Chapter 8: Tragic Backstories/Basil's Regret
The toy store was a mess. For sure, the owner was going to be upset and have to clean it up.
"Dawson!" Eve and Clover shouted.
"Girls, you found me!" Dawson called.
"We'll get you off that dart," Eve said and she and Clover started to pull him off the dart. Luckily, Eve was strong, so Dawson wouldn't fall hard.
"Thank you," Dawson said, "That's better."
"Let's see what Basil's up to," Clover said.
"Basil? Basil!" Dawson cried as he, Eve, and Clover tried to find Basil.
Just then, they heard a baby doll repeatedly crying out a mantra, "Mama!" They looked for Basil behind some toys to see where the noise was coming from to see Basil dangling on the toy's string, grunting.
"Basil, Olivia! Andrew!" Dawson cried to get Basil's attention, "Olivia, Andrew they're...they're…"
"Yes! They're gone, Dawson!" Basil interrupted with annoyance as he continued accidentally pulling the string. "Confound it! I told you to watch over the girl and boy!"
"Hey, I watched them!" Clover retorted.
"Well, they're gone now, aren't they? I would've had a better chance of finding your father if you wouldn't have gotten in the way."
"I was trying to help you, but you knocked me over."
Just then, he landed with a thud. "Now, they've been spirited away by a maniacal little monster!" Basil snapped with his foul temper and Eve comforted Dawson, who cringed at his partner's harsh attitude. "Soon to be in the clutches of the most depraved mind in all of London! I should've known better than to-"
Clover, fed up with being yelled in her face, slapped him, making him stop and he pressed his palm to his cheek. "To what?" she demanded, "Test your relationship with all of us as well as everyone around you? Break your promises and lie to us that you will save our only living relative from Ratigan, just so you can capture that criminal? Be mean to those who try to help you? Let your pride get the best of you? Say things you'll regret? YES, you should've known better! Some great mouse detective you are when you're a disgrace to that title!"
Basil flinched at her verbal attacks.
"Basil, would you stop yelling at Olivia and Dawson and everyone else?!" Eve snapped at Basil, "It goes no good to do that!"
"I tried to help you rescue Andrew and Olivia, but you knocked me over!" Clover screamed, "If it weren't for you, I would've already done it and have the peg legged bat in my grasp, so that Andrew and Olivia would have a chance! I don't care what happens to you! How about that?"
"That makes two of us," Eve agreed.
"Just who do you think you are?" Basil demanded.
Clover grabbed him by the neck tie, making him face her. "We're the people you work with, but not for long. You can't take back what you said, which will hurt you in return." Then she set him down.
"Clover? Eve?" Basil said, shocked that Clover was no longer alone. "You know what? Never mind! If you don't want to stick with me on this case, FINE! Just leave me alone! I'll stop Ratigan on my own. Besides, Eve seems loyal to him."
Eve was hurt and angry by the last part.
"Go on! Go the wrong way! We never wanted you with us, anyway! We're not going to be responsible for what happens to you next. None of this would've happened if Andrew, Olivia, and I found our father on our own! What's worse is I TRUSTED YOU!" Clover raged in Basil's face, out of betrayal, which forced him to fall backwards. "Yelling at us isn't going to help Andrew and Olivia, you're just letting Ratigan win! You think you're so perfect and it drives people insane, including me! A selfish, incompetent, and self-absorbed private detective like you wouldn't understand that as well as focusing on the client's situation before your own! If tracking Ratigan down is all you care about, then we'll leave to find my siblings and father, you ungrateful jerk!"
Basil felt more guilty as her angry words cut right through him. He'd been called selfish, incompetent, self-absorbed, and ungrateful before, but it had been a while since he heard people call him such things.
"And I never wanted to work for that stinking rat like you expected," Eve said, "My boyfriend, Fidget seemed troubled because of Ratigan's abuse. I also wanted to help Clover, Andrew, and Olivia save their father if you wouldn't and put you in your place when you step out of line. You're the worst detective ever! We can't forgive your actions this time! In fact, you're more like Ratigan than anyone else around you! Plus, you're a spoiled rotten jerk who should be considered lucky to even have friends! Keep this up, then I wouldn't care what happens to you, not even if you were bullied or captured, since you upset a lot of people, you incompetent narcisist!" The female bat wouldn't feel sorry for whatever happened to Basil, since he irritated everyone else, whether it was being humiliated and kidnapped. If he continued this path of self-righteousness and hatred, people were going to give him payback.
"Neither will I!" Clover agreed.
