WingedKatt here. There will be some fluffy cuteness from the twins, as well as tears, so if you cry easily you might want to keep a box of Kleenex handy.
Cotton and Sable sat on Nick's shoulders and looked out over the bunnies below them. While walking through the hallways, they simply found riding on Nick's shoulders fun, but now, seeing how high up they were when compared to all the rabbits around them, they felt like they had conquered Mount Everest or was Queen of some faraway kingdom that they had read about in fairytales. They could easily see over everyone's head and no one stood in their way or blocked their view. It was awesome!
As Shaylee and Marty led Nick through the dining hall, they waved at a round, eight-seater table where their parents sat (Marty's parents, Mark and Suzie, were sitting there, too). Ignoring all the adults in the room, Cotton brought her small, white muzzle up next to Nick's large, dark ear and whispered loudly, "Uncle Nick, you so tall! I can see everything from up here!"
Nick grinned at Cotton's whispered words, even as Sable leaned in and whispered in his other ear, "You're like our dragon we're riding to survey our kingdom!"
Nick's ears flicked to the side as his tail swished behind him. Tilting his muzzle towards Sable, he whispered back, "It's bad enough that I'm already a scary fox, but now you want to make me a scary dragon, too!?" In the silence of the room, their whispered conversation was clearly heard and several rabbits had their jaws drop, even as a few of them let their food slide off their spoon or fork, to plop back onto their plates. Nick ignored them all, though, as he kept his focus on the two young kits sitting on his shoulders.
Cotton and Sable's eyes grew big as they heard Nick's words, then they wrapped their little arms back around his head and pushed their soft cheeks up against his while exclaiming, "You's not a scary fox or a scary dragon!" Then Cotton said, "You's a nice fox and dragon!" Followed by Sable who said, "Yeah, you is a…a…" She paused in thought while searching for the right word, then said, "Noble fox and dragon."
Nodding her head in agreement, Cotton added, "Yeah. That right. You is our noble dragon steed!" That's what all the princes and princess rode in fairytales—a noble steed.
"Oh," Nick said with a wave of his paw. "As long as I'm a nice, noble dragon steed then that's fine."
"Yay!" the little girls cried in unison as they threw their tiny paws up in the air. Nick was more fun than they originally thought! Not many of the adults wanted to play fairytales with them, but Uncle Nick even agreed to be their noble dragon steed! How cool was that!?
"But!" Nick said as he raised a finger up. "Before this noble dragon can take you, Queen Ebony," he booped Sable's nose with his finger-pad, "and you, Queen Ivory," he booped Cotton's nose next, "anywhere, I must first feed my stomach before it starts growling at us again."
Cotton and Sable began giggling at Nick's remark, then pointed towards the back of the dining hall and exclaimed in unison, "Onward, noble dragon, to the food buffet!"
A wide smile spread across Nick's face, even as his tail began wagging. "As you wish, my Queens." Sauntering across the dining hall in the direction the two little buns pointed, Nick pretended they were the only 3 mammals in the room. Even when someone let their fork slip from their limp fingers to clatter on the table, he ignored it, even as Cotton and Sable broke out in fits of giggles.
Who knew a fox could be so much fun! If only Uncle Nick could be their new papa, life would be perfect. This idea crossed Cotton and Sable's minds at the same time, and they quickly glanced over Nick's head at each other. Speaking with their eyes, they then pointed at Nick and grinned widely, then nodded at each other. Their momma and papa had died a few years back when their car was washed off the road and buried in a mudslide. Tasha was the only survivor.
Cotton and Sable escaped the disaster because they caught a cold and had to stay home. They had been upset to miss the trip (Tasha was a ballerina at the time and had a dance recital out of town) until they heard about the accident and then they were sad and miserable. Not only had they lost their parents, but they had also lost their three brothers from the litter between Tasha's and theirs (Tasha was the oldest and didn't have any littermates).
Cotton and Sable had cried a lot the first several weeks, but their Aunt Judy, who had come home from college early due to the accident, was there to hold and comfort them. (Judy had left for summer break two weeks early and worked it out with her professors to finish her finals early.)
Aunt Judy was their mama's littermate and had watched them a lot when they were babies, so they found a lot of comfort being with her, especially while Tasha was sleeping at the hospital with no one knowing if she would ever wake up. Grandma Bonnie and Grandpa Stu had tried to get Aunt Judy to adopt them, but she said she couldn't do it as a single mom, not with her schooling and her hopes of becoming a big city cop.
No matter how much Grandma Bonnie begged and pleaded with her, Aunt Judy never agreed, claiming she would end up neglecting them if she adopted them at that point in her life, and that wasn't the kind of mamma Aunt Judy wanted to be. But now—Aunt Judy wasn't in school, she wasn't a cop anymore, and better yet—she was married to Uncle Nick! Aunt Judy no longer had a reason not to adopt them!
With a squeal of delight at this realization, they reached across Nick's head and clasped each other's paws briefly, then placed their finger over their lips. Now wasn't the time to ask Uncle Nick. They hadn't forgotten that some of the bunnies in the burrow would want to hurt Nick if they found out he was mates with Aunt Judy. They would have to ask him later tonight…at bedtime. He and Aunt Judy could read them their bedtime story and tuck them into bed.
Seeing the girls' odd behavior (their happy squeal then shushing each other), Nick asked, "What devious plan are you two plotting up there?"
The girls giggled but didn't answer. Instead, Cotton leaned over and whispered very quietly in his ear, "Will you tuck us in tonight and read us a bedtime story?" In his other ear, Sable whispered just as quietly, "You and Aunt Judy?"
Nick flicked his ears, first at Cotton, and then at Sable. With an equally soft whisper as he reached the buffet table, Nick nodded as he replied, "I think I would enjoy that." The girls squealed happily again and Nick had to grin. Thinking whatever plan they were hatching must involve him and Judy, he then asked quietly while grabbing a plate and looking over his food choices, "Do you share a room with anyone or do you have your own bedroom?"
