Mable: Enjoy!

Going Home in a Box

Chapter Sixty-Two

While it would've been in their best favor to sleep in, Charlie and Jessica woke up at the crack of dawn due to the light coming in and the thin curtains. Charlie supposed that's what they got taking the eastward room. She could've probably slept through it, but waking up and hearing that someone else was awake got her excited to start the day. She slipped out of bed quietly- trying not to disturb Jessica, who slept atop the bed in a sleeping bad- she didn't trust the sheets- and made her way out into the living room.

She found Marla already wide awake and getting out the ingredients to cook up a big breakfast. She saw Charlie and greeted her with an eager smile. "Morning, Charlie!"

"Morning," Charlie replied. She leaned on the island counter to the right of her to watch Marla work.

"How'd you sleep?"

"Good! You?"

Marla nodded with a happy hum. Charlie looked around at the little cabin. Sunlight poured through the front window and warmed the dimly lit living room. She noticed the couch bare, and the blanket tossed over the back of it.

"Where's John?"

"Bathroom," Marla replied. "Lamar was up a few minutes ago, but he went to lay back down."

They were interrupted by John coming out of the bathroom. He was already fully dressed to begin the day, something surprising considering that he hadn't even eaten breakfast yet.

"Morning, John," Charlie greeted. He wasn't expecting her to be out there but smiled and returned the greeting.

"What are you dressed up for?" Marla lightly teased.

"I'm just going for a little walk. There's a trail that leads down to the river that I want to check out. Do you guys want to come?"

"I'm going to stick to breakfast, but I'll head down there later!"

Charlie thought about it for a moment. She knew it would be a risk to go walking around in broad daylight, but the idea of getting a little more time outside, especially out in the woods, was a tempting one. She could be careful. The likelihood of anyone else being out there especially this early in the morning was low. Though the other thing that worried her was what John would take from the walk. If he would misread the gesture.

No, she couldn't think like that. If she couldn't trust them to be alone together then they would never have a normal friendship.

"…You know what? Sure, I'll come with you," Charlie agreed.

Marla looked back in surprise. "Really? Isn't that a little… dangerous?"

"Well, it's early and we're pretty much in the middle of nowhere. I'll be careful," she assured. She turned to John. "Let me go grab my jacket."

She snuck back into the bedroom and retrieved her green jacket, knowing it would blend a little better than her black and white one. Jessica was still asleep. She snuck out without waking her, pulling the door shut before tugging the jacket on and heading out.

It was early enough that there was still a cool tinge to the air, something that would likely not last long once the sun reached its peak. The path John was talking about was by the side of the cabin close to the rope swing. A narrow trail that led through some bushes and sideways down the slope in the general direction of the river.

At first the path was too narrow for them to walk together, so John led the way. This gave Charlie some time to hide behind him and get used to the now unfamiliar sensation of being out in broad daylight. As the trail eventually widened, she became a little more comfortable and moved up to walk alongside him. She stayed a little hunched down, with her hood up and her eyes peeled, but so far it seemed like they were in the clear.

Grey clouds were moving in on the horizon, but it was far from a dreary day. As a matter of fact, it was downright beautiful out. She could hear a bird off in the distance along with wind and eventually the soft gurgle of the river once they got a little closer.

"It's really nice out," Charlie said. Her first to break the prolonged but contented quietness.

"It is," John agreed. "I'm glad we got out. I wanted to talk with you about something."

Charlie wasn't sure how she liked the sound of that.

"About your bracelet…" John began and trailed off.

Her bracelet that she wasn't currently wearing. She quickly rushed out, "I really like it! I just forgot to put it on."

"That's fine! I didn't expect you to wear it all the time," John said with a half-chuckle. "No, I just wanted to clear up about the tree. I didn't choose the tree because of that. As a matter of fact, I didn't even remember that until the day before the party, and by then it was too late to change it, so I just hoped you didn't remember," he confessed.

"Oh! No, it's okay! That makes a lot of sense. I'm surprised I remembered, but I saw the tree and… then said the first thing that came to mind without thinking," Charlie said apologetically. "This is why I don't have feet. If I did, I'd be putting them in my mouth."

"So, you didn't remember either?"

"Not until I saw the tree, then it sort of clicked," Charlie said. She fidgeted with her hands in her pockets. "Sorry I made it awkward."

"You didn't. I remembered it before you did, and then I just crossed my fingers hoping you wouldn't notice."

