I awoke with a bit of a start, disoriented. The first night of a regressive episode is never fun. I missed Bella. When I’m in cub form, I can’t sleep with my wife. Not really. For one, our sleep schedules are too different, for another, I’m a restless sleeper as a cub and I tend to sleep big. First time we tried sharing a bed, she ended up with my foot-paw up her nose. So, we both decided that it was better that I sleep in my own room when I’m a cub.

The sound that had awoken me repeated itself. Doorbell. I glanced at the clock on the wall. 2:00 in the morning. What the hell? Who would be here at this time of night? I knew I couldn’t get the front door unlocked in my state, so that would mean I had to get Bella up. Joy. Hard enough to do with a fresh brewed mug of coffee.
Carefully unlatching the guard rails on my bed, I clambered down and made my way sluggishly across the hall to our room. “Bella?” I gently shook her shoulder. The doorbell rang again. “Bella! Someone’s at the door.” I tugged on her arm, eliciting a sleepy grunt. “BELL! Up and at em, hun... somebody’s at the door.” I was practically dangling from her arm at this point. Damn, she was hard to wake up.
With a snort, she finally woke up. “Wha timzzit?” “Sorry, Bell, it’s 2 AM, somebody’s at the door.” That got her fully awake. Quickly, she got up out of bed and grabbed a baseball bat out of the closet. It had been a few years since we put the whole Edelman/Chesbrough mess behind us, but we were both still a little jumpy. “C’mon Chére, lets see what’s going on.”

She picked me up with her free arm and together we made our way to the front door. Still a little groggy, I buried my face in her neck and snuggled in. Instincts are hard to ignore at this age, and sometimes it’s just nice to let them rule. For this moment, fear and worry were gone, lost in the scent of my love.

“Who is it?” Bella put me down behind her upon reaching the front door and hefted the baseball bat. “Bella, it’s Em, let me in, it’s cold!” My ears perked up. “Em?” I squeaked. Bella put down the bat and opened the door. “Come in! What’s going on?” Emelia Sorenson entered our home, bundled up against the cool Atlanta winter. She was carrying a blanket wrapped bundle in her arms and made her way over to our sofa.

Bella sat down in our comfy chair and pulled me up into her lap. “Em, what’s going on? Why are you here so early in the morning? Something wrong with James?” “What? No, no... nothing like that. It’s just...” She folded back a corner of the bundle in her arms, revealing an infant pup.

It had to be only a week old at most, and was covered with soft feathery golden fur. Floppy ears hinted at a hound ancestry, but the pup was too young to really pin down an origin. My eyes popped open. “What is this? Em, what’s going on?” The little pup whimpered briefly, and settled back to slumber as Em tucked the blanket back around it. She closed her eyes for a moment, then took a deep breath and started to explain the situation.

“You know I work at the CDC doing further research into the FOY, right?” Bella and I shared a glance, then both nodded. Neither of us particularly approved of Em still messing around with that stuff, but at least it was in a much more controlled environment now and she was actually doing some good with it. “And of course you know the healing properties of the fountain as well."

"What does that have to do with all this?" I asked, fatigue starting to get the better of me, and making me cranky. Bella, sensing my mood, gently ruffled my ears trying to soothe me down before I got ugly.

Em was herself too tired to notice. I could see how beat she was. "Sometimes, completely off the record by the way, we get asked to assist a local hospital with a badly hurt patient that conventional medicine can't help." She explained. "We got a call late this evening, there had been a house fire. A bad one. They lost two in the ambulance on the way to the emergency room, a third died shortly after arrival."
She shuddered, absentmindedly stroking one of the pup's ears, much as Bella was doing with me. "There was a fourth they somehow managed to temporarily stabilize, but there was no hope of recovery. He was so badly burned, they couldn't even guess at his age, but he survived. All we really know is that he lost his entire family, there’s nothing left. Only ashes.

“This one, he suffered 3rd degree burns over 80% of his body. He wasn’t going to last more than a few hours, so they called me.” “So you... FOYed him?” I asked. Em nodded. “We’ve done it before with other badly injured, low percentage of recovery, patients before. You know that when the body reverts, it’s able to heal problems so long as they’re fixed while the patient is under the effects of the FOY. Set a bone, repair a damaged organ, and it heals nearly perfectly upon reversion.

