Hello guys!

Time for a new chapter! I hope you`re ready!

Again: Thank you all so much for the kind reviews you`re leaving behind! It makes me so happy to know somebody out there likes what I do, especially since this is my first fanfic! It really means a lot to me! Thanks!

And a special thank you to 90s Total drama pokemon who mentioned my story in ones` own! *hugs* I`m reading yours, too;)

I will also like to send a special thanks to Jillamos, who said that I`m a good writer. That makes me very proud of myself; I`ve mentioned earlier that I`m Norwegian, and that English isn`t my mother tongue. This is the first thing I`ve written in English besides essays for school, and I`m glad to hear that I don`t suck at it! :D

I`ve had a couple of questions (again) on whether this story is a Sulley/Randall-thing. Once again I`m thrilled to say that IT IS! :D Yay! I can`t wait for the romance to start!

Today`s chapter is called "Good News", and it brings Randall, well; just that. I also have some good news for you; Rex is in this chapter! Not a lot, but he`s there. And he will re-appear again later:)

I think that`s all I have to say before the actual story… So go on, read and meet me at the bottom!

Chapter 7: Good news

The new day at Monsters Inc. had lasted for more than an hour when the CEO arrived; Celia met him in the door with tons of messages, and Terrie-the-Roz-replacement had paperwork for him to fill out. In a way, Sulley was happy about it; if he only kept himself busy enough during the day, perhaps he could manage to forget about his bad experiences in Randall`s apartment that morning…

After he had gone through all of his messages, filled out the paperwork and even cleaned his desk, Sulley decided to visit one of the laugh-floors; the thought of Randall still wouldn`t let go, and so the blue monster thought he needed a cheer-up - and where could he get that, if not on a laugh-floor?

He closed the door to his own office and started walking towards the floor Mike was on; there was always something going on there. If Mike couldn`t get him to laugh, then he could always count on George Sanderson, who always screwed things up for himself; he tripped and fell over like five times a day – every day.

Mike had just left a kids` room when Sulley entered the laugh-floor; he was relieved to see that the CEO was still alive, with all of his limbs intact, and left his station for a minute to talk to his boss and best friend;

"Hey, Sul! Glad to see you`re still in one piece! How`d it go?"

Sulley tried to smile back at Mike, but doubted it looked very convincing;

"Fine".

"Sulley?" Mike narrowed his eye.

"Okay, he threw me out".

"Told you so". Mike`s expression showed a brief satisfaction, and Sulley didn`t like it. He immediately tried to defend himself;

"He was just tired, that`s it… I`m going back there when he`s feeling better!"

"Sulley, please don`t; you tried talking to him and it didn`t work. It was a nice effort, but now you should just stop!"

"You should`ve seen him -"

"Sulley; leave it. You tried. It didn`t work. Leave the guy alone". Mike sounded as if he had reached a conclusion.

Sulley sighed. Maybe Mike was right; maybe he should just leave Randall alone. That was clearly what the lizard wanted, too. But the image of the thin, exhausted creature had burnt into Sulley`s head, and he couldn`t get it off his mind. But he chose not to tell Mike. Instead, he started talking about work;

"How`s it going here? Did anyone miss me this morning?"

"Nay, not really. It`s been quiet. George Sanderson fell over again and hurt his toe, though". Mike pointed towards a nearby bench, where George sat with a bag of ice on his foot; Sulley had to strangle a laugh – typical.

"Wanna watch me make this kid laugh?" Mike was on his way back to his station and the next door;

"No, I`m sorry, Mike. I have to get some coffee, I still don`t feel fully awake here…"

"Okay; see you at lunch!"

Mike continued towards his door, and Sulley headed for the closest coffee-machine. As he rounded the corner, he suddenly heard someone call out his name in an abnormally happy tone;

"Ulley!"

He looked up and noticed that the children in the dayscare-program were on a trip around the factory, and that one of them was running towards him; Rex. The little monster smiled with his entire face and waved eagerly, and Sulley lifted his hand and waved back.

"Ulley!" Rex repeated as he jumped on to the CEO`s leg and squeezed it in a hug.

Sulley felt a little uncomfortable since there were other monsters around looking, but chose to bend down and hug the orange monster back;

"Hey, you..!"

"What`s ma name?" Rex looked at Sulley with anticipation as he pulled his tie.

"Hmm, let me see…" Sulley pretended he had a hard time remembering it;

"Rex, wasn`t it?"

"Yeah! You know me, you wemembe ma name – Ulley, come with me!"

