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", "description_bbcode_parsed": "Elizabeth Stouffer goes over to visit Alexandrea Andreyev after school. ", "writing": "[color=red]WARNING[/color]: 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.\n\nRevelations by IndigoNeko\n\nChapter 7 – Broken Secrets\n\n[b]Thursday, May 28th, 2015[/b]\n\nSomewhere in a suburb on the east side of the city of Tualatin, in a cul-de-sac, on the second floor of a perfectly average house, a nine-year-old tiger cub lounged in her bed. One leg, wrapped in a cast, was propped up on one pile of pillows while she lay against another pile. The obnoxious laughter of the little red birds she was slinging across the screen of her phone was becoming annoying. She sighed and quit the game, then threw her phone down on the black comforter. There were only so many games you could play before you got sick of games altogether. She looked out the window above her bed, wishing she could go outside.\n\nHer leg still ached, even with all the pills her mom made her take. The only pills that really helped were the vicodin tablets, and those put her asleep faster than being hit upside the head with a frying pan, or that’s what her mom said anyway. It was a serious dilemma: either she could take the vicodin and not be in pain, but be sleeping, or she could take the aspirin and be in pain, but get to see Lizzy.\n\nIt didn’t hurt so much today as it had the last few days, so she’d taken the aspirin. That had turned out to be a mistake: being cooped up in her room all day was terribly boring. The reading and homework from the last three days of missed school hadn’t taken more than a few hours, and then she’d been stuck playing video games since lunch. At least Lizzy would be here in an hour or so.\n\nAs if things couldn’t get any worse, her leg started to itch. How the heck were you supposed to scratch an itch when you had a half inch of plaster wrapped around your leg? There was no way she could get her finger far enough down the cast to scratch it. Maybe she could get a pencil... nope, still too short. Coat hanger? That meant getting up and going to the closet, trying to find one. There was only one possible solution.\n\n“MOOOOM! My leg itches!”\n\nHer voice echoed through the hall, down the stairs, across the foyer and into the kitchen, past her mother, out the open window, across the cul-de-sac and down the street, where a feral cat sleeping atop a car roof perked up one ear.\n\n“Be right up, kiddo,” Raenne said as she finished putting away the dishes she’d used for fixing lunch. She padded her way up the stairs and down the hallway, peering into Alex’s room. “Could you say that again? I’m sure our neighbors ten houses down the street couldn’t quite hear you.”\n\nAlex rolled her eyes and sighed. “Could you [i]please[/i] get me something to deal with this itching? Like a coat hanger or something?”\n\n“Actually, I can. However, it won’t be a coat hanger. Tap the cast with your claws where it itches, and I’ll be right back.”\n\nAlex tried tapping on the cast as her mom went back out of the room. That helped a tiny bit, but not enough. If anything, the itch came back worse a few moments after she stopped tapping. Eventually her mom came back, this time holding an extension cord and a hair dryer. After plugging the extension cord into the wall, she sat down on Alex’s bed. “Where’s it itching, kiddo?”\n\n“Right at the base of my calf,” Alex said with a frown. “but how in the world will a hair dryer help?”\n\nRaenne fiddled with the settings, and eventually got the thing to start blowing un-heated air, then held it down at the edge of the cast behind Alex’s knee. She spoke loudly so Alex could hear over the noise. “The itching is caused by sweat building up in your fur. If we force air down in the cast, the water will evaporate, and it’ll stop itching. We can’t use hot air though, as it could burn your skin.”\n\nThat made sense. Alex lay there as her mom sat there, holding the blow dryer in position. By the time the itch had gone away, Alex’s leg was starting to get awfully cold. “Okay, it’s good now.”\n\nAlex’s mom turned off the blow dryer and smiled, then reached a hand out and tousled the fur on Alex’s head. Alex rolled her eyes at that; she kept the fur on her head short, so it wasn’t like she was having her hair messed up, but it was still slightly annoying. Then her mom got up and unplugged the cord, taking the cord and blow-dryer out of the room.\n\nMoments later, her mom returned and sat down on the bed again, reaching out and tugging Alex’s skirt back down around her knees. Skirts were far easier to deal with than pants when you had a cast, Alex had quickly discovered. As her mom sat there on her bed, Alex suddenly had the feeling that her mom wanted to talk, and probably about something [i]serious[/i]. With a capital ‘S’. Alex sighed. She hoped it wasn’t an injunction against snowboarding.\n\n“Your father said you two had a talk before you went up to Mt. Hood earlier.”\n\nYep. It was definitely [i]Serious[/i]. She was doomed. She scrunched her lips up and looked out the window, hoping mom would take the subtle hint and leave her be. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to work. Maybe puppy-dog eyes would work. Too bad she wasn’t a puppy.\n\n“I figure that since Elizabeth is coming over in a bit, I should probably finish covering what your dad didn’t. What did he tell you about sex?”\n\nAlex sighed. It was [i]awkward[/i] too. “He told me about oral sex, vaginal sex, anal sex, and mastur... umm... wait! Don’t tell me...” Alex paused, scrunching her eyes closed. Then the word came to her. “Masturbation. Oh, and about how vaginal sex can cause pregnancy, and how sex can spread disease.”\n\n“Did he tell you about how to have vaginal sex without causing pregnancy?”\n\n“He said you could put something over the penis...”\n\n“Yep. That’s a condom. Remember that; it’s important. If you want to have vaginal sex without making a baby, you need a condom. The alternative is to use medicine that prevents pregnancies, but you need to see a doctor to get that, and the medicine can’t stop diseases. Condoms can prevent you from catching some sexually transmitted diseases.”\n\n“Got it.”\n\n“The next thing you need to know is about how society deals with sex. Sex is natural, sex is necessary for life, and sex can feel really good. However, sex is not something you do in public; it’s illegal to have sex in public, like stores, restaurants, parks, or anywhere else that other people can see you.”\n\nAlex nodded. That made sense; if it felt good then other people might get jealous if they couldn’t have sex too.\n\n“Also, don’t talk about sex in public. It’s not illegal, but people think it’s very rude.”\n\nAlex wasn’t quite sure why, but accepted it. Adults were weird about some things.\n\n“Last, there’s a whole lot of laws regarding sex, depending on where you live. Most of them are to prevent people from hurting other people. For example, it’s illegal to have sex with someone who doesn’t want to have sex, or to force someone to have sex with you. That’s called rape, and it’s very, very bad. If you ever see or hear about something like that happening, tell someone in authority as soon as you can, like a teacher or policeman. If someone in authority is doing it, tell someone else in authority. Never, ever hide something like that, even if they threaten you or threaten someone else.”\n\nRaenne leaned forward over Alex, eyes narrowed. “If you ever force someone to have sex with you, I’ll beat your butt until you can’t sit for a month. Got it?”\n\nAlex’s eyes were wide at that. She nodded quickly.\n\n“It’s also illegal for an adult to have sex with a child. That’s also considered rape in most areas, even if the child isn’t forced to have sex,” the older tigres explained.\n\nAlex was silent at that. There was something about that which stuck in her mind. She pursed her lips and frowned, concentrating.