Despite being distracted by having to shield herself from showing embarrassment at her dad's comment, Riley eventually managed to take a seat at the dinner table, half sitting and half roughly collapsing on top of it, sighing at the effort just the act of walking took as she leaned on the crutch and caught her breath.

"Heh, Ella was considering bringing you your portion upstairs to avoid having you deal with the stairs again. Just lemme know once you want to get going, alright?" Riley nodded at her dad's offer, not feeling like rejecting any more help until she felt like she could scale a staircase unassisted again.

"Will do. Whattcha working on?"

She pushed the chair enough to turn it sideways, letting her look at the ongoings in the kitchen without having to figuratively- and at this point, it also very much felt like literally- break her neck. Rick paused mixing the dough for a while as he glanced back at her over the shoulder, smiling weakly before resuming-

"Oh, just one of the cakes we meant to have for Christmas. Well... suffice to say that nobody really felt like having them after what happened, at least until you woke up. While the other two are still alright, just gonna be a bit stale when we get to them, this one goes rather unpleasant fast, so once the good news came it was pretty much a rush just to finish that one off while it was still edible, with the idea that we'd make another one for the actual celebration."

Well, it definitely made sense, and even if Riley might've felt the tiniest bit bad for being indirectly responsible for this, she shook it off quickly.

"Ah. What about the other stuff, like that fish meal?"

"Same fate really- while we went ahead and froze the veggie salad, the pot is behind the house and we'll bring it back on Monday to thaw a bit beforehand, the greek style fish though... yeah, that one doesn't preserve well, we had some of it for dinner on Thursday but it was already somewhat unpleasant by then and we ended up just throwing the rest of it out onto the compost pile. We'll just have to make some more tomorrow, it's no big deal."

"I take I won't be the one to have to peel potatoes again?"

"Well I *mean*, if you want to~" The stink eye his daughter gave him made Rick chuckle somewhat guiltily before he dropped the subject as he reached into the cupboards for a dish to bake the cake in, followed by a good bit of butter from the fridge.

Still, Riley couldn't help but to chuckle just a bit at that, even if it was under her breath, followed by rolling her shoulders to try to work out some of the accumulated tension. The fate of holiday dishes wasn't quite the only thing on her mind though, the silence only interrupted by the hum of the oven and the clanking of dishware giving her a lot of space to think back to the event that caused all that wastefulness to begin with.

The pieces were there, laid out on the table, but they didn't fit. Someone sent to mess her up on a shoestring budget, desperate for money enough to take it, and yet ended up turning himself in afterwards, apparently all arranged by a meathead with a vendetta-

Wait.

A detail she had overlooked earlier caught Riley's attention, her focus sufficient to get her to straighten out on the chair as she yanked at the resulting thread of thought, overcoming the mental fog of exhaustion.

The guy clearly wasn't a coldblooded murderer, that much was obvious by his reaction afterwards alone, so the... 'regards' he sent from Bruce weren't spirited, he didn't just say these words on his own, he was told to say them. And while Riley didn't *truly* know Bruce, a fate she wouldn't wish on her worst enemy, she was familiar with him enough to be able to say with confidence that he didn't leave the orphanage a whole lot, and with how violently speciesist he was, probably wouldn't wander over to the poorer areas with more anthros with them even if he did.

Not to mention that even with him bullying younger kids for any money they might've had, there was no way in hell he was ever getting to five hundred bucks. Two hundred and fifty maybe, if he intended to screw that guy over by ghosting him afterwards, which would've been as stupid of an idea with a skunk as much as it was exactly like something he'd do, but that possibility didn't feel particularly realistic, at least not right now.

Plus he was in jail for crying out loud.

The realization, obvious in hindsight, swept aside all her prior pondering with the subtlety of a wrecking ball. And in all likelihood, it was obvious for the cops as well- or at least should've been, maybe the two she had the displeasure of chatting with at the hospital just haven't actually looked into who that particular 'Bruce' was and where he was at. Would be fitting for the amount of effort they were otherwise putting in.