"Clover, I'm sorry," Basil tried to apologize.
"Sorry isn't going to make things any better," Clover said defiantly, "You sound just like my ex-boyfriend, Jax because he physically and emotionally abused me and my family and he betrayed us all, just like you. It was love at first sight until he became toxic and started drinking behind our backs. Then he put us down with hurtful words, which your nasty words reminded me of, treating us like we were no good and lied to us, just like you. He didn't regret doing this. Then, one day, I had enough, so I broke up with him and told him to, 'GET OUT!' Then, my daddy filed a lawsuit against him to the police."
"Oh, Clover," Eve said and hugged her. "I remember this story."
Basil looked at the eldest Flaversham girl with jealousy, but realized that Eve was her friend she could trust.
"Stella believed me and my family.
"Good job, Clover. Now wait outside," Eve commanded, "I'll be out in a minute and we can both leave that no-good detective alone."
Clover didn't want to be told twice, so she didn't hesitate to do as she was told.
"Clover, please don't leave!" Basil called out.
"Forget it! What would a self-centered and cold-hearted detective like you care if anyone's abused? What's the use of talking to you, anyway? Eve's going to help me get my family back since you won't! Promise or no promise, I can't stay with you another minute!" Clover ran out of the toy store with angry tears.
Eve smirked at Basil, making him gasp in shock.
"Aww, the great mouse detective of friendship... with no friends," Eve mocked, feigning empathy as she chuckled wickedly, "And no way out. I tried to warn you, Basil, you have to be careful who you trust. Besides, she can be friends with whatever creature she wants."
"Why are you doing this?" Basil asked, "You're a rodent, just like me."
Eve hit him in the back of the head. "I'm NOTHING like you! I'm more than you'll ever be. Oh, and how dare you ask me that, when you know how much was taken from me!"
Basil touched the back of his head, glaring at her. "I was only doing what's best for the law, society, and everyone else," he said, still convinced he was right to separate bats and rats from mice.
"You only did what was best for yourself! That's all you've done to me and everyone else and now, that's what I'm doing!"
"Eve, I command you to surrender!" Basil ordered.
"NEVER!" Eve snapped as she slapped him again, but this time across the face. "I hope you're proud of yourself! And those hurtful words you used against others, including kids! I don't care if anyone did the same thing to you!" Basil lowered his ears. The female bat started to sing.
It's time you learned a lesson.
It's time you understand;
Don't ever count on anybody else
In this or any other land.
Basil shook his head, stunned by what he was hearing. "No," he whispered.
I once hoped for friendship;
To find a place among my kind.
But those were the childish wishes
Of someone who was blind.
Eve flew up to a jester toy and stood on top of it.
Open up your eyes!
See the world from where I stand;
Me among the mighty, you caged at my command.
Basil frowned at her once again.
Open up your eyes!
Give up your sweet fantasy land.
Eve jumped off the jester and advanced herself on Basil.
It's time to grow up and get wise.
Come now, little one;
Open up your eyes.
A flashback of young Eve trying to persuade Basil that bats, rats, and mice can be friends, but Basil rejects that idea because of his stupid "law" that mice should be among mice and bats and rats should stick with bats and rats.
We all start out the same;
With simple, naïve trust,
Shielded from the many ways
That life's not fair or just.
Although Eve agreed that law and order were important, she still didn't give up hope that she could befriend mice and they could both live in harmony along with rats. The law was wrong and unfair.
But then comes a moment,
A simple truth that you must face:
If you depend on others,
You'll never find your place.
If she continued to obey the law, she would lose and wouldn't be able to rely on herself. Later on, a female mouse her age was the only friend that was a mouse she had. Her name was Clover Flaversham and she treated Eve with kindness and introduced her to her younger siblings. A year later, Eve's house was burned by Ratigan, forcing her and her family out of her home.
And as you take that first step
Upon a path that's all your own,
You see it all so clearly:
The best way to survive is all alone.
Now that Eve broke the law, she was free to befriend any creature she wanted without having to put up with Basil's racism against bats and other non-mice. That also meant that mice could become friends with non-mice. Basil believed bats and rats were all evil and mice were gentle. When the flashback ended, Basil saw how blind he'd been and regretted separating mice from non-mice like bats and rats.
Open up your eyes!
See the world from where I stand;
Me among the mighty, you caged at my command.
Eve stood on the banister.
Open up your eyes,
And behold the fading light.
Eve went into Basil's face and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt.
It's time to grow up and get wise.
Come now, little one;
Open up your eyes.