Bella had a question. “Then why is James still in such bad shape? Shouldn’t he have recovered when he reverted?” Em looked down at the sleeping pup in her lap. “If we’d been able to repair the damage before he reverted, then yes, he would have been fine. But, he reverted before anything could be done, and it all grew back together wrong. There was nothing to be done there.”

“But that doesn’t answer any questions about what’s going on right now, Em.” I said. “This pup looks entirely normal. He’s going to revert back to his normal self just fine, right? There doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with him.”

“This is where it gets strange Brock. I gave him enough to put him down for about 12 hours, which should have been enough to heal what was wrong and put him back right. When he regressed, his burns disappeared and everything seemed to be fine. But... that was 18 hours ago.” Em knew her stuff. If she said it should have lasted for 12 hours, it would have been 12 hours. “And another thing. You know there should have still been signs of injury when he regressed, but there were none. There was nothing to heal. He simply went all the way down to the age you see him at now, and didn’t bother to return.”

Indeed this was an odd occurrence. I vividly remembered injuries received while an adult that persisted even in a regressed form. “That shouldn’t be possible. It never happened like that with us. What do you think is going on?”

Em was silent for a moment or two, gathering her thoughts. The pup woke up in her lap, and yawned, blinking vivid blue eyes. “I think... I think that he was too far gone, so the FOY took him as far back as possible, to a point where everything is completely new. And it’s possible that he can’t revert, because he would return to such a badly damaged body that he couldn’t survive. I see no indication of any mental retention either, I think he’s entirely a pup again.”

“So, why come to us?” Bella asked. “Shouldn’t he be returned to any family members he might have?” Em shook her head. “We’re not even entirely sure if this was the near adult son or the father of the family, both males were too burned to be able to identify which was which at this point, but that doesn’t matter. According to what records we have, there is no extended family for him. They were alone in this world, and now... he’s completely alone.

“I don’t feel comfortable putting him up for adoption either.” she continued. “We’re dealing with unprecedented territory here. If my theory is correct, he’s never going to fully revert, but that doesn’t mean that he’s going to be chronologically stable. There may be some fluctuations in his age as the influence of the FOY which is keeping him alive ebbs and flows.” “You mean, he might have some of the same problems I have?” I asked. Poor kid. Nobody deserved any of this.

“I think it’s more likely to be the reverse for him Brock. You remain mostly adult with short periods of being a cub. If he fluctuates, I think his natural state is going to be pup, but with occasional periods of being older. Because of this, I think that you two are uniquely qualified to take him in.”

Stunned silence as Em stood up and handed the pup over to Bella as I clambered down off her lap to make some room. “What? We can’t... we’ve already been turned down...” Bella stammered, staring down into the pup’s eyes as he looked up at her. “I know, but these are special circumstances.” Em explained. “I know you two are unable to have children naturally because of Brock’s condition, and the same condition has effectively eliminated you two from being able to adopt through normal channels. But, this is not a normal situation.

“First of all, there’s no way this pup can go through the usual channels of adoption, it’s just too complicated for him. Secondly, nobody else has any experience with living with a FOY affected person like you two do. I’ve already cleared it with the hospital and the state department. If you’re willing, he’s yours.”

Tears were welling up in Bella’s eyes, she’d been dreaming of rearing a cub of her own for years, and so had I. Gingerly, I reached out and ruffled the fur on the pup’s head. “Well, what do ye say, Bell? Can we keep him?” She laughed and wiped the tears from her eye with a free paw. “I only have one more question.” She looked down at me as I was engrossed in the pup, his fur was so soft and feathery. “What should we call him?”

----

That's right. Some changes in the O'Meles household. I've long wanted to have Brock and Bella adopt a cub of their own at some point, and an opportunity came up with one of my best friends  chuziku where he was looking for a family for his newly redesigned fursona. So, Chuziku is now part of the O'Meles clan. XD

Art & Chuziku ©
Brock, Bella & Story ©