Shock didn't sleep well at all that night. After Oogie Boogie had smacked Lock halfway across the room with one blow she had thought for sure that she was going to be next when he'd put his hand beneath her chin. She was relieved that it didn't happen, but she was still worried about her cohort - Lock was pretty tough, but this was one of the worst bruises Oogie had ever given any of them and she was almost positive that he must have cracked some ribs. How could he not have? And it was all her fault, if only she would have put that big rat they'd caught down Oogie's chute that morning instead of eating it for breakfast then none of this would have happened. How could she have been so careless? 'Stupid!' she thought angrily to herself, and she only got more angry when she found herself fighting back tears. Lock and Barrel were hopelessly dumb but she was supposed to be smarter than this, and she certainly wasn't supposed to cry. She punched her pillow a few times just to try and release some of the rage and feelings of powerlessness that were threatening to overwhelm her, equal parts guilt, anger, sadness and helplessness swirling around in her brain until she was finally too exhausted to feel anymore and fell into a restless sleep. The crow of the skeletal rooster woke her up far too early in the morning but she lay in her inner tube for at least another hour, staring at the ceiling and feeling miserable. Then she felt even more miserable when she realized that she really didn't have any right to be so miserable - if anyone deserved to feel miserable, it was Lock. On that thought she crawled out of her little blanket nest and walked to his room, then poked her head inside. "You alive?" she asked quietly. He was laying on his stomach on his mattress like usual, but he wasn't quite as sprawled out and he didn't look very relaxed.
"Barely." he mumbled, and while she was glad it seemed like she hadn't woken him up, she wondered if he had been able to sleep at all.
"You want some breakfast?"
He was quiet for a moment, then said, "Yeah."
"Okay." She went to the kitchen and fixed up some pumpkin and two of the smoked bats with some henbane, then brought it to his room. He started eating it while still laying on his stomach, and it took some effort to not drop his food off his fork - and his busted-up lip didn't help things, either. Normally Shock would have made fun of him for trying to eat his breakfast sideways, but it wasn't funny right now. Lock was generally very stoic, so if he was in this much pain then it was pretty bad. Barrel came into the room and said:
"I checked the traps and sent the bugs down. We also caught a mouse and I put it in the chute, too, so that's good. What time are we going to town?"
"Right after breakfast, I guess." she answered, then got up and left Lock to slowly eat his food and prepare some more pumpkin and bats for Barrel and herself. After they had finished eating and gotten dressed she poked her head back in Lock's room and said, "Back in awhile…" and he merely grunted in response. Then she and Barrel headed down through the trap door and over the hill towards town, feeling woefully incomplete without their middle cohort.
They arrived to find the town still bustling with activity: more decorations were being created and displayed, huge wooden crates full of all sorts of things were being pried open, big piles of boxes and rolls of wrapping paper were everywhere and construction on what looked like some sort of wooden platform had begun in the middle of the town square. It was pretty exciting and Shock and Barrel spent quite some time just wandering around looking at everything before they remembered that the whole reason they were there was to get the Christmas books from the library roof. They tried to head that direction but kept getting distracted by the various projects going on all over the place: Harlequin now had a pile of flat bats in addition to the rats and when Barrel saw him put one of them on James the saxophonist's head he realized it was a hat and that made him want one even more. Dennis the werewolf, Lucius the devil and Ethan's father Ned were all making evil-looking teddy bears and Shock wondered if stealing one and taking it apart would help her figure out how to make her creepy doll better - it couldn't hurt to try. And the vampire brothers had an assembly line of wicked-looking duck toys going and both children thought that one of them would make a nice addition to their bathroom and just might help cheer Lock up a bit. Then they saw Jack - he was practically dancing through the crowd and checking everyone's projects, offering advice and constructive criticism as well as plenty of compliments and encouragement. Barrel and Shock tried to avoid him, worried that he would ask about their mission progress but unfortunately he spotted them and strode right over before they could run or hide. Fortunately he seemed to be in quite a good mood, no doubt thanks to all the festivities.
"Where's Lock?" he asked. It was very unusual to see the trio broken up and he hoped the little devil wasn't getting up to anything too destructive while out of sight.