\n\nRaenne stopped, realizing that Alex was concentrating, and remained silent hoping that Alex would broach the topic so that she wouldn’t have to. She’d had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach when David had told her that Lizzy and Alex had actually had sex. As far as she knew, Alex hadn’t had sex before, which meant that Lizzy had learned about it somewhere. \n\nGiven what Alex had said the two cubs had done, it was obvious to Raenne that Lizzy knew a helluva lot more than any nine-year-old should about sex. What that implied was even more serious; Lizzy had clearly been instructed by a much older child... or an adult.\n\n“What about having sex with your parents?” Alex asked.\n\nRaenne’s stomach felt like it flipped upside down. She looked down at the black bedspread. This was bad. Very bad. Her poor naive husband had been worried about Alex potentially knocking up Lizzy. That was nothing compared to what this implied. She was absolutely enraged. That anyone could take advantage of their own child, and a nine-year-old at that...\n\n“...mom? Mom!? MOM!!”\n\nRaenne came back to the present. Alex was shaking her, and she realized somewhere in the back of her mind that Alex had been calling her for several seconds now.\n\n“Lizzy has sex with her parents?” Raenne asked, still staring at the black coverlet.\n\nAlex gasped, then realized that it was the worst possible response. “Why do you ask?” she replied, trying to play it cool.\n\nRaenne looked up, staring Alex straight in the eyes. Alex drew back, leaning back into the pillow. Something about the look in her mom’s eyes sent shivers up her spine. There was nothing overt, but somehow she knew her mom was absolutely furious. Alex was suddenly terrified. Her fur stood on end and she started shaking. Her mom’s next words didn’t help.\n\n“Don’t play coy with me. Answer the question,” the older tigress said in a monotone voice.\n\n“I- I can’t... I promised....”, the tiger cub stammered. Tears began to well up in Alex’s eyes as she sat there shaking. It didn’t matter that she hadn’t said it; her mother knew, and that meant she’d broken her promise. If rape was as bad as her mother made it sound, then Lizzy’s parents would go to jail for it. They didn’t deserve to go to jail; Mr. and Mrs. Stouffer loved Lizzy as much as David and Raenne loved Alex. She grabbed her mom’s arm.\n\n“Mommy,” she tried to choke out as she started sobbing, “Please... please... L-Lizzy’s parents love her. She loves them too; more than anything else i-in the whole world. They would never do anything to hurt her. Please don’t tell anyone else. Please!” Alex broke down, bawling incoherently, knowing that if her mom told anyone, Lizzy’s life would be ruined, and it was all her fault.\n\nRaenne was silent. Alex had wrapped herself around her arm and was making a damp spot on her shoulder. It wasn’t possible to love a child [i]and[/i] sexually abuse them. Now she had to weigh the consequences of sound and silence.\n\nIf she didn’t bring this to the police, Elizabeth would continue to be abused, probably crying herself to sleep every night. There was no way an adult could have sex with a child and not have it hurt. She knew that from experience. Eventually Elizabeth would realize there was an alternative and somehow get out of the situation just as she did, growing up to be just as angry and resentful. Even now it was probably already too late. The poor girl would probably have psychological issues that would last for the rest of her life.\n\nIf she did bring it to the police, Elizabeth would be placed in the hands of Child Protective Services while the allegations were investigated. She was sure the Stouffers had some amazing lawyers at their beck and call though, and it was possible they’d get out of the charges. If that happened, CPS would watch them for a little bit, but eventually the family would move elsewhere and go back to abusing Elizabeth again. If the Stouffers were incarcerated, Elizabeth would be placed in the foster system. \n\nRaenne knew how bad the foster system could be. Many foster parents used it as an income source, simply clothing and feeding the children and ignoring them while collecting the child welfare checks. Others were child predators, skilled enough to fake a happy, healthy household while they used it to get their hands on damaged children who wouldn’t bring it to the attention of the authorities. That would be even worse for Elizabeth. Maybe she could get Elizabeth out of the foster system somehow and adopt the little girl. That would be the best possible solution. \n\nThe problem was that no matter what happened, Elizabeth might blame Alex for it, and possibly try to get revenge. She sighed. Unlike a child’s fairy tale, this had no happy ending. Still, before she took the next step, she had to get verification. The easiest way would be to get it out of Elizabeth; interrogating a child was trivial even without threats or coercion, but you had to worry more about long-term consequences. The father would be the hardest; professional businessmen were skilled at shading the truth and manipulating people, and if she got physical with him he’d press charges immediately, so that wasn’t an option.\n\nShe’d have to confront Julia. The woman was a fashion designer who worked out of her home, and probably didn’t have to deal with shady politics and watching her tongue on a day-to-day basis; it would probably be pretty easy to trip her up simply by implying that she knew what was going on. Threats would work too, as she knew Julia was afraid of her. She could see it in Julia’s eyes and the way the woman tried to keep some distance between them.\n\nAt first Raenne had wondered if it was because of her size; siberian tigers were one of the larger species, and she was well over a foot taller than the stoat. But she’d seen Julia completely at ease talking with a thoroughbred horse, so she’d thought that maybe the stoat had some latent predator-prey issues as well. It had taken a while before the tigress realized that the fear hadn’t manifested until several months after they’d met... when Julia had learned that Raenne was a killer.\n\nShe’d mentioned to Julia that she was in the army when they’d first met. A few months later, Julia had asked her what being in the army was like over tea, so she’d described what they’d done in Operation Rhino. It had been light combat and was one of the few things she’d done that wasn’t secret squirrel after she’d become a meat eater*. \n\n*: Secret squirrel refers to anything top secret, confidential, or relating to intelligence operations. Meat eater refers to any member of the U.S. Special Forces, due to the Aspin rules of ‘94 that forbid prey species from being assigned to any first-on-ground combat units below the brigade level.\n\nFor years the tigress thought that she’d made a mistake in telling the woman about some of her military experience. Julia had always been slightly afraid of her since then and it had made their relationship more than a little awkward, given that their children were best friends. Now it might be in her favor if she had to intimidate the woman.\n\nConveniently, Julia and Elizabeth would be coming over in a bit. Using her phone to record a conversation would be easy. The problem would be dealing with the aftermath. Julia could simply take Elizabeth and leave; since the child abuse hadn’t actually been committed in her presence, she wasn’t justified in making an arrest according to ORS §133.225. Still, she doubted that the Stouffers could leave the state before she filed the police report, and the police could issue an Amber Alert if they tried to run. The Stouffers leaving the country was even less likely; they’d need passports, and those took time. She doubted Elizabeth had ever left Oregon, much less the U.S., and probably didn’t have a passport.\n\nNow she just had to plan for any contingencies, such as Julia being armed. Men were more prone to committing murder-suicides when their lives were in the shitter, but it was still a possibility for women too. The woman who’d driven her van into the sea with her two kids had proven that. If only there were a way to do this without Alex taking the blame. The poor kid wasn’t in any way to blame for spilling the Stouffer’s dirty little secret.