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"200", "submission_left_thumb_huge_y": "200", "submission_left_thumb_large_x": "200", "submission_left_thumb_large_y": "200", "submission_left_thumb_medium_x": "120", "submission_left_thumb_medium_y": "120", "submission_right_submission_id": "3449430", "submission_right_file_name": "5252860_VerbMyNoun_megankristin.jpg", "submission_right_thumbnail_url_huge_noncustom": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/files/preview/5252/5252860_VerbMyNoun_megankristin.jpg", "submission_right_thumbnail_url_large_noncustom": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/large/5252/5252860_VerbMyNoun_megankristin_noncustom.jpg", "submission_right_thumbnail_url_medium_noncustom": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/medium/5252/5252860_VerbMyNoun_megankristin_noncustom.jpg", "submission_right_thumb_medium_noncustom_x": "115", "submission_right_thumb_medium_noncustom_y": "120", "submission_right_thumb_large_noncustom_x": "191", "submission_right_thumb_large_noncustom_y": "200", "submission_right_thumb_huge_noncustom_x": "286", "submission_right_thumb_huge_noncustom_y": "300" } ], "description": "Man, so many thanks to give out:\n\nTo @ShadowedEmber for giving me the inspiration to start writing again. You've since become one of my nearest and dearest friends. You have no idea how much this means to me.\n\nTo @talon2point0, @MeganBryar, @TaintedThylacine, and @ShadowedEmber for the assists with your respective characters.\n\nTo @ShadowedEmber and @IndigoNeko for doing the heavy lifting pointing out my spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors, and for keeping me from tearing holes in the fabric of my reality.\n\nMegan, Lucinda (Lucy), & Myles Conroy © me.\nJessie & Melissa Conroy © @TaintedThylacine\nRoss Goldmane © @talon2point0\nKaitlyn Ashbacher © me & @talon2point0\nLlyulf “Leo” Kalayo © @ShadowedEmber\nHallelujah “Holly” Giacomo created by me, belongs to @ShadowedEmber\nVivian “Vivy” Genevieve © @RisingDragon\nJack Millen © @Bigchris369\nMaykere MacClellan and Megan Bryar © @MeganBryar\nEthan Black, Claire Summers, Cecilia Gaithers, Roger Ashbacher, & Melinda Ashbacher © me & @Neosate\nAll other characters and places © me & @Neosate except for the great state of New Hampshire.", "description_bbcode_parsed": "Man, so many thanks to give out:

To \r\n\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tShadowedEmber\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t		\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tShadowedEmber\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
for giving me the inspiration to start writing again. You've since become one of my nearest and dearest friends. You have no idea how much this means to me.

To \r\n\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttalon2point0\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t		\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttalon2point0\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
, \r\n\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMeganBryar\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t		\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMeganBryar\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
, \r\n\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTaintedThylacine\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t		\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTaintedThylacine\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
, and \r\n\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tShadowedEmber\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t		\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tShadowedEmber\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
for the assists with your respective characters.

To \r\n\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tShadowedEmber\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t		\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tShadowedEmber\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
and \r\n\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tIndigoNeko\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t		\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tIndigoNeko\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
for doing the heavy lifting pointing out my spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors, and for keeping me from tearing holes in the fabric of my reality.

