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Once things settled down in the Anderson house, Lilypad slowly starts to integrate with the rest of the toys. She opens up to the idea of befriending them as do the others and slowly but surely gets them to open up and learns more and more things about her new family.
There is a lingering question in her mind that she asks about when she finds a chance among Jessie and the others. "So who was that old man toy?"
Jessie chuckles at the description and looks over at Buzz, doing the same. He remembers Lilypad's first impression of Woody and reenacts it "You mean Stuffalo Bill?" he says, reminding Lily of her ingenious joke and subsequently making Jessie keel over laughing, grabbing onto him to avoid falling off the bed by a case of the giggles.
"That's so… mean!" she manages between hearty laughs, tapping him on the shoulder as reprimand as Buzz explains that it wasn't him who came up with it. Once she finally quiets down, still holding onto Buzz for dear life, she clears her throat. "That old man…pfft…Woody, I mean, was our former Sheriff– the rootinest-tootinest around!" she claimed, proudly. "He used to run things around back when we were with our previous kid, Andy; he was the favorite toy and subsequently the most responsible one." she reminisces "Most times, at least." She turns to Buzzz "He was the best Sheriff we could've asked for; ain't that right, Buzz?"
"Eh…" he mutters "I have to say, our new Sheriff is giving him a run for his money." Buzz responded, fully honest and fully proud for Jessie. She smiled bashfully in response, holding him just a little tighter to her side.
Lily listens to Jessie's explanation trying to piece the new information together with the events of the past few days. "I see, so he's your predecessor… So what's his issue with you, Buzz?" she asks bluntly, earning yet another snicker from Jessie and whichever other toy of Andy's who was within earshot.
"Oh boy, where do I start…" Buzz contemplated which version of the story Lily should hear and really how much time they had before Bonnie got home.
"How does Lily know of your past bickerings with the old Sheriff, Deputy?" It's Jessie's turn to ask, wondering how in the little time she interacted with both Buzz and Woody, she was able to deduce the rivalry they never truly got other with one another.
Buzz gulped. When he and Jessie had first sat down to discuss what happened during their dramatic separation, Buzz deliberately omitted the part where his immaturity and hotheadedness got the best of him and had him unreasonably angry at everyone and everything that moved— which consisted mostly of his best bud.
Before he could explain himself, the audience that had unexpectedly gathered decided to chime in.
"Ah, you should have seen them, Sheriff" Slink muses "They were fighting like it was summer break again and it was time to bet which one of them Andy would bring with him to vacation."
Andy's toys shared a hearty laugh at that, and Bonnie's joined in, also accustomed to the short lived dynamic of the two in the room.
Jessie, delighted to hear that distance hadn't messed the special thing Woody and Buzz had at all, turned to an embarrassed Buzz, who was avoiding eye contact. She decided to spare her husband and keep teasing to a minimum. "'S that so?" She said smiling, lingering her gaze on him until he turned red in the face.
Lily was glad her friends seemed to be having a great time musing on the past, but every other sentence was bringing new queries. She was about to ask a follow up question about further context about the toys' dynamic with their former Sheriff until they heard the entrance door unlock and Bonnie's voice closing in.
"Positions, everyone!" Jessie yelled, returning to her own post on the bed, lying next to Buzz where Bonnie had left them after yet another "Enemies-to-Cuties" playtime.
Lily returns to her charger, hoping Bonnie won't wonder why she hadn't reached 100% despite supposedly sitting there the whole day.
It seemed that Bonnie was eager to continue her previous plot line, so she grabbed Jessie and Buzz and a few other important characters and ran to the garden.
In the meanwhile, she couldn't get the questions out of her head, curiosity getting the best of her—which rarely happened to an all-knowing device like her.
Without them there to answer her, Lily's only choice was to ponder. Until she remembered another place where she could get reliable information from; the Internet!
After Bonnie placed them on her bed and while getting ready for the family outing to dinner, Jessie reminded Buzz they had to help Lily catch up to speed with everything she wanted to know in relation to them and the room. Buzz still wondered how much Lily was willing to hear before she started begging them to stop with the stories, the same way Karen Beverly had. Welcoming newcomers was truly hard work.
Before taking off, Bonnie reached for Lilypad and Jessie worried for a second that they once again won't be able to continue their conversation; she was relieved to find out that Bonnie was just checking her notifications for a message from Blaze.
