Fan Fiction - Written by Doug Fowler - Book Universe

"You forgot I was your sister an' you kept doin' stuff with another girl!"

Stephanie smiled warmly and simply reminded Michelle why the nightmare had likely happened, just as the doctor had suggested months earlier. "It's scary to think about how someone can just forgot everything, like you did with that amnesia after your horse riding accident." Michelle nodded. "I promise, I would never forget you."

"I know." Michelle sniffled, then grinned a little. "It was kind of like when Mandy moved here last winter, really."

"You made it rough on Cassie. But, now you're all three best friends, huh?" Michelle and Cassie had been best friends since Kindergarten, but Michelle had really wanted Mandy to feel welcome, since she was so new. Michelle had done some things - like lying to Cassie and then having a sleepover at Mandy's instead of Cassie's - that she later regretted a lot. Thankfully, she had figured out a way to get Cassie and Mandy to co-operate, and now all three were best friends.

The ironic part was that Stephanie hadn't even been able to do that in Michelle's nightmare. She knew Stephanie would in real life. But, the brain did weird things when one dreamed.

"Is everything okay?" came the whisper from the door. Their dad, Danny Tanner, had poked his head into the room. The girls' mother had died when Michelle was a baby, and Stephanie was only five. Now, they lived there along with their older sister D.J., eighteen, their dad, his best friend Joey, and their Uncle Jesse, Aunt Becky, and the couple's four-year-old twins, Nicky and Alex.

"It's fine, Dad. Michelle just had a little nightmare. Thankfully she's only had a few - and she hasn't had one in a couple months, so even the scariest part of that accident has pretty much gone away." The three chuckled. "I better stop, or I'll just keep rambling till it's time to get up," she chided herself.

"You're good at that," Michelle said with a smile.

"That's right, you two get some sleep." Danny left, satisfied that Stephanie had things under control. Michelle had clung to her a little more than she had the others her first couple weeks after the accident. Indeed, just before a nap when she remembered everything, she recalled Stephanie first. In particular, she'd remembered how Stephanie had helped her feel comfortable in among a true group of strangers, her first day of Kindergarten.

As long as it wasn't too draining, they let Stephanie handle little things like this. Besides, the sisters were really bonding. While there were arguments, they were mild, the kind good friends had. Both seemed to realize a very close, lifelong friendship was slowly forming.

"Can I come in bed with you?" Michelle asked.

Stephanie smiled. The accident had been very scary for her, too. She decided, "Why not. I love being a big sister. And I sure wouldn't act like my little one," she teased as they walked over to Stephanie's bed.

"I know. Dreams are just nuts sometimes."

Once they laid down, they couldn't sleep. So, while Stephanie usually laid down the law and made Michelle be quiet and close her eyes, this time she said amicably, "Okay, it is Friday night. Well, Saturday morning. If we just whisper I guess we can talk for a few minutes."

"Yeah. Just like when I was little. I sure liked bugging you," came the voice with the impish grin.

"You can say that again."

"You've always been a great sport about it, though."

"Thanks. I try." Happy that her sister remembered all of her past again, Stephanie joined Michelle in reminiscing about former fun times.

Nine-year-old Stephanie felt a little frustrated. Her baseball practice had been rained out. However, at least there was always something fun to do around her house.

She walked up to the room she and her sister D.J. shared. And what did she find?

Their younger sister, Michelle, four-and-a-half, was eating cookies. In Stephanie's bed!

"Michelle, why are you eating cookies in my bed?!" Stephanie scolded her.

"If I eat them in my room I'd get crumbs in my bed. I can't sleep on crumbs," Michelle explained matter-of-factly.

Stephanie held out her hands. "Michelle, that's not the point." Her eyebrows narrowed as Michelle finished the last of her cookies. "What makes you think I can stand crumbs in my bed?"

"You didn't mind when I ate a cupcake here."

"You ate a cupcake in my bed?" Stephanie exclaimed, walking slowly toward Michelle.

The preschooler nodded. She held up Stephanie's pillow, and revealed a smudge of chocolate on the bottom. "Yesterday before you got home from school. See this icing?"