"We share with our sister Tasha," Sable answered, with Cotton whispering, "But she goes to bed after we do."
Nick nodded, then spoke up in a louder voice as he asked while looking down the long buffet table, "Do you guys have anything with blueberries in it?"
The girls giggled again, then pointed out a vanilla yogurt fruit salad with blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, and bananas in it. Nick took a huge serving of it, then asked the girls what they liked to eat and piled his plate up with some of their suggestions (baked butternut squash, loaded mashed potatoes, and several dinner rolls). When the girls asked if he could actually eat all that, Nick assured them he was starving and that his plate would be clean by the time he finished.
After filling his plate, Nick headed to the table where he saw Stu and Bonnie sitting earlier. Shaylee, Marty, and Melanie followed behind him with their own plates in paw, all while grinning at the way he humored their precocious nieces. Tasha was trailing behind them, too, as she was getting more and more interested in the fox her sisters had claimed as their own. Remembering how possessive they were over Nick's claws still left her feeling a bit baffled, but it was obvious Nick didn't have a problem keeping up with their wild imagination.
As Nick sat down on the table across from Stu and Bonnie, he reached up and plucked the girls off his shoulders and set them carefully on the table at either side of his plate, calling them "Queen Ivory" and "Queen Ebony" which had the little buns giggling again.
Picking up his spoon, Nick dug into the large bowl of fruit salad on his plate (they were rectangular, cafeteria-style plates), even as Marty sat down on his left while Shaylee and Melanie sat down on his right.
While picking up his own fork, Marty pointed towards his parents, Mark and Suzie, and introduced them to Nick. After a round of 'hellos' and reaching across the table for some paw shakes, Nick turned back to his food as he considered the older rabbits across from him. The resemblance between Stu and Mark was obvious, with Mark looking several years younger.
The two bucks looked like brothers, with Mark being a couple shades darker than Stu's own light brown, making the younger buck a light medium-brown with the same white muzzle, neck, and under his paws. They even dressed the same, with the same plaid shirt and blue overalls. Their wives, on the other paw, obviously came from different families. Whereas Bonnie was the same medium gray as Judy, Suzie was a medium brown with black and white brindled fur starting between her eyes and traveling down her back. She also had a white muzzle, neck, and under her paws.
As Nick focused on his eating, Cotton and Ebony began chattering at him again while recounting some of their 'grand adventures' here in the burrow and outside on the farm. Nick quickly realized their 'adventures' equated to massive headaches for the adults as they then had to do a farm-wide search for them.
With a grin while thinking of the fun and trouble they were prone to (they would never be able to hide from him now that he had their scent), Nick picked up his glass of homemade fruit punch (he would never be able to go back to the store-bought stuff with all its fillers and additives) and took a drink, even as Bonnie spoke up and interrupted the little buns from their storytelling.
"Now, Cotton and Sable, you shouldn't be bothering Mr. Wilde while he's eating," Bonnie said with a stern glare.
The girls' ears started drooping and Nick hurriedly said, "They're not bothering me. I like listening to them."
Cotton and Sable's ears sprang back up at Nick's words, even as Bonnie met his gaze with a touch of surprise, saying, "But they're a couple of rabbit kits, not foxes. Are you sure you aren't bothered by them talking your ears off?" Although Bonnie didn't have a problem with predators in general, she didn't think one would take the time to entertain a couple of little bunnies who had a pension for trouble and tall tales.
Nick took another sip of his fruit punch, then set the glass down. With a flick of his ear, he asked, "Cotton and Sable don't have a problem talking to a fox, so why should I have a problem listening to them?" Looking down at his new best buds, Nick added, "Besides, how can I brush off such sweet and adorable bunny kits?"
Reaching over, Nick rubbed their heads as they beamed up happily at him, even while ignoring the soft scoffs that ran through the room at hearing Nick call the twins 'sweet' and 'adorable'. He could tell from the girls' stories that they were little hellions, but it looked like that was their way of screaming out for attention, which made him wonder where their parents were? Why weren't they giving the little girls the proper guidance and attention they needed at such a young age?
While Nick was pondering on the apparent absence of the girls' parents, someone sitting at one of the long tables snickered under his breath, "Sweet? They're little devils."
Nick flicked his ear towards the irritated rabbit but didn't move his gaze from the little buns in front of him. Lightly poking their bellies and making them giggle, he asked, "Is that true? Are you two a couple of little devils disguised as angels?"
Cotton and Sable's eyes grew big and they quickly shook their heads. "Uh, uh," they said in unison, even as Nick's heart skipped a beat at their adorable little faces. "We not devils. We perfect little angels."
Several more scoffs went through the room, but Nick ignored them again. "I don't know, you two." Raising his finger, he twirled his finger around in a circle above their heads and said, "I think this halo you two are sporting might be a disguise, a stage prop to hide your little devil horns."
Cotton and Sable looked up at him in surprise, then lifted their little black and white paws and felt their heads looking for the devil horns Nick said they were hiding. Finding nothing, they looked up at Nick quizzically and answered together, "We not have any horns, Uncle Nick. See?" Tilting their little heads towards him, they let Nick feel their heads.
Nick rubbed their heads with his finger-pads, and not finding anything either, he said quizzically, "I don't know." Scratching his chin while studying them, he added, "You two remind me a lot of your Aunt Judy, and I know she has a pair of horns hiding under her halo."
"Really!?" Cotton and Sable asked excitedly. This wasn't the first time someone had compared them to Aunt Judy when she was younger, and they were eager to hear Uncle Nick's take on their aunt whom they resembled (personality-wise) even more than their own mother.
