"Okay... alright, that's enough..." Stephanie let out a hoarse sigh as she lounged back on the seat and crossed her arms, prompting Charlie to pause the projection.
They were only about nine minutes in to Suki's twenty minute video, the majority of which had been dedicated to explaining Jimmy's various money laundering schemes and the truth behind Crystal Entertainment's notoriously high "suicide" rate. Seeing the face and hearing the voice of her recently departed friend was hard enough to bear as it was, and it was surely even more so for the saluki sat opposite her, but Stephanie knew she wouldn't be able to hold herself back from a complete breakdown once the video moved on to discussing her and Jimmy's marriage.
"So, she um..." Stephanie cleared her throat, wiping her eye with the back of her hand as Charlie turned to her. "Sh-she filmed this before, right...?"
"Oh, um... y-yeah, I think so." Charlie sniffled a bit as he looked down at the phone in his hands, trying to hold himself together at the sight of his sister's face on the screen. "The um... the upload time was just after 10:30, so... she'd have been in the room with him when she posted it."
"Oh God..." Stephanie whimpered, hunching forward as she pinched the bridge of her nose. "She knew she wasn't gettin' outta there..."
"Hmm... a dying declaration..." Charlie lowered his head, though Stephanie couldn't help sensing a hint of what sounded like pride in his voice. "Good news is, they followed up on all the leads Suki mentioned here. The laundering, the evasion, the blackmail, all that, and... and it checks out. Jack from the firm says Jimmy's got at least thirty-seven indictments against him. Suki's murder is right at the top of the list."
"Really...?" Stephanie raised an eyebrow when Charlie nodded, but she wasn't quite certain enough to be put at ease yet. "Well, um... y-yeah, that's good. Really good. So, you uh... y-you're gonna put him away, right?"
"Well... n-not me, specifically, Steph..." Charlie hesitated, gripping his eagle-headed cane as the wolf stared. "Ellie and I still have the funeral to take care of, and... and I can't put my family through any more of this. Not now."
"Right... right, yeah... hmm... y'know, to be honest, Charlie, I forgot ya even had a family..." Stephanie let out a subdued laugh as she lounged back in her seat. "Suki used to talk about you guys all the time. You, and Ellie, and uh... and your kid, um...?"
"Cherry."
"Yeah, Cherry, that's it!" Stephanie sighed. "But yeah, I uh... I get it, ya don't wanna take the case. Losin' Suki is enough as it is."
Charlie nodded, drumming his fingers on the table while he bit his bottom lip. "So, um... how did Porsha take it?"
"Porsha...? Oh, uh..." Stephanie clicked her tongue and itched under her chin. "It's kinda hard to tell. I mean, yeah, she saw the news and stuff, but... honestly, I dunno if Porsha even remembers her anymore."
"Oh..." Charlie seemed rather saddened - perhaps even disappointedg - by this suggestion, but he kept a smile on his face. "Well, it'd be a shame if she did forget. Hmm... I'm sure Suki was really looking forward to seeing her again."
"Oh yeah, I'll bet... wait..." Stephanie froze up. "Whaddaya mean again...?"
Charlie sighed, opening the photo app on his phone as he passed it over for Stephanie to look through the most recent pictures that he'd been sent. The compact but still fairly nice apartment shown in the photographs wasn't one Stephanie had seen before, though it didn't take too long for her to realise who the resident of this place had been.
"The police searched her home for the initial investigation. Y'know, standard procedure. Trying to find anything out of the ordinary..." He said, as Stephanie noticed the two suitcases that stood beside the coffee table in one of the pictures. "Turns out she'd been packing."
Stephanie was already subconsciously putting two and two together as she looked at these photos, but she was still taken off guard when she flicked to the last photo in the album: a screenshot of a Redshore City Bus confirmation. A one-way ticket to Calatonia.
"Calatonia? She... sh-she... she was coming here..." Stephanie tried to keep herself together, but she was still getting choked up by tears as she put a hand to her face, her voice slowly turning to a whimper. "Did Jimmy find out...? Is that... i-is that why he... why he...? Oh God, Charlie, what have I done...?!"
"We can't know for certain. Unless Jimmy says so, but... you know what he's like..." Charlie said, giving the wolf's hands a comforting grip as she continued sobbing. "Even if he did know, Stephanie, you can't blame yourself for -"
"I told her to come with us!" Stephanie suddenly shrieked as she sat back up, her reddened face now covered with tear-stained streams of mascara. "God, that... that Valentine's Day, before we left, I... I told her we were leavin' and I said... I-I-I said she could go with us! B-b-but she, Suki wanted to stay put, and... God dammit, Charlie, we coulda gotten away from Jimmy together!"
