After being playfully hounded by his girlfriend since Sly and Carmelita's wedding, Bentley finally took the plunge and married Penelope. The couple were doing well for themselves: Penelope had gotten her Master's degree in mechanical engineering and was teaching at one of the local colleges. Bentley had worked at a tech company a while and had amassed such a reputation as a computer/hacking genius that he was able to set off as a freelance computer tech/consultant. Though it took some convincing on her part, Penelope finally talked Bentley into doing some teaching at her school as an adjunct professor. Bentley wasn't sure that he'd fit in with the typical academic types, but soon enjoyed the time he spent teaching: he was such a good teacher (and had such a good grasp on the material) that he was asked to teach some of the more 'advanced' classes.

Around the time Sadie was two, Penelope gave birth to twins: Chelsea, a mouse girl with blonde hair, and Ben, a turtle boy (Chelsea being older than her brother by three minutes, and being twins- those minutes were extremely important!). They were pretty much the spitting images of their parents as they got older, though Ben tended to excel more at radio controlled things and Chelsea was a little better at computers. The twins were basically home schooled. It was easier on everyone: the pair of them had a wide range of interests and would quickly blow through books of physics, art, history whatever, in order to get their hands on more and their home was practically like living in a museum/science center with all the artifacts their parents collected from their travels, as well as the numerous projects around the house that were in various stages of completion. The twins had a wide variety of interests: science, literature, music, history, though the pair of them tended to be on the techno-geek side of things and enjoyed all things gaming and RPGs as they got older.

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Around the time Sadie was eight, there was a final addition to the Cooper extended family when the main lady in Murray's life changed from his racing van to his adopted daughter, Tonya.

During one of Murray's races, he noticed a little boy hanging around his garage after the race

"Hey kid, what's up?"

The little lion boy just looked at him. He was dressed in sneakers, shorts, a t-shirt and a big baseball cap on his head. He just stood there looking at Murray.

"Did you get to see the race?"

He shook his head yes.

"Did you like the race?"

He shook his head yes.

"Did you like the Murray?"

The kid just stood there.

"Oh, sorry, I'm Murray. Did you like how I drove in the race?"

He shook his head yes.

Murray looked around the racetrack to see if this little boy had wandered away from anyone. He didn't want the kid's parents to worry.

"Do you know where your parents are?"

The kid just stood there and looked down at his shoes.

Murray started to worry a bit. He hoped this little boy wasn't lost.

"Did you come here all by yourself?"

The boy shook his head yes.

"Wow, aren't you a big guy to come here on your own to see the races."

Though his hat was covering most of his face, Murray could see a grin starting to spread across it.

'Okay Murray, what should you do?' Murray thought to himself. He liked this kid and wanted to do the right thing.

"Would you like me to drive you home?"

The kid thought for a moment, then shook his head no.

"Oh, okay, would you like to go for a ride with me instead?"

He shook his head yes.

Murray walked to the van and opened the passenger side for the little boy. He then lifted him up and placed him in the seat, buckling his seat belt. Murray got in and before he started the van, he noticed the little lion staring rather intently at all the knobs and dials on the dashboard.

"Do you like my van?"

The kid shook his head yes.

"Here, let me show you how some of this stuff works…" and Murray went through a quick crash course of how to operate the van.

The racetrack had nearly emptied out when they started to drive away, so Murray started to believe that the kid did come there alone. Murray knew that he needed to get some more information from the kid, at least his name and maybe where he lived. He figured that this kid's parents might start to get worried. Murray realized that he always felt a lot calmer and talkative after he had a good meal, so he figured that might be the trick with this kid.

"Are you hungry?," he asked the boy as he played with the radio knobs, changing the music from a pop song, to Latin fusion, to an all polka station.

The kid enthusiastically nodded his head yes.

"Well good, because I know just the place to go."

In about five minutes, Murray pulled into the parking lot of his favorite diner. He usually came here after he raced to celebrate over some good burgers and milkshakes. Murray turned the car off, got out and then opened the passenger side door to let the kid out.

"We're here," Murray announced to his guest with a big smile.

The two of them went in and sat down at one of the booths. It was a retro fifty's style dinner: it had a soda fountain and the place was decorated with fifty's memorabilia. The little lion looked around in awe at all the decorations.

"Do you like the place?"

He nodded yes.

A friendly shrew waitress came over to their booth.

"Hey Murray, nice to see you again. How'd your race go?"

"Oh, hi Shirley, it went fine."

"I'm assuming you mopped the floor with your competition again. Though I know you're not one to brag."

"Well, yeah, I did win the race again," Murray said sheepishly.

"It looks like you have company tonight."

"Huh, oh, yeah! Where are my manners," Murray said as he looked at his new friend.

"This is Shirley. She works here. I guess I'm kind of a regular here."

"Kind of? He's in here after every race, usually celebrating a victory," Shirley said with a wink to the boy, "Like the big guy said, I'm Shirley. What's your name?" the waitress asked as she extended a hand to the timid boy.

"Uh, Tony," the little lion said as he shook her hand.

"Nice to meet you Tony. Do you know what you want?"

The boy shook his head no.

