Magic Happens

...

"Bonnie! What are you doing in the laundry room?" Mom asked from the kitchen. The laundry room was one of the two "off-limits" rooms in the house, the other being the master bedroom. Bonnie knew she was about to be in trouble, and quickly fabricated a lie.

"Dad said I could! I was helping him do the wash!" Bonnie called through the house, sneaking back through the living room to her own bedroom. Mom glanced up from the dishes to look at her husband sitting at the table behind her.

"Can you come into the kitchen, dear?" Bonnie's head sank. She slowly walked into the kitchen, not wanting to be punished.

"Yes mom?" she asked, her big round eyes looking so sad.

"You know the rules Bonnie. You're not allowed in the laundry room."

"I know."

"Then why did you do it?" she asked kindly.

"Woody and Dolly were going on a date," she said, deciding to place the blame on her toys. "They needed to be alone somewhere."

"Hmm. Well Woody and Dolly can stay the night in there then." Bonnie didn't like where this was going. "You're going to take a bath, with no toys, and you're going straight to bed."

"But mom! That's not fair!" she protested.

"It doesn't have to be fair," Mom said. "And while you're taking your bath we're going to have a talk about lying too." Bonnie groaned. "Now go start the water and get your pajamas ready."

Bonnie sulked through the house. When she got to her room, she unenthusiastically threw the remainder of her toys in her toy chest, grabbed her pj's and headed for the bathroom.

While all this was going on, Woody and Dolly sat alone in the dark dryer. At first, neither spoke to each other, but Woody could hear Dolly moving around and muttering to herself quietly. After a minute or two, the light turned on, and Dolly slid back down to the bottom with Woody.

"What did you just do?" Woody asked in light amazement.

"I turned the lights on," she said matter-of-factly.

"Well yeah," he replied, realizing his question did sound rather dumb. "But how?"

"There's a switch in the upper back of the dryer. Its hard to reach, but I've had practice." Woody wondered just how many times Bonnie had thrown her toys in the machine before. There was a few seconds of silence before Dolly decided to try and make conversation. "Jessie told me a little about why the kiss bothered you so much."

"Yeah?" Woody was almost relieved that he didn't have to try and explain everything to her. "What all did she tell you?"

"She told me you had a girl of your own awhile back, Bo Peep was it?, and that she was sold at a yard sale. I'm really sorry Woody." Dolly's big eyes looked up at him. "I know that it can be hard to let someone you love go."

As Woody's expression changed to curiosity, Dolly's face began to fall.

"Was there someone in your past too?" Woody asked gently, suddenly very interested in this doll's life. Dolly paused, trying to think of what to say. She didn't want to tell the cowboy everything, but she felt she owed it to him to let him in a little bit.

"His name was Tom," she started. "He was my best friend. At every playtime we were partners in crime and every night we slept next to each other in Bonnie's bed. When she was away, we did everything together." Already Dolly was having a hard time getting this out. Woody was surprised to see her this way. She was such a strong girl, not afraid of anything, and yet here she was, showing him a side of her that few had seen, a vulnerable spot. "He was a rag doll like myself, seemingly indestructible. And while I'd rather not say what happened to him, I'll tell you that he's never coming back." Dolly had pulled her knees up to her chest and rested her head on them.

"Dolly, I had no idea," whispered Woody. He wanted to put his arm around her to comfort her, but he wasn't about to send the wrong signals her way. So instead he just sat there awkwardly, trying to think of something to say.

After about a minute of silence, Dolly took in a big breath and regained her composure.

"I'll be ok," she said. "It's been a long time, but I've finally let him go. I realized its okay to move on. I'll never forget about him, and he'll always have a special place in my heart." Woody took a second to think about this.

"Bo means everything to me," he said slowly, unsure of how much he really wanted to open up to her. "I can't just... let her go."

"Woody, no one is asking you to erase her from your mind and memories," said Dolly. "But if you could move forward and leave her in your past, maybe you could be happy again."

Woody sighed, knowing she was right, but he wasn't going to admit it to her out loud. He looked across the dryer at his new friend. Her eyes were fixated on his. Gathering up every ounce of bravery he could find, he stood up, walked over to her, and sat down next to her.

She smiled at him.

"Well cowboy, its gonna be a long night." Dolly reached up the back of the dryer and turned the lights back off. She slid back down by Woody's side and snuggled in.

Woody carefully put his arm around her and smiled.

"Hey, Woody?" Dolly asked quietly.

"Hm?"

"Thanks."

...

a/n: I can't decide if this is the end or not. It wraps it up quite nicely, but there's so much more I'd like to go into... I guess we'll see if inspiration strikes again tomorrow or not.

And wow guys, this got really hard to write. I realized it was a much more sensitive topic than I'd anticipated and handling it delicately was tricky. I hope I did it right! Also, wow! There are so many stories up that I literally couldn't read them all AND write my own, hence the delay. I spent all yesterday just reading all the new ones, I was so excited! Please keep them coming guys!

Also, to surfer-draik, HECK YES you can draw them! :) that would be the sweetest thing in the world!