Vivian Wilde sat in the courtroom, her face carefully blank as she watched the proceedings. Never did she think she would be a witness in a case of homicide. Okay, that may not be entirely true. As a doctor and as a fox, she did have some idea that she may in a courtroom one day. Either pleading her case when she was falsely accused or being a witness like now. But she had always hoped that, that wouldn't be the case. Now here she was, doing her best not to let herself cry again.
But that poor little kit.. She couldn't get his final struggles to stay alive out of her mind. He'd come in for stomach pain and a fever with his father and stepmother. Sick as he was, he was a sweet little boy, all manners and smiles despite the pain he must have been in. He reminded her of her little Nicky back home. Henry was his name, such a sweet kit with jewel bright, blue eyes.
It was supposed to be a normal check up... A virus at the least, the flu or pneumonia at the worst. Some antibiotics, maybe a hospital stay, lots of fluids and he would be good as new. Instead, a sweet and innocent life had been snuffed out like a candle flame. Her heart broke all over again as she recalled leaving the room and coming back to that sweet boy crying and holding his stomach. Those watery blue eyes looked to her for help, telling her how much his stomach hurt.
His father.. The poor tod, looked to her with tears in his eyes, asking if they could do anything about his pain as he rubbed his son's back. But then that little boy started to seize and began to foam at the mouth. That was when it became clear that it wasn't a normal sickness at all and she called out the code as she did all she could to save that little one's life. Unfortunately blood work was never quick to come back, so they didn't know little Henry was poisoned and with what until he was already gone.
She had sadly lost a lot of patients in her career over the years. But it never got easier to tell the remaining family of their passing and express her condolences. It was the first time she had lost a child in her care and it shattered her enough to have her hide in the stairwell and sob for the life lost. She wept for the remaining relatives, for the little life lost when he should have had such a bright future full of love and life. She couldn't even imagine how the father must be hurting if it hurt her so badly.
She could only imagine the amount of strength it would take to make that call to the stepmother who had supposedly stepped out to take a phone call. She imagined how her world would stop and crumble if it were her Nicky instead of little Henry. It was a call from her little boy that forced her to pull herself together, wiping her tears and forcing the wobble in her voice away. That call came at the right time, Nicky wanting to check on her and tell her he missed her, informing her of all he and his dad did today. Vivian made plans that night to take vacation and spend some much needed time with her son.
At the time she had been confused about what happened to that sweet boy. She could never imagine someone vicious or vile enough to deliberately hurt Henry. How could they? He was such a sweet child. Surely his parents loved him more than they loved life as any good parent would. But then the blood work came back and it became clear that, that sweet little boy had been killed. The amount of Theobromine that showed in his labs proved that this hadn't even been an accidental poisoning, but deliberate. Normally that substance was mostly found in chocolate. And what parent of canid children didn't know to keep such things away from their little ones?
Henry's father, Daniel, had unfortunately been looked at like a suspect, but it didn't take ZPD's finest to realize who the true murderer was. The step mother, Lydia had fled, hoping to escape to another country. It turned out that Daniel was widowed, he'd lost his mate in childbirth, a rare occurrence these days, but it unfortunately still happened.
He had remarried so that his son had a mother figure to help guide him as he grew. Theirs was a contractual marriage he explained, married only to help his son, though she hurt for nothing. Daniel - it turned out - was a business mammal and made sure the expenses were paid and that she also had a generous amount of spending money. He had never slept with her and didn't intend to. So that way when her contract with him was up, or she found her mate they could have a clean break. Not a shock to any fox in the courtroom that day. Their particular species still mated for life. Evolution hadn't changed that.
The defense tried all kinds of tactics to get Lydia a lighter sentence. They claimed that she had mistaken the chocolate for chocolate flavored laxatives. Laxatives that had no chocolate in them, just the flavor. Until Daniel spoke out of turn and shouted that there was no chocolate in the house, none of them could eat it so where had it come from? Had she gotten lost between the candy aisle and the pharmacy?
Vivian was more than happy to shoot the defense down as well when she took the stand. Laxatives were either in pill, powder, or liquid form and always had the product name in big, bold letters in its container. They could only be mistaken for chocolate once out of the box, the individually wrapped medicine looked like a chocolate wrapper. But even then laxatives should be given at the recommended dose. The amount of Theobromine in Henry's system was excessive and couldn't be explained as an accident.
The defense even tried to explain it away as post partum depression that had gone untreated. Only to be reminded - by the judge herself - that Lydia had been the step-mother.
Lydia was who finally incriminated herself after Daniel said his piece the second day at trial. He was speaking to her from his heart, of how he regretted meeting her. He said he felt he had some part in killing his son for trusting her, he'd brought his son's killer into their home himself. He told her he'd never forgive her and all the things that made little Henry a wonderful kit. He shared his dreams and how much the little boy loved the conniving vixen.
It turned out that her motive had been greed. She yelled at Daniel that if he didn't have Henry he'd want another kit which she could give him. Then she'd be set for at least eighteen years. The jury and all gathered were stunned to hear this, she'd killed an innocent kit because of greed! And worse.. It was clear she felt no remorse or guilt at all for what she had done! She was cursing at Daniel and little Henry's name as she given her sentencing and dragged away.
Vivian didn't think there was a single dry eye in the courtroom that day. Even she couldn't stop her tears from flowing. Even more so when Daniel came to her to thank her for trying to save his son and doing her part to put his murderer in prison. She expressed her condolences to him once again and let him know that he could reach out if he needed anything.
The hardest part of it all was that she had to explain to Nicky why he wouldn't see his classmate at school anymore. Both boys had been in the same school, same grade, and same class. She held him close to her heart as her boy cried over who it turned out had been a friend of his. The friend who it turned out he had asked could come over that weekend. The same Henry who had passed away, by a vixen that was supposed to love him and guide him.. The same vile mammal that had killed him.
"Mama.. I want to be a police mammal when I grow up," Nick told her at Henry's funeral. His little lip wobbling and tears flowed freely as he watched Henry's coffin be placed in the ground. "Do you think I can?"
"I know you can, Nicky," she told him in return.
"I'll open up the theme park me and Henry talked about first. Then I'll be a police officer. That way no bad mammals can hurt kits like Henry anymore."
"I think, Henry would like that, son," Jon, replied this time, holding their son's paw.