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Chapter S** even ***:*

Ghosts of the Life we Lost

"He's got to be home." She mumbled to herself.

"DAD!" Ellie cried from the phone in her palm, startling Val having nearly forgotten she was still holding it.

"SHHHHHH!" The fearful fox hissed back at her sibling. The response was a reflexive one, since after all, staying quiet probably didn't matter all that much in this situation. And yet the vixen still felt some perverse need to respect the shroud of silence that hung over them. Its oppressive presence strangled her to the point where a whisper was all she could muster, and anything louder than such hushed tones was offensive & terrifying.

"I'm going to end the call." Val whispered, her tone grim and somber while she stared into the blaring light of the phone screen. "I'll find him and-."

"Don't you dare!" Ellie hissed, her tone now equally hushed as Val's own. The crimson canid could see her sister tearing up despite her best efforts to look serious and stern. "We are finding him_together;_ the gods help you if you hang up on me now!"

There was a brief glimmer of a thought, the fragment of an urge to make a comeback despite the circumstances. But Val suppressed it, instead offering her sister a firm nod of acceptance as she continued to fumble her way down the dark hallway.

Val cursed to herself as she struggled to glimpse deeper into the dark corridor. Why hadn't her eyes adjusted to compensate yet? She was nocturnal, damnit! Sure, objects in the hall had begun to grow clearer, but for the nightly teenager, the clarity wasn't coming quick enough.

"What does Dad usually do tonight?" It was a thought Val had meant to keep inside her mind, yet it had slipped out in an audible whisper despite herself.

"I think..." Ellie murmured. "I know...he's sulking..."

"But where in the house does he...?"

A flicker. A flash of visible yet dull blue light in the shape of a doorway cast against the far wall. The deafening silence finally began to give way to something barely discernible. Music, definitely music, but the vixen couldn't make out any of the lyrics.

"Shh, I hear something." Val reassured her sister, perhaps too forcefully for her own liking.

"I didn't say anything." Ellie whispered meekly.

The concerned canid continued to creep down the hall, the music growing louder and her thoughts growing increasingly more clear & organized. Now she could make out the softest hint of music in the air. It was a vaguely familiar sound, that tugged ever so gingerly at the back of her mind. A song from an old musical the vixen couldn't recall the name of, and something she easily recognized as her mothers own sappy and saccharin taste in music. Still, the sound had almost immediately begun to ease the vixen's fears, and replace it with a growing, familiar sense of calmness; one that allowed her usual sense of composure to heal once the full picture started to form in her mind.

She knew exactly where she would find her father.

She knew he wasn't in danger.

As she carefully turned the corner into the illuminated blue of the family living room, she couldn't help but let out a deep sigh of relief.

The scene was a familiar one. One that Val would see countless times growing up. The large, flat screen television playing footage of her Father's wedding (presumably on loop as was often the case) acting as the only source of illumination; the video bathed the room in an appropriately somber blue that tapered off and crept up & over the sofa... enveloping the sniffling and stressed form balled up upon its cushions. It was the kind of sight Val knew her old Mam' had tried to hide from her growing up, but either he felt Val had gotten old enough that it no longer mattered, or he had simply gotten really sloppy with hiding it.

Popping Leon onto her shoulder, Val leaned against the door frame. She expelled a sharp exhale that caused her trademark coif of hair to bounce on her nose.

"I should have figured I'd find you here." She remarked, shaking her head softly.

The older tod barely moved, offering a sad whimper of a grumble without ever looking in the vixen's direction, His shimmering grey blue eyes remaining fixed on the TV screen with an almost unblinking level of focus.

Val let out a tired sigh before pushing herself off the door frame and slowly making her way over to the crumpled mammal on the deep green art-deco style couch.

"Dad?" She asked, her tone laced with mild concern.

For the briefest of moments, she managed to earn the older tod's gaze, which revealed to her the roadmap of sadness that framed his usually warm features. The bags under his eyes were so large that it looked as though he had packed them for a six month retreat, and the surrounding fur had been practically drowned in an unending torrent of tears that caused it to shimmer against the light from the screen.

"Val?" It was Ellie's voice. Still a hushed whisper, though the urgency and tone of fear had remained.

Val quietly hushed her phone before turning her attention back to the sorry looking mammal curled up before her.

"Dad. It's me, Val." The russet repair gal uttered, reaching her free paw out and giving his shoulder a ginger shake.

The tod stirred, his attention appearing to have been grabbed for just a moment. Slowly Cameron attempted to push himself up from the couch pillow, making it about halfway up into a seated position before seemingly giving up and flopping back down into his previous fetal pose. Cam raised a paw, weakly flicking it in Val's direction as if to dismiss her.

"Just...Just leave me alone s-s-s-sweetie..." The tod croaked, a sharp choking sob escaping his muzzle while his gaze fixed upon the TV screen again. "I'm f-fine Valerie, please g-go back to y-your work. "

The vermillion vixen frowned, placing a concerned paw back on the older mammal's shoulder.

"C'mon Dad, please..." Val pleaded softly.

Cameron pulled away slightly, turning his tearful gaze to the vixen seated next to him as he did, his expression a mixture of sadness and what looked to be mild fear.

"V-V-Valerie, please..." He muttered, his brilliant blueish eyes glossing over with a fresh sheen of tears while gazing upon his daughter. "I-I-I just...I just can't right now...I'm s-s-s-sorry." He added, sniffling sharply.

The vixen sighed, doing her best to hide the concern that was tugging at the corners of her features in order to appear stoic. She had seen her father like this many _many_times before, but never before had the tod looked so deeply gutted and miserable. For the first time, Cameron had looked truly oldto the vixen, a prospect so scary it almost caused her to reflexively recoil. He truly looked like a mammal with one foot in the grave, despite being just shy of entering his forties. While she had identified a few stray strands of grey fur here and there, the dim lighting produced from the TV made him appear even more drained of color and almost lifeless.

Val expelled a huff of breath, glancing down to her phone. She knew a guaranteed way to get him up and running, even if it would be an effort at placation rather than a genuine effort to crawl out of the emotional dumpster her father seemed to have devoted himself to wallowing in. It would probably be a bit cruel, something the uncharacteristically concerned canid wouldn't have normally given a second thought about had it been anyone else, but at the moment, it seemed like the only option likely to yield positive results.

Val reached a paw out, extending the phone in her palm directly in front of Cameron's field of vision.

"Your daughter wants to talk to you." She said.

There was a look of momentary confusion on her father's face which rapidly gave way to a look of sheer terror that flickered behind his eyes; something he quickly covered up with the length of his forearm as he shot up to a seated position. The tearful tod let out a shuddering sniffle and vigorously scrubbed his forearm against his eyes, apparently seeking to evaporate any & all traces of his tears by sheer force of friction.

"I'm up, I'm fine." Cameron muttered, his tone still sounding somewhat somber. He cautiously lifted his arm away from his face and the frowning fox let out a sigh before reaching for the vixen's phone, his other paw clasping blindly at the couch cushions in what appeared to be an effort to find his glasses.

"Just give me a moment Ellie dear!" Cameron added, briefly turning his attention back to the sofa in order to better aid the search for his spectacles. Val heard her father utter a quiet 'Aha!' when he drew his glasses from the fold in the cushion they had managed to wedge themselves halfway down into.

The vixen sighed, rolling her eyes as she passed off the phone to her father, the older tod taking a moment to straighten his eyewear upon the bridge of his snout before giving the phone his full attention.

Temporarily satisfied, the fiery furred fox slipped off the sofa and made her way back to the entrance of the living room, once again taking a leaning stance against the door frame. She wanted to give the pair a little bit of space, just enough to feel their conversation was private without actually ever being private. She needed to be there to correct any records should her father try to lie too blatantly to Ellie.

"Hurry up Pops, I want to get some food in Leon here..." She said, flashing her father a strained attempt at a smug smile and pointing out the lizard obediently perched on her shoulder before crossing her arms. "...and I have to order some pizza for us." The crimson canine shook her head dismissively. "I can't have you starving yourself now."

Cameron gestured a dismissive paw in Val's direction, as if to signify he was on the phone despite that being obvious.

"I'm getting half black olives, half those nasty, salty little fish you love so much, that okay?" The vixen added.

The older tod placed a paw over the phone's face before turning to his daughter, offering her a brief, terse nod before turning back to the phone. Taking one last moment to straighten his posture, he removed his paw and offered Ellie the most strained smile Val was sure she'd ever seen on his muzzle.

"Eleanor dear!" Cameron's smile widened into a broad, cheesy grin. "How's my favorite daughter?"

The scarlet service mammal let out a scoff, giving her eyes a second roll at her father's remark.

"Just for that, I'm taking the anchovies off." Val retorted with a smirk.

Now it was Cameron's turn to scoff, shaking his head disapprovingly at his older daughter. .

"Before you start threatening me, remember whose money it is you're ordering that pizza with." The tod managed a dull chuckle.

Val shook her head dismissively. "Keep it up with that kind of attitude mister, and I swear I will absolutely destroy that pizza with black olives. Mark my words."

Val watched her father's muzzle scrunch up in visible disgust. The older tod sticking his tongue out for a brief moment before turning his attention back to her sister.

"Anyway, how's Maris treating you Eleanor? I hope those professors of yours aren't working you too hard." Cameron said with a small smirk. "Just because they are mostly horses doesn't mean they should make everyone a work horse now." He added with a chuckle.

"Yeah, I'm fine Dad." Ellie replied. "But are you...? And what's that sound in the background?" Ellie's tone shifted from mildly jovial to somewhat confused.

Cameron stared blankly at the phone for a moment before he seemingly made the connection and glanced back up at the television still beaming the audio from his first dance with Val's mother. A look of panic overtook the older tod's features, and the vixen watched as he began scrambling for the remote.

