Epilogue Two: Explaining it to the kids
A/N: I was going to have several epilogues on this page, but it being the holidays, I've been too busy to write more and little bit took forever. So, I thought I'd just give you guys this one for now. See you after Christmas!
It was five am in the morning. Very early for most families, but for a farming family like the Hopps, it's late in the day. Nick and Judy had to get ready for work, but they needed to talk to their young ones first. They had Stacy along with all of their children in Greg and Penny's room. They needed to tell them about the awkward situation of their new relationship with Stacy. It was a conversation Nick and Judy were not looking forward to.
"Why are we all here?" Greg asked. "School doesn't start for another three hours!"
Nick took a deep breath. "Well, we needed to talk about something as a family. Something a bit tricky."
"Why is sister Stacy here?! GASP! Are you divorcing mom for Stacy?!"
"What?! No! Stacy is… Well… She's the latest addition to our family."
Joseph was confused. "You are adoptink Stacy?!"
Judy tried to explain. "No! She's a midwife."
"Vat ees midwife? Poppa has second wife?!"
"Well… Yes and no. Things didn't work out between her and Helga, so she'll be staying with us as a hired maid and nanny. Think of her like a second mother or an aunt."
"Does she have her own room?"
Nick rubbed his head nervously. "Umm… Well… no. She sleeps with us."
"Nice! High-five, Poppa!"
Joseph put out his paw and Nick gave him a high five which got a nasty glare from Judy. "Don't high-five that!"
"When I yam married, I vill share mine bed with many girls!"
"HEY!"
"All of them are Wendy."
"...Oh. Well, that makes sense. Technically not cheating. Look. I just want to be upfront with you kids. I just found out last night that my aunt Bean was not my aunt, but my mother's midwife and it hurt me that she kept that secret. We want to be honest with you kids as much as possible."
Nick nodded in agreement. "That's right."
Penny pointed at Stacy. "You mommy now?"
Stacy tried to explain. "A nanny, honey. I'll be like a mother to you children while your parents are at work. And I'll help clean your rooms and do chores."
Joseph got upset. "No! I do my own chores! Whore mom!"
Greg smacked Joseph on the head. "Hey! Stacy raised me and Penny before mommy did! Show some respect!"
Judy was furious. "Greg's right! Don't you ever call her that!"
"But you are payink to sleep weeth her. That ees whore."
"She's being paid to take care of you kids while we're away and be part of this family! Sharing our bed is a, I dunno… separate thing. Also, we've got very young ones here! Stop talking about that!"
Stacy kneeled down in front of Joseph. "I know how important chores are to you. That's why when you are home, I'm going to make you my personal assistant. You can help me around the house!"
Joseph smiled. "I can help weeth laundry?! Wash dishes?!"
"Sure. I guess."
"YAAAY!"
Greg just shook his head. "You enjoy the wrong things, Joe. I think you just do chores to get a bigger cut of the will."
Hanging off the top bunk, Fixer looked concerned. "She's not replacing mommy, is she? I mean. You'll still take care of us right?"
Judy came over and gave the bat an upside-down kiss on the cheek. "I just have a very busy schedule, but I'll make sure to spend some time with you every night."
Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. Nick opened it and Sugar came flying in. "You loud!" she said as she flew into Nick's arms.
The fox was happy. "Sugar! I think that was your first sentence." He looked over and saw the kids all surprised. "Oh, yeah. Sugar got her powers back."
"Tecwet!" Sugar shouted.
"You just came flying in! You broke the secret!"
"Oh… o'tay."
"Is mom gonna get her powers back too?!" Greg asked with excitement.
"I doubt it," Nick replied. "Sugar was born with her powers and her regeneration abilities were probably strong enough that the Pupsi dart could only work temporarily."
"What about Joe's face?" Fixer asked. "It still hurts him."
Joe was surprised. "You noticed?"
"You sometimes yipe when you touch that side."
Joseph smiled. "Thank you. I no hate you anymore."
"You hated me?!"
"You were sneetch!"
"Only because mom and dad asked me to!"
Stacy was surprised. "Judy! That's a terrible idea!"
Judy tried to explain. "Look, Joseph likes Wendy a little too much and they get a bit too hanky-panky for their age, and so we needed somebody to watch him."
"But you put Fixer in an awful position. Ratting out the brother he cares for. Well, if he's going to be my assistant, then I can keep an eye on Joseph myself."
Judy smiled. "You're absolutely right, Stacy. Fixer, no more snitching on your siblings."
Fixer flapped his wings in happiness. "YAAY!"
Nick then interrupted. "While I'm glad this is all working out so well, there's a reason why I kept Sugar's powers coming back a secret."
Nick explained everything he told Judy and Stacy last night. Some of the children had questions. "So she's immortal?" Greg asked.
"Maybe. If her healing powers are so strong, I imagine she'll age to a point and then just stop. Like that Wolverine guy."
"From the X-Mammals?"
"No, from the situation comedy 'That Wolverine Guy'. Yes, from the X-Mammals! Look. We have to keep her powers a secret. Which is getting harder and harder as she flies around on her own."
"We also need her and Fixer to heal The Grey's hybrid children," Judy added. She then saw Fixer sniffling. "What's wrong, honey?"
"Nobody just wants to play with me. They always want something from me."
"What do you mean?"
"Your nieces asked me to play with them, but all they wanted was for me to touch their faces so they could look pretty. I told them 'no' because their parents might get mad and then they told me to go away. That I was an ugly, scary bat."
"That's terrible!"
"SNIFF! They only pretended to like me."
Joseph growled. "Geeve me their names! I yill bite them!"