"Michelle, I can see that. You know Dad doesn't like us eating up here. He might yell at me for that."

"He didn't when I ate ice cream in here."

Stephanie put her hand to her forehead and spoke slowly. "Wait a minute. You ate ice cream in my bed, too?"

"I didn't want it on my animals."

An exasperated groan left Stephanie's mouth. "Michelle, what am I going to do with you?"

Michelle clapped her hands to get the last crumbs off of them. "I don't know."

"Michelle, I don't want you to eat anything more in my bed! Is that understood?!"

"I can't. I don't have any more," she said matter-of-factly, holding out her hands.

Later, she, D.J., and their dad would talk with Michelle about where it was okay to eat and where not. Now, Stephanie was too riled up. She wouldn't hit, but as she stepped slowly toward her sister, one thought crossed her mind about what she could do.

"Ha, ha, hee hee, tee hee," shrieked Michelle, as thousands of tickle bugs seemed to descend upon her at once. The "tickle monster' was on the prowl.

Michelle pounced upon a short lull and began to tickle Stephanie. Though Michelle got the worst of the tickle war, both were out of breath and overcome with giggles after several minutes.

Stephanie and Michelle laid on Stephanie's bed, laughing and trying to catch their breath after that tickle war. Stephanie had made Michelle laugh harder than she could remember.

"Phew." Stephanie let out a gust of air. "That's kind of fun sometimes. But, boy, it makes you tired, doesn't it?"

Michelle inhaled deeply. "Yeah. And hungry." She thought for a second. "I need another cookie." She got up and began running out the door.

"Not without me," Stephanie said as she ran after her. "This time we're both eating them downstairs."

Michelle tossed and turned. The five-year-old still couldn't get to sleep, though. So, she turned toward her nearly ten-year-old sister.

"Hey, Stephanie," she said lowly. "Could you get me some cookies?"

"Michelle," Stephanie said in a tired voice, "I'm sleeping."

"Then how can you talk to me?"

Stephanie rolled her eyes. "Michelle, first of all, I am answering your question. Second, I am not getting you cookies, because you are grounded from dessert - that means you can't have any sweets for a few days after what you did."

"That's why I want you to get them."

"No, Michelle. You're not even supposed to be awake at this hour."

"Neither are you." Stephanie sighed and rolled her eyes as Michelle continued. "D.J. only uses letters."

"Everyone uses letters, Michelle," Stephanie mumbled. She rolled over in her bed, trying desperately to ignore the situation and think about her tenth birthday party coming up soon.

"I mean in her name, silly." Michelle got out of bed, and walked over to Stephanie while talking. "Uncle Jesse and Joey use 'j'. Daddy has a 'd' just like D.J.. We were doing letter people with our families. I said we've got lots of them."

"That's super," Stephanie said with a resigned voice. She then pretended to snore.

"My letter person is any ice cream with 'm' and then 'Michelle.' What's yours?"

Stephanie noticed Michelle trying to sneak out the door, thinking Stephanie was asleep. Stephanie instead sat up like a shot. "If you sneak downstairs to grab anything I'll be Stephanie who sits her sister in the corner for timeout."

Michelle scurried back toward her bed. She knew Stephanie would do just that. As D.J. had said to her once, she'd much prefer to lay in a warm, cozy bed and dream sweet dreams than sit on a cold, hard chair and look at a wall.

Once back in bed, she repeated, "What's your letter person?"

"Oh, I don't know. Smiling Stephanie."

"If you do that you have to smile."

Stephanie began to hold her hands to her head, as if she had a headache. She then spouted, "Michelle, I do not have to smile when I say I'm 'Smiling Stephanie.' We're not in your Kindergarten class right now. We are in our bedroom, and I am trying to sleep."

Michelle thought the sound at the start of sleep was similar to the sound that began Stephanie. "Does 'sleep' begin with 's,' too?"

Stephanie nodded very tiredly. "As a matter of fact, it does."

"You could be 'Sleeping Stephanie,' then."

"Yes, I could. I could. In fact, that's what I'd like to be right now."

