Keep in mind, this is an AU of the main stuff, and in no way affects it. Nothing from the Main Storyline will make an appearance here, other than some characters.

I will be uploading two chapters per week [Tuesday/Thursday], since the chapters are so short.

Thank you for clicking this story, and I hope you enjoy! Please leave a review!

Part Four – The Woes of Mrs. Barrington

Dex yawned and stretched as he sat up in the guest bed, grumpy and cranky. The sheets had been scratchy all night, and the bed wasn't conformed to his body like he preferred. Why did his parents have to be so stupid as to let a bear sleep in his bed?! Why did they insist on giving Beary and Jewel all the perks, while he got kicked out of his room? Why did they let Beary have girls over, but not him?! It was so unfair.

The teenager got out of bed, scratched his butt, side, and neck, and went into the hallway, heading for the bathroom. Upon relieving himself, he washed his hands, yawned again, and wandered over to his real bedroom's door. "Yo, doofus and doofureeta, time to get up and get out so I can get changed." He pushed open the door and ventured in, surprised to not see them still sleeping. Usually Beary was a heavy sleeper and not a morning person, and yet, neither he nor Jewel were in the room.

Dex rolled his eyes. Maybe they were showing him up again by being out of bed first. Typical.

He went over to his bed, groaning when he found golden fur all over it. Grumping a bit, he yanked the blankets and sheets off, furious that he had to deal with all this bull. "Dumb bears! I hate them and their fur! And she ripped up my sheets! Damn it! I get enough of the BS from Beary!" He threw his blankets and sheets in his laundry bucket, and stormed downstairs, ready to swear at his 'brother' and his guest.

His father, however, met him at the base of the stairs, furious. "Dexter! Get down here right now!"

The teenager groaned, wondering what he'd done this time, and wandered into the kitchen to find his mother sobbing uncontrollably and his father not looking much better. They were at the kitchen table, slumped over a piece of notepaper.

"Are you happy now?" Norbert Barrington asked his son, glaring angrily at him.

"Huh?"

Without looking at him, Mr. Barrington handed over the piece of paper. Dex studied the paper covered with chicken-scratching handwriting that was noticeably Beary's. "Why would this make me happy?"

"Read it," his mother, Allison Barrington, said, trying to stop her tears. "It's from your brother. He's run away from home with Jewel to find their destiny, never to return again!"

Dex blinked. "You all of that from this?" he asked, gesturing at the note, which read JEWEL AND I ARE GOING TO FIND OUR DESTINY. LOVE, BEARY.

"Of course we did. There it is, plain as day," his father responded.

Dex rolled his eyes, tossed the note back on the table, and poured himself an extra-large bowl of victory cereal. He'd finally gotten rid of that drain-clogging, sheet shredding, family ruining bear! "You knew you were gonna have to release him into the wild someday."

"Dexter!" Norbert scolded.

Allison let out another wail. "Oh, my baby will never make it in the big city! With its crooks and thieves and..."

"... big game hunters," added Dex, smiling with his mouth full of cereal.

"Dexter! You are grounded!"

"What?! Why?!" Dex looked at his father angrily. "Just because his natural instincts kicked in and he left, you're blaming me?! That's not fair!"

"And none of that would have happened if it hadn't been for your attitude last night!" Norbert responded. "Now we have to contact Tasha and James, Jewel's aunt and uncle and caregivers, and they're going to be furious!"

Dex gulped. More bears? Angry adult bears? Capable of ripping him to shreds?! And his parents wanted to bring them here?! Did his parents not care about his safety at all? "You know what? I'm going to finish my cereal and go to a friend's house, okay?"

"Nuh-uh. You're grounded. You're staying right here," Norbert warned. "Now finish your cereal and stay where I can keep an eye on you."

"Keep an eye on me?! Aam I a prisoner now?! This is bullshit!"

"Watch your mouth! I will not have that kind of language in this household, Dexter Barrington!" Norbert yelled, furious.

Dex stared at his normally complacent father in shock. Had he really just yelled at him? "Look, the family pet is finally gone. Why can't we just be happy and get a cat or dog or something? Or, hell, even a pet fish? You let him eat my pet fish and never got after him. I want a new fish."

Norbert shook his head. "Maybe when you grow up and start acting your age. Finish your cereal."

.~*~.

