Hey, Arnold! was created by Craig Bartlett. All characters and related indicia are the trademarked property of Viacom. No ownership on my part is implied nor should be inferred.

I don't own the songs or titles to any of the musical works of Electric Light Orchestra or whatever disco songs I will probably be naming titles of this story for either.

I named Helga's pet monitor lizard "Marsh" in honor of Othniel Charles Marsh: geologist, mineralogist, pioneering scientist in the field of paleontology, and one half of the bitter "Bone Wars" fought against his one time colleague and friend turned bitter enemy, Edward Drinker Cope. Marsh died in 1899 so if he's upset about me naming a lizard after him he can haunt me I guess, but I think it's kind of fitting.

The name Hannah belongs to Hannah-Kraft, and she grants me her generous permission to use her name in this story.

Shine A Little Love

By: Thundercatroar

Rated T for language and mild sexual references

A/N: I would like to dedicate this story, as well as extend a special and grateful thank you to the gargantuanly (is that a word, Kids?) talented Hannah-Kraft for her time, kindness, and immeasurable help in pushing me in the right direction. You and commas truly are my friends.

Also this story takes place in a different "dimension" it has nothing to do with continuity of the stories Shining Star, Starlight, Like Mother, Groove Tonight, or Love Indelible.

Chapter One: Evil Woman

Gerald Johannsen didn't mind a bit going to pick up some things for his injured best friend, Arnold, but he wondered how in the world fate had transpired against him to make Helga Pataki his partner in the endeavor. He would have much rather Phoebe had gone with him, but instead he was stuck with her.

However, for some unknown reason for a change, the usually belligerent girl had been civil to him during the entire affair. The pondering boy wondered if Phoebe's good natured parting joke, "It's Christmas, be nice to him, Helga." As they walked out of the Heyerdahl home had anything to do with it.

Probably not, the boy rationalized. Neither one of them had very much to say to each other on the way over to Arnold's house which suited him just fine. He hadn't seen the girl since a week ago at the hospital. After Helga's behavior then, he didn't much care if another week or even lifetime went by without his seeing her again.

Gerald was glad at least that Helga wasn't doing her best to make this errand a living hell. Things were bad enough without he and she being at each others' throats on the street, or later in the day at the hospital when they visited Arnold.

The hopeful boy continued their strained polite conversation so at there wouldn't be an uncomfortable silence. "It’s a shame that Arnold's going to be in the hospital through Christmas."

Helga nodded and replied, "Well at least Arnoldo's getting plenty of well wishes and people are coming to see him regularly, at least he's not alone you know."

Silence followed as the grateful girl pondered the events that had almost turned into a tragedy.

She was at the football game watching when it happened, she enjoyed the rough sport immensely, but watching Arnold play was the icing on the cake. She had attended every football game without fail since the football headed boy and his best friend, Gerald, made the junior varsity team the year before. It was their senior year now, and both Arnold and his best friend had received scholarships to play football for State college as a reward for their formidable talents.

The heart sick blonde was sitting in the stands with Phoebe loving every moment of the game, both of them loudly cheering like mental asylum inmates on extra dessert day for the sweet boys that they loved. Phoebe openly for her boyfriend, Gerald, and Helga still unfortunately hopelessly closeted for "her" Football Head.

As Arnold sprinted up the field like a lithe panther to the opposing team's goal with Gerald following close behind, but elation soon turned to worry when a running linebacker ducked down low and nailed Arnold at full speed. Instead of knocking him down, the force of the massive player's block made the blonde boy tumble forwards over the opposing player's back, and land with full force on his head then back.

Helga remembered the terror of watching what looked like tons of football players get off of Arnold to reveal his twisted body on the green and white striped field, not moving so much as a finger, for far too long a time than he should have.

Teammates, referees, and a medic rushed to Arnold's side touching and shouting at him trying to make him respond. When he didn't, people on the field ran to Arnold's side, some of them with cellular phones to their ears.

Helga didn't know if anyone else around her did, but she shot up from her seat in shock, and remembered someone screaming the football headed boy's name in horror. As she was about to run to the field, someone stronger than her size in purple tugged her arm and clothing keeping her down in the stands while tiny fingernails dug into her skin.

Helga had memories of something warm and salty trailing down her cheeks as an ambulance rolled onto the field and Phoebe clutched her for dear life almost in the same state.

