Author's Note:

Adding depth to a character that appeared to have none, but keeping with the feel of that character so he doesn't seem outright OC is a challenge. But I've been setting up Duke for a while now. It's a lot of fun to take a broken side character and show them a bit of the love they always needed.

If you are just joining this series for the first timethis story is in the continuum AFTER Season 2, so you will definitely want to read Thanks for the Fox and Guardian Blue Season One and Season Two for important context!

I do not claim ownership of these characters, they are property of Disney. They are borrowed lovingly to practice the trade of storytelling since I cannot control myself. The stories are there and they have to be unleashed upon the world. Remember… for every story you see from me, there are a dozen arcs that never made the cut. Entire worlds no one will ever know. Maybe some day…

Also! A HUGE shout-out to J. N. Squire for assisting with editing this series! It's a lot to do, particularly as I am writing this one AS I write Season 2, so he's got both going at the same time! A real champion, that Squire...

The Duke of Absolution

Chapter 4: Foxes and Gratitude

Duke discovered that laying the flooring for the shop was not a small task. He hadn't done hardwood flooring before, but Vivienne's elsewise useless son had apparently sent a very helpful link to a video on Ewetube for a slick tutorial on exactly how it was done. It was a little awkward and arduous at first, but it got easier as they went. In no more than half a day the two felt like professionals. There was a lot of surface area to cover, and the areas where they met the walls or counters required the individual pieces to be trimmed down to the right size. It was hard work and they needed to take breaks from it pretty frequently. Duke didn't mind, however.

He didn't mind because it resulted in the job taking three more days. Each day they started at around nine and they worked together, talking, laughing, or listening to Vivienne's phone. Her son's girlfriend had sent the motherly vixen a link to a spooky story podcast that they both enjoyed. Around one o'clock each day, a two hour lunch at the diner where they met made for a fixed routine. All of it made this busy, continuous work feel more like a rewarding hobby than a job. Duke quietly lamented that it would eventually be done, but the experience was something he knew he would keep with him. As far as he was concerned, he would always be able to visit and talk with Vivienne to recharge his conviction and resolve.

The time working with Viv also made it easier to trust the older fox because she represented something that Duke hadn't experienced with many others. She had permanence. She didn't behave differently after a day or so. She never treated him with disrespect and never asked for more than he felt comfortable giving to her. It was easy to feel almost like family around the lady fox, and while that originally alarmed the weasel a lot at first, it quickly became tolerable, and then slowly addictive. He liked feeling like he had someone he could actually trust. The fact that it was a fox was an irony not lost on him. Viv let him buy lunch when they went out which made this feel less undeserved. The fox would allow him to help back as much as he was willing to do. It was easy to dedicate himself to working hard and giving it everything he had.

Over those long days of hard manual work, Duke discovered that what he wanted most of all at the end of this was not the money she was providing for his labor, but the continued company of her friendship when it was done. And the longer he worked with her, the easier it was for the smaller mammal to feel this was assured. Friendship wasn't a high item on his list of must-haves even six months before. Friends begged for favors. Friends used you and then didn't know you when they were done with you. He saw that first-hand when he got out of 'the racket'. In less than a week, Duke had discovered that it was possible, sad though it may be, he'd not actually had friends in the past, and this… this is what it was supposed to be.

And so he wanted that. That was okay, wasn't it? When it was all done, he would just come back sometimes and talk and offer to help with this and that. She didn't even have to pay him. That would be fine. This hard journey started when the weasel decided that he could be more, and this was the first mammal who had believed he was. He'd come back here. Things would be better.

On the third day of flooring, he and Vivienne found themselves working on the edges of the room. To get more coverage, they had started to hold off on this more time-consuming task. They could not put it off any longer. It resulted in more than a few miss-measured or otherwise bad pieces cast to the side, but there would likely be extra flooring anyway, so that wasn't a big deal to Vivienne. It promised to be another day of work to get the floor sealed and treated and waxed.

