"Secrets"

"Part 1: What They Don't Know..."

"Chapter 2"

Author's Note: Thanks for the reviews, guys! I really appreciate it. And that was a good guess, Kageryu Wolf!

"Go on…" Connie told her brother, conflicting feelings of excitement and dread washing over her in a cold, electric wave. Already she had a good idea of what he wanted to tell her; he was like them, he was special, he was different. He could do something. He would also have to share the burden, and that was what it was becoming already. A burden.

"If you laugh..." Chance raised his eyes to meet hers, a defiant glint marring the dark irises, "I swear, I'll tell everyone you're in love with Tugs."

Connie felt her face grow warm, and if he didn't look so frightened she would have delivered some empty threat or other to shut him up. "I am not in love with Tugs, and I won't laugh. Just tell me."

And so, Chance told her what had been bothering him all afternoon. "I was looking for one of my action figures in Mom's garden, and I couldn't find it. There were too many weeds..." he trailed off, remembering how much it had rained recently, and how the weeds had sprung up. Their mother had yet to find enough free time to weed her cucumber patch. "I couldn't find it, and I got mad, and...I'm grounded, by the way."

His sister didn't see what this had to do with him not being able to find an action figure, and she told him so. He looked at her, and said quietly, "Have you seen Mom's cucumber patch today?"

"Yes." Connie nodded.

"Well, you can't anymore. It's..." he sighed and got up, walking over to the window and indicating that she should look out of it.

Connie looked, and she rubbed her eyes to make sure it wasn't just a trick of the moonlight. It wasn't. Regal Heart's cucumber patch was nothing more than a blackened bed of ash. She gaped at the sight of it, and looked down at Chance. She was almost afraid to ask what he had done.

Chance was shaking, his head hanging low so that his bangs fell in his eyes. "I didn't know what to tell 'em...They wouldn't have believed me if I...So I had to tell 'em I was playing with m-matches..." He choked back a sob and covered his face, and Connie felt her heart constrict as she hugged him.

"It's okay, Chancie...you didn't do anything wrong, it was an accident..." she told him, "Don't cry..."

"I got in so much trouble...and I didn't even mean to do it..." he told her, though he hadn't actually told her what it was he had done in the first place.

"I know." she said, getting him some tissues and patting him gently on the back as he fought to control himself.

"I d-didn't even tell you what I did, how can you know?" he asked, blowing his nose.

Connie hesitated, and sat down on the bed. She patted the mattress beside her, indicating that he should sit as well, and replied, "Why don't you just go ahead and tell me what you did, and I'll tell you how I know."

Chance didn't look at her as he told her everything that had happened. He had been looking for his action figure for an hour, and he was beginning to get angry. He thought, 'If all these weeds weren't here, I'd be able to find him. Stupid weeds...' He hadn't noticed that his tummy symbol was beginning to glow bright orange, or that the grass around him was beginning to wilt and give off steam. He crouched down and began trying to thin the forest of grasses, but even for an adult Care Bear Cousin it would have taken at least a day to clear the garden of them. Finally, in a fit of pique that only children and cubs are capable of, he yelled, "I wish they'd all just go away!" As soon as the words left his mouth, his tummy symbol shot out a jet of orange flame. He had screamed in terror, and in his fear he was unable to stop the flames that spewed forth and reduced his mother's garden to cinders. It had to have been a very hot flame to burn such green plants so quickly, but none of the flames even touched him.

"How'd you get out of there, Chance?" asked Connie.

"I...I don't know. I started yelling...'Stop it, stop it', and...and when I said that, it stopped. I'm not lying, Connie, honest, I'm not lying..." he told her.

"I believe you." she told him softly, not wanting to be overheard by their parents.

"Then you're crazy," Chance told her, "cuz I'm not sure I believe me. It all seems like a bad dream or something, but the garden…It's still all burned up." He sniffled, remembering the terrible scolding he had gotten, how his mother had told him he could have been killed, he could have started a wildfire. "I…I'm scared, Con…What's wrong with me?"

"Nothing's wrong with you, Chance…" Connie told him gently, squeezing his paw. It was as much to receive comfort as to give it, because she hadn't expected something like this. Hope's ability seemed to be purely defensive, and Connie's own could really go either way. For example, she could use it to rob a grocery store, freezing the security cameras and taking her time, but of course she'd never do something like that. Chance's power, on the other hand…it was just plain dangerous. Supposing he had unleashed it during a temper tantrum when he was a small cub, and…But Connie pushed the thought away. Nothing like that had happened, and she would do everything in her power to help him keep it that way.

"Connie…Why do you believe me?" he asked, looking up at her. He wasn't embarrassed that she had seen him cry; he was too upset to be.

"Because…" Connie considered getting Hope, but decided against it. There would be enough time to tell her in the morning, and right now reassuring her brother was more important. "Because I can do something too."

Chance cocked his head as if trying to decide whether or not to believe her, and asked, "What?"

"First you have to promise not to tell anyone." She said.

"Why?" he asked.

"Because I'm not sure how the rest of the Family would react…" she said, which was true enough, "And mostly because No Heart might use it against us."

Chance snickered for the first time. "What can he do? He wears a dress."

"They're robes, dingbat…" Connie told him, rolling her eyes, and he laughed a little. "Do you promise, or not?"

"Yeah, I guess so…" he agreed reluctantly, "So, what can you do?"

"I can freeze people. I can make them stand still." She told him.