\n\n“Shhhh, don’t cry, kiddo,” she crooned, reaching over with her right arm to pat Alex’s head, seeing as Alex had a death grip on her left, which had become soggy with Alex’s tears. “Don’t cry. It’s not your fault. I’ll make sure they both know that I figured it out on my own. I guessed it on Saturday, after you’d told your dad what you and Lizzy had done. You’re not the only smart one around here, you know.”\n\n“B-But-but... they’ll go to [i]jail[/i], an-and Elizabeth won’t have any p-parents, and-”\n\n“Listen, Alex. An adult should [i]never[/i] have sex with a child. It will hurt the child and it can injure them badly enough that they can die from it.”\n\nAlex was quiet. At least her sobbing had stopped.\n\n“Alex, when Elizabeth comes over today, I need you to ask her if it ever hurts when her parents have sex with her. If they’re hurting her, we need to do something to stop it. Parents who really, truly love their children don’t ever, ever hurt their children if they can avoid it.”\n\n“...o-kay...”, Alex replied in a very quiet voice.\n\n“I’m going to have a talk with Julia when she comes over. Don’t tell Elizabeth what I know until I’m done talking to Julia, okay? If it turns out that they’re hurting her, I promise you that she can come live with us instead.”\n\n“...o-kay...”, she said again, practically in exactly the same tone and volume.\n\n“Don’t worry, kiddo. I’m sure it’ll be alright in the end, okay?”\n\n“...o-kay...”\n\nRaenne sighed; the next hour was going to be a very long one. She had to call David and let him know what she’d learned too.\n\n[center]__________________________________________________[/center]\n\nRaenne tried to calm the twitching in her tail as she saw the burgundy Lexus pull into the cul-de-sac through the kitchen window. She pulled the glock out from her waistband and chambered a round, then put it back. Hopefully she wouldn’t need it.\n\nShe watched as Julia stepped out of the car, moving fluidly and gracefully even without meaning too. The unconscious sign of years of ballet lessons and gymnastics. Raenne had a similar fluid grace, but one that was born of years of martial arts and covert ops training. Julia moved around the car and helped Elizabeth out of it as Raenne finished setting up the audio recording app on her phone. The phone went into her pocket as she went over to the door and opened it.\n\nElizabeth walked up the driveway, smiling, with Julia following close behind carrying the girl’s backpack.\n\n“Hello, Mrs. Andreyev!”\n\n“Hi, Lizzy. Alex is up in her room right now. She was terribly bored today.” Raenne stepped aside, letting the tiny stoat in.\n\n“Thanks, Mrs. Andreyev!”\n\nThe little girl ran up the stairs, leaving both women at the doorway. Julia handed Raenne the backpack, then stepped back as Raenne set it down in the foyer. “Thanks for letting Elizabeth come over. She’s been moping all week without her best friend.”\n\n“It’s no problem. However, I do want to talk to you for a moment. Do you have a minute or two?”\n\nA flicker of curiosity ran across Julia’s face, but she nodded. “Sure.”\n\n“Good. Come on in, we can talk in the kitchen. I just finished some cookies, and they smell wonderful,” Raenne said, stepping inside again. She stood next to the wall, trying to make herself as non-threatening as possible.\n\nJulia stepped inside, nose twitching. “Oh my, it does smell good. Chocolate chip and... hazelnut?”\n\nRaenne smiled, thankful that she’d used nut oil instead of gun oil to clean the glock. The smell of gun oil was a bit too distinctive; having to clean the gun a bit more often was a sacrifice that Julia had just proven worthwhile. “Just chocolate chip,” she said as she closed the door behind them.\n\n“Oh. It still smells wonderful. Did you make the batter yourself?”\n\n“Yep. Usually I use a mix, but I found a good recipe on the Food Network site that I wanted to try. Feel free to have as many as you like. Just save a few for the girls.”\n\nJulia held a paw out over the cooling rack after walking into the kitchen. After testing one to make sure it was cool enough, she set her bag on the counter, grabbed a cookie and nibbled the edge.\n\n“My, these are delicious. They’re even better than Charlotte’s. Can you share the recipe?”\n\n“Sure,” she said, watching as the ermine stoat held the cookie with one paw, cupping the other underneath to catch any crumbs. “First though, I thought I should let you know... Alex told us that she and Lizzy had sex.”\n\nJulia stopped chewing, the cookie in her mouth completely forgotten. This was... unexpected. She swallowed, and almost choked on the bits of cookie that she’d totally forgotten about.\n\nRaenne continued, operating on the principle that it was better to strike while your opponent was off-balance. “It was kind of shocking to hear just how much they did together. Alex certainly learned quite a few things from her.”\n\nJulia was completely silent, eyes going wide as Raenne continued, “Elizabeth’s a very knowledgeable instructor when it comes to sex. It made me rather curious where she’d learned so much...”\n\nRaenne stopped as Julia slowly fell to her knees on the floor of the kitchen, the tigress moving one hand towards her back waistband. She realized after a moment that it wasn’t necessary. Julia was gasping in rapid shallow breaths, and given her glazed eyes and the way she was holding her chest, the stoat might be having chest pains too. She hadn’t expected to drive the woman into shock. Julia was clearly a bit more frail than she’d expected. [i]Shit[/i].\n\nJulia’s handbag was on the counter, so that wasn’t a threat, and it would have been impossible to hide a gun in pants as tight as she was wearing. Then Julia fell to one side, lying on the floor and Raenne swore. She’d driven the women into a heart attack. She ran across the hallway to the bathroom under the stairs and grabbed a bottle of aspirin, popped the lid off and poured out two, then returned to the kitchen, grabbed a glass, and splashed some tap water in it. She knelt in front of the stoat, who was now curled up in the fetal position on the floor. She set the glass down and grabbed the front of the woman’s blouse, yanking her upright and pulling on her jaw so that she was focusing on Raenne’s face.\n\n“Julia, you’re going into shock, possibly having a heart attack. This is aspirin. Chew and swallow it.”\n\nShe put her fingers against the sides of the stoat’s jaw and pressed, forcing her mouth open, then deposited the tablets. “Go on, chew them.” After a moment the stoat’s jaw moved, and she held the glass of water up to Julia’s muzzle. “Here, this is water. Swallow it. Swallow it!”\n\nWater dripped down the sides of Julia’s mouth, but she swallowed, throat muscles contracting several times. After setting the water back on the counter, she took Julia’s shoulders and rolled the woman onto her back. If Julia didn’t come out of it soon, she’d have to call 911. The tigress swore again, then leaned over the woman was a snarl.\n\n“Okay, Julia. [i]Spill it[/i]. Are you and Terrence sexually abusing Lizzy?”\n\n“No! it... not... it’s not... abuse.”\n\nSurprisingly, Julia didn’t deny the sex part. Only the abuse, which was absurd. “An adult having sex with a child is sexual abuse. It’s [i]rape[/i],” the tigress growled.\n\n“She has... has to... have sex... or she... she... she’ll die,” Julia said, forcing the words out between her shallow breaths.\n\n[i]What the fuck?[/i] That was literally the last thing she could have imagined. Raenne was silent for a moment. She needed to know more, but for now she felt Julia had earned a reprieve.\n\n“Okay, I won’t tell anyone, but you’re going to have to explain. Hold on, I need to call for an ambulance.” Raenne pulled the phone out of her pocket, stopping the recording app and calling the emergency number. She waited a moment, then pressed the button for fire and ambulance. A moment later, a voice came on.\n\n“911 emergency-” Raenne cut the man off abruptly. She didn’t have time to deal with chit-chat.\n\n“[i]Stop talking[/i]. I have a woman going into shock and myocardial infarction at 872 southwest 71st avenue, just off of Sagert Street. I’ve given her a dose of aspirin and some water. I need an ambulance here as soon as possible. I say again, 8-7-2 southwest 71st avenue. My name is Raenne Andreyev. A-N-D-R-E-Y-E-V. Her name is Julia Stouffer. S-T-O-U-F-F-E-R. The cause appears to be due to extreme anxiety. Do you have all that?”