And if it was unrealistic for him to raise enough money to pay off her assailant, it was downright impossible for him to ever get his hands on enough dough to pay off the bail and get out of whatever cell he was sitting in- and with the stuff he was charged with, he was definitely rotting in one. Not undeservedly of course, but this whole deal required more thought and subtlety than he was capable of, in that it required any thought at all.

Besides, if he was out and able to arrange this, he would absolutely not waste the possibility to come over and try to beat her ass himself.

While it was now obvious to Riley that Bruce wasn't behind any of this, that only gave rise to another question- "who had *actually* arranged this and just decided to use Bruce as a convenient scapegoat?"

Someone who knew her, who knew Bruce, who knew she was the only one with the opportunity to pull something like that off, who had a stake in this, enough money to throw around to set this up, who knew she was now living with skunks, who knew her new address so that they knew where to send that goon-

...

Of course.

The headmaster.

Or if not him, then at the very least someone close to him in the orphanage's administration. Someone so closely in on it that they were charged with corruption and whatever else that TV anchor mentioned and looking at years behind the bars, familiar with her being a rebel formerly without a cause, and absolutely furious at their whole little spiel being brought to light by some worthless kid of a junkie, enough to want to make her pay in the most humiliating way possible.

These pieces of-

"Riley? You alright?"

Rick's quiet words snapped his daughter out of the revelation-fueled fury she was about to descend into as her attention was brought back to the real world in front of her, including the crutch she was holding so tightly her knuckles were almost white.

"Yeah, I-I think so. Was just... thinking." She turned to look back towards Rick, his concerned expression sobering her even further as he stood nearby, a glance further into the kitchen having revealed the dinner casserole having been pulled out of the oven and replaced with the cake in the meantime, the air smelling sweet and nutty.

"Thinking about... what had happened?" Rick wasted no time in walking over to her and taking a seat himself, turning the chair to face her.

Riley slowly nodded, at least initially, before cutting herself off with an 'um' and speaking up after having a chance to gather her words.

"Well, kinda. Not about... the thing itself but who organized it and what were their motivations." Her words seemed to only make Rick even more concerned, concerned and thoughtful, her old man recalling the details before speaking up-

"Wasn't it set up by that douchebag bully? Barron or-"

"Bruce."

"Yeah, him."

"That's what I thought too- hell that's what the cops at the hospital thought as well, the- the guy who assaulted me sent me his regards-"

"Riley, I really think we should try to move on-" Rick tried to step in, not wanting his daughter to get so winded up again so soon.

"I'm not finished- yeah everyone thought it was Bruce but it couldn't have been him. It wouldn't make sense- he doesn't have the money, the contacts, he's dumb as bricks, and more than likely he's in jail and there's no way anyone's bailing his ass out."

This time though, Rick actually let her finish, bringing a paw up to his mouth as he considered it himself, recalling everything about the case he looked into afterwards- and with the things that kid was charged with there was no way in hell they were letting him await the court anywhere but behind the bars.

"Yeah, that would check out. So, if not him, then who?" As concerned as he was for Riley's mental wellbeing, there was an undercurrent of actual curiosity, and maybe just a slightest bit of a desire for revenge in Rick's voice as he leaned forward in his seat.

"Orphanage admins, has to be." Riley responded with utmost confidence, even accentuating her conclusion by lightly tapping her crutch against the floor.

Rick didn't react right away, seeming to be mulling on that idea, eventually responding with a very slow nod.

"As sleazy as these guys felt when I had to interact with them, I'm not entirely sure."

"But it all checks out- they knew where I lived, they knew me enough to be able to figure out it was me, they knew Bruce so they had a convenient scapegoat people wouldn't doubt, and..."

Riley paused to consider her words, grumbling quietly.

"...they knew who to get to make it really hurt."