"What do you mean they've run away?" Natasha Stone, Jewel's black bear aunt – and Trixie's sister – asked as she stood in the living room of the Barrington home, her young son, Jordan, sleeping on the couch. She had come straight over when she had gotten the call from Norbert.

Norbert nodded, offering her a spot to sit. "We found the note this morning on Beary's bed. It didn't say where they were going, just that they were leaving. I'm sure Jewel only went to try to change Beary's mind in it."

Tasha groaned, sitting down next to her sleeping son. "Oh, darn it all. Jewel, you're so stubborn... Just like your mother." She shook her head. "How is Allison? I smell cookies. I hope she's not stressing out the baby."

"She started cooking them about thirty minutes ago. The first batch should be ready at any time. We called the police, but they said that they have to wait a certain amount of time since it's only a runaway case and there's no proof of kidnapping." Norbert sighed. "I never realized how complicated such a thing is. Shouldn't you start looking immediately?"

Tasha nodded. "Normally, yes, but sadly a lot of time and money is wasted on runaways that are actually just a block from the house. That's why this rule was implemented. James isn't happy about it, either. He's been trying to fix that, but so far nothing's happening."

"Is he at work today?"

"Yeah. He says he'll keep an unofficial lookout for them. I just spoke to him as soon as I got off the phone with you. He said that he and his partner, Jade Falco, will be driving around town anyway, so they'll look into it the best they can, but they can't officially assign themselves to it. For one, James is related, and that's a no-no. They don't want him to make rash, stupid decisions because Jewel's his niece." Tasha frowned a bit. "I should give Trixie a call, but I don't want to worry her. Not yet."

"I understand. You are welcome to wait here with us for any news."

"Thank you kindly. I will do just that. Plus, I don't want to wake Jordan up again. He wasn't happy about missing his morning nap earlier. He's such a grouch." She gently stroked her son's ear, smiling gently at him.

Norbert smiled as well. "He is quite adorable, though." He cleared his throat and sat in the chair. "I don't know what we're going to do. I fear waiting too long, something might happen to them. I know Beary emptied his piggy bank. I don't know how much he had, though."

"And I gave Jewel money before she came over, in case you all went somewhere. I still remember that one time you all went out to eat, and Jewel ate more than you all expected, and I had to pay you back because I felt so bad about it."

The balding man managed a smile. "It surprised us, that's for sure. We thought bears couldn't eat what humans do. We changed Beary's diet then and there to include more varieties."

Tasha nodded. "I remember Allison asking me about it, yes. I was quite surprised that you had only been feeding Beary fish. That was quite the conversation."

"Indeed." Norbert sighed, looking over in the direction of the fireplace, studying the pictures that adorned it. "I don't know where we went wrong with Dex. He used to be such a happy kid, and now he's so negative and hateful, especially towards his brother."

"Well, you are a mixed family. It's not often, if at all, you meet a family of humans who have adopted a bear cub and vice versa. I remember some of the trouble you guys would get in. A certain restaurant owner kicked you out because he didn't want bears in his restaurant and that Beary had accidentally clawed up the climbing equipment on the playground?"

"Yeah, Allison was very upset at that, but she knows a good lawyer, and they went to court over it. She won, of course, because the owner never put up signs in public view that said no bears." He sighed. "Yet, the damage was done, and Beary never wanted to go on another restaurant playground again for years. Dex was thrilled, though. Never quite understood why." He stood up again, hearing his wife crying. "I'm going to go and help Allison. Feel free to watch some television. The remote we have for Beary – more heavy-duty, I mean – is over here."

.~*~.

"So, James, tell me why we're out on patrol instead of looking for your niece and her friend?" Patrol Officer black bear, green eyed, black haired Jade Falco asked as she glanced out the window of the cop car. "You can't tell me you don't want to go looking for them."

Black bear Sergeant James Stone glanced over at her as he stopped at a red light. "You know I do, but we can't. I can't afford to get fired, Jade, or written up. We know that they ran away, but we don't know where to or when they left. It could have been in the middle of the night for all we know. And like I said, we don't know where they went, so they could even be just around the block hanging out. It would also seem that Jewel took her phone, so if they were going to run away, they wouldn't have taken it. Yet, we can't reach her as she's either let the battery die or she has it off, or on silent."

