WARNING: This story may contain content of an adult nature. If you are easily offended or are under the legal age to view adult content in your area, please exit now. This text is intended for adults only and may include scenes of sexual content or graphic violence. Reader discretion is advised.
Revelations by IndigoNeko
Chapter 32 – Conspiracies and Cover-ups
Monday, June 8th, 2015
A rather small morphic weasel pushed on the metal frame and panic bar of the glass doors that led outside the elementary school, leaning all forty pounds of her weight against it. The door slowly opened and she slipped outside, careful not to let her fluffy black-tipped brown tail get caught between the door and doorframe. There were still a few minutes left before the bell rang to signal the end of lunch recess, so she had stepped outside to search for her best friend.
The young weasel, named Elizabeth, came to a halt just after stepping outside. A huge number of kids were gathered near the hill that led up from the blacktop to the soccer field, including a half-dozen teachers. Two faculty members were escorting a trio of the older students back inside.
“What’s going on?” Elizabeth asked after jogging over to a group of her classmates. When nobody answered, she tugged on one of her classmate’s sleeves. The golden retriever wasn’t exactly a friend, but at least Elizabeth knew the girl’s name.
“Huh? Oh, Hi Lizzy,” Madelyn replied, glancing down at the smaller stoat.
“What’s going on?” the little stoat asked again now that she had someone’s attention.
“Alex got in a fight with some fifth graders or something,” a border collie named Danny said, holding up his phone. “Kevin just sent me this video he took of it. He was recording the soccer match a few of his friends were playing when it happened.”
“Oh no,” Elizabeth said, stepping over to the border collie’s side as he started playing the video. Just when things in the video started to get ugly, she heard the sound of sirens coming from the opposite side of the school. “Where’s Alex?” the little stoat asked frantically.
“Over there, behind the principle and the other teachers,” Danny said, pointing up the hill.
Madelyn grabbed the stoat’s arm, yanking her back as Elizabeth started moving. “Stop! They’re not letting anyone near, Lizzy.”
“Let go of me!” Elizabeth yelled, shaking her hand loose and taking off running, dodging Danny’s outstretched arm and then through the various groups of cubs between her and the group of teachers. “Lexi? LEXI?” she yelled.
A moment later she came to an abrupt halt as Principle Sihásapa reached out and caught the girl around the chest with one huge hand. “Stop, Elizabeth.”
“But, Lexi... Lexi’s hurt,” Elizabeth babbled, trying to squirm out of the bison’s grasp. “Let go of me!”
“Yes, shi is, and we can’t let anyone near hir right now, including you. We’re waiting for the doctors to get here,” the female bison said, peering over the crowd of students around them, towards the school. “And it looks like they just arrived,” she added, seeing a pair of paramedics come jogging through one of the doors, one of them pushing a wheeled stretcher.
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On the other side of town, in the suburbs near Atfalati Park, an athletic looking tiger was laying on the couch in her living room. The tigress sighed as her cell phone started ringing, setting down the Tom Clancy novel she was reading and pulling the smartphone out of her pants pocket. She didn’t recognize the number, and was almost tempted to just ignore it, except that it was a local number. She swiped the slider to the right and held the phone up to the side of her head. “Raenne speaking.”
“Mrs. Andreyev, this is Principal Sihásapa from Byrom Elementary. Your daughter has apparently been involved in another altercation. This one appears to have been substantially more serious, and she’s currently en route to the Meridian Park Hospital Emergency Room,” the principal said in a level tone. The female bison might as well have been explaining the school’s attendance policy for all the emotion in her voice.
By the time the woman on the phone had said “altercation”, Raenne had already stood up and was on her way out the front door, slapping the garage door opener next to it. By the time the bison had finished what she was saying, the tigress was in her SUV and pulling out of the driveway.
“I’m on my way to Meridian Park Hospital. Can you explain what happened?” the tigress asked, activating the car’s hands-free mode as she backed into the cul-de-sac and turned the car around, the tires squealing. She hit the garage door remote hanging from the visor above her head before shifting the car from reverse to drive.
“I don’t have the full story yet, but she was on the ground being kicked by three other students when another teacher and I interrupted them,” the principal explained. “When I noticed that she was having trouble breathing and had blood on her mouth, I called for an ambulance.”
“How bad was it, did you ask her?” Raenne asked as she drove through the suburbs, travelling far over the speed limit.
“Well, we did, but she didn’t respond; she was gasping for breath. One of the other teachers suspected possible broken ribs.”
“That’s what it sounds like, and if she was spitting up blood then she may have a punctured lung as well,” Raenne said, going cold. She suddenly felt strangely disconnected and emotionless, almost as if she were a robot. “I suggest you get the full story then, so that you can explain to the police why three students were assaulting a girl with a broken leg,” she recommended as she turned right onto Sagert street, headed towards Legacy Meridian Park Medical Center.
The principal began to say something else, only to be cut off when Raenne hit the end call button on the steering wheel. The tigress had all the facts that mattered, and she held down the call button on the steering wheel until she heard the familiar chime. “Siri, call my husband.”