Judy looked sternly at Joseph. "You're not biting anyone! I'll give my nieces a stern talking-to. I'm sorry, Fixer, but it's for their physical and mental well-being. These puppies are in bad shape. Can you help them? For mommy?"
"Sure mommy. I know you love me for me. You never asked me to touch your face."
Judy smiled. "Well, why mess with perfection? Now that we have all of that out of the way, I just need to know if everyone's okay with Stacy being your nanny."
All the kids looked at each other, then over to Stacy and back to Nick and Judy. "Yeah!" Greg replied. "Stacy's great!"
"I vill be great asseestant to Aunt Stacy!" Joseph added.
"I guess that's fine," Fixer added.
"I get two mommys!" Penny replied.
Greg had an idea. "Say, if we get two moms, do we get two allowances?"
Nick, Judy, and Stacy unanimously said "No!"
Nick looked down at Sugar who was in his arms. "What do you say, sweetie?"
Sugar's pixie wings grew out of her back and she flew over Joseph's head, pouring her golden spores to heal his internal injuries from the burns he suffered over a week ago. She then flew into Stacy's arms. The sugar glider sniffed around the bunny and crawled on her head.
"What is she doing?" Stacy asked.
"I don't know," Judy replied. "She's not usually this inquisitive."
Sugar then crawled around to Stacy's face and looked deep into her eyes. Stacy could feel the sugar glider connecting to her in some kind of spiritual way.
Finally, Sugar snuggled up to Stacy's neck. "You good."
This warmed Stacy quite a bit. "Woah! It's like she peered into my soul and judged me! I could feel her… I don't know, mentally connect to me. It was weird!"
"That would explain why she was okay with Sniffer," Nick said. "I guess you can add that to her list of powers. No wonder she has a religion based on her going on in the prison. Anyway, we're all good with this, right?"
The children shook their heads yes.
"Good! You kids can get back to bed. Judy and I will get ready for work and Stacy will get you ready for school after you nap some. Okay?"
"I no school!" Penny shouted.
"I know, Sweetie. You're too young yet, but soon you and Fixer will be going to preschool and maybe you'll stop talking like a cave mammal. Now, back to bed, kids! Night night."
They all headed back to their rooms and beds. As Joseph crawled back to bed, he heard Fixer sniffing. From above.
"Vat ees problem?" Joseph asked. "Momma said she loves you."
"Everyone just likes me for my powers," He sobbed.
Joseph rolled his eyes and got out of bed. "You are beeink stoopeed. UGH! Come down."
"No!"
Joseph gently pulled the young bat off the fencing put on the ceiling for Fixer to hang on to and flipped him right side up. He then sat down and put his arms around the bat to hug him.
"What are you doing?" Fixer asked. "I'm not used to being right-side up. The blood is rushing to my feet!"
Joseph licked his face. "Look. You are my leetle brother. I love you and you do not have to do anythink for me."
"Really?"
"Really. You are good and very kind. It ees not your fault you sneetched on me. Mama put you up to that. You don't ever have to fix my face ever again or give me fruit. Just be you."
Fixer wiped some tears away. "I love you too. But don't you work so hard because you believe people don't love you unless they get something out of you too?"
"I used to believe that. But not anymore. Mama and Poppa have been so lovink. I don't even work half as hard as I did back in the factory."
"But… You still do a lot of chores."
"I know. That's just how hard they worked me. But I like workink for my family. It keeps me strong."
"You're my favorite brother."
"Even more than Greg?!"
"Yeah. You're tough!"
"But Greg ees our leader! He ees so smart, they bumped heem up to same grade as me!"
"Yeah, but you protect us and don't let the little bunnies around here tease us just because we're preds. I feel safe around you."
Joseph gave him a squeeze. "Thanks. Now go to sleep so I can nap before school starts!"
"Okay." Fixer flew back up to the fencing on the ceiling and stuck his clawed feet into the grate so he could hang and go to sleep. "Greg is pretty smart, hunh?"
"Yeah. He saw through me."
"What do you mean?"
"I really yam tryink to get the most from the will!"
"Oh! Then I better work hard too."
Meanwhile, Nick and Judy were getting dressed for work. Stacy was helping Judy get her outfit on. "I'm a big girl, Stacy! I can dress myself."
Stacy smiled. "I know. I just like to help."
"I think you just like to get your paws on me."
"Heh! That's also true."
Nick turned around to talk with Stacy. "Say, once you're done groping my wife, do you think you can help me with my tie? I can never get it right."
"Coming!"
Nick watched as Stacy helped him with his tie. "Y'know, it's funny. It took a handsome fox like me for you to go from lesbian to bi."
"What are you talking about, Nick? I'm a full-blown lesbian."
"A 'full-blown lesbian'?! You fully-blown me last night! Among other things. It was incredible and wild."
"I'm good at faking it. I'm afraid I still wasn't as passionate with you as I was with Judy. Don't get me wrong, Nick. I do love you, just not in that way. You see, for me having sex with you is like when I did my charity work when I was a nun."
"Meaning?"
"Well, on occasion I'd have to give the elderly a sponge bath and that certainly didn't turn me on. It was charity work and I was happy to do it because it made them feel much better."
"So sex with me is like sponge bathing the elderly?"
"Precisely! I'm more than happy to do it, but Judy's the one who gets my motor running."
"... I suddenly feel a lot less manly."
Judy looked over at Nick. "You DO realize you're the only person in this house sleeping with two women, right?"
"Your father."
"... Okay, point taken, but still! Be thankful for what you have. Now, let's get going or I'll dock your pay."
"Sure thing, boss!"