Megan, Lucinda (Lucy), & Myles Conroy © me.
Jessie & Melissa Conroy © \r\n\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTaintedThylacine\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t		\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTaintedThylacine\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Ross Goldmane © \r\n\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t		\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttalon2point0\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Kaitlyn Ashbacher © me & \r\n\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
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Llyulf “Leo” Kalayo © \r\n\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
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Hallelujah “Holly” Giacomo created by me, belongs to \r\n\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
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Vivian “Vivy” Genevieve © \r\n\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
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Jack Millen © \r\n\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
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Maykere MacClellan and Megan Bryar © \r\n\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
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Ethan Black, Claire Summers, Cecilia Gaithers, Roger Ashbacher, & Melinda Ashbacher © me & \r\n\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
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All other characters and places © me & \r\n\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
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except for the great state of New Hampshire.", "writing": "[color=#cc0000][center]WARNING![/center]\n\nThis chapter contains some seriously heavy shit; depending on your triggers, it may even be heavier than Megan getting her skull stomped in. That particular part of this story should probably be its own chapter, but honestly, it's not long enough.\n\nSo, this chapter has been divided into 12A and 12B. 12A is the really heavy shit that you can avoid if you so wish. If the topics of drug abuse and child molestation are triggering for you, please skip ahead to 12B, the happier stuff. If these topics do not bother you, I encourage you to read through it, no matter how uncomfortable it may be, as it will shed some light on some long-standing issues surrounding one of the main antagonists.\n\nYour feedback - whether praise or criticism - is welcomed and encouraged. I do hope that you enjoy this EXTREMELY overdue installment, and I promise that the wait for the next one will not be nearly as long.\n\n~VerbMyNoun[/color]\n\n[center][b]~~~~~\nThe Bat & The Cat\nChapter 12A: Bleed Like Me\n~~~~~[/b][/center]\n\n[u]February 7, 2014[/u]\n[b]The Office of Priscilla Hartley, LMHC[/b]\n\nThe albino Mouse woman tried to hide her surprise as her 4:00 appointment entered the room. Rather than making all the customary grumblings of [i]‘This is such a fucking waste of time’[/i] or [i]‘Let’s get this bullshit over with,’[/i] the eighteen year old Ferret girl quietly sat down on the loveseat opposite her desk. She didn’t even kick the door open, as was her way, with her clunky black combat boots, on the way in. Pris’ concerns regarding her surprise being noticed were unnecessary, though; Kristin MacDaniel had her head down, her brown eyes staring vacantly through the floor. Clearly, something was weighing heavily on the young woman’s mind. Rather than saying anything, Pris quietly reached into the top right drawer of her desk, removed a pen and notepad, and slid it shut. The soft carpet muffled the sounds of her four-inch heels as she walked over to where her patient sat. The Mouse carefully smoothed the sides of her pencil skirt before taking a seat. And she waited.\n\n“Megan’s coming back to school on Monday,” was all Kristin said after a couple minutes of palpable silence. There was a slight tremble to her voice, as if she was on the verge of crying.\n\nMegan Conroy. Kristin’s former lover and the recipient of a vicious attack being hailed by the national media as a potential hate crime. Pris had tried to get her patient to open up about their relationship in the past, but just like everything else, the girl walled herself off behind anger and apathy. In fact, those seven words were about the only constructive things Kristin had said since she agreed to take the Ferret on as a patient. But the girl had been discharged by pretty much every other LPC, LCPC, and LMHC in Marblecliff. She knew it was a conflict of interest; long ago she and her cousin, Gwen, had been friends with this poor girl's deceased mother. Gwen and her husband, Mason, had even been her foster parents for a brief time, though Kristin continually ran away. And while Kristin didn’t know it, she was attending Chimera Prep tuition-free thanks to Mason. The Impala kept her from being expelled, despite her antics. He even pulled some strings to have Kristin live where she was staying now, at least until graduation. Still, most of that was Mason’s doing. Priscilla felt that [b]she[/b] owed Kelly this.\n\n“Tell me about Megan,” Pris said softly, her pen poised to take notes.\n\n“She’s my best friend,” Kristin said, a soft smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. “I know what you’re probably thinking: ‘Don’t you mean was my best friend?’ But no, I don’t. I don’t really have friends. I know. Shocker, right? She was really the only one, so she’s still ranked numero uno. Whether she counts me as a friend or not, I still think of her that way. She didn’t do anything to break us apart, I did, and… I’ve regretted it every day ever since.”\n\nKristin looked up from the light gray carpet, nervous uncertainty written across her face. [i]She’s expecting criticism.[/i] The Mouse woman did her best to meet that gaze with compassion and encouragement, her pale pink eyes gleaming with curiosity and interest. The woman lifted her notepad slightly and gracefully crossed her stockinged legs before setting the notepad back down on her thigh. “How did you two meet?”\n\nKristin closed her eyes and let the memory wash over her. “It was back in the fourth grade. I had just started at a new school after getting fostered by a family in a different part of the city. It was our lunch period. I didn’t know anybody and just wanted to be left alone. Looking around, I saw this tiny little Bat sitting all by herself, and I could tell that she wanted to be left alone, too. So I sat down at her table. We didn’t speak, we just sat there in silence, eating our lunches. This went on for the next couple of days. Then one day, I get my food, and I see that she’s sitting at our normal table, but she’s not alone. I didn’t want to deal with anyone else, so I took my tray, found a nice secluded patch of wall and copped a squat. But a minute later, without a word, she sat down next to me and we ate in silence just like the other days. It was the first time I could remember somebody other than Kaitlyn choosing me over someone else. It was still another week or so before either one of us spoke to the other, but that’s how it started.”\n\n“I see,” Pris remarked. “It sounds like you both wanted to be left alone, but didn't want to feel lonely. You found someone who it seemed like was going through something similar, and you formed a bond.”\n\n“It was a long time ago, but yeah, that sounds about right,” the teen Ferret nodded.\n\n“So when you and she finally did start speaking, what did you talk about?”\n\n“Spanish class, I think,” Kristin answered. “She was sitting there in the cafeteria, studying, practicing saying different phrases out loud, probably for some quiz or something we were going to have later on. There was one word she kept mispronouncing, though… I can't remember what it was she was trying to say, but I corrected her.”\n\n“So you initiated verbal communication?” her counselor asked.\n\n“Yeah,” the teen answered. “We didn’t talk about anything else that day, but it grew from there. I’d help her with Spanish, she’d help me with music.” Kristin let out a soft laugh. “Oh shit, I just remembered when our music teacher, Mrs. Jacobs, assigned all of us instruments. Megan had her heart set on learning guitar, maybe violin. Said her mom liked singers like Bob Dylan and John Denver, and wanted to learn so she could cheer her up. Instead, that old Possum went and gave her a tambourine. Said that bat wings would make it too hard to play and gave the guitar to one of her favorite bootlickers. He quit playing the following year.”\n\n“Well that seems awfully speciesist,” Priscilla remarked. “But that was common with the older generation. Thankfully, recent generations have gotten more progressive. It's too bad we still live in a world where hermaphrodites are reviled by closed-minded bigots, but forty years ago interspecies couples were looked down upon, so hopefully soon things will be better… But I digress. It's so sweet that Megan wanted to learn to play for her Mom.”\n\n“Yeah, that woman was way overdue for retirement,” Kristin replied. “I’m surprised she was still able to hear. Or maybe she couldn’t. Good Lord, I know we were just fourth graders and most of us had no prior experience, but we were awful! But Megan, she learned how to play that tambourine just because she loved music so much. And now she’s learned how to play bass. Too bad Mrs. Jacobs isn’t around anymore to see it. I’d have loved to make her eat her words.”\n\n“So then what happened?”\n\n“Well… After a while, I started noticing things. She’d have a slight limp one day, or she’d raise or lower her arm more slowly than normal… Things like that. I recognized the signs of abuse. I’d been through it myself. When I tried to get her to talk about it, she wouldn’t, so I told her my story, or at least my story as I understood it at that age. There was still a lot I didn’t comprehend at nine years old,” the Ferret explained. “But I eventually got her to open up… When she was born, her Dad abandoned them because she was a hermaphrodite. God, to this day I think about it and I just want to find him and beat the shit out of him! Her mom, trying to cope with being a single parent, would drink, and sometimes when she’d drink, she’d get mean and hit Megan. She begged me to keep it a secret, so I did. Thankfully, things with her mom worked out eventually. From what I can tell, her mom went to rehab, sobered up, and got a nice job.”\n\nCurious, Pris had to ask, “And how exactly did you find this out? Are you spying on her?”\n\n“No. Well, maybe. Not directly,” the Ferret admitted. “Kaitlyn is sort of dating Ross’s cousin - Ross is Megan’s girlfriend, you see, so when I hang around the two of them sometimes I catch bits and pieces of what’s going on with Megan.”\n\n“How are things with Kaitlyn? Pretty good, I assume, if Roger and Melinda allow you into their house,” the Mouse woman continued.\n\n“Things are great,” Kristin replied. “She’s the best thing going on in my life.”\n\n“And you never hit her? Do anything to embarrass or humiliate her?”\n\n“Of course not!”\n\n“And why not?” Priscilla prodded.\n\n“Because she’s my sister and I love her, obviously,” the teen answered, sounding somewhat annoyed.\n\n“But you loved Megan.”\n\n“I still do, in some fashion,” Kristin remarked. “Where’s this going?”\n\n“Humor me, please. You humiliated Megan in front of the entire school, and later meddled in her relationship,” the counselor explained. “But you never do anything like that to Kaitlyn.”\n\n“Because Kait’s a perfect angel,” she answered. “I don’t think she could irritate me if she tried.”\n\n“So that’s what triggers your outbursts?”\n\n“Yeah, I suppose so. I mean, if I ask someone to do something and they tell me no or just ignore me, I can usually handle it, no problem. But when it’s someone close to me, who I have emotional attachments to, I just see red and I lash out without thinking about the consequences until it’s too late.”\n\n“Kristin, let me preface my next question with this: I’m not here to judge you, and I’m so happy that you finally opened up and started to share. I’m only asking this question so that you can take a look inside and find the answer for yourself. Do you understand?”\n\nThe Ferret girl’s smile disappeared and she shifted uncomfortably in her seat.\n\n“Why do you suppose,” Pris began, “that you did the things you did to Megan, yet at the same time you feel so strongly against others who have hurt her?”\n\nKristin sat there in silence for a couple of moments, mulling over the question in her mind. The answer was obvious, Pris knew; the teen just needed to decide if she was ready to accept this particular truth. Finally, she said, “Because that’s how my Dad was. He’d be on the verge of a rampage if anyone ever said or did anything to hurt me. But he was the one who hurt me the most. And look at me now… Like father, like daughter.”\n\nKristin looked up and their eyes met. The Mouse woman said nothing, just gave an encouraging nod, silently urging the teen to continue. “I didn’t know why it started happening, all I knew was that Mom was… I don’t know, fading away, I guess. Becoming more and more distant. She’d spend less and less time with me and Kaitlyn, come home long after we went to bed and still be asleep when we went to school in the morning. Eventually she stopped coming home altogether. I didn’t know she was on drugs at the time, I just thought she didn’t love us anymore. I don’t know how Dad really felt about everything, but I was happy that I was able to be closer to him. He was the one to help me with my homework. He was the one to help me get ready for bed and to tuck me in at night. I asked him once if he was sad because Mom didn’t love us anymore. He said he was sad that I felt like she didn’t love me, but promised me that he always would, no matter what.”\n\n“That must have meant the world to you at the time,” Pris replied.\n\n“It did. I wanted so badly to be deserving of that love. I started helping out more around the house. Doing dishes, vacuuming, changing Kaitlyn’s diapers, whatever I could to make things easier for him so he could have more time to relax and spend time with me. He told me I didn’t have to do so much, but I told him that since Mom wasn’t there I wanted to step up in her place. I didn’t know what it meant, but one day, I kissed him. The way I used to see him and Mom kiss. It wasn’t the same way he would kiss me, the quick, soft, peck on the lips. No, this was slow, and with tongue. It was so awkward, partly because I didn’t know what I was doing and partly because I was afraid he would stop me.”\n\n“But he didn’t.”\n\n“No. Instead he asked me why. I told him that I knew how Mom’s kisses used to make him feel better. Used to make him happy. Then he kissed me back. A real, grown-up kiss. He even coached me on how to use my tongue to tease and caress his without it feeling awkward,” Kristin took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Tears formed at the corners of her eyes, threatening to run down her cheeks, but they stayed put. “Then one night while I was asleep, he came into my room and crawled into bed next to me. He’d been drinking… I could smell it on his breath. But he… Look, I’m not comfortable enough to talk about the exact particulars of that night and the weeks that followed, but I’m sure you can figure it out.”\n\nPris crossed over to the loveseat, sat down, and placed a comforting paw on the teen girl’s shoulder. “Kristin,” she said softly, “we don’t need to continue if you…”\n\n“No, I’m fine. It’s fine,” the girl said as she wiped away the drops of saline, the first physical manifestations of emotion she’d shown in Pris’ presence. “I want to. I need to. I need to understand everything so I can give Megan the apology she deserves. I just don’t want to talk about [b]that[/b].”\n\n“Okay,” the counselor said as she gave the girl’s shoulder a reassuring squeeze before returning to her chair. “But if at any point you feel like it’s too much, it’s okay to stop.”\n\nThe teen gave a little nod. “Thanks, Doc… I dunno… I guess somewhere along the way, Dad started to lose track of where the line was between parent and child, husband and wife. That’s what I felt like. His new wife. It felt good… But I got to see the ugly side of him, too. If I did something he didn’t like, or did it in a way he didn’t like it done, he’d hit me. Not a gentle slap, either, but a full-blown smack, hard enough to send me sprawling. He actually knocked out a couple of my baby teeth once. He’d always comfort me and soothe me afterwards and apologize for being so rough with me, saying he was still trying to figure out where the balance was in our new relationship. Like the extra love and newfound intimacy needed to be offset by harsher punishment or something. Or he was angry at me for coaxing him into something forbidden. I think that’s why Mom started getting high and stopped coming home… She was sick of being his piñata.”\n\n“Kristin, I’m so sorry,” Pris said softly, but if Kristin heard her, she didn’t show it. She just kept going.\n\n“One day we were going upstairs to bed. By this point I was sleeping in his and Mom’s bed almost every night. He was telling me about how he wanted to try having sex with me… back there. I complained that I was scared to try it and wanted to do something else, so he turned around and punched me. Right in the forehead. I went tumbling down the stairs and broke my arm. He had to take me to the hospital, and insisted that when anyone asks, it was my Mom who hit me, before she ran away again.” Kristin looked up at Pris, this time the tears were actively streaming down her cheeks, leaving trails in her fur. “The thing is, I was in love with him, even with the abuse, and I was already planning on blaming Mom before he even asked. I’m sorry, I know that she was your friend, and that my actions that night helped to lead to her death.”\n\nThis revelation rocked Priscilla to her very foundation, her pen falling off her lap and landing somewhere on the floor. Kelly, Mason’s former personal assistant responsible for introducing him to Gwen, and had been one of the bridesmaids in their wedding… It’s true that after the Ferret woman met Jason MacDaniel their friendship had drifted apart. She knew that Kelly had gotten into drinking and drugs, and she suspected Jason was abusing her, and she tried to help on more than one occasion, but she had no idea it had gotten this bad… She didn’t know what else she could have done, but [b]should[/b] she have done more? She - she should stop the session. She knew she could no longer keep her own feelings and emotions out of it - if she ever could at all! But she was just too stunned to speak, while across from her the words would not stop…\n\n“Once we got home, Dad took me up to our room, laid me down, and worshiped me from head to toe. Maybe it was the painkillers, but to this day I’ve never felt better in my entire life. He kept apologizing for punching me, calling me his sweet angel and his darling princess, and gave me more orgasms than I could count up to at that time. Do you know what’s really fucked up? I still love him to this day. Not like a daughter should love her father.” Kristin took a deep sigh before continuing.\n\n“We fell asleep that night naked, him spooning me from behind under the covers. And we stayed that way up until Mom came home in the morning and found us. It was the first time she’d been home in almost a month. I woke up to the feeling of the covers being ripped from the bed, followed by the back of a paw across my mouth. Mom called me a jezebel. A hussy. A whore. A slut. Then she turned her wrath on Dad and proceeded to smack and punch him. He just stood there and took it while she screamed at him about the cops finding her and having a nice conversation about beating their daughter. Kaitlyn started crying from her bedroom across the hall. Dad grabbed Mom’s arms and told me to go check on my sister, so I ran out of the room, getting a swift kick in my ass from Mom as I passed. Once I got to Kaitlyn’s room, I shut and locked the door, picked her up out of her crib, and held her close, rocking her in my arms trying to soothe us both as I tried not to listen to everything happening in my parents’ bedroom. Lots of shouting. Screaming. Furniture breaking. Mom threatening to ‘kill that bitch,’ I can only assume she meant me. Then there was a gunshot, and everything went quiet. Eerily quiet. I don’t know how long I sat there in the dim light of pre-dawn holding my sister, but eventually there was a knock on the door. It was the police. Mom was dead; he shot her in the back of her head. They had him outside in handcuffs, and waited until he was out of the house before checking on us. They didn’t want me to see him getting arrested. I never saw him again after that…”\n\nPriscilla was actively crying along with Kristin at this point, her pink eyes had to be bloodshot red, and snot was pouring from her nose. The teen Ferret had stopped talking and stood, walking over to kneel in front of the older Mouse woman. Kristin tenderly wrapped her arms around her counselor’s waist, and softly whispered, “I’m sorry. I know she was your friend, and I helped to get her killed. I’m so, so, so, sorry.”\n“I’m sorry, too,” Pris cried. “I’m sorry I didn’t do more to try to help your mom.” The pair wept together well past Pris’ normal office hours, holding each other and apologizing, wiping away tears and forgiving. Finally, at almost six o’clock, the pair stopped their mutual crying session, straightened up their hair, makeup, and clothing, and said their goodbyes. Pris had a gut feeling that this would be the last time she ever saw Kristin in her office, but hoped she would run into the girl now and again out in public. As the teen Ferret reached for the door, the Mouse stopped her.\n\n“Kristin,” she called out.\n\n“Yeah?”\n\n“I think you know how to apologize to Megan now,” she said encouragingly. “Good luck, but - don’t be surprised if she doesn’t forgive you. It’s okay if she doesn’t, though. Maybe one day she will. But you need this even more, if you’re ever going to forgive yourself.”\n\nKristin gave a weak smile in response. “Thanks, Doc. For everything.”\n\n“If you ever need anything, you call me. Do you understand?”