User blog:SaenihpNnylf/Can Someone Lend Me a Hand Chapter 2

Too late, Lammy finally finds Mr. Pickles pulling a needle out of Flaky's cupboard. "Mr. Pickles, no!" She dives after him just as he jumps at Flaky from the front. Getting to there just in time to stick it right through the porcupine's forehead and to her brain.

Lammy grabs Mr. Pickles, who is still stabbing Flaky's face and eyes, up and rips the needle out of his hands. "I told you, we don't kill our friends!" Lammy scolds her friend, then sighs, "Who are we going to play with now?"

"They're not my friends," Mr. Pickles says, his voice dripping in a heavy French accent as he looks over at Flaky then back at Lammy. "You're just trying to replace me."

Lammy sighs. "I've told you, I'm not trying to replace you, Mr. Pickles. You'll always be my best friend."

"Then why don't you just play with me?"

"I do, all the time, but sometimes I want to have someone else play with us, too. There's only so much the two of us can do."

"I'm fine playing with just you."

"But don't you ever get bored doing the same things day after day?"

"Not if it's with you. Besides, doing things this way you've only died once and I've never died. That's practically impossible in this town. Those guys aren't your friends, anyways. They call you crazy, arrest you, and don't even try to let you explain yourself. You can't really want to spend your time with 'friends' like that." Lammy sighs in defeat, knowing she's not going to dissuade the stubborn pickle. He did also have good points so what could she say to even try?

Lammy heads outside with Flaky's blood on her as Mr. Pickles returns to inanimate form. Only a few steps off, she hears her worst enemy, Officer Lumpy, shout out. "YOU AGAIN?!"

Could this day get any worse, is all Lammy thinks as she covers her eyes in case Lumpy goes to taze her again. "It wasn't me!" Lammy squeaks, keeping her eyes covered, thinking about how much it hurt last time.

Lumpy just stares at the blood-covered girl in disbelief, also remembering his last encounter with her, but seeing each other as the enemy, he doesn't notice the pickle now lying on the ground.

She peeks for a second between her fingers before covering them back up. "I'll go with you, please don't taze me again." Lumpy hesitates, caught off guard by the reaction. "Just don't taze me. It hurts."

Lumpy puts the Taser away and cuffs Lammy, causing her to scream as he pushes it as tight as he can, making her realize that this isn't any more preferable to the tazing, and shoves her in the back seat of his patrol car before going to check the house the lamb had just left; stepping over the pickle on the ground.

Lumpy heads into the house finding Flaky's corpse. With how many stab wounds there are but only one blood covered needle, even in this town, it couldn't have been an accident. He wouldn't have been surprised if it was, but now he has proof.

Lumpy shakes his head as he walks back outside. The first time he'd seen Lammy, she'd strangled Petunia, run Handy over, and tried to run Flaky over. There is no doubt in his mind that the girl needs to be locked up, the key thrown away.

He goes around the back of his squad car to get in the driver's seat when the car rolls backwards, crushing his leg under the wheel. Lumpy bites his lip to keep from crying out as he tries, without success, to pull the trapped limb out from under the wheel. Looking around for anything he might be able to use, he spots Sniffles walking down the sidewalk, snout in a book. "Sniffles!"

Sniffles looks up from his book to see Officer Lumpy on the ground with his leg under his patrol car. "Sniffles! I need you to get in my cruiser and pull the car forward."

Sniffles gets into the driver's seat ignoring the weeping sheep in the back, he notices a pickle next to the gear shift, but figures it's Lumpy's lunch and steps on the gas without taking it out of reverse, crushing Lumpy in the process.

As the car lurches backwards, "Lumpy's lunch" rolls forward and lands on the floorboard by Sniffles' feet. As Sniffles looks in the mirror to try to see if Lumpy's alright, Mr. Pickles stands up, puts his top hat on, and proceeds to grab a few of the wires under the dashboard.

Still unseen, Mr. Pickles sticks the wires into the failed anteater. After a moment of shaking from the current, Sniffles goes limp with froth on his mouth. Mr. Pickles removes the wires so he can jump down from the open door and look at the flattened moose.

Seeing no living tree friends around besides Lammy, Mr. Pickles searches Lumpy for the key to Lammy's handcuffs. Finding them, he goes back into the squad car but in the back seat and frees Lammy, who's clearly in a lot of pain. "Thanks, Mr. Pickles. I think he broke my wrists."