"Mmm," Nick murmured as he scratched his chin again. Pointing to the little buns, he then added, "Judy can be sweet and innocent and mighty helpful when she wants to be, but watch out if you rub her fur the wrong way, get on her competitive side, or stand in her way of closing a case. She chucks her halo out the window and turns into a little she-devil." Nick stuck both his pointer fingers with his claws out behind his head like he had two devil horns.
Cotton and Sable giggled at Nick's antics, while Stu, Mark, and Suzie grinned as Nick had described Judy pretty well. Bonnie, on the other paw, wasn't so happy. Calling her daughter a 'she-devil' could have several different meanings, one of which was suggestive in nature, so she was not pleased to hear the fox calling Judy that. "What do you mean, that Judy turns into a little she-devil?"
Although Bonnie was hoping Judy would find a guy and settle down soon, she wasn't happy at the thought that the fox might be paying undo attention to her daughter. He might frighten off potential bucks and then Judy would never get married and have kits of her own! Her life would be utterly ruined!
Nick looked up from the little buns and met Bonnie's wary gaze. Flicking his ear again, even as his tail swayed behind him, Nick tried not to think about his devilish little angel and how she tortured him just a short while ago. With a blink of his deep green eyes, Nick thought back to the case Judy dragged him on. Although he had told her parents at lunchtime some of the danger they had been in, he hadn't told them how many rules and regulations Judy had bent, ignored, or simply thrown out the window in her quest to close the case.
Taking a deep breath, he explained to Bonnie how Judy had stepped in and helped him the first time they met, was a real angel in standing up to the jerk of an elephant who wanted to throw him out of his store for no other reason than he was a fox. She even paid for his stuff when he forgot his wallet. Dipping his head, he whispered to Cotton and Sable to remind him to pay Judy back when she arrived.
The girls agreed and Nick continued with his story of how Judy tracked him down the next day and asked for his help on her big case. Being a civilian, he politely declined, but Judy didn't take kindly to that. He was her only lead, but instead of simply asking him for the information he had, she blackmailed him and then dragged his tail all over Zootopia. Not cool and not fun. Also—illegal!
All the rabbits in the room were dead silent again at listening to Nick talk about their cop sister and cousin. No one would have guessed that she had blackmailed the fox and forced him to help her on her case, especially after the way he talked about her at lunch.
Seeing the shock on everyone's faces, Nick figured it wouldn't be a good idea to tell them about how Judy used his species as an excuse to break into the limo joint without a warrant, claiming his being a 'shifty lowlife' gave her probable cause. He also didn't think it would be a good idea to inform her family that his devilish little angel was considered part of the family of a notorious mob boss.
Leaning back in his chair while trying to bring the conversation back around to Bonnie's initial question of how Judy could be a little she-devil, Nick scratched his chin, then said, "Well, she did save my life several times. And after meeting her boss, it changed my whole perspective on Judy and made me realize why she was so gung-ho in closing the case."
Flicking his paw in the air, Nick explained, "I thought she was trying to close the case so fast because she wanted to get out of being a meter maid. But no, her jerk of a boss gave her 2 days to crack a case they couldn't solve in 2 weeks, otherwise she had to voluntarily hand in her badge."
With a shake of his head, Nick added, "That stuck-up, big-headed jerk of buffalo completely trivialized all her efforts in searching for her missing otter, didn't believe a word she said about nearly being eaten by a savage jaguar, and then when said jaguar went missing in the time it took them to get there, he claimed that since Judy was a tiny rabbit, all large predators must look like savages to her." Raking his claws through his head fur, Nick added, "We were chased and nearly eaten by a blood-thirsty jaguar and he laughed it off! He wouldn't let me talk to corroborate Judy's story, either, saying I was an untrustworthy fox and so there was no way he'd believe anything I said!"
Folding his arms across his chest, Nick stared off into space while remembering that fateful experience that became the turning point in his and Judy's relationship. Talking in a calmer voice, he added, "Her bull-headed chief wanted to take her badge then, claiming that since she hadn't found her otter yet, she had to quit the force. That really rubbed me the wrong way. Judy worked her tail off to find that otter, we finally had a huge break in the case, survived being eaten, and then he just wanted her to quit!"
Shaking his head, Nick met Bonnie's stunned (and scared) gaze, saying, "I couldn't stand it, so I told Buffalo-butt where he could stick it and got Judy her last 10 hours. We solved the case, found all the missing mammals they'd been searching several months for, and showed those pricks what a little rabbit and fox could do." With a flick of his ear and a wide grin, he told Bonnie, "So yes, Judy can be a real angel or a little she-devil whenever it suits her."
Bonnie wasn't sure what to say. She didn't appreciate some of the language the fox had used, but hearing how her little bun-bun had actually been treated her first several days on the job made her heart hurt. Judy had made it sound like everyone was nice and friendly, but it was the exact opposite.
While Bonnie was trying to figure out what to say, Cotton and Sable turned their large light and dark purple eyes on Nick and said, "Uncle Nick, you really stood up to Aunt Judy's boss!? He so big and scary looking!" They had seen the Chief of Police both on the news and at Judy's academy graduation (they traveled with their grandma and grandpa when they went) and Judy's boss didn't look like someone they wanted to mess with.
Nick nodded his head, but before he could say anything more, Bonnie spoke up, saying, "Girls, why do you keep calling Nick 'uncle'? He's not your uncle, he's a fox."
Nick's ears flicked back and he had to bite his tongue from saying that him being a fox didn't mean he couldn't be their uncle, but now wasn't the time to admit to his fox marriage to Judy.
Cotton and Sable blinked at their grandma's words, then they glanced at each other and gave the barest nod. Moving closer to Nick, they wrapped their small arms tightly around Nick's upper arms (to everyone's surprise), then turned their big-eyed stare back to their grandma.