"Well, I know what you want," she said to Murray as she playfully hit him with her order book.

"What's that?" the lion got brave and asked.

"Well, every time he comes in here, the big guy orders two cheeseburgers, an order of fries, some onion rings and a chocolate sundae, but we refer to it as a 'Murray'," Shirley said teasing Murray.

"Could I have THAT?" Tony asked his new friend hopefully.

"Sure… if you think you can handle it," Murray answered a little shocked. He hoped the boy's eyes weren't bigger than his stomach.

"Two 'Murray's' Shirley," Murray enthusiastically ordered.

When the food came, Murray was surprised, but impressed to see that the kid's appetite seemed to match his. Tony was finishing up his sundae, the four empty plates surrounding him on the table, when Shirley came back with their check.

"Wow, I never thought I'd see anyone who could match your appetite Murray!"

"Yeah, Tony's a pretty cool kid."

"Thanks," Tony said as he dropped his spoon into his empty sundae bowl and let out a little burp.

"Ready to go?" Murray asked his new buddy, really starting to get attached to the kid.

"Oh,…okay."

"See you later Shirley."

"See you next week Murray, and I hope to see you again, Tony."

"Bye," Tony said, as he absentmindedly grabbed Murray's hand as they walked out of the diner. Murray looked down as he felt the small paw grab his hand and he smiled at the boy.

'Man, I hope everything's okay with this kid,' Murray thought, still wondering about what circumstances brought the boy to him today.

"Is there any place I can drop you off?" Murray asked Tony before they drove out of the diner parking lot.

"There's the bus stop I got off at when I came to the race today."

"The bus? I don't want to make a big deal about it, but you seem a little bit young to be riding the bus by yourself."

"I'm ten and I take care of myself. I've taken the bus before to see the races before, so the driver knows me," the boy said a little defensively.

"Okay, I'll wait with you until the bus comes. If the driver really knows you, I'll let you take the bus home. Deal?"

Tony thought about it for a bit before he reluctantly said, "Deal."

They waited at the stop near the racetrack for the bus.

"Uh, Tony?"

"Yeah Murray?"

"I know I said that I don't like the idea of you riding the bus by yourself, but if you're allowed to, then I wouldn't mind it if you visited me more often at the racetrack. You could come before the race if you wanted to. I could even teach you more about fixing and maybe even driving the van. Just let the guys at the gate know that you're here to see me. I'll let them know that I'll be expecting you and there shouldn't be any trouble."

"Really? Do you mean it Murray?"

"The Murray always means what he says."

"Gee, thanks. I'll come back. I promise."

"Tony, there's one more thing," Murray said as he pulled out a pen and scribbled something down on the back of the receipt from the diner.

"What?"

"Well, I was just thinking if you wanted to talk, or needed something, a friend or whatever, this is my phone number. Don't hesitate to call me, okay."

"Okay," Tony said as he gave Murray a small hug, just as the bus was pulling up.

Before Tony got on the bus, Murray walked up to the elderly otter driver.

"Excuse me, but I had a deal with this little guy here," he pointed to Tony, "If you knew who he was, really knew who he was, then I'd let him take the bus home by himself."

The driver looked at Murray and then Tony, smiled and said, "Sure I know Tony. He comes this way almost every week to see the races. I'm glad he's made a friend who cares about him."

"Well okay, maybe I'll see you in a week," Murray said hesitantly.

"Okay, bye Murray," Tony said quietly as he got on the bus.

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Tony showed up two weeks later while Murray was getting ready for the race. The hippo was disappointed and a little worried when he didn't see the boy last week, but he let out a big smile when he saw the kid. Murray led Tony to a seat up front so he could watch during the race and then he let the kid help him work on the van a little after the race, before he brought him to the bus stop.

Murray started looking forward to Tony's visits. It seemed like the boy tried to come every week, though there were times when he wouldn't be able to come for a week or two. Murray kept showing him how to work on the van and the kid was very bright and picked things up really fast. Everything was going pretty well, until after one of the races. Murray was congratulating Tony on a job well done, when he pat him on the back a little too hard and accidentally knocked off his hat.

"Oops, sorry there Tony. Let me get that for you," Murray said as he picked up the hat to give to his friend.

"No, that's okay Murray. I can get it myself," the lion said, getting more upset as Murray turned around to give him his hat back.

"No problemmo Ton… Tony?" Murray saw a very upset little lioness in front of him, who was nearly in tears and started to run away from him.

Luckily, Murray thought fast (for once, bless the big guy- maybe that dreamtime training finally helped him out) and caught the little girl before she got away and gave her a big hug. This surprised the lioness and she looked up at Murray through tear soaked eyes.

"Let's go into my van where we can talk in private, okay."

She shook her head yes.

"What's up?" he tenderly asked her.

"Murray, don't be mad. I didn't mean to fool you, I just thought that I wouldn't be taken seriously at the racetrack if everyone knew I was a girl. I mean, I get made fun of a lot for being a girl that likes cars."

"Tony…I mean…"

"It's Tonya."

"Tonya, huh, that's a pretty name," she smiled at that, though she still continued to tear up and sniffle.