\n\n[center][b]~~~~~\nChapter 12B: Beloved Freak\n~~~~~[/b][/center]\n\n[u]February 8, 2014[/u]\n[b]Marblecliff, NH - Conroy Residence[/b]\n\n“So, Megan, are you all set to go back to school on Monday?” Jessie asked as she set down the tray of refreshments on the coffee table for everyone to enjoy. The teenaged Bat had to admit that things around the apartment had become much livelier since her attack. The unfortunate incident was the catalyst for many positive changes in her life and the lives of so many people she loved. Jessie and Melissa were still around, and her mother seemed happier than Megan could ever recall seeing her. In fact, if she didn’t know any better, she’d swear that her mom and Jessie were dating. It was a funny thought, the idea that her father’s ex-wife and his widow would become a couple, and that her half-sister could also become her step-sister. And Ross, her [b]fiancée[/b] (she was never going to get tired of that idea!) had practically moved in, leaving the house without her only to go to school. The once cold and lonely apartment was now overflowing with love and laughter. It felt like [b]home[/b].\n\nAnd currently it was filled to overflowing with guests.\n\nHer jaw still wired shut, Megan was forced to speak through clenched teeth, but thankfully the searing hot pain from a month ago had settled into a mild, tolerable ache. [color=#babdb6]“Yes, and no. I’m more than ready to finally be able to get out of the house and do normal things again. It’s gonna suck having to get pushed around in a wheelchair for a few more weeks, but at least I don’t have to manage on my own.”[/color] She took Ross’s paw in her own good one, and looked around the room at her gathered friends. [color=#babdb6]“Ross will get me from point A to B most of the time, but Ethan, Claire, and Leo have agreed to step in when she’s on the other side of the school.”[/color]\n\n Lucinda looked over at the trio her daughter had just indicated, “Thank you all so much for agreeing to help. It’s so nice to know that there are kind, reliable people in Megan’s life outside of home.” She looked over at the teen squirrel and added, “And Claire, an extra thank you for offering to help with Megan’s recovery exercises. I hear you want to go to college to be a physical therapist and go into sports medicine?”\n\nClaire Summers nodded and smiled, placing her hand on her boyfriend’s leg, where flesh met plastic and metal. “That’s right! I was thinking about kinesiology, but after helping this lummox [b]literally[/b] get back onto his feet after the accident, I developed a serious interest in helping others get over their injuries more quickly.”\n\nEthan grinned and added, “And hey, if she’s got me back to being able to do backflips, I know she can get you back up on your feet and playing your bass again in no time.”\n\n“I’m just glad that Headmistress Gaithers agreed to let us push your wheelchair around,” Ross commented. “That way one of us can be there to make sure nothing happens, and we can get some extra time together.”\n\nA knock on the door brought a brief interruption to the conversation. “I’ll get that,” Jessie said as she did a quick spin on her heel and walked off to welcome the next guests.\n\n“So, seeing as how I’m still kinda the new guy around here, is there anyone else besides Kristin I should try and steer clear of while I’m helping Megan get around?” the Wolf teen, Leo, asked. He’d only been in Megan’s circle of friends for three months now, and she hadn’t been at school since the formal, but she already counted him amongst her closest friends. He, and the gorgeous Chipmunk girl he was currently holding paws with, had been among her most frequent visitors at the hospital.\n\n[color=#babdb6]“Ryan Carlin,”[/color] Megan answered. [color=#babdb6]“He’s the one that threw the bottle of water on me at the dance. If I see him, I can’t promise I won’t bash his face in with my cast. The pain would be worth it.”[/color]\n\n“Wait, the same Badger that burned Holly did [b]what[/b]?” Leo asked incredulously.\n\n“I can’t believe I ever agreed to go to the dance with that jerk,” Holly, the Chipmunk girl, responded. “After how dedicated he seemed to asking me out, he almost sold me that he might be halfway decent.”\n\n“Who was that?” Lucinda asked as Jessie re-entered the living room.\n\n“Just one of the neighbors asking if we’d seen her dog,” the Vixen answered as she took a seat on the older Bat’s lap. “I told her we’d keep an eye open, just in case, and wished her luck finding him.”\n\n[center]~~~~~[/center]\n\n“Hey, hold on one second,” Maykere spoke into her cell as Ross pushed Megan over to where she was seated. With a quick tap of her screen, the Mare turned the phone around to face the teenaged Bat. There, smiling back at her was a familiar, friendly face she hadn’t seen in nearly a year. Even though they’d only met once, briefly, she wasn’t likely to forget the beautiful, brown-eyed doe Rabbit anytime soon.\n\n“Megan!” [color=#babdb6]“Megan!”[/color] They both shouted, or at least one of them would have if she could.\n\nThe Bat looked from the phone over to Maykere, then back. [color=#babdb6]“You two know each other?”[/color]\n\n“Oh, Maykere and I are old friends,” the other Megan answered. “She actually did all of my piercings. As a matter of fact, when I met you I was in town to see her. Small world, isn’t it? And is that your girlfriend? She’s so pretty! Hi! I’m Megan! I met your girlfriend at the mall back in, what was it, April? May?”\n\n“I did your belly piercing in May,” Maykere answered for her.\n\n“Right,” the Rabbit woman said. “Did you ever check out that store I told you to? The one with the cute leg warmers?”\n\n[color=#babdb6]“Yeah, thanks for the tip, by the way,”[/color] the Bat teen replied. [color=#babdb6]“Heather hired me in, but at least she was up front and told me that it was partly to attract more young male customers. But they’ve all been really sweet, not creeps like Sebastian was.”[/color]\n\n“Well, I’m glad I could help! How do you like it?”\n\n[color=#babdb6]“I actually like it a lot more than I thought I would,”[/color] Megan said enthusiastically. [color=#babdb6]“I’m actually looking forward to going back once these casts come off and my jaw gets unwired.”[/color]\n\n“Yeah, I’m on anime withdrawal,” Ross interjected. “I haven’t been in to check the new releases since New Year’s.”\n\n[color=#babdb6]“I knew it, you’re just using me for my employee discount,”[/color] her girlfriend joked.\n\n“Not just for the discount,” the Tundra Lioness countered. “I also need your opinion on my cosplay.”[color=#babdb6]\n\n“Some of the costumes are pretty neat,”[/color] Megan said. [color=#babdb6]“I can see some of the appeal, but I still don’t one hundred percent get it. I [b]am[/b] interested in trying out Dungeons and Dragons, though. The people that come in seem to really enjoy it, plus it seems like it would be a good way to catch up with friends as well as get the creative juices flowing.”[/color]\n\n“Maykere and I used to play,” the Rabbit woman offered. “It was a lot of fun. If you give it a try, I wouldn’t mind joining you, if you’ll have me.”\n\n[color=#babdb6]“How would that work?”[/color] Megan asked. [color=#babdb6]“You’re in another country.”[/color]\n\n“Oh, that’s easy. There are virtual tabletops as well as applications like Discord where we could all play together. It’s all online.”\n\n“Those were some great times,” the Mare added, “I’d also love to join you.”\n\n“Going to be a Cleric again?” Megan B. asked. “Or are you ready to try something different after all these years?”\n\n“Honestly, I was considering making a Druid,” Maykere answered. “I’d still have some of the healing abilities, but I think I’d be more useful in a fight. The Wild Shape feature seems especially fun.”\n\n[color=#babdb6]“Fifth Edition comes out later this year,”[/color] the Bat explained. [color=#babdb6]“I can pre-order it through my work and have it the night before it hits the shelves.”[/color]\n\n“We need to find ourselves a DM,” the Rabbit woman reminded them, “and it couldn't hurt to have one or two more players. Three player campaigns are possible, but for your first outing I think it may be helpful to have some more experienced adventurers.”\n\n“Well, I’d be willing to give it a try,” Ross spoke up, causing everyone to look in her direction. “I mean, I’ve never played, either, but if it's something Megan’s interested in trying, I will, too.” Squeezing her fianceé’s paw, she added, “Anything to spend more time together.”\n\nWith a soft smile, Megan said, [color=#babdb6]“Thanks, Beautiful. I appreciate you wanting to spend time with me, but if you try it and don't like it, don't feel like you’re obligated to keep playing.”[/color] Looking at the others, she continued, [color=#babdb6]“I think I know someone who might be willing to DM for us. I’ll check to see if she'd be interested, and ask her if she knows anyone else.”[/color]\n\n[center]~~~~~[/center]\n\n“Hey, MJ,” Ross said as she placed her back against the wall and slid to the floor to take a seat beside Melissa off to the side of the room. “Whatcha reading?”\n\nThe Fox-Bat looked up from the manga that she was reading, “The most recent chapter of Black Butler.” Melissa said as she put her bookmark in the page so she could close and show off the cover. “It’s really good.”\n\n“I’ve seen it on the shelf at Megan’s work, and caught snippets of reviews online,” the Tundra Lioness remarked. “It seems a little dark and goth-y for my tastes, but I'd be curious to hear what you like about it. I’m just about caught up with The Assassination Classroom and am looking for my next series.” She held out her paw and asked, “May I?”\n\n“Oh!” Melissa let out an excited little squeak at the chance to talk about a manga. Handing the book over to the older girl, she explained, “Well It's kinda super dark, I mean the main character gets kidnapped by a cult that kills his parents, and then they do all kinds of bad things.” She paused to take a breath, “And then they get ready to sacrifice him, but the demon is there for him, and ends up being his butler and helping him. How cool would it be to have a butler that’s a demon, I’d sell my soul… especially if he’s cute.” A little bit of blush tinted her ears as she realized she said that last part aloud.\n\n“I dunno,” Ross said as she thumbed through the pages, taking in the artwork. “I mean, my grandfather has servants, including a butler, but it doesn’t really seem all that great.” She paused to think for a moment before continuing, “Buuuuutttttttt… I guess none of them are demons. At least as far as I know. Marishka - she’s one of the maids, an evil old thing - might be, but that could also just be PMS.” She took another glance at the stylistically drawn Bat on the cover. He was slender, with feminine features, as was the trend in Japanese manga. “You know, if he had a pair of boobs and longer, wavier hair - not to mention a million piercings, he might sorta look like Megan.” She gave the younger girl a playful smile. “You’re not a siscon, are you? Cuz that’s my fianceé we’re talking about.”\n\n“Me? Nooooo. I love my sister, but not like that.” Melissa giggled, “I want my life to be like an anime but not that kind… OH!” She squeaked again, “If you had to be in a manga setting or anime, what one would it be?” She asked, leaning in, her excitement showing more and more.”\n\n“Hmmmm,” Ross pondered, considering her options. “My first instinct says Initial D. Like when I’m driving through the winding back country roads doing well over the speed limit, and I feel the pull of the G-force on my body as I take each curve… It’s an incredible rush. I can only imagine how intense that could be at racing speeds.”\n\n“Ooooh, that would be cool! I wonder if we could find someone with a fast car that would let us ride along.” The hybrid paused, thinking wistfully for a moment, “Me, I would want to be in the Appleseed setting. Ooooh, or Gundam! I would love a giant robot to drive around. Think how fast you could go in something like that! Like, how sweet would it be if I could drive my mech from MechWarrior 3!”\n\n“Hey!” Ross said excitedly. “How would you like to attend Anime Boston with me next month? I want to go, but I didn’t really have anyone to go with that I actually want to spend time with, other than Megan, but I don’t want to push her recovery that hard. And that’s even if her job gives her that day off. Besides, I think you and I could use a day out together to nerd out and get to know each other better. What do you think?” \n\nMelissa’s eyes lit up at the thought of getting to go to another Anime Con, especially Anime Boston. “Mooooom!”\n\n“Yes, you can, as long as you behave until then,” Jessie said, smiling at how happy her daughter was.\n\n“You heard her. The answer is yes!” She said, turning back to Ross, practically bouncing in place. “Oh, this is going to be soooooo cool!”\n\n[center]~~~~~[/center]\n\nMaking their way around the room, to check in with all of her friends and well-wishers, Megan and Ross approached the loveseat where Holly and Leo snuggled up and talked. “Hey,” Holly said as she saw them coming near, standing up and pulling the Wolf along with her. The Chipmunk girl pulled Megan in closely for a hug, being careful not to put too much pressure on the Bat’s still-healing ribs. “You really are looking much better since the last time I saw you. How are you holding up?”\n\n[color=#babdb6]“I’m just losing my mind, stuck inside this apartment twenty-four-seven,”[/color] the Bat explained. [color=#babdb6]“Daytime TV sucks, Ross is at school, Mom’s at work, Melissa’s taking her online classes… There’s Jessie, but she’s my Dad’s widow and I [b]think[/b] my mom’s girlfriend. I mean, she’s nice, but it’s still very weird for me to hang out, just the two of us.”[/color]\n\n“She does seem pretty nice,” Leo answered. “Still, I don’t blame you, it sounds crazy, even from the outside. Life threw a wild curve at you there.”\n\n“Yeah, no shit,” Ross agreed. “I don’t know if I could ever date one of your exes, Megs.”\n\n“What I think,” Holly spoke up, “is that after your jaw is all healed up, we should go out on a double date. All four of us. That will give you a chance to get out of the house and spend some time with friends outside of school.”\n\n“That’s not a bad idea,” Ross answered. “Any suggestions?”\n\n“There’s bowling, couple’s painting, paint-your-own-pottery, glass blowing,” Leo said as he started to list various date night activities. “Miniature golf, hiking…”\n\n“You know what I think we should do? How about we go to that karaoke bar you told me about?” The Tundra Lioness grinned and looked at the others. “Well, we all know that Megan can sing. Leo, Holly, what do you think? Can we do this and not make complete asses out of ourselves?”\n\n“I’m pretty sure I can make do,” the Wolf answered. “I’d love to hear more of Megan’s singing, since I missed so much of the formal. And I’ve only really heard Holly hum, never really sing.” He looked at his girlfriend and added, “I’m game, if you are?”\n\n“I missed even more of the formal than you did - not that I have any complaints with how things worked out - so yeah, I’d love to,” the diminutive Chipmunk replied. Looking at Megan she asked, “You wanna show these two how it’s done?”\n\nWith a smile that couldn’t be contained, not even with her jaw wired shut, Megan answered, [color=#babdb6]“You guys will love this place. They even do 80’s nights on Fridays!”[/color]\n\n[center]~~~~~[/center]\n\n[b]Meanwhile, at the Home of Melinda and Roger Ashbacher…[/b]\n\n“How did it go, apologizing to your friend?” Kaitlyn asked as Kristin tromped down the stairs into the basement. Seeing her sister’s dejected expression, she continued, “Not so great, I take it?”\n\n“I pussied out, Kait,” the older Ferret said as she plopped down onto the couch beside her sibling. “Some Fox woman I don’t know answered the door, and when it opened I could hear a bunch of voices in the apartment, like they were having some kind of big party or something. So I got cold feet. I made up an excuse that I was looking for my lost dog, thanked her for her time, and I got out of there as quickly as I could.”\n\n“It’s probably better that you left, then,” the younger Ferret commented. “That’s something private between you and them. You don’t need a whole crowd looking on, and you don’t want to ruin a happy occasion with melodrama.”\n\n“I’m just afraid that I’m going to lose the nerve before I get the chance to say how I feel, or that I might forget about some of the things that I want to say.”\n\n“Ki… I know it’s not my business, and I know you keep a lot of secrets to try and protect me, but when are you going to start trusting me enough to let me in and know the real you?” the younger Ferret asked. ‘We’re sisters, and I love you unconditionally.”\n\n“Kait…”\n\n“Unconditionally. I promise.”\n\n After several seconds of agonizing silence, Kristin spoke up. “Megan used to be my best friend. For a time, she was basically my girlfriend. I was too tough and cool to admit to her what she meant to me, but I loved her like she was my girlfriend.”\n\n“Is this the same Megan that Jordan’s cousin is dating, or a different Megan?”\n\n“The same one,” the older sister replied sheepishly. “I know I should have told you sooner! I was just afraid that if you knew you and Jordan would stop talking about her around me, and I wanted to know how she was doing.”\n“I’m more than a little mad at you for using my relationship with Jordan to spy on your ex,” Kaitlyn said sternly. “But I can forgive you. But be honest with me next time? Go on.”\n\n“So I broke Megan’s heart, and revealed a very personal secret about her to the entire school, something that she was very ashamed of at the time.”\n\n“You outed her as being a hermaphrodite?”\n\nKristin nodded. “I have problems, Kait, I try not to let you see them, but I’m seriously fucked up. I wanted Megan to do something, and she said ‘no.’ She’d never refused to do anything for me, and looking back, I know she was right, but I lost it. I threw her out, broke up with her, and embarrassed her in front of everyone. I couldn’t stop myself.”\n\n“Then what happened?” the younger Ferret asked, frowning.\n\n“Then she met Ross, and they started dating,” she explained. “And Ross was good for Megan. She started to blossom, to flourish. And I… I got jealous. Like, crazy jealous. I couldn’t take it anymore.”\n\n“What did you do, Kristin?” Kaitlyn [b]never[/b] called her Kristin.\n\n“I know a secret about Megan, and it’s something major,” the older Ferret answered. “I told Ross just enough to make her furious with her, trying to get Megan to come back to me in exchange for the rest.”\n\n“That was… pretty manipulative of you,” the smaller girl scolded.\n\n “I know, Kait. And if I hadn’t split them up, Megan probably wouldn’t have been at that rave after the dance, and she wouldn’t have been attacked!” Looking at Kaitlyn with tear-filled eyes, she confessed, “I almost got her killed! Over what? Jealousy? Pride? Anger?”\n\n“So you’re telling me that because you screwed up your own relationship with her, you decided to tamper with her relationship with Ross, and because of that Megan almost died?!”\n\n“Yes,” Kristin said softly, eyes downcast as she brushed away some of the tears threatening to fall from them. After a few moments of silence hung in the air between them, the older Ferret looked back up to her sister. “You hate me too, don't you?” she asked softly as she wiped the tears from her eyes.\n\nThe younger girl wrapped her sister up in a reassuring hug. “I don’t hate you, Kiki. I could never hate you. I was too young to remember our parents, but I’ve heard things about our mom’s drug use and drinking, and how our father shot her in the head… and what he did to you. You’re broken inside. But it’s okay to be broken, Sis. We just need to put you back together.”\n\n“How do I do that?”\n\n“[b]You[/b] don’t. [b]We[/b] do. Just speak from the heart, Kiki. I’ll listen. I know some others probably would too,” Kaitlyn said as she took Kristin’s paw in hers and rested her head against her shoulder. After a couple of minutes, she spoke up again. “I wish you hadn’t kept running away, and given Melinda and Roger a chance. They love you, you know, even if you don’t love them back. But I think you’d be a lot happier today, if you hadn’t tried to deal with everything alone.”\n\n“Maybe, Kay, maybe. But they could never be Mom and Dad to me,” Kristin remarked.\n\n“Maybe not, but who says they need to be? It’s not like you had the best luck with our parents,” her sister explained. “But maybe you could use older friends? Or like a really cool aunt and uncle? Or maybe someone you can just throw all your anger and sadness at but they will still love you anyway?”\n\n“You know, you’re pretty smart,” Kristin said as she leaned over and bumped shoulders with her sister. “You definitely got the brains in the family.”\n\n“Don’t forget the looks, too,” Kaitlyn teased as she stuck her tongue out.\n\n“Brat.”\n\nThey snuggled together on the coach for several minutes before Kaitlyn broke the silence. “I’m going to talk to Roger about Megan and see if there’s anything he can do to help.”\n\n[center]~~~~~[/center]\n\n[b]Back at the Conroy Residence…[/b]\n\nAs Ross helped Megan around the room to the next group of well-wishers, Leo and Holly were approached by Ethan and Claire. “Hi,” the Squirrel girl said as she extended her paw outward for Holly to shake. “I’m Claire, one of Megan and Leo’s friends from school.”\n\n“Holly,” the Chipmunk responded, gladly taking the other girl’s paw. “It’s really great to meet you.”\n\n“Ethan,” the Raccoon boy added. “Likewise. We’ve heard a lot about you from this guy.” Holly’s flush was immediate, and based on how quickly the Wolf averted his eyes, he probably was too, even if his fur helped to hide it.\n\n“Hopefully all good things” the Chipmunk girl teased, squeezing Leo’s arm gently. “I have actually seen you and some of your friends at Cavallo a few times.” Llyulf smiled over at his date.\n\n“I’ve yet to find a less than wonderful thing about you, Holly.” He returned his attention to the other couple. “Heard anything new?”\n\n“That’s actually partly why we came over here,” Claire continued, “I didn’t want to say anything about it in front of Megan and ruin her night but I thought I might talk to you guys about it and see what you think.”\n\n“Oh joy.” Leo muttered, bristling. “Not a great sign when you start like that.” Holly on the other paw, tilted her head in confusion.