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The Change Seeing his precinct after the recent days was offering the fox some much needed calmness and he smiled.
“Come on FireFox, the others will be happy to see you again!”
They had barely passed the door when Michael lifted his arms like for a big hug.
“We are back!”
While some came over to greet them, others were occupied and waved or just shouted back.
The only member even smaller than himself, the operator Janine, came over and just climbed up his body like usual and stood on his shoulder.
“Welcome back!”
After a small hug of his cheek, her expression became her more professional one.
“When you have put your stuff away, you shall come up to the Chief.”
This came unexpected and he looked up to the tiger with a similar expression before looking back to the squirrel.
“Am I screwed?”
“I don´t think so…
He was just his usual self and said it without any signs of being overly upset.”
This calmed the fox down quite a bit, before he began to smile again.
“Thank you Janine.”
The squirrel shot down as fast as she got up before Finnley lifted the paw with his bag.
“Would you mind taking that, so I can go directly?”
After the emergency with his friends and the visit to the hospital Michael was volunteered to carry quite a lot of stuff for him so it was not new, but now his joints had to be fine again…
Of course being summoned by the Chief was a very valid reason to ask regardless, but he couldn´t hold back.
So the tiger took the bag and bowed down overly far.
“Of course, Sir.
May I do something else for you, Sir?”
The fox´s grin became smug as he put his now free paw into his pocket and pulled out a bill.
This he placed in the breast-pocket of the tiger and patted his cheek after that.
“Well done James.”
At first his eyes narrowed, but that quickly became as smug as Finn´s.
“Thank you.
This will go to the funds to offer the Lady Fira something nice.”
With a snicker he turned around towards the stairs.
“You will never learn.”It didn´t took him long until he stood in front of the Chief´s office and when the fox knocked, the order to enter came only a second later, so he did.
There the wolf sat at his desk over some documents.
“Sit.”
Chief Doberman signed something before he put the folder away and leaned back.
For some seconds se just looked at his subordinate without a word before he stretched his arm to grab the cup of coffee, lift it under his nose and took a deep sniff.
“Any idea why I wanted to see you?”
Finnley sighted before he looked at him.
“My reckless behavior at my first and only deployment while in another precinct?”
The wolf didn´t bat an eye while looking at the fox before he took a sip.
“Don´t come me with that.
Chief Oakson is whining my ears full to get some of your kind as well.”
“I honestly thought it was a joke.”
“Nope.
But there´s another thing that I expect wasn´t a joke.”
“And that would be?”
Without a word the wolf took another sip, slowly and with pleasure…
After sitting in the spotlight for way to long for the fox´ liking, Chief Doberman looked again at him, but this time with a strange look he couldn´t read in that moment… something like happiness, disappointment and… excitement?!
“So you didn´t seem to think we should know…”
“What do you mean?”
“I heard something interesting about you and your mate.”
Right then and there he tried to think of something Ice and him could have done to earn his Chief´s wrath, anything, but he couldn´t think about anything even remotely against any kind of law or even rule.
Without any kind of idea, he looked worried at his superior in hopes for an explanation.
“You know McWrench´s habit of always worshipping the pictures of his family?”
“How could I not?
My tail still hurt from just thinking how he stopped me from accidentally almost soiling one of the pictures near the tool-rack.”
“Hmhm…
You know how he reacted, when his mate told him about her expecting their calf?”
“No?”
“He ran around with cigars and put them into everyone´s maw, even into those not smoking.”
Finnley grinned when he imagined the big bull running around excited like that.
“Want to guess what he did after that?”
“He went back to his wife?”
“Almost…”
The dark snout was leaned forward until it was directly in front of his.
“… he called his parents to tell them the news.”
Finnley froze in confusion at this revelation.
“… Wait… he told you before his parents?”
“Yes.
He said his family came first.”
It took him unusual long to understand what the Chief just told him and now it made sense…
With wide eyes the fox stared at the wolf and tried to figure out how he could possibly get on his good side again.