"But, you can't."

"Why not?!"

"You're not sleeping."

Stephanie arched her eyebrows and gave an exasperated sigh as she ducked her head under her covers.

Michelle was seven, and had a question that she just couldn't quite answer.

She noticed Stephanie laying and reading on the family couch in the living room. A big sister would know this one. D.J. would, too, but Stephanie was right there.

"Why did she eat all those animals?"

After Michelle repeated the query, Stephanie laid her book down. "Michelle," she said, slightly annoyed, "I'm trying to read something for school here."

"That's okay." Michelle sat in a chair and said, "I just want to know why she ate them."

"Michelle, you're not making any sense," Stephanie said as she sat up. "Why did who eat all what animals?"

"You know, that old lady."

Stephanie shook her head and picked up her book again. "Go ask D.J.. Maybe she'll be able to understand you."

However, D.J. was walking through the living room with her boyfriend, Steve, at that moment. "D.J., why did that old lady eat all those animals?" Michelle asked her.

"What, was this like a pig roast or something? I can't believe I missed it," Steve said. He had an enormous appetite.

"She didn't eat any pigs, Steve. She started with a fly."

"Oh, yeah, the old lady who swallowed a fly," D.J. said, a light bulb seeming to go on above her head.

"Hello, I'm trying to read here," Stephanie said. "Please talk somewhere else."

The others paid no attention. Steve, especially, was interested in this lady. "You know, I always thought that sounded like my grandmother. She used to eat a lot for her age."

"Is the song about her?" Michelle asked.

"That's right, it is," Stephanie said, putting her book down more forcefully. "You three go upstairs and you can ask Steve all about it."

Joey had been entering the room at the time. He was a professional comedian, and at that moment he was carrying a woodchuck puppet named Mr. Woodchuck.

"Ask him about what?" Joey wanted to know. Stephanie scrunched her eyes shut as she tried to bury her head in the book.

"The lady in that song. She ate a lot," Michelle explained.

"You know, 'I know an old lady who swallowed a fly,'" D.J. explained.

Michelle turned to Stephanie and asked, "Why would she swallow the goat?"

Stephanie turned from her book this time and looked directly at Michelle. "Michelle, she swallowed the goat to catch the dog."

"She swallowed the dog to catch the cat," Joey sang. As the rest of the family sang the other verses, Stephanie sat and buried her head in her hands.

"Thank you for that musical interruption. Now, I have to read this book for school, and I would like some peace and quiet," Stephanie insisted.

Michelle held out her hands. "But that part doesn't make sense."

Stephanie's eyes narrowed and she began to form half fists as Jesse and Becky walked down from putting the twins down for their naps. "What doesn't make sense," Jesse asked.

"That song about the animals. A goat couldn't catch Comet." Comet was the family's Golden Retriever.

"Michelle!" Stephanie couldn't order everyone upstairs as easily as she could just Michelle. So, she tried to play along. "Okay, maybe it was one of those little Chihuahuas - a goat could probably catch those."

"But a Chihuahua can't catch a cat. Can it? She swallowed the dog to catch the cat."

"She swallowed the cat to catch the bird," Joey sang.

Mr. Woodchuck, the puppet, sang the rest, up to Michelle saying, "I still don't know why she swallowed the fly."

Danny walked in as Stephanie exclaimed, "Yeah, well perhaps she'll die! Michelle, I don't know if a Chihuahua can catch a cat, and I don't care!"

"I think a Chihuahua would be better at catching mice," Danny said.

"She swallowed the dog to catch a mouse?" Michelle asked with great skepticism.

"We were discussing the old lady in the song who ate lots of animals," Joey explained.

"No, you were all discussing it. I was trying to read my book," Stephanie explained, trying to hold in her frustration.

"Maybe she just thought the dog could catch the cat," Michelle suggested, tapping her chin with her finger while thinking.

"That makes sense to me," Becky agreed.

"Same here. I always thought that lady had severe dementia myself," Danny remarked as Stephanie sighed and rolled her eyes.

"What does that mean?" Michelle asked.

