I'm back (panting dramatically) and I've finally got this story finished.

Everything was a mess, Joshua was in trouble upstairs, but the stairs had collapsed and Racheal couldn't get to him. She needed to get up there and get him down, then clear the stairs to free Paul, Harold and Oliver from the basement.

Easy as pie, Racheal thought to herself. Running into the kitchen to grab some duct tape, she wrapped it around her hands and feet to grip the walls and began to climb.

"Huh? That's odd," she wondered aloud as she failed to get a proper grip on the wall. "Why isn't the tape sticking? It worked for that famous actor – whatever his name is. I think he was in Skyscraper. "

It took several further attempts for her to figure out that she had the duct tape facing sticky side in, so she peeled it off and re-wrapped her hands up the other way round. This time she made it part way up before slipping out of the tape and leaving it stuck out of her reach on the wall as she fell back down.

Never mind, she thought. I'll just get some more. And with that cheerful thought in mind, she turned back to the used-up roll.

"Aah!" She screamed in frustration. After a few moments of quiet reflection, she decided to start clearing the stair to the basement, then when her three brothers were free they could stand on each others shoulders to boost her up. Yes, that seemed the most sensible thing to do.

A short time later...

Paul was on Racheal's shoulders, who was on Oliver's, who was on Harold's.

"How did I get talked into this?" Harold wondered aloud as Paul grabbed at the bottom of the top of the stairs.

"Shush, Harold. Now remember Paul, Joshua's life depends on this," Rachel intoned melodramatically.

Funny, it sounded silly her saying it like that, her voice sounded no where near as dramatic as those actors in the movies. She supposed it was because she wasn't a boy, she had considered self-identifying as one before, but it wouldn't have done anything for her voice so she hadn't gone through with it.

"WHAT IN THE B***** F****** H*** IS GOING ON HERE?!", their mother screamed from the doorway, while Merv looked too stunned to say anything. "AND WHAT ARE YOU GUYS DOING?"

The four were so frightened and startled that they fell over.

"Don't freak out, Mum. I can explain," Rachel hurriedly stood up.

"Thanks, Mum," Rachel called down as she and Paul were able to climb up with her help.

"Don't mention it, now go and make me proud," their mother cheered them on.

Bolstered on now that their Mum was totally into the hero act, the two raced into Joshua's bedroom, and stopped in their tracks. Their little brother hadn't been calling out for the past five minutes, and now they knew why.

Joshua had finally managed to squirm out from under his bed, and was just hanging up the phone. "Oh, hey guys, I got out and was going to come downstairs but the stairs had collapsed and you guys were being really silly about it all, so I called the fire department to come and rescue me."

Racheal gasped in horror, her crush's father was the chief firefighter. Now not only would she be the rescued and not the rescuer, but she would finally get his attention, in a bad way.

"NOOOOOOO!" She wailed as she collapsed onto her knees.

Life was so unfair.

Sorry if that was a little rushed, but I couldn't think of a better way to end it.