A few moments later, the tigress heard the phone pick up. “Hey, love. What’s up?” she heard her husband ask.
“Alex was attacked at school. She’s in an ambulance on her way to Legacy Meridian with possible broken ribs. I’m on my way there now,” the tigress said as she passed Atfalati Park, coming to a stop at the intersection of Sagert and 65th.
“Okay. I’ll be headed there too in a sec. Love you,” she heard her husband say.
“Love you too,” she said, tapping the end call button and turning left as the light turned green. A second later she held the call button down again, waiting for the chime.
“Siri, call Tualatin Police Department in contacts.”
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Both David and Raenne sat next to each other, the white tiger holding his wife’s hand as they sat in the hallway outside the operating room. Their daughter Alex had been in surgery for over half an hour, but it seemed like hours to the two of them. After the cub had been taken into the Emergency Room, shi had been immediately sent to radiology to get an x-ray of hir chest and leg.
The radiologist had stepped to talk to them after the x-rays were taken and Alex was being wheeled into surgery, letting the two anxious parents know what he had seen. Luckily Alex’s leg hadn’t been damaged any further; the greenstick tibia fracture was healing nicely. Unfortunately, the young tiger now had complete fractures in three separate places along two different ribs. The skunk had told them that based on the images, the surgeon would most likely perform surgical rib fixation. Titanium plates would be screwed onto the ribs, holding them in place and allowing them to heal much faster. However, the plates couldn’t be left in place, so they’d have to remove them after three months.
The collapsed lung was a trickier situation, and the radiologist didn’t know how the surgeon would fix it, but he did say that there were multiple ways to treat the collapsed lung, depending on the severity of the wound. Raenne only hoped it wouldn’t be something like what she’d seen in her time in the military: collapsed lungs could be fatal, as she and Samuelson had nearly discovered the hard way.
Suddenly the door to the operating room opened and a doctor in scrubs stepped out. Raenne was somewhat surprised to see an arabian oryx here in the states; they weren’t that common to begin with. The doctor’s horns were cut off about a foot above his head, and topped with ornate silver caps embossed with flowing cursive text.
As he approached them, he stripped the latex gloves off his hands, revealing fingers tipped with black horn, almost like tiny hooves for each finger. “Mr. Andreyev,” he said with a faint middle-eastern accent, holding one hand out. “I met your wife before the surgery, but I haven’t met you yet. I am Doctor Tawfeek.”
David nodded, standing up and shaking the doctor’s hand. “Doctor.”
“Your daughter is doing fine,” the doctor said, smiling at the look of relief that went across both parent’s faces. “I fixed the broken ribs in place with a few metal plates, then used the same incision to insert a small camera and sew up the tear in hir lung. Lastly, we filled hir lungs back up and sucked the air out hir chest cavity. No problems at all.”
“Oh, thank God,” David said. “And thank you.”
“It was my pleasure,” the arabian oryx said. “We’ll need to keep hir in the I.C.U. on oxygen and under observation for at least twenty-four hours to make sure that there aren’t any complications. Additionally, we’ll have to put hir on antibiotics to ensure shi doesn’t come down with pneumonia, along with pain medication. Shi may also cough up black phlegm from coagulated blood in hir lungs, but that is nothing to worry about. Now, if you don’t mind, I’ve got to clean up and prep for my next operation.”
Raenne took a few steps forward, holding her paw out. “شكرا جزيلا, doctor,” the tigress said, after he grasped it.
The doctor’s eyes went wide for a split second in surprise, then he held up his other hand in protest. “لا شكر على واجب,” He replied with a smile. With that, the doctor turned and walked away, hooves clicking on the tile.
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An hour later, both Raenne and David were sitting in the I.C.U. room that Alex had been transferred to after the anesthesiologist had deemed hir safe. The medical equipment shi was hooked up to was surprisingly quiet, except for the hiss of the oxygen mask. Raenne seemed to remember hospital rooms being much noisier, with lots of beeps.
Both of the tigers started when Raenne’s phone went off. She quickly pulled it out of her pocket and answered the call, recognizing the number from earlier. “Raenne speaking.”
“Hello Mrs. Andreyev. This is Principal Sihásapa from Byrom Elementary. The faculty here and the police investigator that you decided to involve in this have finished their initial investigations into what happened,” the bison said, tapping her fingers on the desk. She tried not to let her annoyance creep into her voice. Having the police showing up at her school not once, but twice in the past week, both because of the Andreyev child was more than a little irritating.
“From what we’re able to determine,” the principal continued, “it would seem that your daughter was the instigator of this particular incident. I apologize for being the bearer of bad news, but district policy leaves me no choice in the matter. Your daughter has been given a three-day suspension for fighting, effective immediately.”
“Suspension? You must be joking,” Raenne asked incredulously, stepping outside of the I.C.U. room so as not to disturb her daughter’s rest.
“No, ma’am,” the principal replied on the other end of the phone call. “None of the other children that were in the area saw the beginning of the altercation, and all three of the other students involved claim that Alex attacked Sara first, apparently because Sara’s boyfriend Daniel had injured Elizabeth last week. All three of them were injured as well, apparently by Alex’s crutches.”
