Shoutout to vcj, who gave me some good advice which I totally intend to ignore. Ha, just joking. What they said, though, was a little out of my league of understanding. But it was helpful, nonetheless, so thank you. I greatly appreciate anything that helps me write a better story.
Zootopia belongs to Disney. Spider-Man belongs to Sony.
"Danny... Danny... wake up, bud."
Danny's brain rebooted. Peeling his eyes open, he used his hand to wipe away the blurriness. He looked up and immediately his head tilted as he searched for the best angle of attack on the thick yarn hanging above his head. All attention was suddenly centered on that one piece of string. It was all that mattered. Playtime was imminent. And on this rare occasion, he was going to play hard.
His mouth opened as he swatted at it, both hands pawing at it like a baby kitten. He gripped it with his teeth and began to kick at it with his legs.
"Danny, Danny, get the yarn!" Sarah pulled it free and wiggled it in front of him, driving him from bed. Sarah fought to keep from laughing when she saw that he was still in his underwear. Yep, he was a little kid all right, especially when someone tempted him with anything like this. Yarn, the simplest yet most effective toy for a kitten.
Danny got up on all fours, his cute little furry tail high up. He eyed the string with fiery passion. Ooh, he was going to swat the heck outta that thing!
"GET IT DANNY!" she yelled as she turned around and let it flow behind her shoulder. He leapt up and dove for it, his tongue hanging out as if he were mesmerized. The door slammed in his face. "Get dressed first!" Ten seconds later, he emerged fully dressed in a gray shirt and blue jeans. She was already on the move. Danny trailed right behind her, pawing at the yarn that she flowed behind her. At the same time, he mewled and purred.
He didn't realize what she was doing until they made it outside. She dropped the yarn onto the pavement, where he dove for it and proceeded to play with it, gnawing on it and nudging at it gently on the ground.
"I..." Sarah said as she examined her claws "...am good. I knew I'd get you outside, you cute widdle kitten!" She ruffled the fur on the top of his head.
He looked up at her, suddenly thinking lucidly for the first time since he opened his eyes that morning. "You set me up," he said, feigning anger despite the fact that he couldn't be more amused at the moment. He stood upright and aimed his wrist at her feet and shot a small web in front of her foot. She flinched. "Careful before you get a face-full of web, woman. And I'm not cute."
"Oh yeth you are." She bat her eyelashes at him while clasping her hands beside her cheek. "You should see yourself when you sleep. The way you twitch and meow when you're dreaming is so adorable!"
He smiled and began firing small webs around her feet, causing her to dance from one foot to the other. Yelping, she held her hands out in front of her. "Ok, ok! You're handsome! You happy?!"
"Yep!"
"Hey, once you're all big and manly and stupid, you'll wish you were all innocent and fuzzy again! I know I miss it," she finished with a mutter.
"So where we going?" he asked to change the subject as they turned onto the sidewalk from the dry field behind them.
"We... are going to Hill Plaza."
"Hill Plaza? What's that?"
"It's actually Rolling Hills shopping center, but everyone just calls it Hill Plaza. If you'd been able to actually get out and enjoy yourself for once, then you would've gone there a long time ago. It's the place to be this week."
"What's so special about this week?"
"It's the anniversary of the end of the Nighthowler Crisis! Well, not today but this Saturday. It's called... the third of October." She punctuated her sentence with jazz hands.
"So?"
"So, there's plenty of things to do there. You'll see. And on Saturday there'll be a big parade."
"Ok..." he said slowly. "What's a parade?"
After a while, they reached the busier part of the Savannah. Pretty soon, the sidewalk began to crowd around the two predators. While Sarah seemed to be able to see relatively well over the crowd, Danny had to keep her in his sights. He saw her begin to look around, a look of realization on her face. A feeling of anticipation fell over him. Something was off. It wasn't until he got a good look around that he realized what caught Sarah's attention: every species pushing their way past each other... all of them were prey. In fact... neither of them saw any predators besides themselves anywhere on this sidewalk. It was nearly impossible to hear himself think over the incessant noise of everyday city life on steroids. The only ones who got any leeway were the porcupines and hedgehogs. Lucky, thought Danny. He began to feel very self-conscious about being the only predator in the crowd.