The female bat gently set him down with a smirk.
Open up your eyes!
"I'm so sorry you felt so alone and that your family was almost killed by Ratigan," Basil sympathized.
"I saw the truth: That law was what started this feud between us to begin with and you abandoned me when times got tough. Looks like I'm not the only one with a tragic experience. Clover sympathized with my plight."
Basil looked away from her.
"Face it, detective, friendship with just one species you're comfortable with can fail you, too." That was the price Basil paid for being racist against non-mice. "How would you like it if someone passed on hurtful words to you?"
"Friendship didn't fail me," Basil said with a sigh, "I failed friendship."
"That you did," Eve said coldly, "If you weren't Clover's friend, she would've killed you for behaving toxic and whiny like her ex-boyfriend when you don't get your way. She killed him in self-defense. Now if you would excuse me, I'm going to help a friend in need." With that, she stormed out of the toy store in a huff.
"Hey, Toby," Clover said to the dog, "Eve and I will find my father and my brother and sister."
The moment she said this, Eve already stepped out of the toy store and at the sight of the female bat, he growled.
"No, Toby, she's my friend!" Clover scolded Toby.
Toby stopped and whimpered guiltily. Eve gently pet him.
"He likes you, Eve," Clover told her.
"Ready to keep going?" Eve reminded her.
"Oh, yes," Clover said.
"Basil chose to be alone, anyway," said Eve.
Clover nodded. "I'm sure he has. Come on, we have to keep going."
"I'll fly you over." That being said, Clover went on her back and Eve flew her all the way to Ratigan's sewer.
...
Basil thought about what Clover and Eve said. Seeing Dawson down, for his failure to watch over Olivia and Andrew, made Basil feel guilt-ridden because Basil got distracted. "Dawson," Basil said gently and stepped over to him. "I say, Dawson, old chap?" He grinned.
"Oh, poor girl and boy," Dawson sobbed. "I should've watched over them more closely." He sniffed.
Basil continued apologizing to his partner, "Don't worry, old fellow. It's not entirely hopeless." Basil smiled shyly again, but it wasn't enough for Dawson, so he put his hand on the old mouse's shoulder. "We'll get them back. I'll also apologize to Clover and Eve."
Dawson got out of his somber state and looked at him, feeling a little better. "Do you think there's a chance?"
"There's always a chance, doctor," Basil assured as he lit a match on the toy jester's nose and set a flame in his pipe. "As long as one can think." He smoked his pipe as he paced around, thinking.
At that moment, Dawson remembered something and grabbed the list out of his pocket. "Get the following…" he read, "Tools...Gears...Girl...Unifor-"
Basil muttered and snatched the list from his partner. "Dawson, you've DONE it!" he shouted with glee, "This list is precisely what we need!" He rushed towards the window.
Dawson turned to see his companion leaving the shop. "What?"
"Quickly, back to Baker Street!" Basil stepped on a toy duck and remembered the girls, who chewed him out. "You hear that, Clover Flammer?" Then he remembered how Clover and her younger siblings reacted to him mispronouncing their surname. "Mis Flaversham? Eve?" He turned to Toby. "Where are they? Did they leave?"
Toby nodded.
Basil groaned. This was all his fault! If he wasn't so snooty, Eve and Clover wouldn't have left to find the older Flaversham girl's father and siblings on their own.
"They did-" Dawson began in a stunned tone, but then turned angry at him. "Your condescending attitude was what led them to run away!"
"I know," Basil said, feeling guilty. "I have no excuse."
"You may be knowledgeable, but it irritates me that you disrespect those around you!" Dawson snapped, "Do they want to be with you?"
"NO!" Basil snapped back as if his partner was asking him a dumb question, but stopped himself. What was the point of getting angry at this rate? That wasn't going to help anyone. Then the detective sighed.
"You never answered Eve's question: How would you like it if hurtful words were passed onto you?"
"I wouldn't like it."
"Exactly. Your awful behavior reminded Clover of her toxic ex-boyfriend."
Toby, who was on Dawson's side for once, snarled at Basil.
Basil winced at the dog's growl. "You're right, Dawson. I've been really hard on Clover and Eve. I should be more aware of what to say to others and I suppose I could've done better."
"Indeed, and once you find Clover and Eve, I believe an apology should be an order." Dawson glanced firmly at the detective.
Basil sighed in defeat. He knew his partner was right. "Alright, let's head back to Baker Street, so we can relocate the Flavershams and their friend, Eve."
…
Just as Basil suspected, Clover and Eve were going to retrieve Clover's family.