Title : Night Terrors

Author :

Summery : Wilbur has an interesting dream, and has a talk with his father about it.

Rating : G

Disclaimer : Meet the Robinsons and all associated characters belong to Pixar Co. and The Walt Disney Production Co. I own nothing.

Note : Such a confusing movie. Haha. Spoilers aho!

Note2 : Finally, four years later, fixed the fact that Lewis' name was spelled wrong. Gah.

Wilbur sat straight up in his bed, sweat beading onto his forehead, his breath coming out in sharp gasps. He went to bring his hand to his forehead, fully intent on wiping the sweat away, only to find his hand was grasping his favorite hat.

Wilbur stared at the hat in his hands, turning it over, then over again, then once again, as though he wasn't quite sure what else to do with it. He felt his breathing slow as his thoughts raced. The happenings that had just occurred seemed to be nonexistent, a hazy dream that couldn't quite become clear.

Probably because, well, that's what they were. Wilbur wasn't quite sure that the events he was dreaming had really happened. All he remembered was waking up from his bed, drenched in cold sweat, mumbling to himself about his father and time machines.

'Such a strange dream to have…' He pondered, trying as hard as he could to think back of the happenings of the dream, still turning the hat over distractedly in his sweaty hands, 'Such a strange dream….'

In his dream, he had accidentally left the garage door open, after his mother had specifically reminded him to make sure that it was shut. Stupid, if you asked him. He would never do something so irresponsible! He always did exactly what his mother asked, and never cut corners at all!

Well, okay, maybe a little…

Okay, maybe a lot.

He had left the garage door open…and somebody had taken the time machines that his father had invented! That was it. He had found out that the person that had stolen the time machine had evil plans to go back in time, to ruin his father's science experiment from way back when he was in the seventh grade, therefore reversing the hands of time forever!

"DAD!" He had to make sure that it was just a dream. Jumping up from his bed, black pajamas rustling lightly in the silence, he gripped the lightning-bolt baseball cap tightly as he screamed for his father "DAAAAAAAAAD!"

'Maybe this would be easier if I went to get him.' He reasoned, sitting back down on the bed, 'After all, it is the middle of the night.'

However, Wilbur was a thirteen year old boy, and reason often slipped his mind and gave away to laziness.

"DAAAAAAAAAAAAD!" He yowled once again, before finally hearing a door slam and quick footsteps nearing his bedroom door. The door burst open with urgency, revealing Cornelius Robinson, sans glasses and normally unruly hair looking like the worst form of bed head.

"Wilbur, is everything okay! Did somebody try to kidnap you? Are you dieing? Did the frogs revolt and are now trying to take over the world!"

'Okay, note to self. Waking dad up in the middle of the night – bad idea.'

Wilbur scratched his head, now feeling a bit foolish for waking his father up in the middle of the night for such a silly reason.

"Son, what's the matter? Why were you screaming?" His father asked, concern etching across his features as he stepped into the room. His eyes gazed across the messy floor in disapproval, before landing on Wilbur once again questioningly.

Wilbur fidgeted with the hat in his hands, trying to figure out what to say. His father raised an eyebrow, but there was no malice, nor was it a patronizing glance, just simple confusion and growing worry shining in his eyes.

"Did you… have a bad dream?" His father questioned, taking a few steps forward. He seemed a bit uncomfortable about asking such a question to his thirteen-year-old son, who had outgrown 'night terrors' a good number of years ago.

Wilbur nodded, looking down at the lightning-bolt hat as he did so. He supposed that was about as close to the truth as he was going to get.

His father made a noise of surprise and concern, never expecting that to actually be the cause of why he was brought into his son's room. He rushed over to his son's side, a strong arm around his shoulders before Wilbur could even blink.

"What was it about?" Cornelius asked, trying his best not to make the situation anymore awkward than it already was. Wilbur sighed, glancing up at his father and handing him the lighting-bolt hat he had been gripping, before placing his head in his hands tiredly.

"I don't really know, dad." He confessed, trying to piece together all the parts of the dream he could remember, "It seemed so real, though."

His father gave the hat a strange look, before placing it off to the side, choosing to pay full attention to his son as he tried to pull his thoughts together.

"Well, why don't you tell me how the dream started?" He inquired, trying his best to help his son in this odd situation. Wilbur nodded and put a thin finger to his chin, obviously thinking. He inhaled deeply before beginning.

"Well you see I forgot to lock the door of the garage and boy did I feel stupid and then the time machine got stolen and I was like aw man so I had to go find out who took it but when I did I found out they had an evil plan to ruin your life by going back in time and destroying some invention that you had made in the seventh grade so I brought the time machine back to the past to find you but you didn't believe me so I brought you here and there was this big to-do and mom wanted to adopt you and then everyone found out it was you, not you older you but younger you that wasn't older yet, and then that was after this dinosaur tried to kill you and the bad guy won and I didn't exist anymore!"

