Light poured into the room from the large window as a fresh morning breeze blew through the air. The light sound of wrestling leaves could be heard, as tiny birds chirped happily as they flew by.
Across the room, a lumpy figure lay motionless in the bed against the far wall. A faint snoring sound echoed in the room from beneath the covers, as tiny curls stuck out from the top of the blankets.
A loud bang woke Justin from his slumber, his head shooting up from the pillow. His tired eyes squinted to look around the room dazed and confused. His curly hair stuck out in every direction, as he squirmed in his bed to find the source of the noise.
Turning to look over by his closet, Justin groaned before allowing his head to fall back to the pillow.
"Lois, what the hell are you doing in my room?" he whined sleepily.
"Your laundry." she answered plainly.
Justins head shot up from the pillow again, as he turned to look at her strangely. "Why the crap are you doing my laundry?"
"Because." she said as she picked up a pair of his underwear from the floor between her thumb and forefinger and tossed them into a basket at her side. "Gross." she grumbled before addressing Justin again. "It was one of your coupons, remember?"
"But I didn't ask you to do the laundry yet." he said, rolling over onto his back. Throwing his head back onto the pillow again, he rubbed his hands over his face. "I don't wanna waste my coupons."
"Well, Justin, they do have an expiry date!" Lois mentioned as she kicked at a sock on the floor. "Don't you ever pick up your laundry? Or at least put it in a basket so I wouldn't have to actually touch your grimy understuff?" she whined.
"Then don't do it! I didn't use my coupon yet!" he yelled as he shot her a look.
"No, but your mom did. She had some errands to run, and asked me to come over and keep an eye on you. I asked if there was anything that needed done, and she said only the laundry but that she would do it when she got back. I said I would because you had a coupon. She thought I was a little odd but when I showed her the coupon book, she figured it all out." Lois smiled proudly before picking up a pair of Justins jeans from the chair in the corner to add to the basket.
"Hey, that was my coupon!" Justin whined.
"There is no rule that it is nontransferable, Justin. And you better keep an eye on your Free Foot Rub. By Lois. coupon because Joeys been whining that he wants one too." she commented as she placed the basket of laundry at the foot of his bed.
Justin looked around his room for a moment. She had gathered everything that he had thrown around. Even the stuff that wasn't dirty. Maybe this Lois/Slave thing wasn't going to be so bad. He wondered if there was a Free Slave for a Year. By Lois. coupon in that book somewhere.
"Why are you taking care of me today?" Justin asked as he turned back to Lois. "Where's Ryan?"
"She had some family stuff to do. She hasn't seen them much since your accident, so she figured that if I was here, she could go and see them."
Justin nodded.
Looking down, he was suddenly very aware that he was in bed. His in underwear. With Lois in the room.
Pulling the covers up to his neck, Justin gave her a look of warning. "You didn't try to sneak a peak at me while I was sleeping, did you?"
Lois rolled her eyes at him before picking up the basket of laundry to balance on her hip. "Please. I have no desire to see lil' Lake."
"What do you mean little!" Justin pouted playfully.
Giving him a sly smile, Lois winked. "Remember Justin. I dress you for a living."
Justins jaw dropped open as she laughed and left the room to do the laundry.
Justin flopped back into his bed, sighed loudly. Why on earth his mother would leave him in the care of Lois was beyond him.
After laying in bed for a little while longer, Justin decided it was time to start another day. It was already eleven in the morning, and Justin knew that Lois would probably bitch at him for sleeping so late.
Things had gotten a little easier for him since he had come home two weeks ago. He still had trouble from time to time, but for the most part he was able to do everything he normally would without much help.
He rolled out of bed and hopped into the bathroom for a quick, and awkward, shower. After throwing on a pair of hospital pants and a t-shirt, Justin hobbled downstairs to find Lois making lunch.
"Dude!" he whined as he hopped into the kitchen. "I didn't use my food coupon yet!"