"Hey, watch it!" said an elk who pushed into him. The elk shoved him backward with his foot. Danny stumbled backward and bounced off of someone else. A mass of fur pressed up against him and compressed him for a second. He looked around and tried to get his bearings. He didn't see Sarah. He didn't see her anywhere.
"Sarah?" Unsurprisingly, he couldn't hear his own voice. "Sarah!" he shouted over the noises. He cupped his hands. "Sarah!"
He didn't hear any response. Shoot! Mammals bumped into him, turning him every which way until he couldn't tell which direction was which. Some even seemed to deliberately shove him for whatever reason. He tried jumping, but he knocked into someone and landed right back down. A deep voice cursed loudly and started demanding who smacked him. The resulting jostling pushed Danny around in the group of mammals trying to get by on the sidewalk.
A ring of anxiety compressed his temples. What if he got lost? Stuck in an unfamiliar part of the city without a cell phone. Oh, this was a bad idea. He started to breathe heavily as he looked around for her.
"Hey, have you seen-? Wait, can you tell me if you see an ocel- hey! Will someone listen to me?!" No one would. No one cared. He cursed to himself, more out of anxiety than anger. Everyone around him seemed oblivious to his presence. He was invisible until he became a stumbling block.
He looked around a little more. Off to the side, just visible over the top of the mass of mammals was a wall of one of the buildings strafing the sidewalk, less than ten feet away.
He pushed his way through the mob of fur and frustration, knocking over several animals in the process. Many of them yelled as he drove through them like a bulldozer. They knocked into others and pushed them over like dominos. He didn't care. He just wanted to find Sarah.
He climbed up the wall using his fingertips and latched onto the ledge of the first floor molding on the side of the building. He perched onto it and scanned the crowd.
Looking down at the mass of animals, dozens of them were staring at him in awe. Danny cursed at himself for putting his weirdness on display. Some called out to him, asking how he got up there. He saw some of them take out their phones and aim a camera lens at him but he paid no attention.
It was then that he realized... trying to find Sarah in this crowd was like looking for a needle in a haystack. It was impossible. He slumped as his eyes rapidly searched through the impossibly thick crowd of prey. The ring grew tighter, squeezing his fear further into his mind. Oh please, Sarah, don't leave me here... They had walked practically halfway across the district. The thought that he wouldn't know how he'd get back was terrifying.
A few minutes of fruitless scanning later... "Danny!" He looked down. There she was, looking up at him with a relieved look on her face, right below him. "Danny, lend me a rope!
Before he did, he looked around and tried to ignore the fact that he was clearly still out in the open. He cast silk from his wrist, aiming it at the ground right in front of her feet. Once it hit the ground, he attached it to the ledge so she could climb up. When she climbed up onto the edge, she grabbed his shoulders and leaned down to look him in the eye. "Are you ok?"
"Yeah," he nodded in relief.
"Oh Danny I'm so sorry," she said while pulling him into a hug. "I shouldn't have led you down this way. I should have taken you down the next street. It's less crowded and only predators take that one. I wouldn't have lost you like that."
"It's ok," he answered, the pressure in his head dissipating. All he felt now was relief.
She huffed. "Come on. I got an idea. Remember how I told about my parkour days?" She pitched her idea to him, and he loved it! He took a single jump to the top of the building twenty feet up, then cast another web for her to climb.
They soared from the top of one building to another, with Sarah showing him a trick or two that Danny mimicked as they went along. Another thing Danny had never done before. He'd missed out on so much! Well, Sarah was going to make sure that changed today. Screw her Boss, screw John, screw anyone who wanted him out of the picture. It was just her and him today.
Once they reached the area, Sarah stood before the Hill Plaza on the rooftop and raised her arms like a presenter. "This is Rolling Hills Shopping Center!"
He began to look around in amazement at everything in the place. There were animals everywhere, filling restaurants, various sports fields, and... a water park?! There seemed to be a lot of structures off in the center of the massive courtyard that were under construction. He wondered what they were. Animals milled about everywhere. Of course, it wasn't as crowded as the sidewalk back there, since everyone was probably headed to work, but it was still enough to need to stay close to Sarah.