"Oh that! That's just-it's-." The tod stammered, his paw digging into the couch cushions with a desperate fervor. It took a few moments, but eventually he managed to dredge the small remote up from the bowels of the sofa. In a snap, he had the device trained on the television, and with the press of a button the lively sounds of yesteryear fell silent.

"It's just...I-I was watching a soap opera is all." The flustered fox fibbed.

"He's Lyyyying!" Val corrected the troubled tod in a sing-songy tone.

"SHHHH!" Cameron hushed through a finger against his pursed lips before turning back to the phone.

"Don't mind your sister." The tod appealed to the portly opossum. "She's just...she's just being her."

Val chuckled softly, placing a claw under Leon's chin and scratching it affectionately. The little lizard purred in response, nuzzling up against Val's cheek as she slipped back into her previous posture.

"How are your grades, my little Nellie Bean?" The tod yet again attempted to shift the conversation to small talk. "Now I hope you don't feel pressured to get extremely high marks. You know I'll be proud of you, so long as you're applying yourself."

Ellie managed a delicate chuckle. "My grades are fine Dad. All A's."

For the first time since he had gotten on the phone, Val watched a genuinely warm smile cross her father's muzzle.

"Oh, dear, that's wonderful to hear." He replied. "I knew you could do it!"

Val watched her father sheepishly retract into his shoulders. A mild look of guilt crossed his face.

"I mean, like I said I would have been proud of you regardless, but I mean-"

Ellie giggled softly. "Dad."

"I'm just saying, I knew you were capable of getting such good grades! I just didn't want you to feel like I had extremely high expectations or...er...wait..." The tod continued to stammer.

"Dad." Elanor repeated, more firmly now.

"Not that I'm saying I didn't expect you to do great either, I just mean-."

"DAD!" Ellie raised her voice slightly, in probably one of the few assertive gestures Val had heard from her. Somehow, the flustered fox managed to stop his muzzle before he could put his foot any further into it.

"What is it, Nellie bean?" Cameron asked, genuinely taken aback.

"Are you okay?" Ellie asked, her tone returning to one of concern.

Cameron let out an amused sort of scoff, shaking his head dismissively.

"Am I okay? Pssht!" The tod seemingly forced a chuckle, flicking a paw dismissively at the phone. "Of course I am, Nellie dear! Never been better."

"Are you sure?" The meek marsupial continued. "Bec-,"

"Sweetie, I'm fine, Honestly." The tod continued to lie through his teeth, earning a disapproving shake of her head from Val who watched his performance from the door frame. Her father certainly wasn't going to be winning any Oxcar's any time soon, that was for sure.

"You just...you really don't seem fine." She continued. "You look really tired, and those bags under your eyes are-."

The older fox slipped his thumb and forefinger under his frames, rubbing his lower eyelids as if the efforts would somehow chase away the excess emotional baggage he was carrying. Unsurprisingly, the bags were still just as pronounced as he drew his paw away, if not more so.

"Nellie Bean, I swear I am okay." The tod let out a sigh. "You really don't need to worry about little old me."

"Daddy." Came Ellie's reply. It was delivered in a knowing fashion, despite the well of sadness in her voice." I know you're not alright..." She continued, and Val could make out the barest hint of a sniffle coming from the phone. "You don't sound alright & you don't look alright."

Cameron held up a halting paw toward the phone screen.

"Nellie bean, please don't cry." The sorrowful surrogate father cooed, now trying to genuinely reassure his daughter, although not fully letting go of the act. "Y-You know I wouldn't lie about-"

"He's lyyyying!" Ellie's Snarky sister chimed in afresh from across the room, earning a scowl from her Old 'Mam in response.

"Don't listen to your sister, she's-"

The sniffling from the other side of the phone grew louder, causing the older tod to hold up a pleading paw.

"Aw Eleanor, don't cry Honey. Daddy's fine." He continued, attempting to reassure the portly opossum, but all it did was earn him more tears for his trouble.

"I could hear the music from your and Mom's wedding Daddy..." Ellie whimpered. "...I could hear crying when Val came into the room."

Cameron's false smile collapsed entirely, giving way to a deep and guilty-looking frown.

"I-I..." The tongue-tied tod stuttered. "Look sweetie...I was just...I mean..."

Val watched her father take a deep slow breath of air before converting it into an exhale so deep, his chest became practically concave. For a brief moment, Val was thankful her sister wasn't home. It was already painful enough to see her father struggling through this difficult conversation. Could she see Ellie's tearful face alongside his reactions would have been agonizing.

"O-Okay..." Cameron finally brought himself to admit, the guilty expression becoming set in concrete. "I-I may have been watching some...old home movies, bu-"

"I found him balled up on the soFA: " The vixen blurted out. "Looking worse than one of those open-air wildlife mummies you sometimes come across in the back dunes." Val added with an uncharacteristically forced chuckle.

"SHHHH!" Cameron tried to hush her, but judging by the sound of Ellie's sobbing, the damage had already been done.

"Oh Daddy! Y-You keep doing this to yourself, and I-I just...I can't take it!" The meek marsupial whimpered between her sobs. "Val can't t-take it either!"

Cameron glanced over to his other daughter, only to receive an affirming nod with a rare expression of vulnerability. The exchange only managed to make the tod look that much more grim and guilty.

"W-We love you Dad!" Ellie continued through her tears. " We d-don't want to see you h-hurt like this!" She cried. "Y-You don't deserve it!"

The russet-colored canid let out a solemn sigh.

"S-Sweetie, listen..." The tod ran a paw through his messy mane of brown head fur. "I...I don't...I'm sorry that I've...made you both worry about me. I just-..." Cameron stared up at the ceiling for a moment, letting out a long tired sigh.

"You both know how much I miss...miss your mother." He continued with a whimper of his own. "I-I can't help it."

Val frowned as she watched her father's mask begin to finally slip away. Not entirely, but enough to know she wasn't going to have to do any more correcting going forward.

"I miss her so much Nellie Bean..." Cameron sobbed, drawing a paw up to his eyes and lifting his glasses in order to swab away the fresh sheen of tears that had begun to rise. "I miss her every-every day..."

Val looked down toward the floor, her paws now creeping up her arms until they braced her shoulders. Suddenly, the house seemed rather drafty, and the vixen began rubbing her upper arms in an effort to stave off the cold.

"A-And I don't want to put that on the b-both of you but..."The older tod braced his forehead with a paw as he continued. "Gods, I was so good at hiding it when you were both little but..." He sighed. "I-It's just become so much harder...so much harder..." The tired-looking tod shook his head somberly. "I-It's just become impossible to hide."

"We don't want you to hide it." Ellie replied with a sniffle. "You can be honest with us Daddy...Val and I want to be there for you."

Cameron shook his head dismissively.

"Oh no, I couldn't possibly." The depressed Dad replied. "I couldn't stand the thought of dragging the both of you down by fretting over me. It wouldn't be fair to either of you." He sighed. "This is my problem to deal with, sweetheart, not yours."

"But Daddy, we want to help you." Eleanor whimpered.

"Oh Sweetie...I wish I could hug those notions away from you." The tod sighed sadly. "But these are just things...no one can help with."

"The best thing you can do for me is going out and living your lives." The older tod replied, rubbing a tear from his eye. " You should be out enjoying the Maris life, making new friends and trying new things, not fretting over this old sad sack of a mammal."

"Dad." Now it was Val's turn to chime in, her concern growing to a point where staying silent had become impossible.

"Daddy." Ellie almost mimicked her sibling in tone and inflection.

"I will be fi-." The tod stopped himself from uttering another lie, the dusky red Dad letting out a shaky sigh before continuing. "I will get by girls. One way or another I will get by."

"Dad." The girls said in unison with Val taking a step away from the door frame.

"So please, promise me you'll stop worrying about your Dad so much okay?" Cameron asked, feebly offering the phone a meek smirk. "I've gotten through this before, and I'll get through it again, so please don't waste a thought on me Nellie Bean." He whimpered. "Promise me, o-okay?"

The room fell silent for a moment, allowing the previous dark and depressing atmosphere to spill back into the vacuum the conversation had left, reminding the vixen that her father's request was simply an impossible one. She'd never admit it herself, that was Ellie's job, but she loved that mammal to death. And these self flagellating trips down memory lane absolutely needed to end. Not for her, not for Ellie, but for Cameron himself. He didn't deserve the abuse he placed upon himself, and it was time to put an end to it once and for all. She could only hope that Ellie was feeling the same sort of sentiment despite not being able to confer with her directly at the moment.

"That's it." Ellie's response came, shattering the silence. "I'm coming home early."

Cameron's ear's shot up, standing sharply on end, his expression one of shock as he began stammering.

"W-waitwaitwait, WHAT?!" He stumbled over his words dumbly. "Oh Nellie Bean, no, you can't-!"

"I'm already looking up departing flights in another tab." The usually demure didelphidae replied bluntly. "I'm coming home, and I'm not leaving until I'm sure Val & I have helped you get through this!"

The grease smeared gal cringed slightly. She knew her sister's hopeful declaration was a bit of a tall order. Not that it was impossible of course, but she was sure it would take a season or two to finally crack that nut her father had squirreled away deep inside his emotional lockbox, and the vixen couldn't be sure what an absence like that would do to Ellie's schooling.

"O-Oh no-no Ellie sweetie, I-I can't have that!" Cameron stuttered, his features awash with a look of panic. "It's the end of your semester and your professors-"

"My professors will have to understand." The modest mammal replied. "Surely they've experienced a family emergency before, and I'm sure they'll let me make up my work when I come back." She continued. "They'd probably even let me telecommute if I had to."