Raenne went silent a moment. Something about this whole thing didn’t seem right. Alex had never been involved in fighting at school, and it was something she had stressed repeatedly that Alex was never to do. It was possible, though she couldn’t get Alex’s side of the story until shi woke up from anesthesia.
“Well, I doubt that Alex will be out of the hospital before school ends. Shi’s got two ribs fractured in multiple places and a punctured lung. Shi just got out surgery an hour ago.”
“I’m sorry to hear that, Mrs. Andreyev. Perhaps that will serve as a lesson not to attack other students, though,” the bison said quietly.
Raenne’s jaw tightened. “Is there anything else?”
“No, Mrs. Andreyev. I hope your daughter has a swift recovery,” the principal said, hanging up after a few seconds. Then she leaned back in her chair, sighing; the amount of paperwork each of these police visits required was absolutely ridiculous.
Back in the hospital room, the tigress glanced down at the phone, seeing the call had ended. She resisted the urge to throw the phone across the room and slipped the phone back into her pocket. Realizing that her jaw was clamped tight, she took a deep breath, trying to relax. A few seconds later, she walked back into the I.C.U. room.
“The school decided to give Alex a suspension. Apparently they think Alex attacked Sara because the girl’s boyfriend was one of the boys that tossed Lizzy around,” Raenne explained, answering her husband's question before he even asked.
“What? Alex wouldn’t do something like that. Besides, the boy was already punished for it, and Lizzy was hardly injured at all,” David protested.
“Yeah, I don’t think Alex did it either. I think the three of them attacked hir because Daniel was given a suspension and they’re friends with him. The school says there weren’t any witnesses to the beginning of the altercation though. Even if Alex didn’t do it, it’s their word against hirs,” Raenne said, staring down at hir daughter. Though there was no sign of it on the tiger’s face, she was fighting the urge to commit acts no civilized being would ever condone.
“Well, hopefully we can find a way around the suspension. Alex still has tests to take. Maybe we can talk to Mrs. Eaglantine and figure something out,” the white tiger said, inadvertently distracting his wife from the dark thoughts she was having.
“Oh. I didn’t even think about that,” Raenne said, turning back around. She pulled out her phone and quickly scrolled through her list of contacts, then held the phone up.
“Mrs. Eaglantine? This is Raenne Andreyev,” she said.
“Oh, Mrs. Andreyev. Some of my students told me that Alex had been taken to the hospital during lunch. How is Alex doing?” the slender eagle asked, setting down the red pen she was using to grade tests.
“Shi’s got out of surgery an hour ago. Shi’s still unconscious,” the tigress said.
“Surgery?” the teacher asked incredulously. “What happened?”
“We were hoping you could have shed some light on that. All we know was that there was an altercation that ended in three kids kicking Alex on the ground. Shi had three broken ribs and a punctured lung. We have no idea what happened; shi could barely breath before they took hir into surgery,” the tigress explained.
“Oh my God...” the bald eagle muttered, unable to think of anything to say.
“Anyway, I just got a call from the Principal that shi’s been given a suspension for fighting, and shi’s going to be in the hospital I.C.U. for at least another day. My husband here reminded me that shi has tests to take. Is there anything we can do about that?”
“I honestly don’t know. The system that the district requires us to use for grading isn’t exactly forgiving. Give me some time to figure out what our options are. Maybe you could call me back or drop by my classroom tomorrow after school?” the teacher asked.
“Okay. Either my husband or I will drop by after school tomorrow, then. Thank you, Mrs. Eaglantine,” the tigress said.
“You’re welcome. I hope Alex has a swift recovery,” the bald eagle replied.
“Thanks,” Raenne said, cutting the call. “You heard that?” she asked her husband, sitting down next to him.
“Yes,” David said, nodding.
The room went silent once again except for the hiss of the oxygen pump next to the bed.
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Another half hour later, both David and Raenne started once again. This time from the sound of music coming from Alexandrea’s cargo shorts, lying on one of the empty chairs near the bed. After a second, David leaned over and started digging through the pockets until he’d found his daughter’s phone. It was Lizzy, and judging by the time, she must have just gotten home from school. Swiping the bar to the right, he held the phone up. “Hello?”
After a moment, Elizabeth spoke. “Umm… Mr. Andreyev?”
“Yes. What’s up Lizzy?” he asked.
“I just wanted to know if Lexi was alright,” Elizabeth asked. “Is shi?”
David took a deep breath. “Right now, yes. Shi got out of surgery a few hours ago, but shi still hasn’t woken up. The doctor says that if there aren’t any other complications, shi should be fine, but they want to keep hir here in the hospital for another day or two.”
“Oh no... what did shi need surgery for?” the stoat asked, frightened.
“Shi had multiple broken ribs and a punctured lung,” David replied. “We still don’t know what happened at school though; Alex wasn’t able to speak much before surgery and shi hasn’t woken up yet. Do you happen to know what happened? Were you there?”