>Maybe I should just tell the truth?<
“It was never about lacking trust or something like that…”
“So?”
“…
We didn´t even tell our parents about it.”
This seemed to confuse Chief Doberman and he leaned back again.
“But Strip know?”
“He listened by accident to a call Ice and I had when she was in the beginnings of her heat during the few non-stop-shifts I had taken recently to be free for that time.”
“Ok…”
“Before we tell everyone that we plan to start a family, we decided to wait a few days until we have it confirmed by a test.”
“But why keep it a secret?”
“Certain habits die hard…
Whenever something happened, I got accused of being lying to gain anything so I began to keep everything to myself until everything is sure…
Even Ice had such sad experiences.
Not as bad as I, but…”
His body tensed just thinking about his mate´s suffering…
“I think I understand what kind of situation you mean.”
The fox didn´t relax at his words, so he decided to change the topic to something more uplifting.
“Do you already have an appointment for it?”
“For what?”
“To get her checked up about the pups?”
“She got one next week.”
“Good.
I expect to hear good news then, even when I´m not here...”
Finnley became dreamy eyes.
“Would be strange if it didn´t work after those days and nights…”
Those words hadn´t left his maw for a second before he looked up shocked at his superior.
Chief Doberman just grinned at the fox.
Desperately trying to change the subject to something less embarrassing, a little detail came back to his mind:
“What do you mean with ‘when I´m not here’?”
“When you two were away, I got a notification for an important meeting which lasts at least the week.
Most likely the others will talk about it when we are done here.”
“Ah, ok…”
The wolf grinned smugly again.
“By the way…
Nice change of topic.”
Instead of bringing him back to the edge, it was strangely calming.
“Thank you.
So, who will be in charge during your meeting?”
“The Deputy Chief Antler will be here.”
“Antler?
I don´t think we met yet.”
“No.
He will be in charge in the precincts where the head can´t be there, so he´ll be every few weeks on the move.”
“Sounds hard.”
“Everyone in charge have to start like that.
Good for the bonding and to get experience.
He´s part of a project to test if people from outside will be able to do this job as well as someone who wore the red before…”
Chief Doberman leaned back and took a sip of his coffee before looking at Finnley again.
“Anyway… I think you should go down before Strip gets all the fame for your insane stunt.”
“On my way.”
He stood up and saluted with two fingers before turning around and leaving the office.
As already expected by the Chief, his friend was already telling about said event and was in the pose before the throw with some of their comrades which wore suspicious expressions.The next day was mostly the regular routine with the two dominating topics being of course their stunt as well as the Chief´s absence the upcoming days… going even as far as they wanting a demonstration of Strip´s throw, gladly hitting his target this time with his furry projectile.Multiple days went without any extraordinary events, just a lot of training and some smaller missions like out of control campfires in backyards by kits or some burning trashcans because someone threw away a still lit cigarette…Saturday afternoon was the day a new face appeared within the precinct.
A rather young deer, maybe in his mid- to end-twenties, came in and without much of a fuss he walked up the stairs and to the office of their Chief.
Finnley looked at the place he could see him for a moment and spoke up without looking at the tiger at his side.
“I guess that´s the mentioned Deputy Chief?”
“Haven´t met him, but I would say it´s a pretty good guess.”The two continued with the maintenance of their equipment until the speaker came to life and they could hear Janine with her calm voice:
“Everyone gather in the garage.”
Even without being an emergency it took everyone just a minute to gather and to take their position before the wolf and the deer came down the stairs with Janine on Chief Doberman´s shoulder.“Ok, as I already announced, here is Deputy Chief Antler.
His grades were excellent, but as you see, he´s pretty young.”
It wasn´t hard to see how the deer´s expression darkened a bit on that comment.
“So, while I made clear that Janine will have the final word should it get too nasty, I decided to let him do as he thinks to make his own experiences with good, questionable and bad choices.”
While Janine mostly took the role as operator and dispatch, it was a little surprise for the fox when he learned that she was actually the second in command as long as they were within the precinct, being almost as long in this precinct as the chief… so it wasn´t a big surprise that he would made sure that the interim-chief doesn´t do something too stupid to undo.