The act of learning the technique from a publicly available video filled Duke with ideas to sustain him after this was over. If he could just learn a trade from the internet like that, what was going to stop him from learning other valuable skills? It might not be such a hard future for him after all. As he was considering this encouraging epiphany, he mindlessly spread some flooring glue onto the next section of smooth concrete. Vivienne spoke over the music-enhanced work session.

"Hey Duke… Wanna hear a joke?" she offered.

"Huh? Sure, I'm game," the weasel stated, sitting back a little to cut the pre-measured next bit of flooring. He barely even understood what she'd asked as he was so suddenly shaken from his thoughts. A joke? She wanted to tell him a joke? Yeah, regular friends did that stuff, didn't they? This felt normal.

"What would bears be in a world without bees?" she queried, pushing another carefully measured and cut little plank neatly into place.

Duke thought about it for a while. In his younger days, he preferred to try to defuse jokes like they were bombs, delighting in guessing a punchline. In this case he just couldn't guess. In his world, insults were the going 'jokes'. He shrugged and said in a meek tone, "There'd be no honey, so I would have to say… grumpy? I dunno this one." He grinned at the fox, letting her drop the punchline.

"Ears!" she chimed brightly, muzzle open a little to let it sink in.

"What?" Duke responded, blinking. Did he miss something?

"Ears. Bears without 'B's are ears." Vivienne pulled her own ears with a smirk. Duke groaned helplessly at the pun. Secretly it delighted him that she was so full of innocent and harmless fun like that. This was a world he was glad to be in. It wasn't the gritty, filthy life he was used to. There was something wholesome about it and it felt good to his new, clean existence. She laughed brightly as he covered his face.

Duke shook his little head slowly. "If it were anyone but you dat told dat joke, I'd have gone right out da window."

"Sorry, I've felt funny all day," she chuckled. "I was testing out new recipes for cupcakes and wasn't paying attention and took a huge drink of red food coloring."

Duke glanced up at Vivienne with alarm as he watched her fix another bit of flooring into place.

"Are y'alright?" he inquired. It was non-toxic, but it couldn't be great to actually drink the stuff. Wasn't red supposed to be the carcinogenic one?

"I'm sure I'll be fine… but I think I dyed a little on the inside," she deadpanned. Duke physically flinched. No. Absolutely not. He folded over, forehead on the floor.

"It's worse that you got me after the first joke!" he groaned.

"Hand me the ruler, please," the vixen asked pleasantly. Duke did so, letting Vivienne measure her next piece of wood.

"I'm glad I got this one, it was the last 18 inch ruler they had, and I would never have found a replacement," she casually murmured.

"Really?" Duke responded. Then he inwardly cringed. It was coming. He knew it. Her skill at loading this was established and he had to expect it.

"Yeah, the clerk said they couldn't make 18 inch rulers any longer," the fox predictably delivered. Duke mock-sobbed into his arms.

"I can't take it anymore," he cried playfully.

"You were the one who whined that he felt he'd gone un-pun-ished. I'm trying to help you out!" Vivienne laughed. Duke grinned under his arms. He loved the sound of her laugh. A bit after that, Vivienne put on their spooky podcast and they listened to that as they worked quietly.

The first of the typically two spooky stories shared was about the chance meeting of the ghost of a howling lupine light-house caretaker. It supposedly occurred in the 1800's. The terrifying phantom always preceded a death in the port community that existed around the lighthouse. It told of the ultimate destruction of the lighthouse by the fearful villagers. There was, a few months later, one last sighting of that howling ghost before a ship with gunpowder ran aground and exploded, laying waste to the whole village. The second story was about a prison, also in the 1800's, which had been plagued with horrifying acts of almost unheard of, genuine, full-on predation that no one could seem to stop. The acts went on for so long because no one could fathom that they were being committed by a deranged musk deer who was only in the prison for money laundering. As that podcast ended, the sun was sinking lower in the sky and Vivienne finally stood up, appreciating their handiwork.

She said softly, "I think we'll have the rest of this done in about an hour, then we will have to let it dry and get started on the finishing. It's looking so awesome!" She squeaked excitedly. This sound delighted Duke as he stood up as well, brushing off his knees as his temporary boss went and stood by the shop door. It remained open while they worked to help air it out from the scent of the flooring glue.

