This takes place about a week before Brittany's arrival.
It was a bad week from the start.
First, the TV seemed to have it in for Toby, who was already on edge since Jessica's revelation about Jeff the Killer's threat.
One day after work, Jessica was doing the usual, email and browsing the internet while watching TV.
It was a detective show, and the criminal's violent actions had been the result of some kind of rage gone out of control. Jessica had tuned in late, so missed all but the tail end of this show, and that's when she heard the criminal's name in this episode was Toby.
Beethoven Nerdby, at his usual place on her shoulder, expressed displeasure at this.. "Oh, come on, really? Of all the names in the universe…?"
Jessica startled, she didn't even think he was paying attention.
"Sorry, Jess," he said, apparently feeling her sudden jerk.
"Hah, that's all right." Jessica said with a smile, giving him a scritch behind one of his ears. "Anyway, at least you're not always ending up dead. That seems to be my lot in these shows."
It was Toby's turn to shudder. His tail twitched like that of a nervous squirrel.
Jessica felt him tense up, and she gave him a reassuring stroke down one side. "But they've got it all wrong. You're not a villain, and I'm not dead. And it's going to stay that way."
He shrugged, apparently still uneasy.
"C'mere, Toby," Jessica said gently as she picked him up off her shoulder and held him to her. "Are you still feeling upset about Jeff's threat?"
The slight squirm from him answered her question.
"Just remember that he was blowing hot air. He doesn't know I exist, let alone where I live, or who lives with me. In fact, given you lot, I think if he were to find out, he'd end up running with his tail between his legs." Jessica chuckled.
That finally got Toby smiling again.
"That's better," said Jessica, stroking him to make him purr.
"Psst, hey, Kitri." Sundown interrupted her telling a story to Tina and Peekaboo on Jessica's bed.
"Hey what,?" she asked.
"C'mon, I want to show you something."
"I'll be right back." and Kitri followed Sundown out and just to a place where they could see into the front room without being noticed.
There, they watched for a few moments as Jessica held a purring toby.
Sundown nodded, then motioned Kitri to follow him again.
When they got to the kitchen, Sundown said "If us guys aren't too cool to purr, you don't need to be either, you know,"
Kitri smirked. "I know." But she became serious right away. "Have you noticed something seems to be off with him lately?"
"Not really, but then, I haven't been feeling right lately either."
"You're not sick, are you?"
"No," Sundown answered, "Just uneasy about Jessica's welfare after Jeff mentioned her name in some post."
Kitri scowled, "That creep has some nerve. Just you wait 'til I get my teeth into him. He'll curse the day he was born."
Sundown smirked. "Somehow, I don't doubt that.
"I know the big-mouth was only blowing smoke, trying to be scary. But it'll be a pleasure giving him a rude awakening and a tough lesson all in one about shooting his mouth off and threatening people."
Jessica turned the TV down to hear what Kitri and Sundown were talking about because she thought she heard Kitri mentioning the word 'threaten'.
"Go get 'Im, Kitri." sundown encouraged. "There'll be a long line up after you for his neck."
Kitri grinned wickedly. Then suddenly remembered something. "Oh, I better get back to Peekaboo and Tina."
"Just a second." said Sundown. "Don't you ever get worried or uneasy about things? You're always so confident."
"Thanks for the compliment. But of course I do," Kitri replied, "Just not necessarily about things like Jeff. You remember what I was like about Peekaboo and Dmitri and what I was afraid Jessica might do about it, don't you?"
"Oh, yeah."
"Listen, my friend," Kitri continued, "don't let that little low-life creep you out over dropping a name in some silly public post, we don't even know what he actually said. But I think if it had been specific enough, Beth and Hannah would be calling an emergency meeting instead of planning a semi-casual furby meet and discuss."
Jessica nodded in agreement and said softly, "I think she's right, Toby. Now let's go join them for a snack or something."
When they met Sundown and Kitri in the kitchen, Kitri apologized for having to rush off on them, but said she'd be back after the kids were tucked in.