"N-No Nellie, you need to be there! What about the gallery showings?" The older tod attempted to plead with his daughter. "The internships? Think of all the important opportunities you'll miss out on just by not being in and around the art scene!"

"Family comes first." Eleanor replied.

"El." Now Val felt compelled to chime in. The determination that was growing in her sister's voice made her increasingly concerned she was actually going to do it.

"I've found a flight that leaves in about four hours." The overweight opossum said with rising confidence in her voice. "That means I should get there around morning." She continued. "That gives me enough time to pack and message all my professors about-"

"Eleanor please stop!"

Cameron's voice was firm, fatherly, so much so that Val felt her ears flatten and her tail stiffen at the mere sound of it. She hadn't felt like this since she was 5. For a moment, she felt a distinct urge to go stand in a corner, as had been her father's preferred method of punishment aside from the silent treatment, but the vixen managed to shake it off.

"Ellie, sweetie...look..." Cameron sighed, rubbing a palm against his forehead. "You need to promise me that you will stay in Maris and complete your semester, alright?"

"B-but Daddy-."

The older tod began rubbing the space between his eyebrows, seemingly exasperated.

"I can manage to make it until Yule, okay?" The russet-furred fox continued. "I promise I'm not going anywhere."

There was a momentary silence before the pudgy opossum piped up once again.

"B-but Dad-."

"Val will be here, sweetie. You know she'll look after me." He added.

"Whether he wants me to or not!" The vivacious vixen chimed in loud enough for her sister to hear.

"See?! So please,please wait until Yule to come home, alright?" Cameron continued. "You'll be on winter break and you can watch me like a hawk as much as you feel is necessary then." The older tod frowned. "Just please...don't jeopardize your schooling because of me. Tell me you won't."

The silence returned, and the vixen could feel her breath suspend itself as she waited to see if her father's desperate gambit had worked. As eager as she was to see her sister, she couldn't allow Ellie to rut up her schooling over something Val could handle herself.

"A-Alright...Alright..."The opossum finally spoke, a heavy sense of reluctance in her voice." I-I can wait till Yule."

"You mean that?" Cameron replied."

"Dad..." She responded timidly.

"I expect you to keep your word on this, Nellie Bean." Cameron added, adding a parental lilt to his tone as he spoke.

Val could hear a soft sigh emanate from her phone.

"O-Okay, okay...I promise Daddy." Ellie finally replied.

"I will be very upset if you show up before I've got all your gifts ready."

Ellie managed a soft giggle. "I mean it! I swear!"

Val watched a warm, broad, and genuine smile crawl across her father's muzzle, the older tod letting out a relieved sigh before continuing.

"Alright now Sweetie." Cameron uttered through his smirk. "Now that that's resolved, I'm going to pass the phone back to your sister, okay?"

Ellie was silent for a moment, clearly uncertain as to whether she had made the right call. "Okay..." The opossum finally uttered in resignation.

Cameron glanced over in his oldest daughter's direction, gesturing for the vixen to make her way over to retrieve her precious phone.

"I love you very much, Nellie Bean." Cameron said sweetly. "You keep doing your best in Maris, and I'll see you soon, okay?" The dark-furred fox added, waving his free paw at the phone camera.

"I love you too Daddy..." Ellie replied sweetly.

"Bye Sweetie." Cameron concluded.

"Bye..."

With that, the dusky red-furred fox slipped the phone into his daughter's paw, flashing his eldest daughter a half-hearted smile that appeared to be an attempt at a genuine one before turning his attention back to the silent pictures on the TV screen.

"Dad, are yo-?"

"It's fine Val." The tod reassured her. "I'm just about to put something else on, I swear." Another clear lie, Val could smell it. "Why don't you take that call with your sister up to your room an-."

"I still have to order the pizza Dad." Val replied, furrowing her brow as she eyed him skeptically.

The older tod shrunk in his shoulders under her gaze.

"I'll be alright Valerie, really." The tod replied weakly. "It's resolved."

Val's pensive gaze lingered on the older mammal for a moment, scrutinizing his expression while he continued to wither under her gaze. Eventually, the vixen relented, earning a sigh of relief from her forlorn father before she turned to exit the living room.

"Alright, but when I come back, I better not find you curled up and crying again." The red rebel added, giving one last glance over her shoulder at her father before slipping back into the dark hallway.

Glancing down at her phone, the opossum on the other end bared her a knowing expression, one the crimson canid was quick to exchange with a decisive nod. They were going to do something about this, even if they had to drag their poor father by the tail kicking and screaming in order to do it.

Entering the kitchen, the vixen, tired of the oppressive dark, slammed on the lights so hard that she was sure she nearly broke the switch off of the plate.

Placing her cell phone face up on the countertop, the fiery red fox scooped Leon back into her paws before popping the now increasingly peppy and jumpy little reptile on the top of her head and opening the nearby fridge as she began fumbling around for her precious pets food stash.

"You were really dead set on coming home, weren't you?" Val said, her tail swishing lazily. She dug around the lower shelves for the box of pedigree mashed crickets she was sure was down there.

"My claw was hovering over the 'book flight' button." Ellie replied sheepishly. "I still want to if I'm being honest."

Val's ears pointed up at Ellie's admission, the vixen glancing out of the fridge in the direction of her phone for a moment as she spoke.

"C'mon El. We both know you can't do that." Val shot back. "What have you got, like two weeks left before the semester is over?" She shifted her attention back to the fridge. "It seems pretty pointless if I'm being honest."

"I'm getting kind of tired of mammals telling me what I should and shouldn't do, Sis." The portly opossum rebuffed with a huff. " I mean, you saw Dad back there! You saw how bad he looked!"

The vermillion vulpine flinched. She continued to dig through the icebox, her ears flattening in response to her sister's words.

"Yeah, yeah..." Val muttered. "...I saw." The knot in her stomach twisted at the image of how she had first found the older tod, which flickered across her mind.

"He looked awful." Ellie mewled softly. "I don't think I've ever seen him this bad before."

The vixen's ears began to sag, her frown deepening.

"Those bags under his eyes were monstrous..." Her soft-spoken sister prattled on with a sob. " And the look in his eyes, it-it just looked like he was in so much pain! I could barely stand it!"

"He did..." Val winced, rooting through the fridge; the container of crickets still evading her. It was all the crimson canid could really respond with. Her words weren't anything less than true, and Val agreed with her sentiments wholeheartedly in spite of Ellie's rather rash-sounding solution.

"What other options do I have, Val?" Ellie asked earnestly. " I could try to wait out the two weeks, but the longer I wait, the worse I know he's going to get!"

Val let out a sigh.

"El, can you honestly tell me what good that will do? Any new ideas that we haven't tried in the last six plus years since we realized what Dad was still going through? Is it worth trying so badly that it's worth cutting your semester short?" She replied, her nose scrunching as she came across the remains of a half-eaten salmon burrito she had forgotten about from weeks ago. Despite the tightness of the Tupperware seal, her canid nose could still easily make out the rancid stench of rotten fish and lettuce. Dragging it aside, the vexed vixen's eyes finally fell upon the missing box of crickets. Scooping it into her paws, Val drew away from the fridge, slamming the door with her rump as she continued the conversation.

"Because all I can see it doing is screwing up your schooling, and I don't think that's going to help Dad's mood." She added.

Getting Leon's food bowl from the countertop, the vermillion vulpine proceeded to pour in a generous helping of crushed-up crickets. Scooping the little lizard off her head, she had barely lowered him to the countertop before he sprang from her paws, making a bee-line for the dish and digging in greedily.

"I don't know!" Elanor admitted, the rattled rodent-looking mammal cried. "But someone needs to do something! And fast!"

The vixen shook her head weakly as she slipped her phone back into her paw and took a lean against the countertop.

"El, don't you think I agree with you?" Val admitted, gesturing with a paw at nothing in particular in visible frustration. "Saint Robin's Quiver, he looked half-dead in there when I found him!"

Ellie let out a clearly involuntary gasp of horror, the thought of their equally treasured tod of a father expiring clearly mortifying her dear little sister.

"But two weeks isn't going to make that much of a difference, trust me." The vulnerable vixen continued. "As much as I hate to admit it, I have to agree with the Ol 'Mam about that much." The vixen huffed, causing her coif of hair to bounce on her breath. "Even if he was deflecting."

"B-But Val-!"

"Is it really worth risking messing up the good thing you got going just so you can get here two weeks earlier than you were already planning?" The vixen cut her off. "I mean, if Dad was in the hospital, that'd be one thing, but he's not." The frustrated fox continued. "I'm not saying Dad's mental health isn't important and all, it is,...but I don't think possibly taking a hit to your GPA is going to help matters in the long run."

"But Val!" The distressed Didelphidae protested.

"Look, how 'bout we make a deal, okay?" Val continued to talk over her sweet-natured siblings' protest. "After I hang up, I'll go have a long talk with Dad about what's going on with him, and see if I can make any sort of starting progress on that front." She rolled her wrist before continuing. "Afterward, I'll send you a text and let you know what I managed to get out of him."

The pensive opossum was silent, though her expression reflected a great degree of hesitation and resistance.

"In the meantime, you keep focusing on your classes, and over the two weeks up until your finals, I'll be on extra Dad monitoring duty and keep you posted the whole time." She continued, offering her sister a small smile. "I'll even call you every night to keep you updated on how he's holding up so you don't have to worry as much."

"Mhhh..." The overweight opossum mumbled with uncertainty.

"Then when Yule comes around, and you catch your flight home for the break, you can_'watch Dad like a hawk'_as he put it, with me. Sound fair?"

Val watched as Ellie began to chew on her claws nervously, the marsupial clearly mulling over the vixen's words carefully as she nibbled away.