Elizabeth was stunned, but did her best to answer anyway. “Yes... but I wasn’t there. I was putting away my lunch in the classroom, but I saw the video on Danny’s phone-”
“Wait,” David interrupted. “The principal said there weren’t any other kids who saw what happened, but you saw a video of it?”
“Yeah,” the little stoat replied. “Danny, the border collie in our class, got the video from another kid named Kevin or something.”
“So what actually happened?” the white tiger asked.
“Well, first it showed some kids playing soccer, then it showed Lexi walking up the hill and sitting on the ground, then there was more soccer stuff. Then it showed Lexi still sitting on the ground with three kids standing around hir.” Elizabeth explained, trying to remember how everything happened. “Shi stood up, then one of them took hir crutches and started walking around. Then the deer kid pushed hir and a moment later they all started kicking hir.”
“I see...” David said, looking across the I.C.U. room at his wife, meeting her eyes. “Thank you for clearing that up Lizzy. You said Danny has the video, and he got it from Kevin?”
“Yes, Mr. Andreyev,” Elizabeth said quietly.
“Thank you, Lizzy. That’ll be a big help for us. I’ll let Alex know that you called when shi wakes up,” he said.
“Okay. I hope shi gets well soon,” Elizabeth said, hanging up after a few moments. Suddenly everything caught up with her and the little stoat started bawling, then ran through the foyer and library. After pushing open the office door, she darted across the room and into her mother’s arms in search of comfort and reassurance.
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A soft rapping at the door to the I.C.U. room got both David and Raenne’s attention. They weren’t expecting anyone, but it could easily have been one of the nurses on the I.C.U. staff. Raenne stood up and opened the door, revealing a german shepherd in a police officer’s uniform.
“Hello, I’m Officer Hoffman. Would you happen to be Mrs. Andreyev?” the canine asked.
“Yes, I am. Pleased to meet you,” the tigress said, holding one paw out for a handshake.
“Likewise. Is it okay if I come in?” he asked, returning the handshake.
“Certainly,” Raenne said, stepping back into the room.
The canine entered the room and closed the door behind him with a click, then pulled out his notepad. He walked over to the side of the bed, inspecting the unconscious tiger cub. “I see Alexandrea still hasn’t woken up yet. Did anyone say how much longer she would be under?”
“Well, shi did wake up earlier for perhaps a minute, but she wasn’t very coherent. The nurse said shi’d probably be that way for some time,” the tigress said.
Hoffman heard the slight difference in pronunciation in the pronouns they were using. “Forgive me, but... is Alexandrea a hermaphrodite?”
“Yes,” both the tigers replied.
The officer noted that in his notepad, then gestured with his pencil. “Is that dried blood, all over hir muzzle and neck?”
“Yes,” Raenne replied. “It’s all over hir chest, too. The nurse said they were going to give hir a bath after shi’s been awake for a while.”
“That’s a lot of blood,” he said, his mouth pursing slightly. It was hard to tell that the fur on hir chin and neck was supposed to be white instead of dark brown. He took a moment to pull his phone out and snap a photo, then glanced at the heart rate monitor. The blood pressure numbers were frighteningly low. So was the child’s heart rate. It was steady, at least. He made a note about the blood and wrote the cub’s vital numbers down, then turned to face the two parents.
“I finished interviewing the other three students involved in the altercation, then spent a bit of time interviewing some of the teachers and faculty as well. Unfortunately, there wasn’t any security footage of the area where the incident took place, so I’m having to rely on witness testimony-”
“If I may interrupt,” David said, “my daughter’s friend called earlier, and she said that there was a video recording of the incident. Taken by another student.”
“Really?” the officer said, his eyebrows going up. “A video recording would definitely be helpful in figuring out what happened. Do you happen to know where I could get a copy of it?”
“Elizabeth said that one of the students in our daughter’s class, a border collie named Danny, showed it to her on his phone. Apparently he received it from another student named Kevin,” David explained.
The officer quickly scribbled in his notepad. “Elizabeth... Danny... Kevin... Got it. Elizabeth is your daughter’s friend? The one who saw the video?”
David nodded.
“Did she tell you what had happened?” the german shepherd asked.
David nodded again. “She said the video showed Alex walking up a hill and sitting down, then some soccer stuff, then three children standing around hir. Alex stood up, then one of them pushed hir, and then they all started kicking hir.”
The officer took a few moments, scribbling in his notebook. “Okay. Now, about your daughter’s injuries... The doctors here are a bit tight-lipped unless I have a warrant, and that’ll take a bit of time to get. Can you tell me about hir injuries?”
David glanced over at his wife. Raenne pursed her lips, then gave a full run-down. “The school principal called me to let me know that Alex had been in an altercation and was en route via ambulance. I arrived before the ambulance did, so I was here in the E.R. when they wheeled hir in. Shi was having trouble breathing, wheezing for breath and occasionally coughing up blood, which was all over hir shirt and muzzle. The cast on hir leg had been crushed. They wheeled hir into radiology to take some x-rays and a few minutes later wheeled hir back out and into one of the operating rooms. Doctor Tawfeek walked up to me and informed me he would be the surgeon and told me he’d let me know when it was over, then the radiologist came out and told me that Alex had two ribs broken in three places, with one piece floating out of place. Hir leg was fine though, it just needed a new cast. Shi was in surgery for... an hour?” Raenne asked her husband.