He shook his head and pressed the gas, moving their bear-sized vehicle forward. He and Jade had been partners for about two years, and despite his promotion to Sergeant, since he had been with the force longer than her, he had chosen to stay her partner and keep on the patrols, liking being out and about in the city rather than behind a desk most of the day. Jade was like a sister to him, and he wouldn't have it any other way. They were also a great team, and had stopped many a criminal's nasty work.

He had met his partner through his wife, as the two of them had gone to college together. Jade had originally been a financial consultant, but after James had seen how she had been trained physically in a military academy, he had convinced her to join the force, to put her training to good use.

"So, basically, we're going to drive around and do nothing?" Jade asked, rolling her eyes.

"You know as well as I that I've been blocked from being involved in the case, if there is one, because of my relationship to Jewel. They don't want me getting distracted. Plus, neither of us are detectives. They're the ones who are going to be taking care of the case, I think."

"Just as long as they're not those two bumbling idiots that barely made it out of the Academy," Jade muttered. "Hamm and Cheets, I think?"

"No way would they be that stupid and put those two on the case. They would muck it up so badly that we'd be cleaning up for weeks afterwards!" James rolled his blue eyes in exasperation. "No, they'll get someone good. Now then, let's go catch this guy that just ran a red light up ahead of us."

Jade grinned. "Sounds good to me!"

.~*~.

Mrs. Barrington whimpered a bit more as she stuck a batch of brownies in one oven, and a pan of cookies in the other. She knew she'd have to find a place for all the food, but she didn't feel like going to her bakery, leaving it closed for the day. She felt bad about the loss of business, but not as bad as the fact that her little bear cub had run away from home. Her precious little boy.

Allison moved the cookies she had from a mesh tray to cool onto a platter to give to her guests. It had been about two hours since Tasha and Jordan had arrived, and while Allison normally wouldn't have minded the company, she was feeling very guilty over losing Jewel. She should have gone upstairs and spoken to Beary after what happened at the dinner table, but he had seem so happy that she hadn't realized anything was wrong. Hadn't he believed her when she said he wasn't adopted? Or had he finally realized that they'd been lying to him all these years? Was that what made him leave?

"Oh, my poor, poor cub. All alone out there..."

"Allie, he has Jewel with him," Norbert reminded, wandering into the kitchen. "So he's not alone."

"But they're only ten, Norbert! They're too young to be on their own, and Beary barely knows anything about being a bear! He's more human-like than Jewel. He'll not make it!" She let out another wail and leaned against her husband. "Have we done wrong in leading him to believe he was no different than us? Have we wronged him?"

The balding man in a brown jumper gently rubbed her arms. "Oh, Allison, maybe we denied him his basic needs out of ignorance, but we are learning. We took him in after his mother's crash in the woods, and never located the father... Well, we did, but we never went to him as he was grieving so much after the incident."

"Drunk, you mean," Allison broke in.

"Drunk, then. We did what we could and we took Beary into our home. Yes, suddenly bringing him into the family was very troublesome at first, but he's fit in fairly well with everyone but Dex."

"Our parents hate him, though, and my sister..." Allison shivered as she remembered what her sister, Kathy, had offered to do when first meeting the newest member of the family. "I don't regret bringing him home and keeping him. I will always love him as my own son, no matter if he gets bigger and stronger than us. I... Oh, Norbert..."

"Allison, everything will work out. Beary will realize that we love him and that we're his family."

"And if not?"

He frowned and let out a bit of a sigh. "Beary's not like that. He knows he's loved here."

"Does he? Dex... Dex treats him so nastily... We should have given them separate rooms years ago. Making them stay in the same room to build a brotherly bond was great in theory, but it didn't work out. Dex hates him, and I can't understand why. Do we not give them both equal attention?"

Norbert frowned, thinking a bit. "We do tend to favor Beary over him... I've noticed it a few times, actually, but I never said anything. I just thought he was being dramatic. Now that I think about it, though, he was just acting out to get our attention also."

"Favoring one son over the other... What have we done? No wonder he hates Beary! Maybe we should talk to him now before it's too late?"

"First, we'll see how he does with Beary gone. See if that really is the problem. If it is, then we will address it," Norbert reasoned. "But right now, you are very upset, and should you hear the wrong thing, other things will be said, and nothing will be resolved." He kissed her forehead. "We will get to the bottom of this, Allie."

She nodded, wiping the tears from her face. "I... I gotta get these brownies and cookies out of the oven."

"And then eat them to stave off those pregnancy hormones?" he asked playfully.

"Yep."