Christine Ch 3
#3 of Cadi, Volume 5: Christine
A year into the district's life, Christine was really starting to feel as though she had a good handle on things within the district. The community events continued being real hits, and she even reached out to the community, offering to let people contribute ideas and activities. In her communications with the other directors, she shared the success of these events, and in their Discord chat, they even began trading ideas and stories among themselves.
One morning, when she got into the office, Zack came in to check on her almost as soon as she had settled in. "Hey, director, we've got a new fur in the district. Actually, a whole family of them. What's more, one of them is going to be working here at the agency."
Christine looked up from her computer screen, blinking in surprise. "Oh? It's not often that someone comes in with government experience. Go ahead and send them in."
Zack grinned in a way that made Christine look at him questioningly, but she returned to her computer while she waited for the new arrival to get to her office. In walked a lynx in a blue, pinstripe suit, who grinned broadly at Christine. Something about the way that she was acting was... odd to Christine. "Hello, there," Christine said, standing up and coming around her desk to hold her hand out to the Lynx, "I am Director Christine, and you ah!"
Rather than take her hand, the lynx just grabbed her up in a big hug, squeezing her tightly. "There you are, girl! Lookin' good! I knew that you had this in you!" She said excitedly, beaming as she just held Christine like that.
It took the wolf a long moment to process what was happening right now, and when she finally registered that she recognized the voice, her tail started to wag a mile a minute, and she hugged her back. "Bailey! Oh my GOD!! You changed too? And your family?!?"
Bailey pulled back, beaming at Christine, "And holy fuck, look at you... the serious boss-lady. We kept telling you that you had it in you, girl! Just wait 'till the others hear how you're doing!"
Christine smiled sheepishly, laughing and shaking her head. "We should definitely zoom with them. Want to send out the invitation?"
Bailey nodded her head and already had her phone out, sending the invitation. They set it for that evening, around dinner time. In the meanwhile, Christine gave Bailey a tour of the district, introducing her to some of the furs, even taking her to Briar's Cauldron for lunch, and Bailey just had to laugh. "Hun! This was the place we were at the night everyone changed! It was so freaky, but after we were out, and when we saw you... we realized we just got caught up in everyone else's panic," she said with a sigh, shaking her head.
Christine was even thrilled to meet up with Bailey's family, laughing as her daughter practically jumped into her arms. She picked the little vixen up and swung her around. "Hey there, cutie! You're growing up so fast! I've missed you!" She was delighted, sharing a hug with Bailey's husband, too, who had become a fairly handsome stag.
That evening, they met up at Christine's apartment, setting her laptop up in the living room for the call, and when the other four saw the two of them sitting together there like that, it took a good five minutes at least for everyone to settle down. Marilyn and Dianna had even been joined by their families on the call, and their kids were thrilled when they saw the two of them, in particular.
They were all just completely thrilled and amazed when they saw Bailey had changed, too. They had never known that there was any rhyme or reason to the transformations. The Lynx looked so heartbroken, smiling sadly at the others. "Things... had been rough for me since Christine changed and got stuck in here. I missed her a lot, and Adam understood. My family talked it over, and we kind of... cried it out... and we cuddled up on the couch, watching a movie. We kind of conked out, and... when we woke up... well..." she said, gesturing at herself. "And now we're here."
That was met with a stunned silence, and the others were visibly thinking. Dianna's partner placed her hand on her shoulder, not saying a word, but they traded a look. Everyone was feeling the intensity of the moment, and Christine could absolutely feel that the excitement had turned into intense somberness.
Christine took a breath, looking at the others on the screen. "Hey. Guys. Don't sweat it, okay? Look, we're safe here. Heck, in a couple more days, we're even going to be having a big-old ice cream party here in the district," she said with a laugh and a smile. "We do a lot of community events here. It's... it's a lot of how we hold together as a community here. We... we have to hold together. No one is looking out for us, but us, and I've been so inspired by how much we've come together to support each other here."
That lightened the mood a bit, especially for Marilyn's kids, who were laughing about an ice cream party, but it wasn't overly long before they had to wrap up the call. Bath time and bedtime had to be upheld, after all. When the call ended, Christine slumped back onto the couch, thinking. "It was good to see everyone... even if it was kind of bittersweet. It was too bad that Chloe and Pam's families couldn't join us.
Bailey's eyes went wide as she sat up straighter, "Oh! Oh... right... you hadn't heard... Their husbands... They just..." she took a deep breath, shaking her head. "They hate furs. Think that they are abominations... and Chloe and Pam just... look, they know you, and they couldn't stand the way their husbands talked about you and the other furs. So... they divorced them."
Christine's eyes went wide and she sat up before sinking back a little. "So... they... and..." she said, trying to wrap her head around it.
Bailey grinned, "They were loyal to you. We've been loyal to you for years. Ever since we were kids. We looked out for you through everything," she said, giving Christine a great-big hug.
Christine was absolutely stunned by that, and it took her a long moment before she hugged Bailey back and buried her face in the side of her neck, crying it out a little bit before she sighed and took a deep breath. "I think... I think that I need some time to process this... and you... should spend some time with your family... and get settled in here."
Bailey smiled and said goodnight to Christine, leaving to go spend time with her family while Christine went out to her balcony for a little bit, sitting in her deck chair with a glass of wine, taking a good moment to think and process that call... and process the last... nearly three decades (really only a year short of the full three decades), seeing everything that her friends had done for her over that time through an entirely new light.
She may have lost her decisiveness and drive to leadership... but beneath it all... she had been their leader all along...
As she thought about that, she sipped on the wine, and couldn't help but smile as she silently thanked them, raising a toast to the night sky.
A few days later as she was getting in, Zack came into Christine's office before she even managed to sit down at her desk. "Ahh... Director? They just... brought in some new furs... and... four of them have just been assigned to the agency..."
Christine looked at him, stunned. "How many new furs in all?"
"Eight... six adults and two children..."
She looked at him in shock, "That's the biggest group of new furs since... well since the district was founded..." she said, her jaw hanging open.
Before he could say anymore, Bailey came past him through the doorway, being followed by four other women. One was a rabbit, with lovely cream fur, and black ears sticking up out of her blond hair, one was a skunk with her white hair in a cute little bob haircut, and two of them were foxes, though it wouldn't be difficult telling them apart. One of them had more... typical vulpine orange fur with fiery red hair, while the other was, if anything, the most striking out of the lot. Her fur was a vivid hot pink, with long, purple hair trailing down her back.
Christine stared at them in shock for just a moment before she registered just who they were. She pounced on the lot of them, wrapping them all in a giant embrace. "You assholes! How the... you... all of you! And your families?!?" She fussed at them for a moment before she pulled herself back enough to look at them, scowling, "If this is just some ploy to get free ice cream on the community day, you're even bigger assholes," she said sternly.
That got a good laugh out of them. The six musketeers were reunited.