"Well then, I still made it awkward bringing it up," Charlie doubled down with a crooked grin. He tried to protest, but she stopped him. "Let me take responsibility for my actions. It helps build character."

He gave a playful little 'pfft' in dismissal and returned the smile. They walked a little further in silence before he continued again.

"You were a big part of my childhood, you know. So was that tree," John said fondly. No doubt reminiscing on the many memories surrounding the tree in question. Plenty more than the one that stuck out in Charlie's mind.

The tree being the one by her house. The one she played around as a kid. The one she had a swing haphazardly tied to the branches of before the rope snapped. The one that seemed so big to her when she was a little child.

The one she and John had played around a couple of times. The safe spot for tag and hide and seek, the source of shade on a hot day, shelter from an incoming rainstorm. The tree that stood as a staple of her childhood.

The tree they had almost kissed under.

Charlie couldn't remember all of the details except that they had been running around playing when they stopped under the tree to rest. That was when it happened, when they had almost kissed. But she was too shy, and it hadn't happened.

Now she wondered if it really was weird of her that all she had thought about was them almost kissing under the tree and not the sunny days spent playing around it. It almost felt like a betrayal to make something so innocent overly complicated. It changed her mind.

"…You know… I know it wasn't, but if you had gotten that bracelet because of that tree, I don't think I'd mind it," Charlie admitted. He looked to her and she explained. "I loved that tree. That tree was a huge part of my childhood before I moved out. Remember my swing? It killed me when it broke… And almost killed me, because I was all the way up when it broke," she added with a goofy grin.

"Didn't you break your arm?"

"No, I just hyperextended my elbow." It had been in a sling for only about a week, but it had seemed like so much longer.

He smiled back- more at the memories and less at the specific memory of Charlie flying off a broken swing. "Do you remember it used to be home base whenever we played hide and seek?"

"Yes! I remember this one time you hid behind the tree so when I ran up to try to tag it, so jumped out and got me."

"I did that a few times. Then you caught on and it didn't work anymore."

"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me three or four times…"

John chuckled and Charlie gave a playful little wave. The mood had completely shifted from tense to friendly once again.

Which was a huge relief. Charlie had hoped that tree incident, and her general awkwardness surrounding it, wouldn't get in the way of what had finally gotten to be a semi-normal friendship. She could willingly accept this as just a pleasant childhood memory.

The truth was, she had only thought about that almost kiss maybe a handful of times in her entire life. Usually when thinking about John himself. It was weird to think that it had been the closest she had ever gotten to being kissed. She considered herself a rather non-romantic person. Everything between her and John, even when they started going out on relatively low-key non-dates, had been on the mild side. She hadn't ever had an experience where she felt totally swept off her feet.

She couldn't think of a time when she truly felt that swooning feeling of romance that books and movies spoke so generously about. To her, romance was subtle. Barely noticeable. Especially when the most romantic moment in her life was a near kiss as a kid.

…

Except for those verdant eyes alit in a dark photo booth.

It was like a bucket of ice water had been dumped over her head the moment Charlie recalled the memory. Not only because it had popped up so suddenly, but because the moment it did, she felt the twisting and tightening deep inside of her chest. Just as alive as it had been that night. There was nothing subtle about what she had felt that night. She had felt very strange and more alive and aware than she ever had.

The telltale moment being that the childhood kiss memory filled her with soft nostalgia and the sudden memory of Baby filled her with instant butterflies. She had seen Baby since then and the thought of it still got her all twisted up inside. She couldn't keep ignoring it.

Baby was just so very much. So much of her, so much to be attached to, so much to be drawn in by. It was hard to sort out what everything meant when a moment like that had made everything so much more complicated. Because up until that moment, Baby was Charlie's friend who she felt a very special and close bond with. One on a different sort of level to her friendship with Jessica and Marla. It was different with Baby, especially recently. Especially once Baby had softened up enough to show her Elizabeth.

Here she was worrying about John misreading her comments on a bracelet when she had this ticking timebomb in her chest that just happened to start back up whenever she thought about Baby a little too hard. That had to mean something.

And it did. Charlie had just been pretending it hadn't, but she couldn't ignore what had been staring back at her since that moment in the photo booth. Or more likely, something that she just hadn't noticed until it stared her in the face in the photo booth.

Until Baby had looked her dead in the eye and might've said- no, absolutely said that she had feelings beyond friendliness for her. Charlie was just kidding herself pretending like that was what Baby was implying. They might've been friends at one time, but things had been changing. Touches had been softer, comments had become more playful and coy, Baby had always been noticeable but not it was even harder not to look.

