Chapter 12

Trish meandered into the guesthouse, hoping to find Randall there. He wasn't.

"Have you seen Randall?" Trish asked hopefully. Iris and Jade simply shook their heads, trying to comfort the sobbing little girl on the bed. Trish turned to leave.

"He left with Sulley and Mike, Trish," Iris informed her niece forlornly. "I'm sorry, Trish."

Trish froze. She turned slowly around, and looked her aunt in the eye. "He went with Sulley and Mike?" She asked, hardly daring to hope. "Did they go back to Monstropolis?"

"Yes. Why?" Iris asked, not understanding.

"There's only one house in the entire neighborhood that they could possibly get into that has a little kid. I'm going so I can find them." Trish stated determinedly. "Thanks." she said, and left to search for Randall.

She finally found the place and got into Kevin's room. It was a good thing she was in jeans, because Kevin's family had cat-claw all over the place, making it quite a hassle to climb up to the window. She supposed later that she could have slipped in through a door, but it didn't occur to her until later. She gently roused Kevin.

"Kevin," she said softly, "It's your neighbor, Trish. I need to ask you something."

Kevin sprang right up, still wakeful after Randall's visit. "Sure," he said cheerfully.

"Has an eight-legged purple lizard been here?" she queried.

"You mean Randall? Yeah, he and his friends were here a moment ago. They went in there with the monster in my closet." He said, and pointed to the closet door.

"Thank you," Trish whispered sweetly. She went t the oak closet and opened it a crack. What she saw was not clothing, but a large room with a row of curved desks, all piled with paperwork and manila file folders. She opened the door further and something gave out a squeak. She looked down and saw a burgundy monster with three eyes and glasses. His eyes widened when he saw her.

"I'm sorry. Did I bump you?" Trish asked politely.

"What do you think you're doing? Get back in there. You don't want to get caught by this gal that's coming."

Trish ignored his warning. "I'm looking for an eight-legged reptile monster named Randall Boggs," she asked. "Have you seen him?"

"You know Randall?"

Trish nodded.

"He's down the hall. But we're kinda in the middle of something. Can you do this a little later?"

"Maybe," Trish answered. There was a slight patter of feet down the hallway. The burgundy monster panicked.

"Quick!" he said. "Under my desk! Hurry!"

Trish obeyed and crawled under the desk as fast as she could. A split second after she got under it, another monster came down the hall. Her heart gave a leap. She thought it was Randall. But as the monster came down the hall, Trish realized it wasn't. This monster had longer fronds with one that came forward, a skinnier face, and long eyelashes. This monster looked female. Her voice confirmed this theory.

"Fungus!" she called in a commanding voice. "We don't have all night! Let's get this show on the road!"

Fungus walked to the desk and moved a few files around. "Okay." He said timidly. "Let's go."

The two left. Trish lay under the desk, waiting. She looked over towards where she had come in. She saw the empty doorstation with no idea what it really was. She thought that maybe Randall was still down the hall, having no clue what was going on at the time. She called his name in a whisper. "Randall?" She got no answer. She tried three more times before deciding he wasn't there and simply waited.

She heard a commotion down the way. There were yells and a few shrieks. One of them sounded like Randall. She lay under the desk for a minute, trying to decide what to do. **************************************************************************** **********

"EEEEK!!" Mike squealed, when he saw what Clarissa had done. "You freaking nutcase!" he screamed at her. "Just because he was better than you doesn't mean you had any right to kill him!"

Fungus was sitting by Randall, taking his pulse. "He's not dead, but if he keeps bleeding like this he will be."

Sulley came to his senses. He leapt at Clarissa and pinned her down so she couldn't make a run for it, then turned to his best friend. "Mike," he said, "go to Celia's desk and call the emergency line. It's 119."

"I know what it is!" Mike snapped. He bolted down the hall as fast as his little green legs could carry him.

Sulley turned to Randall's former assistant. "Fungus, I need you to get Randall a first aid kit. Hurry." Fungus nodded and hurried on his way. Sulley moved Clarissa around so it would be harder for her to wriggle away. She made grunt of protest, but did nothing else. She was fuming with rage, but could do nothing.

Trish, still under Fungus's desk, saw Mike hurrying in the hall, muttering frantically as he went. She knew something was wrong and decided to go down the hall Mike had just come from.