"What are those things?" he pointed to the structures.
"Those are rides. See..." she leaned down closer to him and pointed at something that looked like a track. "See that track right there?"
"Yeah."
"That's called a roller coaster. It's like a train that goes really fast and does flips. There's a small company that travels around and sets up rides for events like this. Although I can't quite remember the name of it..."
"Can we ride one?!"
"Mm-hm, sure! Once they get them done! But it's Thursday and that won't be until Saturday."
"Oh."
"But don't worry, Danny. Even without them, we wouldn't be able to reach all the things you could do here today. Whatever you want to do, let's get to it!" The kitten bounced in excitement. Such new experiences!
Danny and Sarah climbed down another web and they entered the crowd. Sarah held his hand to keep from losing him. The first thing she noticed, as always, was the unspoken segregation between predators and prey. They stayed away from each other as much as possible. But as far as she could tell, Danny didn't seem to notice or care, so she put it out of her mind.
There was also the fear of being seen in public, which was something they were never to do without permission. That was a harder beast to control. There was no need to worry, logically. As far as anyone would be concerned, she was just adoptive mother taking her adoptive son out for a fun day. That's all. No need to worry.
Everything would be just fine.
As they went through, Sarah asked him where he wanted to go first. Danny's attention was suddenly grasped by a whirring sound coming from something he didn't see until he looked up. A kind of flying disk floated in midair, hovering high above the crowd. It flipped and yawed periodically, causing Danny's eyes to widen in amazement.
That is so cool! he thought.
Danny suddenly let go of Sarah's hand and she turned around. But she didn't see him. "Danny? Danny! Where'd you go? Oh, not again..."
A couple of giraffes nearly stepped on her. Ugh, there was plenty of room to go around her! Rude!
"COOL!" she heard Danny's voice close by. Turning around, all she saw was a small gathering of mammals watching a horse on a raised platform controlling some flying contraption that was hovering about twenty or thirty feet in the air. A second later, a black figure flew high up and rapidly swatted a kind of ribbon attached to the bottom several times before coming back down. The gathering uttered gasps of amazement as he did it again. Danny had a very wide smile on his muzzle as he unwittingly showed off his acrobatics. Sarah crossed her arms and smiled. Finally, he was having some real fun.
Before long, a larger crowd had gathered to see this spectacle. Sarah heard a bunch of them wondering who he was and how he was able to jump so high. Sarah relished it.
Sarah covered her mouth when he latched onto the ribbon, giving all she could to not laugh.
"What the!" cried the horse, looking between the boy and the disk. Danny climbed a ways up his web and began hovering around with the contraption.
"Hey Sarah, check this out!" laughed the wide-eyed jaguar as the disk carried him. Dozens of others called attention to the little boy hanging from the disk by the string.
She burst out giggling at the spectacle.
"Please, man, don't... I'm gonna get in a lot of troub-!"
"I need to get one of these!" someone said, amongst other mammals who were swarming to by one of those flying disks.
"My son will love-!"
"How much-!"
"Do they come with the ribbon-?"
The manager of the kiosk dropped the remote as he was swarmed with paying customers.
"Whooooaa!" Danny shouted before smacking onto his belly from a couple dozen feet up right in front of Sarah, followed by the disk. He looked up at her with a grin. "I gotta do that again!"
Still covering her mouth, Sarah looked back at the kiosk and saw that it had sold out completely. The horse was dancing his hind legs off from the money he'd made. He'd be going home early today, it seemed.
She giggled to herself and thought she might need to take Danny around to more of these places so he could make more profit-inducing havoc.
She let him go around to a few of the other shops, look around at everything. While he didn't do anything crazy, he definitely could not have had more fun. He'd never done this before. He'd never really been allowed to go outside, and even when he did sneak out, it was always just to wander nearby. It was at this moment that Sarah, for the first time in years, saw Danny as he is, or as should be. He wasn't an enforcer, he wasn't an asset. He was just a normal little boy. Even if he was a god, he still needed to just grow up and be a kid.