"And Jimmy would have tracked you down, just like he did before!" Charlie slammed his cane on the floor, his forceful tone literally scaring Stephanie straight as she froze up in her seat. "If she'd gone with you then, who do you think would have given your lawyer that tape...? And who... w-who would have kept Jimmy and his thugs off your scent all these years? Would have you had your back, Steph...?"
"W-well, I... I uh..." Stephanie sighed, rubbing her arm. "I dunno, Charlie."
"No, you don't..." Charlie took a deep breath to calm himself down, readjusting his glasses as he looked up at the projection screen again. "Look, it... it wasn't an easy decision for her to let you go without her, Steph. Believe me, I could tell. But there was nothing Suki wanted more than for you and Porsha to be safe. Even... even if meant removing her from the picture."
"But I... I, um... well... y-yeah, I know..." Stephanie lowered her head, wiping her face with the front of her sleeve, before she looked around the living room of her own apartment. "It's just... this life, this city, all the friends we've made here, I just... I just wanted to share it with her, Charlie."
"I know..." Charlie said, placing a hand on her shoulder as he stood up. "But there's a good chance you wouldn't have had this great life at all if not for her."
Stephanie remained silent, clasping her hands together as she hunched forward on the table, but she did manage to force a smile on her face as she nodded.
Charlie took this as a sign to go, so he tightened his grip on his cane, unplugged and packed up the projector, and headed to the doorway. He held back there just another moment or two, getting a final look at the wolf as she got up from the table and slumped herself down on the couch in front of the TV, but knowing there was little else he could say or do for her now, he simply opened the door and left.
"MARIO! WA-HOO!"
The high pitched whistle and the catchy victory tune snapped Porsha out of her thinking session, as she looked over to the TV screen to see that she'd just come in second place. The young wolf wasn't even focused enough to feel either happy or sad about her loss, though she did manage to force a half-hearted smile for the elephant that was currently dancing and singing in front of the screen to celebrate her victory.
Although her passionate vocalisations were more noise than actual lyrics, Meena's voice was still rather hypnotic in its beauty, and it was especially impressive for a little elephant who wasn't even nine years old yet.
"Wow, that uh... th-that's real great, Meena..." Porsha said, trying her best to sound happy. "Damn, you uh... ya really raced circles around me this time, huh...?"
"Ooh-hoo, yeah! I can't believe I actually did it! Y'know, I just got in the groove and... an-and VROOM!" Meena was still overwhelmed by her giggling fit as she slumped back down on the couch, the force of her weight nearly sending the wolf pup flying off. Though once she'd calmed down, it didn't take long for the elephant to finally notice that something was amiss. "You uh... you okay, Porsha?"
"Huh...?" Porsha cleared her throat. "Oh, uh... y-y-yeah, I'm fine. I just... I'm just a little off my game today, I guess."
"Yeah, I thought it was kinda weird when you missed all those power-ups. You're usually great at finding those..." Meena hesitated, itching the back of her neck, then carefully shuffled closer. "It, um... is it about your Mom's friend...? That lady who died?"
"Lady? Oh, ya mean my Aunt Suki...?" Porsha bit her bottom lip when Meena nodded, hunching forward with her hands clasped together. "Mommy's been... ugh, I mean... my Mom, she... she's been actin' weird about it."
"Well yeah, she's just sad about it."
"But it's been like two weeks! She shoulda gotten over it by now, everybody's been thinkin' it!" Porsha whined, letting out an exhale as she put a hand to her face. "Am I bein' mean thinkin' like that...?"
"No. Well, maybe, I... I dunno, Porsha, it's kinda hard to figure out what grown-ups do when they're sad..." Meena's ears folded in closer to her eyes, which Porsha had figured by now was usually a sign of discomfort or uncertainty. "My Mom sometimes acts like that. Y'know, when... w-when she talks about my Dad."
"Hmm... wait, your Dad...?" Porsha straightened up. "I thought ya said ya didn't have a Dad, Meena."
"I don't. Well, no, I... I did, I guess." Meena fumbled her hands, sniffling a bit. "He died when I was a baby. Y'know, before we met."
"Oh... okay..." Porsha thought for a moment, uncertain if she should prod further. "Do you, like, remember him or anything?"
"Not much... like I said, Mom always gets sad when we talk about him, but... b-but I don't, really." Meena tilted her head. "I guess that's kinda like what that Aunt Suki lady is like for you, right...?"
"Y-yeah... yeah, it is, kinda..." Porsha pursed her lips. "It's a little fuzzy, but... b-but she used to be around all the time back at our old house. Then when we came here, we never talked to her, never talked about her, so she kinda just... not disappeared, but like, uh... I dunno... faded, I guess...?"