The frightened girl clung to her best friend and helplessly watched as the limp body of the blonde boy was tended to. The worried girl remembered thinking that the blonde boy would be okay, he had to be as he was hauled up gently upon a backboard, placed upon a gurney, and then quickly shoved into the back of a brightly lit shrilly whining vehicle to speed away into the night.

That same evening she sat for hours that felt like days in a hospital waiting room with all of Arnold's friends waiting to hear the news about him.

When the boy's grandfather Phil reported the grave prognosis of a broken back and splintered neck being operated on to everyone, he also dropped the unimaginable bomb that there was a real possibility of some sort of paralysis. Everyone in attendance was thrown into devastating shock.

When hope seemed a rare commodity, a miracle occurred with surgery and the next day everyone learned to their relief that the cruel fate laid out for Arnold had been blessedly overturned. Through the skilled hands of neurosurgeons, the whim of fate, karma, a powerful deity and pure dumb luck everyone found out that the boy would heal eventually.

That didn't mean however that life would be easy for Arnold as he still had much to endure before he was well again. Due to his injuries his time as a football player was also spent.

Helga thought of the physical pain she had seen Arnold in and didn't know how he stood it without screaming. He had been in so much pain before, that he had even asked her for help with pills and water on different occasions.

The enraptured girl had to admit that it sent her to the edge of ecstasy to actually be asked to place something on his soft lips and to help him do something as simple as suck water out of a straw, but the savvy blonde girl held no illusions however. She knew the boy must have been desperate to have asked for her help, given her history of treating him badly over the years.

It broke her tender heart to see the boy she loved suffer so. The worried girl thought the emotional pain he was in sometimes worse. Not only was Arnold's thoughts consumed by mounting medical costs, but the biggest blow to date was a painfully curt, wholly unsympathetic form letter he had gotten a week before. The cold sheet of paper told Arnold in no uncertain terms or allowances for hope, that he had lost the much needed scholarship to play football for State because of his permanent injuries.

Without the scholarship, Arnold could not afford to go to school. Added to that palpable blow, the boy was ridden with guilt that his aging grandparents were facing his rising medical bills alone. For the first time in his life the boy didn't know what he was going to do next and the bleak future he envisioned had seemingly defeated him.

As a consequence, the normally optimistic boy had turned into a depressed shadow of himself. There seemed to be nothing that anyone could do or say that could drag him out of the dark slump that he was in.

And then one dark rainy night Helga had slipped out of her house against the rules of her domineering father 'Big Bob Buttcracky' undetected to keep vigil over Arnold. When she arrived and neared the door to his room, she overheard the injured boy say half jokingly and half serious to Gerald that maybe he should have died, that he would have been much better off.

For Helga, the thought of a world without Arnold Shortman in it was too much to bear.

Gerald of course berated his friend for saying such but Helga didn't stay for all of the speech he gave him.

The partial whether it was serious or not admission of defeat from the boy she worshipped disturbed and angered the surprised girl greatly.

So much so that she couldn't even bear to be in his presence that night.

Frankly, the girl didn't know if she would have hugged or slapped Football Head if she saw him after that horrendous mouthful. In lieu of either action, she instead drove around Hillwood City in large circles for hours in contemplation that night about the seemingly wayward soul crying.

Arnold was her compass, if he were lost, so was she.

He had disappointed her that night and every day since with his reaction to the predicament. Things, as the usually cheerful blonde boy would most certainly not fail to say to anyone else, could have been much worse and to count their blessings.

Arnold had failed to live up to the image the blonde girl, and hell, let’s face it, everyone had of him.

The heartbroken girl broke the silence between her and Gerald,

"It’s not like he won't ever come out again."

Gerald gave Helga a quizzical look at the non-sequitur of the comment. Helga looked up at the sky and to her side. She didn't want the boy walking beside her to see her blink away the hint of tears in her eyes, see the furrows of worry on her forehead, or the hear the lilt of love that she felt for the injured boy in her voice.

The saucy blonde willed her sadness away with the all too convenient emotional crutch she had used since she was three years old, the only emotion she was ever comfortable sharing with others, anger.

The blonde got more irritated and faced the boy she spoke to. Raising her nearly breaking voice she declared,

"Football Head is acting like he died!"

Gerald watched the angry girl unconsciously ball her fists wondering if she might take a swing at him to release her unexplainable turn of bad temperament for the hell of it. The boy backed away from Helga as she angrily leaned towards him and declared,

"You know, Hair Boy, everyone acts like he's this wonderful sage, but Arnold is so damn stupid it's pathetic!"