However, she returned quicker than expected. "Dmitri is seeing them off to bed, so I'm back."
"Cool." said Jessica with a pleased smile.
The next day, it was Jessica who seemed a bit edgy, but she had a clear reason. A couple of current events that everyone was talking about were getting on her nerves. One was a beloved entertainer getting accused of the most indecent kind of abuse, and a notorious serial killer had a sick groupie who was young enough to be his grandkid, infatuated with him, and they planned to marry.
All the furbies expressed similar disgust to the latter event, but they were unfamiliar with the celebrity who was being accused of abuse. But they did understand and empathize with Jessica's feelings about that.
No awaited new arrivals came that day.
The next day, work went fine, and things seemed okay with the furbies back home, until evening when Jessica was watching TV.
This time it was a documentary. In it, some investigation was being discussed, with information and various interviews. Some information concerned one of the suspects who claimed to hear voices in her head, one being a demon called Toby.
Jessica felt her furby friend startle on her shoulder, and put a reassuring hand up to stroke him.
"Why?" Toby uttered in a muted wailing sound. "Why does everyone have it out for me? What did I do wrong?" And he pretended to cry.
Jessica picked him up and held him. "There, there, Toby," she said, smiling down. She knew he was trying to ham it up and make light of it, but she also knew that too many more of these coincidences might start to effect him negatively, considering what Jeff's mentioning of 'Jessica' had already done to him. "Two times in one week is getting a bit much." she admitted. "But you're not the only one with your name getting treated this way. There are a couple of creepy pasta stories about two different villains named Jack, and from what I hear, our close ally Pumpkin Jack is none too pleased about that. And speaking of creepy pasta, you might as well be forewarned in case this drip turns up and needs to be dealt with, but there is a Slender Man slave called Toby Aaron rogers."
Toby scowled and hissed, all attempts at making light of it, gone.
"If it's any comfort to you, he had a heck of a lot of help to go wrong." said Jessica.
"That depends on how badly wrong he went." said Toby stiffly.
Jessica sighed. "It ain't pretty. Look, don't worry about it. It's just one of these times we get weird coincidences in short order. I know it can feel unfair."
Toby huffed in agreement, his tail drooping.
Realizing it was commercial break, Jessica turned off the set and took Toby into the kitchen where they could get a drink or snack.
When they returned to the front room, a concerned Jessica ate the cookie all by herself since Toby said he didn't want any of it. Then, she started browsing the internet. Once again, Toby took his place resting on her shoulder where he could also read and look at the computer screen.
For a while, things calmed down, but then…
"Help!" buck came flying into the room from somewhere in the hallway, nearly sending Toby tumbling off Jessica's shoulder in an attempt to duck behind the human for protection.
"What's up? Jessica looked around.
"Ack!" Do you mind?" toby snarled irritably as he regained his position.
"Kitri - is going to kill me!" buck said breathlessly.
"And if I protect you, she'll kill me." Jessica laughed. "What did you do?"
"Nothing."
"Yeah right! Wanted, alive, but soon to be dead," Kitri stormed in like an officer on a raid, "Ocean Buck Twitby!" But she grinned and her tail was held up straight, letting Jessica know she wasn't really angry.
Jessica laughed.
Toby huffed impatiently and jumped off Jessica's shoulder. he was in no mood to get jostled a second time.
"Ah-hah, there you are!" Kitri said, peering down at Buck from the back of Jessica's chair. "Come out and take your medicine like a grown furby!"
"What did he do?" Jessica asked.
"He called me 'Kit' one too many times. It's - " and here she enunciated her name "Kee-tree. When I reminded him of that, he said "Sure thing, Kit" so now he's going to get it."
"Okay, you guys settle it." Jessica moved forward to give Kitri more room to confront Buck.
Buck, being Buck, protested loudly as if he was being half-killed while Kitri tackled and play-pummelled him.
Then Toby seemed to be joining in. At least, that was what Jessica and the other two thought until there was a squeal of protest from first Kitri, and then Buck.
