Daria's Rugrats - Prologue

 

Daria's Rugrats

September 25, 1987

Didi Pickles was reviewing class notes for the next day when the door bell rang. “At this hour?” she wondered. She went to the door. What she saw next shocked her. “Stu! Come here, quick!” she said calling for her husband. She looked at the young girl shivering on the doorstep, and bent down to comfort her. The brunette looked at her with sadness in her eyes. Didi took the girl into her arms. “Why are you here, and not at home?” she asked as the girl weakly hugged her.

 

Stu came stumpling up the staircase from the basement. “What is it, Didi?” he asked.

 

Didi turned around, with the girl in her arms. “I answered the door, and there she was, shivering.”

 

“Hi, what's your name?”

 

“Daria,” the girl said weakly.

 

“What were you doing out there?” Didi asked as she closed the door.

 

“Ran away,” the girl, Daria, said.

 

“Ran away?”

 

Daria nodded.

 

Didi and Stu looked at each other. “We have to find out where she comes from.”

 

“No!” Daria said.

 

“What?” Didi asked.

 

“I don't want to go back!”

 

“But you have to!” Stu said.

 

The girl just stared stubbornly at the couple.

 

“Where do you come from?” Didi asked.

 

Daria just shook her head. “Bad!”

 

“Bad?” Didi asked with concern.

 

“Really bad!” Daria projected, with a violent shudder.

 

“Oh no!” Stu said.

 

“Child Protective Services, first thing in the morning!”

 

“But, they wouldn't be able to do anything if she won't say anything.”

 

“How bad?”

 

“Not saying!” Daria said.

 

“If she doesn't say anything...” Stu began.

 

“No, first thing in the morning, we're going to a doctor!”

 

 

 

September 27, 1987

“Come in Mr. and Mrs. Pickles.”

 

 

Once Stu and Didi were seated, the doctor wasted no time. “Besides some malnutrition the girl is physically healthy.”

 

“You mean...” Didi began.

 

“That nothing was done to her. Just evidence of living rough. She may have ran away quite a while ago.”

 

“But why would she run away?” Didi asked.

 

“She won't answer. We surmise that her parents may have been fighting, and that she felt responsible.”

 

“I see,” Stu said. He wondered how far she had travelled.

 

“That poor girl!” Didi exclaimed. She frowned. “What is going to happen to her?”

 

“She will be put into foster care,” the doctor said.

 

The couple looked at each other. They each gauged the other wondering what they were about to do would be a good idea. They hadn't planned on having children, not for a few years yet. “No!” Didi said once she was sure that Stu was deferring the responsibility to her.

 

“Are you offering to take her in?” the Doctor asked in surprise.

 

“Yes,” both Stu and Didi said simultaneously.

 

“You will have to apply at Child Protective Services,” the Doctor said.

 

They both nodded.