Was it possible…?

All while Charlie was having this internal conflict, she stiffly walked along the trail beside John who was none the wiser. In fact, he had stoked up the conversation again, unaware that it was now one-sided.

"The other two designs were peace sign and anchor. I guess I could've gone for the anchor considering Foxy's, but I thought the tree looked the nicest. Especially with the rustic look of the leather, it kind of fits," John remarked. He rubbed his chin a little, feeling the slightest bit of stubble as he contemplated this. "What do you think?"

"I think… I think I might have a crush on Baby…!" Charlie choked out.

She hadn't even processed his question, it just spilled out without any restraint. Of all the people she could've blurted that out in front of, John was possibly the worst. To his credit he didn't look horrified. He just looked rather confused, his hand still resting on his chin.

She took a few seconds to process what just happened before it really sunk in. She covered her face with her hands and bent over with embarrassment. Unable to stop the flustered tickling and jiggling that discordantly poured from her chest.

"Oh God," she gasped.

John cracked a smile and held back a laugh. He reached out and patted her back.

"Yeah, I had a feeling," he admitted.

"What?!" Charlie shot upright and uncovered her face. "What do you mean?! Did Carlton say something?!"

"No, it was- so, after I gave you the bracelet, Baby was standing there…" John began to explain. His face starting to grow flushed with his own embarrassment.

"It was the flicking thing," Charlie meekly concluded.

"No… Okay, that sort of did it, but it was more like the look she gave me after she did it."

Charlie wasn't sure which stare down Baby did, but she had a mental image that she knew was likely close to the mark. Those piercing eyes could melt lead.

"I promise she's not as rough around the edges as she seems. She's just not used to being around people who aren't looking out for her best interest," Charlie explained. She returned her hands to her pockets. "As a matter of fact, she's not used to being around people in general. For years she was kept prisoner down in a factory on the outskirts of town."

"That's terrible," John sympathized.

"It is. All things considered, she's a whole different person to who came out of there. She's a whole different person to the one you guys met out at Freddy's Processing Plant… but she still has her vices," Charlie admitted with a tiny smile. "And she's sweet when she doesn't think anyone's looking."

"As long as she's sweet to you that's all that matters," John said. He then got a much more playful grin. "So, how long's this been going on?"

"I don't know," Charlie lamented. She sunk down into her hood in embarrassment. "I didn't even know it was a thing until it just came out."

"Or until you came out?" he asked. "…Sorry, that was a Carlton joke."

"That really was," Charlie scolded in a joking way. "Look at that. Isn't that beautiful?"

She was talking about the river, which they had just walked up on. Not only indulging in a sight she might've taken for granted as a human, but successfully managing to change the subject. Either John was just as swept up in nature or he noticed her thinly veiled attempt to change the conversation and went along with it.

Yet even though Charlie wanted to change the conversation, she couldn't deny that she felt better. It was like a massive weight was lifted from her, even with it came with its own amount of baggage. She could sort it off once she got home; for now at least she knew there wouldn't be anything getting between her and John to disrupt the vacation.

As a matter of fact, by time they got back to the cabin they had already started carrying on again. Dirt was sticking to her legs, which were damp from a short wade in the river, and the lower section of John's jeans were soaked through from where he tried to follow suit and had a foot slide out from underneath him. Though what cut their time short wasn't the slip but the distant rumble of incoming thunder. A clear sign that the grey clouds rolling in would open soon.

Charlie tried to kick off some of the dirt on the front mat and ended up having to wipe it off with her hand.

"Hey, are you going to take a shower or just change?" she asked.

"Just change. It's all yours!... If it's safe?" John half-asked.

"Oh, yeah. I'm just going to rinse my legs off. Unless you see a hose out here?"

A quick look around showed no hose, so the bathtub would have to do. Likely the safest option as well. They headed inside the cabin.

By now the rest of their friends had gotten up and it looked like they had already finished breakfast. Though they were still sitting around the table chatting.

"Look who's back!" Jessica greeted with a wave. "How was it?"

"Great! It's a lot more exciting up close. Well, as exciting as a river gets," Charlie joked. "I've got to go rinse off my legs."

"What happened?" Lamar asked, looking down at John's pants and her dusty lower legs.

"One wrong step in a river," John replied.

"Ah."

"Hey, Jess. Would you come with me?" Charlie asked.

