New Home, New Life Ch. 12

Emily looked up from her desk as one of her students walked into the classroom with their mother and over to her desk, "Can I help you Mrs. Harris?" she asked.

"Becky was telling me that you bring in new toys for them to play with when the weather is bad. My sister in law and I were cleaning out our kids toy boxes to make room for the stuff they'll get for Christmas and I thought the kids might like to have some of the toys we were getting rid of." Mrs. Harris replied.

"I'm sure they'd love them. Thank you." Emily replied as she took the box of toys and set it behind her desk.

Later that afternoon while the kids where in the cafeteria for lunch she pulled out the box to see what was in it. There were Lego's  and a few stuffed animals, a piggy bank with a big pink bow around it's neck and a Barbie with some extra clothes. As she moved the clothes aside she found another piggy bank and behind it huddled together in the corner of the box were three little green aliens.  Emily took the pig and aliens out, setting them on her desk then set the box back on the floor.

Emily walked over to the door, glanced out to make sure there was no one in the hall then locked the door and walked back to her desk, "You wouldn't happen to the evil Dr. Pork Chop and the adopted children of the Potato Heads would you?" Emily asked.

For a split second the pigs eyes seemed to get wide in shock and then returned to normal so quickly that if she had blinked she would have missed it, "It's alright, you can talk to me, I know your alive and if you're the toys I think you are Woody's told me all about you. and we've been looking for you." Emily told them.

"You know Woody?" Hamm asked soundly less than trusting.

"And Jessie, Buzz, Bullseye, Slinky, Rex and the Potato Heads." Emily replied, "Oh and Etch, we found him at a yard sale about a month and a half ago." she added.

"Daddy?" all three aliens said.

"Yep and I'll take you home with me so you can see everyone. You can stay with me and I'll make sure you all stay together." Emily told them.

"You'll take the four of us home with you permanently?" Hamm asked not sounding quite sure about the idea.

"Yes, except for when the weather is bad and then if you want to come play with the kids I'll bring you back, unless you'd rather stay here, but I'm sure the others would like to see you again." Emily replied.

"Well I sort of have a wife and kids-" Hamm started to say.

"Wait a minute, kids?" Emily asked.

"Well technically they're her kids, they came with her, but I think of them as my own." Hamm replied.

"She was in the box with you?" Emily asked.

"Yeah." Hamm replied.

"And the kids too?"

"Yes."

"Well then there's no reason I can't take them home too. I take it she's the other bank?" Emily asked him.

"Yeah, and the kids will be right with her." Hamm replied.

Emily pulled out the other piggy bank and saw two small piglets that had been hidden underneath her, one of which also had a pink bow around her neck. As she pulled them out she realized they were little rubber, pig shaped coin purses that split open along their back so coins could be put in.

"So do they have names?" Emily asked.

"Henrietta or Etta for short and the twins are Ruth and Rutherford." Hamm told her.

"Well it's nice to meet all of you." Emily said then asked, "Would you guys mind waiting to see the others for a few days?"

"Why?" Hamm asked.

"Well it's only a few days until Christmas and I thought it would be a great surprise for the others." Emily said, then added, "Plus I haven't really found gifts for everyone yet."

"Oh I think that would be a splendid idea." Etta replied.

"Great, I'll sneak you guys up to the attic when we get home and you can stay there until Christmas." Emily told them, "I don't want the kids to see you and then wonder why I didn't leave you here, will you be alright in my desk draw until I go home?" she asked as the bell rang.

"We'll be fine." Hamm replied.

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On the day before Christmas Eve Emily stepped into the toy with a couple of presents, "Okay, everyone gather around. I've got a couple presents for you and I'll be leaving in a couple of hours to spend Christmas with my family, so I want to go a head and give them to you."

"Wow, we've never gotten presents before." Jessie said as she ran over.

"Where is Woody?" Emily asked when he wasn't in the group of toys that had gathered around her.

"Who knows, he disappeared again." Jessie replied.

"Without telling anyone where he was going or when he'd be back." Mr. Potato Head said.

"He's just got a lot on his mind right now." Buzz said.

"But he's been disappearing like this for almost two months now, I know he's upset about Bo, but couldn't he at least let us know when he's just going to disappear? There's got to be something we can do to help him through this if he'd just let us." Mrs. Potato Head said.

"Every time I try to talk to him about it he just says he doesn't feel like talking." Slinky said.

"That's it, we've got to find him before I leave, maybe grandma can talk to him, she knows what it's like to lose someone you love that much, maybe she can help him." Emily said.

"I don't know that it will be that easy, but I guess it's worth a try." Buzz said.

"So do we look for him first or open the presents without him?" Jessie asked.

"Go ahead and open the presents, I don't want to leave them stuck in there for too long." Emily replied.

"Them? You brought us some new friends?" Jessie asked.

"Sort of." Emily replied.

The toys quickly opened the presents which included a stunt track for the cars the Jessie loved to use as skateboards, a videogame system and a few games and a few board games. Once they had finished opening those Emily set the last box in front of them, "Why don't we let Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head open this one?" she said.

The others stepped back as the Potato Heads unwrapped the present and opened the box. As soon as they started to pull the flaps back they were tackled by the three aliens, "My babies!" Mrs. Potato Head exclaimed.

"How did you find them?" Mr. Potato Head asked.