\n\n“What? What’s going on?” the Chipmunk asked quietly. “Is everything ok?” \n\n“My Dad’s a Lieutenant with the police,” Claire explained. “He’s been trying to get assigned to the investigation into Megan’s attack, but someone higher up keeps stonewalling him. Meanwhile, the guys they have on it don’t seem to be taking it seriously, or they’re incompetent. He thinks City Hall is trying to hinder the investigation.”\n\n“He’s thought about working the case independently, but anything he finds out without following protocol would just be inadmissible as evidence,” Ethan added. “It would probably result in a suspension and Internal Affairs getting involved as well.”\n\n“Wait, why would City Hall want to interfere with the investigation? Wouldn’t they want to know who did this?” Instead of the pair in front of her, the answer came from her side, spoken like a curse.\n\n“Roman.” Leo spat under his breath. “Didn’t know his prejudice ran that deep. How sure is your dad, Claire?” \n\n“He’s pretty sure the order’s coming from someone in City Hall. Maybe the Mayor, maybe his Deputy, but it has to be either someone with the authority to override the Chief of Police, or the money to buy him,” Ethan answered.\n\n“He’s not so sure it’s Roman,” Claire interjected. “Right now he’s the acting Mayor of a city in the national spotlight for the brutality of the attack on Megan, and the failure to make any progress in handling it. As much as Roman hates herms, he loves status more, and this is hurting his public image.”\n\n“As well it should.” Leo growled. He closed his eyes, and took a breath before continuing. “He may not be behind it, but his rhetoric sure didn't discourage it. Is there anything you think we can do from the outside to help?”\n\n“The way I see it, if something is keeping my Dad from doing his job, we need to find a way to help remove that obstacle,” Claire announced. “It could be Roman. It could be someone using Roman’s reputation against him to keep him from winning the election. Either way, if Roman loses, the blockage should disappear.”\n\n“So,” Ethan asked, “anyone have any ideas on what we can do to make that happen?”\n\n“I could try talking to my dad, Leo. Mr. Zaritzky has come over to our house a few times. I never paid him much attention, but they might be friends or something.” Holly offered.\n\n“Couldn’t hurt, babe, but given what I have seen and heard of Roman since I have been hanging around with these guys, I think I’d rather a more lasting solution.” The Wolf frowned.\n\n“Leo! We can’t just kill the mayor!” Holly gasped. Llyulf’s eyes widened, and he held up his paws.\n\n“Whoa whoa, I wasn’t saying that! I just meant we could do something to help make sure he doesn’t get elected.” \n\n“You know, I’m pretty sure the Dark Riders could do it,” Ethan suggested. “Hell, they’ve probably thought about how to do it a million times already. And I’ve heard rumors that Ms. Fargo used to be a sniper.”\n\n“I know you’re joking, and that’s only a little funny because it’s probably true, but can we please take this a little more seriously?” the Squirrel asked. “Did you have anything specific in mind, Leo?”\n\n“Well, I don’t know yet who’s supposed to be running against Roman, but I don’t know if we need to, either. Why couldn’t we just hold a protest of sorts against Roman, and what he stands for, and rally around people getting treated like they deserve?” Leo suggested.\n\n“I’m actually acquainted with Mr. Archer, the previous mayor,” the Raccoon offered. “I could see if he’d be willing to meet with us to discuss what he thinks is the best course of action. He knows the office and he knows Roman.”\n\n“We can’t have Mayor Archer publicly involved with anything we do,” Claire asserted. “He’s too closely associated with the Dark Riders, and you know that the closer we get to the election, the more alert he’s going to be for any sort of interference from them.”\n\n“I know a guy who won’t throw up as many red flags.” Leo grinned. “I’ve never been over to the Dark Rider House, or met the former Mayor. Let me do some digging, I might be able to take advantage of being the new guy in town.”\n\n[center]~~~~~[/center]\n\n“Look at her,” Lucinda said as she snuggled up beside her girlfriend in the small apartment kitchen. “A year ago, she really didn't have any friends besides that Kristin girl, who in the end really wasn’t much of a friend.”\n\n“That's the girl who exposed her as a herm?”\n\n“Yeah,” she confirmed. “But after being publicly humiliated, she shook it off, made new friends, found herself a great girlfriend, joined a band, all while keeping her grades up and working a part-time job. She kept us afloat while I was drowning in the bottle.”\n\n“You aren't the only one to blame for that,” the Vixen countered as she stroked her fingers up and down Lucy’s back. “Myles left you both in a bad way when he bailed. You were a single mom working a shit job for shit pay, trying to raise a child without anyone to ask for advice.” She took a deep breath. “Sure, you didn't handle it well, but it's not your fault for being in the situation you were in. That blame falls squarely on his shoulders.”\n\n“I beat her, Jess,” the Bat woman said softly. “I let the alcohol get the better of me and I hit my baby.”\n\n“She's clearly forgiven you,” her girlfriend said as she gave her a gentle squeeze. “You need to find a way to let it go. For both your sakes.”\n\nAfter a few moments, Lucinda spoke again. “I know she's strong. She's had the weight of the world on her shoulders from birth, and every time life knocks her down she gets back up tougher than ever.” She pointed over to where Megan sat talking with her bandmates. “If it wasn't for those casts and the fact that she's talking through her teeth, you’d have no idea she was brutally assaulted a month ago. Look at the spark in her eyes, the smile on her muzzle. See how everyone else reacts to being near her.”\n\n“Well, seeing as how Myles wasn’t here to influence her development in any positive way, I guess it’s pretty obvious who she gets it from,” Jessie reassured. “It might have taken you longer to dust yourself off and get back into the fight, but look at you now. “You’re a manager at a fucking electric company, Luce, which is a massive step up from working at the DMV. You’re in a relationship that makes you happy, and believe me, you make your partner happy, too. Just having you closeby makes my life feel complete.”\n\n“You’re a real sweet talker, you know that, right?”\n\n“You bet your sweet ass,” Jessie replied in a low, seductive tone before nipping her girlfriend’s ear. “How about you and I go back to our room and let the kids have their fun?”\n\n[center]~~~~~[/center]\n\n“Hey,” Ross said as she approached the armchair where Maykere sat alone, staring out the window at the night sky. “I’d like to talk to you for a little bit, if you don’t mind?” The Mare looked up at her and sighed. Taking her hooves down from the ottoman, she gestured for the other woman to sit.\n\nNearly a minute passed by, stretched almost to eternity by awkward silence, as Maykere sat, watching and waiting, with those beautiful amethyst eyes that were so similar to Megan’s. Finally, Ross continued, “You were wrong, you know. Back at the hospital, you said that you couldn’t win her over. But you did; she’s in love with you.” The Mare woman shifted in her seat nervously, but made no effort to interrupt. “She hasn’t said so, at least not in words. But I can see it in her eyes when you two are together. The way she smiles while texting you. The awkwardness in the hugs, settling for a ‘friend’ hug when what she really wants to do is wrap you up in those wings and never let you go. The quick glances at your lips as she thinks about kissing you. She’s got it bad for you, and it’s killing her to pretend otherwise.”\n\n“Ross, I’m… I don’t know what I should say to that,” Maykere said, “I’m not going to sit here and lie to you and tell you I don’t feel the same way, but if you’re asking me to walk away, I-”\n\n“Wait, please,” the Lioness said. “Let me finish. “I’m not mad at you. Far from it, in fact. I think that you played a big part in bringing Megan and me back together, and for that I can never thank you enough. I may not have [b]all[/b] of her love anymore, but she [b]does[/b] love me, and it’s more than what I had while we were apart. Besides, it was my own stubbornness that separated us…”\n\n“Megan told me about your father not being around,” Maykere said softly. “That must have been hard on you. I lost my mother to a car accident when I was six, my Dad to brain cancer when I was twenty. But they didn’t choose to leave, and I have a lot of wonderful memories of the times I spent with them. I’m so sorry you had to go through that. But Megan…”\n\n“Didn’t choose to leave. She didn’t even know the baby existed,” Ross finished. “I know that now. Can I tell you a secret?” The other woman gave a slight, if hesitant, nod. “I met the baby’s mother. At the dance. Beautiful woman, very kind and sweet. She showed me pictures of her son, Matteo - that’s Italian for ‘Matthew,’ I think; he’s got Megan’s eyes, and her wings, but the rest he gets from his mom…”\n\n“Ross, I… I don’t know if I can keep this a secret. Are you going to tell Megan?” Maykere asked, her eyes wide and mouth half-open in stunned shock.\n\n“I will,” the Lioness said with a sigh, “but after graduation. With everything going on right now, with the assault and her recovery, and it being less than four months to go until we graduate, she has enough of an uphill battle as it is. Plus, if word ever gets out that Megan is the father, this woman’s whole life will be ruined.”\n\n“Oh… Oh!” Maykere gasped. Her voice dropping to a whisper, she asked, [i]“Is she a teacher at your school?”[/i]\n\nWith a quick glance to make sure they weren’t about to be interrupted, Ross answered, as calmly as she could, “Yes! But try and keep a straight face, like we’re just having a normal conversation, or else someone will wonder what’s got you all worked up.”\n\nA couple of seconds ticked by before Maykere started giggling.\n\n“What’s so funny?”\n\n“You know, you and I have never had a normal conversation before, one-on-one,” the woman replied. “I think the fact that the two of us are sitting here, talking like this, would be the biggest red flag.”\n\n“You’re right,” Ross said with a slight grin. “Actually, that’s part of why I came over here in the first place. You’ve been there for Megan, you’re probably her best friend, so I think we should try and coexist for her sake. She’s obviously having a rough time. I mean, physically, her body’s made some noticeable progress healing itself, but after everything that happened, I don’t know how deep the mental trauma goes. She needs you and I working together. So… I think that you and I should hang out sometime, just you and me. Get to know each other a little better. What do you say?”\n\nThe Mare smiled back and answered, “I think I would like that a lot.”\n\n[center]~~~~~[/center]\n\n[b]The Residence of Cecilia Gaithers[/b]\n\n“I’m proud of you for trying,” the Headmistress of Chimera Prep said as she set a mug of tea down in front of the teen Ferret. “I know it couldn’t have been easy for you to put yourself out there like that.”\n\n“Careful, old lady,” Kristin replied as she took the hot beverage into her paw. “That almost sounded sincere.”\n\n“And who says it wasn’t?” the elderly shrew asked as she sat down across from the girl.\n\n“Come on, I’m not stupid. I know your boss is comping my tuition, and has been mitigating the damage from my bullshit. My counselor’s an albino Mouse, just like his wife, and insurance never once came up in four months, so they’ve got to be related in some way. It’s not that much of a stretch to assume that you’re giving me a roof over my head and feeding me because he asked you to.”\n\n“No one thinks you’re stupid, Kristin,” Cecilia said with a sigh. “Quite the opposite, in fact. Your grades are actually in the top tenth percentile in a school that prides itself, and justly so, on providing a quality education.”\n\n“So then why didn’t anyone say anything about why they’re helping me?” Kristin asked. “If I’m as smart as you say, then you know I would’ve figured things out eventually.”\n\n“Isn’t the fact that we actually care reason enough?”\n\n“Why do you care?” the Ferret asked, genuinely curious to know. “I get Mr. and Mrs. Ebonshade, and Doc Hartley, being friends with my mother, but why are you so interested?”\n\n“Because,” Cecilia began before taking a sip of her tea, “I see the woman you have the potential to become, and I would very much like the chance to meet her someday.”\n\n“So you’re trying to fix me,” she scoffed.\n\n“Only you can fix you,” the Headmistress stated. “And it sounds like you’ve started making progress on that front. I’m here for you because I want to be.”\n\n“Even though I’m fucked up?”\n\nWith a sharp laugh, Cecilia replied, “Kiddo, everyone’s fucked up. You may be more than most, but a lot of people - Mr. and Mrs. Ebonshade, Ms. Hartley, Kaitlyn, her parents, myself - want to see you happy and thriving, whether you think you deserve it or not. And we’re not going anywhere. So suck it up, because you’re stuck with us.”\n\nThe seconds ticked by as Kristin let that message sink in, a slight smile forming at the corners of her mouth that she couldn’t hide. “So then,” she asked, “do you think you could help me with how I should approach Megan?”\n\n[center]~~~~~[/center]\n\n[b]…And Back to Megan’s Place[/b]\n\n“Hey,” Vivy called out from where she and Jack were sitting and talking with Melissa, Megan’s half-sister. “Get your asses over here! We wanna talk to you about somethin’.”\n\n“Oh, God, this can’t be good,” Ross muttered with a roll of her eyes as she rose to her footpaws and pushed Megan over to where their bandmates waited.\n\n[color=#babdb6]“Probably not, but knowing those two it should at least be entertaining,”[/color] the Bat replied with a grin.\n\nMelissa scooted over to make room for Ross to sit, and once the Tundra Lioness was seated, Vivy told the young Fox-Bat girl, “Go ahead, tell them what you told us.”\n\n“So I overheard your friends - the Wolf, Chipmunk, Squirrel, and Raccoon - all talking about staging some kind of protest against some guy named ‘Roman’ who’s running for Mayor or something?” Megan’s sister meekly explained. “I'm sorry, I wasn't trying to spy on them or anything, I was just sitting on the floor reading one of my manga and I don't think they saw me, but it sounded like most of the people in this room don't like the man and I wanted to know more so I asked these guys.”\n\n“He’s the interim Mayor,” Ross explained, “and he has a very negative view on hermaphrodites that he’s been very vocal about. And for whatever reason, it’s been gaining in popularity.”\n\n“He’s also my neighbor,” the Giraffe girl added. “Whenever we practice in my garage, he likes to come over and complain, then misquote different city ordinances to try and get us to stop. Bitch, please, I did my homework.”\n\n[color=#babdb6]“It's rhetoric like his that fuels attacks similar to the one I suffered,”[/color] Megan said. [color=#babdb6]“That man has no place in politics.”[/color]\n\n“Which is why Leo and them are planning this rally,” Jack spoke up. “And why we’re going to give Roman a [b]real[/b] reason to complain about our music.”\n\n“We are [b]so[/b] gonna fuck his day up,” Giraffe said, with a gleam of twisted joy in her eyes.\n\n[center]~~~~~[/center]\n\n[u]February 10, 2014[/u]\n[b]Chimera Preparatory Academy, Student Parking[/b]\n\n“Well, Shit,” Ross muttered as she parked her Honda Civic in the handicapped space temporarily assigned to them during Megan’s recovery. “I swear I don’t have the patience for her bullshit this morning.”\n\n[color=#babdb6]“What?”[/color] Megan asked, looking around but seeing nothing. Her cast and her wings made it difficult to undo the seatbelt to look behind them.\n\n“It’s Kristin. She’s walking this way.”\n\n[color=#babdb6]“Unbuckle me, please.”[/color]\n\n“What? Megs, no way. There’s no way in Hell I’m going to let you get hurt again by that bitch,” the Tundra Lioness protested.\n\n[color=#babdb6]“She won’t hurt me. She can’t. Not anymore,”[/color] the Bat answered, anger welling up from the pit of her stomach. [color=#babdb6]“Besides, you’re here to protect me. I just need to get something off my chest.”[/color]\n\n“If you’re sure about this…” the Tundra Lioness replied hesitantly as she reached over and unfastened her fianceé’s seatbelt.\n\n[color=#babdb6]“Ross, trust me. I’ve got this,”[/color] Megan said as she used her good paw to open the car door and pull herself up out of the car, being extremely careful not to put weight on her broken leg. Turning to face her former lover, the cause of so much of her emotional and physical pain, she was prepared to unload a torrent of anger and frustration. Her jaw flared up in pain as she subconsciously clenched her teeth, only adding to her anger.\n\nStill, she was caught completely by surprise by what she saw.\n\nThe Ferret girl was crying.\n\nKristin MacDaniel [b]never[/b] cried.\n\nThe fire burning in her gut died out as Kristin slowly approached, eyes cast down at the asphalt. Megan could see the tear tracks running down the girl’s cheeks, and see the bubbles of snot inflating out of her nostrils and bursting. Memories came flooding back of their childhood days, of Kristin holding and comforting her after being abused by her mother. Of Kristin standing up for her and smacking Ryan’s face into a locker after he called her trash. Of the night she lost her virginity to the Ferret up on the bluffs overlooking the ocean. Despite the conflicts between them over the last year, there was a long history of friendship and, to a lesser extent than what she had with Ross or Maykere, love.\n\nShe gingerly hobbled a couple of steps, leaning against the side of the car for support, held out her arms, and as the other girl drew near, engulfed her in a comforting hug.\n\n“Megan… I… I’m…” Kristin sobbed.\n\n[color=#babdb6]“Shhhh… Let it out.”[/color]\n\n“I never meant for… what they did to you. It’s my fault,” the teen Ferret cried into Megan's shoulder. “I-If I hadn't been such a bitch… if I hadn't interfered with you and Ross… Then… Then you…”\n\n[color=#babdb6]“I'm okay, Kristin,”[/color] Megan said as she used her good arm to pull the other girl tighter into the hug. [color=#babdb6]“But you need to get your temper under control. I'm worried about you.”[/color]\n\n“I know. I'm in counseling, and I promise, I'm trying,” her former lover explained. “I got the number to take anger management classes. I'm going to call them after school today.”\n\n[color=#babdb6]“Good. I think that will help you a lot.”[/color]\n\n“Can you ever forgive me?” Kristin asked through the mucus pouring from her nose.\n\n[color=#babdb6]“I want the mother's information, and you owe Ross an apology,”[/color] Megan said firmly, but compassionately. [color=#babdb6]“But except for a few broken bones, I’m happy with where I am now. Who I am now.”[/color]\n\n“I’m sorry for the role I played in everything, but I’m glad to know you’re happy. I’ll talk to the mom today, and have her reach out to you directly.” The Ferret girl reluctantly broke their hug and wiped away the tears and snot before turning to face the Tundra Lioness. Ross looked on with skepticism as she walked around to the other side of the car and held out her paw. “Ross, I’ve been nothing but an asshole to you since the day we met. I've tried to ruin the best thing to ever happen to you - I know this, because she was the best thing to ever happen to me, too - and you’ve both suffered greatly for it. I promise that's behind me, and I’ll do everything and anything I can to make things right. I’m sorry, for everything.”\n\nA moment passed before Ross reached out and accepted the offered paw, but when she did, she gave it a firm squeeze and a solid shake. “I'm willing to give you a chance, for Megan’s sake. Don't make me regret it, ever, or else you’ll wish you'd never met either of us. But if you really want to make things right, you can start by making sure Ryan stays far, far away from her.”\n\n“Give me a month, and just hearing her name will make him jump,” Kristin said with a grin.\n\n“That would go a long way with me.”\n\n“I wonder if his skull’s still magnetic?” Kristin muttered.\n\n“What? How does…? Wait, on second thought, I don’t want to know…” the Tundra Lioness responded.\n“Plausible deniability,” the other girl laughed. “Good thinking.”\n\nMegan continued to lean against the side of Ross’s Civic as she started to make her way around to the others, but Ross quickly stopped her. “Megan! What are you trying to do to yourself?”\n\n[color=#babdb6]“Sorry,”[/color] the Bat grimaced through the pain and exertion as the other two rushed over to assist her. [color=#babdb6]“I just wanted to be a part of the healing.”[/color]\n\n“Can you get the wheelchair out from the trunk for us, please?” the Tundra Lioness asked as she pressed and held the ‘trunk’ button on her keyfob.\n\n[color=#babdb6]“I’m proud of you,”[/color] Megan said as Kristin removed the chair from the trunk and unfolded it. [color=#babdb6]“I know that couldn't have been easy for you.”[/color]\n\n[i]“It wasn’t,”[/i] Ross whispered. [i]“But I know you two used to be very close. But if she stabs you in the back again, I’ll stab her in the eyes.”[/i]\n\n“I can hear you, you know,” Kristin remarked as she finished locking the sides of the wheelchair into place. “But it’s okay. I understand I need to earn your trust. I get it. Now come on, let’s get you up that hill before the bell rings.” She walked over to take Megan’s left paw and help her to sit down when she spotted the diamond on her ring finger.\n\n“You two got engaged?” She asked, looking between the Bat and the Lioness, who responded with smiles. “That’s amazing to hear! I’m so happy for the both of you!” She pulled Megan into another hug, and said, “Really, you two are beautiful together.”\n\n[color=#babdb6]“Thank you,”[/color] Megan replied as she returned the hug. [color=#babdb6]“And you can relax. I forgive you.”[/color]\n\n“You know, I think you should take some self-defense classes,” Kristin stated as they started walking towards the school entrance. “Something like Krav Maga, maybe? I know a guy; I’m sure he’d be willing to teach you, probably even give you a discount, if I talked to him.”\n\n[center]~~~~~[/center]\n\n\n\n", "writing_bbcode_parsed": "
WARNING!