Jessica quirked a brow but got up from the table and followed her to the bathroom. As they headed out, they could hear Marla asking if the river was deep enough to swim in. If the storm clouds were any indication, if it wasn't now then it would likely be later.

The bathroom was tiny but not too hard to fit both of them into. Charlie sat on the edge of the bathtub and stuck her legs in, turning the water onto a gently trickle and rinsing off her hand before working on her legs.

"So, what's up?" Jessica asked, leaning on the bathroom sink. Because she could tell something was up the moment Charlie asked for a private talk- and she knew that's why she asked her in there.

"Not too much…" Charlie began. The nervous edge to her voice giving away her hand early. "We had a good walk, and there was nobody out there so there was no chance of me getting seen."

"Uh huh," Jessica said. She had that knowing glint to her eye. "And?"

"And we talked. We cleared up the thing about the tree… Can I ask you something?" Charlie looked back, an unsure look on her mask.

The sudden question and look took Jessica by surprise. "Sure, anything."

"…But just by me asking you this, don't jump to any conclusions. It's just a rhetorical question."

"I won't. I promise," Jessica agreed.

"Okay… Would… Would it make you uncomfortable if I was… maybe interested in… other women? Not you, I mean. Or Marla. I just meant in general."

The question clearly surprised Jessica from the way her eyes widened. Charlie barely resisted the urge to snap her head forward and stammer out a retraction. The blond beat her to it.

"Of course it wouldn't! Charlie, you can be interested in whoever or whatever you want, and it wouldn't bother me at all! And it wouldn't change us at all," Jessica insisted. She came forward to lay her hands on her shoulders with an assuring smile, to which Charlie returned and dropped her shoulders in relief. Jessica patted them and then pensively added, "…In fact, maybe that would explain some things…"

"Like what?" Charlie challenged. Her dry hand moving up to rest on her hip.

"Like what's going on between you and Baby."

Charlie had no retort to that.

"I know you said you didn't know if that was the direction it was going in, but I definitely felt something going on at the party. It's the way you two act around each other… And the fact that she stood bodyguard beside your chair all night. No doubt to scare off John if he got too close," Jessica joked good-naturedly. "…Speaking of that party. Is Ennard looking for a girlfriend? Because he was asking me a lot of compatibility questions and then got cuddly with that Scott guy."

"Oh, he was asking for a friend. Ennard likes to play matchmaker. Don't worry about it," Charlie meekly rushed out. It was clear that she was flustered.

To this, Jessica sat down on the narrow edge of the bathtub alongside her, just facing the opposite direction. She gave Charlie a gentle and supportive smile.

"There's nothing wrong with having a different preference in who you want to date. Just as long as you're with someone who makes you happy, that's all that matters," Jessica assured her. "And there's nothing wrong with Baby. She's different. Not exactly the type I thought you'd go for, but I'm willing to be wrong. If you like her and she likes you- which it sounds like she does, considering the whole blackout incident- then why not?"

"She's not human," Charlie quietly confessed. "I know that sound hypocritical to say, because I'm not human anymore, but it's just so… strange to admit it. Not that I've ever seen Baby as just an animatronic, but now that I'm thinking about it-."

"Now you're thinking about it," Jessica finished for her.

"Right…"

"I think… So, it's different than dating women instead of men, but in way it's sort of in the same vein. It's just something you have to decide if you want to do. And only you, because you're the only one who counts in this decision. Baby's already on board."

Charlie sat there for a moment considering it. Only signaling she was done when she started to look up, to which Jessica held out her hand. Charlie gave it a little high-five slap before standing up.

"Thanks, Jess," she said. She held onto the metal bar over the soap dish to keep herself from slipping as she reached for the towel, which Jessica handed to her. "I still need some time to think but I feel a lot better. Thank you."

"That's what I'm here for," Jessica assured.

Charlie didn't ask her not to tell anyone else. She knew she wouldn't.

They headed out of the bathroom in time to catch the end of a conversation. Marla was standing at the back window with Carlton looking out towards the river. In the distance they could see a couple of rafts loaded with people paddling down the river. Or the one was paddling. The one in the back was more flailing than anything else, slowly falling further behind even as they spied on them.

Carlton watched with a smug little grin at the scene and Marla with a dismayed little frown. Not at the rafters, but at the sight of a light sprinkle starting outside.

"So much for another cookout," she sighed.