"It means her mind didn't work right. She forgot lots of things and thought in weird ways," D.J. explained. Stephanie's upset face was suddenly quite animated as the interruptions continued.

"Right. So, she thought she could swallow a spider to catch a fly," Jesse surmised.

"I don't know why she swallowed the fly. Perhaps she'll die," Joey sang.

"And she swallowed a cow, too. How did she do that?"

"I don't know how, but she swallowed a cow," Danny told Michelle.

"She..." Joey began to sing.

Stephanie had had enough. She held out her hands and said, "That's it. Joey, don't sing any more. None of you sing. I want to read; not hear singing. If I wanted to hear singing while I read, I would turn on the radio."

"They play that song on the radio?" Michelle asked.

"No. I don't want to hear that song. I have been interrupted with it enough already, Michelle! Right now, I would just like some peace and quiet!"

"Oh, yeah, just like the old lady had after she swallowed the horse. She's dead of course," Joey joked.

Everyone chuckled and began to disperse as Stephanie breathed a sigh of relief, rolled her eyes, and said, "Finally!"

Stephanie laid down and began to read again, once everyone had left. After a moment, she began singing lowly to herself. "I know an old lady who swallowed a fly. I don't know why..." She pounded her head, ordering the song out of her head, but fearing that it probably wouldn't get out all day now.

Stephanie Tanner smiled as she hugged her dad good night and walked into her room. The twelve-year-old fondly remembered sleepovers she'd had, starting several years ago. Their sister D.J. had probably been just as glad that Stephanie was out of their room for the night when Stephanie started being able to spend the night at friends' houses - she and D.J. had shared a room till Stephanie was close to ten.

Now, Michelle was on her first sleepover at only a few months past eight. As Stephanie crawled into bed, she considered how fast her sister was growing up.

She had begun getting quite sleepy when the phone rang. Since she'd been so scared that she'd had to come home the first time she tried to spend the night at a friend's, Stephanie picked up the phone. Danny would be trying to sleep because he was doing something special at the TV station where he worked that Saturday morning.

"Hello," Stephanie said.

"Hey, Steph," Michelle said merrily.

"Michelle, what is it? Do you feel homesick?" Stephanie asked with a little concern in her voice.

"No. I just wanted to talk to you."

"Michelle, the idea of a sleepover is that you and your friend keep each other awake talking," Stephanie explained calmly.

"I know. But, Cassie fell asleep. Can you believe that?"

"As a matter of fact, I can," Stephanie dead panned. Not only was it an hour past Michelle's bedtime for a non-school night, Stephanie was getting a little tired, too.

"Steph, are you in the bedroom? Look out the front window."

"Michelle, are you sure you're not homesick? Because if you're going to keep me awake bugging me like you sometimes do, you may as well do it at home."

"But I want to stay here." Stephanie made an exasperated noise. "Look out the window. What do you see?"

Stephanie heaved a deep sigh and looked. "It's dark out. So?"

"We learned about time zones and stuff in school. Is it as dark there as it is here?"

"Of course. Michelle, you're a couple blocks away, not a couple countries," Stephanie exclaimed, holding out her free hand.

"Oh. I wondered, because we're in the same zone. But, the sun sets earlier in Nevada than it does here."

"You're not in Nevada, you're at Cassie's house," Stephanie exclaimed. "And, if you're really not homesick, I'm tempted to call back and ask her to tickle you for me."

"Can you see Cassie's house? I'm waving, but you probably can't see my hand," Michelle remarked.

Stephanie sighed. Maybe if she pretended she could see Michelle, that would make her sister more comfortable. "Michelle, I can see Cassie's house, and I can see you're okay. Now, do you need anything else?"

Michelle yawned, and walked toward the bedroom doorway. "No, thanks, Steph. I'm going to give Mrs. Wilkins back the portable phone and go to bed now. I'm getting sleepy."

Stephanie stared at the phone after the click. She turned to her favorite stuffed animal, Mr. Bear, as it sat on her shelf. "Oh, great. Now she's going to fall asleep. And me?" She sighed as she crawled under the covers, now wide awake. "I wonder if it's too late to ask if Allie and Darcy can come over. Because I sure won't get any sleep for a while."