"Sarah!" Danny said as she was talking to a young mother watching her son pick out clothes, and she turned to see him holding a black shirt with a white spider design on the front. Sarah snorted and mused to herself just how... him that was. "Can I get this?"
"Do you have the right size?" she asked, taking it and looking at the label. "Extra small."
"I think so."
"Did you try it on?" she asked with a smirk.
"Well... uh, no."
She tossed it on his face. "Put it on and if it's the right size, I'll get it for you."
He tried to pull it over his head, and was barely able to get his head through the hole. But he couldn't get his arms through the armholes. "Unh! I can't get it off (without ripping it)!" he said as he tried to do so.
"Here," Sarah giggled, "let me help..." She gripped the sides of the shirt and pulled. "Ooh, this really is stuck. Hold on. She gripped it more firmly and pulled harder, but it still stuck fast on him.
"Ow ow ow ow ow! Stop!" She let go.
"Danny, we have to get it off," Sarah said quietly, realizing that animals were snickering at them.
"Excuse me, do you need any help?" a sales clerk asked as Danny continued pulling the shirt upward.
"No, no, we just got the wrong size."
"Well, here..." The clerk tapped Danny where his chin was. "Lift your chin." He did so, and the shirt popped right off.
"How'd you do that?" asked Danny.
"Your muzzle was in the way. So you had to get it out of the way." The clerk smiled. "I'll take this shirt since it was too small. And this is for kids, so I think he'd go for a medium."
"Ok, thank you!" she said before turning back to Danny. "Are you ok?" she chuckled.
"Yeah. I'm just glad the shirt's ok too. Thought we'd have to take it off the hard way."
"That didn't happen, thankfully, so let's get you that medium."
After buying the shirt (and yes, medium was the right size, they headed toward the basketball court, where a bunch of other kids were playing ball. Sarah and Danny looked at each other and smirked. She ran for the crowd and flipped over the group of players to snatch the ball from the hands of the tallest player as Danny ran around the side. Sarah tossed the ball upward toward the goal ten feet high, and Danny caught it midair and slam dunked it.
Needless to say, both teams ended up arguing about which team the two should be on. Despite the fact that her friend was in danger, she couldn't stop smiling out of joy that Danny was able to show off rather than always hide his power. She wished he'd been able to do things like this for him sooner rather than later. Took him seven years but... if the threat of his life was what it took... maybe it was worth it for once. As long as she could get him through alive, at least.
"Have fun?" asked an out-of-breath Sarah after the game.
"Sarah, we gotta come back here on Saturday. This place is so awesome!" he called out, cupping his mouth with his hands.
She stood up. "We will. I promise." She looked at her phone. "Whew, it's only ten in the morning and you haven't even had breakfast yet. How about we get a snack? I'm starving." She led him toward a small parlor just down the street from the Plaza. Sarah pointed at the sign: Jumbeaux's cafe.
"I used to come to places like this all the time when I was your age."
"Were you ever my age?" he responded.
"Aw, shut it, you little kitten!" She shoved his face to the side playfully.
As they approached the parlor, Sarah's hand set itself on Danny's shoulder and stopped him. She led him to the corner of a building to stay hidden and leaned close to his ear.
"Do you see that baby there with the big ears? Beside the door." Danny looked around the entrance to the building and noticed the mammal she was referring to... a very small... something with massive ears, like bigger than its head. It was waddling toward the building and wearing a... gray onesie. And was that a pacifier in its mouth?!
"Yeah," he whispered back. "What is that?"
"That is a fox. Native to the desert... they're very rare in Zootopia. He's the only one I've ever known - heck, the only one I've ever seen in the Savannah."
At that second, the door opened and the fox ran forward, trying to catch the door. But it closed before he could. He then stood there, waiting for it to open again.
Sarah stood upright and walked forward. Danny followed.
"You think maybe he got lost?"
Sarah laughed. "You'll see."
She stopped in front of the baby.
"Well now, did someone woose their mommy and daddy?" she said in a baby voice.
He took the pacifier out of his mouth and smirked. "Sup, girl."