Mr. Pickles just tucks the key inside his hat in case he needs it in the future, knowing it's likely he will. "This is why I don't like other animals. They're trouble."

Lammy grits her teeth, her broken wrists screaming at her. "Lumpy is, but not the others."

Rather than answer, Mr. Pickles just climbs onto her shoulder as she gets out of the cruiser. "We should leave before someone else shows up." Lammy nods and hurries home, trying to protect her wrists as much as possible.

The next day, Flaky rubs her face; certain she can still feel the needle from the attack and says to Handy. "Y-y-you know, I d-d-didn't really believe Lammy about Mr. P-p-Pickles until yesterday."

Handy looks over at her curiously. "What happened yesterday? It must have been after I was dead because I don't remember seeing her at all."

"Y-y-yeah, Lammy wanted me to play. B-b-but after she helped me clean up, her p-p-p-pickle attacked me. I-i-it had hands and a top hat and a n-n-needle."

Handy looks away in shock, trying to work through this information but he believes her about what she saw. "So, that pickle she always has with her is an actual living creature… with a murder streak?"

"Y-yeah, but it always looked like Lammy was doing it."

"So… she's crazy in a different way than everyone thought."

Flaky thinks about it for a second, failing to see his point on her still being crazy. "I-I-I don't know if she is crazy... I m-m-mean, it's true."

"Then she's crazy for taking a psycho-killer with her wherever she goes."

"I-I-I guess." Flaky hesitates, not sure if she should tell Handy that Lammy knows about him stealing hands and worried that he'd be mad at here for not being more careful with the secret. After all, she's supposed to be the careful one.

However, Handy noticed it on his own. "Wait a second… you said she helped clean up. Didn't you?"

Flaky's eyes widen as she mentally slaps herself for having brought that up, knowing exactly where it's going and not wanting to lie to him. "Y-y-yeah..."

"Did she see anything?"

"N-n-n-no... I mean, not at first. But then the b-bag ripped..."

Handy scowls, at the town's impossibly bad luck for making the bag rip, not anyone specific. "So, she knows?"

Flaky backs up a little, afraid he might decide another rampage is in order... starting with her. He spared her last time, but this time it's partially her fault. "Y-yeah."

"Well… then we better pay her a visit."

"W-w-w-w-w-we?" she stutters even worse than usual, thinking about her last visit to Lammy's house and certainly not wanting a repeat of it.

"What? Afraid of Mr. Pickles?" As soon as he asks, he realizes that he full well knows the answer to the question. "Never mind stupid question. Fine, I'll go alone."

Flaky glances at Handy's nubs biting her lips as she thinks, He's my friend, but last time I went to Lammy's... Flaky winces as she remembers her moment in the bathroom before she died.

"How about this, exactly how much safer are you here than you would be there?" Handy prods, not knowing about what happened in the bathroom.

Flaky hesitates. While death happens anywhere, at least at her house she didn't have to worry about passing a pickle... the thought makes her run to the sink and throw up. "T-t-that pickle is alive... and he was inside me."

That certainly sends Handy back a step. "Wait, what do you mean inside you?"

Flaky wipes her mouth and speaks as she rinses the sink. "L-l-l-Lammy had served us sandwiches when I played cards with her, Petunia, and Giggles. M-m-my stomach started hurting so I went to the bathroom. Th-th-there was blood and a p-p-p-p." Unable to get the word out, she just keeps stuttering but Handy more than gets the idea.

Handy pauses, not sure what he could say after hearing that revelation. While Petunia had told him about Flaky getting impaled by a plunger, he hadn't known this... once he finds something to say, he finds himself stuttering. "Th-that's absolutely horrifying." Handy notices tears running down Flaky's cheeks and the distant look in her eyes as she starts humming something like a lullaby.

About to say something else, he realizes he probably can't even reach her in this state and just watches as the porcupine goes over and curls up on her little cushion, not sure why he was able to laugh when the ceiling collapsed on her when this makes him feel guilty and a little ashamed now.

He looks briefly over at the door then back at Flaky, knowing that every second neither of them goes to talk to Lammy further risks her telling more tree friends, but it feels wrong to just leave her like this. "Flaky..." Handy gets no response; Flaky's eyes continue staring blankly. He might have thought she'd just died if not for the low hum. He sighs and makes his way to the door. She's safer here than anywhere else... the thought doesn't help his conscience as he makes his way out and down the street.