Once the coast was clear, Jessie whistled letting everyone know they could safely get back to their business. Buzz gave her a helping hand and they both walked over the nightstand where Lilypad was still charging.
"So, what else do you want to know, Lily?" Jessie brought back the conversation, ready to satiate Lily's curiosity. Buzz followed behind Jessie, just in case she needed her Deputy.
Lily looked at the couple and sighed. "It's okay guys, I get it now, I did my reasearch." she said. Buzz raised an eyebrow at that, not sure what and where Lily could have heard the story from; if she talked to Rex she probably got a way too dramatic rendition of things and if she talked to either Hamm or Potatohead she would have porbably heard a highly slanderous interpretation of things.
Jessie was puzzled at the claim as well. "What do you mean by that?" Even though Lily was starting to open up to the others she doubted she went around asking everyone for the juicy details of their past; as well as she doubted the others would have been much help, too preoccupied with the little time they got to themselves while Bonnie was with them in the garden.
Lily wondered if she should continue the conversation. She had created enough drama her first week there, she wouldn't wanna sully their already bad first impression of her. "Listen, I don't want to reopen old wounds. Let's forget I asked."
"Old wounds? Woody is not an old wound, if you want to discuss him we can do that." Buzz interjected, not wanting Lily to believe their old friend was a sensitive off-limits conversation. "He might not be here with us anymore but he's still family."
Everyone in the room affirmed that.
Buzz's declaration made Lily smile and dawn a surprised expression on her face. "Wow, Mr. McLightyear I didn't expect you to be so open-minded!"
"Open-minded?" Jessie repeated, questioning the context of which Lily could possibly mean this in.
Since everyone seemed okay with the discussion and apparently open-minded enough to casually bring up the cowboy in conversation, she assumed she could skip the niceties and go straight to the point. "Well, yes, he has to be super open-minded to not mind your ex barging here!" Lily laughed at the naivety of Jessica. She truly did not know how good she had it, huh?
The room fell silent at Lily's claim.
Suddenly she instantly regretted mentioning anything at all.
Jessie was pursing her lips and she braced herself for one of the hag's nags to come her way for being 'inconsiderate'.
She was pleasantly surprised to see her blow up in laughter fit instead, banging on Buzz's arm as if to ground herself. Buzz was stiffling a laugh of his own, though keeping his composure way better than the Sheriff.
For the second time in her life, Lily was confused. Seeing how Jessie's laughter fit wasn't ending any time soon, Hamm took the reigns to explain to the newcomer. "Woody and Jessie were never a thing" he explained. "Although we bet on it once." he said in a lower voice, looking at Potatohead who cackled at the memory.
Buzz caught that last line but before he could ask for an explaination Lily jumped back into the conversation. "Really? Even though you were designed to be a couple?" she asked.
It was the rest of the toy's turn to be surprised now. Jessie's laughter came to a halt as she listened to Lily's, frankly, absurd, claim. Buzz seemed quite troubled too, not really enjoying Lily's insistence on Jessie and Woody's relationship.
Poor naive little Lilypad, believing everything she sees on the darn Net. "Lily, me and Woody were not created as a set…" she explained calmly. "Even in our show, Woody's Roundup, we were just the best of buds, just a Sheriff and his super cool, competent deputy." she joked, earning an eager nod from Buzz next to her.
"Exactly, Woody's Roundup! The puppet show that ran from 1949 to 1957. In the last episode, "Woody's finest hour", Woody and Bullseye jump over the Grand Canyon and save Jessie and the Prospector just in time before the mine explodes." she reads out the show's Wikipedia page, turning everyone's attention to her. "The show closes with a romantic confession between the characters of Woody and Jessie, as well as an implied kiss, which was highly controversial for a kid's TV show at the time." Lily finished.
The room fell silent once again.
Lilypad's regret of starting the whole thing started to fade away as she saw the priceless reactions on everyone's faces. She couldn't choose her favorites between Jessie's visible digust and confusion and Buzz's deadpan wide eyed face. These toys were so fun to tease.
Some were quicker to recover than others. "You owe me 5 cents, pig." Potatohead set his hand out, referencing the bet he and Hamm made over 10 years ago. Hamm shook his body to get the 5 cents out. "Tsk. I call dibs on telling Woody the story when he's back again." He said, getting a disappointed response from a few other toys who thought of doing the same.
It wasn't long before the joking atmosphere returned to the room, eventually moving on from the shocking declaration.
Well, everyone except a certain couple.