\n\n“Ummm...”, Raenne could hear rapid typing in the background. At least this guy was on the ball tonight. “Yes, ma’am. We’ll have one there-”\n\n“Good.” Raenne hung the phone up. She hated wasting time on the phone. She yelled up the stairs.\n\n“Lizzy, get down here [i]now![/i] Your mom needs help!”\n\nShe could hear the little girl dart down the stairs. At least she wasn’t as loud as Alex... she probably weighed half what Alex did. The tigress turned to focus on Julia again. Julia was saying something between gasping breaths, probably trying to explain. \n\n“Relax, Julia. I said I won’t tell anyone. It’s okay. You don’t need to worry about it right now. Just relax.”\n\n“[i]Mother?[/i] What’s wrong?”\n\nRaenne shook her head. Lizzy’s voice could be just as loud and penetrating as Alex’s, especially when it was right next to her ear. She put her paw on one of Lizzy’s shoulders to get her attention, while her mom was babbling between breaths.\n\n“Your mom just went into shock. I’ve called for an ambulance. You need to get a blanket for her. They’re in the closet at the top of the stairs, right next to my bedroom door.”\n\n“But- what’s wrong with mother?”\n\n“[i]Quiet[/i]. Upstairs. Hallway closet. Blanket. Go get it.” Raenne was good at delivering simple orders. God knows, she had to do it often enough in the military.\n\nShe sighed as Elizabeth took off towards the stairs again and went back to trying to calm Julia down. “Relax, shh, relax, I won’t tell anyone. You don’t need to worry. Your secret is safe for now. You can explain to me all the details later. Try to relax, take deep breaths.”\n\n“...but she... hormones... anemia...” Julia was still trying to gasp out, still shaking and clearly frightened.\n\n“She has a hormone problem. Got it. I’ve already said, I won’t tell anyone else. Your secret is safe. I’ll call Terrence and have him pick Lizzy up.” That seemed to relax Julia.\n\n“Here!”\n\n“Thank you, Lizzy.”\n\nShe took the blanket and spread it over Julia, tucking it around her. Julia was shaking, but seemed to be relaxing. “Relax, Julia. Everything will be fine. I promise nothing will happen to Elizabeth. I won’t tell anyone.”\n\n[center]__________________________________________________[/center]\n\nRaenne held the sobbing little girl against her chest, standing in the doorway as the ambulance pulled away. After a few moments, she turned around and closed the door.\n\n“What happened?” Alex asked from the top of the stairs, sounding really worried.\n\n“I asked Julia about what we talked about, and Julia went into shock. Then she started showing signs of having a heart attack so I called an ambulance for her. Don’t worry, she’ll be fine,” she said as she climbed to the top of the stairs, still carrying Elizabeth in her arms. “Go back to your room. We all need to talk.”\n\nAlex made her way back into the room, then sat on her bed, carefully pulling her broken leg up again. Raenne waited as Alex lay back against her pile of pillows and then leaned over and lay the little stoat on the far side. She’d been right; the girl couldn’t weigh more than forty pounds soaking wet. Alex put her arm awkwardly around Lizzy and pulled her close, trying to comfort the other girl’s tears as Raenne sat at the foot of the bed and waited. Lizzy rolled over, curling up tight against Alex’s side, who gently ran her arm down Lizzy’s side, petting her to calm her down.\n\nEventually the sobs quieted as Lizzy managed to pull herself together. Raenne hated to do this, since it was one thing on top of another, but she had to make sure that what Julia had implied was true. That meant asking someone about all the details, and Lizzy would be the best one to talk to. Out of the mouths of babes and all that. She pulled out her phone and started up another recording just to be on the safe side.\n\n“Lizzy, the reason your mom went into shock is because I asked her something very important. It scared her really badly, and she went into shock. That’s what you saw. She should be fine, and in a few hours she should be back from the hospital. Okay, Lizzy?”\n\n“...o-kay...”\n\nAt least now she knew where Alex had picked up that annoyingly cute [i]o-kay[/i] from. She sighed, and continued. “When Alex was riding up to Mt. Hood after she spent the night at your place, she mentioned that you all had done something. Sex.”\n\nThat made the little stoat actually look up at her. At least she knew she had the girl’s attention, and continued. “I guessed that you must have learned about sex from someone else... your parents.”\n\nElizabeth’s lower lip started trembling, and Raenne pushed on, hoping to avert the end of the world. “It’s okay. I’m not telling anyone else. But your mom said that you had a medical problem. Something about hormones and anemia. Do you know what she was talking about?”\n\nThe girl nodded.\n\n“Can you explain what it is to me and Alex here?”\n\n“It’s...well...” the girl took a deep breath. “I’m half ferret and half stoat. My stoat heritage makes it so that I go into heat every summer, ever since I was born. My ferret heritage makes it so that I need to have sex when I’m in heat or my body stops making blood. The doctor calls it aplastic anemia. I nearly died from it when I was a baby.”\n\nWell, that definitely explained the inexplicable. It also explained why she was such a delicate little thing. Good god, what a terrible thing to happen to a child. Raenne ran her hand through her head-fur.\n\n“So... you have to have sex or you die?” Alex asked.\n\nElizabeth nodded.\n\n“You have sex with your dad?” Raenne asked.\n\nElizabeth started to tremble again, and once again Raenne had to step in to stop the sky from falling. Alex beat her to it though.\n\n“Shh, it’s okay. Mom won’t tell anyone else. I promise.”\n\nRaenne slowly nodded. She wasn’t sure she’d make that promise herself yet, but she was getting there. The girl eventually nodded an affirmative, though her lip was still trembling.\n\n“One last question. Does it hurt when you have sex with your dad?”\n\nShe shook her head. “Uh-uh. It feels really, really, really good. It’s the best thing ever, better than milk and cookies, or pizza, or kissing, or birthday presents, or-”\n\nRaenne smiled, finally at ease. It looked like that had snapped the stoat out of her depression too. “Okay. I get it. You like it. Just don’t do it with Alex here, or you might get pregnant.”\n\n“Yep! That’s why I can only have sex with father. He had a vasectomy so that he could save my life.”\n\nRaenne blinked. [i]Wow[/i]. She’d wondered exactly how they’d managed to avoid the inevitable complications resulting from having sex during heat. “Huh. That was... noble of him.”\n\n“Would it be okay if I did sexy stuff with Alex to make her feel better? I know we can’t have sex, but...”\n\nRaenne practically choked hearing the adorable little stoat ask that out of the blue. “You already did that ‘sexy stuff’ over the weekend. Without asking for permission,” Raenne added, pointing a finger at her.\n\n“...well, umm... sorry. I should have asked first, I guess.”\n\n“Yes, you should have. Personally, I don’t mind, and it looks like Alex definitely enjoyed it, judging by what’s growing under that skirt.” Alex’s ears went forward, blushing. An erection was starting to grow under the pleated skirt she was wearing. “However, you need to ask your parents’ permission first, and I need to call your father to let him know what happened to Julia. Do you know his work number?” she asked as she saved the audio recording on her phone and opened up the number pad.\n\n“Yep! It’s 503-”\n\nRaenne started dialing. At least now that she knew what she was getting into, she’d be able to deal with Terrence Stouffer. Hopefully without making the poor man go into shock as well. If anything happened to him, that would leave Elizabeth with a serious problem, and she didn’t want that.\n", "writing_bbcode_parsed": "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 7 – Broken Secrets