When Trish got there, she saw something that shocked her. Sulley was on the floor, on top of the monster that she had seen Fungus with. Behind them, Randall lay almost lifeless on the floor, fuchsia blood leaking on the floor.

She let out a squeal of dismay and scrambled to Randall's side. She pulled out her handkerchief and wrapped it around Randall, over the wound to stop the bleeding. She couldn't help but feel as though it was her fault that Randall was in such a state. She had broken his heart, she thought, and driven him to giving up his life. She didn't know that his sister tried to kill him. She didn't even know he had a sister. She began to sob.

Mike came back about a second after Trish began crying. "I called, Sulley. They won't be here for ten minutes," he said, his stress showing in his voice and his eye. He then noticed Trish. "Hey," he said, "What're you doing here, girl?"

"I- I wanted to apologize to him for acting the way I did!" She sobbed. "Now- now he's- It's my fault!"

She broke into uncontrolled crying. Mike patted her on the back. "It's not your fault. His stupid sister stabbed him!" Mike told Trish, raising his voice on the last two words of his statement. Clarissa, still under Sulley, snarled.

"He got what he deserved," Clarissa said nastily.

This made Trish furious. "Take it back," she said coldly.

Clarissa merely snarled. To everyone's surprise, Trish snarled back, even louder than Clarissa had. Clarissa's eyes widened in surprise.

At that moment, the emergency crews from the hospital, the police, the fire department, and the CDA came in. They all stopped.

"A human!" a tentacled orange monster from the police department exclaimed in fear.

"Stand back!" a monster in a yellow CDA biohazard suit commanded. "Humans are deadly organisms! Contact with their toxin is fatal!"

Trish gave them the look that told anyone that she considered them morons. "That's the dumbest thing I ever heard," she said flatly.

"It talks!" a brownish five-eyed monster from the fire department blurted out.

"I don't care if it knows the answer to life, the universe, and everything!" a furry female hospital representative snapped. "The person who called said there had been a stabbing. Is that true?"

"Yes," Sulley, Mike, and Trish answered simultaneously.

"Guys, get him on a stretcher. The police will arrest whoever stabbed him, if the suspect is anywhere in the vicinity. Isn't that correct?" the doctor asked, turning to the police. They nodded.

"The monster who stabbed him is right there," Mike said. "Sulley pinned her down."

The police came forward with handcuffs and arrested Clarissa. When they had done so, Trish slapped the lizard monster. The CDA lost it. "Twenty-three- nineteen!!" they hollered, and threw Clarissa to the floor. They showered her and put a funnel-shaped collar around her neck as part of the decontamination. She looked really stupid, with the translucent white funnel-collar (like those put on pets after seeing the vet for major operations) and her hands cuffed, plus the CDA decontamination shower had made her mascara run. Trish grinned.

The doctors and nurses were carrying Randall to the ambulance on the white stretcher. Trish scrambled after them.

"Wait!" she cried. "Please, let me go with him!"

"You're a human!" one male, orange, seven-eyed nurse informed her.

"I know that!" she snapped.

"Humans are toxic!" the orange nurse stated, waving a tentacle in fear. "You'll only make his condition worse!"

"I'm not toxic! Please, let me go with him!"

The doctor who had taken control of the situation back in the hall spoke up. "She can't be toxic. If she was, that monster who stabbed this fellow would have died the moment she touched her." The doctor beckoned with a fuzzy yellow-brown paw. "Come on."

Trish, unable to believe what had happened in the past fifteen minutes, climbed into the ambulance. A nurse shut the doors and the ambulance sped away.

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Randall woke up with a splitting headache and an excruciating pain in his side. He groaned involuntarily. A hand gently stroked his fronds.

"Shh. It'll be okay, love," a female voice said kindly. "The nurse is getting you some more painkillers."

The voice sounded familiar. "Trish?" he said softly.

"Randall? Are you awake?" She sounded concerned. Yes, it was Trish.

Randall opened his eyes, but was blinded by florescent lights and quickly shut them again. He tried again, opening his eyes more slowly. He blinked rapidly. After his eyes adjusted, Trish seemed to materialize in front of him. He smiled at her, glad she was there, but frowned soon after in puzzlement. "Where am I?" he asked. "Why are there tubes in my arm?"