"Look Tonya, I don't care at all if you're a boy or a girl, I think you're a really cool kid and I've really grown attached to you."

"Really?"

"Yeah, really. Now, like I said before, what's up?"

Tonya took a deep breath and told Murray that she has been living at a local orphanage since her parents passed away when she was younger. She didn't like it there because the kids would tease her about being different and she knew that most prospective parents wanted to adopt babies and not older kids. That's why she would sneak out and go to the races, just to get away from her life for a while: though she would get found out and be punished for sneaking out. That's why she couldn't come every week. Though they tried to stop her, Tonya had always found a new way to sneak out and spend some time with Murray. Murray listened to the story and realized how lucky he was for finding Bentley and Sly when he was living in the orphanage. He also started thinking that he wanted to do more for this precious girl than just be her friend.

"You know what Tonya? I'm an orphan. I lived in an orphanage too. It wasn't too bad though, I met my two best friends there."

"Really?"

"Yep. Now I think I have a plan, but you need to trust me, okay?"

She thought for a second and then hugged the big hippo and nodded her head yes.

"Okay, you may not like it at first, but trust me with this. We're going to need to go to the orphanage and I'm going to need to talk to the director, okay?"

Tonya's eyes got wide at the thought of how much punishment she would get.

Murray seemed to sense what she was thinking and told her, "Don't worry, I'll explain everything and let them know that you shouldn't be punished, okay?"

"Okay."

When they got to the orphanage, Murray brought the little girl to the director's office and asked her to sit outside and wait for him while he had a word with the lady owl director.

Tonya nervously swung her legs back and forth as she sat on the bench outside the office and waited for her friend. Murray came out a little while later with a tentative smile on his face.

"Well here it goes, the good news is that I've been allowed to start the adoption process. The bad news is that your director feels that me being a single guy and a racecar driver might make things difficult, so there's no guarantee that the adoption will occur. The other good news though is that I asked the director if I could visit you and she said that I could come as often as I wanted and that me visiting may help the adoption process. I know it's a lot to throw at you, so what do you think?"

Tonya just stood there in disbelief as she took in all that he said: he wanted to be her dad. Someone wanted her, and he was the coolest and kindest someone she knew. Yeah, there may be the chance that the adoption wouldn't occur, but at least in the meantime he would be able to visit her.

"So is that a yes? Because if it is, I could visit you every week or every day or every other day, whatever you want…" Murray rambled on nervously.

Tonya just pounced on the big guy full of happiness in her eyes.

"Could you come every day?" she said in a hushed tone, almost afraid to fully voice her wish for fear it wouldn't come true.

"Sure I could, how about right after school. Does that sound good?"

She nodded her head yes.

"And can I still hang out with you at the races?"

"I don't see why not, but let's go back in the office and clear things with the director, okay?"

She enthusiastically nodded her head yes.

Murray kept his word and visited Tonya everyday around four. They talked about her day, Murray helped her with her homework (or tried to in some cases), played outside with Tonya or they played video games inside and in general just enjoyed each other's company. The adoption proceedings were actually going well. Murray's past checked out clean (with Bentley's help manufacturing a work history for Murray that accounted for his time with the gang), his references were solid (why else wouldn't they be if you had two head Interpol cops and two geniuses saying what a kind, responsible and caring person you were) and the time he spent with Tonya really did help: she was doing better in school and stopped getting in trouble at the orphanage now that she had someone to care about her and serve as a positive role model. Finally the day the two of them anxiously waited for came and Tonya legally became Murray's daughter. Tonya got really excited because not only did she get a new dad, but she also had two new sets of uncles and aunts and three younger cousins- a whole entire family just for her- who greeted her with a big party the day the adoption was legal.

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It took a little bit of time for the perpetual bachelor to adjust to living with a young girl and to serve as both her father and mother, but he put his all into it. Besides, Tonya was so thankful for her 'pops' (this was the name she called him and Murray was quite fond of it) that she cut him a lot of slack when they first got settled. It also didn't hurt that she was a tomboy at heart, so luckily, Tonya wasn't into any of the normal girlie stuff that Murray knew nothing about. Though not biologically related, the slender young lioness seemed to be a chip off the ol' Murray: she was able to pick up how to fix and drive cars and vans from her dad and she even prompted him to start teaching her some of his work out routines and patented fighting moves. Murray loved that he shared the same interests with his daughter, but he did his best to raise a daughter, though with some comical results. Tonya still cracks up when she remembers how flustered her dad was when they went shopping for her first bra: for such a large man, he almost fainted when they entered the shop for the first time. She was also extremely grateful to have Murray for her dad when she had her prom. He had offered to beat up any guy that didn't treat her right, but she sat him down and said that it wouldn't be a problem since she wasn't interested in asking a guy to the prom. It took Murray a second, but he understood what his daughter was telling him and he gave her a big hug. He told her that there was nothing wrong with being herself and that she should be proud of it. He also told her that he was ashamed and felt bad for being so big and different from everyone else, but then he realized that his differences were what made him who he was and made him special. Tonya hugged her father back and told him how lucky she was to have found him.