“Fifty-two minutes,” David replied.
Raenne shrugged, waiting until the officer finished writing in his notebook and looked up at her before continuing. “Doctor Tawfeek came out and said he had to fix hir ribs in place with metal plates and sew up hir lung and reinflate it and suck the air out of hir chest cavity. They must have kicked hir pretty damned hard to displace a rib badly enough to puncture and collapse a lung. Anyway, after surgery they took over to some other room where they replaced the cast, then they moved hir into the I.C.U. here. I guess they had to cut hir shirt off and discarded it, since we never got it back like we did hir pants. We have no idea what other injuries shi may have suffered, since shi couldn’t communicate before surgery and hasn’t woken up yet. The nurse said if she’s not conscious within two hours they may do a CT scan to see if there are any other injuries.”
When the officer had finished frantically recording everything in his notebook, he looked back up at the parents again. “Well, thank you for the information. I’m going to make a few calls and see if I can’t track down a copy of that video. Would you two please give me a call when your daughter starts coming around?” he asked, pulling a business card out of his pocket and handing it over. “I’ll need to interview Alex and see if shi has any other injuries before I hand my findings over to the district attorney’s office.”
“Sure. Thank you, officer,” the tigress replied, taking the business card. “Good luck tracking down that video. You’re not the only one who would like to see it.”
“Thanks,” the officer said, pocketting his notebook and nodding to the two tigers before stepping out of the room. He’d known after talking with the three children in the Byrom Elementary office that they were lying, and he was regretting not interviewing them separately. Then again, he had no idea at the time that the Andreyev girl’s injuries were so severe. The Principal had only said that there was blood on the cub’s lips and shi was having trouble breathing. He undid the snap on his utility belt, freeing his baseball cap. He pulled the cap over his head, taking a moment to pull his ears through the ear holes, then walked down the corridor towards the parking lot.
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Charlotte was the last person to sit down at the dinner table; the Stouffers were already sitting, and Terrence was in the process of folding his napkin over his lap. The other three were having potatoes and green beans with roast beef. Charlotte had decided at the last minute on fixing herself a french onion soup rather than drinking another protein shake.
“So, how was school, Elizabeth?” Terrence asked, looking over at his daughter. “Only two more days until summer vacation.”
Elizabeth frowned, looking down at the table. She was quiet for a moment. “Alex got beaten up by some big kids, and had to go to the hospital,” the little stoat said sadly, staring down at her plate. She didn’t particularly feel like eating right now.
“What?” he asked, glancing over at his wife Julia. She hung her head, shaking it slowly. “What happened? Who would beat up a kid who’s already got a broken leg?”
“Bullies, that’s who,” the little stoat said angrily before sniffling. “I wasn’t there. I just saw a video that Danny showed me.”
“Is Alex alright?” Charlotte asked, interrupting.
“She has a few broken ribs and a punctured lung, from what I understand,” Julia said when Elizabeth didn’t answer.
“Shit,” Terrence muttered under his breath. “Alex already had a broken leg. You two were bullied last week too. I’d have thought the teachers would have taken care of this already,” he said, glowering. After a second he stood up.
“Terry? Where are you going?” Julia asked, concerned.
“To make a few calls,” he said, walking out of the dining room. “I’ll be back in a bit,” he called over his shoulder.
Terrence made his way to the library, where it was nice and quiet, then sat down and pulled out his phone, quickly pulling up the Andreyev’s phone numbers and calling David’s. He didn’t feel as comfortable talking with Raenne, not since this whole debacle started a few weeks ago.
“David?” he asked when the call finally connected.
“Yes. Hello Terry,” the tiger replied, still sitting in the I.C.U. where his daughter was dozing. At least Alex had woken up a few times now, though shi was hardly coherent.
“I heard your daughter was attacked, had to go to the hospital. Is that right?” Terrence asked, verifying the facts before he got to the real reason he was calling.
“Yeah,” David said quietly. “We’re still at the hospital right now.”
“What happened?” the ferret asked.
“Apparently three other kids approached hir during lunch. One of them pushed hir and then they began kicking hir until the teachers got there. At least, that’s what your daughter told us. The school seems to think that Alex started it. In any case, Alex wound up with three fractures on two ribs and a punctured lung. They put some metal plates on hir ribs to stabilize them, and fixed the collapsed lung as well. They also had to replace the cast on hir leg, though hir leg’s fine. They want to keep hir here in the I.C.U. on oxygen for the next day or so,” the white tiger explained.
“A punctured, collapsed lung?” Terrence asked. “Alex is going to be months recovering from that.”
“No,” David said, shaking his head. “At least, we hope not. They sewed up hir lung, and removed the air in the lining of hir chest cavity and reinflated the lung itself. How, exactly, I don’t know. I didn’t ask. But unless there are any complications, like pneumonia, shi should be fine.”
