Disclaimer, you know by now.
Later in Oz
All of Dorothy's friends in Oz were relieved to hear that she was alright. They were still worried about her, but not as much as they had been when they knew there was the possibility of her being dead. Now they were all seated at the table in the banquet hall having a discussion about it.
"So, how long do you think before the jester releases her?" Scarecrow asked curiously.
"However long he sees fit, none of us can do anything about it." Glinda said looking at all of them.
"Surely there's something, at least one of us could possibly visit her." The china princess suggested.
"No, that's too risky, neither Glinda, nor I know any spells that we could you to get you back from there." Alison said.
"Well what are we going to do, she's trapped with no one to keep her company, not even Toto." The princess said sounding worried.
"Dorothy is a rather resourceful young girl, she'll think of something, she always does." Glinda said.
"But what if this time is different?" Lion asked curiously.
"Trust me, when you are alone with no one to talk to, you find ways to combat loneliness, and besides it's not like the jester will coop her up in that room until she goes insane." Glinda replied.
"Right, no one's that mean, except maybe the jester." Tin man said.
"True." Glinda said trailing off.
"So, when's lunch?" wiser asked curiously.
Meanwhile back in Kansas.
Alex had decided to go to the library given that he had quite literally nothing to do. He managed to get an hour long nap in which was rather refreshing though. But for Dorothy's sake he decided not to sleep the day away. So he grabbed the scepter and decided to walk to the library. When he got there he immediately ran into Donna and Kelly who seemed to be there for the same reason.
"Alex, what brings you to the library?" Donna asked curiously.
"I had nothing better to do, right now it's just play the waiting game and hope that Dorothy gets released soon." Alex said referring to the scepter.
"Same here, I'm so relieved she's alright." Donna said.
"Me too." Alex said as they walked around the library.
"Do the others know you're here?" Kelly asked curiously.
"Yea, do you guys miss her?" Alex asked curiously.
"Yea, hey Kelly why don't you go and find something to read?" Donna asked looking at Kelly.
"It's dull here without Dorothy to show up and tell stories." Kelly said.
"Yea, I know, but still." Donna said.
Kelly sighed and walked into the large array of shelves. Alex sighed and looked at his cousin.
"Donna?" Alex asked curiously.
"Yes alex?" Donna replied.
"Would you mind keeping me company?" Alex asked curiously
Meanwhile in the room.
Dorothy had decided to move a chair over to the crystal ball. She was watching Alex's actions. She began to weep again as she waved her hand over the crystal ball. She couldn't bear to watch her friends. It made her feel alone in this world she was stuck in. she was snapped out of the thoughts however by the feeling of Alexa rubbing against her feet again. She giggled and picked Alexa up and set her on her lap. Eve, oddball and patch were sitting on the floor at her feet. Pockets was now fooling around in the pile of hay on the other side of the room. Dorothy sighed and picked up Alexa. She then walked over to the bed and laid down on it holding Alexa up so that she could into the cat's eyes.
"Dorothy?" Pockets asked walking over now covered in tiny pieces of straw.
"Yes pockets?" Dorothy responded.
"I'm bored, I've run out of things to explore." Pockets said trying to climb onto the bed.
Dorothy giggled and set Alexa down on her stomach before leaning over to pick up pockets. She picked the straw out of pocket's fur and realized that pockets had something in her mouth.
"What did you find pockets?" Dorothy asked putting out her hand out in front of pockets mouth.
"It's a sewing needle." Pockets said spitting it out.
"You found a needle in a haystack?" Dorothy asked examining the sewing needle.
"Yes, and now I'm bored." Pockets replied.
"Eve, can you push the picnic basket over here, I need to put this needle somewhere." Dorothy said.
"Sure dear." Eve said getting up and slowly pushing the basket over with Patch and Oddball helping.
When Eve got the basket over to her Dorothy smiled and dropped the needle in. she then picked up Odd ball and patch and put them on top of her with Alexa and Pockets. Pockets was crawling into Dorothy Dorothy's top pocket so she could stick her head out and watch Dorothy. Dorothy giggled and sighed as she thought about her friends.