Duke walked over by Viv. "It's not been too hard, really. Time consuming, but not real hard. I think I got the hanga this," Duke boasted proudly, with a curt nod.

Vivienne gazed out the door a while and then looked back to Duke. "Oh… that podcast reminded me of something important. Before I forget… tonight, when I leave, I want you to lock up and close the windows downstairs. Don't leave them open. You can have the upstairs window open for air circulation, but not down here… for safety reasons." The vixen stated this pretty darkly.

"What? Why? Did something happen?" the weasel asked.

"Haven't you been watching the news?" Vivienne inquired curiously.

"Only media I get recently comes from your phone," the weasel offered meekly. He hoped that didn't give away his state of living. Lots of folks didn't have TV, right? Not just the ones that also didn't have homes.

"Oh, yeah." Vivienne said, appearing to feel silly. She then shook her head and stated, "The city had the prison on full lock down yesterday evening. It was a huge deal," her tone was suddenly very serious and foreboding. Duke widened his already bulging eyes. No, he had certainly not heard about this. He stood straighter.

"Oh my God. What happened?" he replied, fidgeting a little. Stuff like this was always more frightening to smaller mammals like him. He suddenly worried that Vivienne might not be safe to take the bus and go back to her place alone. Would it be silly for him to ask to escort her? He'd be useless in a fight unless the older lady fox were to just swing him like a club at her attacker.

The fox answered, "The prison staff discovered, at some point yesterday, that…" She suddenly glanced outside, looking concerned. Duke backed into the shop a little.

"Yeah?" he murmured in a hushed tone. He hoped his anxiousness did not look like cowardice, but there were some pretty twisted types in that prison.

"It uh… it turns out that shortly after they incarcerated Dawn Bellwether… nearly half the prison's most violent offenders had been on the lamb," she delivered with an impossibly straight face.

Duke stared back, muzzle slightly parted, unable to breathe, eyes perfectly round in shock. Did that… sweet, loving, motherly vixen… just tell him a prison rape joke?! A wicked grin spread over Vivienne's features.

"Holy Sh-…" Duke started, but was interrupted by a voice from outside.

"Hey, Duke of Bootleg, izzat really you, man? Long time no smell." The weasel looked up to see that a coyote and bobcat, both males, had wandered up to the door. Vivienne turned and stepped back a little, seeming reasonably defensive about their sudden appearance at the front of the shop. It was getting late, after all. Duke, however, recognized them both.

"Mike Latrans… and you still runnin' wit that worthless Rudy Spot-whatever," he chuckled.

"Who you callin' worthless, can-crusher?" asked the bobcat with a sneer.

The weasel deadpanned. "I'm sorry, I was not aware you had developed a respectable portfolio. Please accept my heartfelt apology, my esteemed former colleague," Duke laughed. Vivienne peered back and forth between them. She relaxed a little, seeing that they were at least familiar to her employee. Duke, however, was not relaxed. He wanted them gone. They were very much a part of his old life and there was a reason it was 'long-time-no-smell.'

"So, Duke…" Mike stepped forward a little. "…we hear ya down on yer luck, livin' out of a box. Want some real work?" The weasel's heart froze. No. Not that. Don't tell Vivienne that! He glanced at the vixen. Her ears were back. She looked unhappy. Damn it. Mike continued, "We did a - ah… recovery of some… salvage. Bunches of it. We need more paws to move it." Duke held stark-still. He was mortified that the coyote had said any of that in front of Vivienne. She didn't need to know he was homeless, and he absolutely didn't want her thinking he was still involved in likely criminal enterprises. He was working hard for her. Having her feel sorry for him or no longer trusting him would be absolutely ruinous! He glanced back up at her and saw it. She seemed genuinely pained.

He snapped his attention back to Mike. "That ain't none of your business, brush-wolf," Duke growled. He was going to put him on his heels and make him pound pavement. This was Duke's chance to prove to Viv that he wasn't going to be that weasel anymore. He would say goodbye to that life right in front of her.

