Hey, reader! I am super happy to see all the support and suggestions that my first story has gotten thus far and I cannot express my gratitude enough. Now I know it is a little early to start making excuses for not getting chapters out in a timely manner, but I am a college student with a job and my real world life will take priority every time. As for my publishing schedule it will probably be around every ~8 days because my only writing time that I have is on weekends and sometimes I work weekends. This is not to say that I won't try to get some writing done because this has always been something that I wanted to do.

Now without further ado I present to you the second chapter of Worth so much more!

Chapter 2: Family Interactions

The Hopps family went on with the idea of having a fox relative, but if any members had a rebuke then Bonnie would take it up with them personally. Nick was a family member of the rabbit clan as far as the law was concerned and hardly a noticeable addition at that. Nick was a quiet baby that could live with anything they gave him. He wasn't perfect, he'd cry every so often but was easy to calm down. Never threw tantrums and got along with the baby bunnies that were his age.

Nick was a special child. Not very often do you find a kit able to console another kit while distressed. Once while Bonnie was attending to the baby bunnies and Nick, one of the girls started having a tantrum. Bonnie took notice of the distressed bunny and started toward her to assess the situation. As soon as she got up she noticed that Nick was already crawling his way across the blanket he was on. Slowly he made it toward the crying bunny and Bonnie only watched to see what would happen and what did happen surprised her.

Nick finally made it to the crying bunny and lifted his left front paw and placed it on the forehead of the little girl. The baby bunny stopped crying, but couldn't decide as to why. Nick then traced his paw around her face, withdrew it and proceeded to cuddle the bunny. They were both in a fit of giggles and eventually fell asleep tangled into one another.

"That doesn't look too comfortable," Bonnie thought to herself as she inspected the two sleeping infants.

Bonnie picked up the bundle of grey and red separating them into each of her arms. Walking over to two empty cradles and placing the two in either. The baby fox was still fast asleep and was poised to not be awakened until he saw fit, but the baby girl was upset again by the missing cuddle buddy that she just recently had. Bonnie circumvented this issue by placing a small plush toy in the cradle with her daughter Hailey, which she cuddled with immediately.

"Already getting fresh with my daughter, huh Nicky," Bonnie thought to herself.

"Probably shouldn't be saying those kinds of things, Mom," Abigale jokingly said, "seeing as how he now a member of the family."

Abigale is the oldest child of the first litter in the Hopps family. Her fur is an even mix of light and dark grey and two gleaming eyes of dominate blue with brown surrounding the pupil. Extremely patient and opened minded, Abigale has been through quite a few phases, but they never stuck. Never known to raise her voice or even use family friendly curses making her a perfect caregiver and helper for the baby bunnies.

"You're probably right, but did you see what just happened between these two!?"

"Yes, mom, I did. Once it started you pretty much just dropped everything to see how it ended. Luckily I took care of all the crying baby bunnies that Nick and you didn't attend to."

"Oh. I didn't even notice, it was too adorable."

Abigale cracked a wide grin barely being able to maintain the stern face she was using as her front, "You've had how many litters? And now you are experiencing this feeling? Wow that really puts things into perspective."

"I did the same for your litter! I also find all of my children adorable, it's just new experiences that get me."

"Aww thanks mom. And, yeah, I get it. We should probably get some food ready for these little stinkers."

With a nod of her head Bonnie and her daughter exit through the door making their way to the kitchen. Upon reaching the kitchen Bonnie asked Abigale to get started on the bunny baby food while she gets the food for Nick. Abigale obliged and started collecting the different ingredients for the baby food until she heard a short sigh from her mother.

"What's wrong mom?"

"We are out of baby food for Nick."

"Well maybe he will like carrot based baby food. He has been pretty accepting of everything else we've given him."

Maybe Abigale was right. Nick has been a great kit so far. Bonnie pondered on the possibility of giving the fox kit a vegetable based food. How would he react to it? Would he like it? If he did would we not need to get meat based baby food? Bonnie finally decided to help her daughter with preparing the baby bunny food, but with an extra serving.