"WHOA! WHAT THE!" yelled Danny, who flailed his arms in shock at the sound of the "baby's" baritone voice.
"What, kid, you ain't never seen a fennec before?"
"No!" he said loudly. "Babies don't talk!" The fox wheezed a short laugh.
"Hey, hey calm down, Danny. He's an old friend. This is Danny, by the way," she said to the tiny fox.
"Sup?" Danny's mouth still hung open in wonder.
"So what's up, Finnick, you getting a popsicle like always?"
"Ever since my boy Nick went straight, work's been going on much the same. But I think I may be running out of stores to hustle. One of 'em started spreading the news about me not long ago. Been making work tight here and there."
"Yeah... you do know this is the last store you hustled Nick with, right? I remember, because you told me about that bunny who bought you the ice pop."
Finnick looked at the shop. "You kiddin' me?! Can't believe I fo-got all bout that!"
Sarah winked at Danny. "Hey listen, how about we help you with this hustle real quick?"
"Oh, would you? I would love a little bit of old times. I'll even do a little toot-toot for you!" They both laughed at that.
Danny looked between the two of them, failing to grasp the inside joke.
"Actually, this won't be a regular hustle; I'm a little rusty, so I think we'll try something different..." she looked around "...plan theta."
Finnick smirked. "Ain't that a little too easy?"
"Well, why not? It's fun."
"A'ight. Lead the way, Sassassarah."
"Sassassarah?" asked Danny.
"That was his nickname for me; I had a stuttering problem in my late teen years."
There was a pinging sound and Sarah pulled out her phone to see the message. Her face and ears suddenly fell. Her eyes widened and her shoulders shrugged subtly as she inhaled sharply.
"What?" asked Danny, turning to see what bothered her.
"Nothing, come on," she said quickly, putting her phone away and grabbing his shoulders to direct him into the parlor. They got in line. The message she'd seen... she'd known it was coming; that was the reason they were here. But the reality of it was beginning to sink in. She tried to calm down. Danny didn't need to know about that. He didn't need that stress. She got her head back in the game.
The line wasn't long, thankfully. She could tell Danny was eager to get back out there, to the point that he was beginning to play with a short web. It was something of a nervous tic of his. Being a cat, string was his weakness. She looked at the counter and thought of her old partnership with Finnick. The "Baby" act was his MO. It seemed, though, that Zootopia was starting to catch on to the fact that there was a con fox with immortal youth around these parts. He'd probably need a little help. She smiled widely. She knew exactly what to do. Being Nick and Finnick's old partner and cellmate on the latter's part, she realized that Finnick must have forgotten that he'd already hustled this place. He had told her after the hustle about the bunny who had bought Nick's sob story, hook, line, and stinker. She backed away from the line.
"Next!" said the African elephant.
"What does this stuff taste like?" Danny asked. Getting no response, he looked around and realized... Sarah wasn't there.
Aw geez, seriously? Sarah, where did you go?
He looked around but didn't see her. Oh well, she probably went to the bathroom or something. Bad timing though, considering she and Finnick were supposed to pull a hustle. He'd looked forward to it, too. Looked like it was up to him. He gulped.
"Next in line." That was them. He suddenly felt very much put on the spot. Finnick looked up at him with two big baby eyes. He was fully in character. He was a very good actor. If he hadn't met him five minutes ago, he would never give thought to the fact that this is actually a grown man in an elephant costume for toddlers. The thought that he might be wearing a diaper made Danny have to hold back giggles.
"What you gettin', kid?" said the elephant to Danny.
"A, uh..." what did she call it? "A popsicle? The big one there?" He pointed at the picture in the window counter.
"15.75."
"Uh-huh?" said Danny with an awkward smile, trying to stall. Come on Sarah, where'd you go? This is about to blow up any second...!
"Well? 15.75. Either pay for the Jumbo Pop or get outta line."
While Danny tried to think of a way to keep the pleasant conversation going, the elephant finally noticed Finnick, who just stood there looking cute.
"'Ey, haven't I seen you somewhere before?" he asked. The "kid" didn't even flinch.