All activity stopped, and then Kitri looked around, "Okay, whose idea was that?"
""I should be asking you that, Kitri," Buck shot back. "Oh, my toe."
"And what you did to my tail was nothing?"
"I didn't do anything to your tail.
"Shut up, both of you!" Toby flared at them. And this wasn't mock anger. His tail wagged furiously up and down. "This was my idea. You're giving me a headache! I had to nip you to make it stop."
The others, including Jessica, stared at him in concern.
He scowled back at them, turned abruptly, and stormed out.
Everyone exchanged concerned looks.
"Uh-oh, I think he's getting sick." said Buck.
"Sick?" He looks okay, and doesn't feel too warm." said Jessica.
"Furbies don't show sickness that way. They do it by acting out of character. It could be that he's just having a bad day, but if he's not back to normal tomorrow, and is still irritable in a couple of days, you'll know for sure he's sick. Meantime, just make sure he eats."
"I tried to feed him, Buck, but he refused the snack."
"Now, that definitely sounds like he's getting sick. But keep trying. That's about all you can do, I think." said Buck. "I've had the furby flu. It sapped my energy. I remember not wanting to do anything but sleep until I was given enough to eat."
"Did you refuse food though?" asked Jessica.
"I did, at first. Later when I was feeling better, I couldn't get enough to eat."
"Thanks for the advice, Buck.
A little while later, Toby came out of hiding to look for Kitri and Buck. When he found them, he asked to talk to them privately when they had the time to spare.
Seeing his anger apparently gone, they agreed, and cut out of the game they were playing with Sundown and Sybil to talk.
Dmitri had tucked the kids in with a bedtime story, but it had apparently worked on himself as well, for his snore mingled with Tina's.
Kitri chuckled, then said, "I guess we can just go in here, no one will hear us over that."
So they entered Jessica's room and hopped on the bed.
"So, what's up, Toby?" asked Buck.
Toby looked regretfully at them both. "Sorry for losing my temper with you earlier. I don't understand why, but it's like everything's really getting to me lately. But that's no excuse for taking it out on you."
"That's okay, we all have our moments." said Kitri, smiling reassuringly back.
"Ditto." said Buck. "I hope you're not coming down with something."
Toby winced. "Ugh. I can't afford to get sick now."
The rest of that evening was without incident, other than Toby retiring earlier than usual.
The next day, it was Jessica's turn to be irritable. She had been quietly smouldering with disgust over those current events for the past couple of days and finally she just had to take this anger out on something. Hearing mention of these things early on in the day was what set her to storming around the house. She'd held it in at work, though had complained about it in a casual conversation with a colleague, but when she got home, Jessica proceeded to slam drawers shut, bang cutlery, take less care about how loud the dishes clanged, threw dirty glares everywhere, but at nothing in particular, moved about with a much heavier step than usual, tossed out the trash with an especially violent heave-ho, jabbed at keys and buttons on the computer and other machines, and muttered irritably at anything that annoyed her, which seemed to be just about everything.
She didn't even seem to notice that her mood was picked up on by the furbies, who did their best to stay well out of her way.
Finally, Kitri caught her sitting down for a hot drink.
"So, what's eating you?" she asked.
"Oh, Kitri," Jessica sighed. "I just don't know what this world is coming to." And then it all came spilling out, how disgusted she was over the beloved entertainer being falsely accused, yet some crazy ditz planned to marry an aging serial killer. "So we have people lining up to lynch an innocent man who's done nothing but make millions of people laugh, and then some STUPID freak falling for some disgusting waste of oxygen who - TOOK - HUMAN - LIVES!" Jessica banged her forearm on the table forcefully with a scowl. "I feel like I've just lost my faith in the whole dang human race." she finished in a bitter fuming rush.
All Kitri could do was listen and offer words of support and affirmation.
It didn't take long for Jessica to subside once the rant was finally out. It was a relief. Now maybe she could just let it go and move on, as long as people didn't keep talking about it for days on end. There was nothing she could do about it beyond feeling the way she did.