After getting everything prepared including the dining area the food, Abigale and Bonnie Hopps went to collect the children and get them eating. There were 11 infants in total, including Nick. This was the smallest litter that the Hopps family has seen in a while so feeding them in one go didn't seem like too hard of a task. After transfering all the baby bunnies and fox to the dining area and placing them in the high chairs two by two Bonnie and Abigale started the feeding process.

Nick was placed more toward the middle as Bonnie and Abigale worked from left and right making their way to the center. Putting him closer to the middle meant that a possible issue could be put off instead of having to deal with a grumpy little kit. Eventually they got to Nick, placing the baby food on a sturdy plastic spoon they slowly brought the spoon up to Nick. He gave it a few good sniffs then bit the spoon swiftly startling Abigale as she pulled the spoon toward her.

"If that had been the bargain brand the bowl of this spoon would still be in his mouth," Abigale thought to herself

"Did he like it?"

"I don't know if he even tasted it."

"What does that mean?"

"He ate it pretty fast. Also I can't tell from his face."

Nick's face was one of wonder, but not toward the baby food that he just recieved. Instead Abigale followed his gaze behind her. What she found he was looking at was a few baskets of blueberries.

"Try feeding him more. He might need more since he is a fox."

"How about we try those blueberries? He seems to want those."

"He can try a few, but wash them first."

Abigale walked over to the baskets full of blueberries and picked out a few plump ones she was sure were juicy. Washing them and placing the pesticide and dirt free fruit in a clean washcloth she walked over to the expectant Nick and held one out for him. Nick grabbed it taking up almost a quarter of his hand. He popped it into his mouth and bit down. His eyes widened while he let out a small "yip" of excitement as he clapped his hands trying to get another.

Abigale shook her finger at him saying, "Oh no, you gotta have your veggies before you get more of this stuff."

She placed more of the vegetable based baby food on the spoon and lifted it toward Nick's face. Nick seemed to understand what she had just said and opened his mouth waiting for the spoon. He bit down on it taking in the nasty substance once more. Abigale was surprised as his reaction this time. This time Nick went into a coughing fit.

"Maybe he did like the vegetable baby food, but the blueberry was that much better."

"You think so? He still ate it meaning he might get used to it!"

Nick made eye contact with Abigale after settling down from coughing. He made a cute bark making it clear he was expecting another blueberry. Abigale recognized this and held out another blueberry for him, this one being a tad larger than the last. Nick immediately started eating it remembering how good the last one was. Satisfied, Nick sat patiently in his chair lifting his arms asking to be picked up.

Bonnie and Abigale started moving the litter back to the sleeping room. This time Abigale was holding Nick on the way back to the room. Just as Abigale was placing Nick in his crib he started talking baby gibberish. Abigale found this cute and started playing with the baby fox until the meaningless blabbering became somewhat recognizable.

"Mmu…. muuu…"

"MOM! Mom come here!" Abigale whisper shouted at her mother.

"Muh… me"

"What? What is going on?" Bonnie asked

"Momma!... Muh… muh ma!" Nick cheered

"Awww" both Abigale and Bonnie cooed.

"His first word was Momma!" Abigale started

"Who do you think he was referring to?"

"Me obviously. I did feed him."

"This is the only tolerable way I will hear you be called mom at this age," Bonnie laughed

Nick while the two older bunnies talked made himself comfortable falling asleep after releasing his first words unto the world. With that Nick won the hearts of the matriarch of the Hopps family as well as his eldest sister. Nick was now an official emotional part of this family. And this family wouldn't trade him for the world.

Abigale has never had any experience when it came to raising a child. At most she only helped her mother with taking care of the new litter until Bonnie could manage them herself. Being the most patient and smallest one out of her litter this was a perfect job for her considering the Hopps family owned a farm. Her younger siblings from her litter all happened to be boys. Big burly bucks who didn't mind the dirt when doing farm work. This isn't to say that Abigale was dainty, she lived on a farm after all and would help around during the harvesting seasons, but only if needed. Today happened to be one of those days where she'd leave the babies to her mother.

Today was going to be a hot day in mid August. The only relief that would come to those doing the outside work would be a stray cloud blocking the sun for a short period of time. Working in the morning was a good and well practiced tradition of farming due to the amount of work that needs to be done giving them ample time to do it and the morning might just be the coolest time of day.