Making their eyes as big as possible while letting their ears droop to their backs, Cotton whined, "But Grandma, Mr. Nick is our friend." With a nod of her black head, Sable added in the same whine, "He's our bestest-best fox friend in the whole wide world!" Then Cotton said, "Can't we call him 'uncle'? Pwease?" Together, she and Sable then added, "Pretty, pretty, pretty pwease?"
Staring down at them, Nick felt his heart skip a beat at the fluffy cuteness they were unleashing on their poor grandma. He swore there were tears pooling in their bright purple eyes, even as their lips started to tremble a bit as their noses twitched incessantly. Nick knew if they turned that gaze on him, he'd be a goner. He would have a massive heart attack due to a lethal dose of little bunny cuteness.
Having their cute little bunny gazes unleashed on Bonnie, she wasn't doing much better than Nick would. How could she deny them anything they wanted when they looked so sweet and cute? Taking a deep breath, she muttered, "Well, I guess it's okay, if it's okay with Nick."
The girls then turned their gaze on Nick and he barely stopped himself from clutching his heart while willing it to keep beating. Trying to save his own skin, Nick hurriedly said, "That's fine. I don't have any problem with them calling me uncle."
Cotton and Sable threw their tiny paws in the air and cried, "Yay!"
Nick sighed with relief as his pounding heart started to slow down its rapid pace the two little balls of fluffy cuteness had caused him. Picking up his spoon, he tried to focus on something less lethal. Shoveling a large spoonful of fruit salad into his mouth, Nick chewed and swallowed it, then said, "You know, I always wanted to be an uncle." Pointing his spoon at the two little buns, he added, "And you two are a couple of the most adorable little nieces I could ever ask for."
The girls beamed up at him as he ate another spoonful of fruit salad, then Cotton and Sable glanced at each other in confusion, then turned back to him as Sable asked, "Don't you have any brothers or sisters?" Being bunnies in such a large family they couldn't conceive that someone might be an only kit. Even Tasha, who was the only kit in her litter, wasn't an only kit for long.
Nick froze with his spoon halfway to his mouth. Taking a deep breath, he ate the bite, then stirred his spoon around in the bowl of what was left of his fruit salad. After several heartbeats that had the girls' ears drooping, Nick said quietly, "I have a younger brother, but I got separated from my family when I was a teen. I don't know if they're dead or alive, or whether my brother grew up and had kits of his own or what. I just don't know."
Cotton and Sable's ears dropped to their back, even as they hugged his arms again. "We sorry," they whispered.
Nick shrugged, saying, "It happened a long time ago, so I'm used to it." As he finished off his fruit salad, leaving only two strawberries in the bottom of the bowl, he then turned to his squash while the girls spoke softly again.
"It still sad," they said in unison. Rubbing her cheek against Nick's arm, Cotton continued, "We lost our parents, too. And our brothers." Nick nearly choked on his bite of squash, even as Sable added, "They were buried in mud."
Nick somehow got his bite of squash down without choking, then stared wide-eyed at the little buns attached to his arms, even as his ears disappeared against his head. Glancing up at the adults, Shaylee leaned closer to him and explained quietly, "The girls' parents and brothers were swept off the road in a mudslide three years ago when they were coming back from Tasha's dance recital. Tasha was the only survivor, and she was in a coma for 3 weeks. No one knew if she was going to wake up or not. The twins were home with a cold, so they escaped the disaster."
Nick nodded as he looked down at the two little buns attached to his arms, then over at Tasha who was sitting at the table beside them (there was no room left at the table he sat at). Tasha had turned her chair around so she could watch them, but at the mention of the fatal accident, she dropped her gaze to the ground, even as her ears drooped to her back. Nick's heart went out to the young bunny as he knew what it felt like to lose your family. But for poor Tasha to not only experience such a traumatic event, but to watch her family members struggling and dying in front of her, it must have been a hundred times worse than what he experienced.
While Nick was thinking about the horrors Tasha must have gone through, he suddenly remembered the twins calling her 'scaredy-bunny' and claiming she was scared of everything. Of course, after what she went through, Tasha had a right to be scared of everything. She had just been slapped in the face with her fragile mortality! Of course, she was scared!
Realizing this was probably the reason the twins started calling their sister 'scaredy-bunny' and making life harder for the young rabbit, Nick's ears drooped again as he looked down at the cutesy, little furballs wrapped around his arms. "No," he murmured at them, even as several of the adult rabbits in the room tilted their ears in his direction, wondering what he meant. Cotton and Sable wondered what he meant, too, as they looked up at him with a quizzical expression.
"No," Nick repeated as he met the girls' curious gaze. "No, no, no!" he hissed softly at them. "Don't tell me the reason you started calling your sister names and hiding from her was because of how she started acting after the accident!"
Cotton and Sable's ears immediately dropped to their backs. Opening and closing their mouths, they had no way to refute Uncle Nick's claim. They didn't even have the heart to lie to him (not that he would believe them). Something about the fox told them he would see through any lie they tried telling him.
With his ears back, Nick picked up his arm (forcing Cotton to release it) as he pointed over Shaylee's head at Tasha. "Your sister had to watch your parents and brothers struggling and crying in that mud as it swallowed them up, even while drowning in the mud herself with no way of getting out or helping the others." Raking his claws through his head fur, Nick added, "Of course, Tasha's scared of everything now! It only takes a split second for your life to end!"
Cotton and Sable glanced at each other as they considered Nick's words. No one would tell them what happened to their parents or Tasha, saying only that they were washed off the road in a mudslide. They were 3-years-old at the time and couldn't comprehend what that meant, and even after they got older and tried to get answers, no one would sit down and explain it to them. No one but Uncle Nick. He was the first adult since their parents died who got down and spoke to them as an equal instead of a tiny kit who couldn't understand anything.
