Thicker Than Water Epilogue By : John Hartman Shandra stares out of her seats window, watching nothing but clouds slowly moving behind them. The moon is bright above the friendly skies as the plane flies very smoothly in the air. Sighing, she turns to look at the seat in front of her. Doing her best not to tear up again as she lightly touches the left side of her face. Her Aunt really punched her good, a tender swelling starting to be form from the impact. The brown coloured raccoon clinches her yellow eyes shut as she does her best to keep her sound of pain from escaping her lips. Don't help that she has a hard time leaning forward without registering pain on her chest. She would check them, but she's afraid the guy next to her might stare at her. Even though she made up her mind to ignore her relatives, she still have thoughts against ignoring them. Devin still fills her mind, wondering how does he put up with them. He's old enough to leave, he knows how ignorant they can be. But the more she drones on it, the more she realizes that her Aunt Bobby is Devin's mother. And its very hard to just walk away from some one who raised you. So she has concluded, its very hard to just leave a parent behind. Especially a parent that may be on a different page on the book of life, but that parent have been rearing the child from the beginning. It only makes the sorrow in her heart sting much more. Abandoning her parents for her own life. The raccoon female already have lived her life on her own for years. But she never thought she'll see the day she'll ignore their existence. Chuckling at the situation, she wanted their attention while a child. Wanted so much to make them happy that she got very depressed when she felt they where upset with her. Hating herself when they argued about her. Her depressions had made her do something stupid that cost her right leg. Sitting there, thinking about her past. Wondering how does her child hood compares up to Devin's. She really wants to understand him, she really wants to know how despite how he was raised, he turned out to be a decent boy. Well, okay, she does once and awhile find it odd he likes to dress up like the rapper of the month, once and awhile go into “wanna-be” mode. Though she has to admit that he can rap once and awhile. He's adult, but there's been times she wanted to tell him he looks 10 times trashier than a typical, human rapper. Probably cause she's getting the horrid stereotype of raccoons being trash eaters. Shaking her head, she decides to ignore his choice of dress, since he's still a nice person in the end. Not everything is said about a person through clothing. The seatbelt light came on, with the announcement that the plane is reaching their destination. Still thinking for the last 2 hours of the flight. Shandra just can't help but wonder if she could change things with her relatives. But not able to think of a feasible plan. And the final thought is, they'll make her choose between being like them, or not be welcomed. The thought just eats her up inside. Both with anger and sorrow. She don't want to be disowned, and knowing that she is disowned, Devin would be too if he associates with her. It was driving her nuts, and it's all because she's not fucking every male of her species. Because she have not brought at least one cub into the world. Sickens her inside to know they are happy to treat themselves like animals. Though she still wants to ask her Mother a question. She really wants to know, why for a time in her life, she believed in love. The female really wants to know why her Mother bought into the concept of love, and what made her abandon the dream. Did she really fell in love with her Father? Or did she just went after her first fling, and demanded him to marry her. The two always fought, and it was always her Mother demanding things. A smile crosses her muzzle as she remembers that even though her Father was never good at parenting. He did his best, nothing more he could do. Her Mother on the hand just gave her hell most of the time. But despite the rantings, her Mother did do her best to raise her. The main differences between the two when it came to raising Shandra was the Father let her do what ever she wanted. Only intervened if it was going to get her in trouble...or get her out of trouble. Her Mother on the other hand just intervened on everything. There's been times when her Mother actually caused her problems with her intervention. Taking a deep breath, she exhales, wishing there was an easy way to fix things. She really wish she had a calmer mind. Blaming herself for not keeping her cool with her drunk Aunt, she once again dries her eyes with a soiled paper towel. No one bothered her, not even her passenger. She was not in the mood to talk. She just wants to get home. Out of all her thoughts about her relatives and her childhood. Her heart flutters every time she thinks of the main reason of the whole mess. This time, this time she will tell him. A weak smile on her muzzle form as she tries not to move her sore muscles on her left cheek. This time she'll tell Jason how she feels about him. Losing respect with relatives and disowning them before they disown her due to her admittance to loving the man. Taking blows and being handled like a cub while being insulted and humiliated for something she never did. No, not this time, she will not let him go this time. The raccoon needs him, she needs his soothing voice. She needs his touch. And she really, really could use a hug right now. Tired of being alone every night, she just hopes he'll be back from his relatives early. Shandra just hopes he won't reject her when she does confront him. Jason never likes going back into the US. Nothing against the people or the environment he currently lives and work in. Mainly its the border control that loves to pull him over for any reason they can think of. Either from a first glance. Or when he tells them he's a Canadian that lives in Everett, Washington. Every time, he comes in with registration papers