Rex took hold of Sulley`s hand and tried to pull him over to the rest of the dayscare-group, while he talked constantly;

"Ulley, can you visit me today? Can you come fow ma biwthday? I`m thwee, I`m big! You think I`m big? Wanna hea how faw I can count? One, two, thwee, fouw, five -"

"Rex, don`t disturb Mister Sullivan!" The dayscare-teacher took hold of Rex`s hand and tried to get him off Sulley; "He`s at work!"

"He and me awe fweinds!"

"That`s very nice, but now you have to let go of him; we`re going back to the dayscare to eat, and then it`s nap-time!"

"Nooo!"

Rex wouldn`t let go of Sulley`s leg, and the CEO had to help the teacher loosen the little kid`s grip;

"You better listen to the teacher, Rex".

"Can you visit me again?" Tears had started to gather up in Rex`s big, green eyes, and Sulley smiled down at him as he handed him over to the teacher;

"Sure, some other time! See you around, mate!"

He waved to Rex, who waved back with one hand, held his teacher in another, dried his eyes with a third and tried to push the teacher away with a fourth.

"Who was that?" Mike`s voice surprised Sulley; he hadn`t heard him coming.

"That`s Rex. Randall`s nephew".

"Jeez Sulley, is there something going on in your life at the moment that isn`t about Randall?"

"Why are you here, Mike?" Sulley let out a deep sigh.

"I forgot to tell you; I`m eating lunch with Celia today, so I won`t be able to meet you. And I`m taking her out tonight, so then the place will be all yours; perhaps you wanna invite Randall over, or something…"

"Mike".

"Okay, I`m sorry. But the place is yours, so you can do whatever you want. Okay?"

"Fine. Thanks for telling me. Have fun with Celia!"

"Thanks".

Mike headed back to the laugh-floor as Sulley went back to his office; he could hear Mike sing a self-composed love-song on his way.

The day went by in its usual routines, and Sulley kept himself busy in his office. It helped him keep his mind off Randall; almost. He ate lunch with some friends from the factory, and even joined in on a game of cards.

Everything was perfectly normal; until he ran into Sophie on his way back from the cafeteria;

"Sulley! Hi! How did it go last night?"

"What?"

"Your wallet; did you find it?"

"Yeah, yeah!" Sulley had forgotten all about his first reason to go back to Randall`s apartment; "No problem!"

"I`m glad you found it. Don`t you just hate it when things go missing like that? It happens to me all the time; Rex hid my keys a couple of days ago, and -"

Keys. He suddenly remembered; Sophie probably wanted back her key!

"Sophie?"

"Yes?"

"I… I left Randall`s key at home..!"

"That`s okay, I don`t need it at the moment".

Sulley surprised himself; why on earth was he lying? He had the key in his office; he could give it back to Sophie right now!

But then – he wouldn`t be able to go back to check on Randall. He doubted Randall would open to him if he rang the doorbell, and he really wanted to see how the lizard was doing; he didn`t exactly know why, though.

"Are you sure, Sophie?"

"Yes, take your time. I have to wait a little before I go back there anyway; I`m quite busy at the moment".

"Thanks".

"No problem". She smiled at him; the same, warm smile he had grown to like so much.

"By the way, I talked to Rex this morning!"

"He`s your number one fan now; he talked about nothing but you last night".

Sulley smiled and let out a laugh; Randall`s nephew was really something.

He said goodbye to Sophie and headed back for his office. He thought about the key; he wondered if he really wanted to go back to Randall`s place to try to talk to him. Mike would be gone tonight anyway, so… Perhaps he should give it another go?

It was late in the afternoon, and Randall ate cereal. Dry cereal, since he had no milk. He had searched through his kitchen, and the only food that hadn`t expired was this box of Kreature Krisp. It was dry, and every crumble seemed to stick to his tongue and palate as he ate; it was miserable, and it only made him feel hungrier. Being back in Monstropolis sure wasn`t as grand as he had pictured it to be – this was like prison.

And just like in prison, he could get visitors; someone suddenly knocked on the door. Randall looked up, but didn`t bother opening. As he heard someone unlocking the door from the outside, he cursed, camouflaged and climbed back onto the ceiling; just in case.

"Hey, Randall?"

Sullivan`s voice sounded even more insecure than it had done in the morning, but his steps were more determined; he walked straight into the living room and asked again:

"Randall?"

Randall sighed and re-appeared as he climbed back down to the couch;

"What part of "get out" is it that you don`t understand, Sullivan?"

Sulley didn`t answer at first; he just looked at the purple-greyish, thin creature on the couch; he really did look terrible.

A moment of complete silence followed, and Randall placed his hand on one of the sofa-cushions; just in case he felt like throwing something again.