Once he gets to the sheep's house, he knocks on the door with his foot, having not yet stolen anyone's hands that day. Lammy, with Mr. Pickles on her shoulder, opens the door. She's surprised to see him there. "Handy? Why're you here?" she glances at his nubs, expecting to see Cuddles' hands attached and not knowing until she sees it now that it doesn't carry though resurrection.

Unable to stop thinking about what has Flaky in her trance, Handy keeps his eyes on Mr. Pickles and hopes he keeps playing inanimate object while he talks with Lammy. "Flaky mentioned that yesterday you found out about the…"

Lammy nods and moves to the side so Handy can enter. "Yeah... I know everyone comes back and all, but it just seems kind of... wrong."

He heads in, still keeping his eyes on the pickle. "I don't need or really expect you to understand why I'm doing it but I do need you to keep it a secret."

Lammy sets Mr. Pickles on the table as Handy glances around the room. After hearing from other friends how she was, he hadn't expected it to be so... nice. "Why should it be a secret?" she asks. "It's not like you're killing friends and stealing their hands. Flaky said Cuddles had already died."

"Yeah, but stuff like that's still not exactly accepted. You even mentioned so yourself."

Lammy thinks about that for a second. "Neither is killing people, but I guess that happens so often here it doesn't really bother anyone."

"Don't you get in a lot of trouble with Lumpy for the friends Mr. Pickles kills, though?"

Lammy looked down embarrassed. "Yeah, I actually almost got arrested again yesterday…" She stops, looking up at him and realizing what he just said. "Wait, you believe me?"

"Well... I don't know if I can believe it, but Flaky said she saw him and he killed her. Flaky's paranoid and afraid of everything, but she's no liar."

Lammy smiles a bit. "That's better than anyone before. Everyone thinks I'm crazy."

Handy shrugs. "Well, you have to admit, a pickle killing tree friends sounds about as normal as Sniffles' luck eating ants."

"I know it SOUNDS crazy." Lammy admits with a sigh, petting the currently inanimate pickle as if it were a cat. "Certainly doesn't help that he always plays inanimate object when anyone else is watching."

"At least it gives you the advantage if someone like Lumpy comes after you, two on one."

Lammy nods, knowing exactly how true that is. "Thanks to this little guy, I've only died once the whole time I've lived in this town."

Handy rubs his face with one of his stumps. "About that... how exactly did Mole manage to drive UNDER your inflated pool?"

"I honestly have no idea. The logic in this town continues to baffle me... says the girl whose best friend is a living pickle, I know but still."

Handy thought over some of the deaths and shrugged. "Eh, sometimes it's the people more than the logic... like the fact that Mole is allowed to drive in the first place."

"I guess safety isn't that big of a concern when everyone's perfectly fine the next day. Yet, unfortunately for me, they're still so concerned about murder."

"I guess." He thinks about it, the town's biggest intentional murderer coming to mind, of course. "Then again, when Flippy snaps no one bats an eye except Lumpy when he's on duty"

"Who's Flippy?"

Handy blushes a little, having forgotten that the lamb is still fairly new to the town and hasn't met Flippy yet because of it. "Flippy's a war veteran. He's normally really nice and helpful but whenever something reminds him of war, he murders everyone in sight. Lumpy's the only one to have ever fought him and won."

Lammy thinks about the way Lumpy acts, of course knowing well first hand, then nods. "That doesn't really surprise me, seems like he'd do anything if he thought he needed to."

"Once Lumpy got him impaled on a flagpole and Flippy just got mad and started pulling himself back up, so Lumpy lowered the flag and disemboweled him."

"I heard that he killed someone and sold their organs once..."

"You heard right, at a toy store," he answers, though having only heard the story from the victim.

Lammy just shakes her head, then realizes Mr. Pickles is no longer on the table by her and starts scanning the room for him. Handy's eyes widen and he looks around hoping that if he spots him the pickle will return to inanimate form and not kill him. Lammy looks over at Handy. "You should leave, I...I don't know if Lumpy's on duty today. But if he is, I don't want him to have a reason to come after me again." Handy leaves through the luckily still open door, not needing to be told twice.

Handy hears a thump and looks behind him to see a knife quivering in the ground and a relieved Lammy shutting her door, her pickle cradled in the crook of her arm.

Handy hurries back to Flaky's house to check if she's doing any better. He stops in surprise, lying in front of Flaky's door is Disco Bear, a single red quill shoved up under his chin. Worried that might not be all, Handy looks around the body for any telltale dandruff trails to see where she went after.