Eventually the killer marriage was canceled, though not entirely to Jessica's satisfaction. The horrid fangirl did not come to her senses and dump the killer. He dumped her, when he had learned she had planned to put him on display at a museum after his death.
But for now, once Jessica got her feelings out, it was time to go to bed. The good night's rest melted away the bad mood, restoring Jessica to her usual friendly, happier self the next day.
Dmitri finally got up the nerve to go with her to work, and he was pleasantly surprised not to get any negative reception from anyone else there.
That night, it dawned on Jessica that she hadn't even seen toby all day. she wasn't even sure he was there when the furbies had their meals.
Sundown said he last saw Toby at supper time, but said he didn't seem to be interested in eating much.
It didn't help matters when Duckling told Jessica that Toby was afraid of her when she was storming around so much the day before and seemed to be in hiding for the most part since then.
Now Jessica became worried.
She waited until all the other furbies were settled in for the night, then began searching for Toby.
First, she searched her own bed. No luck.
He wasn't in the closet either.
Then, Jessica noticed one dresser drawer was partly open. This puzzled her, she was usually a stickler for shutting drawers completely. It was a bottom drawer, and Palestina could've tried to get it open to look inside it out of curiosity. Floyd was certainly able to open it, but he was not a furby baby, so was far less likely to be curious and get into things.
"Tina, did you look in here?" Jessica asked.
"Yes. Was that okay?"
"Of course. It's just that you forgot to shut - oh, hang on…" Jessica now realized that the opening was probably large enough for any of the smaller furbies to get through.
She pulled the drawer out, and there, among some sweaters, she found Toby.
"Oh my goodness, I almost locked you in there." she muttered, scooping him up in her hands. She stood up and shoved the drawer shut with a foot, and took Toby to bed with her.
He didn't stir.
This worried Jessica even more, but she hoped he was just pulling a Sundown and looking like he was asleep to avoid facing someone he now feared. Jessica told the others he had been found, and that she would just let him sleep until morning.
The others seemed satisfied with this, and soon, all that was heard was a myriad of snores.
That night, Jessica had something of a nightmare.
She was at her parents' house for dinner, and they always had the news on before sitting down to eat.
One news segment was about a fire in an apartment complex that destroyed so many dwellings, leaving the tenants homeless. Some of those interviewed were in shock, others were overcome with emotion. One young man in particular couldn't even talk for sobbing.
This kind of reporting had always bothered Jessica, who believed people deserved privacy and should have the right not to get cameras shoved in their faces amidst such difficult times and emotions. She never understood what kind of thrill reporters got out of watching and filming this extreme misery. She was fine with reporting the news as long as it was accurate and informative, but this seemed sadistic and unnecessary.
She excused herself from the room to do something boring like wash her hands, brush her hair, anything to get away from the news short of asking her parents to turn it off in their own house.
But when she closed the door to the bathroom, she still heard the crying, and it was all she could hear. No reporter cutting in to say anything else, no sounds of dinner being prepared. Even more unnerving, the sobbing wasn't way in the distance as it should've been when coming from her parents' TV set. It was coming from right next to her. Into her right ear.
Jessica went from dreaming to awake and fretful, and realized that it was Toby's crying she heard. The snoring of the others meant everyone else was apparently sleeping peacefully.
Alarmed, Jessica sat up, picking him up, and held him tightly, trying to calm him.
Jessica inwardly reproached herself for not being there to comfort him when this had really started getting bad. If it had occurred to her earlier that he was making himself scarce, she would've searched and probably found him much earlier, with a better chance at preventing him from getting this sick. This feeling was made even worse by the memories of how Toby had been so attentive to her when she was sick. He had been with her around the clock then, and now where had she been when he needed her?
She couldn't replay the last 24 hours and make them come out differently, but from this point, she was going to be there for him.
