Judy lay in bed with Nick who seemed a lot healthier now. He still had worry in his eyes as he looked up at the ceiling. She was thinking of something comforting to say when the door was heard being knocked at.
In her her silver nighty, Judy clambered out of bed and answered the door to the hotel owner who addressed a package.
"Sorry," the owner apologised. "I had to rush somewhere and it was only now I found this."
Judy thanked the owner and took the parcel to the kitchen table. She read the note written on the package itself. Her eyes widened and she rushed with the parcel into the bedroom. "Nick!" she announced. "Nick! You gotta read this!"
"Buffalo Butt finally posted my employment termination?" groaned Nick.
"Not really," said Judy as she brought the parcel to him. "But I think we can prove something."
Nick sat up in bed and read what was on the wrapping paper:

Dear, Officers Wilde and Hopps,

Please find in this parcel Officer Wilde's scout uniform. Noah did not steal it, neither did he steal the files. I'll help him return when an opportunity comes.

An anonymous friend.

Noah was waiting in a very small room for his dinner. The room was a complete ramshackle. The bed was at least soft but there was nothing except for a cracked mirror on the wall, a desk with cheap perfume bottles.
Patsy arrived with three large pieces of pizza and a glass of orange juice. Her appearance was the only comfort next to Uncle Nick and Aunt Judy. She may have been with the wrong people, but she was kind at least. When the door handled turned, he feared it would be Brent Stripes with more threats to add with what he already threatened.
"You hungry?" she asked.
"Not really," said Noah. "I'm too scared."
"You should try to eat, sweetie," said Patsy. "You need your strength for tonight."
She placed the plate on the bed and Noah slowly ate the pizza.
"He scares me," said Noah with his mouthful.
"He scares everyone," said Patsy kindly. "But the least you can do is behave so you'll be okay. These marks are the last thing I want you to have," she added, pointing at the bare gashes o her face.
Noah gasped in fright.
"I wanna go home. Will I see Skips soon? He promised he'd help me."
"You will," said Patsy. "But I should be the one to try. Skips got you in enough trouble already."
Noah took another bite of pizza and sipped his orange juice.
"What were they like?" asked Patsy.
"Who?"
"That rabbit and fox."
"They were kind to me," said Noah. "Nick was the best. He makes me laugh and he always looked after me. They said they are gonna find out who my parents are. My daddy at least. I only know that my mommy died when I was born."
"Well," said Patsy. "You can count on the ZPD for anything. I'm sure you'll be back with them and find your daddy soon."
"But I wish Mommy was alive. I wanted to know what she was like."
"I bet she was beautiful," suggested Patsy, stroking his ear affectionally. "Like all foxes are and she loved you very much."
Noah put his plate down and looked down at the floor.
"But how about this? Until they find your family I'll be your mommy?"
Noah looked up at her. "Really? I actually do love you like one."
She picked him and kissed his nose as they hugged each other.
"Just promise me one thing," said Noah. "No matter what you do, nothing will happen to you."
"I promise sweetie," she smiled. "I never let anything happen to me."
Relief swarmed through his veins for brief seconds, when Noah's happiness suddenly changed when he thought about Stripes.
"I never could after losing my baby."
"What?" asked Noah looking into her face. "Maybe we can help you find it."
"You won't find it here, sweetums," said Patsy quiet with a sad smile. "It's up in the clouds."
"What happened?" asked Noah.
Patsy held the cub close to her breast, as if to imagine it was her baby resurrected.
"Kissing men was the only way I could survive after losing my job. One got me pregnant and he left me. I was never able to find him. And when I did, he attacked and the baby was unable to live when it arrived."
She started to sob.
"Sorry, sweetie," she apologised. "I never get through a day without thinking about it."
Noah felt a heavy ache in his heart, his own situation being completely vice versa. Being given life, while his mother died. And it wasn't the result of a violent murder.
"Mr. Mudway said my mother died because I was born. He said killed her."
"What do bigots like him know?" Said Patsy still holding onto the cub. "Mother usually die for no reason when a child is born. It doesn't happen very often these days, but trust me. You didn't kill her, she just died bringing you into this world. And I'll bet anything she was looking forward to see you."
With those words, Noah thought on her missing her close ones and finally reuniting with her brother after he was released.
"How did you meet Mr. Stripes?"
Patsy's expression changed as well. She place the cub on her lap and said "Maybe you are better off learning why he is the way he is."
Noah listened, his ears straightened.
"I was an orphan just like you. No one gave me a chance expect a married couple, both tigers. They cherished me, fed me, clothed me and spoiled me. But the best part of it all was I had an older brother."
Noah was about to ask where he was until he suddenly thought with her connection with these characters. He looked at her in shock and she nodded.
"Yes," Patsy replied. "Brent's my brother. We had the best relationship any leopard could ask for."
She smiled and looked out the window as if to cherish all those memories of her cubhood, but her face faltered as she returned to reality.
"Until one day we were playing. Some hooligans, preys, were causing mischief. One crime in particular, they beat a poor old lion to death and the police decided that Brent killed him, since he was a tiger and the others were preys."
"What happened for him to be made like the culprit?"
"He actually tried helped the lion," Patsy explained. "I tried to tell them I witnessed it but they wouldn't believe a predator. He spent twenty years in jail, at which time our mother died of grief and our father got shot in a pub by accident."
"I know how that feels," Noah replied as he thought about the treachery he had experienced in the bookstore.
After twenty years he was proven innocent," Patsy went on. "As soon as Brent was released, his heart hardened and he only had me to look out for him as he does now. I know one day he will come through."
Noah's heart melted at this story.
"What if he doesn't?" asked Noah. "I've seen people just like him."
"It's my instinct as a sister," Patsy replied. "He's the only family I got, and I cannot let him go."
"Even when he's hurt you?" said, Noah eying all her wounds and scars.
"A "burden I must bear," replied Patsy as she looked down on the floor. "But just between you and me you promise?" said Patsy. "Don't tell the story to anyone else."
Noah soluted in the manner of a scout making Patsy chuckle at the gesture.
"Good boy. You'd better get some shut-eye," she said. "Brent will wake you at three."
She tucked Noah in kissed his forehead.
"Goodnight, Mommy," whispered Noah.
"Goodnight, Poochie," said Patsy. She walked out and turned back at the fox cub, his eyes closed and putting his own tail around him. Somehow she had to help him. That last place she would see him is back at the ZDP for a crime he didn't commit.