The bobcat spoke next. "C'mon, Duke, you diggin' in the trash, and when you ain't doin' that… youse actually slavin' for foxes. You kin do better than that."

Duke felt his blood boil as a sense of protectiveness fired up in him that he hadn't felt since he was a kit dealing with playground bullies talking trash about his mother. He snarled and growled back, "I ain't interested, kitty cat. And ain't no problem workin' for this here fox. Watch it." How was he going to get rid of these guys?

"Uh oh, someone's sweet on the vulpine species," laughed Mike. "I don't blame you, I kinda fancy 'em myself," he crooned, walking right over to Vivienne. Duke tightened all his muscles with rage as the tan-toned mammal actually brushed up against the older lady fox. He walked in a tight circle around her with his tail trailing along her legs. A little larger than Vivienne, Mike rumbled sultrily, "Crimson fur looks so lovely up close to coyote-gold, doesn't it? And… such a snug fit too…" The weasel clenched his paws into shaking fists as he felt his rage boil over.

Duke never would have predicted he would get killed defending the honor of a fox. He then faltered a little as he glanced over and found that Vivienne did not even seem to be put off. She actually smiled. It was a deliciously smug sort of smile. While he'd never seen her smile like that before, it felt suddenly so completely familiar. Unexpectedly, Viv moved her graceful paws up along Mike's cheeks, brushing claw-tips lovingly through his fur. It shocked Duke to see her boldness with the coyote stranger. This one was so obviously a criminal. Did she not know he might be dangerous? The bobcat backed up a little, grinning at the response Mike was getting.

Vivienne practically purred in a seductive tone, "I'm deeply flattered, Michael…" Her use of his name fairly widened his brown eyes, as it made the situation seem immediately more intimate, "… however, even if you found the smallest fox you could, a sweet, petite lady fennec, I am sure beyond the shadow of a doubt… my sweet little puppy… that a sourdough pretzel would be tied tighter than that poor lass." She showed her teeth brightly as she delivered this last highly insulting line. Mike jerked away.

Rudy exploded, literally dropping to his back on the sidewalk. He laughed so hard he was actually blowing his coat out, shedding violently. Soft feline fur blew in lose tumbling tufts along the curb. For a cat, he could really howl with laughter. Duke was frozen with shock. The coyote and bobcat were not the only ones taken off guard by that. Vivienne was obviously more than the sweet, refined fox that she appeared to be. Mike was completely speechless for the moment. He pinned his ears back with a grimace as he backpedaled a bit. He obviously had nothing to recover from that with.

The coyote finally snapped his attention to the coughing, sputtering bobcat. "Rudy, geeze, enough, it wasn't even funny!" he growled. He looked back to Duke. "You lost any chance of that score, weasel, so thank the fox lady."

"Yeah, I don't need yer score anyway." Duke stated flatly.

Mike spit on the ground outside the shop. "Oh yeah, you got everything goin' for ya here. A few days of odd jobs for this retired bed-hopper and then you can look forward to winter inside yer box of balled up newspaper, butt-noodle." He sneered. "Best hope no one tosses a lit cigarette into it as you sleep!" he laughed. He then snarled at the nearly sobbing cat. "Give it a rest, Rude, God!"

"Duke!" cried Rudy, struggling to actually crawl away from the vixen who was offering to help him get up. "Duke! Run, little guy! She's been Nighthowlered! That fox is savage! Aahhahahaha!"

Vivienne spoke up calmly. "Just so you guys know, Duke won't need your job placement services anymore because he's already gainfully employed. Once this world-class bakery's up and going, he will assist me with running the place. You are both welcome for a free sample of the wonderful treats we will be providing." Duke felt his heart lurch. Wait, what? The fact that Viv had suddenly gone back to sweet grandmother fox mode was not the part that locked up his brain. She intended to have him work after the shop was open? Was that the plan? Did she decide that before? What was she doing?

"Oh sweet! Free food!" cried Rudy, finally getting back onto his feet.

The coyote huffed. "Seriously? Duke going legit? You'd trust this felon in front of a cash register? Here I had just started to think you was sharp, old gal!" he laughed.