"You seem upset dear." Eve said jumping up onto the bed/
"It's just that, I really am starting to miss my friends." Dorothy said starting to tear up.
Eve let out a quick purr and rubbed her head against Dorothy's face.
Dorothy smiled and placed her hands behind her head and began to doze. A quick nap didn't seem like a bad idea.
Meanwhile back in Kansas.
Alex had returned to the gale farm house later that afternoon. The first place he went after announcing his return was back out to the barn. Climbing up to the hayloft he set the scepter down and began sulking some more. However in the house things were only slightly worse. The jester was now inside the gale farmhouse. Unknown to anyone else. Gathering some necessities of Dorothy's including her boots, a few books, a note book, as well as an umbrella and placing them in a sack for convenience. He didn't know why he was doing this but it seemed like a nice thing to do. At this point he was cursing his morality when Toto walked into the room. When he saw the jester he immediately began barking loudly.
"What is it boy?" Henry asked from the living room.
"Shut up." The jester said through gritted teeth.
Alex had heard the sound of Toto's barking from the hayloft and wondered what was going on. He grabbed the scepter, climbed down from the hayloft and ran back to the farmhouse. When he got inside he looked at everyone who seemed surprisingly unconcerned that Toto was barking. Alex sighed and walked over to Dorothy's room. When he got to Dorothy's room and saw the jester he immediately yelled for Em and henry. Ellie however was the one who joined him. When she saw the jester she screamed loudly and ran back to the living room to warn the others.
"Well, there goes being inconspicuous, and unnoticed, thanks boy, thanks." The jester said waving the wand in a circle causing wind to whip through the entire house.
The jester then cackled wickedly and vanished with loose pieces of paper floating around the room where he had just vanished. Alex sighed and decided to start cleaning up the mess.
Back at the room however.
The jester arrived back at the room to find Dorothy having woken up from her nap and had watched from the crystal ball.
"That was a very rotten thing you did there." Dorothy said not even turning around to face him.
"Wow, and people call me ungrateful." He said tossing placing the sack on the floor.
Immediately pockets ran over to the sack and jumped in. Dorothy chuckled and got up. Waving her hand in the direction of the crystal ball causing it to go dark. She then went into the sack and pulled pockets out.
"I know you're curious but please pockets stay out of the sack." Dorothy said placing pockets in her pocket.
"Sorry Dorothy." Pockets said.
Dorothy smiled and picked up the sack. Turning it over her looked at the contents. Her boots, some books, her notebook, a change of dress, and umbrella.
"Why an umbrella, I doesn't rain here does it?" Dorothy asked curiously.
"No, it just seemed like a good idea at the time." The jester said picking some things up off the floor and placing them on the chair.
"Thanks." Dorothy said as the jester vanished.
"Can I come out now?" Pockets asked curiously.
"Sure pockets." Dorothy said picking up her dress.
As she did this she took pockets from her own pocket and brought her over to her bed. She then set pockets down on the bed with the others and told her to wait there. She nodded and walked over to her mother nuzzling up against her. Dorothy smiled and walked to the far end of the room where she changed out of her green dress and into the other one. She then took her glasses out of the pockets of the dress and put them on. Walking back over to the she sat down and allowed the kittens to climb into her lap. She then undid her pigtails and began teasing them with the ribbons.
"I like this game, I like ribbon." Alexa said as Dorothy dropped one on top of her.
"I just like anything that's like string." Patch said getting one of his claws stuck on the ribbon.
"I still prefer running around and finding stuff to explore." Pockets said climbing into Dorothy's dress pocket.
"I don't care personally." Oddball said climbing off Dorothy's lap.
"I never really liked yarn or string, or ribbon." Eve said walking over.
Dorothy chuckled and laid back down on the bed. The kittens stop their playing and sat on her stomach. Oddball walked over to Dorothy's head and nuzzled against her neck.