"Y-You promise you'll keep a close eye on him?" Ellie asked sheepishly. "You'll make him priority one?"

Val's smirk grew wide enough to reveal her fangs.

"C'mon Sis, you know I'm just as worried as you are." She replied.

"So worried you completely forgot what week it was? Did Red's maintenance have you that distracted?" Ellie asked, a lilt of concern in her voice.

"You didn't remember either!" Val spat back.

"I'm on the other side of Animalia! You were less than ten feet away! What's your excuse!?" Ellie sniped back. "I hope at least you'll be more careful not to let that mechanical mess get in the way of looking after Dad till I get home."

"Hey, Red's repairs are nearly done!" The Reynard replied, trying to stifle a snicker. "Besides, you saw how worked up Leon was. If you aren't around to remind me to check on Dad, he will."

Ellie offered a weak chuckle. "I guess you're right, at least I know I can trust 'Captain Aertmus Leopold de Reptello the Third' to keep you at your word."

Val shot her sister a glare. "I told you to stop calling him that."

Ellie snickered, shaking her head softly."Can you at least give me a Sister Swear?" The pudgy opossum responded, giving the vulpine a somewhat skeptical glare.

"Well, it's not like I've got any bigger priorities on my plate right now anyway. ." The vixen responded with a smirk.

Ellie rolled her eyes, letting out a soft snicker. "Same old Val, can't you just commit to a promise?"

Val chortled. "I've always kept my word when it comes to you, haven't I? I'd like to think my track record speaks for itself." The vixen's grin broadened to cheesy proportions as she tried to draw another titter from her sibling.

For the first time since the both of them had realized just what was going on with their father that night, Ellie looked visibly relieved. The overweight opossum let out a soft giggle and smiled back at her sister.

"O-Okay..." Elanor's reply still held some degree of reluctance. "I-I can wait another two weeks then...so long as I know you're looking after Dad."

Val let out a relieved sigh, the mandarin-colored mammal swabbing her forehead with a paw before flicking away the sweat.

"Good, good." The she-fox responded. "Now if you'll excuse me Els, I gotta order that pizza." She continued, rubbing her lithe stomach with a paw. "My stomach is roaring louder than a grizzly bear on viagrowl."

The portly opossum tittered.

"Okay, okay." She replied. "Call me back in a half-hour?"

The vixen snapped her fingers, pointing it at the phone as she flashed her sister a confident grin.

"You got it Babe." She replied with a laugh.

"Love you Val." Ellie said with a warm, loving smile.

"Love you too Ellie Vanilli."

And with that, the long-distance connection was sundered, leaving the femme fox's thoughts to once again turn to her father, and just how to begin to claw at the emotional wall he had surrounded himself with when it came to her mother. Val scratched her chin thoughtfully for a moment, a few stray ideas forming and dissolving just as quickly before the growl of her stomach disrupted her thought process.

Rubbing her stomach, the vixen pulled up her phone's speed dial.

It was probably better this way. She was much better at thinking on her feet rather than going into a situation with a well-thought-out plan. She was sure that when the time came, she'd easily find the words that would help her deal with her father, but for the moment, locking in that pizza order was the more pressing matter.

It had only taken a few minutes to place the order: half black olives, half anchovies, as well as a side order of garlic knots, something she knew was a favorite of her father's. Eventually, she slipped her cell back into her overalls pocket before making her way back into the dark hall, toward the now familiar and haunting blue glow coming from the family room. Cautiously, the vixen poked her head around the door frame, her ears falling almost immediately at the sight of her Ol 'Mam once again in the fetal position. Although the weeping seemed to have subsided for the time being, the sounds of the offending wedding video were still playing with crystal clarity. The vixen let out an exasperated sigh. What had she really expected?

"You're a terrible liar Dad, you know that?" Val admitted with a half snigger, making her way back over to the sofa. "You always were..."

One of Cameron's shimmering cloudy azure eyes managed to find her own as the tod let out a rather weak, defeated chuckle of his own.

"I suppose that's fair..." He admitted. "Although I wasn't lying about what I told your sister."

The fiery red she-fox nodded, that much she knew was true, at least aside from the_'getting by'_ part.

The two grew silent, and as the older tod's attention drifted back to the television, Val couldn't help but follow his gaze until she found her eyes drawn to the screen.

Up to this point, the _'wedding video'_was something Val had rarely gotten to see growing up, and even then only in snippets. It was a video her father had perhaps thought her too young for, or maybe that it would be too painful for her as it was for him, and so he tended to guard it like a secret treasure. A top-secret file straight from the archives of the Zootopian Intelligence Agency meant for no mammal's eyes but his own. It felt forbidden, taboo in a way to be watching it now, with her father making no attempt to shoo her out of the room or turn off the DVD, and thus it only added to the video's allure. It compelled Val to watch it now, demanded it before her father realized what was happening, and decided to try and bury it again.

Even though her father had lived in Sahara Square his whole life, she knew he had always hated the climate. He was a snow fox deep down, so much so that he probably wished he was born an arctic fox rather than a red one. And from what her father had told her, her mother Marian had shared his sentiments. However, for one reason or another, the pair had never managed to escape the grasp of the sizzling desert district. Whether it was due to tight finances, internal family issues, or some other reason, her father's claims that "one day the family would be picking up and moving to Tundra Town," (or at least the suburbs of a much more temperate district) always failed to coalesce. Whatever the reason, it hadn't stopped them from at least being able to have their wedding ceremony and reception held in Tundratown.

Val would have been lying if she had tried to deny the scene she was watching was anything less than a stunning one. Wherever the reception was taking place in Tundra Town, it was dressed to the nines in a billion little twinkling lights that shimmered like stars amidst the softly falling snow. Her mother and father were just about to cut the first slice of wedding cake, both mammals wearing adoring smiles as their loving gazes remained trained on one another's own. To Val, it looked as though the both of them were entirely lost in each other at that moment. The guests, the music, all of it seemed to have simply fallen away, becoming little more than white noise if anything. They only existed for one another, they didn't need anyone or anything else. For the briefest of moments, the captivated canid could feel her heart flutter with the barest taste of the love that was oozing from the pair, a feeling she was quick to suppress as one that was entirely beneath her.

As much as she was loathed to admit it, her Dad actually looked kind of handsome in his bright white tux that matched the gently drifting snow. The sky blue tie that matched his eyes popping that much more against the contrasting white. And as for her mother, well, while the vixen had never been one for dresses of any kind, she had to admit that her surprisingly low cut, low frills strapless gown looked quite elegant. Had she been forced to wear something similar, she could begrudgingly admit she didn't entirely hate it if pressed. Although she would have definitely vetoed the Saint Marian style winter hood and cloak.

The vixen watched, enraptured as the pair pressed the spade into the cake; the crowd around them clapped as they raised the first slice of wedding cake into camera view before sliding it onto a plate. When her mother took the plate into her paws, Val saw her dig her claws into a portion of the garish white confectionary before raising it toward her new beau's face, gesturing for him to open his muzzle. Cameron of course, dutifully obliged his new bride, closing his eyes and opening his maw wide in anticipation.

Val smirked impishly. Had she been in her mother's sole pads, she knew she wouldn't have been able to resist the urge to-.

As if the beaming bride on-screen had somehow read her future daughter's mind, Val watched in surprise and amusement as her mother proceeded to shove the bits of cake directly into her father's snout, smearing the sugary sweet sheet cake into his muzzle fur and onto his glasses before quickly retracting her paw and clasping it to her muzzle. The devilish debutant letting out a soft, sweet series of giggles.

The young tod rolled his eyes before making a swift grab for the plate still in Marian's paws, which the blushing bride did her best to rebuff, holding her beau at arm's length and continuing to giggle. Her fiery red hair swished as she struggled to play keep away, the intensity of its color acting as a sharp, stark contrast to all the glaring white that surrounded the scene.

"You want this cake?" Marian cooed sweetly between her tittering.

"I want it!" Cameron cried between his own laughter, his paws outstretched and flailing as his wife continued to tease him. To Val, it almost reminded her of the way a stereotypical schoolyard bully would hold back a smaller, weaker mammal while dangling his stolen goods high above his head, and it only served to make her let out another amused snort.

Eventually though, her mother relented, although whether it was on purpose or on accident the mandarin-colored mammal couldn't be entirely sure. Either way, her father eventually managed to get a stray claw into the slice of cake, and as quickly as he did so, he was already making a lunge for her face.

"No! Noooo!" Marian feigned a cry, still giggling all the while.

"Revenge!" Cameron retorted gleefully.

"NOOOO!" The blushing bride whined back.

Soon enough, Cameron had closed the gap, and smeared his lovely lady's muzzle and glasses with cake in equal measure.

The two fell stock still for a moment, Marian looking back at her husband in shock while he bore a devilish grin before the two burst into uproarious laughter. The pair were cackling for several moments like they were school kits again before Val's father took his beautiful bride into his arms. As the two locked eyes once again, the laughter faded, and as their muzzles drew close that same shimmer of deep love and adoration had returned, hiding just behind their eyes.

"I love you Mari." Cameron uttered softly.

"I love you too Cam." She replied.

The sight of her parents kissing was enough to break the spell that had held Val's gaze on the scene, and she quickly turned to look back at her father. The older tod remained just where she had seen him last, his eyes still fixed on the screen.

The forlorn fox managed a weak laugh, one that lacked the enthusiasm and vigor the younger version of himself on display had shown.

"Sometimes I forget how much you take after your mother." Cameron admitted, smiling warmly although still remained focused on the screen. "I mean, you take more after your grandmother, definitely." He continued. "But little moments like that, I can see that same little impishness in you."

Val chuckled.