“I´ll be gone in the morning, so until then I´ll introduce him to everyone, certain procedures, peculiarities and so on when we are done here.”
Following his speech Chief Doberman began to call one after another forward for an individual summary about role, experience and mentionable details.
When he said Finnley´s full name, Antler frowned for a moment and his expression changed subtly… his first thought was about the still rather common bigotry, but this was different, even if he couldn´t place it yet…Not a lot happened for the rest of the day besides one of the not uncommon test-alarms where everyone has to get ready for action and the deer at the Chief´s side let out a whistle at the speed and efficiency.
“It´s not a requirement by the regulations, but every now and then you have to give them not just something to do, but to think.
Often enough life depends on their ability to adept and improvise, so don´t hesitate to add details which might be overly unlikely, but possible.
The harder the tasks in training the easier will be the reality.”In the evening the Chief was gone, most were curious how the Deputy would handle it…
They didn´t have to wait long until the crew was ripped out of the rather quiet evening by an exercise with a simulated situation on the training-grounds:
Burning building, unknown number and status of victims together with colliding information about the structural integrity.
After they were done, Strip even dared to shout over to the deer watching the events from an elevated post with a good overview and multiple screens for the examination of their actions.
“That was a good warm-up Antlers!”
They couldn´t hear anything, but the expression of shocked confusion combined with Janine´s roaring laughter made it pretty clear that he didn´t expect the firefighters to handle the situation with such ease.Most were still in bed when the next morning, before dawn, the alarm blurred and ordered them to get ready and the garage.
After hearing that it was just a test to see how they act when ripped from their sleep, more than one was not overly happy, but this wouldn´t be neither the first nor the last night where they didn´t get the full night worth of sleep, so they just took it as the deer testing certain waters for himself.
Even the squirrel on his shoulder rolled her eyes before writing down something on the clipboard on her paws.Some went to bed, others began with some early chores like preparing breakfast, while some were called back by the Deputy.
“So, locker control, open them.”
Janine´s surprised expression made it clear that he hadn´t mentioned this to her, but as there was nothing special inside it went without any incident, besides…
“Foxxerton, as we are at it, completeness control.”
Finnley complied, but his gut told him that there is more than just the deer trying to do everything according to some kind of book.In the following days his anxiety grew for more than one reason:
Ice´s appointment came closer and while he thought to smell a certain kind of change in her scent when she came by, that could be more wishful thinking.
Chief Doberman´s rigorous training, especially at the beginning of his time there, had been demanding, but he made sure of give the mammals under his command a reasonable amount of rest when needed…
Antlers on the other paw seemed to plan on bringing them down to a point where Janine had to call upon her authority to reduce it, so he took only parts of the precinct for his exercises which were only a few hours apart sometimes.
But it looked like he wanted him in almost every single one of them.
The only reason he hadn´t openly protested was that he intended to show the deer how wrong he was, and he told Janine so when she wanted to talk about it with him.Gladly nothing serious happened so far, only smaller events for only a pawful of his brothers in red, but being practically confined to the precinct was demanding a lot of him.
The lights at the end of the tunnel so far were Ice´s appointment the following day as well as the Chief´s return on the morning after.When it was time for bed, everyone got ready for another exercise as Antlers had gotten the habit of doing one in the evening as well in the morning and they already expected the announcement coming not a full minute later…
The surprise was way bigger when they got a full night of sleep and Fire wasn´t the only one who decided to grant Janine, as everyone was sure it was thanks to her, a big gift when this was over.He just prayed for this week to be over while they scarfed their meal down, it wouldn´t have been the first time Antlers would call for a test during that time, and everyone´s expression fell when they heard the cracking of the speaker, but something unexpected happened:
“To all units: Prepare to move out!
Five-story-apartment-building on fire!
Situation unclear!
This is NOT an exercise!”
