[Toddler Arc] Chapter V – Goodbye Dylan...

Cody's POV

"Food now!" Duchess demanded as she stood at the doorway to the kitchen, looking up at Dixie who was in the process of preparing lunch. Christopher, Duchess and Damsel were all now three years old and Duchess' stubbornness as a baby was evolving into threenager behaviour. I'd hate to imagine how hard it must've been for mum and dad, let alone Dylan to take care of the Triple D when they were that age.

"Just a few more minutes, sweetie." Dixie reassured our daughter but apparently that wasn't a good enough answer for her.

"Food now!" Duchess repeated, her tone being a little louder. "Duchy, good things come to those who wait and-" With a chuckle, I tried to back Dixie up but was immediately cut off when her impatience got worse.

"FOOD NOW!"

"Duchess." Dixie reprimanded in a firm tone which I could tell was a tone that said "If you don't behave yourself, there'll be trouble." With a reluctant growl, Duchess finally conceded and sat at the corner, pouting with her arms crossed.

Luckily for us, it's only Duchess who shows off that kind of prima-donna behaviour. Chris on the other hand was more well-behaved which is rather funny considering he was babysat often by Dimitri 3. I guess teaching kids to be troublemakers isn't their game.

Damsel meanwhile, she was getting to be just as rebellious as Dolly and a bit of an attention seeker whenever she bounced in the backyard's trampoline and wanted people to be watching her moves. Probably the sweetest thing about all this is that Damsel and Christopher always seem to get along well whenever they play together. I have a strong feeling those two won't just be cousins but best friends in the future.

In fact, speaking of Christopher, his hair was in the growing process and both of us had noticed that his hair was coloured pure white kinda like a Dalmatian puppy before it gets it's spots. Considering who Chris' mother was, we didn't see it as a problem.

My thoughts were cut short when I saw Dawkins hauling an empty suitcase upstairs. Curiosity got the better of me and after making sure that Duchess was under the watchful eye of my wife, I headed over to the freckled Dalmatian in question.

"Going on a vacation, Dawkins?" I asked a little jokingly. The profits he had received after the modern flip-phone he invented (the first prototype being a birthday gift he gave me) became an official product were really piling up. The phone had sold like hot cakes and was soon enough becoming popular all around the world.

"Well, no… It's for Dylan." Dawkins corrected, making one of my eyebrows raise with intrigue. The question I was about to ask would be answered soon enough as my oldest brother in question came downstairs. We both looked quizzically at him as he sighed with a small smile.

"I suppose it's time I told you all, isn't it?" He asked us.

"You're leaving?" Mum asked, a bit of shock on her face as we were all gathered in the living room with Dylan standing in front of us. Several of our other siblings let out noises of confusion and shock as well.

"To Cornwall. I know, it's probably on short notice but…" Dylan replied, trying to explain with a blush on his face.

"You want to live with Summer." I revealed for him with an understanding expression, Dylan nodded with a response.

"I honestly thought I'd never see the day that my eldest son would go out and make his own choices by himself… H-How time flies..." Dad commented, his voice breaking a little as we could all see he was trying to hold back tears, leaving it up to mum to comfort him.

What I then noticed however was that Dolly's expression wasn't that of sadness or shock. It was blank. Like she had just looked at something uninteresting and had no words for it.

"...Uh, Dolly?" I tried to get her attention. She didn't say anything until a few seconds later.

"Eh. Whatever."

We all looked at Dolly, confused. Did she not hear that Dylan was leaving or didn't she care?

"If you want to go on and ditch your family like that, go head. No one's gonna stop you." Dolly then said, her tone being a little accusing as she rolled her eyes.

"Dolly, that's not fair!" Mum immediately scolded. Many of my siblings had looks of concern whilst a select few expressed anger at what she had just said.

"Um… Well, I'll just finish packing then I'll say my final goodbyes." Dylan said, now feeling awkward from Dolly's comment before he retreated upstairs.