"Are you feeling better now?" Sulley`s voice still sounded insecure, and his worried expression caused Randall to look in another direction; a desire to throw the cushion rose.

A new pause.

"Like I said, I just wanted to check on you". Sulley was still looking at the other, trying to catch his eyes;

"You don`t look so good; what has happened? How long have you been here?"

No answer. Randall still looked away.

"How did you get back?"

Randall still didn`t turn his head, and his expression was still blank.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

Hell no.

"If you`re still not feeling good, I can come back some other day. Do you want me to leave?"

"I think I`ve made that perfectly clear already…"

Randall`s answer caused Sulley to jump; he had gotten used to the lizard not doing so, and saw the answer as a small victory – even though it wasn`t exactly cheerful.

"Okay, then; I`ll leave you alone"; Sulley turned around to leave, and a sudden feeling of sadness came over him – and surprised him. He knew that he wanted to find out more about how Randall had gotten back, but he hadn`t been expecting to feel this way.

He took one last look at Randall as he opened the door; "Be safe, now";

Sulley stepped out into the hall, but turned around again; Randall cursed – why couldn`t he just leave?

"Oh, and by the way, Randall; you really should eat something else than just cereal", Sulley pointed to the box of Kreature Krisp on the table; "No offence, but you don`t look too good – how much weight have you lost?"

"I would like to see you try to get hold of food when you can`t step outside the door…"

"Why can`t you go outside? Are you hurt?"

A veil of worry appeared in Sulley`s eyes, and Randall hurried to explain; he thought that if he didn`t, Sullivan would probably carry him off to hospital;

"I`m fine. But I`ll rather stay hidden from the police. This apartment is one thing, jail is something else".

"Why do you think someone would take you to jail?"

Sullivan spoke with a convincing surprise in his voice, and for the first time ever, Randall found himself to be actually interested in what he had to say;

"I know what I did, Sullivan..!"

"But nobody else does".

The confused look in Randall`s eyes caused Sulley to re-enter the apartment and take a couple of steps towards him; which caused Randall to take a couple of steps back – there was no need to get too close.

Sulley looked straight at Randall as he explained:

"You`re not wanted by the police, Randall..! It is common knowledge that Waternoose was the mastermind behind the scandal; he confessed everything in the scare-simulator. We got it on tape. He`s going to prison, and although your name came up during the trial, you`re not charged for anything. You were just mentioned as Waternoose`s sidekick, alongside with Fungus, and Fungus defended you; he said that you were threatened to help Waternoose, and that you really had nothing to do with it".

Randall could hardly believe the words he was hearing; Fungus had defended him? He wasn`t one of Monstropolis` most wanted after all?

"And by the way -" Sulley continued, "Mike and I even got a little trouble with the judge for illegally banishing you to the human world. Apparently, you`re supposed to talk it over with the authorities before sending someone through a one-way door. Did you know that?"

"No".

There really wasn`t anything more to say. Randall couldn`t believe his name had been cleared while he`d been away, and Sulley clearly understood what was on his mind;

"You`re a free monster, Randall – you can do whatever you want".

"I want you to leave". Randall turned his head again; he was done looking at Sullivan.

"I will, in a minute"; Sulley`s voice suddenly gained a more serious tone as he stepped back into the hallway:

"I just want you to tell me that the first thing you`ll do is to buy yourself some decent food".

"Will you leave me alone, then?"

"Sure… I just want to know you`ll get by, that`s it. And I really think you need to eat something".

"Okay; I`ll buy some food tomorrow. Happy?"

"And you`ll eat it?"

"Well, duh..!"

"Good. Take care, Randall, and -"

That was all Sulley managed to say before the door was shut in his face; his visitation-time was clearly over. Although the purple monster was angry right now, Sulley smiled as he started the walk home; this had gone like ten times better than his morning-visit; the least.

Aaaand that`s it for today! A bit more cheerful than the previous chapter, don`t you think? But still no kiss anywhere in sight, though… *sigh*

I hope you enjoyed the chapter, I really enjoyed writing it! Writer`s block got me when I published the previous one, and I had no idea of what to do for this one. I know how the entire story is going to end, but I don`t know everything that`s going to happen in between. However, I got over the block, and then the chapter practically wrote itself. I`m almost done with the next one too, and that`s going to be a sweet one! It has pancakes and a bath in it, and I can`t wait to share it with you:)

Time to end for now, please review and let me know what you think – I appreciate it!

As for the next chapter, I want to say Monday or Tuesday – depends on how busy I am.

See you around, enjoy the rest of your weekend:)