"Right..." Meena nodded. "Maybe that's why your Mom's so sad about it."
"Yeah..." Porsha lounged back onto he couch, twiddling her thumbs as she looked up at the ceiling. "Maybe..."
"Oh boy... Ms. Crawly said it was bad, but I didn't think it was this bad."
"Ugh... and a very good evening to you too, Mr. Moon..." Stephanie snarked groggily, taking a step back to let the koala shuffle his way past her into the apartment. "Porsha went to Meena's tonight. They're havin' a slumber party, so... yeah..."
"Ah, okay..." Buster tried his best to look happy. "So, uh... it's just you, huh."
"Hmm... me and all my thoughts..."
Although she knew Buster was coming to see her, the wolf hadn't bothered to brush down her unkempt fur or remove the fluffy red bathrobe she'd been wearing over her clothes for most of the day. But since she had taken the effort to have a shower, even she wasn't sure if this had been an active decision or just resigned apathy brought on by her current depressive state.
As she closed the door and followed him to the couch, Stephanie noticed that Buster almost seemed to be in awe as he looked around the room, and it only then occurred to her that - despite knowing and working with him for the better part of a year by now - she'd never actually brought the koala back to the apartment before.
"Oh, this looks lovely. Really like all the pictures, and... oh hey, I got that poster up back at the... the, uh... oh..." Buster cut himself off as he reached the coffee table in front of the couch, having spotted the open bottle of red wine and the three flute glasses stood beside it. "I uh... I thought you didn't drink."
"I don't... I just drown my sorrows." Stephanie slumped down on the couch and poured herself a glass - with at least a third of what she poured out clumsily spilling onto the floor - before downing it all in one. "That's what Suki always said."
"Ah..." Buster clasped his hands together, biting his bottom lip. "Listen, Steph, we... w-we know you're upset, but I really want you to -"
"Upset...?! No, no no no, that's... th-that's ridiculous, I ain't upset. Why would I be upset...?" Stephanie seemed more theatrical and eccentric than Buster was used to seeing her, not helped by the fact that she was on at least her second glass already. "What, because my friend's dead? B-b-because she got killed by my ex...? Or cause he threw her off a roof, and she splatted like a pancake, and... an-and now her family can't even give her a goddamned OPEN CASKET...?!"
She tossed the glass with an enraged, almost bestial roar, and Buster dodged behind the coffee table as it flew right past him and shattered against the wall.
"So yeah, Moon, I am pretty damn upset!" Stephanie let out a sigh to calm herself down, holding a hand to her face as Buster carefully clambered up beside her on the couch. "All the lives Jimmy ruined, all the folks he's hurt... all for nothing!"
"Well, um... the good thing is he's getting put away for it." Buster kept his smile. "Like they say, for every cloud a silver -!"
"N-no, just... j-just don't, okay...?!" Stephanie cut him off, letting out a groan. "I'm feelin' bad enough without you and your... y-y-your giddy optimism!"
"Right... sorry..." Buster chuckled nervously, though his tone remained sincere. "Stephanie, we... the rest of us can't speak for Suki, cause um... well, we never knew her like you did. Well actually, we... w-we never met her at all, so -"
"Ugh, what's your point...?!" Stephanie snapped impatiently - not wanting to be reminded of the plans Suki had made prior to her death - but she immediately regretted it. "Sorry, I just... w-what exactly are ya gettin' at...?"
"Well, I just... all the things she did for you. Y'know, helping you escape, giving Norman that tape, filming that video she posted, it... it took guts. Especially going against somebody like Jimmy Crystal." Buster almost sounded awed. "And I can't imagine she did those things for nothing, Steph. And she didn't die for nothing, either."
As much as Stephanie wanted to deny it, the koala's words were getting to her, but she let out a more bitter scoff as she reached for the bottle on the table again. "Yeah, well... if I hadn't gone to Redshore in the first place, none of this woulda happened. Never woulda met Jimmy, never woulda gone through all that crap, never woulda -"
"You wouldn't have had Porsha." Buster cut her off, making the wolf freeze up. "We wouldn't have helped save the theatre, you... heck, you probably wouldn't have brought all of us together, Steph!"
"Hmm..." Stephanie chortled, feeling he mood steadily improve. "Well, I wouldn't be so sure about that... can't help feelin' you'd have handled things pretty good in the long run, Moon."
"Well, maybe, but... b-but the point is, Stephanie, you've done great things here. For all of us. And you wouldn't have done them if Suki didn't do so many good things for you first..." Buster then suddenly straightened up, almost laughing as another thought suddenly occurred to him. "Hmm... y'know, I... I just realised something. You didn't need to be jealous of me anymore!"
Stephanie narrowed her eyes. "Jealous?!"