This chapter contains some seriously heavy shit; depending on your triggers, it may even be heavier than Megan getting her skull stomped in. That particular part of this story should probably be its own chapter, but honestly, it's not long enough.

So, this chapter has been divided into 12A and 12B. 12A is the really heavy shit that you can avoid if you so wish. If the topics of drug abuse and child molestation are triggering for you, please skip ahead to 12B, the happier stuff. If these topics do not bother you, I encourage you to read through it, no matter how uncomfortable it may be, as it will shed some light on some long-standing issues surrounding one of the main antagonists.

Your feedback - whether praise or criticism - is welcomed and encouraged. I do hope that you enjoy this EXTREMELY overdue installment, and I promise that the wait for the next one will not be nearly as long.

~VerbMyNoun

~~~~~
The Bat & The Cat
Chapter 12A: Bleed Like Me
~~~~~


February 7, 2014
The Office of Priscilla Hartley, LMHC

The albino Mouse woman tried to hide her surprise as her 4:00 appointment entered the room. Rather than making all the customary grumblings of ‘This is such a fucking waste of time’ or ‘Let’s get this bullshit over with,’ the eighteen year old Ferret girl quietly sat down on the loveseat opposite her desk. She didn’t even kick the door open, as was her way, with her clunky black combat boots, on the way in. Pris’ concerns regarding her surprise being noticed were unnecessary, though; Kristin MacDaniel had her head down, her brown eyes staring vacantly through the floor. Clearly, something was weighing heavily on the young woman’s mind. Rather than saying anything, Pris quietly reached into the top right drawer of her desk, removed a pen and notepad, and slid it shut. The soft carpet muffled the sounds of her four-inch heels as she walked over to where her patient sat. The Mouse carefully smoothed the sides of her pencil skirt before taking a seat. And she waited.

“Megan’s coming back to school on Monday,” was all Kristin said after a couple minutes of palpable silence. There was a slight tremble to her voice, as if she was on the verge of crying.

Megan Conroy. Kristin’s former lover and the recipient of a vicious attack being hailed by the national media as a potential hate crime. Pris had tried to get her patient to open up about their relationship in the past, but just like everything else, the girl walled herself off behind anger and apathy. In fact, those seven words were about the only constructive things Kristin had said since she agreed to take the Ferret on as a patient. But the girl had been discharged by pretty much every other LPC, LCPC, and LMHC in Marblecliff. She knew it was a conflict of interest; long ago she and her cousin, Gwen, had been friends with this poor girl's deceased mother. Gwen and her husband, Mason, had even been her foster parents for a brief time, though Kristin continually ran away. And while Kristin didn’t know it, she was attending Chimera Prep tuition-free thanks to Mason. The Impala kept her from being expelled, despite her antics. He even pulled some strings to have Kristin live where she was staying now, at least until graduation. Still, most of that was Mason’s doing. Priscilla felt that she owed Kelly this.

“Tell me about Megan,” Pris said softly, her pen poised to take notes.

“She’s my best friend,” Kristin said, a soft smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. “I know what you’re probably thinking: ‘Don’t you mean was my best friend?’ But no, I don’t. I don’t really have friends. I know. Shocker, right? She was really the only one, so she’s still ranked numero uno. Whether she counts me as a friend or not, I still think of her that way. She didn’t do anything to break us apart, I did, and… I’ve regretted it every day ever since.”

Kristin looked up from the light gray carpet, nervous uncertainty written across her face. She’s expecting criticism. The Mouse woman did her best to meet that gaze with compassion and encouragement, her pale pink eyes gleaming with curiosity and interest. The woman lifted her notepad slightly and gracefully crossed her stockinged legs before setting the notepad back down on her thigh. “How did you two meet?”

Kristin closed her eyes and let the memory wash over her. “It was back in the fourth grade. I had just started at a new school after getting fostered by a family in a different part of the city. It was our lunch period. I didn’t know anybody and just wanted to be left alone. Looking around, I saw this tiny little Bat sitting all by herself, and I could tell that she wanted to be left alone, too. So I sat down at her table. We didn’t speak, we just sat there in silence, eating our lunches. This went on for the next couple of days. Then one day, I get my food, and I see that she’s sitting at our normal table, but she’s not alone. I didn’t want to deal with anyone else, so I took my tray, found a nice secluded patch of wall and copped a squat. But a minute later, without a word, she sat down next to me and we ate in silence just like the other days. It was the first time I could remember somebody other than Kaitlyn choosing me over someone else. It was still another week or so before either one of us spoke to the other, but that’s how it started.”

“I see,” Pris remarked. “It sounds like you both wanted to be left alone, but didn't want to feel lonely. You found someone who it seemed like was going through something similar, and you formed a bond.”

“It was a long time ago, but yeah, that sounds about right,” the teen Ferret nodded.

“So when you and she finally did start speaking, what did you talk about?”

“Spanish class, I think,” Kristin answered. “She was sitting there in the cafeteria, studying, practicing saying different phrases out loud, probably for some quiz or something we were going to have later on. There was one word she kept mispronouncing, though… I can't remember what it was she was trying to say, but I corrected her.”

“So you initiated verbal communication?” her counselor asked.

“Yeah,” the teen answered. “We didn’t talk about anything else that day, but it grew from there. I’d help her with Spanish, she’d help me with music.” Kristin let out a soft laugh. “Oh shit, I just remembered when our music teacher, Mrs. Jacobs, assigned all of us instruments. Megan had her heart set on learning guitar, maybe violin. Said her mom liked singers like Bob Dylan and John Denver, and wanted to learn so she could cheer her up. Instead, that old Possum went and gave her a tambourine. Said that bat wings would make it too hard to play and gave the guitar to one of her favorite bootlickers. He quit playing the following year.”

“Well that seems awfully speciesist,” Priscilla remarked. “But that was common with the older generation. Thankfully, recent generations have gotten more progressive. It's too bad we still live in a world where hermaphrodites are reviled by closed-minded bigots, but forty years ago interspecies couples were looked down upon, so hopefully soon things will be better… But I digress. It's so sweet that Megan wanted to learn to play for her Mom.”

“Yeah, that woman was way overdue for retirement,” Kristin replied. “I’m surprised she was still able to hear. Or maybe she couldn’t. Good Lord, I know we were just fourth graders and most of us had no prior experience, but we were awful! But Megan, she learned how to play that tambourine just because she loved music so much. And now she’s learned how to play bass. Too bad Mrs. Jacobs isn’t around anymore to see it. I’d have loved to make her eat her words.”

“So then what happened?”

“Well… After a while, I started noticing things. She’d have a slight limp one day, or she’d raise or lower her arm more slowly than normal… Things like that. I recognized the signs of abuse. I’d been through it myself. When I tried to get her to talk about it, she wouldn’t, so I told her my story, or at least my story as I understood it at that age. There was still a lot I didn’t comprehend at nine years old,” the Ferret explained. “But I eventually got her to open up… When she was born, her Dad abandoned them because she was a hermaphrodite. God, to this day I think about it and I just want to find him and beat the shit out of him! Her mom, trying to cope with being a single parent, would drink, and sometimes when she’d drink, she’d get mean and hit Megan. She begged me to keep it a secret, so I did. Thankfully, things with her mom worked out eventually. From what I can tell, her mom went to rehab, sobered up, and got a nice job.”

Curious, Pris had to ask, “And how exactly did you find this out? Are you spying on her?”

“No. Well, maybe. Not directly,” the Ferret admitted. “Kaitlyn is sort of dating Ross’s cousin - Ross is Megan’s girlfriend, you see, so when I hang around the two of them sometimes I catch bits and pieces of what’s going on with Megan.”

“How are things with Kaitlyn? Pretty good, I assume, if Roger and Melinda allow you into their house,” the Mouse woman continued.

“Things are great,” Kristin replied. “She’s the best thing going on in my life.”

“And you never hit her? Do anything to embarrass or humiliate her?”

“Of course not!”

“And why not?” Priscilla prodded.

“Because she’s my sister and I love her, obviously,” the teen answered, sounding somewhat annoyed.

“But you loved Megan.”

“I still do, in some fashion,” Kristin remarked. “Where’s this going?”

“Humor me, please. You humiliated Megan in front of the entire school, and later meddled in her relationship,” the counselor explained. “But you never do anything like that to Kaitlyn.”

“Because Kait’s a perfect angel,” she answered. “I don’t think she could irritate me if she tried.”

“So that’s what triggers your outbursts?”

“Yeah, I suppose so. I mean, if I ask someone to do something and they tell me no or just ignore me, I can usually handle it, no problem. But when it’s someone close to me, who I have emotional attachments to, I just see red and I lash out without thinking about the consequences until it’s too late.”

“Kristin, let me preface my next question with this: I’m not here to judge you, and I’m so happy that you finally opened up and started to share. I’m only asking this question so that you can take a look inside and find the answer for yourself. Do you understand?”

The Ferret girl’s smile disappeared and she shifted uncomfortably in her seat.

“Why do you suppose,” Pris began, “that you did the things you did to Megan, yet at the same time you feel so strongly against others who have hurt her?”

Kristin sat there in silence for a couple of moments, mulling over the question in her mind. The answer was obvious, Pris knew; the teen just needed to decide if she was ready to accept this particular truth. Finally, she said, “Because that’s how my Dad was. He’d be on the verge of a rampage if anyone ever said or did anything to hurt me. But he was the one who hurt me the most. And look at me now… Like father, like daughter.”

Kristin looked up and their eyes met. The Mouse woman said nothing, just gave an encouraging nod, silently urging the teen to continue. “I didn’t know why it started happening, all I knew was that Mom was… I don’t know, fading away, I guess. Becoming more and more distant. She’d spend less and less time with me and Kaitlyn, come home long after we went to bed and still be asleep when we went to school in the morning. Eventually she stopped coming home altogether. I didn’t know she was on drugs at the time, I just thought she didn’t love us anymore. I don’t know how Dad really felt about everything, but I was happy that I was able to be closer to him. He was the one to help me with my homework. He was the one to help me get ready for bed and to tuck me in at night. I asked him once if he was sad because Mom didn’t love us anymore. He said he was sad that I felt like she didn’t love me, but promised me that he always would, no matter what.”

“That must have meant the world to you at the time,” Pris replied.

“It did. I wanted so badly to be deserving of that love. I started helping out more around the house. Doing dishes, vacuuming, changing Kaitlyn’s diapers, whatever I could to make things easier for him so he could have more time to relax and spend time with me. He told me I didn’t have to do so much, but I told him that since Mom wasn’t there I wanted to step up in her place. I didn’t know what it meant, but one day, I kissed him. The way I used to see him and Mom kiss. It wasn’t the same way he would kiss me, the quick, soft, peck on the lips. No, this was slow, and with tongue. It was so awkward, partly because I didn’t know what I was doing and partly because I was afraid he would stop me.”

