Ignorance is bliss, but bliss is boring

The walkie-talkies were Bo’s idea.

Whatever had happened since she’d last seen Woody, at his core he was still the same toy. No matter how ready he was to strike out on his own, or how certain he was that his friends could handle things without him, he was always going to worry about them. Knowing about Sunnyside, and about the motel where they’d almost been lost, who could blame him? But she could also see how proud he was of them, everything he owed to them. He could never have handed Jessie his badge if he didn’t see it, too. 

Jessie embodied everything that made his decision so hard, as well as everything that made it possible at all. He was the one who’d brought her to Andy’s room to begin with, and had always felt some responsibility for everything that happened to her since. Most recently it was the motel, where, as Bo understood it, she had put herself in a box and faced down a giant lizard to save everyone. He beamed talking about how brave she’d been, but it wasn’t lost on him for a second what it meant for her to do that. Buzz had been terrified for her. Bullseye had stayed by her side for three days straight after finding out about it, despite her insisting she was okay. Bo was hardly surprised that Jessie had it in her, but she would have been equally proud to see it for herself. 

Darn it, she missed those guys too.

They had been a prize left behind by some kids at the carnival site. Hardly used, fresh batteries. It was a long drive to 1225 Sycamore, but the look on Woody’s face when she showed him the walkies labelled “W” and “J” was worth the detour. ***

So far, Woody hadn’t been much help. All he’d really done was endure ridicule from everyone in the room and unplug a charger from the wall. He still didn’t know what the deputy situation really was, if he should have been there at all, but he certainly wasn’t going to back out now. He was confident they could get something out of Lily in the morning, but for now, they had a long night ahead. 

Buzz was staring at the outlet and anxiously tapping his index finger against his knee, and the sound of clicking plastic was getting annoyingly loud. Woody fought the instinct to whack Buzz’s hand with his hat and instead tried to empathize.

“Buzz,” he said. “We’re gonna find her.”

Buzz stopped tapping. “She’s been gone for one day, and I let everything fall apart. No wonder she asked you to come.”

“I’m not even sure she did.”

Buzz looked incredulously in his direction. “What?”

Woody pinched the bridge of his nose. “I dunno,” he said. “It was…staticky. I didn’t catch everything she said.”

“‘Staticky?’”

“Yes, ‘staticky.’ I know I heard somethin’ about –”

“So you’re not even supposed to be here?!”

“Look,” he hissed. “I don’t know what happened, and maybe I don’t know how to fix this, but so far I’ve done more than you.”

Buzz’s face darkened.

“I’m sorry,” Woody said. “I’m just –”

“Why did you come back?”

He frowned and stared at the nightlight across the room for a moment.

“Do you remember when Molly started first grade, and she couldn’t read as fast as the other kids?”

Buzz raised an eyebrow.

“She thought she was never gonna get it, thought there was somethin’ wrong with her. But Andy helped her every day after school until she was reading chapter books by herself. And even when she was getting all As and Bs, he kept offering to proofread her homework until she yelled at him to quit asking.” He sighed. “I guess that’s what I’m doing here.”

Buzz smirked and put a hand on Woody’s shoulder. “You’re a good brother.”

He rolled his eyes. It had long since stopped meaning anything for him to remind everybody that Jessie wasn’t literally his sister. They would all keep saying it anyway, if only to annoy the two of them. 

He nudged Buzz’s arm with his elbow. “You’ll make a good brother-in-law.”

Buzz took his hand off and shook his head. “Sure,” he said. “If she can forgive all her friends being boxed up under my watch.”

“Buzz, c’mon. You don’t really think she’ll hold all this against you.”

“I don’t know what to think. Even if everything wasn’t a complete mess, I don’t know if I could actually ask the question.”

“You're too shy to tell her how ya feel? I don’t believe it.”

“I’ve done it a million different ways in my head,” he said, ignoring the overwrought sarcasm. “I’m trying to be creative, and it all just sounds stupid.”

“So don’t be creative.”

“I keep catching her at the wrong time, anyway.”

“Your relationship has always been based on ideal timing.”

“Woody –”

“Lemme ask you somethin’, ranger. Why now?”

Buzz just blinked.

“It’s not like you’ll get a tax break out of it. You said it yourself: it’s pretend. Won’t change anything. So why do it at all?”

Buzz narrowed his eyes and thought hard for a moment. “We miss you around here, but we all know you belong with Bo. You couldn’t give her up again, could you?”

Woody shook his head.

“And she knows that, because you already left everything else behind for her. I want Jessie to know I’d do the same thing if it came to it.”

“She knows, Buzz.”

“I know she’s terrified she’ll end up alone again.”

Woody’s face fell.

“And I can’t picture her being out of my life. She makes me feel so sure about everything. So if she wants me there…well, I want to be there.”

Woody chuckled quietly. He thought back to when Bo had found out Buzz and Jessie were together. She’d been annoyed at how long they’d taken, though ecstatic that they were there at all. She’d also guessed that, once over the impossible hurdle of an open conversation, anyone just meeting them would assume they’d been together from the beginning.