CHAPTER 6 - INFERNO

The secret of the squirrel didn't last long. Trust Max to finally blab the secret after a week of Kate keeping him under lock and key to stop him from doing so.

The day hadn't started off well to begin with, since Max had had a meltdown that resulted in him hurting Elias pretty badly. Elias was currently sat on the couch, an ice pack pressed against his eye to soothe the pain of the hearty punch Max had given him, whilst Kate was taking over the shift of trying to calm Max down.

"Max, STOP hitting me!" She grabbed the blanket, wrapping him up tight, as he continued to scream and thrash and try to hit and kick. She was running out of ideas, and fast, but one last thought hit her that she thought would work. She reached into the closet, and got out the shoebox, pulling out the little squirrel, who was a lot more active and alert than before. She walked over to Max, and held the squirrel out to him.

"Look, the squirrel wants to make you feel better." Max looked at her, tears still streaming down his face as she placed the squirrel on the blanket, letting it walk up to Max's face and start sniffing it. Max stopped crying, and just stared at it, as it looked back at him and he reached a hand from under the blanket and started to pet it, immediately calming down as it curled up under his head, snuggling into him. He closed his eyes, snuggling in too, and ended up falling asleep. A big success for Kate. She sighed and left the room, shutting the door to let Max rest. Elias was still sat on the couch, ice pack on eye.

"Wow, you calmed him down almost instantly. What did you do?"

Don't mention the squirrel. "I dunno, I tried cuddling him and he seemed to just calm down and went to sleep."

"I mean, he does like you more then me, so I guess it is true. Does my eye look bad?" He pulled the ice pack away, a very visible black eye starting to form.

"It definitely left a mark."

"Dammit. Well, at least he's calmed down now, should probably call mom and let her know, she can talk to him when he's awake. I should probably check he's actually sleeping-"

"-No! It's fine! I already did! He's out of it."

"Y'sure?"

"Yeah."

"Ok then, looks like I'll leave him alone. Once he wakes up, can we go out? I wanna check out the shops around here."

"Why don't you just go on your own?"

"Definitely not. I don't want to go on my own."

"Oh, come on! It's not like you'll get caught."

"And what happens if I do?"

"Run for it."

"This really sounds like a desperate attempt from you to get me out of the house at this rate."

"It's not. Trust me."

"Fine. Fine. I'm gonna wait till he wakes up still."

"Should we make breakfast while we wait?"

"Can we have pancakes?"

"Y'know what, sure. I probably have the ingredients for it." She stood up, looking around in the cupboards, managing to find all the stuff needed.

"Can I have bacon on mine?"

"Fine, fine, you can. What would Max eat on pancakes?"

"Uhhhmmmm… Maybe it's best to serve his plain and let him decide when he wakes up."

"Good idea." She proceeded to walk into the kitchen, pulling out the frying pan and all the ingredients to make pancakes (and bacon for Elias) as Elias watched with eagerness from the doorframe. She mixed the ingredients up, before pouring the batter into the frying pan in circles to make the perfectly circular pancakes. The smell was immaculate, the batter and the bacon aroma filled the entire house, so much so it woke Max up, who was starving. He wanted some, but stayed put in hopes that someone would come to get him.

3 plates of golden, fluffy pancakes were whipped up in no time, and Elias was immediately on his plate, adding every topping he could think of that they had. Kate just smiled slightly and picked up one of the plates, slowly walking into the bedroom to see that Max was indeed awake, just snuggling the squirrel.

"Hey, Max, I made pancakes for breakfast. What do you want as a topping? Elias insisted on having bacon on his but I don't think it would taste very good."

"I want to try bacon… Syrup too…"

"Ok that actually sounds kinda good. Back in a sec." She quickly went back out to the kitchen, getting Max what he asked for before making her own up and taking both plates back to the bedroom, handing him his plate and putting her own plate in her lap, starting to eat immediately.

"Can Squirrel have some too?"