Not seeing anything else, he pushes Flaky's partially open door with his foot, then peeks in to find the porcupine on the cushion on the floor, snoring softly.

Handy sighs in relief but then looks back the body remembering what Lammy said right before he left, he's not sure if Officer Lumpy's on duty or not but if he is, both the location and weapon undeniably tie Flaky to Disco Bear's death. If somebody reports the body, she could be arrested and Handy knows first-hand what it's like to be arrested by Lumpy.

Handy thinks about it a moment, then goes over and nudges Flaky awake. She groans and winces as she sits up, rubbing her back. "Flaky, are you alright? What happened?"

Flaky just looks at him in confusion, then notices that it's later than she remembers. "I-I don't know. L-l-last thing I remember is you asking why I d-didn't want to go to Lammy's."

"You were into some kind of weird trace." Handy hesitates on the second part knowing she won't like it, then sighs, knowing she'll find out one way or another. "And you killed Disco Bear."

Flaky just looks at him like he's crazy, until he goes to the door and nudges it open, revealing Disco Bear sprawled out on her doorstep, quill visible even at that distance. Flaky screeches, falling back and starting to cry. "Wh-wha-what happened?"

"I don't know." Handy admits honestly. "I left you when I really shouldn't have and found him like that when I got back."

"B-b-b-but, I've never killed anyone on p-p-purpose!"

"You weren't you, Flaky." Handy says remembering the state she was in when he left her.

Flaky, however, can't look away from the quill. "B-b-b-b-but... I didn't..."

"Flaky, you don't even remember it. Don't beat yourself up. Besides, whatever happened, I'd bet my chopper he deserved it."

"Th-th-that's my quill, Handy," her voice is hushed as she speaks, "It's my quill..."

"You didn't know what you were doing." Handy eventually manages to calm Flaky down, although he's pretty shaken up over the fact that Flaky, of all people, had apparently executed someone. Handy couldn't find it in him to feel sorry for Disco Bear... those hands though. "Would it be insensitive to you if I take his hands?"

Flaky, paler than usual, just takes a deep breath. "C-c-c-can you get him off my d-d-doorstep after?"

"I will." He nods, having planned on it anyways, and heads over to the body.

Flaky rubs her quills and walks to the kitchen as Handy does his... business. She pours herself a cup of water, trying to get the taste of bile out of her mouth. She downs the her glass and is about to get herself another when Handy comes in with both of Disco Bear's hands in his mouth.

Flaky sighs as she opens a drawer, while she didn't mind helping Handy since he was always helping everyone else... scavenging hands really didn't sit well with her, and Lammy's comment about killing for it didn't really help. "Uh, Flaky?" Handy snaps her out of her thoughts, to see she was going at him with a fork, the porcupine blushes as she apologizes.

He can tell that right now she's really in no state to do this, but what were the other options? He knows he can't do it himself, going to Lammy would carry far too many risks, and no one else could know. Also he can't easily move the body without hands and Flaky won't, so she might be arrested. "It's okay. At least I caught it."

She gives him a shaky smile as she puts the fork back and, making sure this time, grabs a needle and thread and goes back to stitch the new hands to Handy's nubs. "Umm, h-h-how long d-do you think you'll b-b-be needing me for th-th-this?"

Once she asks, Handy realizes and shares the answer to it. "I have no idea." She finishes in silence, while she'd been afraid of that... it didn't really surprise her. "I'm sorry for dragging you into this, Flaky."

Flaky jumps, caught off guard. "I-i-it's no trouble. I'm g-g-glad I can help." Her words lack conviction though, and Handy knows that while she liked being able to help, there were limits to what she was willing to do.

The same reason, still, only he knows about cutting the break-line on Lifty and Shifty's van. "Still, almost seems like I'm kind of becoming another Cuddles."

She winces, thinking about how many times the childish rabbit had gotten her killed because 'it would be fun'. This was different so, actually believing that at least. "N-no, you're n-not like C-Cuddles."

Handy sighs as a thought crosses his mind. No, Cuddles is just trying to have fun

Once she's done, he heads back to the doorstep. Handy pulls the quill out of Disco Bear's chin and sticks in in his tool-belt before lifting him up and looking for the closest car, aside from Flaky's.

He notices Sniffles' car not too far down the street, and with the trunk partially open, making the decision fairly easy. Handy dumps Disco Bear in the trunk, covering him with the assorted items, and putting the trunk top back where it was before heading back.