"It might lighten up," Carlton encouraged, putting an arm around her. They stood there for a quiet moment. "…Or start coming down harder the second I said that."

"Nice going, Carlton! You had one job!" Marla cried in pretend anger.

"It's not my fault! I never learned how to control my true power," he defended.

She lightly nudged him in the side and crossed her arms with an amused smile. Looking back out at the river as the rafters disappeared out of view.

In the meantime, Charlie headed to get her bag. Seemed like a good enough time as any to hook up the video games.

…

Most of the afternoon and evening consisted of staying indoors. The rain only letting up for a short window, not nearly enough to go out for a cookout, even if they could get it started with damp wood. Distractions were made with some old boardgames stashed in the hall closet, movies, video games, and socializing. It managed to salvage the day despite the rain, so there wasn't much of a feeling of being let down.

It was now nightfall, and they were all settled into the living room watching the screen as Lamar took his turn on the current video game, a horror game. It felt sort of like a scary movie night, except one of them was controlling how scary the movie got. Lamar and Charlie were sitting on the floor on a blanket in front of the couch while Jessica, Marla, and Carlton were squeezed behind them. John sat in the armchair, resting forward on his knees to see better.

Lamar went around the wrong corner and out from the darkness leapt a hideous monster with a quite notable design. Marla covered her mouth, Jessica winced a little, and Lamar started firing off bullets into it.

"Oh my God," Jessica muttered, pinching the bridge of her nose. "I know there's sort of a deep, interesting story going on here but every time I get invested, something like THAT shows up."

"Does that look like a-?" Lamar dared to ask. Still firing off at it without sparing a second to blink.

"YES," Jessica cut him off. "Carlton, stop smirking."

Carlton stopped biting his finger long enough to correct, "I'm not smirking. I'm over here dying."

"You should go back and pick up those bullets downstairs," John said, ignoring the conversation behind them.

"I'm about to switch to my knife. This gun does nothing," Lamar replied.

"I would love to see you take that thing down with a knife," John said with a slight smirk.

Jessica was looking over to the clock to check the sign when she suddenly noticed something moving at the edge of her vision. She snapped her head to the window and noticed the dark crack between the shade and the window.

It had been white a moment ago.

Suddenly on alert, Jessica shot up from the couch and strode over to draw the shade back and look through. The others took notice.

"What's up?" Charlie asked.

"I thought I saw someone's face looking in."

"What?!" the security puppet said with a surprised chirp. In an instant, Marla silently threw a throw blanket overtop her.

"It doesn't look like there's anything out there now…" Jessica muttered. She squinted into the darkness but couldn't see any sign of anybody in the porchlight. She shut the shade and adjusted it to be fully closed. "I don't know. Maybe I imagined it."

"You don't really have an active imagination," John pointed out.

"No, but this doesn't help matters," Jessica said, pointing to the tv. She stood there with her hands on her hips a second before striding off. "I'm going to double-check the curtains."

Charlie pulled back the blanket enough to see and Lamar unpaused the game to keep playing. There was a little uneasiness, but nobody was too concerned just yet.

And then a blaring alarm came from outside.

Everyone's heads snapped to the window, save Charlie who pulled the blanket over hers and doubled over. Jessica came jogging out of the room right as Carlton was springing up and going to the door.

"Don't open it! Don't open it!" Marla raced out.

"That's my alarm! Someone's out there trying to break into my car!" Carlton shouted back as he undid the locks. Jessica caught up and kept the door closed.

"Yeah, probably a bear! Did you leave food in your car?!" she asked.

"What? No! And how can it be a bear, you said you saw a face!"

"It could've been a bear's! I just saw it for a second, and if the light was shining on its fur and it was brown it could've looked lighter!"

John looked out the window and his brows raised. "Jess, it's your car. Not Carlton's."

"Did you leave any food in it?" Carlton asked her flatly.

"What is it, a bear?!" Jessica asked in alarm, totally ignoring him.

"It's not anything, there's no one out there. I can't see anything." Yet as he heard the door unlocking, he quickly threw out a hand to stop them. "Wait, wait! That doesn't mean there wasn't a bear! It could've run off after the alarm went off."

Because of that, the group sat there in a silence for a few long seconds. Then Carlton slowly unlocked and cracked open the door, him and Jessica peeking through to see her car's lights still going off.

"Let me go get my keys," she said and hurried off.

By time she returned, they dared to step out. John grabbing the flashlight by the door while Carlton grabbed a walking stick. The two crept out with Jessica close behind, shielding herself under some old newspapers that they intended to use to help start the cookout fires, and looked around. There was nothing there.