"What's your problem?" Destiny interrogated Dolly as soon as Dylan was gone, clearly angered.

"Hey, I'm not the one who decided to just leave my own family behind just so I could be with someone who's as much of a dork as Dylan is." Dolly retorted with her arms crossed.

Many of my siblings gasped at those cold words. Why was Dolly being so unreasonable about this? Not wanting to be a witness a situation like this again like I had done when the two fought a few years ago, I immediately stepped in.

"Dolly. If Hansel lived somewhere far away from here and you wanted to be with him, would you move out as well?"

That seemed to bring Dolly to her senses as her face fell and she looked down at the floor and then to the aforementioned Husky who looked at her with concern until she just grunted and stood up before storming off upstairs.

"...You know what, guys?" I began before standing up, hopefully I could try to lighten the mood with what I had in mind.

"I don't think we should just let Dylan leave on a whimper. We should give him a farewell party."

"OMD! I was just considering that!" Dallas exclaimed with a grin.

"Oh, that's a sick idea!" DJ agreed. All of my siblings supported this with comments of their own.

The house was absolutely bumping with loud music courtesy of DJ. Everyone of my siblings was there to celebrate Dylan's new steps in life and we were going to support him all the way.

Well… Everyone except for Dolly. No doubt she was still in her room. I doubt she'd even want to come down to party with us. I hope at the very least she comes down to say goodbye to Dylan. Despite their quarrels, those two have been pretty much inseparable. It'd be insane for Dolly to miss her last moment with her brother.

Eventually, the time came when we all cheered Dylan on to make a speech for us and after enough encouragement, he stood up and cleared his throat.

"My beloved family… These many years with you have been fun. Although many of you were a handful in your younger years, I could never bring myself to give up on any of you. Because you're my family and family is what is the most important in life. But there will be a time when one of us has to leave the nest to become someone better, to achieve a goal in life or to explore new heights. I'm sure anyone else here who one day plans to leave this house will understand that when their time comes. So even if most of you did get on my last nerve once in a while, no matter how far apart I may be from you all… Just know that I love you all deeply and I'll never, ever forget you."

We all applauded from such a heart-warming speech. Mum and dad didn't even try to hide their tears this time and even Dixie was moved by it. I think the Triple D were the ones who became the most emotional from that speech as they didn't hesitate to cling onto Dylan in a tight embrace, tears flowing down their cheeks like waterfalls.

"We'll like!"

"Never forget the time when!"

"You saved us from that skydiving near death experience!" The triplets said individually before breaking down into audible sobs as Dylan couldn't do anything but return their embrace.

"...Dylan. It looks like your transport is here." Dawkins said, sadness also laced in his tone. Dylan nodded before grabbing his packed suitcases before walking over to me with a sad smile on his face.

"...I still remember that one October night when you said that you loved me." That memory recollection made me give a smile of my own.

"I still stick by that of course. You and the others are the ones who raised me after all." I replied, making Dylan chuckle a bit before he temporarily put his suitcases down so we could both share one last hug.

"Dylan…? I… may have seen you and Dolly as bit of a nuisance and felt like you two didn't always appreciate me and my efforts… But… I'll be damned if I don't say that… It won't be the same without you and… Best of luck." Dawkins managed to say, it was rather evident that he was trying his best not to crack from emotion as Dylan didn't waste a second before pulling Dawkins into an embrace before picking up his luggage once more and heading out the front door towards the bus, but not before turning to us and giving us one final wave before stepping on.

And with that, the bus rolled off as our oldest brother left for Cornwall.

"My oldest son… My smart, clever, oldest son..." Mum sniffed as she wiped her eyes whilst Dad gently rubbed her shoulder to console her.

It was there and then that I realised something… The one sibling who still hadn't come down to say goodbye to Dylan before it was too late. My face fell as I turned back to the stairs and looked up them.

...Dolly.