Handy thinks while he walks. He had hands for now, but he didn't know what to use them for. He didn't feel like another killing spree, and no one needed any work done that he knew of. Then he stops, remembering how the hand stealing came up.

Disco Bear's hands don't feel as normal as Cuddles' or Shifty's, but I suppose I can manage Handy goes back to Flaky's, not quite sure how to ask the porcupine.

"Flaky." Handy calls carefully. There's no response, but Handy sees a piece of paper taped to the TV.

'''Handy, Cuddles stopped by and wanted me to go to the park with him and Giggles. If I'm not dead by then, I'll be back in an hour.'''

Handy sighs. Knowing full well how this always ends. "There's pretty much no chance she'll be back in an hour."

Handy thinks about it; Cuddles does play soccer, which Handy would be able to play. But he couldn't just walk in with someone else's hands, although it would still be better than Cuddles knowing Handy'd used his yesterday.

Still, the hands are supposed to be a secret. He fingers the sutures, though he couldn't attach them himself, he might be able to use his teeth to take off the second hand. Should he is the question. Handy scowls at nothing in particular as he thinks. Ever since he'd lost his hands, he'd wanted them back... but now he was considering giving up what little time he had with this pair.

It takes a moment, but Handy decides to simply borrow Flaky's bat and a nearby baseball and just head into her backyard while he waits.

Meanwhile, Cuddles, Giggle and Flaky ironically start to play some baseball with Giggles as the pitcher and Cuddles just up to bat while Flaky, with her baseball glove, stands in right field where she knows the ball is least likely to go.

"Give me your best shot, Giggles!" Cuddles readies his bat, wearing the cleat version of his bunny slippers.

Giggles giggles as she winds up. "Here it comes, Cuddles!" She throws the ball as hard as she can, hoping that she'll actually get a strike for once.

Cuddles hits it and starts to run, but stops when he hears two blood curdling screams, one silences soon but the other shows no sign of stopping. He looks over to see his girlfriend motionless on the ground. "Giggles!" He rushes over to her. Flaky, more out of shock than anything, continues screaming until Cuddles yells at her. "Flaky! Shut up!" She does, and while Cuddles feels bad for it, he takes the moment to check Giggles; not liking the indent in the middle of her chest, the same size as a baseball. He checks for a pulse but finds none. "Oh god, I killed her!"

Flaky, having approached from the outfield while Cuddles was busy with Cuddles, whispers. "Is sh-sh-she...?"

Cuddles nods, his whole body trembling. Flaky, shaking hard enough that it looks like it's snowing around her, pats Cuddles' shoulder; worried he might yell at her again if she starts crying. "I-I didn't mean to k-kill her," he stumbles before starting to cry.

Flaky gives him a hug, crying herself now. "I-i-it was an ac-ac-ac-accident, I kn-know Cuddles."

"I-I've never k-killed her before. I've b-b-barely killed anyone," he chokes between sobs.

"I-i-it's not your f-fault."

"Th-thanks, Flaky, b-but, I think I need to be alone," he trembles, not looking at Flaky unable to take his eyes off his girlfriend's corpse. She gives the bunny another quick hug before complying, wondering how something as simple as hitting a ball had gone so wrong so quickly.

It's this town, she thinks, knowing it would never happen anywhere else. She sighs at the thought, the town fed on their pain and while it meant none of them could ever truly die, there was still the pain of witnessing, or causing, a loved one's death, and there was no escape from it.

She attempts to wipe her eyes but tears just keep coming as she makes her way home, hoping Handy's still alive.

As she goes to open her front door, she hears an odd 'clang!' from the back of the house. Her worries and fear at war with each other, she slowly made her way inside and to the backdoor where she peeks out, seeing Handy using his borrowed hands to throw a ball, hit it with her metal bat, retrieve it, and repeat. When she sees it, she remembers how this whole thing started but also inevitably thinks of Giggles' death.

After retrieving the ball, Handy sees Flaky standing in the door as he makes his way back and smiles sheepishly. "I thought the note said you weren't going to be back for an hour. What happened?"

"I-I-it kind of got cut short... G-g-g-Giggles got hit in the chest with the b-ball."

"Is she dead?" Handy asks, the chipmunk's death doesn't really mean anything to him, but he knows it does it Flaky.

Flaky swallows past the lump in her throat. "Y-y-yeah, Cuddles wanted s-s-some time alone. H-he hit th-the b-ball that k-killed her."