"I didn't, the mother of one of my students brought them in for the kids to play with." Emily replied.

"Guess no one cares that I'm here too." Hamm said as he stepped out of the box followed by Henrietta and the twins.

"My old partner in crime, never thought I'd see you again." Mr. Potato Head said.

After everyone had been introduced Emily left to finish packing and to look for Woody, although she had no luck finding him.

She was just carrying the last of her stuff out to the car, while Buzz, Jessie and Bullseye climbed into the front seat, when she noticed Woody come out of the horse barn and head towards the house, "There you are, I was beginning to think you weren't going to show up." Emily said as she picked him up and set him on her shoulder.

"What are you doing?" Woody asked as she quickly made her way into the house.

"Taking you to see the Christmas presents, you've got about five minutes to visit before we're leaving." she told him.

"I wasn't really planning on going with you." Woody told her.

"Too bad, you're coming, you've been moping around and disappearing for too long, I think a vacation will do you some good." Emily told him as she opened the door to the toy room and set him down, "Don't let him disappear again, he's leaving with me in five minutes." Emily told the other toys before she left to finish loading the car.


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When they got to grandma Emily's house, Buzz, Jessie, Bullseye and Woody all climbed into a small suitcase and Emily took them inside.

Once Emily got into the house she asked, "Is anyone else here?"

"No, did you bring them?" Grandma Emily asked.

"Of course I did." Emily replied as she opened the suitcase.

As soon as it was open Jessie jumped out and into grandma Emily's arms, "I missed you so much." Jessie told her, hugging her as well as she could.

"I missed you too." grandma Emily told her.

The rest of the day was spent visiting, playing games together and then that evening when they were sure no one would show up to visit, grandma Emily introduced everyone to her collection of Woody's Round Up toys who had started coming to life around her after she had returned after finding out about Jessie and had told them she knew they were alive.

"What's wrong with them?" Jessie asked looking at a Woody and Jessie who hadn't come to life.

"I don't know, according to the others they were like that when I brought them home and have never come to life. There's a Pete in the other room and a couple other antique toys that I've gotten that are like that too, but none of the others know why." grandma Emily replied.

"Have you ever seen anything like this?" Emily asked Woody.

"No, I've seen toys of vehicles or other normally inanimate objects that don't come to life, but I've never seen a human based toy that didn't come to life." Woody replied.

"That's what the others have told me too." grandma Emily said.

----

Emily woke up early the next morning and found her grandmother already awake and in the kitchen.

"Would you like a cup of hot chocolate?" grandma Emily asked.

"Of course, it is one of my favorite traditions." Emily replied, when ever she had stayed with her grandmother they were always the first two awake and would have hot chocolate.

As they sat down at the table to dink their hot chocolate Emily asked, "Do you think you could talk to Woody for me?"

"About what?"

"A little over a month and a half ago he found out his girlfriend who had been sold years ago died and I don't think he's handling it very well." Emily replied.

"I know I didn't have a lot of time to get to know him when I stayed with you, but I didn't notice any difference yesterday." grandma Emily replied.

"I know, when he's around other people he acts normal, but ever since he found out he just keeps disappearing for hours at a time or sometimes all day. I know he's got to be hurting, but I can't imagine spending that much time alone thinking about her can be good for him and I don't know how to help him. I just thought since you know how it feels to lose someone you're that close to that maybe you could help him" Emily replied.

"Oh the poor thing, I'll talk to him tonight after the others are asleep." grandma Emily replied.

"Thank you, I've been so worried about him." Emily told her.

"Don't worry, I'm sure he'll be alright."


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The next morning Emily met her grandmother in the kitchen for hot chocolate again, "So, did you get a chance to talk to Woody?" Emily asked.

"Yes, I did." grandma Emily replied.

"And?"

"It took me a while to pry anything out of him and I finally had to promise not to tell anyone what he told me." grandma Emily replied.

"Why would he do that?"

"Because there's a lot more to what's bothering him than just finding out that Bo was dead. As long as there was a chance that she was still alive and that you might find her someday he was able to try to focus on her, but now that he knows she's gone and he can move on, it's brought up some feelings that he's just not sure how to handle." grandma Emily told her.

"That's all you're going to tell me, is there anything I can do to help him?" Emily asked.

"Not really, I don't even know what to tell him or how to help him deal with it, just be there for him. While you want to be helpful you can help me get Christmas dinner started though."

"Alright."

A little while later Jessie joined them and they all three spent the morning cooking and talking.

----

The rest of the day flew by as the family gathered for Christmas and stayed until late in the evening. The next morning Emily was the first one up and had the hot chocolate made by the time her grandmother came into the kitchen with Jessie sitting on her shoulder.

"Did you two sleep at all last night?" Emily asked.

"Of course not, we still have so much catching up to do and with you leaving this afternoon how could we have possibly slept?" grandma Emily asked.

"I made her get a couple hours of sleep and promise to take a nap after we leave." Jessie said.

"Good, yesterday was a long day, I think we could all use a day off just to relax." Emily said.

The next couple of hours the three of them spent talking and making plans for grandma Emily to stay at the farm for a few weeks in the spring when a lot of the bulbs she had planted when she lived there would be blooming.

Far too quickly it came to be time for Emily to head home and they all reluctantly said goodbye to grandma Emily.