"Shut up, Justin." Lois called as he stirred the macaroni noodles in the pot. "This is a freebee."
Justins eyes were wide with shock. "Are you feeling okay?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Because, you're actually taking care of me."
"I know." Lois said, her brow furrowing in confusion. She thought for a moment before shrugging it off. "Eh, I'm having a weak moment."
Justin grinned at her before sliding over to stand over her as she cooked the Kraft Dinner.
"Stop it Justin!" she yelled.
"What!"
"Hanging over my shoulder!" she said, turning to flick a noodle at him. "I hate that!"
Justin made a face at her before turning to hobble away. "Fine." he pouted.
Looking down at his pants, Lois got an evil idea. Before she had the chance to talk herself out of it, she reached down and yanked on his pants, pulling them to his knees. Thank God he had underwear on.
"Lois!" Justin whined as he tried helplessly to get his pants back up. "I thought you were going to be nice to me!"
"The moment has passed." she shrugged before turning back to the food.
Justin pouted as he pulled his pants back up and hobbled over to sit at the table.
They sat in silence for a while before Justin spoke up.
"I'm bored" he whined.
"So go do something." Lois said plainly.
"Like what?"
"I don't know, Justin!" she exclaimed. "Build a puzzle, read a book, count the ceiling tiles, I don't care. I'm cooking here, so either stop whining, or go whine in the living room."
Justin pouted quietly at the table for a long while. Crossing his arms over his chest, he stuck his lip out in a huff.
Turning to look out the window behind him, Justin thought of Doc.
He had spoken to Doc a few times over the phone since coming home, but hadn't had the chance to go and visit him yet. They were still planning a 'jail break' as Doc liked to put it. A day of fun where both of them could just kick back and forget their problems. Now all they needed was to actually do it.
Justin made a mental note to talk to Ryan about a Doc Day of Fun as soon as he saw her.
"Okay, here ya go." Lois said as she placed a huge plate of macaroni and cheese in front of Justin.
He looked down at the massive amount of noodles before raising his eyes to Lois.
"How the hell much do you think I can eat, woman!"
"Ive seen you eat, Justin. You will probably eat all that plus mine, so shut up and eat it." she said as she turned to fill her own plate.
Justin looked back down at his plate for a moment before whining. "Where's the ketchup?"
"Eeww, Justin, you're not going to put ketchup on your 'roni." she said as she placed a glass of water in front of him.
"I can if I wanna! And don't call it 'roni! You know I hate that!" he whined.
"Roni, roni, roni, roni, roni, roni, roni, roni, roni!" Lois taunted from across the table.
Justin covered his ears, closed his eyes, and began to yell steadily to block out the sound of Lois' chanting.
"Alalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalaaaaaaaaa!"
"Roni, roni, roni, roni, roni, roni, roni, roni, roni!"
"Alalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalaaaaaaaaa!"
"Roni, roni, roni, roni, roni, roni, roni, roni, roni!"
"What the hell is going on in here?" a new voice entered the room.
Lois stopped chanting 'roni' to turn and see Joey standing at the doorway to the kitchen, looking at the two strangely.
Justin continued to yell, oblivious to the fact that Joey was now in the room.
"Alalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalaaaaaaaaa!"
Lois turned her attention back to Justin, and threw a noodle at his head. It hit him in the middle of his forehead, causing his eyes to shoot open in surprise.
"Quit throwing food at me!" he whined as he threw a noodle back at her.
"Enough!" Joey yelled before Lois had the chance to throw another noodle at Justin.
Justin looked up to finally notice him.
"Oh, hey man." he smiled sheepishly.
"Hey, Justin. Good to see you're behaving yourself." Joey teased as he walked up to sit beside Lois.
"He's being a brat." Lois commented as she glared at him from across the table.
"She's being a bad baby sitter!" Justin whined.
"Brat!"
"Bad baby sitter!"