Handy sighs and looks down at the ball and bat he's carrying. "I'm sorry, and it looks like there goes my idea."

Flaky just nods. "I-I'm s-sorry. I-I H-HATE th-this c-curse! Will it ever just be over?!"

Handy, however, shocks her by saying. "I hope not."

"H-h-how can you say that with everything th-th-that happens to us?"

"Don't get me wrong I wish the curse had never existed in the first place but because it does, my biggest fear is that one day it just won't." Flaky thinks about that a moment, while no one liked the curse, except maybe Flippy when he lost it, it was a part of their lives and if it was gone, she knows at least Cuddles would be gone too because of his recklessness at times. "If it ever does come. It better at least be first thing in the morning because, say, if it ended right this second, that would mean Giggles, Disco Bear, and everyone else undoubtedly dead out there, would never come back."

Flaky shivers as that thought burrows into her brain. Handy realizes too late that he really shouldn't have brought his fears on that up and just said "I don't know" or something. The last thing she need was MORE to be paranoid about. "Wh-wh-what if G-g-g-giggles doesn't come b-back?" She remembers Cuddles response to Giggles death already and pictures him waking up tomorrow and going to the park only to find her still dead.

Handy face-palms, trying to think of a way to talk her out of her current path to hysteria. "Flaky… the chances of that happening now are almost non-existent."

Flaky takes a deep breath, trying to steady her nerves, and gives him a shaky smile. "I-I'm all right." Not entirely true, mentally running through waking up in the morning being the only person alive in town, but having a break down wouldn't help anything.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have brought that up."

Flaky, just looking for a different subject to talk about, says the first off topic thing to cross her mind. "H-h-h-how's P-p-Petunia?"

"I don't know. I haven't seen her today."

Flaky laughs nervously. "Y-y-you should g-go spend some time with her tomorrow." She remembers that she'd been told about Petunia skinning herself with a potato peeler, she really didn't want Petunia thinking she was trying to steal Handy.

"I will before I steal anyone's hands. She'd have a heart attack seeing me with hands the wrong color." He knows she'd care more about the color or the bacteria than the fact that they were cut of another tree friend.

"Y-y-yeah, sh-she'd probably freak out."

"I'll go see her tomorrow though."

"A-a-alright." Flaky gives a mental sigh; hoping that means tomorrow he'd at least be too busy to ask her to sew another pair of hands on him.

"What do we do now though?"

Flaky looks outside and sees it getting dark. "I d-d-don't know, b-b-but I think we survived the day."

Handy, looks out, realizes she's right and hopes they aren't jinxing it. "Wow, it's been a long time since I've survived a day."

"Y-y-yeah, usually Cuddles g-g-gets me killed."

"Wait, would that mean I'll still have Disco Bear's hands tomorrow?"

Flaky pauses a moment. "I d-d-don't know."

"Actually, I really don't really see why they wouldn't."

"N-n-neither do I, b-but you said your legs came back when you w-w-were still alive."

"You said that when you came back, Lumpy was still wearing your skin as a hoodie."

Flaky winces at the memory. "Y-y-yes."

Handy just nods. "So, they should stay until something happens to me, but then I can't go visit Petunia."

"I-I-I could always remove th-th-th-the stitches."

"True, guess I better head home for the night though."

"Ok, H-h-Handy" She walks with him to the door, making sure he puts the bat back where it was, and gives him a wave as he leaves. She sighs as she shuts the door, which turns into a shriek as a spider crawls from under the door knob and onto her hand.

She tries to shake the spider off before it can bite her and manages to fling it off, but a back-step causes her to trip over the baseball bat and crack her head on the wall.

Unaware of Flaky's death, Handy makes his way to his house. As he passes the park he notices a kneeling figure, Cuddles he guesses from what Flaky had told him. Is he alive? Handy thinks, I know he loves her but he can't stay there all night.

As much as he wants to go check, he knows he can't as Disco's hands are still attached to his nubs. Handy wonders why he's even thinking about it, not even two days ago he could've cared less about Cuddles, or anyone else for that matter.

He shakes the odd thought from his head and continues home.

Handy manages to get back to his house with no incidents, other people included, and sits on the corner of his bed while he thinks and looks at Disco Bear's hands. Though these hands specifically have an uncomfortable amount of fat on them, these past three days, it feels amazing to have hands again, to be able to play baseball again even though it was really just batting practice.

Lost in thought, he doesn't notice the dust falling on the bed behind him as the ceiling fan slowly shakes itself loose.