The dining room in the Hopps home was very large compared to the standard rabbit home. Large wooden table placed in the center with a variety of hanging and natural lights to illuminate the room. About 5 and a half feet of vertical space with a horizontal length of 20 ft at a width of 12 ft and completed with smooth tiled flooring with rugs placed where spills were less likely to occur.

Abigale didn't resent the information she read off her phone during breakfast. It was more of a small tradition for her just so she has less room to complain when the sun starts beating down. Looking up from her phone and food she checked her surroundings to see who would be working the fields today. As usual Stu was at the head to the table followed by a few of Abigale's litter mates: Aaron, Andrew, Anthony and Abraham. Strange when Abigale only noticed those four. She looked all around the kitchen waiting to see if the last will show up.

Andrew noticed Abigale looking around and nudged her shoulder, "Whatchu looking for 'sis?"

Andrew is the tallest buck in the family having a head and a half on most of the other males. His fur was a dark brown with a small patch of long grey fur on his head. Personality was more of a peaceful giant with his mild manners and never having a mischievous thought ever cross his mind. Often mistaken for a hare and is Stu's number one helper out in the yard.

"Oh nothing Andrew, but where is Aboo?"

"OH! At first I thought he was washing up when I didn't find him in his room."

"That really didn't answer anything, Andrew."

"You are right about that!"

Abigale just looked back at him with a face that screamed "why!?" with an eyebrow cocked, eyes squinted and mouth slightly ajar. The strange responses he made would make anyone feel as if they were the subject of some type of joke. Abigale knew the shenanigans that Aboo could pull so she kept her guard up in case she was the butt end of a joke.

Not soon after Abigale made the conclusion to put her guard up she heard a rustling coming from the kitchen. Much to Abigale's relief and somewhat disappointment after seeing Aboo just coming out of the kitchen with a bowl of cereal wearing only his "lucky" robe which was just all of his old blankets stitched together.

The appearance of her brother confused Abigale and almost made him unrecognizable. Abooksigun, or Aboo, had long brown fur that made him look like a lion's mane fell off and started walking. Now Aboo looked groomed and his fur was cut incredibly short. On his way to the table he covered his face with his ears, probably not wanting to be seen. This was unlike his wild and unpredictable nature, did losing his long fur really have that much of an impact on him?

As Aboo sat down everyone else seemed to be finishing with their food and began standing up. The only one to stay was Aaron and as we walked out to start the day's work all we heard while leaving was Aaron's laughter filling the hallways.

Aaron was behind the little bet between him and Aboo. Aaron was pretty short compared to the rest of the litter besides Abigale. He had short light grey, almost white, fur and deep blue eyes. He is the perfect example of how the smaller guy likes to start trouble. Aaron swindled Aboo into an unwinnable situation not to Aboo's knowledge and his fur was the consequence.

"I hope, for his sake, that none of the youngins take after his personality," Abigale thought to herself.

Upon getting outside it was decently warm, but nothing to gripe about. Each of the helpers grabbed their select supplies for which job they were assigned too. Abigale was positioned on picking produce while the tractor was out of commission along a few others that were at breakfast. Abraham was usually the one to fix the broken equipment on the farm, he had a magic touch for that kind of stuff.

Abraham was almost an exact replica of Andrew except for the height. Although Andrew is much more talkative you could say that about anybody considering that Abraham hardly talks and when he does it's usually to stop fights or disagreements.

The morning went by in a flash seeing as how it was decently enjoyable compared to other days in the field. Hours went by in what felt like minutes while the Hopps family went to work. A lot of the jobs were near completion with the broken parts of fences being fixed, the tractor now moving, but at a ridiculously slow pace and the barn doors could now be fully closed. The produce picking, which relied heavily on the tractor working, was slower due to being done by hand. That is not to say that nothing got done. One of the three vegetable fields was completed by hand with about 10~15 rabbits doing the work.

With the morning activities completed it was now time to take a break for lunch. Everyone except Stu and Abraham came back to the house. Those two seemed adamant on fixing the tractor. Upon entering back into the house there was a table set up with cases of bottled water enough for everyone to take at least two with a few extra remaining.

