Part 2
"I'm tellin' ya, Sully, this joke is gonna nail 'em!"
"I believe you, Mike." Sully meant it, too. He was just tired. It already a long work day and it was only just after lunch. Paperwork was mentally exhausting and he woke up sooner than he wanted to due to the new neighbors arguing at the unholy hours of the night.
"Well," Mike grinned up at him, "time to get ready for my door! See you in a few!"
"Go get 'em." Sully smiled, watching his best friend scamper to the laugh floor. "Now," he murmured to himself, looking at the notes on his clipboard as he walked towards the laugh floor, "what was the next thing I had to do?" Oh, he did have to make sure that laugh canisters were being shipped out on time because there was an issue with a delay in the shipment last week. He entered the laugh floor, making a mental reminder that he had a meeting tomorrow afternoon. He could not be late again. The last meeting two weeks ago was the only time he had ever been late to. He needed to make sure that it was not going to happen again this time.
The laugh floor was filled with chatter and laugher amongst the monsters while laugh canisters were successfully being filled up. Doors smoothing coming and going without issues.
"Sully!"
Sully raised his head from his clipboard to his beaming friend approaching him as the blue door behind was sent back up to the warehouse.
"I was right! That joke was gold!" He laughed. "Oh! Before I forget– again– dinner and our place tonight? I'm grilling a lovely batch of–"
Someone audibly gasped. "Randall!"
Before Sully could realize what was happening, people started to gather around in two doors down. He tossed the clipboard aside on a desk and hurried to the scene. There, laying on the floor in front of a closed door, was Randall Boggs, panting for breath as if he had been running.
Mike joined his side. "Randall?" He hissed, loud enough for only Sully to hear. "He should be banished! Why did he come back?"
"Hold on, Mike," he murmured, holding out a hand in front of his friend as if to keep him back. "Randall?" He carefully approached the reptile, but gave him enough room.
Exhausted green eyes opened, looked up at him, then closed again. His breathing was leveling out.
He turned to the rest of the employees. "Please leave this area. The situation will be taken care of and once it is, we will return to work."
Monsters hesitantly began to leave, glancing at their exhausted former co-worker.
"You heard the boss, folks," Mike announced. "Start scooting." He gestured to the crowd and began walking with them as all of them began to retreat and doors were being returned to the warehouse. Once everyone continued on their way, he trotted back to Sully in panic. "We have to send him back!" He hissed.
He held up a patient hand up to his friend. He took another step closer as Randall heaved himself off the floor. "Randall? What are you doing here?"
"Just arrest me," he grumbled, standing up.
Sully's eyes grew at the sight of a pale scar trailing down the reptile's front. "What happened?"
"Just whatever you're going to do, arrest me instead. Do not send me back there." He locked eyes with Sully, pointing to the empty door holder.
"Let's talk in my office."
"What?" Mike snapped.
Sully snapped his head to his friend. He glanced at Randall. "Excuse us." He led his friend a couple of feet away with their backs to the reptile. "Something really bad happened out there, Mikey," he whispered. "You see that scar?"
"Yeah," he whispered back. "And we will also have that scar if not worse if we let him back here! So, get another door and send him back!"
"No, Mike."
"No?" Mike calmly placed his hands together. "Do I need to remind you what this guy did? Let's arrest him instead! He wants that!"
"Mike. Something happened to him. Let's just take him to my office–" "Where he can kill you." "–and we can go from there."
Mike's eye fell into an highly unamused slit. "Did you suddenly get dumb? Truly. I'm worried about you right now."
Sully rolled his eyes, groaning as he turned back to a patient Randall. "Do you want to talk to me in my office?" He was expecting the lizard to lash out at him, but figured asking was better than stating it like before.
"You have an office?"
"I'm the CEO now."
"Huh. You really worked your way up." He shrugged. "Sure."
The calm understanding was puzzling. Sully turned to his friend. "Uh, Mike, I'm gonna need you to sit this one out."
Mike's eye grew. "What?"
"I'm the boss and I need to handle this properly. I'll be sure to fill you in later."
He sighed. "Yeah, okay. I get it."
Sully led the way with the banished monster at his side. He felt bad leaving Mike behind, but if he involved an employee, it could look strange.
On the way to the office, monsters stopped in their tracks, whispering and murmuring at the sight of Randall Boggs. It was a five minute walk to the office. The CEO's office was at the very back of several other desks behind a large, sliding glass door with windows both looking into the office and out towards the parking lot. He allowed Randall into his office first and closed the blinds so others couldn't snoop. He sat at his desk as Randall sat across from him, not looking at him. Unsure of where to start, Sully sighed. "Why did you come back? You know you shouldn't have come back here."
Randall briefly smirked, gazing out to the window to the parking lot. The blue skies were clear with bright sunshine. "You and Wizowski came back." He looked to him, then shook his head. "Sorry, you actually, uh…." He looked down.
Sully inhaled, placing his hands on the desk with his fingers loosely interlocked. "Randall," his voice was soft with concern. "What happened?"
Randall's eyes were locked on the desk's surface. "After you banished me…." His breath hitched, looking the other monster dead in the eyes. "We call ourselves monsters. Humans are more monstrous than we could ever imagine. Ever."
His brows furrowed. "What did they do to you?" He gently asked.
Randall's face crumpled into anger.