Thursday, May 28th, 2015

Somewhere in a suburb on the east side of the city of Tualatin, in a cul-de-sac, on the second floor of a perfectly average house, a nine-year-old tiger cub lounged in her bed. One leg, wrapped in a cast, was propped up on one pile of pillows while she lay against another pile. The obnoxious laughter of the little red birds she was slinging across the screen of her phone was becoming annoying. She sighed and quit the game, then threw her phone down on the black comforter. There were only so many games you could play before you got sick of games altogether. She looked out the window above her bed, wishing she could go outside.

Her leg still ached, even with all the pills her mom made her take. The only pills that really helped were the vicodin tablets, and those put her asleep faster than being hit upside the head with a frying pan, or that’s what her mom said anyway. It was a serious dilemma: either she could take the vicodin and not be in pain, but be sleeping, or she could take the aspirin and be in pain, but get to see Lizzy.

It didn’t hurt so much today as it had the last few days, so she’d taken the aspirin. That had turned out to be a mistake: being cooped up in her room all day was terribly boring. The reading and homework from the last three days of missed school hadn’t taken more than a few hours, and then she’d been stuck playing video games since lunch. At least Lizzy would be here in an hour or so.

As if things couldn’t get any worse, her leg started to itch. How the heck were you supposed to scratch an itch when you had a half inch of plaster wrapped around your leg? There was no way she could get her finger far enough down the cast to scratch it. Maybe she could get a pencil... nope, still too short. Coat hanger? That meant getting up and going to the closet, trying to find one. There was only one possible solution.

“MOOOOM! My leg itches!”

Her voice echoed through the hall, down the stairs, across the foyer and into the kitchen, past her mother, out the open window, across the cul-de-sac and down the street, where a feral cat sleeping atop a car roof perked up one ear.

“Be right up, kiddo,” Raenne said as she finished putting away the dishes she’d used for fixing lunch. She padded her way up the stairs and down the hallway, peering into Alex’s room. “Could you say that again? I’m sure our neighbors ten houses down the street couldn’t quite hear you.”

Alex rolled her eyes and sighed. “Could you please get me something to deal with this itching? Like a coat hanger or something?”

“Actually, I can. However, it won’t be a coat hanger. Tap the cast with your claws where it itches, and I’ll be right back.”

Alex tried tapping on the cast as her mom went back out of the room. That helped a tiny bit, but not enough. If anything, the itch came back worse a few moments after she stopped tapping. Eventually her mom came back, this time holding an extension cord and a hair dryer. After plugging the extension cord into the wall, she sat down on Alex’s bed. “Where’s it itching, kiddo?”

“Right at the base of my calf,” Alex said with a frown. “but how in the world will a hair dryer help?”

Raenne fiddled with the settings, and eventually got the thing to start blowing un-heated air, then held it down at the edge of the cast behind Alex’s knee. She spoke loudly so Alex could hear over the noise. “The itching is caused by sweat building up in your fur. If we force air down in the cast, the water will evaporate, and it’ll stop itching. We can’t use hot air though, as it could burn your skin.”

That made sense. Alex lay there as her mom sat there, holding the blow dryer in position. By the time the itch had gone away, Alex’s leg was starting to get awfully cold. “Okay, it’s good now.”

Alex’s mom turned off the blow dryer and smiled, then reached a hand out and tousled the fur on Alex’s head. Alex rolled her eyes at that; she kept the fur on her head short, so it wasn’t like she was having her hair messed up, but it was still slightly annoying. Then her mom got up and unplugged the cord, taking the cord and blow-dryer out of the room.

Moments later, her mom returned and sat down on the bed again, reaching out and tugging Alex’s skirt back down around her knees. Skirts were far easier to deal with than pants when you had a cast, Alex had quickly discovered. As her mom sat there on her bed, Alex suddenly had the feeling that her mom wanted to talk, and probably about something serious. With a capital ‘S’. Alex sighed. She hoped it wasn’t an injunction against snowboarding.

“Your father said you two had a talk before you went up to Mt. Hood earlier.”

Yep. It was definitely Serious. She was doomed. She scrunched her lips up and looked out the window, hoping mom would take the subtle hint and leave her be. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to work. Maybe puppy-dog eyes would work. Too bad she wasn’t a puppy.

“I figure that since Elizabeth is coming over in a bit, I should probably finish covering what your dad didn’t. What did he tell you about sex?”

Alex sighed. It was awkward too. “He told me about oral sex, vaginal sex, anal sex, and mastur... umm... wait! Don’t tell me...” Alex paused, scrunching her eyes closed. Then the word came to her. “Masturbation. Oh, and about how vaginal sex can cause pregnancy, and how sex can spread disease.”

“Did he tell you about how to have vaginal sex without causing pregnancy?”

“He said you could put something over the penis...”

“Yep. That’s a condom. Remember that; it’s important. If you want to have vaginal sex without making a baby, you need a condom. The alternative is to use medicine that prevents pregnancies, but you need to see a doctor to get that, and the medicine can’t stop diseases. Condoms can prevent you from catching some sexually transmitted diseases.”

“Got it.”

“The next thing you need to know is about how society deals with sex. Sex is natural, sex is necessary for life, and sex can feel really good. However, sex is not something you do in public; it’s illegal to have sex in public, like stores, restaurants, parks, or anywhere else that other people can see you.”

Alex nodded. That made sense; if it felt good then other people might get jealous if they couldn’t have sex too.

“Also, don’t talk about sex in public. It’s not illegal, but people think it’s very rude.”

Alex wasn’t quite sure why, but accepted it. Adults were weird about some things.

“Last, there’s a whole lot of laws regarding sex, depending on where you live. Most of them are to prevent people from hurting other people. For example, it’s illegal to have sex with someone who doesn’t want to have sex, or to force someone to have sex with you. That’s called rape, and it’s very, very bad. If you ever see or hear about something like that happening, tell someone in authority as soon as you can, like a teacher or policeman. If someone in authority is doing it, tell someone else in authority. Never, ever hide something like that, even if they threaten you or threaten someone else.”

Raenne leaned forward over Alex, eyes narrowed. “If you ever force someone to have sex with you, I’ll beat your butt until you can’t sit for a month. Got it?”

Alex’s eyes were wide at that. She nodded quickly.