The elephant leaned on the counter and looked closely at Finnick. Less than a second later, his eyes widened. "You know, I have seen you here before! Hey guys, come look at this!" A few of the workers went up to the counter to see the "baby."
Danny wondered exactly why he hadn't broken character yet. The hustle was already blown to smithereens. He'd never hustled anyone before and realized - shocker - he sucked at that too!
"You all remember this guy don't ya, what with that red fox and meter maid bunny cop a while back?" He chuckled spitefully. "Ain't got any backup now, eh?"
Well, that just shows how much I suck, thought Danny. Whole thing's a bust.
Finnick just tilted his head toward the clock.
"Ah, get outta here before I call the cops on you." The pair of the customers behind them were whispering to each other about the fact that Finnick was no baby. It sounded like they were aware of Finnick's methods. They were, however, beginning to grumble at the elephant and to scold him and the "baby" to get out of line.
It was then that the fox turned to see the time from the clock on the wall again. And then he... headed for the door. Just walked away, having not said a single word for the fifty seconds or so that they had been at the counter. Danny shook his head and lifted his arms in confusion. He followed the fennec out to the sidewalk and then to the side of the building. He wondered exactly where he was going. He wondered if maybe he was coming here to moan about how much of a fluke the hustle was. He rolled his eyes at the thought. Ugh, he blew it, he really did; he'd waited too long for Sarah to come back but she didn't. Finnick stopped beside a dumpster, where Danny finally opened his mouth "What was that?!" he said quietly. "You didn't even do anything; how were you supposed to get-"
"A Jumbo Pop?" a voice cut him off. Danny looked up to see Sarah standing right there. "Or how about three Jumbo Pops?" Indeed, she was holding three massive popsicles, all still in their wrappers. They seemed a little hard for her to carry but she managed well enough. She handed one to Danny, one to Finnick, and kept the last one for herself.
"Thank you very much, Say-girl." He held out his fist and she gave him a pound with hers. "A promise is a promise. He pulled his hood over his head, donning a hysterical elephantine costume."
The nose extended and made two high-pitched tooting sounds, causing Danny to double over in laughter. Finnick seemed to take it in stride. "Y'all take care. I got some business to take care of."
Getting himself under control, Danny turned toward Sarah, who had gotten part of the wrapper off and was already licking her Jumbo Pop fervently. She met his eyes, giving him a wide, gleeful smile with her tongue sticking out from between her lips.
"So while I was making myself look like a complete idiot you snuck to the back and smuggled three Jumbo Pops out."
"Hey, don't get judgmental; I know about those packs of liquor Nigel had you nick from Hornitode's room."
"No, no! I'm just saying, how did you do it?"
"Well..."
Danny listened to her story as they enjoyed their oversized treats and walked down the street back toward the coffee shop she and her friends met at every week. Her jumbo pop was now melting at a rapid rate, but she had ceased her fervent slurping. It was starting to drip onto her shoulder and down her back, but she didn't seem to notice.
Oh!" she exclaimed as she looked at her pop. "I'm getting this stuff all over me!"
She strove to lick her pop as fast as she could. She'd gotten distracted by that group message. It stayed at the back of her mind and threatened to take center stage in her frontal lobe. But this time she let it. "It's time. Whoever brings Arcturus to Dr. Andrews will receive first dose when ready." She hoped all this would blow over and Danny wouldn't have to find out about the Boss's intentions. All she had to do was get him somewhere safe where Boss couldn't find him. Then maybe Boss would forget about him and get on with his busy life. But all that was wishful thinking at best. The Shark was not known to change his mind as easily as Mr. Big. She'd have to find a permanent solution.
John had already proven to be of no help. He put on a show of strength and fortitude, but the truth was, he had no spine whatsoever. Never had, and never would. And he was among the best of the Shark's henchmammals. She was on her own here.
The problem was, how would she convince him not to go back to the compound?
They soon finished their pops - though most of it ended up on the ground and on them. They had to stop and get wet naps to get washed up from all the sticky popsicle goo. The fur on the top of Danny's head jutted out at several angles when they were finished. It made Sarah snicker at how adorable it was. She licked her palm and patted it down, much to his annoyance.
