Jimmy shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know, Goddard. It used to be like that but-" he trailed off, his eyebrows furrowed together as he fell into deep thought. "I'd like to say something like 'we are not kids anymore' or that we simply grew out of those feelings, but I guess in truth- it may just be that we still are children. Clinging to our pride to the point that it makes us miserable."

Goddard nodded, and made notes in the thousands of microscopic super computers that made his brain. It had surprised Goddard, when his master had asked him to download data on human psychology so that he could act as a therapist- although he guessed that it made sense in a way. Jimmy and Goddard had been through a lot together. They knew each other. Goddard loved Jimmy in the same way any human being would love their closest friend, and Jimmy knew it. He also returned the sentiment.

Jimmy had been alone for the better part of his life- not finding friends in Carl or Sheen until he was in grade school. He had created Goddard to be his dog and his companion. And also, a friend. In all honesty, Jimmy didn't really know when or how Goddard had managed to gain self-awareness, but it never stopped them from being friends.

Nothing could.

Goddard flickered the lights in his eyes. His signal for Jimmy to continue. "We're fifteen years old now, Goddard. I know, technically, that sill makes us children. But... everybody else is growing up at an alarming rate. Even I have. Although, I'm still not quite as tall as Vortex..." he stopped mid-sentence, and shook his head to get the images of Cindy out of his head. "It seems as if this condition of mine is getting worse, every day. It was hard enough when we were ten, but now... Well, you've seen her Goddard. She's hardly an unattractive specimen."

Jimmy ran his hands through his long brown hair, and sighed. Goddard could tell what he was trying to say. Jimmy was barely able to so much as look at Cindy without blushing furiously. And while it seemed to make everybody else laugh- it wasn't as much fun for him. In fact, it had reached the point that seeing her- and feeling his heart begin to speed up, and his brain seem to shut down... It was beginning to feel torturous.

It had begun to hurt. Really hurt. And there seemed to be nothing he could do about it. No matter how much time and energy he put into trying to keep a bottle on these feelings, they just kept on coming back with a horrible vengeance. He had tried a few experiments, of course. He had tried hypnosis, and manipulating the chemicals in his brain- but he simply couldn't seem to do anything to his feelings for Cindy. They were too deeply imbued into his psyche. They were just as much a part of him as his smarts, and fascination with space.

"She has begun to take over my every thought. No matter what I'm doing- there always seems to be a part of me that is thinking about nothing but her. It's unhealthy. I know. I know that this is starting to spiral into an obsession but- what am I supposed to do about it, Goddard?" he asked. Goddard's chest opened, and a line of green computer text ran across the screen. But Jimmy didn't need to read it. He knew what Goddard was going to say already.

"Yeah, yeah. Get into a relationship with her. Become boyfriend and girlfriend and live happily ever after- ... You and I both know that it won't work out that way. I've seen the future- and no matter what I do, we will always have problems. She deserves better than anything I can give her... So what's the point in even trying anymore? I just... I just want to give it all up. The arguing... the sleepless nights I get thinking about her... the uh-... dreams..."

"I know I do not need to remind you of this, Jimmy. But hundreds of young people go through this sort of thing every day. And most of them seem to fare well." Goddard's robotic voice jarred the silence of the lab room. Jimmy nodded, and sighed for the umpteenth time. It seemed like he did a lot of that whenever he started thinking about Cindy.

"Yes, I do know that. I see it every day at school. Couples being made and couples breaking up. I guess a large part of me doesn't want to end up like them with Cindy. Not just because of the inevitability of our breaking up- but because I still want to be different. I don't want to be just another helpless teenager cluelessly suffering through puberty. But that seems to be what I have become." said Jimmy. "Is that simply another part of my arrogant personality- that I have to be different and better than everybody else?"

Goddard voice shook the air again. "Of course not. Individualism is something that all human beings aspire too." Although Goddard's voice was robotic, it still seemed too resonate with compassion. Goddard hated seeing Jimmy like this. He wanted to see Jimmy and Cindy together forever after more than anybody. But Jimmy was too focused on logic. He was too scared of being vulnerable. And to top it off, Jimmy already knew all of these things about himself- and all he seemed to be able to do about it was constantly berate himself.

Jimmy sighed, and sat up on the therapist's couch that he had made especially for this situation.

"There's another reason why I asked you to do this for me." Jimmy admitted. Goddard had though as much. Jimmy had been thinking about all of this by himself for a long time- so something had to have happened to make him suddenly ask Goddard to play psychiatrist.

"Nick and Cindy started dating today."

He let the sentence hang in the air for a bit. Somehow, actually saying it made it feel more real. More painful.

Goddard's lower jaw fell, hanging just barely on its hinges. Well no wonder Jimmy had seemed so withdrawn lately. Goddard knew that it couldn't have just been about the failures he'd been suffering lately in the lab- or the fact that he was too busy to leave Earth any more.

Sure, this could simply be another plan that Cindy had concocted to make Jimmy finally buckle down and admit that he like her but-... even if it was, it still had to hurt. They hadn't spoken to each other for a year now- well, nothing beyond the occasional argument that is- since Cindy's thirteenth birthday party. With this much of a distance between them, it was more than plausible that Cindy really had gotten over what little 'thing' she had for him, and moved on.

Goddard knew otherwise. Cindy's feelings for him were easily just as strong as his. But something inside of Jimmy just couldn't accept that. Maybe it was his low self-esteem rearing its ugly head again. Maybe it was something even deeper. Neither of them knew anymore.

Jimmy stood up, his fast action taking Goddard by surprise.