Jessica got to her car and turned the alarm off before looking it over. Nothing had been moved from what she could see. Nothing scratched on the outside of the car. If it had been a bear, it must've bolted the second the alarm went off. They headed back inside.

"Okay, so… could've been a bear," Jessica said with finality. "But it didn't get in my car, so false alarm."

"But just in case, this would be a good time for one of us to run out and get that axe over by the woodpile," Carlton remarked.

"…There's an axe out by the woodpile and you didn't bring it in?" Charlie asked in disbelief. To which Carlton and John shared a look.

"Let's hope that doesn't come back to bite us," Carlton muttered.

"With the bear's we've got up here, an axe isn't going to be much help anyways," Lamar chimed in.

"There's an unlockable axe in this game, y'know. You just can't find it until later on," Charlie quietly added.

"Does it work better than the gun?"

"Oh yeah. Somehow."

"Can we maybe switch to something else? This whole thing's kind of given me the heebie-jeebies," Jessica said. She dropped back onto the couch with her arms crossed, sending an uneasy look over at the window. Thankfully, John had made sure the shade was closed.

"Sure. Just as soon as I hit a save spot," Lamar agreed.

Charlie meanwhile scooted forwards and began to look through the stack of games.

"Hmm… Hey! Let's play some Oddworld!" Charlie suggested. She lifted the case from the stack.

"It's not creepy?" Jessica asked.

"No, it's more like a sci-fi movie."

"Sounds good to me! I'm going to make more popcorn. Anybody want some?" Marla offered. She had been planning to get up and make more a while ago, but she got rooted in place watching the game. Though the excitement of whatever just happened made her want to get up and move around. Both Jessica and Lamar took her up on the offer.

Carlton joined her in the kitchen. As she got a bag of popcorn out of the box and was unwrapping the plastic, Carlton grabbed another can of soda and cracked it open. Marla jumped a little at the sound.

"I hope that was a bear and not a creep wandering around outside… or, wait… you don't think a bear could break in, do you? I've heard of them breaking into cabins, but the door seems sturdy to me," Marla pointed out.

"I don't think so," Carlton shrugged off. He took a swig of soda.

Only for his eyes to catch something out the window and suddenly choke, heaving the soda back up with a choking cough. Marla noticed his look and spun around and gaped at a dark figure slipping out of view. She gave a startled cry and pointed out the window.

"There- There!" she cried out.

John raced over while Carlton was still hacking and leaned over the counter against the wall, but he couldn't see anything.

He turned back to Marla. "What did you see?!"

"Someone's out there-!" Carlton coughed out; voice croaky.

"I saw him! I saw him duck around the corner- he must've gone around the side of the porch!"

"What?!" Jessica blurted out. She got up and sped over to look, leaning over to look out of the window alongside John.

Charlie quickly yanked herself back under her blanket. This was bad. A bear was one thing, but if there was a person snooping around, a person who wandered up to the house and saw something, they were in serious trouble.

"YES!" Marla cried. "I saw, like, part of his arm as he went around the corner!"

"I'm going out there," John announced. Still carrying the flashlight, he strode to the glass door that led onto the porch. "Carlton, you go out the front and cut him off."

Carlton set down his can and went to go do so, still coughing as he did, only making a quick stop at the back of the couch to address Charlie while pointing a thumb back towards the kitchen.

"Does Mari know where the cabin is? 'Cause it looked like Mari," he got out.

"No, he didn't-."

Charlie cut herself off when it suddenly clicked.

He wouldn't.

She shot up to her feet and rushed for the back door. John was in the process of opening it when Charlie suddenly slid in beside him and leaned out of the doorway to look for herself, ignoring a concerned shout after her.

"Mari, is that you?!" she called down the deck.

There was a looming silence where the only sound was of rain pattering on the roof of the porch.

And then a white face peeked out around the corner.

John dropped his shoulders with relief. Charlie smacked her hand to her mask so hard that it resonated.

A much more guilty smile settled on Marionette face as he crept out of his hiding spot. To which Charlie beckoned him to come over and into the cabin. He quickly and obediently drifted over and into the cabin.

"That better not be Mari," Jessica said with exasperation and relief. She saw him coming up past the window and slouched onto the counter. "Oh my God."

"Hello, everyone! No need to be alarmed. It's just me, the local mime," Marionette greeted.

