wallet, but he couldn`t find it; typical, he had probably left it at work…

"I`m sorry", he started, still wondering how many times he had apologised to someone that day, "but I seem to have misplaced my wallet. Can you please keep these stored for me while I go back to work and get it?" He pointed to the groceries, and the teenager nodded his head.

"Sure". His voice cracked again, and Sulley thanked him as he left the store and headed back to the factory. It wasn`t the first time he had left his wallet there after closing hours.

Sulley opened the top drawer of his desk for the fourth time; still no wallet. He had been searching through his entire office two or three times, but there were no signs of it anywhere. This was weird; where else could he have left it? He hadn`t even used it today.

He sat down in his chair, thinking back through his day – and that was when he realized: he had placed his wallet on a table in the hall at Randall`s apartment as he had entered with Sophie, and he didn`t have any memories of picking it up again when they left. That`s where it had to be!

It was already past six, but Sulley decided he needed his wallet; he had to pay for his groceries, as he really was in the mood for dessert tonight. Just as he started walking through his office door to head over for Randall`s apartment for the second time that day, he remembered that Sophie had the key now. That meant he had to pay her a visit first; clearly he was in for a longer night than he had planned.

He looked up Sophie`s address in the phonebook in his office, and called a cab to take him there – Sophie lived in the suburbs outside of Monstropolis, and if he had to walk there, he probably wouldn`t be home until midnight.

It was getting dark as the taxi stopped in the driveway outside a pale blue wooden house with a lawn a pick-yard fence. Sulley told the cabdriver to wait; his errand would only take a couple of minutes, and he had another place to go to straight afterwards. He wasn`t keen on wasting any more time right now; he was getting hungry, and wanted to go home to Mike and his slime-burgers as soon as possible.

He went over the lawn leading up to Sophie`s house, and noticed that although the property was well-held and nice, it wasn`t exactly as tidy as Randall`s; there were toys on the patio and on the area around the door, and on the lawn there was a little playhouse with a slide, surrounded by more toys, and a blow-up pool that looked as if it had been broken for a while. He smiled as he rang the doorbell.

Rex opened the door; his face was covered in jam, his hands looked sticky, and his little face lit up when he saw Sulley:

"Guess what a ate!"

Sulley had a hard time figuring out what the little monster was saying, but if he was to judge from the way he looked, he guessed it had something to do with what he had been eating for dinner – and the jam made him guess for pancakes.

"Did you eat pancakes for dinner, Rex?" Sulley smiled down at him, and Rex`s responding grin exposed all of his teeth:

"Yeah! Wanna hea how faw a can count? One, two, thwee, fouw –" Rex was interrupted by his mother, who had entered the hall;

"Sulley! Hi! That`s a pleasant surprise, how can I help you?"

"Sorry to disturb you, but I think I left my wallet in Randall`s apartment – do you think I can borrow the key and go get it? I`ll return it to you at work tomorrow." Sulley felt something pulling his fur as he spoke and looked down, only to see Rex cling to his leg:

"Ulley, wanna see ma woom?"

Sulley couldn`t figure out what that meant either, but luckily Sophie came to his rescue:

"Rex, I think Sulley is in a hurry. I`m sure he wants to see your room another time!"

She picked Rex up, which was harder than she had guessed for as he wouldn`t let go of the blue monster`s leg, and then she faced Sulley again:

"Sure Sulley, I`ll get you the key – and when it comes to you Rex, you`re up for a trip to the bathtub; you`re all sticky!"

She went over to a little cabinet on the wall, found the right key and handed it over to Sulley. "Here you are! And once again, thanks for going with me today! I`m sorry, I would have gone over there with you now, but I have something to deal with right here…" She had a hard time holding her son, who wasn`t exactly being still.

"That`s okay," Sulley said, "I`m sure I`ll get by on my own! I think I know where in the apartment I left the wallet, it will probably take just a couple of minutes – I`ll have to go now, I have a cab waiting. Thanks, Sophie!"