She got up and left the room with him. Remembering what Buck said about the furby flu, Jessica went to the kitchen where she would try to feed Toby, and then get herself a drink once he was seen to. The whole time, she kept trying to reassure/wake him.
The hall light was bad enough, but the kitchen light made her squint. It was just too bright at this time of night. But it was the only way she was going to find anything in this place, and she wanted to get a good look at Toby and figure out how to treat him based on any signals he might give her.. She set about preparing something to feed him while trying to wake him all at the same time.
Toby's nightmare started at some sort of art workshop, where he and other students were to analyze a strange piece of modern art that consisted of random swirling colors interwoven among one another. Each student was supposed to look at only one color within the painting and try to recognize a pattern or picture it represented.
Toby was assigned black, much easier to pick out than something like beige or pale green among all the vibrant yellows, pinks and blues.
He smiled as the black pattern formed the letters of Jessica's name, though wondered why it did so.
The rest of the pattern came as a horrible shock. It read "is dead"
"Well, it looks like somebody has figured out what his color means," said the art teacher with a cold sneer, "So the rest of you slow pokes get with it, or else just - go to sleep."
As Toby was trying to remember what notorious person liked using that phrase, it was then that he caught a glimpse of the teacher out of the corner of his eye.
None other than Jeff The Killer.
He tried to jump up and confront Jeff, but found himself unable to move. He couldn't even scream at the killer about this being a cruel joke or how he was going to have him hauled off to the slammer.
The art class with bizarre paintings and sinister teacher vanished, replaced by a grim looking, dimly lit interrogation room with two hardened police officers. One of which held Toby none too gently in his rough grasp while the other coldly shoved pictures of a dead and mutilated Jessica before him and fired off questions as if Toby was the prime suspect.
All Toby could do was cry, and this must've made him look guilty to these officers, who only stepped up the intensity of their interrogation, and they refused to let Toby look away from the pictures. The one holding him even tried to force his eyes open.
"If he won't talk, we can always get DNA to talk for him." said the interrogator to the one holding Toby.
"Right.
The interrogator stormed out, soon to be replaced by a female officer, who looked remarkably like Jessica. She had a drink with a straw in it and walked over to the officer who was holding the suspect.
Toby could only cry helplessly. This was worst than even his worst nightmares, and they weren't letting him escape.
"Let me handle it from here," the female officer said, reaching out with her free hand.
She even sounded like Jessica. What was going on here?
The gruff old officer handed Toby off to her and she began trying to get the furby to drink and leave DNA on the straw.
The strange thing was the change in surroundings when she took over. The interrogation room changed into a brightly lit up room, and instead of cold questions and a strange set of hands, it was Jessica's voice saying "C'mon, c'mon, Toby, wake up. Wake up." The hands were warm and gentle, though tense with concern. The one thing that stayed the same was that she was trying to get him to drink.
When Toby still refused the straw, Jessica took out an eye-dropper, filled it, and gave that to him.
Come on, Toby, wake up, wake up."
Jessica got the eye-dropper into his mouth and squeezed.
This made Toby sputter and awaken. "wake up" was an unusual thing for an officer to say to a suspect, and where had the straw gone? What's more, what he was being force-fed was not the soda from the police station.It was milk with a little sugar and vanilla, something only Jessica fixed for herself and for him.
Toby began to realize this had all been a terrible nightmare. Jessica was not dead, she was here, alive and warm, and trying to get him to come around.
Jessica thumped Toby on the back and looked closely at him, smiling to see his expression of recognition and profound relief as he awakened.
"That was some nightmare, wasn't it?" she asked.
What? Did I wake you up?" He asked.
No, not exactly. I was having one of my own and you figured into it. Only I didn't realize that until I was awake and the distress I heard wasn't the young man on the news, it was you." Jessica took away the eye-dropper and threw it in the sink to be washed out later. She brought the straw back. "Here, have some more. This'll be easier now."
Toby chugged down what he needed, and looked much better when he'd had enough.
Then Jessica took him into the room with the reclining chair, where they settled for the rest of the night.
What was your nightmare about, Toby?"