"What are you doing here?" Charlie asked firmly. At his slight wince she quickly corrected, but still held some firmness with, "By which I mean, why were you creeping around outside instead of, I don't know, knocking on the door?"

"I considered that! But then I saw you were all playing games together and I might've… lost my nerve," the Puppet admitted. Tapping his fingers together sheepishly and giving an apologetic smile. "And by then Mike had already left, so I was sort of stuck out there."

"Did you try to get in my car?" Jessica asked.

"I did, but I was just trying to get out of the rain. I must have triggered something when I popped inside," he confessed.

"So, how long were you outside?" John asked. Still sounding genuinely confused by the whole thing.

"Oh, not too long. An hour at most. I'm surprised you didn't notice me before now, I was at that window nearly the whole time," Marionette said. This got some weird looks and he darted between them. "I thought it would be intrusive to let myself in," he meekly added.

"He's like a vampire, he requires an invitation!" Carlton proclaimed.

"Yes, that!" Marionette played along.

"Aww, you didn't have to stand outside in the rain," Marla sympathized. Immediately forgiving the Puppet just on the grounds that she was soft towards him. "Wait right here, I'll go get you a towel," she said and hurried off.

"We're still glad to have you. If we didn't want to get a little spooked, we wouldn't have spent two hours watching Lamar fight monsters that came out of an anatomy book," John remarked. Charlie 'eh'd, Jessica scoffed, and Marionette chuckled knowingly.

Hearing his name being mentioned, Lamar turned and waved towards the kitchen with a, "Hey, Mari!"

To which Marionette returned the greeting and wave just before Marla was back and throwing a towel around his head and shoulders. She began to dry him off and he gave a contented trill before leaning down so she could reach better. Not above accepting a helping hand, especially one as gentle and caring as Marla's. He left the towel draped around his shoulders after he was done, and she was finally able to put her popcorn bag in to cook.

He looked to Charlie and she returned with an incredulous look.

"You'd rather sit out in the rain for hours and let us chase you around than come in like a sane person," she said.

Another apologetic smile. She buckled and smiled back.

"You're such a goof," she replied. Making it clear that she wasn't mad at him, but that didn't mean he was quite off the hook just yet. "What made you change your mind and come?"

"Well, I was just… I'm not sure what I was thinking, I just thought to seize the chance while I had it, but then lost my nerve on the welcome mat," Marionette confessed. He pulled the towel closer. "Speaking of Chance, I… spoke to him last night."

"About what?" Charlie asked. He was quiet, so she took a guess, "Sammy?"

"About me being Sammy," Marionette corrected.

"Oh…" Her voice betrayed her surprise. "How did he take it?"

"Well, at first very badly. But then he warmed up a little," he said. He rubbed the back of his head. "Then we sat together and watched a football game. His team won, then we watched some Family Rules until Fritz and Natalie came home."

"So, not that bad," Charlie tried to encourage.

"Not that bad…" Marionette sighed and slouched, head falling into a helpless tilt. "I feel like I might've gotten his hopes up if this whole thing turns out to be a mistake."

"That would mean us finding Sammy, so I think that would be the last thing on his mind," she assured. Though this did little to help assuage his feelings. Understanding that there was likely little that could, she reached up and sympathetically patted his back. "How about we go watch Lamar play a little?" she suggested.

"From inside the cabin? I would love to!" Marionette agreed. He regained his smile, even if it was notably smaller. She began to lead him back into the living room, the others following suit- pretending they hadn't been listening to the conversation.

But then she stopped in her tracks, stopping the other puppet by the arm as she considered something else that might cheer him up. Specifically, a particular piece of news.

"Wait. Before we do that, I want to show you something. In here." She pointed towards the bathroom door. He tilted his head but followed her inside, assuming that 'showing him something' was code for needing to speak with him in private.

Once they were inside and the door was shut, Charlie looked around for something she could use. Only realizing then that she didn't exactly have a pinecone to work with. A piece of balled up paper might work, but not toilet paper, and there wasn't much else in the bathroom except what they brought themselves. Even the mismatch-colored towels were likely brought by one of them.

Charlie's eyes lingered on a toothpaste tube for a thoughtful moment before she had an idea. She unscrewed the lid and sat it on the edge of the sink.

"Watch this," she said. She held onto the sink and leaned in. Marionette leaned to the side enough that he could see as well.

