"So what came next, Nick?"

"Take a stab at it, Judy."

"I escaped, and my claws hate me for it. Remind me not to dig my way out of prison again."

"Don't dig yourself out of prison again, Nick."

"Not now. I meant...ugh, do rabbits even understand rhetorical questions?"

"Yes, we do. This rabbit, however, has a penchant for being sarcastic."

"Oh, really?"

"Don't you start. You dug yourself out- how? I can't imagine that was a pleasant experience, and you'd been shot, dumb-dumb, so what on Earth were you thinking?"

"I know exactly what I was thinking. It was I want to see Judy again. When you've been separated from someone you love, you'll do anything, and I mean anything to get back to them. Savage knew I was innocent; he just left me there. The only other person in on it was Wolford, and he couldn't do anything. So yes, Judy, I dug. When the prison was built, they handily forgot to pave the courtyard. From there, it was only a matter of not being spotted. That's where fur dye came in handy."

The guards may think themselves well-trained, but with a professional con artist on their hands, well, that's an entirely different story. Having some time alone is also a perk. Gurneys lend themselves very well to being tents, or shields, or battering rams and shovels."

"You've yet to get to the digging part. Hurry up, would you?"

"Relax, would you? I was just getting there. Anyways, I spent three months locked in the morgue. I got food every day, Wolford came down to chat with me every day. He never came in, though, I think he didn't want to arouse suspicion. I got bored one day and I started pawing at the walls- I'm terribly anxious, did you know that? Well, with those bullets still sitting in me, I knew it was now or never, I could see the little red lines marching up my chest."

"Nick, that was a septic infection! Do you know how deadly those are?"

"Yes, and we foxes are especially susceptible to them. Have you ever seen me lick my nose?"

"Don't remind me. The last time we went out for ice cream, goodness, Nick, you spent hours licking your snout."

"Don't judge, Carrots, it was good ice cream. That sort of thing makes it really easy for foxes to get cold germs in more places, though, especially when we have a cold. If I don't have a tissue, I'll probably use my tongue."

"You are so immature, you know that?"

"Yes, Judy, I do. I don't think I ever really aged past twelve."

"That would explain some things."

"Anyways, I saw those lines and I almost lost it. I started pawing at the walls as hard as I could, but to no avail. It was minutes, no, probably hours later when I finally stopped. My claws were gone, and I had done absolutely nothing to the wall. When I collapsed, I knew I was done for. No one was going to let me out, and no one was going to help me. Except- and here's where things get a little otherworldly- there was a lab attached to the morgue. I don't know how I hadn't noticed it before, but I did now."

"That's not otherworldly, Nick, that's a standard autopsy lab. Every prison has one."

"Does everyone have cloning tubes? Hmm, I didn't think so. Well, this one did. It also, thank goodness, had forceps. Out came the bullets, hooray, then in came the curiosity. What were these doing here? I had heard about them, but I'd dismissed them as a hoax. Now, here I was, face-to-face with some of them. I don't know what it was- luck or something else, but I tripped against the control panel of one of these tubes, and I heard something click inside it.

The thing started speaking, honest-to-Karma. DNA Scanned, it said. Preparing cloning process. Beginning cloning process, specifications accounted for. Three, two, one.A light started to glow, then as soon as it had started, it was done, and I heard a new voice. 'Dad?'"

"Dad?"

"Yes, that's what I heard, and I looked down to find this little guy." He gestured behind him, and out stepped a teenaged fox, the color opposite of Nick.

"You're saying-"

"Yes, this guy. I don't know how it's possible, but it certainly is. He was freezing- at least he had a towel to wrap up in. He looked at me with the most pleading eyes, and he said, 'Dad, what are we doing down here?"

I don't know much, Judy, but what I knew then was that I now had ten years of memories in my head that hadn't been there thirty seconds before, and I knew I had a son. 'Hey, Luke, we have to get out of here, okay?'"

"So you're Luke," I said. "I'm Judy, but I think you can call me Mom, alright?"

"M-Mom?" Luke stuttered.

"Yes, I'm your dad's wife, so I guess. But it's up to you."

"Mom sounds great," he sobbed. "I just want this war to be over."

"Me too, sweetie, me too. So, that story- Luke, do you want to tell me?"

"I'd love to, but I have to do something first."

"What's that?" He tackle-hugged me and started weeping. "This. Dad told me about you, but he thought you were dead."

"I would be, if your dad hadn't been such a doomsday prepper."

"Well," Nick said," it came in handy, didn't it?"

"It sure did," I said. "Don't interrupt your- our- son, okay. Luke, you were saying?"

"I was saying-" sniff- "that we thought you were dead. We only got out because of Jack."

"Jack?! That buck has been more of a pain in the tail than I could ever have imagined. Heck, he's the reason we're in this mess."

"If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't exist. And yes, Jack. He let us out of prison, provided we were disguised."

"Wolf suits come in handy, Judy, boy do they. We slipped out past the guards, easy as pie. All I had to show my papers, and we were free, Luke zipped up inside."

"That leaves questions still to be answered. How did you get past the guards in that sort of getup? They're certainly well-trained enough to see past disguises."

"I'll have you know that my paws are certainly strong enough to twist pipes open."

"All right, but what relevance does that have?"

"I put sleeping powder in the water line to the guards' quarters. When they drank the water, it made them woozy enough so that we could slip on past, as they could barely see."

"Only there was a catch, Mom- Bellwether was watching, and she had her sights set on us. On the streets, it was only a matter of time."

"Only a matter of time until what?"

"Until she made her move. We didn't even see it coming. I should have been prepared."

"Just like you, Nick," I whispered into his ear. "Street smart and clever, and I don't suppose him hustling with you helped any."

"He didn't hustle with me, Judy. At least, not in the memories that are mine. But in the memories that aren't, well, he's there, so yes, you're right."

I leaned away from Nick's ear and turned to Luke. "What did she do, Luke?"

"She caught us."

"That can't have been good…"

"It wasn't, but-" his ear twitched and turned upward. "Incoming!"