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 Twelve - Confession

Beary whimpered as he set the payphone back into the cradle and slowly slid down the side of the phone box, looking over where Jewel was talking happily with her birth parents. What he wouldn't give to have that!

After the conversation he'd just had with his brother, in which Dex relayed to him new information about where Beary came from – apparently he had been kidnapped by the Barringtons when they failed to return him to his birth father. That his mother had been in a crash.

Tears rolled down his cheeks as he tried to keep his cries silent and muffled, pulling his legs in close to his body, his chin on his knees. This was so much for a ten-year-old to take in. Was what Dex said true? He'd been right about Beary being "adopted", and he'd been right that he was different. Why shouldn't Beary believe the human he once called brother?

Tap, tap...

Beary glanced up to find the source of the noise, and found Trixie crouching in front of him, looking concerned.

"Kiddo? Are you all right?" the older bear asked, looking in on him.

Beary sniffled and wiped his tears on his sleeve, feeling very embarrassed at being found out. That meant Jewel was nearby! He looked around, frowning when he saw her walking over to the hotel. He knew she was probably going to go get someone else. No! He didn't want them to see him crying!

Hurriedly, he got up, shaking his head. No! No, no, no! He forced open the door to the phone booth and pushed past the golden she-bear that waited for him. Then he ran.

"Beary, wait!" Trixie called, having remembered him from a past visit with her daughter. She got up from where she'd fallen after losing her balance, and started to give chase.

"Leave me alone!" He didn't want to be embarrassed anymore. He didn't want coddling. He didn't want anyone. Eyes locking on a nearby tree, he ran and jumped, trying to climb it, but his filed down claws did little to help and he couldn't hang on. He just ended up at the bottom, sobbing.

Trixie, upon seeing this, held back, startled. Why hadn't he climbed the tree? Did he not know how? She didn't know how to approach this. It was wrong. So very, very wrong. "B-Beary?" She glanced around. Where had Tennessee gone? Where was Jewel?

"Beary!" Jewel was suddenly by her side, appearing from behind another car. "I got this, Mama." She immediately went over to her friend, who tried to push her away, but Jewel pushed right back and licked his nose lovingly. After a few moments, she settled down beside him, an arm wrapped his shoulders.

Trixie watched the interaction curiously, her ears flicking when she heard the arrival of the other bears. Why had all of them come out? "Boys?"

"Jewel was coming to get Henry, and then Tennessee came in and said that Beary was trying to run off," Zeb tried to explain, panting slightly from his run. Boy, was he out of shape.

Fred tilted his head, studying the cubs with an odd expression. "What are they doing?"

Henry smiled gently. "Jewel's trying to comfort and calm him down. Something's upset him badly by the looks of things. Trista used to do that to Jacob, remember?"

Zeb nodded. "Barely, but I do remember that. Did the same damn thing to me, too. So, uh, now what? Do we just stand here or can we go eat?"

Fred lightly smacked his arm.

"Ow! What was that for?!"

Fred just smiled in response.

Trixie shook her head. "Boys..."

"I'll watch them. Go eat. Make sure to save some for them. They need more food than we do," Henry spoke up, turning to the group. "And make sure Roadie gets some food, too. He's probably already asleep, but wake him up." He went and found himself a bench to sit at while the others argued amongst themselves about who would wake up the cranky-when-he-wakes Roadie.

.~*~.

"Are you feeling better now?" Jewel asked gently as she gave him another lick to the snout.

Beary wiped what was left of his tears away and hiccuped. He gave a small nod and leaned against her.

She smiled and pulled back a bit. "Do you want to go inside and eat? Maybe get them all to watch that cartoon I brought? The Country Bear one?"

He managed a small smile and nodded. He did still feel embarrassed about the whole thing, and knew he'd get strange looks from the others. What if they looked down on him? He asked Jewel.

The golden cub giggled and held up her paw. "Then I will smack them! No one treats my friend like that but me!"

He started laughing in response. "You're my best friend... You wouldn't lie to me, right?"

"Never ever," she promised, nuzzling him. "And I won't treat you like Dex does. He's just a jerk. Why would Mr. and Mrs. Barrington kidnap you? They're not bad people. Kidnappers are bad people. Uncle James says so. Maybe they were just trying to help out, and Dex misunderstood. He is a bit of an airhead."

Beary snorted. "Just a bit, yeah." His stomach began to growl, and Jewel laughed.

"Are you hungry, then?" she questioned, her own giving in to the hungry chorus. "I think I am. Do you think they saved us anything to eat?"

"I hope so." Beary pushed himself up, flinching at the pain in his paws, and groaned when he finally realized he'd opened the quicks on several of his claws. "Ow..."

Jewel grabbed his paw and examined it. "Stopped bleeding for now. Probably happened when you tried to climb the tree. You dork, you know better than to climb a tree when you have no proper claws!"

