A/N: I hope I haven't lost any readers because of the long periods of time between chapters. I am busy with classes now, but I really do want to continue this story which is not near completion. Please bear with me. Will you stick around?
Not there…
A pair of feet scuttled out of the lemur habitat, the animal in frantic search. She thrust her head into a bush…not there…
She let out a whimpered sigh. Her goal was to search…but the thing she was searching for…well, it was no longer there.
She was about to step out of the zoo boundaries when a pair of arms picked her up. She squeaked and thrashed around until she realized who it was.
"Mowie!"
Maurice smiled at the young lemur. "Happy birthday, Maya. We have a special party planned for you."
"Huh?"
"It's your first birthday, Maya!"
Maya scratched her head. "Ohh…Mama?"
Maurice tried not to let his smile falter. "Don't you worry, we'll have a great time. I think Mikayla's putting on a puppet show for you."
"Pengy Akala?" Maya asked.
"Yep."
Now, if Maya had been older, she would have stayed on target and attempt to complete the search for her mother. Now she was brimming with excitement for a puppet show.
"Yay!"
The lemur habitat had been the ideal place for a lemur's party, but Julien refused to leave. His depression was still ongoing even after all this time. Maya didn't know that. She did know that she hadn't seen neither hide nor tail of her parents and constantly asked for them. Fortunately for everyone else, she was little and easily distracted. They were dreading the part where she was showered with so much affection. The reason for this fear was because Maya knew her parents loved her, but what would happen if everyone was happy and celebrating her…but Julien and Josie weren't going to be there…
Mostly the smaller animals were able to attend. Bada, Bing, and Roy stopped by to say happy birthday. Mort was confined to a square drawn on the ground of the lemur habitat. He wasn't allowed to leave it except for going to the bathroom. He was mostly scared of Skipper's threat which hadn't been elaborated upon yet. The penguin had decided to let the small lemur's fears get to him instead of telling him a punishment.
The cake, this time not thwarted in any way by Mort, was decorated with bright colored jelly beans that Maya had grown fond of. The middle of the cake had strawberries and blueberries inside, and the snacks served were mostly fruit. Tyson dove into a large piece of watermelon and ended up wearing half of it.
Maya laughed and squealed at the puppet show, which was an exaggerated tale on how Kowalski just assumed that other animals were okay with being experimented on. For some reason, Rico wanted a shark puppet to come in and end with a bang. And so it did. Rico had rigged the cardboard box to explode with confetti and fireworks, just don't ask how he did it.
After the show, Maya played with Tyson, both of them started a water war. Kowalski and Izzy had filled forty balloons with water and let Tyson and Maya at it.
The water war ended when Tyson tried to eat the balloon and it burst. He then burst into tears.
"Yay! Mama come?"
"Great party, thanks for doing this guys." Maurice said.
"Mowie."
"No problem, Maurice." Skipper said. "It's the least we could do. I want everyone to have time to enjoy themselves."
"Mama?"
"And we had fun planning it." Marlene said.
"Absolutely." Rocky agreed. "It really takes away from the dreary atmosphere."
"Dada? Mama? Mowie, ah mama?"
"I think Maya enjoyed herself, though I feel bad about Tyson." Marlene said, holding the wet penguin.
"He'll be fine, he need to learn how to take things as they come." Skipper said.
"HEY!" Maya yelled. She glared at them.
"Sorry sweetie, do you need something?" Marlene asked.
"Mama." Maya said with a huff. "Dada."
Maurice sighed. "I don't know what to tell you, kiddo."
Maya's eyes filled with tears. "Ah Mama?"
"CAKE TIME!" Nat yelled, trying to restrain Izzy. "Come and get it before the zoo fool dives headfirst into it."
"Hey!" Izzy snapped.
Maya looked around, she saw the cake and ran to it.
"Yay!"
Skipper and Maurice looked relieved.
"What are we going to do? As I've said, she's bound to notice." Maurice said. "I don't even know how I've managed to not say anything all this time. She knows Julien is sad, but she doesn't know why he won't play with her."
Skipper scratched his head. "Gee, that's a hard one. I don't want to break the child's heart…"
"We need Julien back." Kowalski said. "Sorry, I overheard."
Skipper nodded.
"Even as annoying as he is, Julien's the only thing Maya can call her father. He needs to step up and snap out of it."
"And how do you propose we do that?" Skipper asked.
Kowalski sighed. "I don't know."
Suddenly, the animals started searching frantically.
"What's going on?" Skipper asked.
"Maya's gone!" Private said. "She was just here a moment ago."
"I thought I just saw her!" Stacy said from across the room.
"That's impossible, I just saw her with cake." Mikayla said from somewhere near them.
"I saw nothing." Rikki said.
"Maya!"
"Maya, where are you?"
"Maya, come out!"
The search led most of the partygoers out of the cave and into the surrounding otter habitat. Kowalski, Rico, Private, and Izzy searched the pool, but nothing happened.
Skipper ordered everyone to split up and search the zoo.
None of the bigger animals saw her. Burt said he was taking a nap.
Skipper and Private bumped into each other on the way to the lemur habitat. Skipper nodded and jumped over the wall, followed by the younger penguin. They looked immediately towards the punishment box. It was empty.