"I'm actually kinda surprised." The vermillion vixen admitted. "Based on the other stuff you told me about Mom, I had her pegged as being as big of a dork as you were." She admitted with a chortle.

Cameron nodded, despite never lifting his head from the couch cushion. "Oh she was, she definitely was." He replied with a wide smile. "Did I ever tell you that we met in our College tabletop gaming club?"

Val let out a loud guffaw. "Seriously!?" The rascally rebel stuck her tongue out, letting off a loud _'pthhhhpt'_before crying out loudly. "LAaaAAAMMEE!"

"Darn right we were." Her father replied with a laughing snort. "And we were damn proud of it too."

"Pssht, okay grandpaw." His daughter retorted. "Spare me the 'back in my day' speech." She said in a masquerading tone, doing her best impression of a scratchy old mammal to emphasize her statement.

Turning her attention back to the screen, Val continued to watch her parents as they went on to cut slices of cake for the various members of their respective families. All the while the pair stayed close, her father with one arm wrapped around her mother's waist as the both of them stole stray nuzzles and affectionate nips from one another. The cake cutting became increasingly mechanical and autonomous as the pair remained enraptured by each other's mere presence.

As Val continued to watch, her gaze fixed on the fiery red fox wrapped up in her father's arms. She could feel her heart begin to sink. In turn, she could feel a rather uncomfortable, clawing feeling rising in her chest to replace the void her heart had left. One that grew increasingly harder to endure in the face of her mother's warm and loving smile. The painful grip continued to rise from her chest to her throat, and soon it had made its way to just below her eyes, causing them to squint reflexively as she felt the first signs of tears begin to tickle the corners of her corneas.

When the scene around the couple began to fall away, only then did it truly start to hit the vixen. She was looking at her mother, her honest to gods mother, in her prime. Vibrant and vivacious and full of life, and in full motion video no less. The mother who had barely gotten to hug her, who had barely gotten to kiss her. The mother who had always previously been a foggy ghost that lived on the periphery of her mind, but had otherwise never gotten to be there for her.

Val swallowed hard, trying her best to quietly suck back the rising tide of tears, yet still unable to break away from her mother's vision. Her mind quickly filled with a growing number of increasingly painful thoughts. What would it have been like had her mother been there for her kithood? What would she have thought of Ellie? Gods, what would she think of her now?

And then it came, that detestable, hateful vision that the vulnerable vixen did her damndest to bury, yet still came screaming back to her in vivid clarity in her darkest nightmares. The hospital, the smell of antiseptic that stung her little nostrils, the steady beeping of the various machines that were unwittingly fighting a losing battle. Her mother, her lovely and lively mother, with almost all life stripped away from her. She could still recall her withered hairless form, her tired eyes, her strained smile despite it all as she gave the little fox one long last hug and a series of sweet, gentle kisses.

Val blinked as hard and sharply as she could, forcing herself away from the meshrewsa's gaze her father's wedding video had become. The mandarin-colored mammal brought her paw to her muzzle, letting out a loud, sharp cough as she forced as much of that painful memory as she could down with a hard, painful swallow. It worked, albeit not entirely, and the vulpine quickly turned her attention to wiping away the tears that were still just on the cusp of being shed from her eyes.

With a shuddering sigh, Val managed to force her attention back toward the screen, and then to her father; the mammal still having remained stationary during the entire ordeal. He hadn't noticed. Too wrapped up in the video himself to catch sight of his daughter's momentary breakdown. That much she was grateful for.

The scarlet service mammal managed an awkward cough as she continued to eye the older mammal warily. _"Well, it's now or never,"_she thought.

"Dad?" His title had meant to come out with a bit more firmness to it, however, what escaped her muzzle sounded as meek as a mouse pleading for its life.

"Mhhh...?" The tod uttered dumbly, seemingly not really invested in whatever his daughter had to say.

"You ever think about..." The flustered female fox twisted a foot against the carpet awkwardly. "What Mom would think about us now?"

The tod was silent, his grey blue eyes unflinching and ever focused on the onscreen performance.

"L-Like about what our lives are like...how we're getting on without her?" The vixen admitted sheepishly.

"Sometimes..." Cameron uttered softly. "Mostly when it comes to how I'm raising you and your sister." He added. "And your futures."

Val nodded timidly, her throat tightening a bit as she readied herself to steer the conversation into more difficult territory.

"N-never about you?" She managed to squeak out. "About h-how you're getting on without her?"

The spell around her father seemed to break as his gaze flicked over in her direction; the tod quirked a confused and skeptical brow.

"I-I guess...sometimes." The dusky red Dad admitted, a sense of hesitation evident in his tone.

Val took a deep breath, swallowing hard as she prepared her next question. Gods, this was difficult. But she had promised Ellie, and there was no backing down now.

"Do...Do you think...she'd be happy to...see you like this?" Val managed to utter.

Val watched her father's brow furrowed sharply, his gaze turning into a half-lidded one as he began to rise to a sitting position.

"Val, please don't start th-."

"You know she wouldn't want you to live like this, right?" The vixen was quick to cut him off.

"Val." Cameron continued to protest, his tone sterner now as he fully sat up. His attention was now fully on his daughter, and he looked significantly less than happy.

"She wouldn't want you to do this, to destroy yourself like this, and you know it." Val's tone grew in confidence and firmness to match her father's own. Her courage was returning rapidly now that she felt she had a foothold.

"Valerie Madison Vulpes, you need to drop this right now o-."

"She would want you to go out and live life! To enjoy things again!"

For the first time in her life, the utterance of her full name failed to have the desired effect. Instead, the red rebel held firm, unwilling to turn tail and run from the oncoming verbal scuffle.

"The last thing she would want would be to have you sit in a dark little room watching old family home movies on a loop and feeling sorry for yourself!" The vixen winced slightly, perhaps her choice in wording had been a little too harsh, but she knew she had to press on. "She'd want you to move o-!"

"Valerie, please!" The words had clearly meant to have a more austere edge to them, but his voice had cracked mid-sentence and crumbled along with his resolve. His former seriousness gave way to a look of hurt as he recoiled from his dear daughter. "D-Don't say anything you might not be able to ta-."

"She'd want you to move on with your life!" Val shouted the older tod down. She had gotten it out. It had been a bumpy ride to get to that point, but she had finally managed to say her piece. The one thing she knew her father didn't want to, but needed to hear, and hear from someone close to him most of all. It should have come with a sense of accomplishment, a feeling of pride. Now certainly progress could be made. Yet instead, the sinking feeling that had plagued her earlier returned with a vengeance when she watched the older mammal recoil. If he hadn't looked gutted before, he certainly did now, and the pain in his eyes filled the vulnerable vixen with instant regret. The guilt that was now weighing down on her was unbearable, and it only intensified as her father turned away from her.

"D-Dad I'm-." She stopped herself, the words forming a painful lump in her throat which forced them back down. She couldn't apologize for something she meant. Something she believed.

Turning her attention back to the TV screen, the vixen watched her significantly younger parents together at the banquet table, the two mammals' chairs tucked up right against each other allowing them to continue to nuzzle up close. Her eyes once again trained themselves on the beguiling bride with the entrancing kelly green eyes, with a smile that could light up a room. A smile that (despite the current tone of the conversation between her and her father) had managed to force a warm beam of her own to Val's face. She knew at that moment she wasn't just doing this for Ellie or her father. She owed it to her mother as well.

"Dad, I-..." Looking back to the mammal set beside her, she could see the bereaved beau had returned to his slumped position, only now the bulk of his face was buried in the couch cushion. The somber service mammal let out a soft sigh.

"Y-You know Dad, there's a lot...I really don't know about Mom." The crimson canid admitted hesitantly. "To be honest...I...don't really have all that many memories of her." She realized, scratching the back of her head awkwardly. "At least, not ones I can remember that I'm totally certain are my own, you know?"

The older tod remained buried in his pillow, silent and still.

"A lot of them are...really hazy." She continued. "And the ones that aren't are only so clear because I had the help of a picture or home movie to kind of fill in the gaps."

Again, there was no response from her father figure; the Reynard remaining buried in his makeshift emotional den.

"That day we all went to the Sahara Shoals as a family?" His daughter asked. "The one where we brought Uncle Rowan?"

Val let out a sad sigh. She turned her gaze up toward the ceiling, her coif of hair bouncing along her exhale.

"I can remember posing for the photo..." She confessed glumly. "But that's really only because you showed it to me, and told me the story behind it."

The increasingly somber-sounding vixen ran a paw through her tuft of head fur, her recollection of the story causing the knot in her stomach starting to tighten again.

"I remember you telling me how much Uncle Rowan struggled with the camera." She began to list her fragmented memories as though they were bullet points. "How you were worried he was going to break it, and how it was brand new."

The vulnerable vixen managed a small smile. "I remember you telling me about how I used to think Uncle Ro was a stuffed toy, and the whole time he was trying to take the shot, I was trying to wriggle out of your and Mom's arms to get to him." She snickered weakly.

Glancing back to the Depressed Dad to her side, she noticed that while his face remained buried in the couch cushion, one of his ears had turned in her direction. It stood high and pointed, twitching every so often as he seemed to be listening intently despite the rest of his body language denying it.

"I remember you telling me how much...Mom was doting over me..." She managed another wavering chuckle. "She had even brought a thing of sunscreen to basically drench me in, despite that sunburns are something only mammals with bare hides have to really worry about."

"Mhhusss mee mawnted tff gfft yrrr nssse." Came a muffled reply from the depths of the couch cushion her father had buried himself in.

A small smile formed on Val's muzzle.

"What was that Dad?"

The tod remained silent and still, and for a moment the scarlet service mammal thought he wasn't going to elaborate on his garbled statement. However, to her surprise she watched as Cameron slowly turned and poked his muzzle out of the cushion, his gaze still remaining far and away from her own.