“Wow. Medical technology’s come a long, long way since I was a kid,” Terrence said. If anyone knew that, he did after eight years of owning and managing finances for a biomedical company. “Anyway, it’s good to hear that it’s not as serious as it could be. And I do have a question for you…”
“Yes?” David asked, hesitating slightly.
“I’m not sure if you’re aware, but I actually have some ongoing litigation with the Tigard-Tualatin School District regarding their policies on protecting students that have had issues in the past, and their policies handling student violence. Charlotte, for example, had repeatedly complained to her teachers and faculty that Diego was harassing her, and they did nothing. In the end he knocked her out cold and shattered most of her muzzle. Lost her two upper bicuspids. Then they suspended the student who stopped Diego from kicking her in the chest when she was unconscious; Hikari, one of your wife’s karate students.”
“I knew that Charlotte was injured, but I didn’t know about the harassment. What’s this got to do with me though?” David asked, trying to figure out how Charlotte’s incident related to him.
“Well, both Alex and Elizabeth were attacked last week. Today is yet another example of the school taking no action to protect students who are vulnerable or have had previously been bullied, harassed, or attacked. I just wanted to know if you and your family would be interested in joining the ongoing litigation against the tigard-tualatin school district. If it’s successful, not only could the school district be forced to amend their policies to protect vulnerable students, but there could be financial compensation as well. You probably want those bullies to pay for Alex’s medical bills as well, right?”
When Terrence reached the point where he was explaining that it was just another example of inaction, David felt his temperature start to rise. He hadn’t thought of the fact that his daughter was vulnerable, but when it was pointed out, it was blatantly obvious that the school should have done something to protect hir. Shi was one of the gender minorities, had previously been attacked, and had a broken leg. Someone should have been keeping watch over hir at the very least. He didn’t even realize he was grinding his teeth until his wife peered over at him, wondering what was going on.
“You’re right,” the white tiger said. “We certainly can’t afford to pay these medical bills, and if the school district’s policies don’t require protecting vulnerable students, they absolutely should. If they do, the people who weren’t carrying those policies out should be held responsible.”
“That’s my opinion as well,” Terrence said with a grim smile. “I’m going to get in touch with the law firm handling the case and let them know. You should be receiving a call from them sometime tomorrow.”
“I’ll be looking forward to it,” David said. “Thank you.”
“My pleasure. I hope that your daughter recovers quickly, and without any complications. Goodnight, David,” the ferret said.
“Goodnight, Terry,” the white tiger replied.
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Officer Hoffman rapped on the solid red door of the Miller family’s apartment. He hoped he wasn’t interrupting dinner for them. A few moments later a middle-aged border collie wearing a pair of jeans and a white sleeveless t-shirt opened the door.
“Yes, officer?” the border collie asked, suspiciously, eyeing the german shepherd in the police uniform.
“Good evening. I’m Officer Hoffman with the Tualatin Police Department. Are you Mr. Miller?” the officer asked.
“Yes, I am,” the border collie said slowly, still suspicious. “Can I help you?”
“Well, if your son Daniel happens to be home, I’d like to ask him a few questions about something that happened at school today. One of his classmates was involved in a pretty serious altercation during lunch and he may have access to video footage of the incident.”
The collie didn’t answer, instead turning around and yelling into the house. “Danny? There’s a police officer here who wants to talk to you.”
A muffled response came from within, and the older collie turned back around. “He’ll be down in a second,” he said, then turned around and walked back into the living room, flopping down on a worn corduroy couch in front of a dated CRT television set.
Officer Hoffman stood at the doorway, waiting as the door slowly closed, obscuring his view of the inside of the house. About ten seconds later, several loud thumps came from a stairwell out of view and a little later a border collie pup appeared in the doorway, pulling the door back open. The child was wearing a pair of jeans with ragged knees and an Iron-Man t-shirt.
“Yes?” the young collie asked, looking up at him.
“I’m Officer Hoffman, with the Tualatin Police Department. You must be Daniel, right?” the german shepherd said, kneeling.
“Yeah. My friends call me Danny though,” the pup replied.
“Okay, Danny,” the officer said with a smile. “I understand that there was a fight at your school this afternoon, involving a tiger, badger, dog, and deer. Is that true?”
“Yeah,” the border collie pup said, nodding. “Alex got beaten up by a bunch of fifth graders. They called an ambulance and everything.”
“Yes. I was also told you have a video of what happened. Do you still have that video?” Hoffman asked hopefully.
“Well... I don’t have it myself, really. My friend Kevin in Mrs. Lungren’s class posted it on YouTube and sent the link to a bunch of us. He takes videos of everything.”
“Really?” the german shepherd asked, pulling out his notepad. “Could you get that link for me?”
“Yeah, sure. Lemme go get my phone. I’ll be right back,” the cub said, turning around and darting back into the house. A few seconds later, Officer Hoffman heard several rapid thumps as the cub went up a staircase somewhere inside the house. Another thirty seconds later, the door opened again.
This time, Daniel had an older-model android in his hands. He quickly unlocked it and pulled up his text messages, clicking on it until he found the message he was looking for. “Got it. What’s your phone number? I’ll text it to you.”
