THERE'S GONNA BE A FLASHBACK IN THIS CHAPTER!

…

As Perry edged cautiously down the corridor, he spotted a familiar golden retriever in one of the cells, and his heart sank.

Georgia…

She looked asleep so he left her alone. In the next cell, Carlos was lying on the bed. He gave Perry a glare as the platypus passed.

"Traitor," hissed a familiar voice.

Perry closed his eyes briefly and bit his lower beak in anguish as he turned round and saw the ocelot in the cell opposite him. He walked slowly to the glass and placed his hand on it. "Hello Oliver."

"Don't "hello Oliver" me," snarled the ocelot, who was curled up on the bed in the same way as Carlos was. "We all thought you were dead for four years until Kirk told us you'd joined the enemy. I don't know what destroyed Portia more: thinking you were dead or knowing you had betrayed her."

"I never betrayed her," Perry argued. "I was pushed too hard so I left."

"You left," scoffed Oliver. "Yeah, right. Kirk told us all the story of how the brave little platypus tried to fight the system and was subsequently driven out."

"I was pushed too hard," Perry repeated calmly. "I was five years old; still a child."

"We were all five years old," Oliver snarled. "How come none of us felt the need to leave?"

Perry had no answer to that.

"You let Portia care deeply about you and then you shattered her heart, first by making her think you were dead, then by betraying her. She'll never trust anyone again and it's all your fault. She barely even trusted us when she heard you'd gone. Georgia and I tried everything to reassure her that we were never going to do what you did. She only began believing us a few weeks ago."

Perry didn't reply. He looked down at the ground briefly before he turned and walked away.

"Yeah, keep running!" Oliver yelled after him. "Keep leaving your friends! It's what you do best!"

Perry ignored him but he felt a stab in his heart. He had no idea that Portia, Oliver, and Georgia had thought he was dead. It made him feel depressed.

When he peered into the last cell from a distance, he saw the beautiful teal platypus lying on her back on the bed. It reminded Perry of the day he met her.

…

A week-old Perry was shoved into a room full of other baby animals of the same age as him. He cowered in the corner, watching the animals talk and fight and argue. He wished his parents were here. He made himself remember them: his father was green and his mother was blue, creating his own teal fur. He remember that his mother smelt of milk and flowers. He hoped that the bad people who had taken him away from them had released them back into the wild, instead of…

He didn't want to finish the thought.

He looked around for anybody who seemed friendly. Most of the animals looked rather aggressive, but he spotted a teal platypus who looked a little like him. She was lying in the opposite corner on her back, arms over her chest, fingers interlocked. She seemed to be asleep. Perry crept past everybody else and over to the platypus. She definitely seemed to be asleep, so Perry gently rested his head on her chest and pretended she was his mother, even though they were about the same age. No sooner had he done that than the platypus suddenly shot up. Perry scrambled backwards, withering under the confused look the platypus was giving him.

"I'm so sorry!" he cried. "I've only just come and I've been separated from my parents and I was scared and I didn't know what to do and-I'm so sorry, please don't hate me!"

He held his arms over his face, thinking the platypus was going to hit him. Instead, the female platypus gently pulled Perry's arms away from his face and looked into his eyes. "It's okay. I know what you're going through. My name's Portia."

"I'm P-Perry," stammered Perry.

"Nice to meet you, Perry." Portia scanned the room. "Huh, when I lay down in that corner, there was only about ten people here. Now there's—what?—thirty?"

"M-maybe," Perry stuttered.

"Don't look so nervous," chirped Portia. "I'm not going to bite you."

She lay back down and patted her chest. "Come on, lie back down."

Baby Perry hesitantly lay his head on Portia's chest, feeling her warmth under his ear. "You're warm," he said without thinking, before he quickly squeaked, "That came out wrong!"

Portia laughed briefly, making her chest—and by extension, Perry's head—bob up and down. "You're adorable. I think we're going to be best friends."

Perry smiled. "I want to be your best friend."

"I want to be yours too. Let's stick together, no matter what these weirdos do to us, okay?"

"Okay," Perry agreed happily.

…

Perry brought himself out of the memory with a little shake of his head. Just get it over with, he told himself firmly.

He walked up to the glass and knocked on it. Portia's head didn't move but she said, "Hello Perry."

"You knocked me out," Perry automatically said, and then he cursed himself. That was not the first thing he wanted to say when he saw Portia again after five years.

Portia let out a bitter chuckle. "Yes I did."

There was a pause as Perry tried to choose something to say but Portia got there first. "Do you remember our song?"

"Of course I do."

"Prove it."

Perry hesitated, before he began singing, "When your day is long and the night, the night is yours alone. When you're sure you've had enough of this life, well hang on."

Portia began singing with him: "Don't let yourself go. Because everybody cries. And everybody hurts, sometimes."

"I sang that song to myself every night," Portia said. "For four years. I tried to keep your memory alive by singing that song, and it worked. I thought you were dead but that song helped my heart heal. Then Kirk told us that you were alive but you'd betrayed us. Then I felt ashamed and angry that I'd tried to keep your memory alive."

"Portia…"

"I heard you talking to Oliver. He told you what losing you did to me, right?"

"Yes…"

"I never want to feel like that again."

Perry paused, wrestling with several things in his head that he wanted to say. "Considering everything, you're being very civil."

"That's because I know that you mean nothing to me now," Portia said. "But I still don't want to talk to you."

With that, she rolled over in her bed and faced the wall. Perry stayed for a few minutes more before he left. Portia was glad to see him leave; she wasn't sure how long she would have been able to hide the tears flowing down her face.

…

Poor Portia :( well, she's kind of the bad guy, so XD

Also: I highly HIGHLY recommend looking up the song Everybody Hurts by R.E.M. It is literally the foundation on which this story was built, and it even features in this chapter (and it will feature in future chapters/stories) so listen to it a few times. It's really good :)