The food set up in the kitchen was an assortment of vegetable based foods such as cabbage stew, varieties of salads with accompanying dressings and refried beans. After walking through the foyer of the house and making a couple turns to the dining room Abigale with her siblings walked and talked about the morning they had.

"Whew, those barn doors are no joke to fix," started Andrew

"Yeah, I bet. Replacing the fence posts was nothing since the holes were already dug." responded Aboo

"You're lucky you won rock paper scissors. Those new fence posts I did had a rock almost every time!" exclaimed Aaron

"Maybe that is karma for tricking me!" retorted Aboo, "but I gotta say the wind feels great with shorter hair."

"Boy am I glad that you guys get all the hard work. All I got was tedious. Anyone see how close the tractor was to working again?" asked Abigale

"Last I saw it was moving, but we are walking faster than that," Andrew replied.

"Ugh! I thought that Abraham was good with that stuff!"

"He is! He got it working didn't h…."

As Andrew was about to finish he was cut off by a shrill cry from the right end of the dining room.

"Momma!" exclaimed an excited red fox kit

Without looking Abigale knew where that little voice came from. She was overtaken with joy to know that Nick recognized her from yesterday. As she got closer the little fox got happier and happier clapping his hands in delight.

"The baby fox thinks you are his mom?" laughed Andrew

"A fox imprinted on you 'sis?" inquired Aaron

"So that is the new addition to the litter... cute" stated Aboo

"Yeah, he called me momma yesterday when I helped mom feed the litter." replied Abigale while playing with the fox kit

"So technically we're uncles? To a fox?" All the present bucks asked in their own ways

"Well he isn't my legal kit, but if i could have signed the papers I would have."

"Abbie are you still needed outside? I could use the extra help in here," said Bonnie coming out of the kitchen

"You'll have to take that up with dad."

The gaggle of bucks behind Abigale started mumbling to themselves and voiced their complaints about Abigale getting to stay.

"I'm sure dad could use all the help he could get while the tractor is busted," Aboo exclaimed

"Oh come on guys, this baby fox needs his momma!" teased Aaron

"Just tell your father that Abigale is helping me." Bonnie interrupted

"Yes mom," they all complained

The family enjoyed lunch together poking brotherly fun at one another until Abraham and Stu came back to join in on lunch. They all began talking about their next jobs on the farm if they haven't already finished their first task. After receiving the task for the afternoon they went back to their usual antics of teasing and commentary of Aboo's new look. After lunch all the yard work helpers left save for Abigale.

Abigale sat in the chair at the table nearest to the seating area of the children. Food hardly touched as she's just been distracted by playing with Nick the whole time. Making faces and playing peek-a-boo with him. All of which had Nick squealing with joy and his reaction bringing a smile to Abigale's face.

"You two have become rather fond of one another I see." Bonnie said

"Well I did get him to say his first words, as well as being his first word." Abbie replied

"Do you want to be his caretaker? You did say you would have signed the papers."

This caught Abbie off guard. She was just merely saying those things, but did she mean them? She doesn't have any experience with raising a bunny child let alone a fox kit. Considering her options she thought that it might not be that bad of an idea for practice when she raises her own family, plus she'll have her mom for advice every step of the way.

"You mean that?" Abbie almost whispered

"You are almost of age. Family raising is something worth having experience in when going into it." Bonnie said calmly, "he also has been pretty grumpy this morning until you came around."

Bonnie saying this made Abbie's heart swell with happiness.

"I would love to raise him!"

"Wonderful, that leaves me with ten. Now raising a child is a huge responsibility. I will take care of the expenses and such you just have to live with the title of mom while he is growing up," Bonnie paused, "and when he is of age he will recognize that you are not the same species."

"I wholeheartedly accept this role in my life," Abbie stated while lifting Nick up and cuddling him

A new chapter has started in the life of Abigale. A chapter that most at her age would be ashamed of starting so early, but she couldn't be more proud of her situation. She gets to raise a child and the cutest little angel she's ever seen. The sheer joy she was feeling clouded her eyes as she started crying tears of joy almost matching those of a new mother just receiving her newborn.

Just a reminder to leave a comment/criticism! I really could use both to help improve my moral and writing style! Also a HUGE thanks to my beta reader and main supporter, Will! Thanks again!