Trish smiled weakly. "We're in a hospital," she said. "In Monstropolis."

"In Monstropolis? But how come you're here?" he asked. "I mean, most monsters must still think humans are toxic."

"Sulley had to pull a few strings," she answered.

Randall made an affirmative grunt and tried to sit up. It made him dizzy and he groaned again.

"Lay down, Randall," Trish said, gently pushing him back into the pillow. "You've been in bed for over a week."

"Why?" he asked, having purged last week's events.

"Your stupid, nutcase sister tried to kill you," Trish said. "Stubborn brat wants a trial. I don't see how she could win. Fungus, Sulley and Mike all saw it, not to mention she was right in front of a security camera."

Randall snorted. "Typical," he said disdainfully. "She thinks she rules the universe and can make things go her way." Trish's presence suddenly sank in as being real. "How did you get here?"

"I followed," she said. "I wanted to apologize, for acting like I did. Can you forgive me?"

"For what? For keeping your father from skinning me for loving you?"

"That doesn't make sense, Randall," Trish said.

"I think that you being upset took his mind off me for a while. Besides, I understand that it might have startled you to be told that an eight-legged lizard loved you," he said, grinning.

"So, you still love me?"

"Of course I do. How could I not?" He said the words casually, but his eyes betrayed his emotions.

Trish bent down and kissed him. "I love you, Lizard Boy," she whispered in his ear.

He grabbed her hand and asked, "Will you marry me?"

"Pardon me?" Trish asked, taken aback, and not sure if her ears weren't playing tricks on her.

"Will you marry me, Trish?" Randall asked, clearly pouring his heart into the question.

Trish got tears in her eyes. She smiled. "Yes!" she exclaimed, then threw her arms around Randall's neck. They kissed.

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"I think I have a job for you, Randall," Sulley said. "But you may not like it."

Randall, in Sulley's office, shrugged. He had asked Sulley if he had any jobs available, so he and Trish could do a number of things: pay off hospital bills, get a place to live, and pay for their wedding. Trish knew enough about architecture to do some simple things to pay for her tuition at Monstropolis City College, but they still needed something that could pay grocery bills and the rent.

"What is it?" Randall asked, curious what Sulley had under his fur.

Mike wandered into Sulley's office the second Randall asked his question, as if cued. "Sulley, I really need an assistant. I can't do comedy and laugh reports. I'm even more behind in my paperwork than I was before, and that's saying something."

Sulley looked at Randall, implying something with his eyes. Randall understood what Sulley was implying. "You've got to be kidding," he said.

Mike was without a clue. "What? Kidding about what?"

"Well," Sulley said, too amused by the situation to suppress his grin, "You're looking for an assistant, and Randall's looking for a job, so."

"No way, Sulley!" Mike said, gesturing vehemently to accent his point. "No way!"

"Please, Sulley," Randall said. "I'll assist anyone else. I'll file paperwork, even. Just don't pair me up with him."

"I think you're stuck together, guys," Sulley said, still grinning form horn to horn. "Mike, considering that you never filed your paperwork, I'll have Fungus train him. You won't have to deal with him until he's ready to go."

Randall and Mike left the office. Mike was muttering; Randall was snarling. They eventually made a very entertaining pair when they started the War of Practical Jokes, but that's another story.

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Sulley placed the last piece of Boo's door into its steel frame. The red light on top came on immediately. He slowly opened the door, clutching a small package. He went into the room, and put the package on Boo's pillow. On the package, a tag read:

To Boo

Love, Kitty

Inside the package was a tiny glass bottle on a silver chain. In the bottle were three strands of blue and purple fur. Sulley had a similar bottle tied to his wrist. He gently cut a few of Boo's hairs and put them in his bottle. Sulley had realized that it would only be harder on Boo to have to say goodbye again, so he decided to leave her be, with a small gift to remember him by.

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THE END

That's all for this story, folks. I'm going to do a sequel, though, in the form of a Harry Potter/Monsters, Inc. crossover that I'm going to write with Shichan Goddess. We're going to have Boo in Hogwarts, and have her around fourteen or fifteen, when Sulley, Mike and Randall show up. Needless to say, things will get a little odd. I hope to hear from all of you who have reviewed "Stuck in the Human World" so faithfully. By the way, thanks for giving me feedback. It was very encouraging.

Hope you liked it! ^_^