He flinched and his ears lowered. "Mom... I mean, Mrs. Barrington didn't want me climbing trees. Said it was too dangerous."

"Well, you've always been clumsy," she responded with a grin. "These don't look too bad, but let's head inside, okay? It's getting a little too dark for my liking, and I want to watch my cartoon!" She held out her paw to him.

Beary laughed and accepted the offered paw and let her lead him back towards the hotel, both completely unaware that Henry had been listening the entire time from a table on the other side of the tree, hidden by a bush.

.~*~.

While Beary reheated what was left of the food Fred had bought, Jewel searched her backpack for the cartoon video she had. Upon finding it, she placed it in the VCR and pressed PLAY.

The others who were gathered in the room – Fred, Tennessee, Trixie, and Zeb – sitting either on the beds or in chairs, watched the TV as Jewel took a seat at the table, grinning ear to ear.

Beary joined her at the table once their food was warmed up, and picked at his food as he watched the cartoon a bit. Jewel, however, was speaking the lines as they were said.

The show, from 1981 and not staring the voices of the band but some other guys, was as cheesy and as corny as an '80s cartoon could get. Most of the storylines, featuring the main four bears – Ted, Fred, Tennessee, and Zeb – featured the band fighting aliens with their instruments.

Fred was getting really into the storyline where he was the hero with his harmonica, and was even imitating what was on the TV screen. His character was fighting a green alien in a spaceship flying through the sky while the others coward behind a rock.

"Blow, Fred, blow!" cartoon-Zeb shouted onscreen as Fred blew into his harmonica, the soundwaves disrupting the alien's hearing and causing him to fly into the side of a mountain.

At the end of the episode, all the bears held up their paws towards each other and shouted, "Bear Power!"

Zeb groaned and shook his head. "That was bad."

"They shoulda let us do our own voices. Who sanctioned this?" Tennessee asked, shaking his head.

Trixie, however, found it hilarious, and had nearly fallen off the bed as she laughed gaily. "It's not all that bad! And besides, my cameos were great! My sheer beauty and singing was spot-on!"

"At least they let you voice your own character!" Zeb accused. "Ugh, I can't believe I actually used to watch that as a teenager. What the hell was I thinking?"

Beary and Jewel laughed happily, Beary feeling much better, and started up another episode.

Trixie, however, took the remote from them and turned it off. "Nuh-uh. You two are going to bed. It's almost ten o'clock! Way past your bedtime!" She then looked at the other bears. "And you lot! Out! Go to your rooms." She went over to Tennessee and whispered something to him that resulted in a blush.

Zeb snorted as he threw out his trash and got up. "Guess we know who those two will be doing tonight," he said to Fred as they left the room, heading to their own.

Tennessee smiled and hung out by the door as he watched Trixie take charge of the cubs once they had finished their food and threw away the garbage. She made sure that they both took showers and got changed into their pajamas, and that they crawled into bed together. When Tennessee questioned her about why they were sharing a bed, she simply told him that they were cubs, and Henry needed the other bed.

The two adults then waited until Henry had returned from wherever he had been – he had gone on a walk – and left for their own room with a single bed, ready to bring Zeb's prediction to life.

Henry, meanwhile, sat on the edge of his bed, looking over at the curled up cubs with a faint smile, and thought. His stomach gave a small grumble, but he managed to ignore it. He didn't eat much, anyway, having grown used to an almost-empty stomach. Deciding the next best course of action would be to lock the room door and go take a shower, he did just that, standing under the water as it turned from hot to warm to cool and, finally, to cold.

There was so much to think about. From what he had overheard of Beary and Jewel's earlier conversation, Beary's human adoptive brother had told him that he'd been kidnapped by his adoptive parents. That that was why they had lied to him for so many years. That his birth mother had been in a crash, and they had failed to locate the father.

Henry, of course, knew that it was absurd. The humans hadn't kidnapped him – at least not intentionally. They had simply done the wrong thing for the right reason. They had taken care of Beary and raised him for seven years after supposedly finding him a month after the crash in the woods.

Yet, Henry had to wonder if they did try to find him. Had he missed their calls? Their visitations? At the time they might have, he would have been in the hospital by his wife's side, begging her to wake up and crying when she didn't.

'Oh, Helen... What should I do?' he asked mentally as he stared at the tile of the bear-sized shower/bath combo. Water dripped down his hair past his eyes and down his snout, and soaked his fur through. 'I want to tell him, but how can I know for certain this is our lost boy? I know everything adds up and makes sense – his past, what he's learned, and the timeline – but... Oh, my love, I wish you were here. I don't know what to do. After your crash, I was such a mess. I'm sure I screwed things up with Jacob. That's probably why he's gone to Alaska to be part of their Coast Guard. To get away from me. He's twenty-two now, Helen. Our oldest boy has left the nest.

