They couldn't believe it. They couldn't believe what they were seeing.

The sign in Grandma's hands fell to the floor, her hands rushing to her mouth. Grandpa slowly rose from the airport chair. His old eyes widened, his eyebrows lifted to his forehead. The entire airport seemed to fade away. There was Arnold, a little more tanned and roughed up with a bandage on his arm, but still fine.

But beside him...beside him.

"Mama Loni," he murmured quietly, "I must be dreaming." But Arnold's hand on his shoulder felt real to the touch. And Pookie hugging them—that seemed real. Pookie had been real five minutes ago. But Miles? Stella?

"It's not a dream, Grandpa," Arnold assured him. "I found them. I really found them."

The Jungle Movie Fanfic

Arnold embarks to San Lorenzo to find his parents. AU & OOC Warnings.

Disclaimer: I don't own Hey Arnold!

They had been back for a few days. And there were some moments in the day when he still couldn't believe it.

Their last days in San Lorenzo had been rushed—rushing to get back to the site in time, rushing to get to the United States embassy in the capital city to get passports in time, rushing to get on the plane with the rest of the class.

The moment they had returned home, the two of them had spent the day sleeping on and off in Grandma and Grandpa's bed. Arnold had spent that entire first day walking in and out of the room just to make sure that he still wasn't dreaming. But there they were, exhausted and in existance.

He was skipping school that week. He wasn't exactly sure what Grandpa had told the school for his absence, but he had decided to deal with it when he went back. Besides, he hadn't missed any days yet and Gerald was probably going to come by with his assignments eventually; he could afford to miss the week.

He had too many questions that had nothing to do with school anyway:

"Why was your plane never found?"

"How long were you in the jungle before La Sombra found you?"

And he had so many questions to answer himself:

"What's your favorite color?"

"What's your school like?"

"What's your favorite holiday?"

They had really wanted to wait before trying to figure out what to say before they went around and re-introduced themselves to their neighbors and met Arnold's teachers and friends' parents. But Mr. Kokoshka had forced their hand almost immediately. In what he called "joy at the return of Miles and Stella in the lives of young Arnold, Grandpa and Grandma, and the boarders," he had gone to the local newspaper, the Daily News, with the story of their return. The reporter wanted to set up a time for an interview mid-week.

In the seconds after his announcement, he had taken one good look at Stella's angry face and promptly left the dining room table and the boarding house.

They decided in the end to claim "dissociative fugue." Arnold had found the phrase on the Internet.

"It says that dissociative fugue 'is sometimes accompanied by the establishment of a new identity. After recovery from fugue, previous memories usually return intact, but there is complete amnesia for the fugue episode.'"

"Then that's what we'll claim." Miles and Stella locked eyes in understanding. "And Arnold, you'll stick to your story—change only a few parts. We're going to get a lot of attention, but if we let anything slip, every major news source and the entire archaeological community is going to be at our front door trying to know what we know. We have to make sure that our parts are clear. It's still our responsibility to protect the Green-Eyes and their city. " Miles said.

"Okay," Stella nodded, agreeing with the idea, the tension she had been feeling all day leaving her body. "But does that guy know how badly I'm going to punch him the next time I see him? Because when I find him, I'm really going to punch him!"

"Now, Stella, there's no need to be upset. You all found a solution to the problem and everything is going to be fine." Grandpa put a comforting hand on his daughter-in-law's shoulder. "Besides, you're going to have to take a number to punch Oskar. Because when I find that two-timing, swindling con artist, I'm going to punt him from here to Istanbul!"

Most of his time had been spent trying to get his parents as used to life at home as much as he could. He knew that most of what they were going to learn was going to have to be self-taught, but that didn't mean that he wasn't excited to explain things to them.

"So...you can go on the Internet...and find information on anything you want?" his parents peered at Arnold's laptop screen with furrowed brows.

"Yeah." Arnold nodded. He tried not to smile at the looks of heavy concentration on their faces.

"So...if I want to know about George Washington, I can just type it in...'Google'?"

"Yeah."

"Okay," Miles nodded in understanding. "And if I wanted to add music to your grandma's...?"

"iPod." Stella filled in.

"Right, right iPod...I can go on the Internet."

"Sometimes, but iTunes is better."

His dad blinked. "...what?"

Or filling them on what his life had been like since when they had left to now. Birthday parties, holidays, contests, baseball games, Science projects. They had scoured all the photo albums and home videos that were in the den, watching the younger him go through all the motions.