He said all of this in under three breaths, and was gasping for air by the time he was finished with the story. His father was decent enough to look shocked. He took some time before formulating a response, a small look of astonishment sparkling in his eyes as he furthered the conversation.

"…Then what happened?" He managed out, his voice shaking slightly, his arm tightening around Wilbur. Wilbur assumed it was because of the notion of him not existing. Even though sometimes he was obnoxious, he knew his parents loved him.

"Well, then, all of a sudden, I existed again. And everything was back to normal. I brought you back to the past. Then I woke up."

Cornelius cleared his throat, and for the first time since Wilbur had started talking, his took his arm out from around him to pick up the hat that he had placed beside him on the bed.

"H-how do you feel about this dream, son? Do you feel you learned anything from it?" He cautiously inquired, turning the hat around in his hands. Like father, like son.

"I don't know, dad. I mean, Just thinking about the fact that if one small invention in your past hadn't worked, I wouldn't have even existed… but at the same time… in my dream, everything was a bit confusing. I mean, in my dream, Uncle Goob was the bad guy! And we had a pet dinosaur… And your name wasn't Cornelius, it was Lewis, and you were way cool, dad."

His father raised an eyebrow, a small smile gracing his features as he threw the hat gently down to the bed.

"Hey!" He exclaimed, a grin forming on his lips, as he ruffled his son's jet black hair, "Are you saying I'm not way cool NOW?"

Wilbur cried out as his father ruffled his hair, a laugh bubbling out of his lips as he tried to avoid his hand.

"You know what I mean, dad! Now, you're my dad! But when you were younger you were cool, like me! In this dream, we were like, best friends!"

Cornelius smiled putting his arm back around his son and picking up the hat once again.

"And tell me, son, when you were trying to hide Lewis from the rest of the family, I bet you made him wear this hat, am I right? It is your favorite, after all."

"Well, no, first I made him wear some fruity hat of grandpa's, but then-" Wilbur stopped, "Hey, wait a minute, dad… I didn't tell you I made him wear a hat!"

His father ignored him, instead choosing to examine at the hat as he spoke.

"The space time continuum is a complicated piece of science, son. Nobody really knows what will happen when a person goes back in time. Futures can change, lives can be redone, and sometimes, entirely new discoveries can happen." Cornelius lectured, placing the lightning bolt hat gently onto his son's head, he continued, "However, sometimes when time travel happens, and futures are redone, small remnants of what happened before will seep into our brains from the deepest parts of our memory bank, causing us to remember things that didn't actually happen in this world."

Wilbur's mouth dropped, the hat his father had put sideways onto is head falling to the floor with a 'clunk'.

"Are you saying my dream actually happened?" He asked, his voice soft and awed as he stared at his father, his eyes wide with disbelief.

Cornelius shook his head, patting his son on the back softly.

"Well, son, because I managed to go back to the past and wake up Uncle Goob, he actually caught the winning catch in the Little League Championship. He didn't want to ruin my life anymore. I also knew never to invent Dor-15, which was the cause of all the problems to begin with. So, no, son, it didn't actually happen. At least, not in this lifetime."

Wilbur nodded slowly, understanding what his father was saying.

"So you had to live this whole time, knowing what your life was already going to be like?"

Cornelius shook his head once again, his lips once again in a fond smile as he looked at his son.

"Actually, knowing what was coming was the greatest thing that ever happened to me. I knew just what I wanted in a family, because, well, I had already seen them, and I knew they were perfect just the way I had seen them. I knew my wife and that she was perfect, even with her small frog fetish, and that parents I would eventually recieve would be perfect." He paused for a moment, before bringing his sparkling blue eyes onto his son's face, fondness clearly evident in his features, "It also helped knowing that in the future, after your mother and I were married, I'd finally get to meet again the best friend I'd ever had."

Wilbur's eyes widened, and he looked into his dad's eyes. They were the same eyes as the 12-year-old that he had the adventure with in his dream. A little bigger, a little wiser, but still the same eyes.

He couldn't help but smile, opening his arms and hugging his father as hard as he could. Cornelius gave a small grunt of surprise, before returning the hug with equal vigor.

"I never knew," Wilbur muttered over his father's shoulder, causing Cornelius to open his eyes an listen, "I never knew that the best friend I ever had would turn out to be my dad."

Cornelius smiled, hugging his son tighter, before finally releasing, even though he didn't really want to.

"So," He started, tugging on the collar of his pajamas, "What do you say we go back to sleep? I'm sure you're done hanging out with your ol' dad for a while, eh?"

Wilbur frowned, his eyes darting slightly before answering.

"But now I can't sleep, dad! Can't we hang out for a little bit longer, at least until I fall asleep?"

A smile flickered its way into place on Cornelius' face, and he nodded, making himself comfortable on his son's bed before asking the question,

"So, whadda ya wanna do?"

Wilbur returned his smile, reaching down to grab the hat that had fallen to the floor when his father had moved. Smirking, he reached up, planting it firmly on his father's crazy hair.

"Anything you want, dad."

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