Authors Note: Hello friends! I'm home from my internship in Florida and now I finally have time to write! Yay! I'm currently in the process of working on my main chapter story, but this was a small side project. Enjoy! :)

Jessie tried to contemplate the events that had just occurred.

It had seemed like a dream, the way the past few days had gone. Not only had she been liberated from the prison that held her captive for what felt like years, but soon she would be on her way to a place she could call home, at last. Policemen passed her every now and then as she sat on the steps to the rickety house behind her. They'd been so kind to her, bringing her things from inside the storage house. She wouldn't dare enter it again.

A white pickup truck pulled up behind the police cars. Sheriff Woody Pride stepped out, ducking under the yellow tape surrounding the house. His sister smiled warmly as he walked up the path overrun with weeds. The red stained bandage around his right shoulder caught her attention immediately. Woody followed her gaze and put a protective hand over the injury.

"It's nothing," he told Jessie as he met her on the steps. "Sorry it took so long. We had to figure out how to get Bullseye to my place. You ready to go?"

She paused. There was nothing she wanted more to get as far away from Al's place as possible. "Yeah, let's get out of here."

Woody helped her off the steps led her to the pickup and opened the door for her. Jessie took one last look and then hopped in.

"Bo told me that you could borrow some of her clothes until you two could go out shopping," her brother said starting the engine.

"Bo?" Jessie inquired as she gazed out the window.

"Oh... Bo's an elementary school teacher," he said sheepishly. "She's my girlfriend."

"You didn't tell me you had a girlfriend. She's not all frilly and fancy is she? Tell me I don't have to wear pink."

Woody cleared his throat. "I'm sure you guys are going to be good friends."

Jessie rolled her eyes and propped her boots on the dashboard.

As they escaped the city lights she rolled down the window. The dark country road was a welcome sight. She took in the wonderful smell of pine and evergreen trees.

The siblings didn't speak much, not because there wasn't anything to say but instead because it seemed appropriate to remain silent. Eventually the exhaustion had finally caught up with the cowgirl and she fell asleep.

Woody couldn't help but smile as she rested there. He didn't even know he had a sister until a few days ago and already he felt a strong connection with her.

They pulled up at his humble home extremely late. The cowboy carried her inside and upstairs until placing her gently on his own bed. He tucked her in and finally retired to the couch on the main level. It wasn't the most comfortable of arrangements, but they'd figure out something tomorrow. He settled onto the ugly brown sofa, taking in the familiar creaking noises in the old house.

The sheriff had been so content in being home again he had walked right past his best friend and roommate who sat in the chair adjacent to the couch. Buzz Lightyear lifted an amused eyebrow as the cowboy collapsed face first into the cushions.

"It's about time," the Space Ranger said simply.

Woody shot up surprised at the sound. He whipped around and recognized the green glow of Buzz's suit in the darkness.

"Oh, hi Buzz. What are you still doing up?" he replied while pulling off his boots.

"I wanted to make sure you made it home alright. They haven't caught Al yet, y'know," the Ranger replied hinting concern.

"I was only picking up Jessie. It's ok if she stays her for awhile… right?"

"Of course! There's just one thing…" Buzz faltered. He'd been practicing this conversation in his head for past hour. "Is it ok… well- if we keep this a secret to her too?," he asked pointing to the Star Command Emblem on his chest.

Woody stared at him for a moment. "You're kidding, right? With everyone else it's manageable, but she's gonna be under the same roof…"

"It'll be fine! I've been on Earth long enough, I'll act like the perfectly normal Earthling."

"May I ask why you want to keep it a secret?"

Buzz grimaced. He'd done it. He'd fallen in love with his best friend's sister. It wasn't until they were all safe and headed out of the airport that he had noticed how truly beautiful she was. Her kindness and eagerness caught him completely off guard.

"You like her, don't you?" Woody read his thoughts, as he was so often able to do.

The space ranger flushed and started to panic. "I- uh… well I mean she's, you know- she's very..."

Woody only chuckled. Whether this was a good or bad sign, Buzz couldn't tell. He was grateful, however, that his friend wasn't angry with him at the very least.

"I guess we can try to keep the alien thing a secret," the cowboy said grinning. He sank back into the cushions tipping his hat above his eyes. His thoughts swam around to back when Buzz had literally crash landed in his life. The space ranger was lucky that Jessie hadn't been around back then, because there was no way he was going to let the two get involved romantically when he hated the guy.

"I appreciate it," Buzz said after a little while. He got up to leave.

Woody suddenly thought of something. "Hey, I didn't get to say it before," he said while sitting back up a little. "Thanks for finding me…"

Buzz paused. The two looked at each other for a moment, and the Space Ranger found that he really didn't need to say anything at all. He smiled and nodded to the cowboy and then left the room.

Jessie slept better that night than she had in months. That morning she slept in, not really remembering anything she was dreaming about at all. She finally woke feeling the warm of the sun peeking through the curtains of a window next to the bed.

The bedroom she was in was neat and orderly. The nightstand next to her had a clipboard on it with a checklist. In a loopy sort of handwriting was a note on the paper:

Jessie,

I had to run to the doctor's office. I'm going to swing by the grocery store on the way home, we're out of milk. I'll be home around noon.