for his car, his passport with the stamped work visa in the back. Everything to he can think of to prove he works and lives in Washington State. There have been a small number of times where he just went through without a hitch. But not enough to give him high hopes of an easy entry. Jason answer questions like it was lines off a play he's done over and over again. Doing this time, his mind wonders all over the place. He usually don't leave right away after Christmas. Usually he hangs around and helps out with cleaning the home and getting it ready for New Years. Trying not to smile to throw off the border guard, he gets the idea to drag Shandra up to his parents. If she's not working that night of course. His parents seem okay with Lisa, maybe they'll accept Shandra. He hopes they'll like her. But he had to leave today though, he wanted to be away from his sister Erica. Erica is an enigma to him. There's nothing about her that he can figure out. Not trusting her that she'll tend to her kids. Confused why their parents would even ignore the question on where the money is coming from. Shaking his head at both his thoughts, and to a question about him carrying anything illegal in his car. The interrogation goes silent for awhile as they search his car. Though he goes back to thinking, wondering what to do next. Knowing Shandra will be back in the next few days, he'll have to come up with some way of sweeping her off her feet. Feeling shy to be upfront with his feelings towards her, he wants to think of something romantic. But can't think of anything at the moment. Though as quick he started to think about that, he's still weirded out on how Lisa was able to figure out Shandra was a raccoon morph. Maybe there is a unique scent to each creature that is built on top of the individual order. He is not sure, but he was not ready for the border control guard to approach him with a envelope filled with photos. Without questions, the guard opens up the envelope and empties to photo's onto the table in front of him. All the photo's are of places he don't remember going to. Pictures of a water fall, people and places he don't recall. There's only a couple people he recognize, couple of Shandra's friends. It did not click till he looked at a pick of a group shot of her and her friends that it was during her vacation. Her and her high school friends went some where. He can't remember where, but Lisa Probably saw the pictures. Shrugging, the guards ask him if he knows those people. Jason names out a couple people he recognizes, along with Shandra. He found it odd that they where curious about Shandra the most. And after asking a lot of personal question about why he have these pictures and how close are the two really are. The guard hands a couple of pictures where Shandra poses for the camera. Jason looks confused on how those pictures would be bad for national security. But he was not prepared to find one of the pictures of Shandra where she's wearing nothing but her boots, right leg, and cane in hand. Did his best not to react to the photo as he hands them back to the guard, saying he never seen these pictures before. They are nothing but friends, and that's what he is sticking with. He is not sure if he wants to confront Shandra on the pictures later, or kick himself for not catching those things before he left to Canada. But the main issue right now is, what is the point? Why are those a big issue to the guards. Ignoring the urge to ask them if they are “jealous”, he sticks with his story that he has no idea how they got there. As far as he knows, he picked her up months ago from the airport. She Probably forgot them in his car, and never bothered to ask him to look for them. After another aggravating 10 minutes, they finally let him go. Could not help but chuckle at the fact she took those photos of herself. Trying to hide the fact to himself that he finds the tasteful nude picture of her alluring. He decides to take the picture of her standing in a hallway, and placing it near his speedometer. His instrument cluster got a decent size empty space to put something there. That, and he finds her in her usual purple trench coat, her knee length shorts, and what ever shirt she decides to wear the perfect look for her. Something about her tomboyish features just makes her all special to him. She's no Dyke, but she's no super model. But that nude picture of her was a bit too much for his imagination. Jason just finds her in that picture too hot to be true...does not mean he won't be staring at that again. Driving home, the fee to park her car at the airport pretty much ate the remaining money she had left on her. Usually she makes sure she's got more than enough for the trip. But since she's got tickets for a different flight back home, and she used up most of the extra money to get a stand by ticket back home. She was already feeling the pinch in her wallet. Driving through Seattle during the early morning hours seems dead to her. Even though there are still a decent movement of vehicles moving about, it don't have the bumper to bumper traffic she's used to. The raccoon really likes to avoid Seattle like as if its a plague to her. Its not a horrid town, but she hates getting lost in it. Her little 85 Buick Skylark putters as she zips past a couple cars. Not wanting to take her time, she shaves an extra 5 to 10 miles onto the speedometer. Hoping she'll gain an extra distance without catching the eye of highway patrol. Grumbling as she realizes she forgot to open the choke, she reaches a little under the dash to push in a nob. The engine then starts to run a bit smoother and her acceleration improves. Grinning to herself, she's proud of that little add on she put into her vehicle. It was either pay 6 bucks to install a manual choke herself. Or pay 80 bucks for an automatic choke that may not work due to fried wiring. The car has been both a god send and a curse. Handed down to her by her best friend from high school, it has been with her ever since. But the car is the least thing