He turned around to leave, but stopped when he heard Rex`s calling:

"Hug!"

Rex`s face had blue hairs all over it after hugging Sulley, as pieces of his fur had gotten stuck in the jam; and Sulley felt sticky as he headed back for the cab and got in.

"Sorry for the wait", he told the driver.

"That`s fine, I`m not paying".

Sulley eagerly hoped that he wasn`t wrong about his wallet`s location as he gave Randall`s address to the driver and the cab started to move. If he was wrong, then he was probably up for an expensive night.

After a good fifthteen minutes' drive, Sulley got out of the cab outside of the building that held Randall`s apartment. Once again he told the driver to wait, as his errand would only take around five minutes:

"Once again, fine; I`m still not the one who`s paying" was the answer he got.

Sulley quickly headed for the front door, unlocked it and got in. Once inside, he had to choose between the elevator and the stairs, and with an excuse saying it was too late in the evening for exercise, he headed for the elevator and hushed inside.

Just as he had pushed the button to the second floor, someone called out to him:

"Hold the elevator! I`m going up, too!"

He pushed the stop-button and opened the doors, allowing an old lady to enter.

"Thank you so much, young man. It takes so long to wait for it to come back down again; and when you`re my age, you can`t afford to waste any time waiting for an elevator to reach the ground floor".

Sulley chuckled to himself. He loved monsters with a sense of humour, especially if they were able to joke about themselves.

"Which floor?" he asked the other.

"The second one, please".

"Same as me, then". Sulley pushed the button, and the doors closed.

To begin with, there was silence between the two monsters in the elevator. Sulley was fine with that; he enjoyed talking to different monsters, but he didn`t always have to – sometimes silence was preferred. But then suddenly, the elderly lady asked him a question:

"I`ve never seen you here before, young man. Are you here to visit someone?"

"No, not exactly", Sulley admitted. "It`s a little hard to explain".

"Try me".

"Well, I`m only here to pick up my wallet".

"That`s not hard to explain".

"No, but… I left it in this apartment… The owner is gone. He was banished. I was there this afternoon to look at it with his sister".

"I know all the people living in this building – who`s apartment is it?"

"His name is Boggs".

"Randy?!" The old lady suddenly looked startled, and stared at Sulley; "Randy`s been banished?! What, why?"

"I`m afraid that`s confidential, mam". Sulley wasn`t entirely sure if it was, but he didn`t feel like sharing the story with a stranger he`d just met in an elevator – he was just eager to get out of there and head home to Mike`s dinner.

"But there must be a mistake! Randy Boggs is my neighbour, and he`s always been such a sweet boy! What can he possibly have done that deserves to be punished with banishment? Oh dear… I haven't seen him a while, but I assumed he was away on a holiday or something, oh my dear -"

The doors in the elevator opened before the old lady had finished her sentence, and she stepped outside and onto the hallway with Sulley. The blue monster felt bad for upsetting Randall`s neighbour, and thought he should say something:

"Look, Mrs..?"

"Lorenzo. Gladys Lorenzo".

"Mrs Lorenzo, I`m really sorry about Randall, but I can`t tell you the reason for his banishment. I`m sorry"; once again, Sulley had apologised – he was probably the new record-holder in how many times one could possibly do that in one single day.

Mrs Lorenzo went down the hall towards her own and Randall`s apartment-doors alongside with Sulley, and she talked all the way:

"Poor Randy, that precious boy, wonder how he is, poor, poor Randy, I`ve never heard anything like this my entire life, how could they -"

"Were you… Were you close to Randall?" Sulley felt he had to say something – anything, if only to make her stop.

"Well… No, not close, but we were friends; he helped me with different things around the house, helped me do my groceries; oh, and I cooked for him from time to time – bread, dinner, cakes, things like that. Sometimes I had him over for tea. Oh dear -" she had to dry a tear.