-W

She couldn't help but smile. Her brother was an extremely on-top-of-it kind of person.

Jessie swung her legs over the bed and let her bare toes touch the cold hardwood floor. She peeked into Woody's closet, hoping he wouldn't mind if she borrowed a clean shirt.

The redhead came downstairs wearing one of her brother's longer red cotton button-ups. The idea of pulling back on her jeans, as comfortable as she found them, was extremely unappealing. The shirt did come down to her thighs, and she figured Woody wouldn't be home for another hour or so anyways.

She poked around in the kitchen for a bit until she finally decided on having toast. While waiting for the bread to pop up she loosened her braid which had become lopsided overnight.

Jessie noticed quite a few pictures that had been magnetized to the fridge. There were shots of those she recognized to be Woody's rescue party that she met briefly at the airport, various landscapes, and a woman who she guessed must be his girlfriend. There was one picture that particularly caught her eye of her brother with his arm around the guy that helped her and Woody jump out of the plane. She recalled his name being Buzz, and in the picture he wasn't wearing the funny suit he had on the night previous.

In the picture the two were sat on a porch. They were both extremely haggard, with bruises and cuts on their faces. And yet they were grinning, not really looking at the camera. It was like they were joking about something. Written on the picture in a neat cursive was a small statement:

Roommates in a new home

How they got in that miserable state was an absolute mystery to Jessie. It was in that moment that she finally realized how little she knew about Woody himself. Living with him was a million times better than living with Al, but it was still new and a bit frightening. Adjusting to this new life would take time.

A cup shattered on the kitchen floor. Jessie jumped and tore her eyes away from the photos and saw the gentleman she had just been looking at sitting with Woody. Roommates in a new home. Roommates in this home.

Buzz Lightyear stood there, hand empty, spilled coffee all over his slippers, mouth open wide. His other hand held his robe together. Why his hand automatically went for his robe he had no idea. He was, after all, wearing a white T shirt and green basketball shorts underneath. Perhaps he was compensating for the fact that Woody's sister stood in their kitchen barely wearing anything at all.

Jessie couldn't ignore the comical aspect of the situation. After all, she hadn't been blind to the looks Buzz had been giving her the day previous after the commotion was over. She resisted the urge to laugh and managed to only crack into a goofy smile.

"I'm home!" came a voice from the front hall. This is gonna be fun to explain, the redhead thought sarcastically.

Woody waltzed through the kitchen door with one arm in a sling and a bag of groceries in the other, completely missing the scene near the fridge. It wasn't until he needed to put away the milk that he noticed coffee all over the floor.

"Wha…?" his eyes traced the mess back to Buzz and Jessie.

"You're early. You said in your note you'd be home around noon," the cowgirl said still wearing a goofy grin. Woody raised an eyebrow. Jessie continued since Woody wasn't going to say anything until he found an explanation. "You know what else? You forgot a very important detail in that note." She gestured to Buzz, who still hadn't moved a muscle since dropping his mug.

It hit Woody like a sack of potatoes. "Ooohhhh…" he cleared his throat. "Uhh right. Buzz sleeps downstairs. You two uh, officially meet each other?"

"Now we have…" Jessie replied.

The three stood there awkwardly for a second.

"Well, the gang is holding a welcome home party over at the Potatoheads' tonight. You can get acquainted with everyone else," Woody said. "Um, also I stopped by Bo's place. There's some clothes over on the couch in the front room."

Jessie nodded and excused herself from the kitchen.

In the meantime, Buzz finally let his fingers loosen on his robe. "Did that really just happen?"

Woody stifled a laugh. "You owe me a new mug."

Jessie came back downstairs with a scowl. She felt horribly uncomfortable in the flowered skirt and pink blouse this 'Bo' had lent her. She at least had her boots. The alternative was a pair of black flats which had no support whatsoever and kept flipping off her feet.

Woody was still in the kitchen, putting away the last of the groceries. Buzz had disappeared.

"He's downstairs, in case you're wondering," Woody called out to her as he heard her clunk her way down the steps.

She was more focused on, however, getting information about the picture on the fridge. She moved the magnet off of it and showed it to her brother.

Woody looked at it and rolled his eyes. "We get asked about this picture all the time. Bo gets upset every time we take it down though."

"But what happened? Why are you guys all…" Jessie trailed off. She stared at what looked like a burn on Woody's forehead in the photo. She looked up back up at the real Woody and found an off white scar in the same spot. It was hardly noticeable now, but in the photo it looked extremely painful.

"Buzz and I were taken hostage about a year ago by a seriously deranged teenage kid. We didn't escape without a few scrapes," the cowboy said loosely while peeling a banana.

"A few scrapes? Woody you guys look like you got tortu-" Jessie was compelled to stop mid sentence as she stared at the picture.

Her brother looked at her for a moment, and then took the photo and stuck it back on the fridge. "The important thing, the reason we still keep it up, is that we made it out alive that day as better people."

"Sort of like yesterday."

Woody smiled. "Yeah… I guess so."

A new picture appeared on the fridge the following day. At the homecoming party, Bo had wrestled Woody, Jessie, and Buzz into posing for a snapshot. The three of them, albeit a touch awkward, looked genuinely happy. Once again, neat cursive was written underneath:

New beginnings