"THIS IS RIDICULOUS!" he yelled, his face beginning to go red with fury. "PUKIN' PLUTO- HOW LONG HAS IT BEEN SINCE THE LAST TIME I SPENT A DAY WITHOUT WORRYING ABOUT STUFF LIKE THIS! WHY HAVE I BECOME SO-... so..." he trailed off again. His voice began to waver, as his eye began to overflow with tears.

"Weak... so... weak..." he mumbled to himself.

Jimmy left the room, angrily wiping away the tears on his sleeves. He had disabled alien star-destroyers that were less complicated than this. All of this emotion... it was getting tangled up like a box of old cords- and it just seemed completely endless.

"Jimmy... Are you okay?" Goddard asked.

Jimmy winced at the sound of Goddard's voice. Again, despite it being completely mechanical, he could hear the worry behind it. "Sorry, Goddard. It's just too frustrating... It's easy for everybody else to talk about how frustrating it is that we don't just get together. But- look at me. I'm a mess. I'm not fit to be in a relationship. I'm not even sure I can make her happy anymore." he said, sadly.

If Goddard could have, he would have 'gulped'. He had heard this sort of talk before. He had been lucky that he had been able to talk Jimmy out of it- with help from Carl and Sheen. But Goddard had never seen Jimmy this low before. And he was afraid that even with the help of his mother- he might not be able to save him this time.

As Goddard had feared, Jimmy began to rummage through the draws underneath the giant computer screen, until he found it. It was the old Brain Drain helmet that he had used to turn himself into a 'normal boy'. After brushing away some of the dust that had collected on the surface of it, he turned it around. On the back of it was a special addition that he had put onto it a week after Cindy's birthday party.

'The Emoti-Drain' were the words scrawled across it. Underneath it was a dial, and a few numbers.

"Do remember the night I made this, Goddard?" he asked. Goddard nodded behind him, his ears drooping behind his head. Yes, Goddard remembered perfectly. It was after Cindy's birthday. Jimmy had given her a 'Neutronic Necklace' as her birthday present. It was a golf-ball sized atom, with large protons swirling around it at all times. He had spent the better part of the year crafting it for her, along with a string of diamonds to act as its chain.

One evening, after a particularly nasty fight, Cindy took the necklace in her hands, and threw it into the gutter. It fell into the depths almost in slow motion. Jimmy had stopped yelling then. He just stared at the gutter with a blank look on his face. In truth, it felt like he had been hit by a truck. In fact, part of him would have preferred that rather than watch Cindy throw away what he had dedicated eight long months into creating just for her.

Of course, he didn't let it show. He just yelled at her lightly for being an idiot- and Cindy did the same. But later that night, Jimmy had searched through the entire sewage system until he finally recovered the atom.

Holding it in his hands, he felt as if his heart had been ripped to shreds. Maybe Cindy didn't know how much he had put into his present for her. How much meaning it had for him... but that only made him feel worse. The pain stayed inside of him for the rest of the week, churning whenever he saw her. She was so care-free... and it made him feel like an idiot.

And if there was one thing that Jimmy Neutron didn't like, it was feeling like an idiot.

One night, Carl and Sheen both received an emergency call from Goddard. Jimmy was about to do something drastic. Jimmy was about to delete his emotions for good. So that he would never have to feel anything again. No more pain, no more joy... just nothing. Sheen and Carl reacted surprisingly quickly- and it was one of the few times when Goddard actually understood why Jimmy was friends with these two weirdoes'.

They were good kids. And they understood the pain of being an outcast better than anybody else.

It had taken a lot of convincing on their part, to stop Jimmy from going through with his plans. And neither of them had ever spoken about it since.

Jimmy stared at the helmet for another few seconds, and then... he put it back. And locked the draw. Then, he moved himself lazily onto his computer chair and sat back on it- taking a few short deep breaths.

"It's not like I'm the victim here..." he muttered to himself. "I do just as much to Cindy as she does to me. Well, maybe not quite as much but... My hands are not clean..." Slowly staring back up at the computer screen, he motioned for Goddard to join him. Goddard happily jumped on top of his master/friends lap. Jimmy had upgraded him with enough light metal that he longer weighed as much as a car- so Jimmy barely flinched when Goddard settled down.

"I'm sorry that I make you worry like this so much, boy..." he said. "What do you say we watch some more footage from the future?" he asked. Goddard nodded, and laid his head down. After a few more minutes, he would drift into sleep mode. It felt like the drama for the night was over- and everything was steadily going back to its peaceful norm.

Jimmy smiled, and turned on the computer screens 'Future-O-Vision'.

Maybe, one day- Jimmy might see a future that really did end with him and Cindy living happily ever after. And maybe it would give him the confidence he needed to tell her- that she was the single most important thing in his life. And without her, he didn't know how he could possibly continue to exist.

Maybe.

But for now, he would continue on with his usual regimen. Finish high school with his friends, go to college... Take over NASA and rub his hands together nefariously as he smiled evilly. He would continue to live as much as he could without her. And then one day- if he ever saw hope. If he could be certain that he could be the person that he felt Cindy deserved...

Then he would go for it. And find himself in a whole new world of adventure.

And hopefully... It wouldn't be too late.

...

It wasn't.

...

(AN: Ah, that was a lot of fun. I've been a Jimmy Neutron fan since the movie, but I haven't been able to finish a good JN story before. So this is a first for me. Please Read, and Please Review. Also, let me know if you think that I should expand on this and make it into a multichap- or maybe just leave it as it is. Thanks for reading!)