"You can tell me." It was so strange to sit face to face with Randall Boggs like this. He was expecting to get yelled at, but Randall seemed too exhausted for such emotion.
He rubbed his face. "Where do I even start?" He dropped his hand on the desk. "Ok, well, on the second day of my banishment, human-scientists found me, threw me in a cell and tortured me for two years. I was a science experiment and my name was a number which I refuse to repeat. I was cut open because they wanted to learn more about me and then when I finally thought I was going to be killed, there was a breakout, I escaped, killed the guy who'd torture me, and made sure that the whole place was blown sky high without me in it. Yeah, many other creatures are dead, but so are the psychopaths that ran it and that's my story."
Sully gawked at him, horrified. Never would he expect anything of the sort. He was relieved to hear that the human facility was destroyed and no other creature could suffer at their hands. Never would he have thought humans were capable of such things and he knew that was just a brief summery. Banishment was no longer an option. Never again for any situation. Everything was going to go through straight to the authorities from now on. He sucked in a breath. "Randall, if I had known–"
Randall held up a hand, looking at him with heavy eyes. "How could have you known?" His voice was quiet. "No one could've known. There is, uh, one more thing you should know…."He glanced down, then back at him. "The kid? The little girl who I put in harm's way?"
"Boo?"
"The doc was her uncle."
His eyes grew, feeling his blood run cold. "What?"
"He, uh, showed me a crayon picture she drew. She turned five four days ago. It had you, Mike…and me. That's what made him want to kill me at the end. He knew I scared her, but didn't know the extent. He was trying to protect his niece at that point, so I can't really blame him."
"And you killed him."
Randall nodded, avoiding his gaze. "Yeah…. Look, Sully," he looked back at him, "I know I shouldn't have come back. You can arrest me. Was Waternoose arrested?"
He nodded. "He was."
"Then you can put me on the same charges. I'll go quietly, just don't send me ba–"
"I'm not going to send you back," he gently stated. "I'm not going to have you arrested either."
"What?" He gasped. "Why?"
"You've gone through enough."
He bared his jagged teeth. "So, what? You're just gonna let me go? I tried to kill you! Twice! I nearly strangled you and could've pushed you to your death! I kidnapped a human kid and endagered her! I worked with Waternoose! I–"
"I know."
"Then why are you letting me go?"
"You went through enough," Sully gently repeated.
Randall humorless chuckled and frowned. "I don't have a home anymore, Sullivan. I don't have a job. I noticed you don't even scare anymore. A cell would be nicer than living on the street."
Sully looked away, pondering. It didn't take long for an idea to come to his head. He looked back at his former co-worker. "You can stay with me until you can get back on your feet. I have a spare room since Mike married Cilia over a year ago."
The reptile suspiciously looked at him. "You can't be serious."
"I am."
"You heard me when I reminded you that I nearly killed you twice, right? You didn't forget, did you?"
"Nope," he flatly answered. He actually had nightmares for weeks after that. If Mike hadn't thrown that snowball on Randall's face or if Boo didn't pounce on Randall went she did…. He didn't want to think about it.
There was a brief, crooked smile on Randall's face, but it turned to a frown. "Unbelievable. You are serious."
"Yep." He unenthusiastically popped the P.
Randall slumped in the chair. "I…I don't know what to say…. Thank you. Truly."
Sully softly smiled. "You're welcome." He stood up. "I'm going to make sure that I have my afternoon clear so I get you there sooner than later. Stay here and relax. You're safe here." Before Randall could object, he left the office. He quietly closed the door, rubbing his face.
Mike was not going to like this idea.
"I hate this idea!" Mike barked.
"I know."
"This is a horrible idea!"
"Mike, you don't know what he went through."
"So that just excuses him? You're right. He went through a hard time…after he tried to kill us! You took the rest of the afternoon off to take care of him."
He was able to make the rest of the afternoon clear to go home early, but he had to break the news to Mike before leaving with their enemy. "He can't stay here."
"No. You're right. He can't and that's why he should go back to the human world!"
Sully stared down at his friend.
Mike glared up at him, then softened. "You…really are going to let that lunatic into your home, aren't you?"
"Yep."
"Why? I don't understand."
They were standing in the open hall factory with other workers constantly walking by. He leaned in closer to him and whispered through gritted teeth, "Human scientists tortured him."
Mike's brow furrowed. "What?"
"Humans–"
He waved his hands. "I heard you. I just– How?"
"I'll explain later. I gotta get going."
"Yeah. Okay…."
Sully returned to his office almost thirty minutes of being gone to find Randall standing by the outside window. "Hey."
"Hey," Randall flatly greeted, turning to him.
"I have the afternoon off. Ready to head to my place?"
"Uh, yeah. Sure."
"We'll be walking if that's okay."
"You don't have a car?"
Sully shook his head, smiling. "No." He allowed the reptile to walk out the office before him and turned off the lights. He said farewell to his employees for the day as they bidden him a good rest of the day, glancing at the former scarer. He hoped he wasn't going to regret this decision, but he could see the anger in Randall was gone. He didn't argue as much as expected. He didn't snap as much. His eyes are constantly heavy. He wouldn't be surprised if Randall just went straight to bed when they got home. He knew Randall barely scrapped the surface in his summery about these scientists, but if he ever needed someone to talk to, Sully would be more than happy to be there.