The alarms came to life before Janine repeated her message and it was very clear that this was no exercise…Finnley had a bad feeling in his gut… not only because what seems to be a pretty annoying antipathy from the Deputy towards him, but while he had given them countless tests and trainings, he never participated or even took real command.
Chief Doberman had made sure they all understood how everyone had to be working perfectly with the others like a clockwork as a single mismatching part could break everything down… and now they would see him in action for the first time during a very serious operation…Their brothers and sisters in blue had done a pretty well job in clearing a path for them so they didn´t lost precious time while getting in position and it was somewhat calming that when Deputy Chief Antlers began barking orders, they were efficient, it showed clearly that he was still learning the finer aspects, but nothing problematic the firefighters under his command couldn´t compensate with their experiences.With his small size, he was perfect for scouting blocked areas, so FireFox was often placed near the ladder-wagon on bigger emergencies to be deployed at any floor as quickly as possible, especially with the refitted oxygen-tank McWrench had created for him:
Broader, but very flat to lower his profile even more.
The fox was tense like a coil as he could only wait for his brothers to call for him.So, while most of them began their tasks, McWrench had prepared his small mobile workbench, at least small for him.
The bigger the emergency, the bigger the consequences should something fail in the worst moment, so he had once begun to bring a cart with him, complete with almost every tool he could need, to repair the equipment within minutes and his position was obviously at a central point near the one in charge, in this case Deputy Antlers, to have a good overview as well.
Just by this simple logical consequence, he was usually the second in command at site when the Chief saw the need to join the efforts of his men personally.
Right now he mostly pointed out who was the most fitting one for certain tasks and shared his expectations for especially dangerous areas based on his vast experiences.The bull frowned whenever the deer at his side showed with his mimic that he wasn´t happy when McWrench or even the firefighters themselves didn´t wait for his orders or even called in their comrades directly.
“Be happy we know what to do and who is best for it.
We know each other and most importantly: We trust each other with our lives.
You have still a lot to learn.”
“It´s my duty to command…”
The bull crossed his arms without his eyes leaving the scene in front of them or daring to ignore the radio, but he snorted at his attitude.
“Your duty…”
He pointed towards the inferno.
“… is their lives.
Victims and firefighters alike.”A wolf in blue came over to them.
“The good news are: We could reach almost every resident you haven´t gotten out and they are at other places.
The bad news: While we couldn´t reach one, a deer, a neighbor told us that she usually goes to bed early, so she could be still inside.
Apartment 8D, fourth floor.
They weren´t inside, so they couldn´t tell us exactly which room is the bedroom.”
As Antlers didn´t act immediately, the bull took over.
“Can you at least tell us in which area the apartment is?”
“In the south-west corner of the floor.”
The deer at his side was obviously working on figuring out the best way to proceed from there as McWrench already pressed the button on his radio.
“Attention!
Update!
Most residents are out, confirmed.
One resident unclear.
Deer, female.
Maybe in bed, fourth floor, apartment to the south-west, floorplan unclear.
Spotter, priority for that area.”
Antlers wasn´t happy that the bull had taken over while he had worked on the best way to approach, but didn´t interfere and just frowned a bit, while the stations acknowledged the update.
While the ladder-wagon brought his ladder in position, McWrench spoke again into his radio:
“FireFox, get up and ready to scout.”
This made the deer gasp and act by pressing the button on his own radio…
“Order revoked.”
Despite the urgency of the situation and the blazing inferno in front of them, a strange kind of unbelieving silence made everything seem to freeze for a moment as the bull looked with a mix of confusion, unbelieving and pure fury at the much smaller deer.
“What?!”
Not only had the addressed fox asked the question over the radio, but multiple of his colleagues as well.
“I have no idea what your problem with him is, but he´s the best at what he does, so you´ll shut up and let us do our job.
We obviously need to address this back at the precinct.”
Without waiting for an answer, McWrench spoke into his radio again.
“Forget him.
FireFox, up and…”
The Deputy practically screamed into the bull´s face before he was able to finish.
“I WON´T LET A KILLER NEAR A VICTIM!”