"He's fine!" Barrel blurted out, though it really didn't answer the question.
"He's just sick." Shock lied, and Jack gave them a concerned look.
"Did he forget to take the potion Sally gave you?"
"Uh…" Barrel glanced at his older cohort, leaving it up to her to work out the details of their cover story since punching the Pumpkin King in the nose for asking questions wasn't an option.
"Yes." she said, and Jack raised a surprised brow.
"Really? He doesn't seem like the forgetful type."
"He's just an idiot." Shock said firmly, and Barrel nodded and said:
"Yeah, he's really stupid."
"He's fine, really." said Shock.
"What happened to your eye?" Jack said suspiciously.
"I just fell of the couch a few days ago, no big deal." she lied again, then turned on her sugary-sweet voice: "We really need to get back to researching how to catch Sandy Claws. Can we go now, Jack?"
"Please?" added Barrel, trying to look innocent.
Jack squinted even more suspiciously down at them, but while he was fairly certain they weren't telling him the truth he couldn't prove it and therefore he really had no valid reason to detain them. "Alright, get back to it, then. And behave yourselves!" he called after them as they scampered off.
"I want one of those hats." Barrel said once they were safely out of Jack's sight.
"And I want one of those bears." said Shock, so they made a plan to split up and each steal their desired item and meet on the library roof. Fortunately everything was so hectic and everyone was so busy and working so hard that it wasn't too difficult to accomplish their goals. Barrel swiped two hats, thinking that maybe Lock might like one, too, then hurried up to the library roof to find Shock there already with her evil teddy bear. "We should get one of those ducks, too." she said, and Barrel agreed that they were pretty neat-looking. They left the hats and bear with the books and snuck back down and headed towards the vampire's table, but then they saw Sally setting up a ragged green tent and Shock suddenly had an idea: Sally was good with potions and herbs, wasn't she? So maybe she could make something for Lock to make his back hurt less and heal faster. The problem was how to ask without admitting what it was really for, so she quickly came up with what she hoped would be a convincing lie. "C'mere," she said, grabbing Barrel by the sleeve and practically dragging him over to Sally's tent with her. "Hello, Miss Sally." she said sweetly, linking her arm with Barrel's and trying her hardest to seem innocent and polite. Barrel had no idea what they were doing talking to Sally but he just grinned and went along with it.
"Oh, hello Shock, Barrel." Sally said just as sweetly, though her sweetness was far more genuine. "How is your top-secret, top-priority mission going? Do you need more potion?"
"It's going great, and we don't need any of that potion. But we did want to ask you something." Sally nodded and Shock continued, "Well, I hit my eye on the sofa and it hurts pretty bad. We were wondering if you can make me something to help it not hurt so much. Please." Barrel glanced at Shock. Since when did she become such a wimp? It had been two days since Lock had punched her in the eye… but then he figured out what she was up to and he nodded in agreement.
"Oh, of course." Sally said kindly. "It's a bit of a trip back to my supplies at the lab, but if you don't mind the walk then I'm happy to make it for you right now." The children nodded and Sally walked a bit unsteadily out of her tent and they followed her towards Dr. Finkelstein's laboratory. They didn't say much on the journey, Sally seemed quite shy and the kids didn't really know what to say to her. Shock was studying Sally's dress, trying to figure out how it was put together… and Barrel was studying the rag doll herself, trying to figure out how she was put together and able to walk at all. He remembered the way one of her arms and legs came off when they'd pushed her down the stairs, and even though it was pretty funny he felt a tiny bit bad about it now. After a long walk they arrived and she led them back into the laboratory kitchen and Shock and Barrel took their same seats at the spindly-legged table. "I'm sorry I don't have any cookies for you. Would you like some spider crisps instead?" The children nodded and she took some out of the pantry, poured a bunch into a large bowl and sat it on the table in front of them then asked, "Where's Lock?"
Shock panicked a bit internally for a second - she didn't want to tell Sally that he was sick again so she came up with a different lie: "He's doing stuff for our top-secret, top-priority mission so we can't tell you."
"Sorry." added Barrel with a mouth full of spider crisps.