“But he didn’t.”

“No. Instead he asked me why. I told him that I knew how Mom’s kisses used to make him feel better. Used to make him happy. Then he kissed me back. A real, grown-up kiss. He even coached me on how to use my tongue to tease and caress his without it feeling awkward,” Kristin took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Tears formed at the corners of her eyes, threatening to run down her cheeks, but they stayed put. “Then one night while I was asleep, he came into my room and crawled into bed next to me. He’d been drinking… I could smell it on his breath. But he… Look, I’m not comfortable enough to talk about the exact particulars of that night and the weeks that followed, but I’m sure you can figure it out.”

Pris crossed over to the loveseat, sat down, and placed a comforting paw on the teen girl’s shoulder. “Kristin,” she said softly, “we don’t need to continue if you…”

“No, I’m fine. It’s fine,” the girl said as she wiped away the drops of saline, the first physical manifestations of emotion she’d shown in Pris’ presence. “I want to. I need to. I need to understand everything so I can give Megan the apology she deserves. I just don’t want to talk about that.”

“Okay,” the counselor said as she gave the girl’s shoulder a reassuring squeeze before returning to her chair. “But if at any point you feel like it’s too much, it’s okay to stop.”

The teen gave a little nod. “Thanks, Doc… I dunno… I guess somewhere along the way, Dad started to lose track of where the line was between parent and child, husband and wife. That’s what I felt like. His new wife. It felt good… But I got to see the ugly side of him, too. If I did something he didn’t like, or did it in a way he didn’t like it done, he’d hit me. Not a gentle slap, either, but a full-blown smack, hard enough to send me sprawling. He actually knocked out a couple of my baby teeth once. He’d always comfort me and soothe me afterwards and apologize for being so rough with me, saying he was still trying to figure out where the balance was in our new relationship. Like the extra love and newfound intimacy needed to be offset by harsher punishment or something. Or he was angry at me for coaxing him into something forbidden. I think that’s why Mom started getting high and stopped coming home… She was sick of being his piñata.”

“Kristin, I’m so sorry,” Pris said softly, but if Kristin heard her, she didn’t show it. She just kept going.

“One day we were going upstairs to bed. By this point I was sleeping in his and Mom’s bed almost every night. He was telling me about how he wanted to try having sex with me… back there. I complained that I was scared to try it and wanted to do something else, so he turned around and punched me. Right in the forehead. I went tumbling down the stairs and broke my arm. He had to take me to the hospital, and insisted that when anyone asks, it was my Mom who hit me, before she ran away again.” Kristin looked up at Pris, this time the tears were actively streaming down her cheeks, leaving trails in her fur. “The thing is, I was in love with him, even with the abuse, and I was already planning on blaming Mom before he even asked. I’m sorry, I know that she was your friend, and that my actions that night helped to lead to her death.”

This revelation rocked Priscilla to her very foundation, her pen falling off her lap and landing somewhere on the floor. Kelly, Mason’s former personal assistant responsible for introducing him to Gwen, and had been one of the bridesmaids in their wedding… It’s true that after the Ferret woman met Jason MacDaniel their friendship had drifted apart. She knew that Kelly had gotten into drinking and drugs, and she suspected Jason was abusing her, and she tried to help on more than one occasion, but she had no idea it had gotten this bad… She didn’t know what else she could have done, but should she have done more? She - she should stop the session. She knew she could no longer keep her own feelings and emotions out of it - if she ever could at all! But she was just too stunned to speak, while across from her the words would not stop…

“Once we got home, Dad took me up to our room, laid me down, and worshiped me from head to toe. Maybe it was the painkillers, but to this day I’ve never felt better in my entire life. He kept apologizing for punching me, calling me his sweet angel and his darling princess, and gave me more orgasms than I could count up to at that time. Do you know what’s really fucked up? I still love him to this day. Not like a daughter should love her father.” Kristin took a deep sigh before continuing.

“We fell asleep that night naked, him spooning me from behind under the covers. And we stayed that way up until Mom came home in the morning and found us. It was the first time she’d been home in almost a month. I woke up to the feeling of the covers being ripped from the bed, followed by the back of a paw across my mouth. Mom called me a jezebel. A hussy. A whore. A slut. Then she turned her wrath on Dad and proceeded to smack and punch him. He just stood there and took it while she screamed at him about the cops finding her and having a nice conversation about beating their daughter. Kaitlyn started crying from her bedroom across the hall. Dad grabbed Mom’s arms and told me to go check on my sister, so I ran out of the room, getting a swift kick in my ass from Mom as I passed. Once I got to Kaitlyn’s room, I shut and locked the door, picked her up out of her crib, and held her close, rocking her in my arms trying to soothe us both as I tried not to listen to everything happening in my parents’ bedroom. Lots of shouting. Screaming. Furniture breaking. Mom threatening to ‘kill that bitch,’ I can only assume she meant me. Then there was a gunshot, and everything went quiet. Eerily quiet. I don’t know how long I sat there in the dim light of pre-dawn holding my sister, but eventually there was a knock on the door. It was the police. Mom was dead; he shot her in the back of her head. They had him outside in handcuffs, and waited until he was out of the house before checking on us. They didn’t want me to see him getting arrested. I never saw him again after that…”

Priscilla was actively crying along with Kristin at this point, her pink eyes had to be bloodshot red, and snot was pouring from her nose. The teen Ferret had stopped talking and stood, walking over to kneel in front of the older Mouse woman. Kristin tenderly wrapped her arms around her counselor’s waist, and softly whispered, “I’m sorry. I know she was your friend, and I helped to get her killed. I’m so, so, so, sorry.”
“I’m sorry, too,” Pris cried. “I’m sorry I didn’t do more to try to help your mom.” The pair wept together well past Pris’ normal office hours, holding each other and apologizing, wiping away tears and forgiving. Finally, at almost six o’clock, the pair stopped their mutual crying session, straightened up their hair, makeup, and clothing, and said their goodbyes. Pris had a gut feeling that this would be the last time she ever saw Kristin in her office, but hoped she would run into the girl now and again out in public. As the teen Ferret reached for the door, the Mouse stopped her.

“Kristin,” she called out.

“Yeah?”

“I think you know how to apologize to Megan now,” she said encouragingly. “Good luck, but - don’t be surprised if she doesn’t forgive you. It’s okay if she doesn’t, though. Maybe one day she will. But you need this even more, if you’re ever going to forgive yourself.”

Kristin gave a weak smile in response. “Thanks, Doc. For everything.”

“If you ever need anything, you call me. Do you understand?”

~~~~~
Chapter 12B: Beloved Freak
~~~~~


February 8, 2014
Marblecliff, NH - Conroy Residence

“So, Megan, are you all set to go back to school on Monday?” Jessie asked as she set down the tray of refreshments on the coffee table for everyone to enjoy. The teenaged Bat had to admit that things around the apartment had become much livelier since her attack. The unfortunate incident was the catalyst for many positive changes in her life and the lives of so many people she loved. Jessie and Melissa were still around, and her mother seemed happier than Megan could ever recall seeing her. In fact, if she didn’t know any better, she’d swear that her mom and Jessie were dating. It was a funny thought, the idea that her father’s ex-wife and his widow would become a couple, and that her half-sister could also become her step-sister. And Ross, her fiancée (she was never going to get tired of that idea!) had practically moved in, leaving the house without her only to go to school. The once cold and lonely apartment was now overflowing with love and laughter. It felt like home.

And currently it was filled to overflowing with guests.

Her jaw still wired shut, Megan was forced to speak through clenched teeth, but thankfully the searing hot pain from a month ago had settled into a mild, tolerable ache. “Yes, and no. I’m more than ready to finally be able to get out of the house and do normal things again. It’s gonna suck having to get pushed around in a wheelchair for a few more weeks, but at least I don’t have to manage on my own.” She took Ross’s paw in her own good one, and looked around the room at her gathered friends. “Ross will get me from point A to B most of the time, but Ethan, Claire, and Leo have agreed to step in when she’s on the other side of the school.”

 Lucinda looked over at the trio her daughter had just indicated, “Thank you all so much for agreeing to help. It’s so nice to know that there are kind, reliable people in Megan’s life outside of home.” She looked over at the teen squirrel and added, “And Claire, an extra thank you for offering to help with Megan’s recovery exercises. I hear you want to go to college to be a physical therapist and go into sports medicine?”

Claire Summers nodded and smiled, placing her hand on her boyfriend’s leg, where flesh met plastic and metal. “That’s right! I was thinking about kinesiology, but after helping this lummox literally get back onto his feet after the accident, I developed a serious interest in helping others get over their injuries more quickly.”

Ethan grinned and added, “And hey, if she’s got me back to being able to do backflips, I know she can get you back up on your feet and playing your bass again in no time.”

“I’m just glad that Headmistress Gaithers agreed to let us push your wheelchair around,” Ross commented. “That way one of us can be there to make sure nothing happens, and we can get some extra time together.”

A knock on the door brought a brief interruption to the conversation. “I’ll get that,” Jessie said as she did a quick spin on her heel and walked off to welcome the next guests.

“So, seeing as how I’m still kinda the new guy around here, is there anyone else besides Kristin I should try and steer clear of while I’m helping Megan get around?” the Wolf teen, Leo, asked. He’d only been in Megan’s circle of friends for three months now, and she hadn’t been at school since the formal, but she already counted him amongst her closest friends. He, and the gorgeous Chipmunk girl he was currently holding paws with, had been among her most frequent visitors at the hospital.

“Ryan Carlin,” Megan answered. “He’s the one that threw the bottle of water on me at the dance. If I see him, I can’t promise I won’t bash his face in with my cast. The pain would be worth it.”

“Wait, the same Badger that burned Holly did what?” Leo asked incredulously.

“I can’t believe I ever agreed to go to the dance with that jerk,” Holly, the Chipmunk girl, responded. “After how dedicated he seemed to asking me out, he almost sold me that he might be halfway decent.”

“Who was that?” Lucinda asked as Jessie re-entered the living room.

“Just one of the neighbors asking if we’d seen her dog,” the Vixen answered as she took a seat on the older Bat’s lap. “I told her we’d keep an eye open, just in case, and wished her luck finding him.”

~~~~~


“Hey, hold on one second,” Maykere spoke into her cell as Ross pushed Megan over to where she was seated. With a quick tap of her screen, the Mare turned the phone around to face the teenaged Bat. There, smiling back at her was a familiar, friendly face she hadn’t seen in nearly a year. Even though they’d only met once, briefly, she wasn’t likely to forget the beautiful, brown-eyed doe Rabbit anytime soon.

“Megan!” “Megan!” They both shouted, or at least one of them would have if she could.

The Bat looked from the phone over to Maykere, then back. “You two know each other?”

“Oh, Maykere and I are old friends,” the other Megan answered. “She actually did all of my piercings. As a matter of fact, when I met you I was in town to see her. Small world, isn’t it? And is that your girlfriend? She’s so pretty! Hi! I’m Megan! I met your girlfriend at the mall back in, what was it, April? May?”

“I did your belly piercing in May,” Maykere answered for her.

“Right,” the Rabbit woman said. “Did you ever check out that store I told you to? The one with the cute leg warmers?”

“Yeah, thanks for the tip, by the way,” the Bat teen replied. “Heather hired me in, but at least she was up front and told me that it was partly to attract more young male customers. But they’ve all been really sweet, not creeps like Sebastian was.”

“Well, I’m glad I could help! How do you like it?”

“I actually like it a lot more than I thought I would,” Megan said enthusiastically. “I’m actually looking forward to going back once these casts come off and my jaw gets unwired.”

“Yeah, I’m on anime withdrawal,” Ross interjected. “I haven’t been in to check the new releases since New Year’s.”

“I knew it, you’re just using me for my employee discount,” her girlfriend joked.

“Not just for the discount,” the Tundra Lioness countered. “I also need your opinion on my cosplay.”

“Some of the costumes are pretty neat,” Megan said. “I can see some of the appeal, but I still don’t one hundred percent get it. I am interested in trying out Dungeons and Dragons, though. The people that come in seem to really enjoy it, plus it seems like it would be a good way to catch up with friends as well as get the creative juices flowing.”

“Maykere and I used to play,” the Rabbit woman offered. “It was a lot of fun. If you give it a try, I wouldn’t mind joining you, if you’ll have me.”

“How would that work?” Megan asked. “You’re in another country.”

“Oh, that’s easy. There are virtual tabletops as well as applications like Discord where we could all play together. It’s all online.”

“Those were some great times,” the Mare added, “I’d also love to join you.”

“Going to be a Cleric again?” Megan B. asked. “Or are you ready to try something different after all these years?”

“Honestly, I was considering making a Druid,” Maykere answered. “I’d still have some of the healing abilities, but I think I’d be more useful in a fight. The Wild Shape feature seems especially fun.”

“Fifth Edition comes out later this year,” the Bat explained. “I can pre-order it through my work and have it the night before it hits the shelves.”

“We need to find ourselves a DM,” the Rabbit woman reminded them, “and it couldn't hurt to have one or two more players. Three player campaigns are possible, but for your first outing I think it may be helpful to have some more experienced adventurers.”

“Well, I’d be willing to give it a try,” Ross spoke up, causing everyone to look in her direction. “I mean, I’ve never played, either, but if it's something Megan’s interested in trying, I will, too.” Squeezing her fianceé’s paw, she added, “Anything to spend more time together.”

With a soft smile, Megan said, “Thanks, Beautiful. I appreciate you wanting to spend time with me, but if you try it and don't like it, don't feel like you’re obligated to keep playing.” Looking at the others, she continued, “I think I know someone who might be willing to DM for us. I’ll check to see if she'd be interested, and ask her if she knows anyone else.”

~~~~~


“Hey, MJ,” Ross said as she placed her back against the wall and slid to the floor to take a seat beside Melissa off to the side of the room. “Whatcha reading?”

The Fox-Bat looked up from the manga that she was reading, “The most recent chapter of Black Butler.” Melissa said as she put her bookmark in the page so she could close and show off the cover. “It’s really good.”

“I’ve seen it on the shelf at Megan’s work, and caught snippets of reviews online,” the Tundra Lioness remarked. “It seems a little dark and goth-y for my tastes, but I'd be curious to hear what you like about it. I’m just about caught up with The Assassination Classroom and am looking for my next series.” She held out her paw and asked, “May I?”

“Oh!” Melissa let out an excited little squeak at the chance to talk about a manga. Handing the book over to the older girl, she explained, “Well It's kinda super dark, I mean the main character gets kidnapped by a cult that kills his parents, and then they do all kinds of bad things.” She paused to take a breath, “And then they get ready to sacrifice him, but the demon is there for him, and ends up being his butler and helping him. How cool would it be to have a butler that’s a demon, I’d sell my soul… especially if he’s cute.” A little bit of blush tinted her ears as she realized she said that last part aloud.