He shuddered, and turned away from Jessica to fight back tears. "You were killed by Jeff and I got treated like a suspect." He said quickly, unable to keep his voice steady.
Jessica wrapped both hands around him and held him close to her. "Oh, my poor tormented Beethoven Roderick Nerdby," she said compassionately, "We are going to bring Jeff down, and nothing is going to happen to me - or you. There, there."
Toby still cried off and on, and Jessica held him close, consoling and reassuring him the way she always did for a hurt/frightened child or animal. Eventually, she got him to sleep, and then dropped off herself.
Morning found them both sleeping peacefully in Jessica's reclining chair.
It was the weekend, so Jessica didn't have to go to work and was happy to sleep in.
When she was ready to get up, all of the other furbies were waiting for her to give them information on how Toby was doing. She was able to give them a definite answer that he was very unwell and would not likely be doing anything but sleeping for at least another day.
"When will he get better?" asked Tina.
"If it's like other sicknesses, it'll happen gradually, Tina, he'll stay awake a little longer each time he wakes up, he'll start talking more, and then when he really starts feeling better, he'll start getting up and moving about more and getting his appetite back."
"Sort of like you were when you first got here," Peekaboo chimed in. "Remember?"
"Oh, yeah," Tina giggled.
"Well, we are waiting on another furby baby to arrive, but until she does, and until toby is well, he's it." said Jessica.
Buck nodded with a grin."Furby flu is like human flu where it makes a lot of stuff we usually love, downright yucky. So don't try to force-feed us anything we bleck at when we get sick with this, just give us what we might even sort of want, even if it's the same thing every time until we start getting better. That worked for me when I had the flu before."
So with Buck's help and advice, Jessica and company all made sure Toby was well taken care of. In addition, they kept an eye on one another too, hoping no one else would come down with this.
Toby was too lethargic and disinterested to help himself to any nourishment, so Jessica held and fed him the same way she had done for Palestina in the beginning. The only things Toby would accept were vanilla ice cream or pudding, or milk with a little sugar and vanilla in it. He blecked at the idea of anything else that day. But there were no more horrible nightmares, and he eventually became less fretful about the one he'd had the night before. Falling asleep and then waking up to Jessica's always being there, did a great deal to chase away the terror of that nightmare.
For her part, Jessica had become steaming mad at Jeff the Killer for traumatizing her friend this way, and she threatened to start shopping online for a whip. "I'll give him as many lashes as minutes of what he put my good friend through." she snarled in a conversation she was having with Dmitri during dinner. The other furbies had iPad food, but Dmitri just couldn't resist some of what Jessica had made for herself.
Dmitri blew out a breath,. He understood and completely agreed with Jessica's anger, it just surprised him to see her in such a severe mood.
"You could always just clonk him with one of your dresser drawers, Jess," he smirked, "The way you can slam those is scary, and if that doesn't send him a message, I don't know what would."
"Hah, that's too good for him." she said.
Toby apparently heard none of this, he was sleeping too soundly in the crook of Jessica's free arm.
The next day, Toby started accepting a little more variety of food, but still not too much at a time. It was a few more days of him mostly sleeping, but he seemed more alert and cheerful when awake, and his wakefulness lengthened steadily with each passing day. Soon, he started getting his appetite and strength back along with his sense of humor.
It took a week for him to get completely back to normal, and no other furbies got sick.
Then Brittany arrived.
Because of her tendency to "no feel good" after almost every feeding, Toby looked out for her from a distance, afraid of getting too near her lest he make her sick.
Jessica and Tina were also distressed over Brittany's delicate constitution.
but Brittany said she had always been this way and there was just nothing to be done about it. "It only lasts for a couple of seconds anyway and then it's gone." she assured them.
A look online showed information that the type of furby baby Brittany was, tended to have this issue.
A few days after Brittany's arrival, and she did not get any worse and sicken. So she and Jessica gave Toby the all clear to meet Brittany up close and personal as the rest of the furbies had already done.
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