Christopher's POV

Daddy says it been thwee days since uncle Dywan weft, but to me, Duchess and Damsel, it feel wike fowever. Gwandma and Gwanddad still wooked sad and it kinda made me sad too. Amost evwyone wooked sad, even Mummy and Daddy. They must weally miss Dywan.

Me and Damsel were in tha wiving woom, we was both dwawing pictures with cwayons. I had no idea what Damsel was dwawing but I was dwawing a picture of me and Dywan. I wanted to cheer evwyone up and make them happy again.

"Ooh! Nice cwouds, and he looks just wike Dywan!" Damsel said as she looked at my dwawing which made me smile.

I finished the picture after cowouwing Dywan's ears and was about to get up and show it to Daddy when I heard something.

I wooked in another woom to see Aunt Dowwy wooking out da window. Daddy says that Dywan and Dowwy were wike best fwends so I decided to show her first.

"Hey, Aunt Dowwy! I dwew a picture of me and Dywan!" I said, howding the picture up for her to see.

"That's nice..." She didn't even wook at it.

…?

Dowwy sounded sad too but why didn't she wook at picture, I thought it would cheer her up.

"...Dowwy? You 'kay?" I asked her when she wooked down at me. She wooked sad and angwy. But why was she angwy?

"I'm fine. I just can't believe Dylan would just ditch us like that." Dowwy said, sounding a wittle angwy.

"But Daddy say that Dywan wanted to wive with girlfwend." I towd her.

"Yeah, because that's a good enough excuse, isn't it?! Ditch us just so he could go off with his girlfriend!" Dowwy said, more angwy, saying "Girlfwend" in a funny voice.

"So… You dun miss Dywan?" I asked, a wittle wowwied. Dowwy didn't say anything for a minit until I heawd something. Was she cwying?

"...I never… Got the chance to say sorry..." She say. What did she have to say sowwy for?

"About a year ago before I met your father… I… accidentally ripped dad's face off the family portrait. I knew how much sh… trouble I'd get in if I was found out so I hid and… I ended up letting Dylan take the rap."

"Yoo wet Dywan get into twouble?" I asked, confused.

"Yes… And when I later got stuck on top of a crate suspended from a crane, Dylan came in and tried to save me… I didn't know what was going to happen so… I let it all out. I told Dylan that it was me who wrecked the painting and… I let him take the fall for so many other things even when we were little… Like "Toiletgate"." Dowwy said some more with a sniff.

"Dad found the painting and Dylan, expecting me fess up, said I'd fill him in."

"Did you tell the twuth?" Dowwy didn't say anything again for a whiwe.

"...No. I just ran off again. I never told mom the truth either. I heard the entire scolding he got from both mom and dad later that night."

"...Dowwy? Why you do that?" I asked, feewing upset that Dowwy let Dywan get into twouble wike that again.

"...I don't know. I don't know why I treated Dylan so badly when all he's done is take care of us and make sure we lived safely. Even after I let jealousy get the better of me one time and nearly destroyed my friendship with Roxy when I thought she threw me away just to be with Dylan."

I cwimbed up onto the couch she was sitting on befowe she kept tawking.

"The worst thing is… The last thing I said to him before I left was horrible and I never said "Goodbye" to him. And now I… can't even tell him I'm sorry!" She finawy say before she started cwying.

"Yeah, you're right! I DO miss him! And I'm sorry for everything I did to him and let him take the fall for!" She scweamed before cwying again.

Seeing Dowwy cwy made me sad too. I wubbed her arm to make her feel better when I got an idea.

"I know! Why now wite to him? Wite to him that you is sowwy and wite goodbye to him!" I towd her. She wooked at me, not saying a word for a moment.

"That… That might work… I might not get a response from how rude I was but it's worth a shot." Dowwy said before smiwing at me and hugging me.

"...You're the best, Chris."

A/N: For everyone who's asking if Cruella or Cody's biological dad will return. The direct answer is: No. Neither of them will be returning in this story. That doesn't mean this story won't have enemies however.