Michelle awakened in the middle of the night in June of the following year. She had one of those nagging questions. It was the type she knew an older sister could answer. Stephanie often chuckled at such queries. They annoyed her when they came this late. But, they brought sillier responses then. Once in a while, they even brought the correct answer. "Hey, Steph," she whispered.

The soft purr of Stephanie's snores stopped. Stephanie no longer feared that Michelle had another headache; Michelle's accident had been several weeks ago now. She simply turned and faced her. "Mmmm, what is it, Michelle?"

"Steph, I was laying here wondering - do snails dream?"

"Well, at least for girl snails, every dream involves Tom Mellon." Mellon was Stephanie's favorite teen actor. She closed her eyes, hoping that answer would satisfy Michelle.

Michelle admired Stephanie's ability to crack jokes when half asleep. However, she was serious. "Snails don't go anywhere. They're so slow, Dad passes them when driving. And, they don't have much to see down on the ground. So, what would they dream about?" At two in the morning, Michelle had known she could make Stephanie babble.

"Well, a snail has imagination; at least I think so," Stephanie rambled as she sat up on one elbow. "I mean, Comet, our dog, dreams. Maybe they dream about different colors, or strange smells. And, then you have the really dreamy ones. You've never been in space, after all, but you dreamed about being an astronaut. So, maybe . . . "

Michelle smirked and pretended to snore.

Stephanie snickered. "I talked her to sleep. What a silly question. And, what a silly answer," she considered, laughing to herself.

Stephanie rose and crept over to Michelle's bed. She sighed contentedly and lowered her head, praying silently. "I'm so thankful to have Michelle back again. Uncle Jesse was right. A part of us was missing. And, the best part is, I feel like I've gained something I never had. No matter what, Michelle will always be very special to me."

Stephanie kissed her lightly on the forehead. "Sweet dreams, my friend. I love you," she whispered before going back to bed.

Michelle smiled peacefully and turned her head. "I love you too, Steph," she said, before drifting off to sleep.

She smiled as she glanced over to Michelle's bed. Her sister had fallen asleep before Stephanie had. Apparently, Michelle had awakened in the middle of the night and gone back to her own bed.

The funny thing was, Stephanie wasn't sure how she felt about that.

She met their Aunt Becky in the kitchen as Becky dished the pancakes Jesse had made for their boys. "Hey, Aunt Becky."

"Morning, Steph. How's Michelle? Your dad needed to go get something at the station, but before he left he said she'd had a nightmare."

"She's fine." Stephanie and Becky walked over to the counter, and the young teen continued. "Aunt Becky, it's so weird. I'm really glad she felt comfortable enough to go back to her own bed in the middle of the night. But, there's part of me that feels sad about that. I don't know if it's that I liked this stage of being able to comfort her, or what?"

"Well, Steph, I think that's your maternal instinct coming through." Becky grinned. "Alex has always been the more clingy one. Nicky will wander off and do his own thing - you remember that from when you were babysitting that one time." Stephanie nodded. "But, Alex has always needed to be with one of us or, preferably, with Nicky. He normally can't get to sleep without Nicky being there."

"I know. I remember watching them a few times, and he always looked around at bedtime to make sure Nicky was there."

"Well, a few nights ago, when Nicky woke up with a fever, we brought him into our bed for a while. Alex woke up, and came into our room to ask where Nicky was. I thought for sure he'd ask to come in bed with us, too. But, he just said he was glad Nicky was okay, and then he went back to bed.

"It was weird, Steph. I felt the same thing you do. I felt like, it's great that Alex is growing up a little and doesn't have to be with Nicky at night all the time. But, part of me wants him to remain my little boy forever. The hardest thing for a mother to do is to let go sometimes. And, you feel that a little, because after Michelle's accident, in a few small ways, you were just like your mom would have been." Becky noticed Stephanie tearing up, and put an arm around her. "She'd be so proud of you."

"Thanks, Aunt Becky." Stephanie thought for a second. "I hope that doesn't mean she'll never need to come to me someday."