He had his hoof still on the button to everyone heard the accusation, before he put it away, but the following words were clear as if he still would be talking into the radio as the bulls angry voice was heard over a good part of the area…
“WHAT THE HECK DID YOU SMOKE?!”
Finnley was in a position where he could see the two figures.
No details, but the body-language was clear even from this distance, when not only the deer stepped back as well as the wolf from the ZDP which was still nearby.It wasn´t the first time he was accused of being a criminal.
‘Thief’, ‘hustler’, ‘liar’, even the pretty tame ‘bad influence’ he heard multiple times and while he was guilty of some shadier acts in the past, the title ‘killer’ was a first.
A part of him tensed up by default as the accusation was almost a guarantee that the shit hit the fan for him, but despite the very clear and strict lessons from the Chief about the radio-discipline, the uproar from his brothers in red caused tears to run down his cheeks…The whole scene happened within mere seconds, but in his chest this felt like years of grief, relieve and salvation… shaking him to the core…
But the end of this came from a place he didn´t expect:
Over the radio the whole crew heard a voice.
Usually either happy, comforting or serious.
“Skyrell here…”
Janine´s usually gentle nature was gone and she was not only serious, she was dead serious like nobody had ever heard before…
“Antlers, you are relieved of your command.
You will return to the precinct immediately, this will be reinforced by the ZPD if needed.
McWrench, you are in command on site.
Over.”Multiple seconds passed as despite the inferno, the chills ran down their spines…
And when the spell of the moment was broken by the bull, even he seemed intimidated for a moment, before he found back to his confidence based on his experiences.
“Ok guys… you know what your orders are.
FireFox, up there and scout!”His body moved almost on autopilot and before he could blink twice, he was already passing the window to the apartment, looking for the suspected victim.
The smoke was already there and rather thick, but luckily it was not too low.
So the searching was pretty easy and it took him only moments to find the bedroom at the far corner of the building, blinds down, so the spotter weren´t able to locate her from the outside.
She laid there, it looked like she would sleep peacefully and that was what scared him the most.
Was he too late?
A quick check of her vital-signs send a wave of relief through his body and he grabbed a second mask attached to his oxygen-tank to put it over her nose.
“FireFox here.
Found the victim.
Vital-signs weak but steady.
Secondary mask attached.
Bedroom is in the corner.
I will open the window to the south.”
Finnley had closed the door to prevent a chimney-effect when he opened the window and it took the crew of the ladder-wagon only a minute to reposition and bring the ladder back in position where Rope-cat practically jumped in to help him with the evacuation of the female.On the way back, the fox was very quiet, but his comrades spoke words of praise and encouragement.
Within his own ride as well over the radio from those on the other vehicles.
Strip´s paw, giant compared to his own body, rested on his shoulder and helped him keeping it together.
Upon entering the precinct, the wolf in blue who had the lot of bringing Antlers back, stood at the bottom of the stairs and told them that they are not granted permission to get up until Janine would explicitly give it, so they got to their lockers to put their things away.
When everything was put away, he still stood in front of his locker and Strip spoke up.
“Everything ok?”
Finnley sighted, turned around and leaned back to see the others stayed as well.
“Still pretty pissed at that deer, but hearing your reactions…
I never felt like that before…”
A strange mix of crying-grimace and smile appeared.
“… it´s still so overwhelming…
I love you guys…”The mood in the room made a hard turn from melancholic to relaxed after his words.
After an eternal struggle to keep his bad jokes at bay, the dam was finally open and he clapped his paws while bowing down until his head was on level with his.
“I usually hear those words only after the second date!
Does that mean I get some ‘Morning-after’-waffles from you?”
The fox looked at the tiger and responded without batting an eye.
“I say the words, you made the waffles.”
“Deal.”
Finnley placed a finger under Michael´s chin and spoke in a higher tone.
“I love you, my dumb, little Doofus.”
The tiger´s grin grew even wider.
“That counts.”