She looked back up at her dad, seeing him staring down at the floor for a couple moments before looking back up at her, visibly trying to keep it together as his expression was twisted in a grimace. Knowing that she didn't quite have the words to help calm him off the top of her head, she just reached in with her good hand and grabbed his, holding it firmly until he returned the gesture, starting to breathe deeper.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

"I... yeah. Yeah that makes sense. Too much sense."

He quickly swiped any moisture from his eyes before trying to reset his expression back to his neutral, soft smile, mostly succeeding and taking another deep breath.

"Heh, want me to pass it onto the cops?"

"I mean, if I figured it out so will they, right?"

There were a few moments of loaded silence between the two as Riley reconsidered her words before holding back a chortle.

"Yeaaah, knowing them they might just need it."

"I'll call them about it tomorrow then. Anything else you were thinking about Riley?"

She paused, feeling more than a little bit of pride at having managed to crack this, and satisfaction at the fact that whichever douche organized this will be double screwed in prison. Who knows- maybe stuck there for life even. And while savoring it was definitely on her agenda, there still was the other side of this mess left, namely the perpetrator.

"The guy who went and did it. I'm... trying to figure out what was his deal."

Rick nodded in return, uncertain on whether he wanted that particular topic to continue. While his daughter might have been feeling much better than yesterday at the hospital when she brought it up the last time, and if anyone it was him who hasn't fully gotten over it all yet, he really didn't want her to dig herself into a dark place because of all horrible mess.

"I mean, there aren't many other possibilities aside from just desperation, right?"

"There aren't, but he still turned himself in anyway, it just doesn't make sense. Unless-" Riley paused, the obvious reason presenting itself to her so suddenly, overlooked in the overall monstrosity of this whole affair.

"Unless his conscience acted up and made him turn himself in."

"Well, that's always a possibility, yeah."

"And I don't think the original reason was anything awful either- hold on, lemme quickly check-"

With a bit of acrobatics, Riley let go of Rick's paw, reaching her left hand into her right pocket and pulling out her phone, navigating the UI left handed with all the grace of a semi truck spinning out on ice before bringing the messages her grandma had sent back up, double checking the exact details.

"Lost custody of his kid because of alcoholism and apparently has been trying his hardest to get his life back together afterwards but hasn't been able to."

"...did Liz send you his details?" Rick couldn't see Riley's phone directly from his position, but he could make out the WhatsApp color palette on the reflection of her glasses, stumping the girl for a while before she spilled the beans-

"Well, yeah, but only because I had asked." She was surprised he'd figured it out so suddenly, not having much experience with either glasses or digital screens until very recently.

Rick simply sighed in response, not expecting this for certain, but in hindsight, knowing his mom, he really, really should've.

"I suppose that makes sense, yeah. As does that guy's motive. Case closed then?" He would be content not having to think back to anything surrounding what had happened Riley for the rest of his life, but unfortunately for him, his daughter had a different idea, slowly beginning to take root in her head.

"Hmm... I mean, yeah, but... I-I don't know, this all feels... wrong."

"Wrong? You think he had some secret ulterior motive on the side-"

"No, no, not that kinda wrong. More like... wrong that he's gonna end up behind the bars forever because of this."

She glanced back up at her dad, finding him, unusually enough for him, genuinely taken aback at her words, opening his mouth as if to respond but needing a few more moments to piece the words together.

"Well, he did nearly kill you. If there's anything that justifies someone ending up behind the bars it'd probably be attempted murder."

"Or better yet, arranging a murder in the first place."

"Both whoever arranged all this and this guy can be equally guilty Riley, it's not a competition."

"I-I know, but it... it doesn't feel right." Riley slid her phone back into her pocket, the left one this time for less awkward access in the future and leaned forwards in her seat, staring down at the floor.

"Not right in what way?"

"Like, one did it with premeditation and wanting revenge, and the other was some desperate schmuck who really needed money and even then couldn't live with himself afterwards and turned himself in, and they're both probably gonna sit for just as long."

"Hmm... on one hand desperation like that is a reason to lower his sentence, on the other... yeah I'm not trusting the courts to take pity on him like that."

