Phew! I am so sorry for the gap in writing guys, I've been so busy recently. Working on the ol' art portfolio and enrolling into college took precedence over the fanfiction I'm afraid guys, but I return! Ready and willing to write another chapter! Oh, and I decided I could really do with a Beta, someone to give me opinions, point things out and spell-check before I post chapters. I'm happy to be a beta in return!

Anyways, welcome to another exciting instalment! I don't own anything, blah blah.

Mac whimpered as he looked tiredly up at the ceiling. His heart beat furiously in his chest, his hands pulling the blankets high up to his chin. A shaft of moonlight eked its way in through a crack in the curtain, slicing through the darkness and stretched across his bed. He blinked, his tired eyes aching, yet they refused to shut.

It can't be true.

He gulped and turned over, the clock on the sideboard blinking "12.25" in florescent red. Half past midnight. He groaned into his pillow and flipped it over, fluffed it, and fell into it with a floof. Again, it didn't help. He lifted his little legs with a grunt and kicked the blankets from his body, where they landed in a crumpled heap on the floor.

It just doesn't make sense! Me! Why me? Mac groaned as he coughed into his hands, and rolled onto his side into a foetal position, his hands held tight on his head. "What am I going to tell all the guys at Fosters?" He whispered as he pulled the pillow down next to him, his legs wrapping around the cushion in a desperate search for comfort.

As far as Mac was concerned, just six hours ago he was just a normal kid. Sure, he hadn't been very well recently... sometimes he felt faint and sick, other times he would get confused over really dumb things, and this cough... but not this! He'd heard horror stories... and... and... Mac brought his hands up to his hair, the thick chestnut locks filtering through his fingers.

Then his mom just had to ruin it. She'd made him a mug of cocoa as soon as he'd come in through the door that evening, and pulled him in onto her lap, her arms enveloping her son in a long overdue embrace. They had sat like that for about quarter of an hour, Mac stiff as a board the whole time due to the conflicting emotions of confusion, gratitude and just plain freaked out by the experience. Then she told him.

Mac frowned, sat up and jumped down to the floor, and plodded to the window, his chin resting gently on his arms as he looked out over the streets. The houses were stark and bathed in the glow of the yellow streetlamps which lined the road. The sky seemed to stretch endlessly above him, the mottled clouds above him grey and moody with moonlight. Mac sighed deeply into his fingers, but his thoughts were soon interrupted by the sound of his bedroom door creaking open. Mac started and span around, gulping when he saw a pimply youth poke his head into the bedroom. The stench of alcohol followed the teenager like a cloud as he staggered on his feet.

"Go away, Terrence," Mac groaned as he watched his sibling reach out to hold onto something stable, his legs swaying like twin saplings in a storm. "Go back to your own room; you've done this at the worst possible time!"

"Mac... uh... hey bro... hehe..." Terrence meandered over to the eight year old and placed a hand on his head, pulling the child close to his face. Mac cringed and tried to push away, but even whilst intoxicated Mac was no match for the sixteen year old. "Hey, bro... I just gotta tell ya somethin'..."

"Terrence... c'mon... I'll tell mom!"

"Hey hey... I don't wanna hurt ya... just was a CA-razy night with the guys," Terrence chuckled under his breath, his grip ever strong. "I loooooove Fridays! Anyway... I just wanted to say that I heard what mom was saying before I went out,"

At this, Mac's heart seemed to stop. His throat ran dry as his eyes widened. "Y-y-you did?" Mac gulped. The grip on his head loosed and Mac felt two hands rest on his shoulders, but whether it was to emphasize his point or to hold him up, it was anyone's guess.

"Yeah... I just want-want- *hic* wanted to say that... urrr..."

"What?"

"That when you turn old enough, I wanna be the one to... to give you your first drink," Terrence smiled widely at this point he was making. Mac blinked in surprise. Did his brother just say what he thought he did?

"Uhm... but Terrence..."

"Don't you 'but' me! You're gonna be f- fine, and you're gonna let me buy you a beer when you turn old enough! Understood?"

Mac nodded dumbly. He contemplated informing his less-than-intelligent brother that sixteen was in fact five years below the legal age, but he didn't want to ruin the moment. This was as emotional as Terrence got these days, and in terms of emotion, Mac might as well have watched a slushy movie whilst acting out the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet, while singing "Love is a many splendored thing". As the teenager stood to his full height and lurched from the room (humming a grungy tune under his breath as he went), Mac brushed himself down.