"Only give it a tiny bit of bacon, I don't want it getting poisoned." She watched him do it carefully, as he then began to eat the pancakes for himself.

"How is it?"

"Delicious. I like your food a lot."

"Why thank you. I hoped you'd like it." A silence filled the air as they both ate, but luckily the squirrel would interrupt it by running up to steal some nuts from Kate's pancakes.

"Ay-! Cheeky fucker, get your own nuts!" Max laughed loudly when she said that, her saying profanities was very funny to him. The squirrel didn't notice, and just continued to snack from Kate's plate as she just smiled softly and stroked it.

"Why can't we keep it?"

"Because it has a mommy that it has to go back to."

"But you're it's mom now?"

"I'm not?"

"Yeah, you are, look at how much it loves you." She looked as it was burrowing into her jacket, almost like it was making a nest. Seems like it did love her a lot. "Ok, you might be slightly convincing me but we're still not keeping it."

"But whyyy? You're not telling me properly!"

"Imagine this, what if someone found Sally while she was sick and injured, they took her home and made her better, but then when you asked for her back and they said no because they owned her now, what would you do?"

"Use the authority of the kingdom to get them to hand her over! Have them executed for kidnapping the princess! …Where is Sally?" He looked around, almost expecting to see her in the corner.

"She's not here, she's back in New Mobotropolis with Alicia fighting the forces with the other Freedom Fighters. Also, you're right. You'd want her back, and I would assume this squirrel's mom would like it back, so we have to do the right thing and give it back when it's better enough, which seems like it'll be soon since it's pretty much all better. See?" She redirected Max to look at the squirrel, who had gotten on top of Kate's head and was just perched there. Max laughed at it, finding it funny.

"I don't want it to leave now. It's funny."

"I know you don't, but it will have to eventually." She took her last bite of pancake, watching as Max did so too. "Y'Full now?" He nodded his head.

"Good. Are you gonna get out of bed?" He thought for a moment, before nodding his head. He was completely over his meltdown by this point.

"Alright. Up you get." She stood up, firstly putting the squirrel back in its box before pulling the covers off Max as she grabbed his hands, hoisting him up to sit. "Are you gonna walk or are you getting in the chair?"

"Walk."

"Right then." She wrapped an arm around him tight, and the two of them stood up, Max holding onto her as hard as he could. He was getting much better with walking after 2 weeks of doing it everyday, but still struggled to walk for more than a few steps before collapsing.

"If you feel like you're going to fall, tell me and I'll pick you up." He nodded again, and they began to walk, Max managing to get to the couch before collapsing, falling over onto the couch. At least his landing was soft. Kate got him to sit up properly, and Elias walked over to join them.

"Well you two seemed like you had a good chat. Feeling better after that meltdown, dad?"

"Yeah." Elias nodded and sat down too, wanting to watch TV with them. Kate was flicking through the channels, when they came across the Animal Planet Channel, which was running a story on squirrels currently. Despite still being dozy, Max watched, and accidentally slipped the secret.

"Hey, that looks like the squirrel we have..!" Elias immediately looked at him as Kate died inside. Fuck.

"What squirrel?"

"We don't own any squirrels-!" But Max was quick to interrupt her. "Yes, we do!" Elias stared at the both of them, not knowing who to believe. Where was all this talk of the squirrel coming from? "We own a squirrel?"

"We don't-!"

"We do! Kate's lying!" Elias just stared. "Kate, is there something you're not telling me? Do we own a squirrel?"

"No, we own no squirrels, the only ones I know are you two and the others." She had begun to sweat slightly, the pressure was high. Elias narrowed his eyes and looked at her. "You're talking like someone that owns one."

"I mean, I own you through marriage."

"Talking like someone that owns a pet one."

"But we don't have one."

"We do."

"Shut up, Max!"

"Hey! Fuck you! Why are you being mean about it all of a sudden?"

"Ay! Cut it out! Dad, keep going, tell me about this squirrel."

"I found it outside. It fell out of a tree."