"Arnold?" his dad suddenly asked. It was Wednesday evening. They had survived the interview and were now going through pictures of Arnold's third birthday party. The two of them had paused at a picture of him and Grandpa smiling at the camera with chocolate cake crumbs and red frosting on their faces. "Are you...Are you mad at us for all the things we missed? Have you ever been mad at us for leaving and not...being here for the things we were supposed to be here to see?"

They both looked up at him, sadness and guilt unmistakable in their eyes.

Arnold stared at them for a minute before answering. "Sometimes. Most of the time, though, I just wondered where you were. When I found the journal and read about you and the Green-Eyes, I understood why you left. The Green-Eyes are family; you had to help them.

"But I never really doubted that I couldn't find you guys." He paused for a second. "I'm really happy I found you."

"We're really happy we found you. And we're not going anywhere. We're going to be here for everything from now on. We promise." Stella hand reached for his.

"I know." He squeezed her hand in his, happy for the feeling.

"We love you, Arnold."

"I love you, too, Mom and Dad."

"Dear Arnold,

"On behalf on the Smith Institution of Anthropology, I would like to congratulate you on finding your parents. Hearing your story from Dr. Angelo Ramirez's reports and reading your story in The New York Times certainly brought us joy. As I stated before, Miles and Stella Shortman have contributed greatly to our efforts and we hope, with time, they would be willing to once again to offer their help and insight.

"But personally, I would like to express my joy at your discovery and to be as honest as I can at this point in time.

"You finding your parents is an accomplishment I failed to do many years ago when I convinced them to once again go back to San Lorenzo and aid the Green-Eyed People. I am sure you have by now heard the story about the storm we were caught in upon reaching the jungle, our decision to escape our plane, and our forced separation. But you would not have known the rest of my story, as fantastic it is: my landing in another part of the jungle and my journey to civilization; my return to The States; my own failed efforts to find your parents; and my decision to give up my personal search.

"I am sure that decision, my lack to contact you before receiving your letter all those months ago, and the added deception of my pseudonym in my first letter have directly and indirectly caused you much pain. For that, I am sorry. But I hope for and welcome the opportunity for you, your parents, and myself to meet once more as colleagues, friends, and family. I wish nothing but the best for you, Stella, and Miles.

"Sincerely your friend,

"Dr. Eduardo del Verde Rosa, PhD

"Head Chairman of The Smith Institution of Anthropology"

Arnold heard the hinges on his sky-roof squeak and looked over to see his dad walking towards him, a couple of bottles of Yahoo! sodas in hand. "Here you go."

"Thanks."

Miles smiled at his son and joined him in his task of leaning over the edge of the roof and watching the neighborhood go by below them. "You do this a lot?"

"Every once in awhile."

"I did too when I was younger." Both smiled at the commonality between them. Miles took a quick swig of his drink before looking over at his fourteen-year-old. "So...your mom told me Helga came by just now. Did you see her?"

Arnold nodded, his eyes trailing to where he had seen her walk. "Yeah."

It wasn't like he'd forgotten about Helga, but he hadn't known part of him had wanted to actually see Helga until he had opened the front door that afternoon and saw her standing on the other side, a bunch of folders in her hand. His stomach immediately started doing flips and he felt his pits break out in a sweat.

She spent maybe two seconds frozen at the sight of him, but then suddenly came to life. "Um, Gerald was gonna come by with the work you missed in your classes, but his mom came to pick him up early at school. So, uh, he gave everything to me." She handed him the folders.

"Thanks." He took the folders from her.

She didn't leave. His mouth was trying to say something else to her, but he stayed frozen and she fidgeted, pulling at the long, red sleeves of her shirt and then messing with her bow tied around her wrist. Her hair, falling in that perfect way it did kept him from really

"Helga?" They both heard the unmistakable joy in Stella's voice at seeing the young girl. She untied her apron and wiped her hand, smearing flour on the side of her face in the process. "It's good to see you!"

"Thanks. I came by to give Arnold " the glance she gave him was probably the first time she'd actually looked at him, "his work...and see you."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, um," her eyes flashed over to his, draw by the fact he hadn't really stopped looking at her. "Um, Big...my dad saw the bruise on my back on accident and kinda freaked. He wanted to take me to the doctor's, but I told him I'd take care of it. I was wondering if you could look at it?"

Stella nodded, her glance going between the two teens. She began to untie the apron around her waist and place it on her shoulder. "Okay, I'll take a look at it; it's probably already healing. But you should probably still go to the doctor. Let's go to the den."