on her mind. She is so tempted to pull over to give Jason a call. She really wants to know how he is doing. He's been running in her mind since she arrived at the air port. Really want to get home as soon as she can, at least if nothing else, to sleep. Been a long drive, but Jason has a long ways to go still. About half an hour to go till he is home. But for some reason, he decided to take a detour and head off to Shandra's place. He knows she's not home, but he could not help but drive by there anyways. The crack of dawn showing up in the horizon by the time he pulls up into the parking spot on the side of the road. Normally he would park in the driveway, but since he's just passing through, he'll park in Shandra's spot. Sad really, he would love to improve her living conditions, but he can't fix everything. Besides, what makes her special to him is she normally don't ask for much unless she desperately needs it. Remembering the story she told him about how she got her car. She had a little red Toyota for years. Unfortunately the engine blew out one day, so one of her best friends ended up finding her a replacement. It was meant to be a temporary replacement till she had enough money to replace it. Everyone believed that it had too many problems to be reliable. Smiling at the thought on how she kept the car going for years since then. He wonders what else she could do. Sighing though, he knows he won't be seeing her till a couple days from now. Opening the driver side door, he gets out to stand up on his feet, stretching. Its a cool winter morning for that area. Jason walks up to her door, just looking around her front porch. He swears she's not like most females he met. No matter if its human or other, most females he met have at least a little flower pop they tend too. If not, a garden. But he never seen a garden in Shandra's yard. But he found a lot of computers and computer parts in her second bedroom. Amazed that she's got six computers lined up in on corner, hooked up to a KVM box. She got different types and versions of OS's running on those machines. What fore, he has no clue. Being told its part of her learning, he figures she just likes to play with things more than anything useful. But when she's not looking at times, he would get on the one she uses the most and browse her hard drive. Admitting to himself its not a nice thing to do. But he feels there's some literature she's typed through the years that should be shared. But that is his opinion. Thinking about her and all this makes him wonder if this will work. IF they ever became more than friends, would they be able to live in the same household. Jason owns very little, she owns a lot. Not to mention her cooking is very simple, while his is very complicated. In other words, she only knows a couple recipes that she's been happy with through the years that can be made quick. Jason on the other hand wants something different every day, and is willing to take the time to prepare a good meal. He never met a person who owns three crock pots. Let alone use all three every chance she gets. Then again, maybe they can learn a lot from each other. Chuckling to himself, thinking it would be funny...and sappy that she could wash and rub his back. While he can comb the hard to reach places for her. Shrugging to himself, he takes a seat on the fold out chair on the porch. Feeling a bit too tired to just drive home right away. Yawning, Shandra pulls up into her drive way. Not caring that her spot has been taken. The car will have a small oil puddle on the drive way by the time she wakes up. Getting out of her car, she pulls the suitcase out of her passenger seat. Locking the doors, she heads to her entrance way, only to see Jason sitting up, asleep on one of the folding chairs on her porch. Could not help but wag her tail as she smiles. She stared at him warmly for a long time, her heart feels like it's going to melt. Turning to look at where she usually parks, she finally recognizes its Jason's car. Trying to contain her excitement, she unlocks the door and tosses her suitcase in the door...hitting a table and knocking things over. She then sneaks up to Jason, getting on her left knee so she her head can be close to his heads level. Leaning in till her nose pad touches his left ear, she whispers, “Lover boy, lover boy. Your fuzzy princess wants to play with you tonight.” Trying not to chuckle as she plays with his sleepy mind. Mumbling, Jason replies, “.....tired.....Shay....sex bandit....fluffy....zzzzz....” Shandra tail wags very quickly as she get very playful after hearing that. That, and her fur covers up how hot he got her blushing. The raccoon morph decides to lick his ear, nipping his earlobe gently as she silently plays with him. Jason groans from the tease and hops out of the chair in his sleep...and falling onto the ground. Quickly rushing to his side, Shandra helps him off the ground, “Shit Jason, I am so sorry. Let me help you up. Damn, how long you been laying here?” Groggy and confuse, Jason have forgotten were he was. Let alone he was confused at the same time happy to see Shandra, “Hey Bandit, thought you won't be back for the next couple of days.” Wagging her tail, she smirks, “Me neither, but I am so glad to be home. And so glad to see you handsome.” Jason blushes as he starts to fully come too, looking at her warmly, only to look worried as he notices a nasty bump growing over her left cheek. Moving his hand to light feel it, getting Shandra to almost move away from him. But she in the end just stood there and let him inspect her like a child letting her mother inspect a nasty wound. “What happened Shay?” Shaking her head quickly, she quickly answers, “Nothing, nothing I want to talk about right now dear.” Raising an eyebrow, he grins, “Dear? Handsome?” The raccoon female tries not to blush, only giving him the needed indication for him to know she's blushing. Her ears go flat as she gives a silly smirk. Quickly changing subjects, she quietly says, almost close to a beg, “Care to stay awhile?”