Sulley didn`t know how to respond to anything of what he had just been told. Randall helped his neighbour do her groceries? He went over for tea? The picture of Randall sitting in a sofa with this lady and a cup of earl grey almost made him laugh – he never would have guessed. He had learned more about Randall over the last few hours than he had done for as long as he had known the guy, and he hadn`t even been talking with him today.

"Look Mrs Lorenzo, I can see you`re upset, but I`m afraid there`s nothing I can do about Randall`s case at the moment. Now, is there anything else I can do for you before I go get my wallet and head home?"

"Well… Maybe… There`s this light bulb in my living room..!"

After around ten minutes, Sulley walked out of Mrs Lorenzo`s apartment; he had changed her light bulb, had his picture taken and been given a cookie – that was surprisingly tasty. No wonder Randall allowed this woman to cook for him.

As he nibbled to the cookie, Sulley put his key in Randall`s door and turned it around; he opened the door slowly and smiled as he saw his wallet on the table right next to it. Perfect. He entered the hall and took hold of it, shaking his head over his own bad memory.

Just as he turned around to leave again, a sound from the living room caught his attention; it almost sounded like a voice? The blue monster went closer to the living room door, and the sound grew stronger. Yes, it was a voice – someone was talking in there.

Sulley got frightened; was there someone in there? It sure couldn`t be Sophie, but who else could have the key to Randall`s place? Sulley went even closer to the door, and let out a relieved sigh as he recognized the voice that was talking: it was a reporter from the local news – it had to be the TV.

However, he couldn`t remember Sophie putting the TV on earlier that day, and he certainly hadn`t done it himself; this was weird.

He decided that no matter how it had happened, the best thing would be to turn it off - and so he entered the living room. In there, everything was dark, and the curtains were drawn – hadn`t he opened them himself this afternoon? And there was the TV, showing the news. Sulley frowned in confusion – he didn`t understand.

The news showed a report from Monsters Inc., probably recorded that same afternoon, with a proud Mike telling the reporter how good things were going at the factory. Sulley smiled to himself as he pressed the off-button; now there was no way he would get Mike to stop talking tonight.

Sulley turned around to leave again, when he suddenly stopped – and stood perfectly still for a long time. His eyes widened and his mouth hung open as if he was in a state of shock;

The room was dark, but there was enough light for Sulley to notice that Randall`s bedcovers were still on the couch – but they weren`t the only things there; Sulley saw a foot – and it had just moved.

He hesitated, but decided to move closer. He tiptoed over to the table, and tried to get a closer look at whoever it was that was laying on the couch;

Deep inside, he already knew; but when he got up close, he almost fell backwards when he realized his gut-feeling was right.

The monster on the couch was the same one he had been thinking of all day. It was the same one he had thrown through a door a month ago. It was the same one who had chased him around Monsters Inc. and tried to kill him.

But now, that same monster was laying right there in front of him, sleeping heavily with a peaceful look on his face:

Randall.

Well, that`s it for now..! Rex has entered the building, and Sulley finally knows that Randall is back! I know some of you have been waiting for both, and I hope I didn`t let you down:)

So what do you think of Rex? I work with children daily, and borrowed some inspiration from some of them while portraying him – I`m pleased with the result, and I hope you are, too. Rex will appear further out in the story as well:)

And now that Sulley knows Randall is back in Monstropolis, I hope all of you are excited for the future chapters! Like I`ve said, the two will grow a little closer eventually, but that will take time, as I don`t want to rush things. Staying true to the characters is important to me, and Sulley and Randall are not the types who will become friendly in a short matter of time. Please be patient. (I have to tell myself that every time I write, too) ;)

I think that`s all I need to add in this round… I hope you all leave behind a review, as I am super-excited to receive them! I love hearing what you think and suggest for my story, after all, you`re the ones I`m trying to please!

When it comes to the next chapter, I`m not quite sure on when it will be ready yet. I think I want to guess on Thursday night (Norwegian time), but I don`t dare to promise you that. But I can promise that it will be ready by Friday, the least!

Have a good day everyone, see you around. Take care:)