Man, what a weird day. All this emotion was starting to make Mac feel incredibly sick. Or was that his supper?

"HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII BLOO!" Goo giggled as she skipped down Foster's path, her long rainbow-clad arms swinging side to side as she practically bounced towards the blob, who was sitting on the step with his arms crossed in a stroppy manner, a red scarf tied sloppily around his "neck". The girl halted just before him and rocked backwards and forwards on her boots, her gloved hands held behind her back, smiling down at the sulking splodge of a friend.

"Hey Bloo, why you outside? Cos it's really really cold, you know it's the middle of October now dontcha? I mean it's not that cold yet I guess but it's still pretty cold, at least you have a scarf because I got a scarf too, and mittens and a hat! Hey, do you like my hoodie? It's all rainbow and warm and woolly, my grandma knitted it and I HELPED! ANYWAY Why are you out here in the first place Bloo?" Goo smiled down at Bloo, who looked grouchily up to her face.

"BECAUSE! You know it's getting close to Halloween; Frankie always starts making pumpkin slices and apple and cinnamon cupcakes this time of year. Well she apparently doesn't appreciate me helping her with the mixture," Bloo shook his head at this as though it were the greatest atrocity on the face of the earth. "I mean honestly! A guy tries to help and this is where it gets you. Out in the cold! What a place,"

At this, Frankie's head peeped out from the door, a hand on her hip and a pair of very irked eyes. In her hair were splodges of a strange green, lumpy mixture, which smiled down to her top and legs. "Bloo, you tried to put MUSHY PEAS in the cake batter! And when I tried to stop you, you threw the mix at me!"

"I was just trying to help!" Bloo whined in defence. "You surprised me!"

"Bloo, you ruined enough batter to make sixty apple turnovers! Now I have to make it all again! And it's for Adopt-a-Thought Saturday; the new adopters will be here in an hour! What on earth possessed you to think that mushy peas would be good in apple turnovers?" Frankie wiped some of the green mess from her head with a groan.

"Cos! I thought they were boring! They needed a little jazzing up, a little... je ne sais quoi!" Bloo looked up at her with all the sincerity of a saint. "It's gourmet,"

Frankie groaned and facepalmed, full Picard style. Sometimes she just felt like hitting her head against a brick wall, dealing with a friend like Bloo, no matter how much she had grown attached to him. Now she would have to shower and get dressed, she was behind already as it was. Looking up, she saw Goo, her smiling face now frowning as she looked down at the watch on her wrist.

"Hey Goo! What's the problem?" Frankie enquired, leaning against the door.

"It's 12 o clock! Where's Mac? Cos I haven't seen him today, oh no no, usually I see him or I see his mom's car but I haven't seen him alllll morning, not at all, nuh uh. I mean, usually he's here at 10.00, but I don't see him anywhere!" Goo pondered this. Bloo bit his lip and growled.

"Don't you think I've already noticed this? He's late and Herriman will get me adopted for sure if he's much longer, I just know it!" Bloo whimpered, looking left and right for potential adopters.

"Hey, relax guys," Frankie grinned at the worried pair. "He's not been very well, maybe he's just... y'know, relaxing at home? I'm sure he'll be here soon," Frankie smiled at the pair who looked rather dejected. "Hey, why don't you guys go and see him? I'm sure he'd really appreciate the visit!"

"But I want apple tuuuuuuuurnoveeeeeeeeeeers..." The little blue blob whinged up at the caretaker, who looked down at him in exasperation. But before he had the chance to complain some more, Bloo felt a tugging and found himself being dragged by a blobby arm down the path to the street by what seemed to be a living, breathing, incessantly chattering rainbow.

"I guess you could... save me some?"

"HEY! Dork! Uh... I mean... MAC! Your friends are here!" Terrence called, holding his sore head in one hand and the door handle in the other. The two figures in the doorway smiled into the apartment, the little girl grinning widely as she looked at Terrence with an intense curiosity. Bloo however frowned at the teenager with suspicious eyes, a frown etched in his face. Terrence returned the look of hostility, and crossed his arms.