"Yeah..."

She sat in silence for a while, her left hand fidgeting with the end of her sleeve as she tried to sort out her emotions about all this, groaning in frustration afterwards.

"I... honestly, at this point I- I don't think I even want him to go to prison anymore." Riley didn't expect the resulting silence from Rick, making her look back up at him after a while, finding him looking at her wide eyed, the obvious follow up question clear in his expression alone.

"Like... not even because of him, or maybe not just because of him, he's a junkie, whatever, but... he has a kid, right? And from what I know that kid doesn't have anyone else left, so-"

"Riley-"

"-so right now they're probably stuck in some shithole orphanage, too young to even really get it all, that kid is like six or seven or something, and they don't want their dad to be like he is right now but they really really just want to see him again-"

"Riley-"

"-and they're just so fucking scared and lost and one day they're just gonna hear that they're never gonna see their dad again and they won't understand why and it's gonna haunt them for the rest of their fucking lives-"

Before she could say even a word more, she was unexpectedly pulled forwards into a very tight, very warm hug, her whole body shaking as she processed the sensations, finally noticing the warm, stinging tears that were flowing down her face. Rick had knelt in front of her chair to be able to properly reach around her, holding her firmly and tightly, a glance over at his face revealing some fresh wetness around his eyes of his own, the black fur shining under the lights even more than it usually did.

Slowly, Riley reached her good arm around his back in return, the tears her words have invoked continuing to flow as they sat in silence, her own distress taking a lot longer to calm down from compared to Rick's, the girl eventually feeling even more tired than before as her breathing gradually calmed down, embrace weakening involuntarily.

"I get that Riley. I really do. How about- I'll talk with Ella about what we can do to help, Liz and Marvin too, and we'll try to figure something out. How's that sound?" Rick spoke with a soft whisper, his own embrace of his daughter not waning even for a moment, his paws gently stroking her back intermittently.

She weakly nodded into his shoulder, the muttered 'mhm' signaling just how exhausted she was at this point, her dad chuckling weakly as he picked up on it.

"Today really took a lot out of you, hasn't it?"

Riley chuckled sleepily in response as she slowly let go of him, Rick following her soon afterwards, though not before patting her back a couple more times and lightly ruffling her hair before taking a seat once again.

"How hungry are you?"

She thought back, the snacks might not have been limitless, but they were plentiful enough to where she was largely sated by now, finding herself unable to care one bit about the sources of her nutrients not exactly being the most healthy today.

"A bit, not that much..." Riley muttered before straightening back, trying to keep herself further from falling asleep where she sat by shaking her head a bit, the technique proving itself to have absolutely zero effectiveness.

"How about I'll make you a sandwich and then you can go straight to bed, and you'll just have the casserole tomorrow?"

"Specialized diet, what luxury, heheh..."

"Hah, less luxury and more the fact that in your current state you'd probably faceplant into your plate before you were done eating, especially with having to eat left handed." Rick's frank response got a chuckle out them both, Riley having to forcibly hold in laughter after imagining herself dozing off at the table.

"Especially since I missed the window on dinner and now the casserole is probably already cold and is gonna need a few more minutes in the oven to reheat it."

"Oops."

"Yeah, heh. Thank goodness none of your siblings decided to come down and check up on the dinner in the meantime, that would've been... something."

Riley's eyes went wider at that realization, making her sigh out in relief at randomly dodging that bullet- she was more than glad to have had that conversation, but boy it wouldn't have been a fun one to have to go back to at a later date. In the meantime, Rick had gotten up to get her sandwich underway, after pulling out the only slightly singed cake and sliding the casserole back in on a lower temperature setting.

The brief shine of headlights on the living room's back wall informed them that Ella was finally back, and not a moment too soon, Riley letting a 'phew' out loud at making it through a third of a Russian roulette- plus she was done crying now for hopefully long enough that her mom wouldn't be able to immediately tell that something had happened.

