Laughter is the Best Medicine
Madeline Series, Version 1, Part 5
By Danielle : - )

Disclaimer: This fic contains spoilers of the episode entitled "Homefront". So if you haven't seen the ep yet, don't blame me if you read this! Everyone and everything appearing in this fic belong to NBC and MTM Entertainment, except for Madeline and her involvement in the Centre, which belong to me.

Author's Note: 12/14/98: I'd like to dedicate this fic to Ra-Chell, Sandee, AG, and Carolina, to whom, in my haste and joy at the beginning of this episode, I sent a spoiler post expressing my delight. I'm sorry if I ruined it for you, it hadn't even occurred to me that your different time zones had yet to see it. And I apologize for any mistakes and admit they belong solely to me because I want to get this out and distributed ASAP and am not sending it to my wonderful proofers AG and Nirvana like I normally would...

2/23/10: Due to additions to the series, this story was originally part 4, but it’s moving down to ensure that the new additions fall within the episode timeframes. =) I didn’t make any changes to this part other than that and fixing some spacing issues.

~*~*~*~*~

Madeline had only been at the Centre a few minutes, and had just met up with Angelo in the air vents. Before long they were cruising the vents looking for some amusement.

They came to a rest behind the vent that was just inside the door of Miss Parker's office. They could hear into the hallway and had a good view of the room.

Madeline thought she could hear Miss Parker clicking down the hall and Lyle's voice gradually got near enough for them to hear that he was upset, "... but theft. Simply taking for the taking, has always escaped me as an admirable criminal pursuit."

Madeline looked at Angelo, wondering what he meant. She soon had her answer as Miss Parker answered her brother.

"A little bitter about your car being stolen?"

Madeline opened her eyes wide in surprise, then shared a grin with Angelo.

"Ten miles on the odometer, three hours filling out police reports, five pages of insurance fine print!"

Madeline quickly brought a hand to her mouth so they wouldn't hear the laughter that threatened to make itself heard. This is too funny! she thought, but could not trust herself to speak.

She was about to leave and go somewhere she could laugh unheard when Miss Parker sweetly said, "I know it's a little late to stop the happy fellows at the chop shop this time but..." she moved to her desk, "I saw this and I immediately thought of you."

She pulled the Club out from behind her back and handed it to her brother with the biggest grin Madeline had ever seen grace her guardian's face, "Consider if a little preventative medicine."

That was it- Madeline turned and left as quickly as possible while not making too much noise. Angelo followed and as they left, she thought she heard Lyle say something about hoping to get his car back in one piece.

Once safely deep within the air vents, Madeline stopped and started laughing, a loud, deep laugh that left her gasping for breath. She laughed until tears rolled down her cheeks and her sides felt ready to split.

Angelo stared at her in confusion for a minute, then couldn't resist letting the laughter claim another victim. When Madeline heard him, she stopped momentarily to look with wonder on her friend, who was by now helpless with childlike laughter. It
gladdened her heart and soon she joined in again.

Neither could have said how long it was before they stopped laughing and lay side by side gasping for breath and pulling their sleeves down to wipe their eyes but once they had regained control, Madeline got up and said, "Come on, we might miss more."

They ended up outside Broots' room, after finding Parker's empty. Broots was speaking to Sydney, "Actually, it's fifty-nine million, nine-hundred thousand, six-hundred and twenty dollars. It's not every day we get ripped off to the exact penny!"

For the second time that day, Madeline raised her hand to her mouth to stop the burst of laughter that bubbled up in her gut when she realized that they were talking about Jarod and that he had just stolen almost $60 million dollars from the Centre. Her hand also prevented her from rejoicing at Jarod's latest attempt to taunt his former captors.

Even though Madeline had originally mistrusted Jarod, she now trusted him completely and was preparing to help him save Angelo and the rest of the children (even though he didn't know it yet).

Then Lyle came into the room and she refocused her attention on the frustrated words he spoke into the phone, "Once again; Officer, it's a black, 500 SL convertible, license plate Lyle 1... Well, it just didn't vanish."

Miss Parker came up behind him and shoved something into his chest. Madeline and Angelo couldn't tell what from their vantage point. Park grabbed the phone from her brother's hand and cheerfully and warmly said into it, "Found it. Thank you. Have a nice day." Madeline could tell she was enjoying torturing her brother.

"Jarod!" Lyle spat out.

Madeline listened happily while Broots described his invention, The Hound. Lyle wasn't listening, he was opening the package his sister had given him. He was at the perfect angle for Angelo and Madeline to clearly see what was in it. It was his license plate, they could clearly see Lyle 1 on the beat up, slightly burned metal.

Madeline and Angelo looked at each other and grinned.

Broots finished his explanation with, "Too bad it doesn't work for cars."

That was too much for Madeline to take. She barely got away fast enough before cracking up.

After that bout, she looked at Angelo and said, "If laughter really is the best medicine, then after today we are set for life, Angelo. Jarod rocks!! That's all I have to say."