Kay, so it isn't as long as I had planned. But it's better than nothing, right? Also, Chapter 3: "Bed Time Story"
Later that day, after a good long rest, the gang headed back to the hospital with Cale, Vanessa, AJ, and Quinton, of course. Little Cale was extremely excited to see her little sister for the first time.
"Hola, Cassidy! We're back!" Quick called out as she came into the hospital room carrying Quinton, followed by Seth, who had Cale on his shoulders, along with Ace, Lexi, Duck, Slam, Mairi, and the twins. Cassidy was sitting up, holding her newborn in her arms. Tech and Rev were sitting in chairs beside the bed.
Cassidy looked up and smiled. "Hey guys."
"Heard you were feelin better, so we decided to come pester you for a while." Seth explained before plopping Cale down on the bed.
"Mommy!!!" Cale squealed as she crawled across the bed to hug Cassidy. "Can I hold baby sis?" She asked, holding out her arms.
"Sure, Rosebud.." Cassidy replied as she helped Cale hold the baby properly. She showed her older daughter how to use her arm to support her baby sister's neck and head.
Cale's smile grew as big as it could and she held the little coyote as close as possible. Cassidy hugged her. "You finally have your baby sister..."
"What's we gonna call her?" Cale asked.
"Yeah! Spit it out! What's the name?" The gang turned around to see Icy standing at the door. She blinked, staring back at them. "What? I crashed for a nap. I've basically been up since one this morning." She shrugged.
Cassidy and Tech gazed at each other for a few moments. Then Cassidy broke the silence. "Felicia."
"Eliza." Tech continued.
"Coyote." The said together.
"Felicity!!!" Cale squealed, recognizing the name she so desperately wanted to name her baby sister.
Mazz let out a near-deafening squeal. "THAT IS THE CUTEST. NAME. EVER!" She then held out her hands. "Let me hold her." She ordered.
Cale giggled and held Felicity out to her aunt, who immediately scooped her up into her arms and began cooing over the coyote pup.
True to Icy's and Tech's predictions, Cassidy made a pretty quick rebound from her ordeal. Ready to go home the next day. Well, in her own opinion she was. According to the doctors she was still too weak to leave. Cassidy pouted for the whole time she was there. Which ended up being a whole week.
About half-way through that week, Tech received an unusual call on his cell phone.
"Daddy?"
"Cale? What's the matter?"
"Can I talk to Mommy please?"
Tech glanced over at Cassidy, who was asleep with Felicity. "Sorry, Princess, but Mommy's asleep. What do you need?"
Cassidy rubbed her eyes. "No, mommy is awake and wants to talk to her oldest daughter."
"But Cass you should be resting, especially if you want-"
"Tech."
"But-"
"Give me the phone."
"Cass-"
"Now."
Tech sighed and handed her the cell phone, smiling a bit. Cassidy held it up to her mouth. "Rosebud? What's the matter honey?"
"Nothin' Mommy!" Cale answered cheerfully. "I just wanna ask you somethin', kay?"
"Okay, Rosebud. What is it?"
"Is it okay if Eric comes to see Felicity? He already asked his daddy and he says that it's okay and he'd really like to see her coz he's never really seen a baby up close and I've been telling him all about Felicity!"
Cassidy giggled. "Of course he can, Rosebud. As long as Aunty Icy's okay with bringing him here."
"Yay!! Aunty Mairi already said it was okay, too!!! I'll be there soon Mommy!!"
"Okay, I'll be waiting. Bye Rosebud!"
"Bye Mommy!"
When Cassidy closed the phone, Tech gave her a curious look. "What did she want to ask?"
"She wanted to know if it was okay that Eric visit."
Tech frowned automatically. "Eric..... Cass, you know-"
Cassidy held up her hand. "I know, I know. You don't trust him."
"Then why did you say yes?"
"Because I do trust him. He's a sweet and innocent little boy. The only reason why you don't is because you are an overprotective father!"
Tech just smirked. They had had this discussion/fight several times and it became shorter and shorter each time.
About ten or so minutes later, Mazz came into the room, holding Cale's hand while Cale held Eric's. "Mommy!! We're here!"
Cassidy smiled before sitting up a bit. "Hi Eric. How are you?"
Eric smiled nervously. "Hi Mrs. Coyote."
"Come on, Eric. Sit up here so you can see her!" Cale said while climbing on to the hospital bed and sitting down at Cassidy's side. Eric nervously followed, sitting in front of Cale. He stared at Felicity, whom Cale was holding at that moment, for several silent moments.
"Do you want to hold her?" Cassidy asked him.
Eric blinked, then nodded. "I never held a baby before."
"I'll show you!!" Cale piped up. She then held Felicity out to Eric and showed him the proper way to hold her baby sister. Eric sat there with Felicity in his arms, staring unblinkingly for several more minutes.
At this point, Felicity was awake, and studying the new face she was being introduced to. She reached out with her hand and grabbe Eric's nose. Eric, surprised by the infant's action and the feeling of fur on his nose, sneezed. Felicity stared at her hand for several minutes trying to figure out what the gooey stuff on her hand was, then panicked, not liking it. "AHAHAHAH!" She squealed, obviously upset.