"Momma?" Oddball asked curiously.
"Yes son?" Eve asked curiously.
"How long will we be here for?" Oddball asked curiously
"I don't know dear." Eve said walking over to her son and picking him up by the scruff using her mouth.
She then jumped off the bed and brought him over the corner of the room struggling.
"Ah mom." Oddball said as Eve put him down and licked him,
"Sorry dear." Eve said.
Dorothy chuckled and ran her fingers through her hair getting out her pigtails. She then put her hands back under her head and watched the kittens as they were each individually brought over to the corner and licked clean. Dorothy took one her hands and looked at it. There were pencil smudges on her hand.
"I'm going to have to be careful not to rub my face." Dorothy said to herself.
"What was that dear?" Eve asked curiously walking over.
"I've got pencil on my hands, I was making a reminder to try and not rub my face, and otherwise I'm going to need a bath as well." Dorothy said.
"Yes well you better be careful with that dear, there's no wash basin here and I am not going to try and get one of those." The jester said walking over with a plate with a sandwich on it.
"Thanks." Dorothy replied.
Dorothy then sat up and took the plate from him. The sandwich was ham and cheese. Rather bland, but she was rather hungry.
"When was the last time you had a ham and cheese sandwich, Nikko made one earlier and I was rather curious as to why, but I've given up questioning them at this point, I haven't had one since my parents died, used to be their favorite thing to make since it was simple like making toast." The jester said chuckling.
Dorothy's stomach began to churn, when she was a kid that used to be all she would ever eat, ham and cheese sandwiches. It was a phase, but it was the last thing her parents made her. She finished the sandwich and handed the plate back to him without saying a word. She then lay back down and placed her hands under her head.
"If you wouldn't mind, you know, leaving?" Dorothy asked as memories began to flood back into her head.
The jester simply smiled and vanished. Tears began to form in her eyes as she thought about her parents. She then had an idea. She got up and ran over to her table, took out a fresh sheet of paper, and began to sketch.
Meanwhile back in Kansas.
Alex had put Ellie on the task of staking out Dorothy's room in the event that the jester returned. It was now five in the evening, and she couldn't be more honest about her current statement.
"Well, I'm bored." Ellie said sitting down on the bed and laying back.
"Hey Ellie, Em would like to know if you'd like to come out for dinner, I could take over the post for a bit." Alyssa said walking in.
"Thanks Alyssa, Did you guys send Finley back to Oz yet?" Ellie asked curiously.
"Yea, about an hour ago." Alyssa said as Alex walked in behind her.
"Telling her Finley left?" Alex asked curiously while he polished the orb on the scepter.
"Yea." Alyssa said.
"You know, I don't mind that Dorothy's been placed in a room and can't get out, it's just that she's alone." Ellie said.
"Oh she's not, I gave her some cats to keep her company." The jester said appearing in the room.
Both Ellie and Alyssa stood up and drew their swords. The jester chuckled and picked up the satchel that was hanging off the edge of the bed.
"This is hers right?" The jester asked curiously.
"Yes." Ellie said getting suspicious.
"Put some stuff in here you think she might need." The jester said tossing it to Ellie.
"Why do you even care?" Alyssa asked curiously.
"I have morality issues." The jester replied shrugging.
"You have more than just morality issues." Ellie said sliding a pair of flats, a few pairs of socks, some hair ribbons and a hand mirror into the satchel
"Is that all?" the jester asked curiously.
"Why so many pairs of socks?" Alyssa asked looking at her comrade.
"Force of habit I guess, I always pack a few extra pairs with me whenever I go on a trip, can never be too prepared, Alex give him this." Ellie said tossing it to him.
Alex caught and handed it to the jester. The jester smiled, took it, and pulled out the wand. Just as he was about to flick it Alex grabbed hold of the jester's wrist and next thing anyone knew, both of them were gone.
So, will there be a warm reunion and a nice introduction for alex and Dorothy, or will the jester's morality issues take a turn for the worse? Find out in the next chapter.