Joey rolled his eyes at the two. Why he was friends with them made his head hurt. And the fact that he and Lois were now more than friends made him think that he belonged in a loony bin.
"That's it!" Joey yelled, reaching out to cover Lois' mouth with his hand. "Don't make me separate you two!"
Pulling Joeys hand away from her mouth, Lois looked over at him with a sly smile. "I love it when you're assertive." she said in a seductive voice.
"Don't make me punish you, either." Joey replied in the same tone.
Justin looked between the two before speaking up. "Um, you guys. I would just like to remind you that I am all jacked up and gimpy and stuff, therefore I'm not able to run away very fast, so if ya'll are gonna get freaky, at least give me a head start to get out before I see stuff that may scar me for life, mmkay?"
Lois shot Justin an annoyed look before standing to get Joey a plate of noodles.
As she set the plate in front of Joey, she slid a bottle of ketchup across at Justin. He smiled happily at the bottle before flipping the top and smothering his noodles in red goop.
"Eeewwww...." Lois whined as she looked at Justins plate.
"Yum!" he smiled as the bottle spurt ketchup on the table. "Ooops." Sliding his finger along the mess, he scooped it up and popped his finger in his mouth.
"EEEEWWWW!" Lois cried as she turned away from the scene in front of her.
The phone rang and broke Justins concentration on the destruction of his noodles. "Yay! Someone's calling me!"
"Not if they know you." Lois said as she walked over and picked the phone up from the stand on the wall. "Hello."
"Lois?" Ryans voice called through the phone. "You sound so far away. Where are you?"
Looking over at Joey, Lois smiled. "With my Superman. What good Lois isn't?"
Ryan laughed through the phone. "Is Justin awake?"
"Yeah, do you wanna talk to him?"
"No. Listen, I'm at the hospital. Don't tell Justin, but I'm picking up Doc for the day. He and Justin had a little plan to hang out after he got out, but they haven't don't it yet. So I figured now it as good a time as any." Ryan called through the static of her cell phone.
Lois smiled. "Okay, sounds like fun."
"Yeah, so could you make sure that Justin is ready to go in about half an hour. But don't let him know what we're doing. Don't even act like he's leaving the house. Just at least make him get dressed." Ryan laughed.
"Consider it done." Lois assured.
"Great. See you in a little while."
"See ya."
Hanging up the phone, Lois returned to the table.
"Who was that?" Justin asked as he slid a fork full of noodles into his mouth Ketchup stuck to his chin, which he wipe away messily.
"Ryan." Lois stated as she sat back in her chair.
Justins eyes went wide, as another dribble of ketchup slid down his chin. "What? Why didn't she talk to me?"
"I guess she didn't want to." Lois shrugged. Looking up at him, she rolled her eyes at the mess he was making. "Justin, for Christ sake, wipe your chin!"
Justin pouted for a moment before doing as he was asked. "Why didn't she want to talk to me?" he whined.
"She was in a hurry. She just wanted to make sure that you were awake and alright." Lois lied.
Justin seemed to buy her fib, as he filled another fork full of his ketchupy mess.
"Justin, are you planning on actually getting dressed today?" she asked.
Looking down at his clothes, Justin looked confused. "I'm naked! Oh shit!" he joked.
"Am I screaming? No. Therefore, you are not naked."
Justins jaw dropped at her comment as Joey laughed beside her.
"Good one." Joey grinned at her.
Justin pouted for a moment. "I'm not going anywhere, so why would I change. I'm comfy."
"Because. I may drag you out for a little walk-slash-hobble later on for exercise." she lied again.
Justin sat quietly in his seat for a minute, absent mindedly flicking his noodles around his plate.
"Fine" he finally answered.
Lois smiled proudly at herself. Ryan made it clear that Justin not know about the little day of fun he was about to have, and Lois wasn't sure how to convince him to actually change into more than hospital pants and a t-shirt without making him suspicious.
She must have momentarily forgotten her ability to trick him so easily.
The boy didn't stand a chance against her.