"You can still get sunburned on your snout..." He admitted hesitantly. "Sh-she wanted to make sure your nose was covered..." He added. "I mean, she got it for all of us really...She just was applying a new coat on your nose every twenty minutes."

Val chortled softly and in response, the dour Dad seemed to recoil back into his former position, his snout once again buried in green velvet and cotton fiber..

The vexed vixen let out a tired sigh and turned her attention back to the screen.

By now the cake had been served, and presumably eaten. Val could only assume the video had cut forward while she had been looking away. Now she was watching the guests mill about the venue, each of the various members of the Vulpes and Reynards either chatting with one another or passing in and out of frame as the reception bustled on. While her mother wasn't on screen at the moment, her father was, along with an older black-furred fox that seemed to be distressing him. Whatever they were talking about, the deep-rouge-colored canid appeared to not be having any of it.

"For that matter, I don't even recognize most of the foxes on screen right now." The slightly flustered fox admitted. It was an open-ended statement, begging for an answer. It was bait, and she hoped her father would take a bite.

Glancing over to the older tod by her side, she watched him reluctantly force his head out of its resting place. Taking a moment to adjust his glasses, Cameron squinted at the screen.

"That's your Great Uncle Silas I believe...the one talking to me." The rust-furred fox answered, letting out a slightly annoyed-sounding sigh. "I'm pretty sure he was asking me for a loan."

The vixen snickered. "That's Old Grunkle Silas? The one who gave me my first pedal bike?"

"Gave you?" His response was an indignant one as he pressed himself up into a sitting position. "Maybe he said that, but the next day he was back at our house looking to repossess it."

The vixen curled a curious eyebrow. "Repossess it?"

"Gambled himself into a hole right after gifting it to you." Cameron replied. "As he always did..." The pestered-sounding parent grumbled. "Honestly, taking back a three-year-old's birthday gift, it really was a new low for that shuffling old scrapefoot."

The scarlet service lass giggled in surprise. "No way!"

The maroon mam replied. "I ended up paying him double the price out of our pockets just to get him to leave it be." The tod shook his head dismissively. "You absolutely loved that bike, there was no way me and your mother were letting him take it back. I learned early on that, when dealing with Marian's uncle, the best way to get rid of him was to pay him off."

Val let out a cackle in response, genuinely amused by her odd Grunkle's sleazy penny-pinching antics.

"Say, how do you remember that Great Uncle Silas gave you that bike anyway?" Cameron asked, glaring back at his daughter skeptically.

Val smirked confidently. "Another photo." she replied. "The one where Mom was teaching me how to use it for the first time?"

"Oh..." The now flustered older fox replied.

"I remember you telling me that I took to that bike like a rabbit with a carrot." The vermillion vixen responded. "That once I got into the little driver's seat, you and Mom couldn't get me out."

Cameron chortled. "Ah yes, the original Old Red." The older tod sighed warmly. "Despite it being pink and all." He smirked. "Not that you could have objected to the color choice at that age mind you. Hades, you were barely managing full sentences." The russet-furred fox shook his head. "Not that something like that would slow you down; even then you were a little daredevil...much to my continual terror."

The mandarin-colored mammette giggled.

"So I've heard." She responded with an amused smirk. "I remember you telling me that on my first day of riding, I tried to ramp it down the stairs?"

"Thank Gods your mother caught that!" Her father cried, placing a paw to his head and swabbing at the phantom sweat that had yet to form. "How you managed to tug that peddle bike all the way up the stairs by yourself at three, I can't even imagine, but had your mother not stopped you..." Cameron visibly shuddered, clasping his upper arms and rubbing them as though he had suffered a serious chill. " I don't even want to think about it!"

"Yeah, that definitely would have landed me in Mirage of Hope's Pediatric Wing for sure." The vixen admitted cavalierly, causing her father to cringe visibly in response. "Although I guess I was determined to take a spill that day one way or the other since you told me I got hurt anyway."

"Scraped your knee trying to jump a little rock..." The older tod admitted guiltily. "I was too distracted by Uncle Silas' panhandling to notice you trying to make that jump." He sighed.

"But you told me Mom was right there with the first aid kit, faster than a pit crew at the Sahara Speedway."

Cameron managed a warm smile, his sky blue eyes shimmering for the briefest of moments.

"I was over there too, trying my best to calm you down, to try and stop your tears." He chuckled. "But all it took was a kiss on your 'boo-boo' from Mommy and you were back to your usual rough and tumble self." The older tod's smile widened to reveal the barest hint of his fangs. "We could barely get you to sit still long enough to get the band-aid on after that."

Val chortled, sharing her father's warm smile. There was a growing heat in her chest now, the warm memories she barely recalled touching in her something she thought was long since dormant. It was a comforting feeling, one which was all the more amplified by the fact that she was sharing it with her Ol 'Mam. It reminded her of times long ago, when her father seemed less crippled by the loss of her mother, or at least was better at hiding it. Back when her father was her whole world, her sole confidant and playmate, before Ellie came along anyway. Even then, the portly opossum had easily fit into their pre-existing family dynamic, giving Val not just one, but two wonderful mammals to rely on.

On-screen, the younger version of her father had seemed to finally chase her Grunkle off. Now she could see Uncle Rowan had taken a seat on the well-tailored tod's tuxedo, the squirrel seemingly struggling to steady himself as her father kept a careful paw around the fat little ball of fur to keep him from tumbling off of him.

"What's wrong with Uncle Ro?" Val asked.

"He's smashed is what's wrong with him." Her father replied with a light chuckle.

Val glanced back at her father, her eyes wide with surprise.

"Woah! Uncle Rowan drunk?" She cried in shock. "I thought he was a teetotaler like you."

The deep crimson creative let out an irritated sigh. "That's because someone decided it would be hilarious if they spiked the punch." Cameron admitted. "More than likely Uncle Silas striking again." He grumbled bitterly.

"Gods, he looks even more like a goofy plush toy drunk than sober." The vixen tittered. "I'm actually kinda shocked I didn't accidentally smother him as a kit."

Cameron snickered. "Not for lack of trying." He flashed his daughter a broad smile. "Thankfully your mother was always more masterful when it came to making the switch."

The crimson-colored canid raised a curious eyebrow.

"The switch?" She asked.

The older tod continued to chuckle. "Whenever you had your Uncle Rowan wrapped up tightly in your grubby little paws, your Mother was the only one who could ever distract you long enough to slip another plush into your paws and free him." Cameron let out a forlorn sigh. "When she smiled at you, you giggled so sweetly at her." Val watched as her father's steely blue eyes began to glimmer with a fresh sheen of tears. "And seeing you both smiling, you with your little toothless cookie-eating grin, and her..." Cameron clutched a paw to his chest. "I would just melt every time."

The rose-colored rebel smiled warmly at her father, the steady feeling of warmth in her chest growing with each revisited memory.

Once again the scenes of the reception had skipped ahead, with Marian returning to Cam's arms so the two could share an affectionate nuzzle. However, Val's parent's blissful moment was short-lived, as a somewhat rotund, silvery, older-looking vixen sashayed her way over to the pair. Her steely, cold grey eyes that seemed as bitter as the cold weather around them seemed to bore into her Ol 'Mam, causing the tod to slink into his shoulders sheepishly. While the exchange between the mammals couldn't be made out over the din of the reception, it was clear her mother was less than pleased by whatever this interloper had to say. It was rare for Val to have seen the fiery maternal redhead wearing anything less than some form of a smile in photos and other home movies, but right now she was wearing the most displeased looking scowl she had ever seen on her, complete with a set of flattened ears and bared fangs for good measure.

Marian uttered a few words, just the barest amount of readable syllables that Val couldn't make out. Though whatever she had said left the grouse of a grey vixen looking aghast, even more ashen than her complexion. That sort of response seemed to be what usually melodious Marian was looking for as a smug, satisfied grin crawled across her muzzle. Val watched the she-fox pull her newlywed husband deeper into her embrace, allowing his head to rest on her shoulders as they shared a hug, and allowing her to stick her tongue out sharply at the older mammal behind them. In response, the grey vixen let out a huff so loud the camera managed to pick it up before she stormed off.

"That's your great-grandmother Lillith." Cameron spoke without being quizzed, now seemingly fully engaged by the father-daughter back and forth Val had been trying to cultivate. "She was such a b-...er...grouse."

Val grinned broadly, amused at her father's attempt to stop himself from outright cursing.

"What's her problem?" The curious canid asked.

"She never was keen on your mother dating me, much less marrying me." He grumbled. "So she made sure to always be there with a disparaging word at my expense whenever she could."

The tod blessed his daughter with a satisfied smile. "Of course, I already had Marian's mother's approval long before she even got to meet me. Not to mention Marian was never one to take no for an answer when she wanted something." Cameron sighed glumly. "If your grandma Vivian hadn't been hit by that car, I probably would have never even had the displeasure of meeting that old grey house frau."

"I take it she was a nosy type?" the gear-headed gal asked.

The deep scarlet sir rolled his eyes. "Understatement. She was the kind of mammal who needed to micromanage everyone else's lives around her, especially when they were family." Cameron shook his head. "Your grandmother completely rebelled against her at every turn, and when it came to your mother, I guess your grandmother Vivian was sort of acting as a barrier in keeping Lilith from trying to meddle with her life as well. When she passed away, Lillith swooped in to try and be the parent Vivian actively refused to let her be, despite Marian being an adult by that point."

The older tod scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "She did everything short of I think chaining your mother to a wall to keep this wedding from going through. And when she knew there was no chance of stopping it, she refused to pay for any of it out of spite." He huffed. "Thankfully my mother was willing to foot the bill or the only wedding we would have had was a trip to the Sahara Square District Clerk and a dinner at the nearby Quesodillo's."