"He's in his room, dweebs," He thumbed in the general direction, and watched as the two figures scuttled to the room, with Bloo pointing to his eyes, and back at Terrence. In other circumstances he would go blabbing off to his mother and threatening the eight year old, but right now, he had other things to think about.

Like having an ibuprofen and collapsing back into bed.

...

"Hey, I think he's still asleep,"

"What gave that away, genius? He snores louder than my dad! And that's real loud, it's like and ..."

"I know, and he has the gall to complain at me? He should hear himself!"

"Hey wait... he's waking up!"

Mac's awakening image was two smiling faces grinning down at him, which unsurprisingly terrified the living daylights out of the previously sleeping eight year old. In fact, he let his feelings known by letting out a large, surprised yelp, and shooting his head up with such a ferocity that he knocked into the other two's heads with a loud unabashed CRACK. All three fell back down, all groaning and holding their foreheads.

"GEEZE! Whatcha do that for, Mac?" Goo complained, rubbing at the round red bump that was starting to form. "We only came to see how you were and we were being real quiet, unlike you!"

"Well I'm sorry guys but I'm not used to having people watching me sleep!" Mac growled, rubbing his head. "I'm surprised I haven't got brain damage, the amount of head injuries I've had in the last month!" Mac pulled his hand away and smiled at his friends.

"Room for two more?" Bloo grinned as he clambered up, settling himself on the mattress in front of his creator. Goo followed suit, sitting Indian-style at the foot of the bed, playing with a plait between two fingers. Mac couldn't help but smile at the pair, who sat grinning so goofily at him. He immediately forgot about the fact he was still in his pyjamas, and had the complexion of a ghost. He even forgot about... that. Today, he's a normal kid.

Like playing video games and eating cereal whilst watching cartoons. Truth or dare (Bloo insisted on being dared to streak... which made absolutely no difference) and playing dress up (Bloo somehow suited his mother's silken nightdress). Mac thought he would burst into laughter, and as the day wore on into the night, the three collapsed into an exhausted, giggling heap.

"Hehehe... can you believe I STREAKED?"

"Haha! You never... HAHA! Wear clothes Bloo!"

"Or- or- or how did I look in those photographs? I was all like BLEAUGH! And you were like BLOOGH and Mac was like AAAAAAARGKPTH!"

The three giggled together, snorting and ignoring the harsh coughing that occasionally escaped Mac's lips. This was what he needed. A day granted, where he was reminded that he was still a child and he had friends, his very best ones still with him, laughing along with him as always. Pondering about this, Mac began to stop giggling, instead content to lie amongst the pile, looking up with a little smile snaking across his cheeks.

"Hey, Mac, I... EEP! GOTTA GO!" Bloo squeaked, making his way to the door, chanting the phrase "Gotta go, too much laughing, gotta go, too much laughing!" as he went. Goo of course found this hilarious, and guffawed after him as the little blob sped to the bathroom as fast as he could. The pair were left alone, and sat up, still winding down from the giggles. Mac looked up at the girl beside him, who was hugging her legs close to her chest in glee.

"Hey uh... Goo... can you keep a secret?" Mac looked shyly at his friend. At this Goo leant in, crossed her heart with one finger and zipped an imaginary line across her lips.

"Uh... ok. Anyway, I need you to keep this from Bloo... I don't want him to know yet," Mac bit his lip and looked to the door, making sure he saw no blobs hovering outside his room. "Uh... mom went to the doctors for my test results... and uh..."

"He said you have the plague! I knew it!"

"NO! He said..."

"You're gonna perform mitosis!"

"No Goo, I've go-"

"No no! You've got-"

"LEUKEMIA! I HAVE CANCER AND I START CHEMO ON MONDAY!" Mac grabbed Goo's arms desperately, tears rolling unchecked down his cheeks. "I AM PROBABLY GONNA DIE AND BLOO CAN'T EVER KNO-... oh... my... gosh..." Mac gulped, releasing his grip on the girls arms in a slow, horrified manner, as though being caught stealing a cookie from the Queen's royal Cookie Jar.

"What was that?" The blob breathed heavily. "Die? Oh come on... Don't be... What?" At this, he gulped, looked at the two children before him, the tear-stained face of his creator, and the blob did the only thing he knew in times like this.

Bloo ran.