Seeing their guilty expression, Nick asked, "Are you even glad your sister survived?" The girls immediately nodded their heads, and he then asked, "Have you told her that? Because I'm pretty sure she thinks you wished she had died instead of the others."
Cotton and Sable's eyes widened as they had never considered this idea before. Glancing over at their sister, they saw Tasha staring at her feet with her ears flopped over her face and hiding her expression. Shaking their heads, they turned back to Nick, saying, "No! We not want her dead!"
"Yeah, well, maybe you should tell her that instead of calling her 'scaredy-bunny' and making life more miserable for her. I'm sure she still has nightmares of your parents and brothers dying, and being suffocated in the thick mud," Nick told them as his tail swished behind him in irritation and disappointment.
The girls dropped their gaze to the table as tears (real tears) started pooling in their eyes as they remembered all the nights Tasha had woken up screaming and crying. The times she claimed she couldn't breathe or the many times she crawled in bed with them in the middle of the night, shaking and panting in fear. They never pushed her away when she crawled in bed with them, but neither did they wrap their arms around her and tell her she was safe, that they were there for her. Feeling extremely guilty now, a couple of tears slipped down their cheeks as Uncle Nick continued talking.
"Tasha probably blames herself for their death since it was her recital they were coming back from, never mind the fact she has no control over Mother Nature." Glancing back at the smoky-gray bunny staring miserably at her feet, Nick lowered his voice as he whispered, "She probably feels guilty, thinking she doesn't deserve to live when the others died."
As Nick said this, Tasha had enough. Bursting into tears, she hopped down from her chair and sprinted from the dining room. It wasn't the awful memories (as bad as they were) that had her crying and running from the room, but for the first time in three years, she felt like someone finally understood her. She had been feeling guilty and thinking the twins wished her dead for the past three years. Wouldn't it have been better if she had died, too?
Hearing the twins claim they didn't want her dead made her tears start falling, but hearing Mr. Nick say out loud the fears and doubts in her heart was too much, making her run from the room. She needed to be alone, to find some solace.
As Tasha fled the room, Melanie immediately hopped up, saying, "I'll talk to her." Then she hurried from the room after her crying niece.
Watching the two bunnies run from the room (several of the rabbits were frowning that Nick had made Tasha cry, but they were too curious to see what he would do or say next to say anything themselves), Nick glanced back down at the two little girls sitting at his elbows. "Look, your sister is crying again." As Cotton and Sable nodded with tears leaking from their eyes, he asked, "How many times have you made her cry in the past three years?"
Shaking their heads, Cotton and Sable couldn't answer as they had no idea. They had made her cry a lot and so they didn't know how to count them all. Wiping at their tear-streaked faces, they listened as Uncle Nick started talking again.
"Remember what I said about calling people names and isolating them?" As the girls nodded their heads, Nick continued, saying, "How many of the other kits started calling Tasha names because you did?" Again, the girls had no way to count them. With guilt clawing at their little hearts, they realized at least half of the other kits in the burrow (and some kits from town) were now calling Tasha names.
"You isolated your own sister," Nick pointed out. "You two have each other, but Tasha has no one if not you. You are the only family she has left and yet you pushed her away, made her cry numerous times, and got others to push her away, too. You bullied your own sister when she was already hurting and feeling guilty over the death of your parents and brothers. When she needed you most, you weren't there."
At Uncle Nick's brutal honesty, the girls burst out crying as guilt not only clawed at their hearts, but ate at their belly, too. They had never meant to hurt and isolate their sister, but no one would explain anything to them. And since they were hurting too after losing their parents and brothers, they never stopped to consider how much more Tasha was hurting having had to witness their death.
Aunt Judy had tried to explain things to them when she came home and took care of them, but they were too young and were hurting too much to fully understand what she was saying, and when they got older and tried asking questions, Aunt Judy was no longer around and the other adults just brushed their questions aside, not wanting to upset them with the truth. They felt lost and neglected and started acting out in an attempt to get some attention. After a while, they stopped seeking outside attention and just focused on entertaining each other.
"Mr. Wilde, really!" Bonnie spoke up, seeing as the fox had made all three girls bawl. "Is it really necessary to make the girls cry? Haven't they been through enough without dredging up the past?" Bonnie was staring at the fox with a stern, disapproving stare as her ears were standing straight up in irritation, even as her nose was twitching.
Nick lifted his green gaze to meet Bonnie's stern and irritated amethyst gaze. With a swish of his long, bushy tail, he answered, "I'd be sorely disappointed with the twins here," he motioned to the two girls crying at his sides, "if they weren't crying after understanding what they have been to doing to their sister these past three years, because it would mean they no longer felt anything for her."
With a flick of his ear, Nick added, "As to Tasha, Melanie is with her, so she'll be fine. Furthermore, this is the perfect opportunity for her to open up and talk to someone about the thoughts and emotions she's kept bottled up inside for the last three years."
Having just recently come to understand first-paw how bad bottling up bad experiences and dark emotions were (Nick had spent his whole life bottling up all the bad in his life), and how therapeutic talking about them could be (he couldn't believe how good it felt having started talking about the dark experiences in his life), Nick hoped Melanie wouldn't pass up this opportunity to listen to her young niece and help her work through the trauma.
With drooping ears at listening to the twins crying, Bonnie asked again, "But did you really have to upset the girls like that? They're not going to like you after this." She motioned to the bawling little buns, even as her mother's heart wanted to wrap them in her arms and comfort them. Of course, Bonnie wouldn't mind much if the twins put some distance between themselves and the fox. She was still hoping Judy would marry a nice buck and settle down, then adopt her littermate's three girls, but if the twins grew fixated on the fox, that could complicate things when Judy finally decided to adopt them.
Nick looked down at the sniveling little buns. With a flick of his dark ear, he asked, "Are you two mad at me for telling you the truth?"