Hoffman recited his work phone number while pulling it out of his pocket. A moment later his phone dinged, and he clicked the message to open the link. A moment later it started playing. “Sweet. Thank you very much, Daniel. You have a good evening, okay?”
“You too,” the cub replied, waiting until the officer turned around to close the door. The cub turned back around and headed back upstairs to finish the drawing he’d been working on.
The german shepherd slowly walked over to the squad car. It was far longer than he’d suspected, and the first half of it consisted of a bunch of cubs playing soccer. After scrubbing through the playback bar he eventually found where the event actually started. It was painfully obvious that the Andreyev child was the victim. It was hard to make out what the other cubs were saying at first, but when the deer pushed her the camera owner ran towards them and the audio became much clearer. Hoffman watched, horrified that children as young as that could be so deliberately cruel. They didn’t even stop when the whistle blew; they acknowledged they’d been caught and started kicking even harder. This wasn’t bullying; it was attempted murder.
__________________________________________________
Alex blinked and squinted hir eyes, looking blearily around the room. Unlike the previous two times, shi didn’t feel completely out of it. The mask on hir face was uncomfortable, and hir throat felt as dry as the Sahara desert.
Mom and dad were sitting on chairs to one side, leaning against each other. After a few seconds mom noticed that shi was looking at them, and quickly stood up and walked over, dad following close behind.
“Hey, kiddo. How are you feeling?” Raenne asked, walking over to the bed and resting her paw atop her daughter’s head.
Alex hadn’t really thought about it, but now that mom mentioned it, most of hir body seemed to hurt. Especially hir chest. That triggered a memory. Shi vaguely remembered the fight, then being put on a rolling bed, then in an ambulance, struggling to breath without coughing. Once they’d gotten to the hospital shi had been taken to some kind of room where they laid hir on a moving platform, then they’d put hir back on the rolling bed. After that, nothing.
“Hurts,” shi replied. Or tried to. Instead, it came out as a harsh wheeze that caused spikes of pain to radiate through hir chest. Shi tried to swallow, only to wind up coughing, which left hir in agony.
The monitor next to hir started beeping, and a few seconds later a male fruit bat wearing green scrubs opened the door and looked in, then stepped over to the side of the bed.
“Well, looks like our patient’s finally awakened. I bet you need some water. Do you want some water?” the nurse asked.
Alex nodded hir head, tears forming in the corners of hir eyes. The nurse stepped over to the other side of the bed and adroitly pulled the oxygen mask off Alex’s face. “Judging from your O2 readings, you don’t need this any longer. It hasn’t been giving you much extra oxygen for the past hour anyway.”
After setting down the mask, he picked up a small bottle with an angled nozzle and held it up to Alex’s muzzle, then squirted a bit into Alex’s mouth. “Nod when you want more.”
After about five or so squirts, Alex finally felt like shi could speak again. “Thank you,” shi said quietly. It felt like everything ached or hurt, but it was distant. Almost like hir body belonged to someone else, but shi could still feel it. Hir head was spinning too. It was a very strange feeling.
“Need anything else?” the nurse asked.
Alex shook hir head slightly.
“Okay. If you do need something, press the little button here on the side of the bed,” the fruit bat said, pointing at the tiny red button on the guard-rail of the bed.
Alex nodded, and the nurse left, smiling and nodding at the two adult tigers standing on the other side of the bed.
“Hi mom. Hi dad,” shi whispered.
“You gave us one hell of a scare, kiddo,” the older tigress said, a relieved smile on her face. “I really hope they managed to fix that lung of yours.”
Alex was quiet for a few seconds, trying to figure out how shi had scared hir parents. Then shi remembered something important. “Sorry,” shi apologized. “I didn’t stay near the teachers.”
“No, love. The teachers should have been watching over you,” David said, reaching over and gently squeezing his daughter’s paw. “They’re supposed to monitor what’s going on with their students, and they especially should have been looking after you since you had a broken leg and had been attacked last week. It’s not your fault at all.”
Half of what dad said went right over hir head. It was hard to understand. But one thing did stand out: It wasn’t hir fault. Somehow it felt like it should have been, only shi couldn’t remember why. The three kids who’d kicked hir had been wrong. Maybe it really wasn’t hir fault. Right now shi couldn’t think though; shi’d have to ponder it later.
“There’s a police officer who wanted to ask you what happened. Do you think you’d be okay talking with him or are you too tired?” Raenne asked.
“Uhh... I can talk...” Alex replied slowly. “I’m not tired. Just... hurts. Hungry too.”
“I’m sorry, love,” the white tiger said. “I’ll go ask the nurse about getting you some pain meds, and get you some food.”
After giving his daughter a kiss, David stepped out of the room.
“Well, if you don’t mind talking a bit more, I’ll give Officer Hoffman a call and see if he wants to drop by now or talk to you tomorrow,” she said with a smile. “I love you,” she added, tussling the fur atop Alex’s head before sitting back down and pulling out her phone and making a call.
About twenty minutes later, there was a knock on the door. Alex lowered the Panini sandwich that hir dad had brought in a minute earlier and looked up while hir mom opened the door. Beyond it stood a german shepherd in an officer’s uniform.