The aloof adolescent offered her father an indifferent shrug. "I dunno, that sounds alright to me." She replied with a smirk.

Cameron chuckled. "Missy, I love Quesodillo's too, but even I have to have standards when it comes to my wedding day. If not for me, then for your mother."

The older tod's smile broadened. The slightest hint of a blush formed on his cheeks.

"But knowing your mother, if that was the only option, she would have taken it in a heartbeat." He sighed softly. "She loved me that much....we loved each other that much. That was enough to reduce a grandmother's nag to little more than a pesky gnat in the grand scheme of it all. One your mother was all too happy to swat."

"I can see that." Val replied with an amused smirk. "What did she say to Granny Lillith to get that constipated-looking face anyway?"

The previously tearful tod paled slightly, his ears sagging. His eyes briefly darted from one corner of the room to the other and back again, as though he was fearful that whatever he was about to reveal would get him scolded by some sort of authority figure. As if Grandma Aleta was set to fly down from Asgrowl herself and send him to the corner just like he had done to a younger Val more often than she would have liked to admit, should he utter a single naughty word. Cameron took a deep exhale as he seemed to steel himself to deliver his mate's biting reply verbatim.

"Back away from my tod you old c...er...'cruel mammal'."

The tickled teen let out a snorting laugh, slapping a paw to her muzzle in an effort to stifle any further snorts from slipping out as her giggling fit continued.

"Now replace_'cruel mammal'with another _'c-word' that's only four letters long, and you'll know what your mother actually said."

"No-No I got it." Val replied, wiping a stray tear from her eye as her laughter began to trail off.

"I told you you were more like your mother than you realized." The rusty-furred fox replied with a smirk. "The gods know I've had to send you to the corner for using _'that'_word enough times when you were in middle school."

The devilish debutant smirked. " Hey, Mrs. Harshwhinney was one. I was only speaking the truth."

Cameron rolled his eyes, the older tod letting out a soft sigh as he turned his attention back to the screen. The two fell silent briefly whilst the reception continued to play.

"I wish Vivian could have been there at the wedding." He said softly. "She would have loved it."

Glancing back at his daughter, the cherry red-furred fox offered his daughter a small, bemused smirk. "Of course, had her and Lilith been in the same room, she might have actually gotten into a fistfight over that little exchange."

The vivacious vixen had to stop herself from snorting once more in amusement. "Really?"

The tod chortled. "Hey, I told you, you take a lot after your mother, but you take after your grandmother even more."

Cameron sighed as he resumed watching the onscreen scene, both mammals quiet while they watched the young newlyweds return to their blissful state.

"You already know that your grandmother wanted you to have Ol 'Red, right?" Her father asked.

The vulpine nodded affirmatively.

"She had left it for you in her will. Well, her first future grandkit anyway." The tod continued. "And she tasked your mother with fixing it up alongside you, and teaching you to ride it."

"Mom knew how to ride?" The giddy girl asked with mild excitement.

"Vivian practically lived on that motorcycle, there was no way her daughter was going to grow up without learning her way around that machine. I don't think Viv would have stood for it." He chuckled. "Honestly, it's a wonder your grandmother didn't die on that thing; being she was practically grafted to it."

Val pressed her paws into the sofa cushion, leaning in slightly in rapt attention as she beckoned her father to continue.

"Yeah?"

The melancholy mammal let out a deep sigh. "I was so against it. I was terrified of you ever touching that thing." The vixen watched as a small smirk crawled across her father's muzzle. "But Marian was so excited about it." His smile broadened. "She dreamed of the day she'd get to teach you how to tame Ol 'Red."

Turning his gaze on the fiery red fox sat beside him, his grin grew large enough to reveal his fangs.

"And I just... I couldn't say no to that gal." He snickered softly. "I never could."

The vivacious vixen grinned back at her Ol 'Mam before turning her attention back to the wedding video. Unfortunately, this time around, she had caught the loving couple in mid-kiss, causing her to cringe reflexively. Somehow though, she managed to endure, and her and her father slipped back into silence as they watched the newlyweds nuzzle and whisper sweet nothings to each other.

"Mom sounds like she was really something," Val spoke softly as if trying her best to respect the moment of reflection on all the information her father had revealed to her. It was true. Her mother really was something, and again she found herself wondering just how different her life would have been had her mother been allowed to be in it.

Val's previous smile began to falter, her ears sagging when she started to speak. "I wish that I could remember more about her." She sighed. "That I didn't need memory coaching or something just to try and see her in my head."

Catching her father's expression out of the corner of her eye, she could see his features had fallen in much the same way, and soon she felt his reassuring paw come to rest on her back.

The vulnerable vixen's breath hitched slightly before her thoughts once again returned to those grim images from that night at the Mirage of Hope. The harsh halogen lighting, the antiseptic stink, all of it was creeping back into her mind like sewage seeping from an overflowing toilet. The knot in her stomach returned, gnarling fiercely. Val attempted to steel herself. She had to let it in for now; it was the only way the turnaround for her plan would have any impact.

"The only thing I can really remember was that...that night at the hospital," Val admitted glumly, a sniffle managing to escape her lips, revealing her struggle to maintain her composure.

She watched the color drain from beneath her father's pelt, his expression darkening that much more as he turned his gaze away from the troubled teen. Now he was the one whose breath had appeared to hitch, a trembling paw making its way up to his sternum and gripping the cloth and fur beneath tightly.

"I guess I probably only remember it so well because...I guess it was traumatizing?" Val admitted sheepishly, her head drooped and her gaze began tracing the vague random patterns in the carpeting. "I mean, s-seeing her like that was..." The vixen's breathing wavered, that familiar tightness in her chest starting growing stronger the more the conversation forced her to ruminate on 'that' memory. "All her f-fur was..." An errant sob forced itself free of her muzzle. "S-she...she just looked so small..."

While Valerie had managed to keep the tears tamped down so far, the same could not be said of her Ol 'Mam. Glancing back at him out of the corner of her eye, she could see his paw had also clasped itself over his muzzle, a steady stream of silent tears pouring from his ocean colored eyes.

"T-That image...that's just...seared into my brain." The dismayed daughter continued, holding her other paw near the top of her head and clenching it in a clawing shape. "F-fixed in there like a stripped and rusted lugnut that no tool, or heavy amount of grease can ever h-hope to pry loose." She sighed mournfully. "All of it, that whole night is just burned in there. A-and the worst part of it is, it's the most I-I can genuinely remember about her."

"O-Oh my little Motorbug." Cameron sniffled sharply, and the forlorn father began to move in for a hug. It was a hug that Val wanted desperately now, but she knew in order to make her point and have it land as she intended, she couldn't allow herself to be interrupted.

Before the rust colored canid could draw his daughter into an embrace, Val placed a paw out to stop him. The older mammal looked at her with complete and utter confusion, swabbing at his teary blue orbs and sniffing harshly.

"V-Val, Honey wha-what-?

"T-There is s-so much I don't know about her." Val continued, looking away from the torn tod. She pressed on through to her point. "So much I n-never got to know, a-and never will." The troubled teen continued. "B-But between the home movies, and the photos, a-and everything you've told me about Mom, I-I'd like to think I've got a p-pretty good bead on her personality."

Cameron's tears were still flowing despite the increasingly skeptical expression that was forming across his features. The confusion was still there, she could see it, but now she could also see a wariness behind his eyes. The emotionally crippled creative was catching on to where the conversation was headed, and the walls were slowly coming back up.

"A-And if there's one thing I can be pretty confident about putting together, it's that Mom would want you to move on."

The vulnerable vixen winced as she watched her father draw away from her. The older mammal's ears sank sharply; a fresh frown formed on his muzzle while he receded into the dark. She was expecting more scolding, more resistance, but what she got genuinely surprised her.

"V-Val...Honey..." The somber sir whimpered, pawing at his eyes again. "I-I know you and your sister want to h-help me, I do." A stray sob escaped his muzzle as he spoke. "A-And it means th-the world to me that you care s-so much, but y-you...you can't really understand what I'm going through."

The vermillion vixen grimaced.

"I-I understand you're destroying yourself." Val sniffled.

Cameron winced, closing his eyes and letting out a sigh before continuing.

"Y-Your mother was everything to me...S-she was my entire world until y-you and Ellie came along." He continued with a shuddering sniffle. "I c-can't just-."

"You can't just sit here in the dark letting yourself waste away Dad!" Val cried, her tears starting to dry into her fur. She changed her position to a more combative one. "Is this what things are going to be like when I finally move out? Are you going to just lay in the dark every night and watch these home movies until the DVDs break?!"

"H-Honey, I ca-can't-." Her father sputtered through a whimper.

"D-Don't you want to see Els graduate!?" Val huffed. "To get married, to have kits or whatever opossums call their babies?"

"V-Valerie-."

"M-Mom would want you to move on! She needs you to!" The vixen barked. "We need you to! We want you to be in our lives, healthy and happy!" The increasingly distressed daughter spat, her chest heaving due to the limited gaps between her sentences shortening her breath."You need to let Mom go!"

That one stung. She could see it written all over her father's face. However, the expression was quick to mix with a look of anger, one that was causing her father to tightly grit his teeth through his tears.

"Nothing can ever replace Marian!" The furious fox snapped.

"Nothing can ever replace you either!" His daughter snarled back with equal fervor.