"Thanks." Helga glanced at him once more before walking past him and falling behind his mom. The door to the den closed behind them with a soft click.

"Dad, when we were in the jungle, before me and everybody found the city, Helga told me that she...loved me. And...she wanted to know how I felt about her."

In the corner of Arnold's eye, he saw his dad nod slowly, the kind people did when things made sense. Miles turned from the sight of the neighborhood and sat on the edge of the roof, taking another drink of his soda. "What'd you say?"

"I told her I couldn't give her an answer. But now..." He, too, turned from everything and opted to sit on the roof's edge. "Now, I know that I'm starting to like like her too. But I feel like it's too late..."

"How?"

"I don't know...maybe because I rejected her."

Miles stopped mid-gulp and looked over at his son before shaking his head in disbelief. "I didn't think when we found each other, you and I would already have to talk about girl problems." He grinned at the sky and overpass above. "Telling Helga that you didn't know how you felt about her isn't really the same thing as rejecting her. I know at fourteen it seems that way, but it's not."

Arnold picked up his bottle of soda but then placed it down again. "But what if she doesn't think the same way about me anymore? What if me not telling her yes or no made her dump all her feelings for me?"

"I can't answer that, but from what I can tell after meeting Helga, her feelings don't seem like they change that quickly or easily. The only way you're going to know for sure is if you tell her."

"What if it's not that easy? What if I waited for too long?"

A deep hum rumbled in Miles' throat as he tried to figure out what to say next.

"Sometimes, I think the story of Anka giving Alom her heart holds the solution to many—um what was it? "like like"?-problems. I think that when Anka gave her heart to Alom, it was just a heart; I don't even think he knew what to do with it. But I like to imagine Anka was willing to wait because once Alom did understand, his own feelings and love for Anka started to grew. For me, that's when La Corazon began to exist, when after all that time, Alom began to understand.

"...Of course, you and Helga are different, but minus a few details here and there, the story is kind of the same."

Miles stood with his empty soda bottle in hand, and reached Arnold's untouched one. He put his hand on the back of Arnold's neck and gave him a comforting squeeze, his smile growing as Arnold's eyes seemed to light with some understanding.

"Your mom's trying to relearn how to make your grandma's raspberry cobbler, which means that we're going to have to eat them. From what I can remember, it's gonna take awhile for her to get it entirely right, and she's not going to want anyone to eat dinner before it's ready so you might want to step out for a minute. And grab some pizza with Helga on the way."

Arnold was standing at the bottom of her stoop. And he was wearing a shirt that was different from the one he'd had on at home.

She had been annoyed before she had walked outside, her mind bothered at Nadine's week-long mission to get her to pay her for a new camera and memory card. Helga had finally conceded to Nadine's argument that while the camera had helped taken La Sombra down, she had stolen and broken it in the process and she had to replace it with a new one. Her mind had been on getting to downtown and buying the stupid camera. And if she could get it to Nadine before the streetlights came on, even better.

But immediately, all those thoughts went out the window at seeing him. Her stomach gave a bit of a lurch and she stared at him, unsure of why he was there after seeing him about an hour ago. "Arnold?"

"Um, are you going somewhere?"

"...Yeah."

"Can I walk with you?"

She nodded and made her way beside him, half-leading the path down the street; where ever she had been going before wasn't important anymore. There were a million thoughts racing around her head with nowhere to really go. Her eyes kept glancing over at him, trying not to sweat through her shirt. His entire...his face and body language was entirely too calm; he wasn't doing the things he did when he was nervous.

"Is your bruise okay?"

"Huh? Yeah, your mom says it's healing, so everyone can breathe easy, I guess." Her hand absently combed through the ends of her hair, just for something to do.

Why was she the only one freaking out right now? And why was she freaking out worse than when she had been standing at his front door? Her fingers wouldn't stop combing. If she didn't stop, she was going to make herself bald and sweaty!

"Hey?" His fingers reached out to touch her arm, the feeling making goosebumps rise on her arm underneath the red cotton fabric. "Wanna stop here for a second?"

Her eyes absorbed the beginning of the bridge and she swallowed through the lump in her throat. "Yeah, sure." She let him lead the way towards the unofficial boarder between the neighborhood and city. They found a spot and leaned on the rail, staring into the water and trying to calm down. Helga's eyes fixated on the river, a deep blue now the the sky was in the beginnings of sunset.

"Helga?" Her eyes pulled away from the water to stare at his green eyes. "I just want to say thanks for helping me find my parents."