“It’s also illegal for an adult to have sex with a child. That’s also considered rape in most areas, even if the child isn’t forced to have sex,” the older tigres explained.

Alex was silent at that. There was something about that which stuck in her mind. She pursed her lips and frowned, concentrating.

Raenne stopped, realizing that Alex was concentrating, and remained silent hoping that Alex would broach the topic so that she wouldn’t have to. She’d had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach when David had told her that Lizzy and Alex had actually had sex. As far as she knew, Alex hadn’t had sex before, which meant that Lizzy had learned about it somewhere.

Given what Alex had said the two cubs had done, it was obvious to Raenne that Lizzy knew a helluva lot more than any nine-year-old should about sex. What that implied was even more serious; Lizzy had clearly been instructed by a much older child... or an adult.

“What about having sex with your parents?” Alex asked.

Raenne’s stomach felt like it flipped upside down. She looked down at the black bedspread. This was bad. Very bad. Her poor naive husband had been worried about Alex potentially knocking up Lizzy. That was nothing compared to what this implied. She was absolutely enraged. That anyone could take advantage of their own child, and a nine-year-old at that...

“...mom? Mom!? MOM!!”

Raenne came back to the present. Alex was shaking her, and she realized somewhere in the back of her mind that Alex had been calling her for several seconds now.

“Lizzy has sex with her parents?” Raenne asked, still staring at the black coverlet.

Alex gasped, then realized that it was the worst possible response. “Why do you ask?” she replied, trying to play it cool.

Raenne looked up, staring Alex straight in the eyes. Alex drew back, leaning back into the pillow. Something about the look in her mom’s eyes sent shivers up her spine. There was nothing overt, but somehow she knew her mom was absolutely furious. Alex was suddenly terrified. Her fur stood on end and she started shaking. Her mom’s next words didn’t help.

“Don’t play coy with me. Answer the question,” the older tigress said in a monotone voice.

“I- I can’t... I promised....”, the tiger cub stammered. Tears began to well up in Alex’s eyes as she sat there shaking. It didn’t matter that she hadn’t said it; her mother knew, and that meant she’d broken her promise. If rape was as bad as her mother made it sound, then Lizzy’s parents would go to jail for it. They didn’t deserve to go to jail; Mr. and Mrs. Stouffer loved Lizzy as much as David and Raenne loved Alex. She grabbed her mom’s arm.

“Mommy,” she tried to choke out as she started sobbing, “Please... please... L-Lizzy’s parents love her. She loves them too; more than anything else i-in the whole world. They would never do anything to hurt her. Please don’t tell anyone else. Please!” Alex broke down, bawling incoherently, knowing that if her mom told anyone, Lizzy’s life would be ruined, and it was all her fault.

Raenne was silent. Alex had wrapped herself around her arm and was making a damp spot on her shoulder. It wasn’t possible to love a child and sexually abuse them. Now she had to weigh the consequences of sound and silence.

If she didn’t bring this to the police, Elizabeth would continue to be abused, probably crying herself to sleep every night. There was no way an adult could have sex with a child and not have it hurt. She knew that from experience. Eventually Elizabeth would realize there was an alternative and somehow get out of the situation just as she did, growing up to be just as angry and resentful. Even now it was probably already too late. The poor girl would probably have psychological issues that would last for the rest of her life.

If she did bring it to the police, Elizabeth would be placed in the hands of Child Protective Services while the allegations were investigated. She was sure the Stouffers had some amazing lawyers at their beck and call though, and it was possible they’d get out of the charges. If that happened, CPS would watch them for a little bit, but eventually the family would move elsewhere and go back to abusing Elizabeth again. If the Stouffers were incarcerated, Elizabeth would be placed in the foster system.

Raenne knew how bad the foster system could be. Many foster parents used it as an income source, simply clothing and feeding the children and ignoring them while collecting the child welfare checks. Others were child predators, skilled enough to fake a happy, healthy household while they used it to get their hands on damaged children who wouldn’t bring it to the attention of the authorities. That would be even worse for Elizabeth. Maybe she could get Elizabeth out of the foster system somehow and adopt the little girl. That would be the best possible solution.

The problem was that no matter what happened, Elizabeth might blame Alex for it, and possibly try to get revenge. She sighed. Unlike a child’s fairy tale, this had no happy ending. Still, before she took the next step, she had to get verification. The easiest way would be to get it out of Elizabeth; interrogating a child was trivial even without threats or coercion, but you had to worry more about long-term consequences. The father would be the hardest; professional businessmen were skilled at shading the truth and manipulating people, and if she got physical with him he’d press charges immediately, so that wasn’t an option.

She’d have to confront Julia. The woman was a fashion designer who worked out of her home, and probably didn’t have to deal with shady politics and watching her tongue on a day-to-day basis; it would probably be pretty easy to trip her up simply by implying that she knew what was going on. Threats would work too, as she knew Julia was afraid of her. She could see it in Julia’s eyes and the way the woman tried to keep some distance between them.

At first Raenne had wondered if it was because of her size; siberian tigers were one of the larger species, and she was well over a foot taller than the stoat. But she’d seen Julia completely at ease talking with a thoroughbred horse, so she’d thought that maybe the stoat had some latent predator-prey issues as well. It had taken a while before the tigress realized that the fear hadn’t manifested until several months after they’d met... when Julia had learned that Raenne was a killer.

She’d mentioned to Julia that she was in the army when they’d first met. A few months later, Julia had asked her what being in the army was like over tea, so she’d described what they’d done in Operation Rhino. It had been light combat and was one of the few things she’d done that wasn’t secret squirrel after she’d become a meat eater*.

*: Secret squirrel refers to anything top secret, confidential, or relating to intelligence operations. Meat eater refers to any member of the U.S. Special Forces, due to the Aspin rules of ‘94 that forbid prey species from being assigned to any first-on-ground combat units below the brigade level.

For years the tigress thought that she’d made a mistake in telling the woman about some of her military experience. Julia had always been slightly afraid of her since then and it had made their relationship more than a little awkward, given that their children were best friends. Now it might be in her favor if she had to intimidate the woman.

Conveniently, Julia and Elizabeth would be coming over in a bit. Using her phone to record a conversation would be easy. The problem would be dealing with the aftermath. Julia could simply take Elizabeth and leave; since the child abuse hadn’t actually been committed in her presence, she wasn’t justified in making an arrest according to ORS §133.225. Still, she doubted that the Stouffers could leave the state before she filed the police report, and the police could issue an Amber Alert if they tried to run. The Stouffers leaving the country was even less likely; they’d need passports, and those took time. She doubted Elizabeth had ever left Oregon, much less the U.S., and probably didn’t have a passport.

Now she just had to plan for any contingencies, such as Julia being armed. Men were more prone to committing murder-suicides when their lives were in the shitter, but it was still a possibility for women too. The woman who’d driven her van into the sea with her two kids had proven that. If only there were a way to do this without Alex taking the blame. The poor kid wasn’t in any way to blame for spilling the Stouffer’s dirty little secret.