It wasn't a quick process, but Marionette was patient. More so than Charlie herself who tried to focus harder and reach that narrowing of her gaze faster. The tension grew like it had the night before and the ache centered behind her eyes. The only thing holding her back now being that she wasn't surely what had set it off the first time. What the trigger was or how to control it. So, like last time, she continued to focus and tried to wing it.

And just when she thought it wasn't going to happen, that last time might've been a fluke, it happened again. Something released and the rolling movement shifted across her head.

The toothpaste lid was knocked over and then rolled of its own accord. All of that resulted in the equivalent of a light flick, though a hands-off one.

She tightened her grip on the sink to keep her upright as she rode out the resulting short-lived vertigo. It went away quickly, leaving the same sore ache in its wake. She watched the cap bump against the lip of the sink and come to a stop.

"…It was a little more impressive with the-."

She was cut off by an explosion of music directly to her right.

Before Charlie could react to that, she was suddenly yanked into an excited embrace and spin, dizzily twirling in a bathroom barely bigger than a decently sized closet. Just missing hitting anything because of how closely she was clutched to the other puppet. A string of praises- "I knew you could do it! I knew it was only a matter a time! If only I was here when you- but I was!" -that were almost drowned out by some bizarre blend of 'Pop Goes the Weasel' and the Prize Box wind-up theme.

Charlie jingled and hugged back, just glad to be along for the ride.

All the while her friends heard the celebratory noises from the living room.

"What's going on in there?" Lamar asked, looking back towards the door.

"I think Charlie got some good news recently," John said vaguely. His little smile seemed to suggest he knew more than he let on.

Jessica shared that smile. Neither were aware that their shared suspicion was wrong, but neither were willing to spill about it either.

Never again.

Never again.

This vile, wretched thing.

Those words replayed in his head as he fought off the stuck life preserver- which he had warned was not clasping correctly and now wouldn't unclasp at all. Not that it helped much when they capsized going over the only slight section of rapids in the entire river. How they managed that he hadn't the foggiest idea, nor would he stick around long enough to ask, because the second they reached their stop he was off and on his way.

Now he had to sit in some ungodly cramped little bus until they made it back to camp. He should've driven up here himself, bonding be damned-.

"Mr. Wight!"

He stopped in his silent huffing and straightened himself up- as best as he could still soaking wet- and turned to face the familiar woman walking up to him.

"Kayla! I see you didn't have nearly as much of an adventure as we did," he jokingly remarked.

"I heard. Sorry about that. Umm… I wanted to talk to you about something," she said. Something seemed to be bothering her. Perhaps she was regretting this as much as he was.

"Of course! If it's about switching teams, I think we might be able to make a change," James joked again. Though this time it was much less of a joke. He waved for her to walk with him back to the meet-up. "So, what's on your mind?"

"It's about the cabin arrangements."

"Is there a problem? They're not written in stone, we could always change those arrangements," he offered.

Kayla got a weird look to her face. Something almost like a wince but not quite.

"No. Sir, it's… I saw that you were sharing a cabin with Ness."

"That's right. We were supposed to have Luis with us, but that seemed to fall through at the last minute."

She gave him a funny look. "Don't you think that's a little… inappropriate?"

James' reaction was quick. His eyes widened and he looked so offended that the woman wondered if she was about to be fired on the spot. She wasn't, but he broke into a flurry of sputters.

"What?! Certainly not! Ness is simply uncomfortable with strangers, and I feel an obligation to keep her as comfortable as possible considering that I was the one who convinced her to come," he explained. Kayla didn't seem to budge. "We have separate bedrooms, Kayla. All these cabins have separate rooms! The only thing different about ours is that two of those rooms are empty. You shouldn't throw around baseless accusations over nothing."

"Right. I'm sorry, I wasn't trying to imply anything. I just thought it was… strange," Kayla excused. It sounded sincere, but nearly in the same breath she added, "Would you mind if I took one of those rooms? Our cabin's a little cramped."

"You are more than welcome to," James agreed. He might've kept a smile, but he was aware that this wasn't an innocuous request. If it quieted her down, then it was worth going along with it.

"Thank you. I'll move my things in once we get back to camp," she agreed.

"Now if you excuse me, I need to find someone to cut this… oversized strait jacket off of me," he said. He then turned on his heel and strode off. Waiting until he was out of hearing range before huffing and puffing again.

Though this time less about the incompetence of a group of adults with paddles and instead about the gall of a one Kayla Stringer. At least he had something to take his mind off the dreadful rafting trip.