Gerald jumped in front of Helga with an angry look on his face and was about to tell the spiteful girl to shut her mouth and tell her off for good measure when she continued with a desperate observation,

"He has been so lucky and he's........."

The loyal boy leapt to the defense of his best friend. "He loved and lived to play football! He was counting on football to get him through school, Woman! His operation and hospital stay have cost a lot of money too! How would you feel if..."

Then girl cut the misguided boy a nasty glare and he jumped with her bellicose verbal rebuttal.

"Bullshit! There are other ways he can get a scholarship, Geraldo!" Helga said with a pointed finger in his chest. "He has a 3.8 GPA there's plenty of money out there for him to use to go to school! I checked it out, all he has to do send for the forms and apply for it!"

Helga took a quick breath before Gerald could interrupt.

"As far as his medical bills go, he has health insurance! Bake sales, raffles, car washes and all the other crap everyone at school and in the neighborhood has been doing to help him is going to cover a lot of the deductible, and what does he do? Quit trying!"

Helga groaned while tugging her long hair out of it's ponytail in frustration. "Does he even know how much everyone loves and cares about him? Arnold acting like this is slapping all of them in the face!"

Forgetting the insult against his best friend's intelligence, the boy looked at Helga funny as she growled and continued her angry rant,

"He's always been so good at telling everyone else to look at the flippin' bright side," Helga said in a bitingly sarcastic tone. "Why can't Paste for Brains do it?"

As inflamed as she was, the girl still couldn't bring herself to openly indict Arnold and simply call him a hypocrite, so instead she took up a dirty handful of wet snow and flung far it down an alley to splatter harmlessly on the cracked pavement.

Gerald watched as Helga angrily snatched up another wad of wet snow, grit her teeth, squeezed dirty water out of it, and this time threw the hard compressed ball of white snow on the sidewalk in front of her. The fragmented pieces of the snowball skittered in front of their feet like spit on a hot griddle.

"Genius could be blowing into a straw to get a wheelchair to move, and depending upon a trained monkey, or a dog, or something to feed him crackers for the rest of his life! Instead he's going to be able to walk again with some therapy!"

Helga ended with the last bit of her mind on the subject, challenging Gerald with dark fearsome eyes to counter her.

"Arnold needs to suck it up, realize how lucky he is, and get over it! It’s not the end of the world!"

The blonde hatefully scooped up a handful of snow from the wet sidewalk, "So he can't play stupid football anymore. Big," She violently balled the snow in her naked red hands. "FUCKIN'," Then the girl slung the wet snowball, this time at a mailbox. "Deal!"

The slushy filthy snowball splattered against the blue metal mailbox with a dull thud as it exploded outwards. The remnants of it then slipped down the sides of the mailbox with grey water trickling down to the sidewalk below.

The blonde's anger began to wane, the flabbergasted boy walking beside her unwillingly basked in the afterglow of the girl's furious benediction wide eyed, giving her a generous berth. The grieving girl crossed her arms as she panted, her blonde bangs partially concealing her blazing red face as the rest of her long shiny hair danced on her shoulders.

Over the years Gerald had most definitely heard many of Helga Pataki's angry diatribes, but never before did he hear her drop the "F bomb" as an ending point. Accustomed to Helga's brusque views on life and the world around her, the boy felt that most of the time what she had to say was off putting, shocking, and held little meaning if any at all.

This time however no matter how shocking a manner it was told, what Helga said this time held truth in it.

Helga Pataki, the sailor mouthed philosopher. Who would have thought? He wondered what other poetry she would share when they got to the boarding house, likely at the most inopportune time.

As Helga and Gerald approached the Sunset Arms boarding house they saw the traditional decorations for a Christmas at Arnold's childhood home.

There were large orange pumpkins on the stoop on either side of the steps with several ears of multi-colored Indian corn surrounding them. As they climbed the steps there was a large printed cutout of a pilgrim carrying a blunderbuss musket and wearing a cherubic grin. Gerald and Helga took a quick glance at one another and knocked on the door cautiously standing to one side.

Arnold's grandfather opened the door and an unruly herd of cats, dogs, and a single pink pig cascaded out of the house in a hairy wave as the old man greeted the children with a smile. Phil soon turned his attention back to the people who were leaving.

"He'll be fine. Pookie is at the hospital now, and Arnold just called and asked me to tell you how much he appreciated your visiting, Mai!" Grandpa clapped Mai on the shoulder and left Mr. Hyunn to his goodbyes. The old man was about to invite the kids inside, but he saw Oskar holding a slice of pie above his mouth ready to eat it through the outside of the kitchen window.