Most of their brothers laughed at this exchange as well as the actors themselves and they moved towards the kitchen-area.They were surprised when they heard the door to the precinct being opened, as they wouldn´t expect anyone at this hour, but they would swear, that the temperature fell multiple dozen grades within the span of a single heartbeat…
It would have been possible to hear a pin hitting the floor as they saw Chief Doberman walking towards the steps.
While he was calm on the outside, an aura of total, furious rage, made them almost fall onto their knees to thank every entity to never be the target of the Chief´s wrath…
Some of them were brave enough to look around the corner… after they were sure he had entered his office.
Michael and Finnley were two of them.After some time Strip whispered the first words which came to mind:
“Roasted deer.”
“What?”
“Hey, somehow we have to get rid of the body.
We can as well enjoy it.”
The fox just shook his head and pulled back.Many were in the dining-area, enjoying a late-night-dinner, but for the fox stayed quiet while eating as he couldn´t forget the accusation by the deer.
For easier and faster access, there was a series of walkways near the ceiling and nobody noticed the squirrel at first…
“Finnley, please come up to the Chief´s office.”
Her voice was still far away from her usual happiness, but not nearly as… frightening as when they heard it over the radio, so he almost ran the stairs up.
As expected Chief Doberman, Janine and Antlers were there, the latter not even trying to hide his distaste for him…“Sit.”
After he did as ordered, he looked at the Chief while trying to ignore the deer.
“How do you feel?”
“I was called a lot in the past, but this was a first… so partly pissed, while the much bigger part is… glad about how everyone else had reacted.”
On the final part the fox zoomed out a bit as he thought about everyone else´s response as it had touched something deep within him.
“Don´t play the meek…”
“Silence!”
While the command was said rather calm, the undeniable order had its effect as Antlers shut up immediately.
“To make it short: He accuses you to belong to a feared mob-family from Great Pawtain.
And he´s convinced that your family changed everything to even pass the deep background-check by the ZPD.”
“Background-check?”
“If one thing is sure, then that the press will search for anything they can use for a story.
So it´s pretty obvious that a through and through check of the past will be done, especially for a prestigious place like this precinct.
And as you are here, you obviously passed it.”
“The Foxxertons have enough power to influence people even here!”
Now Finnley looked at the deer with a shocked expression.
“Wait…
All of this because I have by accident the same name as a mob?”
“You even have his first name!
Your father, Reginald Foxxerton, was feared far beyond Pawndon!”
“What are you talking about?!
My father´s name is Edward and I´m named after my great-grandfather who build a house which housed three generations of my family before it was destroyed around forty years ago or something like that.
He lived there until then and moved here.”
The fox shook his head in confusion and disbelieve.
“And why Pawndon?
We lived in the far north.
My first name is even based on a term from there!”
“That´s what you say!”
“Enough.”
Chief Doberman´s seemingly calm voice stopped the deer dead in his tracks.
“You accused him of being a very serious criminal, based on his name and species.
Here you have the plausible explanations how it came to his name.”
The wolf leaned back in his chair but his voice didn´t show any signs of the pretended relaxation.
“Some things you did pretty well during your time here, others not so much, but they weren´t that bad either.
This stunt although…
You could have told me or Chief-Assistant Skyrell about your suspicion, then we could have cleared up at once then and there… you didn´t.
You could have gone as far as telling him directly to get your answers… you didn´t.
You could have ignored your suspicion when you have no evidence… you didn´t.What you did was to make the precinct suffer in your attempt to… what?
Make him quit?
Bad idea.
When someone passes the backup-check, he have to pass some extended training always including a rating on the behavior, intentions and ability to adept.
And this… firefighter…”
The chief´s posture straightened and a clear, proud undertone on that word showed the seriousness he saw in this sacred title.
“… had shown his worthiness time after time.
The most spectacular time was when he earned his place among us…You on the other paw… on your first… your very first real emergency, you couldn´t do what was needed.
You did something unforgivable:
You… dared to… risk the life not only of a victim, but of… our…”
With his paw he made a gesture towards the fox, squirrel and himself, clearly not directing it towards the deer.