“I dunno,” Ross said as she thumbed through the pages, taking in the artwork. “I mean, my grandfather has servants, including a butler, but it doesn’t really seem all that great.” She paused to think for a moment before continuing, “Buuuuutttttttt… I guess none of them are demons. At least as far as I know. Marishka - she’s one of the maids, an evil old thing - might be, but that could also just be PMS.” She took another glance at the stylistically drawn Bat on the cover. He was slender, with feminine features, as was the trend in Japanese manga. “You know, if he had a pair of boobs and longer, wavier hair - not to mention a million piercings, he might sorta look like Megan.” She gave the younger girl a playful smile. “You’re not a siscon, are you? Cuz that’s my fianceé we’re talking about.”

“Me? Nooooo. I love my sister, but not like that.” Melissa giggled, “I want my life to be like an anime but not that kind… OH!” She squeaked again, “If you had to be in a manga setting or anime, what one would it be?” She asked, leaning in, her excitement showing more and more.”

“Hmmmm,” Ross pondered, considering her options. “My first instinct says Initial D. Like when I’m driving through the winding back country roads doing well over the speed limit, and I feel the pull of the G-force on my body as I take each curve… It’s an incredible rush. I can only imagine how intense that could be at racing speeds.”

“Ooooh, that would be cool! I wonder if we could find someone with a fast car that would let us ride along.”  The hybrid paused, thinking wistfully for a moment, “Me, I would want to be in the Appleseed setting. Ooooh, or Gundam! I would love a giant robot to drive around. Think how fast you could go in something like that! Like, how sweet would it be if I could drive my mech from MechWarrior 3!”

“Hey!” Ross said excitedly. “How would you like to attend Anime Boston with me next month? I want to go, but I didn’t really have anyone to go with that I actually want to spend time with, other than Megan, but I don’t want to push her recovery that hard. And that’s even if her job gives her that day off. Besides, I think you and I could use a day out together to nerd out and get to know each other better. What do you think?”

Melissa’s eyes lit up at the thought of getting to go to another Anime Con, especially Anime Boston. “Mooooom!”

“Yes, you can, as long as you behave until then,” Jessie said, smiling at how happy her daughter was.

“You heard her. The answer is yes!” She said, turning back to Ross, practically bouncing in place. “Oh, this is going to be soooooo cool!”

~~~~~


Making their way around the room, to check in with all of her friends and well-wishers, Megan and Ross approached the loveseat where Holly and Leo snuggled up and talked. “Hey,” Holly said as she saw them coming near, standing up and pulling the Wolf along with her. The Chipmunk girl pulled Megan in closely for a hug, being careful not to put too much pressure on the Bat’s still-healing ribs. “You really are looking much better since the last time I saw you. How are you holding up?”

“I’m just losing my mind, stuck inside this apartment twenty-four-seven,” the Bat explained. “Daytime TV sucks, Ross is at school, Mom’s at work, Melissa’s taking her online classes… There’s Jessie, but she’s my Dad’s widow and I think my mom’s girlfriend. I mean, she’s nice, but it’s still very weird for me to hang out, just the two of us.”

“She does seem pretty nice,” Leo answered. “Still, I don’t blame you, it sounds crazy, even from the outside. Life threw a wild curve at you there.”

“Yeah, no shit,” Ross agreed. “I don’t know if I could ever date one of your exes, Megs.”

“What I think,” Holly spoke up, “is that after your jaw is all healed up, we should go out on a double date. All four of us. That will give you a chance to get out of the house and spend some time with friends outside of school.”

“That’s not a bad idea,” Ross answered. “Any suggestions?”

“There’s bowling, couple’s painting, paint-your-own-pottery, glass blowing,” Leo said as he started to list various date night activities. “Miniature golf, hiking…”

“You know what I think we should do? How about we go to that karaoke bar you told me about?” The Tundra Lioness grinned and looked at the others. “Well, we all know that Megan can sing. Leo, Holly, what do you think? Can we do this and not make complete asses out of ourselves?”

“I’m pretty sure I can make do,” the Wolf answered. “I’d love to hear more of Megan’s singing, since I missed so much of the formal. And I’ve only really heard Holly hum, never really sing.” He looked at his girlfriend and added, “I’m game, if you are?”

“I missed even more of the formal than you did - not that I have any complaints with how things worked out - so yeah, I’d love to,” the diminutive Chipmunk replied. Looking at Megan she asked, “You wanna show these two how it’s done?”

With a smile that couldn’t be contained, not even with her jaw wired shut, Megan answered, “You guys will love this place. They even do 80’s nights on Fridays!”

~~~~~


Meanwhile, at the Home of Melinda and Roger Ashbacher…

“How did it go, apologizing to your friend?” Kaitlyn asked as Kristin tromped down the stairs into the basement. Seeing her sister’s dejected expression, she continued, “Not so great, I take it?”

“I pussied out, Kait,” the older Ferret said as she plopped down onto the couch beside her sibling. “Some Fox woman I don’t know answered the door, and when it opened I could hear a bunch of voices in the apartment, like they were having some kind of big party or something. So I got cold feet. I made up an excuse that I was looking for my lost dog, thanked her for her time, and I got out of there as quickly as I could.”

“It’s probably better that you left, then,” the younger Ferret commented. “That’s something private between you and them. You don’t need a whole crowd looking on, and you don’t want to ruin a happy occasion with melodrama.”

“I’m just afraid that I’m going to lose the nerve before I get the chance to say how I feel, or that I might forget about some of the things that I want to say.”

“Ki… I know it’s not my business, and I know you keep a lot of secrets to try and protect me, but when are you going to start trusting me enough to let me in and know the real you?” the younger Ferret asked. ‘We’re sisters, and I love you unconditionally.”

“Kait…”

“Unconditionally. I promise.”

 After several seconds of agonizing silence, Kristin spoke up. “Megan used to be my best friend. For a time, she was basically my girlfriend. I was too tough and cool to admit to her what she meant to me, but I loved her like she was my girlfriend.”

“Is this the same Megan that Jordan’s cousin is dating, or a different Megan?”

“The same one,” the older sister replied sheepishly. “I know I should have told you sooner! I was just afraid that if you knew you and Jordan would stop talking about her around me, and I wanted to know how she was doing.”
“I’m more than a little mad at you for using my relationship with Jordan to spy on your ex,” Kaitlyn said sternly. “But I can forgive you. But be honest with me next time? Go on.”

“So I broke Megan’s heart, and revealed a very personal secret about her to the entire school, something that she was very ashamed of at the time.”

“You outed her as being a hermaphrodite?”

Kristin nodded. “I have problems, Kait, I try not to let you see them, but I’m seriously fucked up. I wanted Megan to do something, and she said ‘no.’ She’d never refused to do anything for me, and looking back, I know she was right, but I lost it. I threw her out, broke up with her, and embarrassed her in front of everyone. I couldn’t stop myself.”

“Then what happened?” the younger Ferret asked, frowning.

“Then she met Ross, and they started dating,” she explained. “And Ross was good for Megan. She started to blossom, to flourish. And I… I got jealous. Like, crazy jealous. I couldn’t take it anymore.”

“What did you do, Kristin?” Kaitlyn never called her Kristin.

“I know a secret about Megan, and it’s something major,” the older Ferret answered. “I told Ross just enough to make her furious with her, trying to get Megan to come back to me in exchange for the rest.”

“That was… pretty manipulative of you,” the smaller girl scolded.

 “I know, Kait. And if I hadn’t split them up, Megan probably wouldn’t have been at that rave after the dance, and she wouldn’t have been attacked!” Looking at Kaitlyn with tear-filled eyes, she confessed, “I almost got her killed! Over what? Jealousy? Pride? Anger?”

“So you’re telling me that because you screwed up your own relationship with her, you decided to tamper with her relationship with Ross, and because of that Megan almost died?!”

“Yes,” Kristin said softly, eyes downcast as she brushed away some of the tears threatening to fall from them. After a few moments of silence hung in the air between them, the older Ferret looked back up to her sister. “You hate me too, don't you?” she asked softly as she wiped the tears from her eyes.

The younger girl wrapped her sister up in a reassuring hug. “I don’t hate you, Kiki. I could never hate you. I was too young to remember our parents, but I’ve heard things about our mom’s drug use and drinking, and how our father shot her in the head… and what he did to you. You’re broken inside. But it’s okay to be broken, Sis. We just need to put you back together.”

“How do I do that?”

“You don’t. We do. Just speak from the heart, Kiki. I’ll listen. I know some others probably would too,” Kaitlyn said as she took Kristin’s paw in hers and rested her head against her shoulder. After a couple of minutes, she spoke up again. “I wish you hadn’t kept running away, and given Melinda and Roger a chance. They love you, you know, even if you don’t love them back. But I think you’d be a lot happier today, if you hadn’t tried to deal with everything alone.”

“Maybe, Kay, maybe. But they could never be Mom and Dad to me,” Kristin remarked.

“Maybe not, but who says they need to be? It’s not like you had the best luck with our parents,” her sister explained. “But maybe you could use older friends? Or like a really cool aunt and uncle? Or maybe someone you can just throw all your anger and sadness at but they will still love you anyway?”

“You know, you’re pretty smart,” Kristin said as she leaned over and bumped shoulders with her sister. “You definitely got the brains in the family.”

“Don’t forget the looks, too,” Kaitlyn teased as she stuck her tongue out.

“Brat.”

They snuggled together on the coach for several minutes before Kaitlyn broke the silence. “I’m going to talk to Roger about Megan and see if there’s anything he can do to help.”

~~~~~


Back at the Conroy Residence…

As Ross helped Megan around the room to the next group of well-wishers, Leo and Holly were approached by Ethan and Claire. “Hi,” the Squirrel girl said as she extended her paw outward for Holly to shake. “I’m Claire, one of Megan and Leo’s friends from school.”

“Holly,” the Chipmunk responded, gladly taking the other girl’s paw. “It’s really great to meet you.”

“Ethan,” the Raccoon boy added. “Likewise. We’ve heard a lot about you from this guy.” Holly’s flush was immediate, and based on how quickly the Wolf averted his eyes, he probably was too, even if his fur helped to hide it.

“Hopefully all good things” the Chipmunk girl teased, squeezing Leo’s arm gently. “I have actually seen you and some of your friends at Cavallo a few times.” Llyulf smiled over at his date.

“I’ve yet to find a less than wonderful thing about you, Holly.” He returned his attention to the other couple. “Heard anything new?”

“That’s actually partly why we came over here,” Claire continued, “I didn’t want to say anything about it in front of Megan and ruin her night but I thought I might talk to you guys about it and see what you think.”

“Oh joy.” Leo muttered, bristling. “Not a great sign when you start like that.” Holly on the other paw, tilted her head in confusion.

“What? What’s going on?” the Chipmunk asked quietly. “Is everything ok?”

“My Dad’s a Lieutenant with the police,” Claire explained. “He’s been trying to get assigned to the investigation into Megan’s attack, but someone higher up keeps stonewalling him. Meanwhile, the guys they have on it don’t seem to be taking it seriously, or they’re incompetent. He thinks City Hall is trying to hinder the investigation.”

“He’s thought about working the case independently, but anything he finds out without following protocol would just be inadmissible as evidence,” Ethan added. “It would probably result in a suspension and Internal Affairs getting involved as well.”

“Wait, why would City Hall want to interfere with the investigation? Wouldn’t they want to know who did this?” Instead of the pair in front of her, the answer came from her side, spoken like a curse.

“Roman.” Leo spat under his breath. “Didn’t know his prejudice ran that deep. How sure is your dad, Claire?”

“He’s pretty sure the order’s coming from someone in City Hall. Maybe the Mayor, maybe his Deputy, but it has to be either someone with the authority to override the Chief of Police, or the money to buy him,” Ethan answered.

“He’s not so sure it’s Roman,” Claire interjected. “Right now he’s the acting Mayor of a city in the national spotlight for the brutality of the attack on Megan, and the failure to make any progress in handling it. As much as Roman hates herms, he loves status more, and this is hurting his public image.”

“As well it should.” Leo growled. He closed his eyes, and took a breath before continuing. “He may not be behind it, but his rhetoric sure didn't discourage it. Is there anything you think we can do from the outside to help?”

“The way I see it, if something is keeping my Dad from doing his job, we need to find a way to help remove that obstacle,” Claire announced. “It could be Roman. It could be someone using Roman’s reputation against him to keep him from winning the election. Either way, if Roman loses, the blockage should disappear.”

“So,” Ethan asked, “anyone have any ideas on what we can do to make that happen?”

“I could try talking to my dad, Leo. Mr. Zaritzky has come over to our house a few times. I never paid him much attention, but they might be friends or something.” Holly offered.

“Couldn’t hurt, babe, but given what I have seen and heard of Roman since I have been hanging around with these guys, I think I’d rather a more lasting solution.” The Wolf frowned.

“Leo! We can’t just kill the mayor!” Holly gasped. Llyulf’s eyes widened, and he held up his paws.

“Whoa whoa, I wasn’t saying that! I just meant we could do something to help make sure he doesn’t get elected.”

“You know, I’m pretty sure the Dark Riders could do it,” Ethan suggested. “Hell, they’ve probably thought about how to do it a million times already. And I’ve heard rumors that Ms. Fargo used to be a sniper.”

“I know you’re joking, and that’s only a little funny because it’s probably true, but can we please take this a little more seriously?” the Squirrel asked. “Did you have anything specific in mind, Leo?”

“Well, I don’t know yet who’s supposed to be running against Roman, but I don’t know if we need to, either. Why couldn’t we just hold a protest of sorts against Roman, and what he stands for, and rally around people getting treated like they deserve?” Leo suggested.

“I’m actually acquainted with Mr. Archer, the previous mayor,” the Raccoon offered. “I could see if he’d be willing to meet with us to discuss what he thinks is the best course of action. He knows the office and he knows Roman.”

“We can’t have Mayor Archer publicly involved with anything we do,” Claire asserted. “He’s too closely associated with the Dark Riders, and you know that the closer we get to the election, the more alert he’s going to be for any sort of interference from them.”

“I know a guy who won’t throw up as many red flags.” Leo grinned. “I’ve never been over to the Dark Rider House, or met the former Mayor. Let me do some digging, I might be able to take advantage of being the new guy in town.”

~~~~~


“Look at her,” Lucinda said as she snuggled up beside her girlfriend in the small apartment kitchen. “A year ago, she really didn't have any friends besides that Kristin girl, who in the end really wasn’t much of a friend.”

“That's the girl who exposed her as a herm?”

“Yeah,” she confirmed. “But after being publicly humiliated, she shook it off, made new friends, found herself a great girlfriend, joined a band, all while keeping her grades up and working a part-time job. She kept us afloat while I was drowning in the bottle.”

