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There it was, the black rock. The giant floating asteroid that was keeping Mickey, their Mickey, hostage.
Mickey A took a breath, as she steadied herself for what she was about to do. She began to walk towards it. She supposed she should feel angry, that the majority of them worked so hard to find their Mickey, get to and save their friend; but she doesn’t. The reason why is that despite all that she’s been through and everything that she’s done, this is still the same Mickey Jones who was willing to sacrifice everything for her friends. Now here she stood, as she slowly approached the black rock. She stopped. One more step and she’d be within arms reach of it. She didn’t look back at the people watching her, there’s no reason to, they aren’t her friends; not anymore. No point in saying goodbye when all they care about is getting back their Mickey Jones.
She took the final step. She looked into the black rock and saw her reflection, but it also wasn’t her reflection at the same time. It was her. Their Mickey Jones, Mickey B.
“Bye Mickey!” A voice called out, pulling her away from her train of thought.
That idiot. She turned around. “Bye Billy,” She replied, a sad smile upon her face. She slowly met the rest of the Radar’s eyes, leaving Tibby for last. “All I’ve got to say is that this universe isn’t much better, so just don’t make the same mistakes that we did. Things turn out better if you work together and rely on each other.” She turned back to face the black rock and Mickey B. “Oh, and after I touch this thing someone might want to catch the body because she’s going to be dead for a few seconds while her ego transfers.” With that statement finished, Mickey A closed her eyes, reached out, and touched the rock.
Laura Bennett was the first to react and caught Mickey’s body as it began to fall, now empty of an ego inside it.
1…
2…
3…
4…
5…
Mickey groaned as she slowly adjusted to the scene before her. After the shock and whiplash of being shoved back into her body had worn off, she let out a happy sigh.
“Hey,” Laura said softly, as she herself smiled for the first time in quite a while. “How are you feeling?”
“Exhausted. Very much exhausted and kind of dazed,” Mickey Jones answered honestly.
“I’m sure you are after what you’ve been through. We all missed you, but I think there’s somebody here who really wants to see you. It’s good to have you back. He worried about you constantly.”
Mickey let out a weak laugh. “I’m sure he did. Do I have to prove that it’s me again, or do you guys just instantly believe me this time?”
“What was the movie we saw on our first date?” An anxious Tibby Devin called out, not yet having moved from where he stood as he continuously tapped his foot.
“Well the movie that we saw on what was supposed to be our first date was Dreams, in honor of Rachel, but that date got ruined,” Mickey complained in response, somehow managing to find enough strength to express her viewpoint and opinions on the day aforementioned.
While Mickey was answering Embeth Pegg kept her eyes on Tibby to gauge his reaction based on her response. She rolled her eyes when she noticed the gigantic grin that was upon his face. “Go on love bird, go to her,” She whispered.
After Mickey had finished her reply, Laura glanced over to Tibby. “What do you think Tibby? What’s your verdict?”
“Mallory move!” Tibby shouted as he pushed past his friends and ran to where Laura and Mickey were. He slid to a stop next to Mickey, facing across from Laura.
“Hey there,” Mickey greeted him, her voice weak yet relieved. “Hey Laura, could you help me up? I’ve got no strength,” she asked, looking back to the young woman that was currently her means of support.
“Of course!” Laura replied, helping Mickey sit up. “I’ll give you guys some space,” Laura offered, scooting back a bit to give the reunited couple a moment.
“Much better. Oh man, I’m going to need another long nap after this. I still think that it’s not fair that it uses my energy and takes a toll on me but not her,” Mickey complained, after failing to stifle a yawn.
Tibby didn’t reply, he just wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into a tight embrace. And they just sat there for a moment, both of them with their eyes closed, just glad to finally be in the comfort and warmth of each other.
“Woah! You weren’t kidding!” Exclaimed Billy Baker, turning to Em with a look of both shock and pride.
Mickey pulled away from the hug just enough to see Tibby’s face, “What’s wrong with-“
“-It’s a long story. I’ll fill you in later. Right now let’s just relax, okay?”
“Okay. I'm good with that,” Mickey replied, giving him a small smile.
“Oh! Mickey, there’s something I want to show you!” Exclaimed Tibby, moving away slightly to separate the two of them before standing up. He walked around to stand in front of Mickey and placed the side of his sneaker against the front of her shoes. After making sure that the ground was sturdy and he had good balance, he reached down taking Mickey’s hands into his own and slowly began to pull her up.
“I don’t know what you’re doing but I-“ Mickey stopped abruptly, her eyes wide in shock. “-What!”
“Yeah,” Tibby replied, answering her unspoken question with an excited smile and a nod. He slowly let go of her hands and took a single step back. After giving Mickey a moment to soak in the reality that she was standing on her own, Tibby pulled her in close once again; this time wrapping an arm around her shoulder as they stood side by side.