"THAT'S how the show ends?" Jessie suddenly recovers, furious with the plot's resolution. "All these years I thought the finale never existed, and it ends like this?" Her whole body was shaking with anger.
Jessie's furious reaction was what finally shook Buzz out of his own daze, still trying to process the implication of it all. He stood next to her, offering a calming hand to help her readjust. She had promised him and herself to conduct herself a bit more rationally after the whole fiasco and she really tried.
"As I see it here, it really was super anticlimatic." Lily tried to offer her some comforting words, a bit of guilt slightly coming back seeing how riled up the information got Jessie. "They probably rushed the ending because the show got cancelled shortly," she tried to change the subject. "it says here, after the launch of Sputnik 1 by the Soviet Union into Earth's orbit, which was the start of the Space Race; Western media subsequently experienced a sharp decline in popularity with children in favor of sci-fi…" she stopped herself after realizing the further information she relayed, the worst it sounded.
Now she was pitting an angered Jessie against her worried husband?! Lily thought she ought reboot herself tonight with all the mess she's been unknowingly causing.
Buzz was surprised to hear that infromation, though he remembers a time where Jessie had vaguely explained to him what Stinky Pete had been telling her all those years about space toys; and how she reassured him that anything bad she was conditioned to think about him never transpired in her moment from the moment she met him. It was one of the first memories with Jessie that he holds dear, the firt time she reluctantly opened up to him all those years ago.
Who would've thought that after all these years this trust would become a constant for them, with Jessie being the person he trusts the most with his fears and worries and vice versa. He really was so lucky to have an open-minded gal as his wife.
His mental trip to the past must have taken a bit longer than usual because he had to be snapped out of it.
"Buzz?" Jessie tried to get his attention. She had her head slightly tilted in front of his and he just realized she had left his side to get in front of him. He made a slight jump in surprise and locked his eyes with hers, to let her know she's got all his attention.
Jessie realized Buzz's mind was travelling to infinity and beyond, seeing a smirk plastered across his face and decided that she had been merciful enough. "Say, Space Ranger…" it was the first time in a while she called him a title other than Deputy "Are you really that boastful that space took over the wild west?"
Buzz realized the optics of smiling during Lilypad's explaination of the downfall of wild west toylines and his face immediately dropped, earning a laugh from both Jessie and Lilypad who were suddenly more than eager to team up if it meant teasing him.
The rest of the night ended without any more major revealations in store, and since they were not on 'bedtime duty' (as Buzz has recently decided to call the days Bonnie chose them as their snuggly choice to sleep with), Buzz and Jessie decided to spend the night in the closet.
"I just can't believe, all these years thinking what that finale could've been and it ends…like that!" She repeated for what must've been the 30th time that night, earning a sympathetic sound of agreement from Buzz. He wasn't caught up with the plot of Woody's Roundup as he had never had the chance to watch it himself but it seemed like the rest of the show was a dear memory Jessie held onto and it was truly sad to see her upset over it. He also wasn't entirely too thrilled to know that Jessie and Woody were intended to exist as a pair after all, though he realized how small and insignificant that detail was to the grand things he and Jessie alone have experienced together.
After getting the remaining anger out of her system, Jessie realized that this whole ordeal might have affected Buzz, as well, and collected herself to check on her Deputy. "Sorry, I keep rumbling on and on." Buzz shook his head in disagreement, he was more than okay to be on the receiving end of her rants, especially since they don't include him being the reason.
"How do you feel about this?" she gathers the courage to ask, not sure what she's actually worried about. She knows her husband can worry more than he needs to some times, an admirable quality but one she knows she has to check on.
Even at that moment, Buzz didn't know how he felt about this. He was well past the point of being jealous of Woody, not that he ever gave him any room to worry about that, he was well beyond the concept of being jealous anymore, especially after promising to spend the rest of his life with Jessie. There was a sting in knowing that Jessie and Woody were designated partners, sure, but it paled in comparison to the thought that despite being given the option Jessie had chosen him, over and over again. And well, as devestating as it must have been for the wild west to lose popularity, he was at least grateful that it gave him way less cowboys to fight with. For Jessie though, he'd win them either way.
"I feel like Jessie's Roundup would be a much better show." he said deadpan, not intending to sound as dry as he did.
Jessie, unprepared for that joke delivery, started to giggle once again, while simultaneously trying to pepper kisses all over Buzz's face, charmed by his calm demeanour through it all; what was she worried about, really?