Cassidy tried to reach for the box of kleenexes that were on the table beside her, but before she could, Mazz already had a disinfectant wipe out and was cleaning Felicity's hand. Cassidy smiled.
So, the week wore on and Cass was still not allowed out of the hospital for two reasons. One, she was running a slight fever. Two, she was not eating normally.
Eventually Tech was able to get the doctors to realize that Cassidy was running a fever because of her fire powers. They keep her body temperature slightly higher than normal. But she wasn't eating because the food they were giving her at the hospital made her sick. Thankfully, Rev was able to sneak her in some special strawberry quick pick me up shakes. The others also brought chocolates and stuff, and sometimes even pizza.
"If it weren't for you guys, I'd die of starvation here." Cassidy said one day after biting into her first peice of pizza since being in the hospital.
Finally Cassidy and Felicity were both released from the hospital. Just in time to go to bed.
Cassidy and Tech kept Felicity in their room, knowing that the pup would be up every couple of hours. They definitately didn't want Cale awake as well.
Just a little past nine that night, Ozzie snuck into Cale's room. He liked to check on her for Tech and Cass, knowing they had enough to worry about being up with Felicty.
The ferret quietly climbed up the sheets on Cale's bed, being careful to not wake the young girl. The past few days had been long and exciting and the little girl must be exhausted. Once he had made it to the top, he paused, studying Cale's face. The room was very dark, and Ozzie could only make out the outline of the young coyote's face. Ozzie yawned before curling himself into a ball, with his tail tucked around his fuzzy body. Just before he could fall asleep, a small voice piped up.
"Mr. Magic Ferret?"
Darn it. She had been awake the whole time. "Yeah, Cale?" Ozzie replied.
"I can't sleep."
"Have you tried counting sheep?"
Cale nodded.
"How about just closing your eyes and thinking about sleeping?"
Cale nodded again. "It doesn't work."
"Hhhhmmm.." Ozzie sat there for a moment, thinking, then said. "Do you want me to read you a story?"
Cale's face brightened up, even though Ozzie could barely see it. "Please Mr. Magic Ferret?"
Ozzie smiled. "Sure, honey." He clambered up to Cale's pillow and plopped himself down. "Let's see..... Once upon a time, there was a girl... Her name was Kayleigh. Kayleigh and her freinds lived in a big house."
"A tower?!" Cale asked.
Ozzie laughed. "Yeah, a tower. One day, something very good happened."
"What?!" Cale gasped, eager to know.
"Kayleigh had a baby. The baby's name was Zoey. Just a few weeks after she was born, something bad happened..."
"Oh no!" Cale gasped again, only this time with a sad face. "What happened?!"
Ozzie lifted his head to face the wall and he paused and began to think about exactly what happened that day....
(Flashback..)
"DUCK! WHERE IS IT?!!!"
"What did I do now?"
"You stole my music blaster! I know it!!" Quick marched up to Duck.
"I didn't steal nothin of yours!" The mallard snapped back at her.
"Well then, where is it?" The mouse crossed her arms and glared at Duck.
"How would I know?" Duck replied.
Tech, who had just walked into the room from his lab, interrupted. "Quick. It's in Cale's room. You left it there last night while you were playing with her."
Quick's eyes went wide. "Oh. Okay...Gracias Tech." She muttered as she ran off to find her missing property. Upon entering her little neice's room, she found Cassidy sitting in a chair, holding three-week-old Cale in her arms. "Hola Cass. I just came in here looking for-" She paused when the coyote held up her music player. "Hehe, thanks!" She was about to run out of the room when she noticed little Cale looking at her with her big, lime green eyes. The mouse bent closer to her niece and smiled sweetly. "Heya nina! You little cutie!"
Cassidy smiled. "Look, Quick... She's starting to grow hair.." She stroke her infant's head, showing the few strands of fire-red hair pushing through her sandy brown fur.
"Your hair and Tech's eyes. Encantadora!"
"Thanks Quick." Cassidy stood up slowly, trying not to wake the sleeping girl as she set her down in her crib. She stayed beside it for a few moments, gazing down softly at her baby. "You know what, Quick?...Tech and I never thought we could have kids...."
"Really?" Quick asked, surprised. "But why?"
"I'm from Sari. I may look a lot like you guys, aside from the obvious, but inside... my genetics are a lot different..... There was a big possibilty it just... wouldn't work.." The coyote's voice was solemn, but her face said otherwise. She was beaming.
Quick smiled. "Aren't you glad it did?!" She said as she hugged her freind.
"Well, honey, they were attacked..."
"Attacked?! By who?!"
CRASH! BANG! SNAP!!!
The girls spun around in surprise. "Dios mio!!" Quick gasped. "What the heck was that?!"
"Let's go find out." Cassidy suggested as the pair ran out of the room and into the main room of HQ, only to see the scene of the roof being torn away, and dozens and dozens of strange, cloaked men jump into the room through the hole they were making.
Well, they looked strange to Icy, Seth, Quick, Mairi, Ozzie, and Dusk.
But not to Cassidy, Tech, Duck, Ace, Lexi, Rev, ad Slam.
Cassidy's eyes narrowed and a loud growl escaped from her throat. "The Starzians..."
(END OF THE FREAKIN' CHAPTER) Kayleigh and Zoey are actually prototype names that I had considered for Cassidy and Cale. :3