“Okay, I’m so sorry to interrupt but now I have to know. How did you know that it was our Mickey from her response Tibby?” Laura interrupted the couple's moment of joy to answer her curiosity.
“Because it was the exact same answer she gave the last time we talked about it. Not word for word, but it was pretty close,” Tibby answered honestly.
“And how many times have you two discussed this?”
“Three times now,” Mickey interjected. “And I’m still upset over it. Do you know how much trouble I got into over Mallory’s stupid tacos? I agreed to get Tibby and myself in for free and covering a snack and drink for him, then everyone joined in and Mallory didn’t even try to hide the food that he was illegally sneaking in. Now I normally don’t care for the law, but that’s my work. I could have gotten fired over Mallory and his stupid tacos.”
“Yikes, I’m sorry. Glad I wasn’t there, sounds like things didn’t exactly go as well as planned,” Laura commented, not entirely surprised by Mickey’s rage.
“Yeah. The first time was her complaining right after she had gotten in trouble for it, the second was shortly after we decided to start officially dating and we were talking about what we thought our best and worst dates were,” Tibby clarified, assuming that a bit of context would be helpful to the conversation.
“And that was the worst, I take it,” Laura remarked.
“No, that was the second-worst,” Mickey answered, appearing to have calmed down from her rant.
“Oh, then what happened on the worst date that it overpowers Mallory’s tacos?” Laura inquired, suddenly very curious.
“We’ll tell you another time,” Tibby replied quickly, growing redder by the second.
“He fainted and since I was technically supposed to be working I had to call 911,” Mickey explained, clearly not caring to tell about what happened despite her boyfriend’s increasing embarrassment.
“Hey Mickey,” Embeth called out, finally walking over to join in on the current conversation. “I have a question. How tall are you?” She asked, a teasing smile on her face.
“Five foot one, and when I have the energy I will fight you,” Mickey snarked in response. Tibby tightened his grip around her shoulder instinctively.
“I guess I had just never noticed the height difference between you two before,” Em noted with a shrug.
“I’m still curious about what all happened on the worst date that it surpassed getting in trouble at work and having your friends accidentally ruin what was supposed to be your first date,” Laura stated, still brimming with curiosity. “There’s got to be more to it than just that.”
“I’ll tell you some other time, I promise. Right now let’s focus on recovering from everything that happened this month,” Mickey responded while failing to stifle a yawn.
“Yeah, let’s just go home and rest for now,” Tibby agreed, rubbing Mickey’s arm as he pulled her in for another brief hug.
“You just don’t want me to tell the story of why you fainted,” Mickey stated with a sly smile.
“Can we please drop it for now? Can we change the subject? Please? I’ve had a very hard week and I would appreciate a little sympathy.”
“Fine, fine. I’ll drop it. Before we go home, I have a question. Why hasn’t Mallory said a word this entire time?”
“Oh, there’s a number of reasons actually. Does somebody else want to explain that?”
“I bet him five dollars that he couldn’t shut up for the rest of the day,” Laura answered as the four of them slowly began to walk back over to where they had left Billy and Mallory standing.
“We also got him to agree that we would give you guys your space when you were reunited. It took a bit of convincing and by convincing I mean threatening him if he didn’t shut up, but eventually, he agreed,” Em added in, slipping around to Mickey’s other side to help Tibby in supporting her.
“Oh, I’m surprised that worked. I honestly wouldn’t think that he would be able to be quiet for any amount of time, let alone this long,” Mickey responded, thankful for the help.
“Yeah, we were all a bit shocked that it worked too. Part of it might have had something to do with the murderous look in Em’s eyes while she was threatening him,” Tibby chimed in, remembering the look on Embeth’s face that scared him despite knowing that she was on his side of the argument.
“Shush Tibby, she doesn’t need to know everything,” Em teased lightly, keeping in pace with Tibby and Mickey.
“No, please tell me everything. I would love to hear the story of how you finally got Mallory to shut up and what drove you to that point,” Mickey insisted, but her lack of strength betrayed her as her voice was hoarse and weak.
“Not until after you have gotten some rest. After how this month has gone, I think we could all use a break,” Laura scolded half-heartedly, glad for everything to finally settle down. Who knows how long it will last, but for right now they have a chance to recover and relax.
“No complaints or protests here. I can’t believe it’s only been a week, it feels like it’s been forever for me. But I agree, let’s finally go home,” Mickey replied, having appeared to surrender to her exhaustion.
The four of them met back up with Billy and Mallory, who were still just awkwardly standing from a lack of words to say. Billy didn’t really know what to say, there was still so much for him to understand. And Mallory couldn’t say anything, whether it was his motivation to win the bet or his newfound fear of Embeth was unclear.
And so the Kollok Radar slowly made their way back home to recuperate until the next problem arose as they were sure that one would. But not now. Not today.
“Tibby flirted with another girl!”
“Billy!”