"Then did you take it back here?"

"Yeah, I showed Kate and we took it back here, I don't know why she's denying it." Elias stared at Kate. "Oh, really now?"

"Heheeehhh, wowww Max, that imagination of yours is getting more detailed."

"I'M. NOT. IMAGINING. IT."

"He sounds pretty sure in what he's saying, Kate."

"He is lying." She felt bad that she had to throw Max under the bus this way, but she had to try to protect the secret. Max wasn't taking it very lightly though.

"I'M NOOOOTTTTT!" He was borderline going to melt down again, and so Elias knew he had to de-escalate the situation somehow. "Look, ok, if you do have a squirrel, show me. This is the easiest way to sort this out." Despite already having tears forming, Max nodded.

"Will show you." Max began to slowly stand himself up, a first for him. Elias quickly grabbed him and tried to make him sit. "Why don't you let me go get it?"

But Max wasn't taking that for an answer. "SHOW. YOU." He got himself stood up with Elias' help. "Riiighhttt then, show me where this lil guy is." Max proceeded to get help to walk into the bedroom, where he got onto his knees and pulled out the shoebox, opening it up and revealing the squirrel to Elias, whose heart immediately melted.

"Oh. My. God. How could you hide this CUTIE from me?" He watched as Max took it out of the box and held it, finally starting to cry. He knew he wasn't insane. Elias placed a hand on Max's shoulder. "I believe you, dad. 110%. I know you're not lying, and I honestly think the little squirrel is cool."

"B-But Kate's mad at me for telling-!"

"I don't think she's that mad." He looked at Kate, who was just sitting on the couch waiting for them to come back. Max was certain she was absolutely upset with him. "SHE ISSSSSSS!" He proceeded to sob harder, holding the squirrel to his chest. He didn't want it to go.

"I can tell you now she's not. Do you want to go see her so you can see it for yourself?" Max gave a nod, still sniffling, and Elias just stood up, helping Max stand up and sit in his wheelchair before pushing him into the living room, where Kate was still just sitting and waiting.

"Well, it looks like we got caught, huh?"

"I'm not gonna kick off over it. I just wanna know… Why hide it?"

"Max was scared you'd find out and make us get rid of it like the time with the rats." She looked at Max, who was now zoned out and petting the squirrel, staring at nothing.

"Oh… ! Well, I think it's safe to say we're keeping it, it's sooo cuuuttteee!"

"Not for long, though, it's almost time to put it back out in the wild."

"Well for whatever times left. Can we name it?"

"I don't even know it's gender, let alone what to name it. We've just been calling it Squirrel."

"Do you think you could tell? You know how to tell for other animals."

"I can try. Max, can I have the squirrel?" He snapped out of his trance and reluctantly handed it over. She lifted up it's tail gently and got a look. "It… Looks like it may be female."

"I'm just gonna take your word for it."

"I think it should be a unisex name regardless."

"She has nice fur."

"You're right, dad, maybe we should name her after that."

"Going to get her food." Max quickly wheeled off to go find the stash of nuts they had to feed her. "...Looks like it's just up to us then. I mean, her fur is quite fire-like, so maybe something along those lines?"

Elias thought long and hard, before he got it. "I have an idea!"

"Please don't say Blaze."

"Nono, how about this. Infurno?"

"Hey, I do like that! It's unisex and it's a synonym for fire. So I guess her names now Inferno." She looked as Max finally came back, the pack of nuts in his lap. He started giving Inferno the nuts, and she sat in Kate's lap, snacking and making small noises.

"Did I ever make those kinds of noises as a baby, dad?"

"No… Sally did..?" He wasn't exactly sure. One of them had, he just couldn't tell which one did.

"Well that's something to note for when we go back home and see her again."

"I want to go home… Want to see Alicia… And Sally…"

"We all do, dad. We all do." Elias pulled Max in closer as the three continued to watch the squirrel eat. Looks like Inferno was about to become a brand new member of the Acorn family.