"Yeah! Remember, uh... oh boy, um... it was when my Dad died, you uh... you said you were jealous, cause you never had anyone you cared about enough to get hurt like that..." Buster said. "But you had Suki the whole time! You got hurt like that after all, Steph!"
"Y'do realise that's not a good thing, right...?"
"Well no, that's not what I'm saying, I just... you were close to her." Buster took on a warmer, more encouraging tone. "And now it's up to you to pull through for her. Keep on going. Just like I did with my Dad."
Stephanie let out a harsh exhale, partially annoyed that Buster had turned her own words against her, while also being frustrated with herself knowing he was completely right. She found herself idly gazing at the koala while he took the two remaining glasses and filled them both, and a cocktail of strong emotions swirled within her as her grief and anger slowly gave way to a warmer, fuzzier feeling she hadn't felt in a long time.
"Well..." Buster cleared his throat, briefly snapping the wolf out of her smitten stare as he passed her a glass. "Here's to pulling through."
"Hmm..." Stephanie smiled, clinking her glass against his. "To Suki."
It was around 9am when Stephanie woke up, though she'd spent the better part of an hour sat on the couch in her fluffy red bathroom - albeit with nothing under it this time - watching the morning news. While the sun spilling in from the windows was already brightening up her day in more ways than one, the wolf felt her mood improve even more when the doorbell rang.
"Morning, sunshine! Ooh!" Stephanie was taken off-guard - despite it being a usual occurrence by now - when Porsha threw her arms around her lower waist, the eight-and-a-half-year-old only just being tall enough to reach that height. "Good slumber party...?"
"Oh yeah, it was great!" Porsha released her mother from the embrace, then shuffled past her and headed to the kitchen while Stephanie remained stood at the doorway with Rosita. "Hey Mommy, is there still cereal left...?"
"Yeah, there should be!" Stephanie called back, rolling her eyes as she heard her daughter clattering about in the cupboard, before taking a step back to let the pig into the living room. "Yeah, um... thanks for pickin' her up, Ro."
"Oh no, Steph, it's fine."
Rosita made her way over to the couch and clambered up onto it, letting the wolf sit beside her. A slightly awkward settled on the pair for a minute or two - the sound of Porsha's clumsy attempts at making her breakfast being the only ambience - until Rosita finally spoke up again.
"So, um... we haven't seen much of you around the Theatre the last couple weeks..."
"Yeah, I know..." Stephanie pulled the corners of her bathrobe closer together to cover herself a little more. "Look, I'm sorry I've been actin' weird lately, it's just..."
"You're grieving, Steph, there's nothing weird about it." Rosita gently held the wolf's hand, keeping her usual compassionate tone. "Norman told us about Suki. Me and Mary, I mean. She, um... we know she meant a lot to you."
"Hmm... yeah, she did." Stephanie sniffled a bit, but she kept smiling as she reached for the half-finished coffee cup on the table. "It's okay, though, I... I think I'm through most of it now. The bad stuff, I mean..."
"Clearly..." Rosita raised an eyebrow as she looked at the table. The rather cryptic tone in the pig's voice took Stephanie off-guard for a moment, until she glanced over to realise Rosita was looking directly at the quarter-filled wine bottle. "Stephanie, I know this is a lot for you, but you can't fall back to -"
"Hey hey hey, it's not falling back, Ro. I just, uh... y'know... slipped a little. It was only last night, trust me." Stephanie shook her head, pulling a small smirk as she gestured to the bottle. "Besides, that wasn't all me."
"It wasn't...?! But who the heck else did -?!"
"MR. MOON...?!" Porsha suddenly blurted out, making Stephanie and Rosita turn around on the couch to see the surprise, wide-eyed koala - looking dishevelled and wearing a shirt that was clearly too big for him - stood in the doorway to Stephanie's room. "What the heck are you doin' here...?!"
"Oh, um... m-m-morning, girls, I uh..." Buster bit his bottom lip, itching the back of his head as he tried to think of an alibi. "Well, it's uh... th-the thing is, I... there was a, um..."
"They had a nasty gas leak at the Theatre last night..." Stephanie cut in, giving a reassuring nod to Buster. "Moon needed somewhere to sleep, so we had a little, uh... slumber party. Right, Moon?"
"Oh, well, it uh..." Buster cleared his throat. "Y-y-yeah, that's right. Exactly!"
"For real...?" Porsha was still surprised, but she seemed rather convinced when both Stephanie and Buster nodded in agreement. "Well, that's cool. I didn't even know grown-ups did that!"
"You're still young, Porsha." Rosita chuckled, glancing over to Stephanie as the wolf gave her a sly wink. "There's a lot of things you don't know about grown-ups."