The room fell silent, save for the lingering sounds of the wedding video. Both mammals withdrew from the argument and turned away from each other. They had exchanged a brief look of shock, which had given way to a rising sense of shame that had forced them to repel like magnetic opposites. It was a rare occurrence to ever see her father angry, something that only ever occurred once in a blue moon. She knew he hated raising his voice for anything, even more so if it had to be directed at either of his daughters. So she knew she had really struck a nerve, which had only served to add to the sense of intense guilt building within her. Now the ashamed she-fox was starting to doubt her strategy altogether. All it had seemed to do was hurt her father more deeply than he already was. She had stabbed him in his already gutted heart, and like stabbing at a Zoodoo doll with a pin, the same pain had been reflected back on herself.

The quiet tension lingered for quite some time, hanging over the room like a thick fog as Val struggled to think of how to proceed. What (if anything) could she even say at this point? For the longest time, her words seem to fail her. Val tried opening her muzzle a few times only to close it again to rethink her approach. Soon, some form of a reply managed to find its way out of her muzzle.

"L-look Dad, I'm not saying to forget Mom." The flustered female admitted sheepishly. "I would never say that!"

For the moment, she still couldn't bring herself to look his way. Shame still keeping her gaze locked on one of the dark corners of the living room.

"I-I'm not even saying to like...jump into dating or anything." She twisted her foot awkwardly into the grain of the carpet. "Even though I get the feeling Mom would really want you not to be alone for the rest of your life." Val lolled her head as she continued. "Despite the whole 'foxes mate for life' tradition thing."

The shrinking she-fox's gaze managed to slowly drift to the floor, her eyes watching her foot as her toes splayed into the carpet, idly playing with the threads.

"I'm j-just saying..." The vulnerable Valerie sighed. "I'm saying you should get out there and at least maybe make some new friends. Maybe take up a new hobby. Enjoy going out with me and Ellie. At the very least you need to stop living like you're already dead. N-not just for Mom, but for me and El's too."

Val finally managed to sneak a peek in the direction of Cameron out of the corner of her eye, the shimmering blue iris managing to find an equally guilty and downcast looking fox focusing on the carpet grain with equal intensity sitting to her side. For the briefest of moments, his gaze met hers, and the subsequent wave of renewed guilt quickly forced her gaze back toward the floor. She knew she might not be able to continue with what she had to say otherwise...at least, not yet.

"W-We want you to have a second chance at life Dad." The mandarin-colored mammal managed to continue. "You deserve to find happiness again, you need to let yourself be happy. " She sighed somberly. "It's what Mom would have wanted."

The room fell deaf once more, so much so that it momentarily confused the vixen, forcing her to look up and review her surroundings. The wedding that had been playing out on the TV screen was gone now, having been replaced with a blue screen that signified that the ride down memory lane she had joined her father on had finally come to an end (though Val was certain that if she had not found Cameron, he would have hit the replay button and started the journey all over). It made the atmosphere feel all the more oppressive and stifling. She could feel the pressure rising, each second ticking by. The lack of response from her downcast Dad fed the guilt and shame she had been previously feeling like a fresh stack of logs tossed upon a dying fire. Finally, and much to Val's relief, albeit only momentarily, her dear father spoke up.

"H-Honestly Val Sweetie...I don't think I deserve it." She heard the older tod admit with a somber sigh of his own. "If the gods were willing to take Marian from me in the first place, how can I possibly deserve that?"

Out of the corner of her eye she could see her Ol 'Mam lifting his glasses to swab at his eyes with a paw before allowing his head to sink into his cupped paws.

"I must have really done something awful in a past life, like taken part in rodent extermination in Roarope, or committed some other terrible war crime or something." He continued with a soft whimper. "Something that has marked me unworthy of happiness."

That admission gave slight rise to Val's hackles. What her Dad had said was almost offensive to her. She didn't like to hear anyone put down her father, especially if it was the mam himself, and it left her feeling a contrasting mixture of pain & irritation at her pop's appraisal of his own self worth. If everyone around her father thought he deserved to be happy, why couldn't he see it himself? He was a mammal that had never hurt anyone in his life, and had always given his heart and soul to those he cared about. How could such a mammal be unworthy of being happy? How could he when there were so many other far worse mammals out there who were leading happy and fulfilling lives at the expense of others? It wasn't right or fair. He deserved better. He deserved a second chance. How could she make him see that?

Then it struck her, an idea hitting her so hard that it felt as though it knocked the wind out of her. Maybe it would work, or maybe it wouldn't, but it was definitely worth a shot; however long a one that may be.

Without a word, the suddenly galvanized gal shot to her feet before quietly walking out of the room and leaving the torn tod behind. For a moment, Cameron watched his daughter's sudden egress with mild confusion, but it was a fleeting feeling, one the morose mammal was quick to shrug off once he slumped back into the couch cushion. For the time being, the conversation seemed to have tabled itself, and that was fine for him. He already was dealing with the stress of reliving his loss of Marian, and didn't need the added sense of guilt & shame that had come from arguing with each of his beloved daughters.

With a press of the play button, the wedding video began to replay, starting at the height of the ceremony. The tearful tod returned to watching the familiar pair standing at the altar, reciting their vows, the gently falling snow swirling and dancing around them as they pledged their undying love to one another. A renewed wave of hot tears began to trickle from the corner of his eyes.

"Oh Mari, what should I-?"

Cameron's words died in his throat. His vision was suddenly cast in darkness, forcing him to draw back into the sofa in surprise. Looking up, he could see his daughter had returned unannounced, using her body to block out most of the scene on the screen beyond her, but directly blocking his gaze with something she was holding in her paw.

"If she can manage to carve out a second chance at happiness for herself, I think you're more than deserving of one of your own."

Val extended the darkened shape out to him, and as she shifted the bulk of her body out of the way of the screen, the object became clear. It was a book. A deep purple novel embellished with opulent gold flourishes that seemed to dance around the cover.

Taking the book reluctantly into his paws, the older fox rose back into a seated position, allowing even better lighting to spill on to the hardcover. Now he could make out the title, as well as the animals on the cover.

'Predator Seeking Prey' he read to himself. 'By Dawn Hunter-Bellwether and Vernon Hunter-Bellwether'. It was the book that had fueled the Hungr rebranding, the book Rowan had declared 'the talk of Zootopia!'. It was mildly surprising, to be quite frank. Based on what he had heard about the novel, he would have expected it to be more to Eleanor's taste than Val's, yet she had been the one to give it to him.

Running a paw across the cover gingerly, his eyes began to study the title more intently, the odd choice in script and flourishing tickling something at the back of his brain. It only took him a second to realize why and he instinctively spun the book around. It was an ambigram, allowing the title to be reversed in order to read 'Prey Seeking Predator.'; the little chase scene of the wolf pursuing the sheep changing to the sheep pursuing the wolf in order to go along with it.

"Clever..." He muttered to himself. He looked up to his daughter, raising a curious eyebrow.

"Why do you have this, Vally Sweetie?" Cam the confused canid asked earnestly. "You've never been into romance novels before...or really reading all that much to begin with."

"Vernon_'gave'_ it to me." Val replied, placing her paws on her hips.

Her response only served to befuddle him that much more. The way she had said 'gave it to her' seemed dubious, as if she was hiding the real reason behind her having a copy of the novel, and a first edition no less. But before he could quiz his daughter on her official story, she continued.

"I was only reading it for the real smutty parts." The foxy vermillion vixen admitted with a devilish smirk. "Mostly to tease Vernon about it."

Again, Cam found her words dubious. Judging by the mild look that briefly lingered in his daughter's eyes, there seemed to be more than just teasing her friend involved with reading this novel, however this time around, Cameron was sure he didn't want the actual answer.

"Buuut..." Val continued, lolling her head. "I kept reading on and...as much as I hate to admit it,...that little wooly warmonger can write a pretty compelling story."

The ragged renyard glanced back down at the book for a moment and then to his daughter, the skepticism on his face remaining all the while.

"I'm confused Sweetheart." He replied. "Why are you showing this to me exactly...?"

"Because I want you to read it." The scarlet service mammal replied with a smirk. "I think it'll probably do you some good." She crossed her arms, shrugging. "At the very least, it'll get your mind off this week for a while."

The loud, obnoxious buzzing of the doorbell caused both mammals' ears to stand on end.

"That's probably the pizza." The vivacious vulpine announced, concurrently turning to walk out of the room. "I'll be back in a few minutes Dad."

Val had nearly slipped out of the room, stopping just short of the door frame and glancing back over her shoulder at him.

"And when I get back, we're putting something less miserable on, like_'Jurassic Bark', or _'Get him to the Goat'."

And with that, Val faded into the dark of the hallway, leaving Cameron with his newly acquired homework.

Glancing back at the book, the curious creative scratched his muzzle thoughtfully. He was very familiar with Bellwether. He would have even considered voting for her, had she been running instead of Lionheart. Of course, that was before the whole 'Night Howler' scandal had broken out and revealed her to be a craven madmammal....or so he had thought. Now that she had saved the city, and gone on to actually marry a predator no less after all that anti-pred sentiment, Cameron didn't know how to feel about her. Further still, he also knew Vernon very well. He had been a friend to his daughter for years, and every interaction the vulpine had with him had shown him to be a very kind, polite, and gentlemamly mammal who seemed to be a good judge of character. Yet the welcoming wolf had not only seen fit to put his full trust in Bellwether at a time when no other mammal would have given her the time of day, but went on to marry her as well. Needless to say, it was all very bewildering to say the least. But perhaps this book would do a good job of clearing things up.

After all, it must have been the talk of Zootopia for a reason. Then again, so was _'Fifty Shades of Hay'_years ago, and that had been one of the few books the creative canid could proudly say he didn't finish out of pure revulsion. Still, his curiosity was piqued, and as his daughter had said, it would make for a distraction at least.

Placing his paw on the cover, the suddenly timid tod opened the book to the first page...