Cotton and Sable stopped crying for a moment as they considered his question, then they vehemently shook their heads, making their long, black and white ears flop back and forth. Crying again, they sobbed, "We not mad. We glad you told us, Uncle Nick." Glomping their arms around his again, the girls then wailed into his thick, reddish-orange fur while wiping their running noses all over his arm fur, "Thank you, Uncle Nick, for telling us the truuth!"
Bonnie couldn't believe what she was hearing. The fox had just reminded the girls of something horrible that had happened to them (in meticulous detail at that), he had also made them and their older sister cry, even to the point that Tasha ran from the room, and instead of being mad at the fox and wanting to avoid him, they were happy and grateful to the fox for making them cry! It was unbelievable—especially from these two troublemakers!
Ignoring Bonnie, Nick frowned at the snot the girls were wiping into his fur, but he didn't say anything. The girls were having a real-life lesson here and he didn't want to interrupt the moment over something so petty (he could wash his fur later but the girls might not find another opportunity for such an important lesson).
After several moments of watching them cry, Nick then reached over and rubbed both their heads, saying, "Okay, now you're just milking it." As the girls glanced up in confusion, Nick explained, "Crying is good, but wailing like a banshee is a bit much, don't you think?"
The girls sniffled and tried to hold back their crying, and as their cries lessened and turned into quiet sobbing and sniffling, Sable whimpered, "Uncle…Nick…" She sniffled and wiped at her eyes, then continued sobbing, "are…are you still…still mad at…at us?"
Rubbing the little black bunny's head again, Nick answered, "I was never mad at you, just disappointed. And I still am." As Sable started crying harder again, Nick murmured, "Hey, now, I said that was enough."
Trying to stop her crying, Sable sobbed, "But…but you…still…still disa…disappointed in us!"
Nick rubbed her head again while saying, "Yes, I am, so do you know what you need to do so I'm not disappointed anymore?"
Sable shook her head and wiped at her eyes again, even as Cotton stopped her quiet sobs. Tears were still leaking from her light lilac eyes, but as she looked up at Nick, she asked, "What do we…" she sniffled, "…need to do?"
"You need to think of something really big and really nice to do for your sister." Rubbing Cotton's head, Nick added, "This will be your homework for the week, okay?" The girls both mumbled 'Okay' and then Nick said, "You know what else you need to do?" At the girls' headshake, he added, "Whenever someone starts bullying Tasha or calling her names, you two are going to tell them to stop and then you're going to wrap your sister in a big hug and tell her how much you love her."
The girls paused at Nick's words, but after a moment of thought they understood what he was saying. It was their fault the other kits were calling Tasha names, so it was up to them to stop it. But why did they need to hug their sister afterwards? They had already said sorry to her and promised not to call her names anymore.
As the girls nodded at Nick's suggestion, Cotton then asked, "Why we need to hug Tasha? She know we love her."
Sable nodded in agreement with Cotton, but then Nick asked, "Does she?" At the little girls' confused stare, he explained, "The way you've been treating her, Tasha probably thinks you hate her."
Shaking their small heads back and forth, with their ears flopping side-to-side, the girls exclaimed, "No! We not hate Tasha! We love Tasha!"
With a flick of his dark-tipped tail, Nick replied, "Yeah? You have a funny way of showing it." The twins blinked at his statement, and then Nick pointed at Cotton and then Sable with his clawed finger, asking, "When was the last time you told your sister you loved her?"
Both girls paused in thought, then glanced this way and that while trying to track down the illusive memory, even as their foreheads scrunched up between their brows. They were having a very hard time remembering the last time they told Tasha they loved her.
Lightly knocking both on the head with his knuckles, Nick said, "Look, you can't even remember the last time you told Tasha you loved her, so how is she supposed to know your feelings haven't changed?"
Cotton and Sable's shoulders slumped as they realized, once again, that Uncle Nick was right. They had treated Tasha terribly. Did she really think they hated her? Going by how easily they could make her cry, the girls figured Uncle Nick was probably right and Tasha assumed they hated her. This made the twins feel even guiltier as they never meant to make Tasha think that they hated her.
Seeing the little buns' introspective look, Nick rubbed their heads lightly while explaining, "Your sister's sense of self-worth and confidence has taken a huge hit when she watched your parents and brothers die, and the isolation and teasing over the last three years has further cracked her sense self-worth. If you don't want your sister to shatter, you need to shower her with love and affection. She needs to hear your love," he scratched them around the ears. "Tasha needs to feel your love when you hug her," Nick lightly touched their hearts, then wiped their wet fur below their eyes as he continued, saying, "And she needs to see your love when you stand up for her and chase away all the big baddies who want to tease her and make her cry."
Nodding at Nick, Cotton and Sable wiped a few stray tears from their eyes. They now had a new goal: to show Tasha how much they loved her and to protect her from anyone who wanted to make her cry.
Stabbing the last two strawberries with his claws, Nick offered them to the twins, saying, "Here." With another sniffle, the girls took the strawberries, and Nick added, "Now stop crying and start thinking, okay?"
Cotton and Sable both nodded as they pulled the berries off his claws that had several rabbits in the room with slack jaws at seeing the little bunnies handling the fox's sharp claws without batting an eye or twitching their tiny noses. While ignoring everyone else in the room except the large fox in front of them, the little girls licked the vanilla yogurt from the strawberries before biting into the juicy, red treats as they started thinking of something extraordinarily nice they could do for their older sister.
Smiling at the girls, Nick picked up his spoon and started in on his butternut squash and mashed potatoes while ignoring the silence in the room. It probably wasn't his place to talk to the girls like he did, but he had worked with troubled kits before and he saw first-paw what happened when problems weren't addressed early on and were left to fester, some with fatal consequences. Nick didn't want anything close to it happening to one of Judy's nieces, especially these young girls who so easily slipped past his defenses and warmed their way into his jaded heart (he hoped Tasha would warm up to him soon, too).