“Hello again, Mr. and Mrs. Andreyev... and Alexandrea,” the officer said, nodding in the cub’s direction. “Good to see you’re awake this time. I’m Officer Hoffman with the Tualatin Police Department,” he added, walking into the room and stepping over to the side of hir bed with his hand out.
It took the cub a second to figure out why he was holding his paw out toward hir. Shi didn’t want to give him the sandwich. Then shi realized he wanted a handshake. Alex reached out and gave his paw a squeeze, ignoring the throbbing pain in hir chest and the shooting spikes of pain that moving hir arm caused. Shi could feel the pain, but it didn’t seem to matter.
“So, do you remember what happened to you at school today?” Hoffman asked, pulling out his notepad and a pen.
Alex swallowed the bite of sandwich shi had been chewing and nodded, “Yeah.”
“Could you tell me what you did, and what happened during lunch and recess?” the german shepherd asked.
For the next couple of minutes, Alex recounted what had happened during lunch and recess, up until shi had been loaded onto the ambulance. Several times, the officer or hir mom asked for clarification or greater detail regarding what had happened and what was said. Alex couldn’t remember a lot of what was said, unfortunately, as a lot of it had become a blur, especially once shi had been pushed.
“You’re absolutely certain that you didn’t know any of the three children who attacked you? Do you think you could pick them out again if you saw them?” the canine officer asked, after he’d finished writing everything down.
Alex shook hir head. “No. I mean, I remember they were a badger, a dog with light brown fur, and a deer with fangs, but that’s about it. I think they said their names at some point, but I don’t remember their names at all.”
“That’s okay. Thank you for answering all my questions so far,” he said, putting his notepad away. “I hope you recover quickly, Alex. You seem like a good kid.”
“Thanks,” Alex said quietly, looking down. Shi wasn’t particularly comfortable with being praised like that.
“Officer Hoffman, did you happen to find anything about that video I mentioned?” David asked, leaning forward slightly on his seat.
“Actually, I did. A copy of it was uploaded to YouTube. I’m going to see if I can track down the cub who took the original video and interview him and get the original video as well,” the canine replied.
“Could you get us a copy of that video?” Raenne asked.
“Unfortunately, I can’t. However, if you search YouTube you’ll have no problems finding it. The title included the word Byrom, and it was uploaded earlier today. Is there anything else I can do for you?”
Both the parents shook their heads, and after a moment the officer left, bidding them all a good evening.
Raenne pulled out her phone, browsing youtube. The officer was right, it was easy to find the video he’d talked about. “Found it. I’ll be right back, going to watch it with the sound on,” she said, standing up and stepping out of the room.
“Well, I guess that’s that,” David said, pulling a laptop out of the backpack he’d brought to the hospital. “Want to watch a movie, kiddo? I’ve got a few saved on this thing.”
__________________________________________________
Alex was getting sleepy again by the time the movie ended. It was pretty close to hir regular bedtime and the vicodin that the nice fruit bat had given hir had kicked in perhaps an hour ago. Shi was still in a lot of pain, but at least it felt dulled and distant.
“That was good,” shi said, trying to fight back another painful yawn. It seemed like every part of hir hurt, even hir tail, but yawning and coughing hurt the most. At least talking didn’t hurt. “I really liked the cars in that. Especially Eleanor. And that quiet guy Sphinx was awesome.”
“Yeah, I like that one myself,” David said. “Want to watch something else, or are you starting to feel tired?”
“Starting to get tired,” Alex said quietly, relaxing against the pillows. She fumbled around for the control thing for a moment, trying to only move hir forearm so that hir chest wouldn’t hurt more. Once shi found it, shi pressed the button to make the bed go flat again. Having a bed that let you sit upright or lay down was neat, like a combination chair and bed.
“I’ll stay and keep an eye on hir, at least until midnight,” David said, turning and talking to his wife. “Though I should probably get at least a little bit of sleep since Terrence said he’d be having some lawyers call me tomorrow.”
Alex didn’t know what that was all about, but it sounded serious; Lawyers were serious business.
“Why don’t you tell them to talk to me instead?” the older tigress asked. “I can handle that sort of stuff, and you’ve got that software release coming up.”
“Good idea. I’ll do that. Drive safe, love. I’ll be home in a few hours,” the white tiger replied.
“Okay,” Raenne said, turning back to her daughter. “I’ll be back early in the morning to check on you and bring you a new set of clothes in case they decide to let you out tomorrow. If you wake up and your dad and I aren’t here, your phone’s right there,” she added, setting Alex’s phone on a shelf next to the bed. “If you need to use the restroom or need any help, press the red button to call a nurse.”
“Okay,” Alex said, struggling to keep hir eyes open, despite the pain shi was in. Vicodin didn’t seem to help that much with the pain, but at least it let you sleep, which was almost as good.
“Okay then. Goodnight, hun,” Raenne said, turning and giving her husband a kiss. Then she turned back around and bent over to give Alex a kiss as well. “Goodnight, love.”
“Goodnight, mom,” Alex whispered, closing hir eyes.",
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