After they were cleaned up, they continued their walk. "Can we go back and play some more ball after this?!" asked Danny excitedly. She could not say no to those- how could she say no to those big, round eyes?! She fought it back for just this once.
"Sure. Why not?" She put her arm around his damp neck.
John stared down at the phone with the ten numbers punched in. One button away from connecting with her phone.
He tried to lift his thumb to push the button - such a simple act. Just one movement and it'll call. But his thumb, his whole hand, his whole body, felt a thousand pounds heavier.
Do it.
Just do it.
No matter what she says to you, you'll be there for her like you should have always been.
Using this thought to give himself strength, he lifted the thousand pound weight and pushed the call button. He had to. To keep her safe.
The phone rang once.
Twice.
Three times.
A part of him hoped that she wouldn't answer.
"Sabe lo que hare cuando te hayas ido?" she'd asked her father the night before he left for boot camp. ("You know what I'll do while you're gone?")
"..." he barely looked up as he researched what his experience in the armed forces would be like.
"Usted sabe lo que hare? Papa!" ("Dad, you know what I'll do?... Dad!")
"Que!" he said shortly, looking up finally. (What!)
She had reached up and acted out scooping something from thin air and hugging it close. "Mientras has ido cogere las estrellas y te aguanta hasta que vuelvas." ("...I'll get the stars and keep them for you till you come back.")
"You know what I could use?" he'd asked in English.
"What?"
"A nice, big bottle of whiskey! Cause hoof! If I go to war, I'll be needing that when I come back!"
John cringed audibly at the memory. Why, why, why did he say that? What he wouldn't give to go back to that moment to pick her up and twirl her around and thank her and tell her how much he loved her. If he could go back to that one moment, he would've told her that he'd already found the perfect star, and she was right there in his arms.
"Hello?" came an adult female voice, snapping him out of his thoughts. Her voice, still bearing the same accent. John felt a powerful wave sweep from his chest to the rest of his body.
It was her. The first time he'd heard her voice in fourteen long, cold years.
The very sound of her voice made his mouth open silently as heavy, unrelenting emotion overwhelmed him. He held his fist to his mouth and descended into a silent sob. His bottom lip quivered and water filled his eyes. Come on, say something, John... just one word.
"Hello?... Who is this?"
He was so close to answering her - now was his chance to tell her what he should have said all those years ago - but his eyes squeezed shut at the memories flashing through his mind. It stung. It stung too much. He couldn't do it.
He hung up. He let out the breath he had been holding before laying his head on his forearm and taking a deep breath to replenish his oxygen.
He just couldn't do it.
Fourteen years, and he still couldn't do it. He didn't care at the time, but now... oh, what good would it do? What had changed? He'd tried to do better with Danny. And yet, where had he gotten him? He had been so scared of messing up again that he messed up worse than ever. Sarah was the one who had to take up the slack for him.
Claire, I'm sorry. How he yearned to tell her over and over again how much he loved her. But he might never get the chance, because her life was threatened by the Shark, the very mammal she was working to bring down, along with the police. He only hoped she wasn't doing a good job of it, for her sake.
"I went to find the kid, but he wasn't in his room. And I can't find him anywhere, nor Sarah. Neither of them are here."
"You have everything set up for the test, correct?" asked Lukagi easily.
"I... I'm almost there, I just have to find the right synthase. But again, I tried finding Danny but-"
"I know," said the Shark.
"You know? Then why aren't you doing anything about it?! Or putting John on it? We need him if we're going to get this experiment under way!" He found himself desiring to backpedal, given that he himself was worried about his own ability to be prepared by the deadline. He had to work constantly to make progress with this serum, which was much harder to develop than he'd anticipated.
"Peter, can I explain something to you?" Dr. Andrews bristled from the patronizing undertone, but kept his quiet. "I knew that Sarah would try to get him away from me. I counted on it."
"You knew, sir? How?" the hyena asked with mild discomfort.
"Just thank that sheep Bellwether for giving us the perfect cover..." He smiled, though he couldn't hide a certain level of discomfort. What he was going to do to accomplish this plan was barbaric. Necessary, but barbaric.
