"Dad?..."

"Nicholas…"

Nick stared at the nurse in disbelief "What's he doing here? I thought only the therapist for my unit could authorize visitors. I- I haven't even talked to her yet!"

The nurse exhaled. "She did authorize a visit from your father. She located him and requested him to come see you."

Nick turned around and stared at the slightly stocky fox staring back at him with nothing but resentment. "I don't want to see him."

"Nicholas, your therapist said-"

"I don't want to see him! Please. Take me back up to the unit…"

After a few minutes of arguing with the nurse, she gave in and took Nick back up. As his father started to stroll out casually, he heard a woman with her son in the waiting room mutter "Wonder what problems he has with HIS son."

He shook his head, took a cigarette out of his pocket and left the building.

When Nick returned to his room, he sat on his bed and huffed angrily.

"Woah, you okay?"

Nick looked over to see Jason peering up from yet another book of his.

"Just… frustrated…"

Jason chuckled. "I can see that, Wilde. What are you frustrated about?"

Nick pulled a blanket over himself and turned over.

"Don't wanna talk about it…" He muttered.

Jason shrugged. "Fair enough, dude."

As Nick fell asleep, he couldn't stop thinking about his dad.

"I can't handle this kid anymore, Shawna!"

Nick had been playing with an action figure in his room when the yelling started.

"Stop it, Leo! He can't help that he wants to be a prey animal!"

"He's a little freak!"

"No! He just doesn't want to be considered evil and savage. He knows what racism is and he doesn't want to be a part of it!"

Nick slowly put his action figure down and sneaked out of his room, looking through the rails at his arguing parents.

"He has I don't know how many action figures of that... that… Whatever the fuck it's called rabbit!"

"Her name is Bailey Bunny and it's obviously something Nick cares about!"

Nick stared numbly at the two. They fought all the time. Sometimes his dad would even hit his mom… He couldn't save her. He was just a little kid. So, he turned to Bailey Bunny, the hero rabbit with a sense of humor and a liking for blueberries. Her most notable feature was her bright purple eyes. He always had the feeling he'd meet someone as great as her someday. Someone to take him and his mom away from all the-

*SMASH*

He quickly looked down to see a broken lamp and his mother on the ground sobbing while the apartment door lay open with muddy boot prints trekking outward. You couldn't tell they were footprints at first glance. It's almost as if the animal wearing them had been waiting to run for years.

He slowly walked downstairs and put a small paw on his mother's back.

"Mom?..."

"Nick…" She wrapped him in a tight hug. "My sweet little Nick. I promise you… You can be whatever you want… Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Alright?"

He nodded silently.

"Nick…"

"Yeah, mom?

"Nick…"

"Mom…?

"Nick!"

Nick opened his eyes and Jason was staring down at him. He realized he had been dreaming again.

"What… Is- is room time over?"

"More than over dude. It ended like two hours ago… It's dinner time. The nurses decided to let you sleep."

Nick yawned and kicked his blanket away, stretching and following Jason out of the room. He noticed that there was a new patient. A miserable looking thin pig picking at his dinner. He found Ellie and saw that there was already a plate for him.

"Hey, Ellie…" He yawned again and looked down at his dinner. Spaghetti with garlic bread.

She peered up at him and smiled widely. Almost suspiciously.

"What're you so happy about?" He asked, grinning a little. "You're acting a bit suspicious."

She looked around to make sure the nurses weren't looking and reached into the hood of her jacket, pulling out a bag of sour candy.

"Ellie…" He chuckled. "Did you get that at the visitation?"

She nodded and tore it open, eating a piece and smiling wider.

"Isn't that against the rules or something? I saw it on the check in papers."

She nodded and nick almost cackled. "Ellie, you punk. Breaking the rules. Let me guess. Did Calypso bring it?"

She nodded once more and offered him a piece. "No thanks. I'd rather not lose my taste buds."

She shrugged and pushed her dinner aside, almost inhaling the candy.

Nick sighed in contentment. He was still pissed about his father having the nerve to come see him, but he was happy for the support he had here. He looked over at Jason, Cas and Sammy and they were quietly chatting about God knows what. He looked back over at the alarmingly thin pig and decided to go talk to him. He got up and started to walk over, but Mason grabbed his arm with a massive paw.

"I wouldn't. The dude's a fucking ass."

"Wait, really? How so?"

Lexi, the bunny who had a tinier table upon the table for Mason since she was much smaller spoke up.

"He came while you were napping and when I tried to talk to him he told me to piss off… What the fuck, right?"

"What the fuck indeed…" Mason mumbled angrily.

Nick nodded silently and returned to his seat. He was surprised that Mason bothered to stop him. There were lots of patients here that he didn't acknowledge. Some he never even thought about at all. It was mainly because he was friends with Ellie, Jason, Cas and Sammy, and plus everyone had their own little groups. Still, he thought it would be a good idea to get to know all of them sooner or later. After eating his food, he got up to throw it away and returned to see Ellie had finished off the bag of candy.

"Wow, Ellie. Save some for me."

She stuck her now green tongue out at him and got up to throw the candy wrapper away. A few minutes later, Ellie got up to get a coloring sheet and accidentally bumped into the pig.

"HEY! FUCK OFF, YOU LITTLE WEIRDO!" The pig suddenly snapped.

Nick saw and tried to intervene "Hey, she didn't mean to. Don't talk to her like that." He said calmly, yet seriously.

Ellie jumped back and tried to sign that she was sorry. He wasn't having it. He bounded towards her. Then he was single-handedly lifted off the ground in a choke hold by none other than Mason. "I swear to God, man. If you step outta line one more time I'll kill you. I swear to God, man. Don't lay a finger on the mute or I'll rip your head off myself!"

The pig was struggling and clawing at Mason's arm and a few nurses were trying to restrain Mason. He finally dropped the pig carelessly and didn't fight the nurses that led him to the quiet room to calm down. The pig was showing signs of aggression, so a lion nurse picked him up by the back of his shirt and took him to another quiet room while he kicked and yelled.

Nick watched the whole thing go down and then turned to Ellie. She was sitting on the ground curled in a ball, quietly sobbing.

"Hey… hey, It's okay Ellz."

He kneeled and put a paw on her back. She flinched, but looked up to see Nick and crawled towards him, hugging him and crying. Normally, the nurses restricted physical contact, but for some reason, they decided to let this slide. He rubbed her back and told her everything was alright for about twenty minutes before she gained some composure and wiped her eyes.

"Better?" Nick asked

She nodded and they both stood up and sat back down at their table.

Nick's ears were still slightly ringing from the yelling pig. He could hear him yelling from the quiet room down the hall. He decided that if this pig gave anyone else any more trouble, he'd be answering to Wilde himself.