“… brothers and sisters in red as well in your attempt to get rid of him.”The recent minutes were a rollercoaster of his feelings as he was accused again, remembered the happy times he had with his grandparents while they told him stories from far before his birth and up to the almost euphoric high he was feeling on the Chief defending him and down again on the mere idea of anyone being hurt or worse during the fire…“If it would be on me, you would already be out of the program.
Luckily for you, I´m not, but I will do the next-best course of action…
And that will be a detailed report about what you did, what not and especially the why.”
The wolf leaned forward until his arms were placed on his desk as his voice alone was enough to let the temperature fall again.
“And let me assure you:
That´s something others WILL read before accepting you to stand in for them… something no firefighter with even a spark of self-esteem can accept.”
“You are… ending my career?”
“No.
You did.
And before I forget:
Seeing your attitude here, even confronted with your wrongs…
Should the press appear mysteriously in front of my precinct and asking about a ‘Killer-fox’, you´ll have to face a lot more than serious defamation-charges.Now: Get out of my precinct before I forget my manners.”Finnley´s heart sank when he recognized Antlers´ expression as that of someone whose plans were busted.
Even when the deer was gone, he could only stare at the door with a lot of conflicted feelings.“Any news?”
The Chief´s voice pulled him out of his thoughts and he looked at the wolf.
“Huh?”
“Your mate´s appointment.”
It took him a few moments to realize what exactly he was asked by this abrupt change of topic and he could only close his eyes.
“It was in the afternoon.
I should call her and…”
Without thinking he pulled out his phone and froze when he saw the time.
“It´s already… past 5am?!”
Finnley hadn´t realized how late it already was.
“Your shift would usually end tomorrow, but this is important, so go.
You´ll be excused.”
Leaving the precinct for longer periods of time is against the rules, but he remembered one of the important rules of wearing the red: Life is more important than rules.
“… Thank you.”
The fox was almost halfway to the door when his superior spoke up again.
“I expect a report about happy news as soon as possible...”
Looking back, he almost laughed as the Chief as well as Janine showed him broad, almost head-splitting grins.
“I hope so.”
Now wearing a smile himself he left the office just to run into Strip´s amused form at the bottom of the stairs...“Antlers was fuming and pissed, but surprisingly alive.”
“He did something worse to him… but as much as I would like to bask in it, I have something important to do.”
“Really?”
“Look after Ice… on the Chief´s orders.”
The tiger´s grin wasn´t his usually goofy and silly one, but one of true excitement.
“So?”
“I don´t know… yet.”
“What are you waiting for?”
“For you to go out of the way?”
Michael stepped aside, bowed and made a gesture for his friend to continue his way.
“I´ll just tell the others that you are on an assignment for the Chief.”
“Thank you.”When he entered her apartment, his feeling of guilt grew a lot as he found Ingrid on the couch, a blanket around her body while the tv was still on.
It was a clear sign that she stayed up late, most likely to wait for him to call and report his wellbeing and while it was understanding that his own mind was occupied otherwise, it hurt to know that he caused this, even if it was most likely just a discomfort…
Finnley lifted her to carry her to the bed, there he undressed her as he knew she preferred to sleep in just her fur, and admired the beautiful vixen who chose him of all the tods out there for a moment before he did the same and pulled her close in hopes to offer her as much comfort as possible…
With the vixen he loved so much in his arms his body finally gave in to the toll the previous days had put onto him and he followed her into the realm of dreams.And a hell of a dream he had…
He felt like the night Ice had gone into her unrestricted heat to spend the night with him and Finnley could swear that he was still able to smell her pheromones deep inside his nostrils as the air was saturated by them so much that he could even taste them on the tip of his tongue.
A sharp pain on his chest made him snap open his eyes, just to have the dream blur into reality right in front of his eyes:
Some subtle changes like the hairs on her head, but the vixen was as beautiful and as naked as just moments before and the pleasure felt almost painful intense as she was on him in a final spurt to get his fully emerged knot inside her.