“Shhhh, don’t cry, kiddo,” she crooned, reaching over with her right arm to pat Alex’s head, seeing as Alex had a death grip on her left, which had become soggy with Alex’s tears. “Don’t cry. It’s not your fault. I’ll make sure they both know that I figured it out on my own. I guessed it on Saturday, after you’d told your dad what you and Lizzy had done. You’re not the only smart one around here, you know.”

“B-But-but... they’ll go to jail, an-and Elizabeth won’t have any p-parents, and-”

“Listen, Alex. An adult should never have sex with a child. It will hurt the child and it can injure them badly enough that they can die from it.”

Alex was quiet. At least her sobbing had stopped.

“Alex, when Elizabeth comes over today, I need you to ask her if it ever hurts when her parents have sex with her. If they’re hurting her, we need to do something to stop it. Parents who really, truly love their children don’t ever, ever hurt their children if they can avoid it.”

“...o-kay...”, Alex replied in a very quiet voice.

“I’m going to have a talk with Julia when she comes over. Don’t tell Elizabeth what I know until I’m done talking to Julia, okay? If it turns out that they’re hurting her, I promise you that she can come live with us instead.”

“...o-kay...”, she said again, practically in exactly the same tone and volume.

“Don’t worry, kiddo. I’m sure it’ll be alright in the end, okay?”

“...o-kay...”

Raenne sighed; the next hour was going to be a very long one. She had to call David and let him know what she’d learned too.

__________________________________________________


Raenne tried to calm the twitching in her tail as she saw the burgundy Lexus pull into the cul-de-sac through the kitchen window. She pulled the glock out from her waistband and chambered a round, then put it back. Hopefully she wouldn’t need it.

She watched as Julia stepped out of the car, moving fluidly and gracefully even without meaning too. The unconscious sign of years of ballet lessons and gymnastics. Raenne had a similar fluid grace, but one that was born of years of martial arts and covert ops training. Julia moved around the car and helped Elizabeth out of it as Raenne finished setting up the audio recording app on her phone. The phone went into her pocket as she went over to the door and opened it.

Elizabeth walked up the driveway, smiling, with Julia following close behind carrying the girl’s backpack.

“Hello, Mrs. Andreyev!”

“Hi, Lizzy. Alex is up in her room right now. She was terribly bored today.” Raenne stepped aside, letting the tiny stoat in.

“Thanks, Mrs. Andreyev!”

The little girl ran up the stairs, leaving both women at the doorway. Julia handed Raenne the backpack, then stepped back as Raenne set it down in the foyer. “Thanks for letting Elizabeth come over. She’s been moping all week without her best friend.”

“It’s no problem. However, I do want to talk to you for a moment. Do you have a minute or two?”

A flicker of curiosity ran across Julia’s face, but she nodded. “Sure.”

“Good. Come on in, we can talk in the kitchen. I just finished some cookies, and they smell wonderful,” Raenne said, stepping inside again. She stood next to the wall, trying to make herself as non-threatening as possible.

Julia stepped inside, nose twitching. “Oh my, it does smell good. Chocolate chip and... hazelnut?”

Raenne smiled, thankful that she’d used nut oil instead of gun oil to clean the glock. The smell of gun oil was a bit too distinctive; having to clean the gun a bit more often was a sacrifice that Julia had just proven worthwhile. “Just chocolate chip,” she said as she closed the door behind them.

“Oh. It still smells wonderful. Did you make the batter yourself?”

“Yep. Usually I use a mix, but I found a good recipe on the Food Network site that I wanted to try. Feel free to have as many as you like. Just save a few for the girls.”

Julia held a paw out over the cooling rack after walking into the kitchen. After testing one to make sure it was cool enough, she set her bag on the counter, grabbed a cookie and nibbled the edge.

“My, these are delicious. They’re even better than Charlotte’s. Can you share the recipe?”

“Sure,” she said, watching as the ermine stoat held the cookie with one paw, cupping the other underneath to catch any crumbs. “First though, I thought I should let you know... Alex told us that she and Lizzy had sex.”

Julia stopped chewing, the cookie in her mouth completely forgotten. This was... unexpected. She swallowed, and almost choked on the bits of cookie that she’d totally forgotten about.

Raenne continued, operating on the principle that it was better to strike while your opponent was off-balance. “It was kind of shocking to hear just how much they did together. Alex certainly learned quite a few things from her.”

Julia was completely silent, eyes going wide as Raenne continued, “Elizabeth’s a very knowledgeable instructor when it comes to sex. It made me rather curious where she’d learned so much...”

Raenne stopped as Julia slowly fell to her knees on the floor of the kitchen, the tigress moving one hand towards her back waistband. She realized after a moment that it wasn’t necessary. Julia was gasping in rapid shallow breaths, and given her glazed eyes and the way she was holding her chest, the stoat might be having chest pains too. She hadn’t expected to drive the woman into shock. Julia was clearly a bit more frail than she’d expected. Shit.

Julia’s handbag was on the counter, so that wasn’t a threat, and it would have been impossible to hide a gun in pants as tight as she was wearing. Then Julia fell to one side, lying on the floor and Raenne swore. She’d driven the women into a heart attack. She ran across the hallway to the bathroom under the stairs and grabbed a bottle of aspirin, popped the lid off and poured out two, then returned to the kitchen, grabbed a glass, and splashed some tap water in it. She knelt in front of the stoat, who was now curled up in the fetal position on the floor. She set the glass down and grabbed the front of the woman’s blouse, yanking her upright and pulling on her jaw so that she was focusing on Raenne’s face.

“Julia, you’re going into shock, possibly having a heart attack. This is aspirin. Chew and swallow it.”

She put her fingers against the sides of the stoat’s jaw and pressed, forcing her mouth open, then deposited the tablets. “Go on, chew them.” After a moment the stoat’s jaw moved, and she held the glass of water up to Julia’s muzzle. “Here, this is water. Swallow it. Swallow it!”

Water dripped down the sides of Julia’s mouth, but she swallowed, throat muscles contracting several times. After setting the water back on the counter, she took Julia’s shoulders and rolled the woman onto her back. If Julia didn’t come out of it soon, she’d have to call 911. The tigress swore again, then leaned over the woman was a snarl.

“Okay, Julia. Spill it. Are you and Terrence sexually abusing Lizzy?”

“No! it... not... it’s not... abuse.”

Surprisingly, Julia didn’t deny the sex part. Only the abuse, which was absurd. “An adult having sex with a child is sexual abuse. It’s rape,” the tigress growled.

“She has... has to... have sex... or she... she... she’ll die,” Julia said, forcing the words out between her shallow breaths.

What the fuck? That was literally the last thing she could have imagined. Raenne was silent for a moment. She needed to know more, but for now she felt Julia had earned a reprieve.

“Okay, I won’t tell anyone, but you’re going to have to explain. Hold on, I need to call for an ambulance.” Raenne pulled the phone out of her pocket, stopping the recording app and calling the emergency number. She waited a moment, then pressed the button for fire and ambulance. A moment later, a voice came on.

“911 emergency-” Raenne cut the man off abruptly. She didn’t have time to deal with chit-chat.