"Oh." Once again Sally worried about what on earth Jack could possibly have these little kids doing, but she just started collecting ingredients and mixing up something on the stove. It smelled rather foul and Shock hoped that it wasn't something that Lock was going to have to eat in order for it to work, but thankfully after awhile Sally poured it into a large jar and said, "You can spread this poultice on your eye every day, it will help the swelling go down and ease the pain a bit. It will last a long time without going bad, so I made you some extra for the next time any of you get any bumps or scratches."
Barrel wanted to say that they got bumps and scratches pretty much all the time and they weren't usually a big deal, but he didn't want to reveal the fact that Lock was in such bad shape. "Thank you, Miss Sally." he said a bit shyly. He still thought that she was awfully nice and quite pretty.
"You're welcome. I'm sorry it smells so bad, but there's really no way to avoid it." she replied with a gentle smile. "Why don't you take some spider crisps with you to share with Lock? If you think he might like them." She was aware that the children often stole food so she figured she could try to do her tiny part to make sure they didn't go hungry. Shock took the jar and Barrel took the spider crisps and they said thank you once again and hurried back to town, leaving Sally behind. Barrel was tempted to start eating the spider crisps on the way home instead of sharing them with Lock - and any other time he would have - but it didn't feel right this time. Once again they went to the library roof to add the poultice and snacks to their stash, then formulated a plot to finally get that duck toy. This heist was a bit trickier since they had all four of the vampire brothers's milky, watchful eyes to avoid, but they managed it by having Barrel pretend to accidentally knock over a stack of boxes right next to their table to cause a distraction long enough for Shock to quickly grab one of the ducks and sneak behind a nearby wall.
"We need a bag for all this stuff." she said once Barrel joined her behind the wall, so he went back out into the crowd to find one as Shock snuck up to the roof once more with their contraband duck. It took him awhile but eventually he found one that nobody seemed to be using and they put all of their illicit goods and the Christmas books into the sack and headed back to the treehouse trying to look nonchalant, like they were in fact supposed to be carrying that large sack - and fortunately everyone was too busy to notice them.
They found Lock laying on his stomach on the sofa with the T.V. on, still in his pajamas and with a half-empty mug of worm's wart tea, a bunch of candy wrappers and a half-eaten smoked lizard on the floor next to him. "I stole you a hat, look!" Barrel said happily, throwing one of the bowl-shaped rats at him. It bounced off the wall and landed on the floor but Lock was able to reach one arm from his laying position on the sofa to pick it up.
"This is the dumbest thing I've ever seen." he said, but he was smiling. He'd been feeling pretty depressed about being stuck at home while Shock and Barrel were out doing whatever they wanted, so he was secretly touched that they hadn't forgotten him.
"Whatever, I think they're cool!" Barrel said with a huge grin, putting on his own rat-hat and running to the bathroom to see how it looked in the mirror.
Shock shook her head and rolled her eyes, then set the bag full of stuff down on the floor. "Why are you on the couch instead of in bed?" she asked.
"What are you, my mom?" he answered grumpily. "I had to pee, okay? And it's boring just laying in bed, I wanted to watch T.V."
"That's fair." she conceded, then took the jar of potion out of the sack. "I got you this for your back, it'll make it hurt less."
Lock eyed it suspiciously. "Where did you get it?"
"What's it to you?"
"I'm not taking anything if I don't know what it is."
"Sally made it." Shock said, and started unscrewing the lid.
"What did you tell her?!" Lock said angrily.
"Nothing, dummy, I just told her it was for my black eye. Do you think I'm stupid or something?"
"Yes." he muttered, but relaxed a bit.
Shock couldn't wait until he was well enough that she could throttle him again, but for now she just walked over and said, "Lift up your shirt." He tried but was having trouble so she put the jar down to help him until it was up high enough that she could see the entire bruise, now even more purple and puffy and generally awful-looking than it was the day before. She scooped up some of the thick, gloopy, stinky poultice and plopped it on his back and started gently spreading it around the bruised part.
"It's cold! And it smells gross." he complained.
"Quit whining." she said unsympathetically. Honestly, she had gone through all this trouble to get it - lying and hiking all the way to the laboratory and back, and now he was being completely ungrateful. Typical. Just then Barrel came back into the room still wearing his rat-hat and looking pretty pleased with himself. "You look ridiculous." Shock said, screwing the lid back on and heading to the bathroom to wash the poultice off her hands - though she did dab a little bit on her black eye, too.