Part of her anxiety disappeared with the words. "Yeah, I'm happy that we found them, too. Do they like it here? I mean...is everything the same for them?"

She smiled at the sight of the corners of his mouth pulling up into a small smirk. "Things are a little different here and there, but things are mostly the same for them." The smirk went away, but she recognized the way his hands kept wiping themselves on his jeans—now he was as nervous as she felt. "Helga, I have something to say. About, about what you told me...that night."

A little bit of wind sucked itself out of her. It wasn't that she had forgotten that night, she had just opted not to think about it and instead be happy at the overall outcome. "Yeah?"

"I know when you said you loved me," her stomach lurched again and she felt a fleeting feeling of embarrassment, "I told you that I couldn't tell you how I felt."

She began to shake her head, to tell him that it was okay and he should forget it, but he cut her off. "But now that it's over, I want to tell you that...I like you, Helga."

The whole, entire world seemed to change in that entire second. From his mouth, four words—not the exact four words she had always hoped for, but four very important words—had rushed out. The moment she had always hoped for had finally happened. And now, he stood in front of her and waited for her to say something back at him.

"What?"

Of course she'd say something like that. Because that wasn't the worse word to say in any situation.

"I like you, Helga."

And now she couldn't say anything. She must've not reached her "Stupid Quota" when Gerald had come up to her earlier today and pretty much told her that she was going to give Arnold his assignments.

"I like you, Helga. I know me saying that isn't close to what you told me, but maybe one day, with time, I'll feel the same. I don't know if you want to wait for that long and I could understand if you've stopped feeling something for me, but...I like you, Helga. And I want you to wait until then."

She blinked as she tried to process his words and swallowed a boulder that had seemed to crop up in the last minute. She came closer to him, her heart thumping like crazy. "I still do...love you, Arnold." Her teeth began to chew at her bottom lip. "And, and, and I can wait for you to love me back." That's all she could get out now that he was holding her hand. And smiling at her like that.

She didn't hesitate when he came up closer to her and she felt something press against her mouth. His lips. She didn't do the things she did when she was little and tricked him into kissing her; there wasn't all that dumb moaning and...head twisting. Only the touch and her eyes fluttering shut and her head inflating and the numb feeling of her lips as he pulled away. It was funny how red his face was.

But it wasn't like her heart had stopped beating like crazy either. This whole thing was new now; no matter how much she had hoped for it and how much it now felt like the real thing, it was still new and unbelievable. There were another million questions on her mind. But for now, she just really caught between wishing this wasn't a dream and that he would kiss her again and that she could take a picture of the way he looked now.

What a sec.

A picture. Nadine's camera, a very small and distant part of her mind, the one that kept up appearances of reality and normalcy, reminded her. You're supposed to go get it, remember?

Her mouth fixed up to try to say something, but he beat her to the punch again.

"Do you want to go to Tony's and get a pizza?" He asked, his face still inflamed.

Screw. Nadine's. Camera.

"Yeah." Her hand clasped his, trying to keep them together until then.

And they walked back to the neighborhood in the setting sun together.

a/n: And there it is! The end of "The Jungle Movie!" Yay! Once again, thanks for the R&R love.

There's a lot to explain about this, I guess. First off, the Google/iTunes convo is me playing with the idea of what Miles and Stella have to get used to when coming back. In trying to make this as real and believable as possible, I had to think about the things they'd have to get re-acquaint themselves with and learn about after...13 years—from Arnold's childhood to his computer. (s/n: the "dissociative fugue" definition does exist on Wikipedia; check it out if you want)

Eduardo's letter was going to be a very long reunion scene but in first writing it, I felt like it was diverting from what I really wanted to get to. So I let most of the dramatics go and put the letter here instead. Just me trying to tie another loose end, but I think it works.

The HelgaxArnold kissing scene took the longest to write. I wanted to put a lot into it. I thought of all those scenes in the show where Arnold gets Grandpa's terrible advice, and wanted to change that by having Arnold and Miles. And in staying true to Arnold, I didn't want him to rush into him loving Helga. Helga has always been in the "love" stage, but Arnold's affection have had to through a lot of stages. So, in my mind, him saying he "like likes" her was a pretty big threshold in my mind.

Anyway...thanks again.

(s/n: I played Lykee Li's "Little Bit" a lot while writing the final scene. Find it on YouTube and let it play while reading the end—it seemed really "Helga-esque", but I'll let you judge for yourself.)

-the-lionness