“Stop talking. I have a woman going into shock and myocardial infarction at 872 southwest 71st avenue, just off of Sagert Street. I’ve given her a dose of aspirin and some water. I need an ambulance here as soon as possible. I say again, 8-7-2 southwest 71st avenue. My name is Raenne Andreyev. A-N-D-R-E-Y-E-V. Her name is Julia Stouffer. S-T-O-U-F-F-E-R. The cause appears to be due to extreme anxiety. Do you have all that?”

“Ummm...”, Raenne could hear rapid typing in the background. At least this guy was on the ball tonight. “Yes, ma’am. We’ll have one there-”

“Good.” Raenne hung the phone up. She hated wasting time on the phone. She yelled up the stairs.

“Lizzy, get down here now! Your mom needs help!”

She could hear the little girl dart down the stairs. At least she wasn’t as loud as Alex... she probably weighed half what Alex did. The tigress turned to focus on Julia again. Julia was saying something between gasping breaths, probably trying to explain.

“Relax, Julia. I said I won’t tell anyone. It’s okay. You don’t need to worry about it right now. Just relax.”

“Mother? What’s wrong?”

Raenne shook her head. Lizzy’s voice could be just as loud and penetrating as Alex’s, especially when it was right next to her ear. She put her paw on one of Lizzy’s shoulders to get her attention, while her mom was babbling between breaths.

“Your mom just went into shock. I’ve called for an ambulance. You need to get a blanket for her. They’re in the closet at the top of the stairs, right next to my bedroom door.”

“But- what’s wrong with mother?”

“Quiet. Upstairs. Hallway closet. Blanket. Go get it.” Raenne was good at delivering simple orders. God knows, she had to do it often enough in the military.

She sighed as Elizabeth took off towards the stairs again and went back to trying to calm Julia down. “Relax, shh, relax, I won’t tell anyone. You don’t need to worry. Your secret is safe for now. You can explain to me all the details later. Try to relax, take deep breaths.”

“...but she... hormones... anemia...” Julia was still trying to gasp out, still shaking and clearly frightened.

“She has a hormone problem. Got it. I’ve already said, I won’t tell anyone else. Your secret is safe. I’ll call Terrence and have him pick Lizzy up.” That seemed to relax Julia.

“Here!”

“Thank you, Lizzy.”

She took the blanket and spread it over Julia, tucking it around her. Julia was shaking, but seemed to be relaxing. “Relax, Julia. Everything will be fine. I promise nothing will happen to Elizabeth. I won’t tell anyone.”

__________________________________________________


Raenne held the sobbing little girl against her chest, standing in the doorway as the ambulance pulled away. After a few moments, she turned around and closed the door.

“What happened?” Alex asked from the top of the stairs, sounding really worried.

“I asked Julia about what we talked about, and Julia went into shock. Then she started showing signs of having a heart attack so I called an ambulance for her. Don’t worry, she’ll be fine,” she said as she climbed to the top of the stairs, still carrying Elizabeth in her arms. “Go back to your room. We all need to talk.”

Alex made her way back into the room, then sat on her bed, carefully pulling her broken leg up again. Raenne waited as Alex lay back against her pile of pillows and then leaned over and lay the little stoat on the far side. She’d been right; the girl couldn’t weigh more than forty pounds soaking wet. Alex put her arm awkwardly around Lizzy and pulled her close, trying to comfort the other girl’s tears as Raenne sat at the foot of the bed and waited. Lizzy rolled over, curling up tight against Alex’s side, who gently ran her arm down Lizzy’s side, petting her to calm her down.

Eventually the sobs quieted as Lizzy managed to pull herself together. Raenne hated to do this, since it was one thing on top of another, but she had to make sure that what Julia had implied was true. That meant asking someone about all the details, and Lizzy would be the best one to talk to. Out of the mouths of babes and all that. She pulled out her phone and started up another recording just to be on the safe side.

“Lizzy, the reason your mom went into shock is because I asked her something very important. It scared her really badly, and she went into shock. That’s what you saw. She should be fine, and in a few hours she should be back from the hospital. Okay, Lizzy?”

“...o-kay...”

At least now she knew where Alex had picked up that annoyingly cute o-kay from. She sighed, and continued. “When Alex was riding up to Mt. Hood after she spent the night at your place, she mentioned that you all had done something. Sex.”

That made the little stoat actually look up at her. At least she knew she had the girl’s attention, and continued. “I guessed that you must have learned about sex from someone else... your parents.”

Elizabeth’s lower lip started trembling, and Raenne pushed on, hoping to avert the end of the world. “It’s okay. I’m not telling anyone else. But your mom said that you had a medical problem. Something about hormones and anemia. Do you know what she was talking about?”

The girl nodded.

“Can you explain what it is to me and Alex here?”

“It’s...well...” the girl took a deep breath. “I’m half ferret and half stoat. My stoat heritage makes it so that I go into heat every summer, ever since I was born. My ferret heritage makes it so that I need to have sex when I’m in heat or my body stops making blood. The doctor calls it aplastic anemia. I nearly died from it when I was a baby.”

Well, that definitely explained the inexplicable. It also explained why she was such a delicate little thing. Good god, what a terrible thing to happen to a child. Raenne ran her hand through her head-fur.

“So... you have to have sex or you die?” Alex asked.

Elizabeth nodded.

“You have sex with your dad?” Raenne asked.

Elizabeth started to tremble again, and once again Raenne had to step in to stop the sky from falling. Alex beat her to it though.

“Shh, it’s okay. Mom won’t tell anyone else. I promise.”

Raenne slowly nodded. She wasn’t sure she’d make that promise herself yet, but she was getting there. The girl eventually nodded an affirmative, though her lip was still trembling.

“One last question. Does it hurt when you have sex with your dad?”

She shook her head. “Uh-uh. It feels really, really, really good. It’s the best thing ever, better than milk and cookies, or pizza, or kissing, or birthday presents, or-”

Raenne smiled, finally at ease. It looked like that had snapped the stoat out of her depression too. “Okay. I get it. You like it. Just don’t do it with Alex here, or you might get pregnant.”

“Yep! That’s why I can only have sex with father. He had a vasectomy so that he could save my life.”

Raenne blinked. Wow. She’d wondered exactly how they’d managed to avoid the inevitable complications resulting from having sex during heat. “Huh. That was... noble of him.”

“Would it be okay if I did sexy stuff with Alex to make her feel better? I know we can’t have sex, but...”

Raenne practically choked hearing the adorable little stoat ask that out of the blue. “You already did that ‘sexy stuff’ over the weekend. Without asking for permission,” Raenne added, pointing a finger at her.

“...well, umm... sorry. I should have asked first, I guess.”

“Yes, you should have. Personally, I don’t mind, and it looks like Alex definitely enjoyed it, judging by what’s growing under that skirt.” Alex’s ears went forward, blushing. An erection was starting to grow under the pleated skirt she was wearing. “However, you need to ask your parents’ permission first, and I need to call your father to let him know what happened to Julia. Do you know his work number?” she asked as she saved the audio recording on her phone and opened up the number pad.

“Yep! It’s 503-”

Raenne started dialing. At least now that she knew what she was getting into, she’d be able to deal with Terrence Stouffer. Hopefully without making the poor man go into shock as well. If anything happened to him, that would leave Elizabeth with a serious problem, and she didn’t want that.
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