"YOU NO GOOD LOW LIFE CHISELER!" Oscar looked out of the window and quickly put the slice of pie in his mouth and ran away. "THAT PIE IS FOR THE SHORTMAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Grandpa took off running into the house after the miscreant boarder.

Mr. Hyunn and his daughter Mai hugged and said their goodbyes ignoring the loud yelling and the sound of things falling on the floor inside. Mr. Hyunn did run inside the house however to stop grandpa when he spied him holding the handle part of a broken baseball bat in his hand like a dagger, underhandedly stabbing at Oskar's bottom as he ran away screaming.

Mai shook her head with a smile and said sweetly to Gerald, "Wonderful people."

Helga muttered sarcastically, "That's one twisted version of the story."

Gerald rolled his eyes over Helga's comment accentuated with a sigh through the nose.

As Mai descended and the teens ascended the steps, the short woman took a glance at Helga, and then she stopped suddenly and focused on her intently. Mai reached out and brushed Helga's shoulder with a tiny hand stopping her in her footsteps, then took a tighter grip of it looking at her face with a cocked head with Gerald taking note.

"Do I know you?"

Helga recognized the woman immediately but played dumb.

She could pull this off; there had been many years between that Christmas and this one.

"Well, no... I-I don't think so." Helga said as her gaze jumped from Gerald to Mai with a hint of apprehension, as if already caught in her lie.

Mai studied Helga's features carefully. With a flaming blaze of recognition in her eyes, the woman sprung forward. With a strength that belied her size, the woman took and held Helga in her arms in a tight, almost strangling hug. With a loud voice and great certainty Mai Hyunn declared,

"It's you! You're the little girl!"

Gerald jumped backwards with the exclamation; Helga prayed the woman would tone it down before anyone else heard.

Mai then held Helga at arms length and brushed her face with her soft hand as tears were welling in her beautiful brown slanted eyes.

The woman suddenly kissed the surprised girl's cheek and took her into her arms once again with another hug saying fondly, "Oh, you dear girl!"

Helga couldn't get away from the vice-like grasp of the woman as her chin was anchored by Mai's shoulder forcing her to look straight into Gerald's questioning eyes. "I'm sorry but I think you might have me........"

Mai cut Helga off mid sentence. "You brought me here to find my father all those years ago! I went to see to find out your name but he didn't know it. We asked Arnold and his friends if they knew who you might be but they didn't." Mai grasped Helga again but with more tightness pinning her arms by her sides forcing her eyes to meet Gerald's once again.

"I don't know how to thank you for re-uniting me and my father! Please, come inside and meet everyone! My father would certainly like to thank you!" Helga's face turned bright red and she was obviously panicked.

Gerald stood staring at Helga's deep red blush and darting blue eyes with an unconsciously wide open mouth.

That was how Arnold's secret Santa gift to had been delivered?

She had done that? Helga Pataki, the hardest ass in Hillwood City, had done that?

Helga's heart pounded in her chest.

Oh, dear God, there was no way in sunny hot hell or the help of it's landlord that she could deny or cover up the fact of what she did those nine Christmases ago; too many details were given. With a stunned look Gerald listened to Helga's continuing denials.

"I'm sorry, I don't mean to be rude, but I don't know what you're talking about. I have never met you before and I am afraid you have me mistaken for someone else." Helga's face got more red by the moment as she looked into Gerald's eyes hoping that he believed what she was saying, the awful lie about the truth.

Helga was upset to see that Gerald was not quite buying her claim to mistaken identity.

Helga made a quick excuse as she broke Mai's embrace.

"Gerald I have to go home and get something. My coat, I need a coat to wear to the hospital!" Then a brainstorm hit the girl. "I forgot to feed Marsh too." Then the dishonest blonde then turned to Mai. "I hope you have a Merry Christmas and that you find that girl someday!" Then Helga departed quickly, almost running, leaving Mai Hyunn and the boy she was supposed to be helping in a quandary.

Mai watched the slender blonde haired girl speed walk away saying with doubt on the edge of her voice,”Maybe.... that really wasn't.... her?"

The confused boy forwarded no theories on his part as he walked up the rest of the steps of the boarding house deep in thought after wishing Mai a Merry Christmas.

He turned his head before entering and watched Helga disappear over the hill making ridiculously good time towards her house. The boy shook his head and went inside the boarding house to pack Arnold's things for him.