As Nick focused on eating while watching the twins think, the silence in the room was thick. Quite a few of the rabbits wore contemplative expressions of their own, while a few were feeling guilty over how they had brushed the girls' concerns aside while being wrapped up in their own lives.
One such bunny being Shaylee. Being single, Shaylee hadn't gone out of her way to watch over and help the girls after their parents died. She babysat them when she was told to but did little else with them. Furthermore, she had done her stint in helping to raise her younger siblings and was now enjoying a break from mothering the young kits in the burrow while looking for Mr. Right. She knew she would be taking care of her own little ones as soon as she married, so mothering her nieces wasn't something she thought too strongly about. But now she realized how selfish that thinking was.
Her sister didn't choose to leave her daughters, nor did the girls ask to be made orphans, so ignoring the girls because they weren't her 'responsibility' was wrong. Shaylee suddenly lost her appetite while thinking about what her nieces had been going through, especially poor Tasha, while she was enjoying the single life and casually looking for a mate to start her own family with.
Marty was also feeling a little guilty. He had been busy making it through high school while trying to juggle his studies and social life, so he didn't have a lot of free time, but he still could have made some time for his orphaned cousins.
Bonnie, on the other paw, wasn't sure what to think or say. Having such a huge family with so many kits, she sometimes found it hard to sit down and have one-on-one time with her kits. It was even harder to find one-on-one time with her grandkits, and she relied heavily on the older kits to keep track of the younger ones, and to inform her when someone needed more time and attention given to them.
With the twins and Tasha being orphans, Bonnie did try to spend more time with them, but Tasha never talked about how she was feeling, and after a while, Bonnie stopped asking. She assumed Tasha was dealing with the trauma in her own way, but if the fox was right, her granddaughter hadn't been dealing with it at all, but had merely buried it. As a mother, she was torn. She was worried about her granddaughters, but at the same time, she didn't like to think she had made a mistake.
Sitting back in his chair, Stu was mighty impressed with the fox. Not only had he won the friendship of his headstrong, cop daughter, and had even stood up for her and helped her with her case even after she mistreated him, but Nick had also stepped in and taught his two precious granddaughters a huge life lesson they needed to learn—a life lesson Stu was sad to admit he had dropped the ball on.
Stu knew he should have reached out and taken the girls under his wings himself, but with such a large farm to keep track of, and so many bunnies working in so many different compacities, he left most of the raising of the younger kits to the does who spent more time indoors. Since he hadn't made more time for his orphaned granddaughters, Stu felt grateful to the fox for stepping up and doing it for him.
The fox didn't have to, but seeing as he did, Stu could better see why Judy might have fallen for the thoughtful, insightful todd. Grinning at Nick, Stu hooked his thumbs through the straps of his overalls and said, "You seem to have a way with kits, Nick. Do you have any of your own?" He was curious to see where the fox had gained his experience with reaching out to and dealing with problem kits (and the twins had been a problem ever since their parents had died).
Nick glanced up and met Stu's light brown eyes. With a soft chuckle, he shook his head, saying, "No, no kits of my own." Glancing back down at his plate, Nick paused a moment then said, "I did think of adopting a few times, though."
With surprise, Bonnie and Stu both murmured, "Oh?" even as Shaylee and Marty had stars sparkling in their eyes. Judy had refused to adopt Jenny's girls because she would have been a single mom, but now that she was married to Nick, Judy no longer had an excuse not to adopt her three orphaned nieces, especially seeing as Nick was already open to the idea of adoption. (It also helped that the twins were head over tails enamored with the tall fox).
With his ears perked forward, Marty leaned towards Nick and asked excitedly, "You were thinking of adopting before? Who did you want to adopt? What are their names and how old were they?"
Grinning, Nick answered, "I met a couple of kits, 2 boys, at an orphanage I've been volunteering at for the last couple of years." Remembering the two young boys who had wormed their way into his heart almost as easily as the twins had, Nick continued, saying, "Jeremy is a young gray fox kit who just turned 8 at the beginning of the year, and—"
"That's how old Tasha is!" Cotton and Sable interrupted Nick as they spoke up together.
Nick paused in speaking to look down at the girls, then said, "Well, what do you know? When's her birthday?"
"Tasha born on February 2," the girls said confidently, with Sable adding, "Momma say she born just as the sun came up." She lifted her paw to mimic the sun rising high in the sky.
Nick grinned at the little buns as his tail began wagging again. "Well, that's interesting because Jeremy was born on February 15th—that makes Tasha two weeks older than him."
Cotton and Sable clapped their paws together and grinned excitedly, their tears from a few minutes ago all but forgotten. If they could convince Nick and Judy to adopt them, and if Nick adopted Jeremy, too, then Tasha would have a littermate! Tasha always wanted a littermate, and she might get one now!
Grinning beside them, Shaylee pointed out, "Jeremy just missed being born on Valentine's Day. I bet he's happy about that."
Glancing at his new sister, Nick said, "You have no idea. He says Valentine's Day is a girl's holiday and he didn't want to see any pink on his birthday."
Shaylee, Marty, and the twins all laughed over this one while wondering more about the fox kit Nick had befriended. Now that he was married to Judy, would he go through with his desire to adopt the fox kit?
Nick chuckled with them, then said, "And then there's 9-year-old Riley who's a red fox, coyote hybrid." Scratching his chin, Nick added, "I can honestly say that meeting the two boys was a stroke of divine intervention. A 'lightning bolt out of the clear blue-sky' kind of divine intervention that smacked me in the side of the head and gave me a massive headache." Moving his paw and curling his fingers into a fist, Nick acted out getting smacked in the side of his head by a round, fast moving object.