He joined her moan as they reached their climax and a heavily panting Ice looked down at her Fire and further down to the place where her claws had left red marks on the skin, even visible through his fur.
She leaned down with a sheepish grin as she licked over her marks and moaned at the taste, before finishing her move and pressed her body flush onto his, immediately muzzling him..
“You have no idea how much I needed that.”
Here, in the most intimidate kind of embrace with her, with only her scent in his nose, for a moment he felt like heaven, no chance for any kind of worry to reach him… the full Hakuna-Matata-stuff.
“You know…
It seems I come after my mother…”
“Huh?”
With a grin she adjusted her posture a bit to look him into the eyes and give him a sensual kiss which turned passionate very quickly before she pulled back.
“My… appetite grew steadily and it looks like you´ll be very busy.”
Still a bit confused he put his paw onto her cheek and leaned in for a kiss of his own before grinning himself.
“I could be dead and still desire you even more every single day… but what has that to do with your mother?”
With sparkling eyes, she grabbed his head to mark him anew before leaning in until her nose was practically inside his ear.
“She barely left my dad go away for some hours when she was… expecting.
Congratulations.”
As it was planned, the moment he froze wasn´t from surprise, but by pure, unrestricted, euphoric happiness.
His paws, until now laying lazily on her hips, now closed around her in a tight hug.
“I love you.
I love you so much!”
The tears coming from his eyes were nothing to be ashamed for and the following minutes were mostly about kisses, small gestures and words of affection while they basked in the certainty of their future…When they were able to part again, they got up for a shared shower where his instincts already made themselves noticeable as he paid special attention to her belly while he cleaned her.
Still high on the news, Finnley volunteered to get Ice her favorite dish and not long after that, he was already near the downtown when his eyes fell on a picture of the city on a poster and for a strange reason his eyes darted towards the corner with the picture of the city hall…
And everything from the previous evening came crushing down on him again… together with a thought.Upon arriving, even with him still smiling at the sight of her, the shift in his mood was obvious to the vixen.
As he unpacked everything, Ingrid came up to him and closed her arms around her tod from the back.
“What´s up?”
“I…
I don´t want to bother you.”
“You are the father of our pups, so I´m in for the long run.
Share your fears with me.”
Finnley should have known that he had no chance, but he tried to distract her regardless, just to accept his defeat against her steel-will.
“Fine.
I told you about the Deputy Chief Antlers who seemed to have something against me?”
“Of course.”
“Well…
Yesterday we had an emergency… a fire and everyone was called in…”
While the beginning was pretty easy as she had demanded early on to share what happened when he had to go out, it took her multiple encouraging words to make him tell about the moment being called a killer.
And Ingrid lived up to her nickname as her aura, obviously directed towards the deer, would have been able to freeze a volcano.
During the part where he was with the Chief, Janine and Antlers in the office, Ice had pushed him towards the next chair, sat down on his lap and bedded his head onto her chest.
Her strong heartbeat had an enormously calming effect on him and he could finish his story almost without problems until the end.
“… so I had a thought… or better a fear:
What if our kits will be associated the same way with my name?”
The fox pulled out a form he got from the city hall from his pocket together with a piece of paper and placed it on the table…
“Maybe I should really get rid of it… despite everything my parents and grandparents mean to me, I was never fond of that name after all…”
The vixen stared at the form with wide eyes, not sure what she should think about it for a few moments before her eyes sparkled and she leaned down towards his ear with a grin.
“There is another way to get rid of that name…
I wouldn´t mind reading ‘Finnley Reginald Raevdottir’…”
A big smile appeared on his features at the thought for a full minute before becoming serious again.
“I would lie if I say I never thought about it…
I did so quite often actually… and it would make me terribly happy…
But it wouldn´t be fair, if I use this way just to get rid of that name.
Not fair towards you, not towards them and especially not towards myself.
So I have to do this before I can do anything else.”
Looking onto the piece of paper again, she read the names he had written down, crossed out and the next below it.
This continued again and again, most likely during his ride on the tram, and ended in a name she found nice…Finnley Red Frame.