'And Trista, oh little Trista. She moved out before your crash. She even graduated from Veterinarian school. I wish you had been there to see her graduate. She was valedictorian. I recorded her speech and have it saved for when you wake up. I want you to see her walk across the stage. She's been dating an Andean bear up in the Yukon where her practice is – she treats so many animals, and even some wild ones – for about two years now. I think things are getting fairly serious. Her boyfriend, Kai, has even come down to meet me a few months ago, and asked me if I would give him permission to ask for her paw. I haven't heard if he's popped the question yet, but I'm sure it'll be soon. She's twenty-nine now, and can make her own decisions.

'Heh, she's getting married later than we did. We got married almost right after high school, right before I shipped out for Vietnam. You were pregnant with her at the time, too. We had a good run, Helen... Three cubs, two successfully raised to adulthood, and then little Beary came along. Still don't know why we named him that, but you were feeling silly that day. Oh, you were so proud of our little bear cub. He was such a small little thing. Premature. We didn't think he'd make it. It was a bad time to have a new member of the family, with our main source of income having fallen apart. He was in the hospital for over a month because he wasn't finished developing within you.

'Yet, we never gave up. We never cared about the hospital costs. All we cared for was that he'd live and have a chance of a future. To find friendship, love, and happiness. And then... And then that terrible crash... You were almost dead when a farmer found you at the bottom of the hill. Beary was nowhere to be found. All it was... all you wanted was to sooth our sickly cub to sleep that night, and you took him out on a ride.' He put his paws up against the tiles, hanging his head low as he cried.

'We lost him that night, Helen. I couldn't find him. No one knew where he went. They thought he'd been thrown by the crash into the river. They searched and searched, but never found him... From the sounds of it, though, he was thrown into the river and carried away downstream, somehow making it to shore where he got out and sought out shelter. I don't know how he made it before the humans found him, but he did. They took him and raised him as their own. I... If I get to meet them, I want to ask them what they know. I want to get to know the people that saved our little boy. I want to know this 'brother' that treated him so cruelly. I want to thank them.

'Our little boy is back, my dearest, and he's here with me, though he doesn't know that I'm his father. He found me and doesn't know me. What a cruel twist of fate. Do I dare try to rekindle a family bond? Should I just leave it alone? He's in pain, Helen... So much pain from being lied to and emotionally abused. He thinks his birth parents abandoned him. That we left him alone in the woods where he was found. That his adoptive family is nothing but liars and kidnappers, thanks to what his so-called brother said. I can't stand seeing him in such pain. He's too young for this. I... I have to tell him the truth. Let him know that he has a family. Let him know that he is loved and cared for, and that I'm going to be there for him. I have my son back, love, and I won't lose him again.'

Henry sighed deeply and turned off the water. He then hit a switch and felt the breeze of the fur dryer built into the walls blow into his fur and dry it. Once finished, he stepped out onto the towel on the floor and dressed in a t-shirt. Looking into the mirror above the sink, he studied his graying features. Was he ready for this?

Shaking off his nerves, he left the bathroom and stepped into the dark main room, leaving the bathroom light on and the door slightly ajar. He then stood in front of the bed where the cubs were sleeping, and looked at the face of his sleeping long-lost child.

"Beary," he said softly so as to not wake him, "you're not alone. You have a family. A father, mother, sister, and brother. You have an uncle, on your mother's side, and an aunt on your father's. You have grandparents. Your father loves and misses you very much. He was lost when he lost you and your mother that fateful night. For the next several years, he blamed himself for what happened, wishing he could have stopped your mother from taking you on that night's drive to sooth you to sleep. Wishing that he hadn't been so cranky that night. Wishing that he'd stayed up with you through your sickly pains."

Henry took a deep breath. "I... I'm that father, regretful for what I have done. I am your father, Beary, and you are my son. I never stopped thinking about you. When I saw you that day, just a few days ago, my heart stopped. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I had thought you were lost forever, and yet there you were, standing on my front lawn. Oh, my sweet child, I've missed you. I wanted to pull you into my arms right then and there, yet I didn't. I was scared of how you'd react. I didn't know if you had found a new family, or if you would reject me. I didn't want to scare you.

"And then you gave me the nerve to go after the band. To save my home. Your home. These past few days have been a miracle, and I haven't been happier in many years. I... I love you, Beary, and when this is all over, I will speak to your adoptive parents. I will find out what they know. How you grew up. I will thank them for everything they did. I will ask them and you if you can come back to me. To be a family again. I promise I will protect and keep you safe, and never let anything hurt you again. I love you, my son."

"I love you, too, Papa..."

Henry's ears perked, and he studied the cubs curiously. Had they been awake the entire time?! Hearing their snores, however, caused him to sigh. Beary hadn't heard him. Or if he had, he wouldn't remember it in the morning. His response only from talking in his sleep.

Softly sighing, Henry went over to his bed climbed under the covers, and went to sleep.