The frigid gust that followed as Ella stepped in was intensely successful in making sure Riley wouldn't be snoozing any time soon yet, her teeth clacking out loud for a moment before the door was closed behind her, Ella's muffled chuckle becoming clearer as she took off her scarf.

"Still here Riley? Thought you'd be going straight to bed after dinner honestly."

Here's to her pitiful attempt at pretending nothing had happened.

"Well~ dinner hasn't happened yet. We started chatting and got distracted and by the time we finished it was already cold." Fortunately, her dad was there to bail her out, redirecting any possible maternal annoyance.

"And here I was thinking you were reheating it just for me~" Annoyance that thankfully never came, Ella just giggling at the news as she finished taking her outdoors clothes off, warming up in the comfy indoors as she noticed a sandwich being made, a raised eyebrow spotted by her husband soon after.

"Oh, just making something for Riley so she can have something light and hit the hay afterwards. The chat was... rather emotional, and I don't think even she trusts herself to effectively use a fork left handed with how much she's tired afterwards."

"Nope, not in the slightest." Riley chimed in directly, helping her mom in feeling much less guilty about chuckling at Rick's words.

The additional unspoken benefit of not having to interact with her siblings while she had just finished being a teary eyed mess was also appreciated.

Rick helped reorient Riley's chair back towards the table as he delivered the impromptu dinner, the sandwiches about as plain as possible, but even if Riley was in any way picky with her food, she would've been much too tired to be so right now, managing to space out a couple times just in the amount of time it took to chew though a couple slices of bread with margarine and a slice of cheese on them.

And while she couldn't know for sure whether the louder clinks coming from Rick deciding to hand wash some of the dishes from today, timed just so that they would shook her awake and have her continue eating were intentional, they were much too conspicuous to not be so.

"Goodnight Riley, sleep well sweetie."

"Goodnight mom."

Eventually, she was thankfully finally done with her dinner, Rick wordlessly intervening to help her up the staircase, the complicated dance feeling almost easier while being so tired like that, or at least it felt like it went by faster. Her dad occasionally deciding to help lift her up to the next step might have helped with that just a tad though.

"Want me to walk you off to your room?"

"N-nah, I think I'll be alright, it's just a straight, flat line."

"Alrighty then."

He didn't waste the opportunity to pull her into another hug though, much weaker and shorter this time around, Riley smiling dreamily before muttering out-

"Thank you dad."

"You're welcome sweetie. Now go get some rest, okay?"

"Yeah. Goodnight..."

"Goodnight Riley."

Even if he was true to his word and didn't walk her over to her room directly, he still kept an eye over on her from the staircase just in case, the extra assurance thankfully not noticed by the recipient as she shambled over to her room, getting in with as little of a hitch as possible while this tired and this inexperienced with a crutch.

Timmy's present was still there in its splendor, getting as big of a smile out of her as she could manage in her exhausted state.

"Kids, dinner!"

The call from downstairs made her briefly pause and begin turning herself over towards the door before catching up on the fact that she, in fact, had already eaten, a weak chuckle leaving her at her own silliness before she resumed the inevitable approach towards her bed, finally taking a seat and leaning the crutch on the cupboard, having to commit the entirety of her willpower to not lay down as is.

With a lot more effort than expected, she eventually changed into something more appropriate for bed, took her glasses off and even remembered to plug the phone into the charger, leaving her with one final task- turning the lights off.

For which she'd need to get up... and use the crutch...

A low whine let her at that realization, leaving her to glance around in case there was something that would possibly help with that ordeal, her attention resting on the wall switch on the wall by her bed, next to the window, one she had overlooked earlier because she thought it had something to do with the window.

What if...

*click*

And just like that, the room was plunged into the most welcome darkness of Riley's life, the girl wasting exactly no time before finally laying down and getting comfy under the blanket, too tired to even appreciate the glow in the dark decals on the ceiling at that moment, just all in on getting some well deserved rest.

Rest at home, after so, so long.