"Show me!" he said excitedly, perking up.

She shook her head. "I'll have to show you later, on Hope. If I did it to you, you wouldn't notice it unless I moved things around."

"Wait a minute…How do I know you aren't kidding around, and Hope won't stand still just cuz you told her to?" he asked.

Connie flicked her left ear in a half-derisive fashion, and said, "How do I know you weren't just playing with matches?"

Chance's eyes welled up again, and he insisted vehemently, "I wasn't!"

Connie winced a little; she hadn't meant to upset him. "I know, and I believe you…and I'm telling you the truth. I promise I'll prove it to you, but not tonight. Okay?"

Chance nodded, and asked, "Can…can Hopie do something too?"

"Yeah…"

When Connie didn't elaborate, Chance prompted, "What can she do?"

"That's for her to say, not me." Connie said, and when his face fell she pointed to the clock. "Listen, it's almost 11:00, and I know we're both tired. We'll talk about this tomorrow, the three of us. Go and get your PJ's on, and don't worry. There's nothing wrong with you."

"You sure?" he asked.

Connie chuffed slightly through her nose, and scratched her chin as she looked at him appraisingly. "Well, aside from your hairdo, and dirty ears you could grow 'potaters' in…" she lightly tugged his left ear between her thumb and forefinger, and he swatted her paws away with a laugh, and hugged her.

"Thanks, Sis…"

Connie ruffled his mane, and steered him out of her room. "Get some shut-eye, and I'll tell Hope about this tomorrow. We'll sort things out, Chance."

"'Kay. G'night." He said.

"Night."

'Morning's here, oh joy…' Regal Heart thought sourly as waves of nausea swept over her. She was supposed to go to Take Care's office today to have her first sonogram for this pregnancy, but that meant getting out of bed…and praying to the porcelain god. Or not. She didn't always get sick every morning, but one thing was certain. She did not feel good. She comforted herself with the knowledge that it would pass soon enough, and slowly turned over to see how her stomach would behave when she moved. 'So far so good…' she thought, 'No better, but no worse either.'

Stellar Heart Tiger lay curled up beside her, purring softly on every exhalation, and Regal smiled and gently nudged his chin.

"Wake up, sleepy head." She said, smiling wider as he groaned.

"S'too early…" he mumbled, burying his face in his pillow.

"C'mon, we've got things to do. Sonogram, remember?" she said. "Don't you want to know if our baby is healthy?"

He sat up a little, waking up some more. "Oh, yeah. That's today, isn't it? Sure I do." He smiled at her, and she tried not to look as ill as she felt.

'Seems like I'm always pregnant…Uh-oh…' She pressed a paw over her mouth and vaulted out of bed, running for the bathroom.

Stellar's forehead wrinkled in concern, but he knew better than to follow her. She preferred not to be observed, and he could understand that well enough; he was the same way. He got out of bed, stepped into his slippers, and padded silently out to wake his cubs. 'Soon I won't be able to call them cubs anymore…' he thought sadly. He cheered himself with the thought of having a new baby in the house. He was really getting the hang of this 'Dad' thing…

Getting everybody out of bed was a bit of a fiasco. Hope mumbled 'Just five more minutes' twice before Stellar responded with 'No, not five more minutes, now. You had ten extra minutes. C'mon, Hopie, we're burning daylight.' Chance bounced out of bed immediately, and he spent the next ten minutes in constant motion, clamoring for his turn in the bathroom and pounding on Connie's door.

"Mmph…" Connie groaned. She had locked her door out of habit, but her parents had a 'key'. It was really a sardine tin opener, but it fit in the tiny hole in her doorknob, and with a little know-how one could pick the lock. Regal and Stellar had become very adept at this, since Connie now had a separate room from Hope, and was very hard to get out of bed. In this she took after her mother, but these days Regal's stomach was waking her up.

Chance jiggled the doorknob, and said, "I'm coming in!"

"You're being a pain…" was Connie's mumbled reply.

"Gotta get up today! Remember what you promised?"

Connie reluctantly got out of bed, and braced the stiffness out of her back with a crackling sound. "Yeah…"

"Rise and shi-ine!" Chance called in a singsong voice.

"I'll rise, but I won't shine…" said Connie as she emerged from her room and followed her jittery younger brother down to the kitchen. "Chance?"

"Yup?" he asked as he walked around the kitchen, looking at this and that, and hardly pausing to rest.

"Did you, by any chance, put a funnel in your mouth and empty a five-pound bag of sugar down your throat?" she looked at him askance, and he grinned.

"No, but that's not a bad idea!"

"Oh yes it is." Said Regal as she entered the kitchen, looking less ill than before, "You're hyper enough, bucko."

She got a carton of eggs out of the refrigerator, and Connie took it from her.

"I got it, Mom. Sit."

Regal, pleasantly surprised, said, "Are you sure?"

"Sure. You look sorta…well, just sit down." Connie said.

Hope looked over, frowning dubiously. "Want me to help you? You've never cooked."

Connie drew herself up, and glared. "Hey, I've cooked!"

"Well…" Hope hesitated. Making s'mores in the microwave didn't really seem like cooking to her, but Connie seemed determined. It was a nice gesture, and their mother did look tired.

"Any idiot can fry an egg." Continued Connie.

Chance gave her a rather smug grin, and jeered, "What's that say about you, Con?"

Contrary Heart brandished the skillet threateningly, but she was smiling just the same.

More to come…