"You're just jealous because you don't have one." Barrel called after her, then opened up the bag to show Lock the other stuff they'd brought. Lock thought that the duck looked really cool - he liked the bullet holes and that it had pointy teeth like he did, and the teddy bear was pretty neat, too. Barrel grabbed two fistfuls of candy and settled on the floor on his stomach in front of the T.V., then opened up a Christmas book called 'A Visit From St. Nicholas' because it looked nice and short and was mostly pictures. Lock noticed him and said:
"Turn off the T.V. and read it out loud. And throw me a licorice whip." He was getting bored with watching T.V. and wanted to start working on their mission again, even if it was just listening to Barrel stumble his way through stupid Christmas books. Shock came back and sat on the floor next to her littlest friend, picking up the creepy teddy bear and starting to pull the stitches out of it to see how it was made and helping him when he got stuck on a word - which was often - while Lock provided a running commentary from the sofa the whole time:
"Who's St. Nicholas? What's a sugar-plum? What's a sash and why did he throw it up? What's a reindeer?"
Shock frowned at him from the floor. "You read that book about a reindeer, remember? The one with the red nose. Are you sure you didn't hit your head instead of your back?" Lock stuck out his tongue at her and she stuck hers out back. He remembered one about a four-legged beast with antlers and a red nose, but he wasn't a good enough reader at that point to figure out the word 'reindeer'. Barrel ignored them and kept reading.
"Again, who the heck is this St. Nick moron? Where's Sandy Claws?" Lock said impatiently.
"I think St. Nick is Sandy Claws," said Shock, looking at the illustrations. "Guess it's a nickname or something." Barrel kept reading until Lock interrupted again:
"Hang on, did that just say he stuck his finger up his nose and then flew up the chimney?"
"A-side, not in-side his nose! Pay attention!" Shock gritted between her teeth, getting seriously frustrated with his frequent interruptions.
"That's the dumbest magic power I've ever heard of." said Lock, and despite how annoyed she was with him right now she had to agree.
Barrel finished up the poem and said blankly, "I don't get it."
"Me either. Let's read it again and try to pick out the most important parts." Shock said, and she took the book from him to read it out loud herself, not wanting to listen to Barrel struggle his way through it a second time. When she finished they had learned that Sandy Claws rode around in a tiny sleigh full of toys with tiny flying reindeer, landed on peoples roofs and went up and down the chimneys to put a bunch of stuff in socks that people hung on their fireplace, and it also re-confirmed that he was a fat guy with a white beard. "This is the weirdest thing ever. What a stupid holiday." she said, putting the book aside.
"I dunno, free toys doesn't sound too bad." said Barrel, scooting the evil duck back and forth with his foot.
"You really want free toys from some fat old guy sneaking around your chimney?" said Lock. "You're even dumber than I thought." Barrel just shrugged. If Lock was too stubborn to accept free toys then that was his problem.
They spent the evening watching T.V. while Shock did anatomical studies on her teddy bear to compare it with her half-formed doll and Barrel absentmindedly scooted the duck around, still wearing his rat-hat and sucking on a lollipop. Lock demanded someone bring him some paper and crayons, then he set the paper on the floor and hung his arm over the side of the sofa to draw for awhile. He managed to draw a picture of Sandy Claws, but better: he gave him sharp teeth, glowing red eyes and huge, bloody claws, and instead of toys he was stuffing skulls and bombs into all the stockings. They ate some of Oogie Boogie's stew for dinner and it was the tastiest thing they'd had all week, then right before bedtime Shock got a rag and washed all the poultice off of Lock's back and pulled his shirt back down. "Did it help?" she asked him.
"Yeah, I think it kinda did. Still hurts a lot, though." he admitted. "I think I'm just gonna sleep here tonight." He struggled to reach the throw-blanket to drape it over himself so Shock grabbed it and helped him before going to blow out the ceremonial candles around Oogie's shrine while Barrel set the traps for the night. Then they headed for bed, leaving Lock alone in the living room.