Looking up with her big, lavender eyes, Sable touched Nick's arm with her small black paw and asked, "You get hurt bad, Uncle Nick?" There was clear worry in her eyes and Nick's heart sputtered.
With a shake of his head while willing his heart to start beating normally again, Nick explained, "Well, I did have my brains scrambled a bit when their tatty old soccer ball smacked me in the head, but I was fine after taking a few Tylenols and lying down for a couple of hours." Nick could still remember the look of fear on Jeremy's and Riley's eyes when they chased down their ball and saw the large goose egg that had already started forming on his head, even as he held their ratty-old soccer ball. Nick wasn't even sure how it remained inflated.
Brining his attention back to the present, Nick reached over and lightly rubbed Sable's head, then took another bite of mashed potatoes before turning back to Stu. "Because of my volunteering I've gotten used to dealing with kits with emotional problems and learning how to help the kits work through them." Looking back, Nick figured it probably would have helped him out a lot if he had taken his own advice before now when it came to talking about his problems.
Taking another bite of squash, Nick then motioned towards the twins and said, "Bad behavior like theirs is easy to correct once you understand the underlying cause, usually they're feeling neglected and confused, while emotional problems like Tasha's are harder to diagnose and overcome because she won't talk about them and pretends everything's fine when it is anything but fine."
"You met someone like Tasha before, Nick?" Bonnie asked with concern lacing her voice, even as her paws were clasped together. Her nose and tail were twitching in worry.
With a nod, Nick explained how he met a 13-year-old deer doe, a fallow deer, there at the orphanage who, like Tasha, was in a fatal car accident that killed her whole family and left her in the hospital for a couple of months to recover from the injuries and the surgery she had to undergo, and then weeks of therapy to relearn how to walk and feed herself.
Nick later learned she was suffering from what is known as Survivor's Syndrome, which is what he assumed Tasha was suffering from. Being the only survivor of a fatal accident, neither girl felt they had the right to live when everyone else died. This kind of thinking creates guilt and self-doubt which makes them a target of bullying. If left unchecked, it can lead to fatal consequences once the kits become teens or young adults.
When Bonnie asked what he meant, Nick paused with his spoon in his mashed potatoes, then said softly, "Terra committed suicide on her 15th birthday leaving a simple note saying she wouldn't be a bother to anyone anymore because she was going to be with her family."
A gasp went through the room as Bonnie brought her paws up over her heart as she suddenly felt guilty for ignoring Tasha. What would have happened to Tasha if the fox hadn't shown up and recognized the signs? Bonnie wasn't the only rabbit in the room wondering the same thing.
Looking down at the buns at his elbow, Nick repeated how much they needed to shower Tasha with love and affection so she could rebuild her cracked confidence, that she needed to know she was safe and loved by them, that she was still needed and had a purpose in life. The girls immediately agreed and promised to protect and love their sister more than they ever had before. Nick was proud of their commitment and promised to check up on their progress when he came back next week.
Stu asked about him leaving which put Nick in a hot spot. He wasn't sure if Judy planned to tell her family that he was going up with them. With a nervous tick of his ear, Nick decided he better tell the truth because he didn't want the truth coming out later and causing even worse problems. Choosing his words carefully, he explained how Ryan showed up at his door to invite him on the cabin trip tomorrow since Judy had told him how much she wished he could come with them. Judy then asked him herself when they were talking afterwards.
Seeing the frown touching Bonnie's mouth upon hearing this, Nick then explained how Judy had also invited her friend Daisy along, who was a skunk, so there were four bunnies and two predators going. This seemed to appease Bonnie, hearing that Nick wouldn't be the only predator up there, and skunks and foxes weren't all that different—were they? Perhaps Nick would fall for the skunk female and leave Judy alone. Judy might even decide to hook up with Ryan after all. Spending some quality time together in the romantic mountains might just be what her little bun-bun needed to start thinking of settling down.
While Bonnie was imagining her little bun-bun settling down with a nice buck (Ryan) and finally having kits of her own, and hopefully adopting her little nieces, Stu studied Nick a moment longer, then asked about Nick coming back next week when Judy was planning on returning from the trip on Saturday.
Nick barely stopped himself from freezing. Chewing the food in his mouth and swallowing it while he quickly thought of a good answer, he then said, "I've always enjoyed the mountains, so I'm planning on staying a few extra days after Ryan and the others return."
Stu nodded, even while wondering if Judy might not be staying behind with the fox. Nick only said Ryan and the 'others' would be returning, but he never mentioned Judy. Furthermore, Nick had helped Judy with her case, so did that mean he might consider working with her in Search and Rescue? Is that why he wanted to stay behind, to learn more about the job?
It wasn't long after answering their questions that Marty reminded Nick that he needed to practice with the band before the Ugly Bug Ball. Stuffing the last bite of his dinner roll in his mouth, Nick hopped up from the table, scooped Cotton and Sable up and plopped them on his shoulders, then followed Marty and Shaylee out of the dining hall, followed by several other rabbits who were impressed and curious about the fox.
FYI: Survivor Syndrome is a real illness that was first diagnosed in Holocaust survivors. It now falls under a form of PTSD, but it affects millions of people world wide. It's not just those who lose their families, but if can effect anyone who has tragically lost someone they had a close association with, such as veterans, members of a team or band, survivors of school shootings, or even survivors of plane wrecks and other tragedies. Severe depression is one of the main symptoms that can lead to suicide.
WingedKatt here again. I hope you enjoyed the chapter. There were some heavy topics brought up, but I think they're things we need to be aware of. In the next chapter, we'll see what happens when Melanie catches up with Tasha, Nick will meet with the band, and we'll see what else I fit in. My schedule is changing at work so I might not be able to write as much. We'll see.
Ch. 37 will post in 2 weeks. I hope you have a great weekend. Be safe. If you have any thoughts or questions, let me know.