Private gasped fearfully and Skipper growled.
"Maya, Where are you?" Private called. "What's that?" He saw movement in the corner.
They rushed over, but it wasn't Maya or Mort.
"Julien?" Private said.
The lemur didn't respond. His crown was lopsided and his fur was a mess. He stared blankly ahead, hugging his knees. There was a piece of untouched cake next to him.
"Julien, Maya's missing."
Still no response from the once rambunctious lemur, just a blank stares into the depths of nothingness.
Private looked sadly at Julien while Skipper moved on to the other parts of the habitat.
"Private, he's not going to respond."
Private jumped, he hadn't realized that Kowalski was here too.
"Julien, please say something!" Private said.
"Nothing…there is nothing…" Julien whispered hoarsely.
SMACK!
The lemur fell back, staring at the penguin in shock.
Kowalski lowered his flipper. "I feel sorry, I do. Josie was a good lemur, but you need to snap out of it. I understand if you need to grieve, but this depression is ridiculous. We have tried EVERYTHING to get you out of it. Do you think I stepped into nearly two months of depression when Emma died and Izzy was separated from me? No. I kept going. I found another goal I needed to accomplish and kept going. You need to move on. No, I'm not saying forget her completely and be ridiculously chipper, I'm saying you need to start pushing yourself back up again. You have your fellow zoo animals to talk to."
Julien's eyebrows twitched for a moment and something flashed behind his eyes, but it was gone. He stared blankly upward, his gaze moving from Kowalski to the sky.
"Boys, over here!" Skipper called from the other side of the bouncy.
"You didn't have to do that." Private said as the two penguins made their way to their leader.
"I suppose." Kowalski muttered distractedly. He looked back for a moment, thinking.
Skipper had found Mort sitting on the edge of the bouncy.
"Mort, where's Maya?"
"She want to see Josie. She have Josie."
"Josie's dead." Kowalski said warily.
"She wanted Josie."
"What does that mean? Mort, what did you do?" Skipper growled.
"I gived her Josie."
Private squeaked. "Y-you don't mean-?"
"What. Did. You. Do?"
Mort trembled.
"MORT!"
"The book!"
"What the he-"
"I see her." Kowalski interjected. He pointed to a tail sticking out of the bush.
The penguins rushed over to see Maya holding a picture book. It had all the pictures from Christmas and New Years. Josie had stopped for a picture with Julien and Maya. Maya touched the picture as drops of water hit it.
Skipper looked up. It was cloudy, but not rainy. He looked back at Maya to see Private patting her back.
"Did you find her?" Maurice's voice came. He jumped into the habitat.
Maya turned her watery eyes to them.
"Mama?" She said weakly.
Maurice gave a heavy sigh. He sat next to her. "Maya, I'm sorry…Mama's not coming."
"No Mama?"
"I'm sorry, sweetie, she…she had to go bye-bye."
"Bye-bye? No Maya?"
"She loves you very much, but she couldn't take you."
"No." Maya said firmly, jumping to her feet. "Mama hewe!"
Before anyone could stop her, she began to run around the habitat.
"MAMA!" She screamed.
Maurice and Private tried to go after her, but Skipper held them back.
"MAMA!"
"She's tearing herself up. I have to help-"
"No, Maurice. She needs to try to figure it out."
"But she's just a kid." Private complained.
"MAAAAMAAAAA!"
"Some birthday…" Kowalski muttered.
Maya ran to Julien, tugging his arm. "DADA, GO MAMA NOW! GO! MAMA HEWE! DADA COME!"
Julien mumbled something, tugging his arm back. Maya refused to let go.
"DADA COME! DADA-" She coughed. "Dada…" she said hoarsely. "Dada…Mama hewe…go Mama…"
"NO." Julien snapped, yanking his arm back.
Maya lurched forward, catching herself before she hit the ground. The penguins and Maurice hurried over.
Maya shook.
"Maya…" Private said.
"AAAAAHHHHH!" Maya screamed, her face turning dark pink. She pounded the ground and kicked.
"Hold on." Skipper said.
Her yells became quieter and she stopped kicking. Her breathing became heavy as she tried to get air. She allowed Maurice to pick her up. Tears continued to flow down her face; she was silent except for the ragged intakes of breath.
Her blinking became slower until she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep. Maurice put her on the bouncy and covered her with a blanket, slipping a small picture under the baby's hand.
"How did you know to wait?" Private asked.
"It's what my mom did with me and Rocky." Skipper said. "We were so upset when we learned that our father and brothers weren't coming back…she let us run off our energy until we couldn't anymore."
Private nodded.
The penguins alerted everyone that Maya was safe and sound and Mort had nothing to do with her disappearance this time. He had left his box to give her the picture book, but he refused to talk about it and stayed in his box.
Marlene explained that she, Josie, Mikayla, Nat, and Izzy worked together to make scrapbooks for everyone.
Maya woke up an hour later, puffy eyed and quiet. She held the picture as she walked with Maurice to the Zoovenir shop.
Skipper wanted to share with the zoo what he had heard.
"Settle down, everyone, settle down." He said.
The animals stopped chatting and looked at him.
"It has come to my attention that Alice has spent the past month debating the status of the zoo. I'm sorry to say that she seems to be leaning further towards closure."