“You aren't the only one to blame for that,” the Vixen countered as she stroked her fingers up and down Lucy’s back. “Myles left you both in a bad way when he bailed. You were a single mom working a shit job for shit pay, trying to raise a child without anyone to ask for advice.” She took a deep breath. “Sure, you didn't handle it well, but it's not your fault for being in the situation you were in. That blame falls squarely on his shoulders.”

“I beat her, Jess,” the Bat woman said softly. “I let the alcohol get the better of me and I hit my baby.”

“She's clearly forgiven you,” her girlfriend said as she gave her a gentle squeeze. “You need to find a way to let it go. For both your sakes.”

After a few moments, Lucinda spoke again. “I know she's strong. She's had the weight of the world on her shoulders from birth, and every time life knocks her down she gets back up tougher than ever.” She pointed over to where Megan sat talking with her bandmates. “If it wasn't for those casts and the fact that she's talking through her teeth, you’d have no idea she was brutally assaulted a month ago. Look at the spark in her eyes, the smile on her muzzle. See how everyone else reacts to being near her.”

“Well, seeing as how Myles wasn’t here to influence her development in any positive way, I guess it’s pretty obvious who she gets it from,” Jessie reassured. “It might have taken you longer to dust yourself off and get back into the fight, but look at you now. “You’re a manager at a fucking electric company, Luce, which is a massive step up from working at the DMV. You’re in a relationship that makes you happy, and believe me, you make your partner happy, too. Just having you closeby makes my life feel complete.”

“You’re a real sweet talker, you know that, right?”

“You bet your sweet ass,” Jessie replied in a low, seductive tone before nipping her girlfriend’s ear. “How about you and I go back to our room and let the kids have their fun?”

~~~~~


“Hey,” Ross said as she approached the armchair where Maykere sat alone, staring out the window at the night sky. “I’d like to talk to you for a little bit, if you don’t mind?” The Mare looked up at her and sighed. Taking her hooves down from the ottoman, she gestured for the other woman to sit.

Nearly a minute passed by, stretched almost to eternity by awkward silence, as Maykere sat, watching and waiting, with those beautiful amethyst eyes that were so similar to Megan’s. Finally, Ross continued, “You were wrong, you know. Back at the hospital, you said that you couldn’t win her over. But you did; she’s in love with you.” The Mare woman shifted in her seat nervously, but made no effort to interrupt. “She hasn’t said so, at least not in words. But I can see it in her eyes when you two are together. The way she smiles while texting you. The awkwardness in the hugs, settling for a ‘friend’ hug when what she really wants to do is wrap you up in those wings and never let you go. The quick glances at your lips as she thinks about kissing you. She’s got it bad for you, and it’s killing her to pretend otherwise.”

“Ross, I’m… I don’t know what I should say to that,” Maykere said, “I’m not going to sit here and lie to you and tell you I don’t feel the same way, but if you’re asking me to walk away, I-”

“Wait, please,” the Lioness said. “Let me finish. “I’m not mad at you. Far from it, in fact. I think that you played a big part in bringing Megan and me back together, and for that I can never thank you enough. I may not have all of her love anymore, but she does love me, and it’s more than what I had while we were apart. Besides, it was my own stubbornness that separated us…”

“Megan told me about your father not being around,” Maykere said softly. “That must have been hard on you. I lost my mother to a car accident when I was six, my Dad to brain cancer when I was twenty. But they didn’t choose to leave, and I have a lot of wonderful memories of the times I spent with them. I’m so sorry you had to go through that. But Megan…”

“Didn’t choose to leave. She didn’t even know the baby existed,” Ross finished. “I know that now. Can I tell you a secret?” The other woman gave a slight, if hesitant, nod. “I met the baby’s mother. At the dance. Beautiful woman, very kind and sweet. She showed me pictures of her son, Matteo - that’s Italian for ‘Matthew,’ I think; he’s got Megan’s eyes, and her wings, but the rest he gets from his mom…”

“Ross, I… I don’t know if I can keep this a secret. Are you going to tell Megan?” Maykere asked, her eyes wide and mouth half-open in stunned shock.

“I will,” the Lioness said with a sigh, “but after graduation. With everything going on right now, with the assault and her recovery, and it being less than four months to go until we graduate, she has enough of an uphill battle as it is. Plus, if word ever gets out that Megan is the father, this woman’s whole life will be ruined.”

“Oh… Oh!” Maykere gasped. Her voice dropping to a whisper, she asked, “Is she a teacher at your school?”

With a quick glance to make sure they weren’t about to be interrupted, Ross answered, as calmly as she could, “Yes! But try and keep a straight face, like we’re just having a normal conversation, or else someone will wonder what’s got you all worked up.”

A couple of seconds ticked by before Maykere started giggling.

“What’s so funny?”

“You know, you and I have never had a normal conversation before, one-on-one,” the woman replied. “I think the fact that the two of us are sitting here, talking like this, would be the biggest red flag.”

“You’re right,” Ross said with a slight grin. “Actually, that’s part of why I came over here in the first place. You’ve been there for Megan, you’re probably her best friend, so I think we should try and coexist for her sake. She’s obviously having a rough time. I mean, physically, her body’s made some noticeable progress healing itself, but after everything that happened, I don’t know how deep the mental trauma goes. She needs you and I working together. So… I think that you and I should hang out sometime, just you and me. Get to know each other a little better.  What do you say?”

The Mare smiled back and answered, “I think I would like that a lot.”

~~~~~


The Residence of Cecilia Gaithers

“I’m proud of you for trying,” the Headmistress of Chimera Prep said as she set a mug of tea down in front of the teen Ferret. “I know it couldn’t have been easy for you to put yourself out there like that.”

“Careful, old lady,” Kristin replied as she took the hot beverage into her paw. “That almost sounded sincere.”

“And who says it wasn’t?” the elderly shrew asked as she sat down across from the girl.

“Come on, I’m not stupid. I know your boss is comping my tuition, and has been mitigating the damage from my bullshit. My counselor’s an albino Mouse, just like his wife, and insurance never once came up in four months, so they’ve got to be related in some way. It’s not that much of a stretch to assume that you’re giving me a roof over my head and feeding me because he asked you to.”

“No one thinks you’re stupid, Kristin,” Cecilia said with a sigh. “Quite the opposite, in fact. Your grades are actually in the top tenth percentile in a school that prides itself, and justly so, on providing a quality education.”

“So then why didn’t anyone say anything about why they’re helping me?” Kristin asked. “If I’m as smart as you say, then you know I would’ve figured things out eventually.”

“Isn’t the fact that we actually care reason enough?”

“Why do you care?” the Ferret asked, genuinely curious to know. “I get Mr. and Mrs. Ebonshade, and Doc Hartley, being friends with my mother, but why are you so interested?”

“Because,” Cecilia began before taking a sip of her tea, “I see the woman you have the potential to become, and I would very much like the chance to meet her someday.”

“So you’re trying to fix me,” she scoffed.

“Only you can fix you,” the Headmistress stated. “And it sounds like you’ve started making progress on that front. I’m here for you because I want to be.”

“Even though I’m fucked up?”

With a sharp laugh, Cecilia replied, “Kiddo, everyone’s fucked up. You may be more than most, but a lot of people - Mr. and Mrs. Ebonshade, Ms. Hartley, Kaitlyn, her parents, myself - want to see you happy and thriving, whether you think you deserve it or not. And we’re not going anywhere. So suck it up, because you’re stuck with us.”

The seconds ticked by as Kristin let that message sink in, a slight smile forming at the corners of her mouth that she couldn’t hide. “So then,” she asked, “do you think you could help me with how I should approach Megan?”

~~~~~


…And Back to Megan’s Place

“Hey,” Vivy called out from where she and Jack were sitting and talking with Melissa, Megan’s half-sister. “Get your asses over here! We wanna talk to you about somethin’.”

“Oh, God, this can’t be good,” Ross muttered with a roll of her eyes as she rose to her footpaws and pushed Megan over to where their bandmates waited.

“Probably not, but knowing those two it should at least be entertaining,” the Bat replied with a grin.

Melissa scooted over to make room for Ross to sit, and once the Tundra Lioness was seated, Vivy told the young Fox-Bat girl, “Go ahead, tell them what you told us.”

“So I overheard your friends - the Wolf, Chipmunk, Squirrel, and Raccoon - all talking about staging some kind of protest against some guy named ‘Roman’ who’s running for Mayor or something?” Megan’s sister meekly explained. “I'm sorry, I wasn't trying to spy on them or anything, I was just sitting on the floor reading one of my manga and I don't think they saw me, but it sounded like most of the people in this room don't like the man and I wanted to know more so I asked these guys.”

“He’s the interim Mayor,” Ross explained, “and he has a very negative view on hermaphrodites that he’s been very vocal about. And for whatever reason, it’s been gaining in popularity.”

“He’s also my neighbor,” the Giraffe girl added. “Whenever we practice in my garage, he likes to come over and complain, then misquote different city ordinances to try and get us to stop. Bitch, please, I did my homework.”

“It's rhetoric like his that fuels attacks similar to the one I suffered,” Megan said. “That man has no place in politics.”

“Which is why Leo and them are planning this rally,” Jack spoke up. “And why we’re going to give Roman a real reason to complain about our music.”

“We are so gonna fuck his day up,” Giraffe said, with a gleam of twisted joy in her eyes.

~~~~~


February 10, 2014
Chimera Preparatory Academy, Student Parking

“Well, Shit,” Ross muttered as she parked her Honda Civic in the handicapped space temporarily assigned to them during Megan’s recovery. “I swear I don’t have the patience for her bullshit this morning.”

“What?” Megan asked, looking around but seeing nothing. Her cast and her wings made it difficult to undo the seatbelt to look behind them.

“It’s Kristin. She’s walking this way.”

“Unbuckle me, please.”

“What? Megs, no way. There’s no way in Hell I’m going to let you get hurt again by that bitch,” the Tundra Lioness protested.

“She won’t hurt me. She can’t. Not anymore,” the Bat answered, anger welling up from the pit of her stomach. “Besides, you’re here to protect me. I just need to get something off my chest.”

“If you’re sure about this…” the Tundra Lioness replied hesitantly as she reached over and unfastened her fianceé’s seatbelt.

“Ross, trust me. I’ve got this,” Megan said as she used her good paw to open the car door and pull herself up out of the car, being extremely careful not to put weight on her broken leg. Turning to face her former lover, the cause of so much of her emotional and physical pain, she was prepared to unload a torrent of anger and frustration. Her jaw flared up in pain as she subconsciously clenched her teeth, only adding to her anger.

Still, she was caught completely by surprise by what she saw.

The Ferret girl was crying.

Kristin MacDaniel never cried.

The fire burning in her gut died out as Kristin slowly approached, eyes cast down at the asphalt. Megan could see the tear tracks running down the girl’s cheeks, and see the bubbles of snot inflating out of her nostrils and bursting. Memories came flooding back of their childhood days, of Kristin holding and comforting her after being abused by her mother. Of Kristin standing up for her and smacking Ryan’s face into a locker after he called her trash. Of the night she lost her virginity to the Ferret up on the bluffs overlooking the ocean. Despite the conflicts between them over the last year, there was a long history of friendship and, to a lesser extent than what she had with Ross or Maykere, love.

She gingerly hobbled a couple of steps, leaning against the side of the car for support, held out her arms, and as the other girl drew near, engulfed her in a comforting hug.

“Megan… I… I’m…” Kristin sobbed.

“Shhhh… Let it out.”

“I never meant for… what they did to you. It’s my fault,” the teen Ferret cried into Megan's shoulder. “I-If I hadn't been such a bitch… if I hadn't interfered with you and Ross… Then… Then you…”

“I'm okay, Kristin,” Megan said as she used her good arm to pull the other girl tighter into the hug. “But you need to get your temper under control. I'm worried about you.”

“I know. I'm in counseling, and I promise, I'm trying,” her former lover explained. “I got the number to take anger management classes. I'm going to call them after school today.”

“Good. I think that will help you a lot.”

“Can you ever forgive me?” Kristin asked through the mucus pouring from her nose.

“I want the mother's information, and you owe Ross an apology,” Megan said firmly, but compassionately. “But except for a few broken bones, I’m happy with where I am now. Who I am now.”

“I’m sorry for the role I played in everything, but I’m glad to know you’re happy. I’ll talk to the mom today, and have her reach out to you directly.” The Ferret girl reluctantly broke their hug and wiped away the tears and snot before turning to face the Tundra Lioness. Ross looked on with skepticism as she walked around to the other side of the car and held out her paw. “Ross, I’ve been nothing but an asshole to you since the day we met. I've tried to ruin the best thing to ever happen to you - I know this, because she was the best thing to ever happen to me, too - and you’ve both suffered greatly for it. I promise that's behind me, and I’ll do everything and anything I can to make things right. I’m sorry, for everything.”

A moment passed before Ross reached out and accepted the offered paw, but when she did, she gave it a firm squeeze and a solid shake. “I'm willing to give you a chance, for Megan’s sake. Don't make me regret it, ever, or else you’ll wish you'd never met either of us. But if you really want to make things right, you can start by making sure Ryan stays far, far away from her.”

“Give me a month, and just hearing her name will make him jump,” Kristin said with a grin.

“That would go a long way with me.”

“I wonder if his skull’s still magnetic?” Kristin muttered.

“What? How does…? Wait, on second thought, I don’t want to know…” the Tundra Lioness responded.
“Plausible deniability,” the other girl laughed. “Good thinking.”

Megan continued to lean against the side of Ross’s Civic as she started to make her way around to the others, but Ross quickly stopped her. “Megan! What are you trying to do to yourself?”

“Sorry,” the Bat grimaced through the pain and exertion as the other two rushed over to assist her. “I just wanted to be a part of the healing.”

“Can you get the wheelchair out from the trunk for us, please?” the Tundra Lioness asked as she pressed and held the ‘trunk’ button on her keyfob.

“I’m proud of you,” Megan said as Kristin removed the chair from the trunk and unfolded it. “I know that couldn't have been easy for you.”

“It wasn’t,” Ross whispered. “But I know you two used to be very close. But if she stabs you in the back again, I’ll stab her in the eyes.”

“I can hear you, you know,” Kristin remarked as she finished locking the sides of the wheelchair into place. “But it’s okay. I understand I need to earn your trust. I get it. Now come on, let’s get you up that hill before the bell rings.” She walked over to take Megan’s left paw and help her to sit down when she spotted the diamond on her ring finger.

“You two got engaged?” She asked, looking between the Bat and the Lioness, who responded with smiles. “That’s amazing to hear! I’m so happy for the both of you!” She pulled Megan into another hug, and said, “Really, you two are beautiful together.”

“Thank you,” Megan replied as she returned the hug. “And you can relax. I forgive you.”

“You know, I think you should take some self-defense classes,” Kristin stated as they started walking towards the school entrance. “Something like Krav Maga, maybe? I know a guy; I’m sure he’d be willing to teach you, probably even give you a discount, if I talked to him.”

~~~~~




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