Viv crossed her arms in front of her, standing defiantly in front of the larger canid. "Think what you will, but you're gonna need to find another weasel. This one's mine." Duke swayed considerably. No. This was wrong. He couldn't accept that from Vivienne. No one's luck was that good, especially not his. He would have to turn it down if she was serious.

Rudy laughed good-naturedly and shook his head. "I know I'll be back for a sample, I don't care what Mikey says. See you around, cookie-critter!" he gave Duke the finger, turning and heading down the sidewalk, still laughing.

Mike gave a sour face at Duke. "Yeah man, good luck with alllll of that." He gesticulated at the shop and particularly the vixen with the barbed tongue. "You deserve what workin' with foxes gets ya, punk." Mike then strode off too, paws in his pockets. "Shut up, dude!" he yelled ahead at the giggling Rudy. "You tell anyone that crap and I swear…"

Vivienne watched with that oddly familiar sly smirk on her face as the two younger but mentally outmatched mammals walked down the sidewalk. They crossed in and out of long shadows cast by the buildings alongside it as the sun sank behind them. Duke wasn't really paying attention to them after a moment, however. His wide eyes were fixed on Viv.

He finally spoke, having to clear the air. He had to know. "Was you serious about it?" he asked softly.

"Oh yes. If that boy was making any gal happy right now, she'd not be letting him run around doing that crap." She said seriously. Duke stared at her blankly and then blinked, shaking his head.

"Huh? No, I mean… about workin' here? Are you serious? We never talked about any a' that." He was so thrown by the implied offer and its implications to him that he utterly dismissed the second off-color joke from sweet Vivienne in ten minutes. She had to have been joking about the offer too, just to get under Mike's hide. That certainly made sense. It made more sense than Duke suddenly being included in Vivienne's real plans.

The fox immediately proved Duke's wary assumption completely wrong. "Of course I meant it. I'm not letting you go back to working with those guys!" she exclaimed, crossing her arms in front of her again gruffly.

Duke stared back with painfully wide eyes. "I… I had no intention of it, but I can't just… let you give me a position like that. It's not fair to someone who ain't been dumb and worked the better part of their life screwing things up! I'm getting in the way of some mammal what really deserves to come and work for you every day." Duke felt the pang of panic running through him. He wanted this so bad. What was he doing? But… it felt wrong. He couldn't have this. She didn't owe him anything. She felt sorry for him. He wasn't worth this. He would almost certainly hurt her business. He could even cause her real trouble with some of his former colleagues. Not all of them would be as jocular or forgiving as Mike and Rudy. Keeping a former criminal in her shop would be nothing but trouble for a fox who deserved to succeed more than any mammal Duke had ever met.

Vivienne regarded the weasel a moment. Her face was hard to read, ears back. After watching him a moment, she spoke. "What are you saying, Duke? Do you really not want to work for a fox?" she asked. He felt like someone dropped Tundra Town right on his heart.

"What?!" Duke practically shouted. "No, it ain't that! It's the opposite! You shouldn't have to work with a bottom feeder like me! You gotta be one of the best mammals I ever met, and you can make this work like your own slice a' heaven, Viv! I'm just gonna foul it all up for ya!"

"You think you'll empty my till, like Mike said?" she inquired casually, her eyes half-closed as she gazed at the smaller mammal.

Duke pulled his little ears back, pacing with stress. "No, of course not! I'd never even think of stealin' from you, Viv!" His heart ached. She didn't know how much trouble he was. How hard he was to get along with. But… he'd been getting along with her so well this past week. Nothing had ever seemed like a more attractive deal than to keep coming to work here. Even if he had to work with the public and force himself to be sweet and kind like her, he would do that. But he couldn't. He might feel clean, but he was dirty. She knew what he was in the past. He could move forward but it was never going to be just… not there. Why would anyone be this nice to him? It was confusing and, frankly, horrifying to him.

Vivienne walked away from the door, the weasel following her inside as she didn't say anything for a moment. As he entered, she turned back and closed the door, locking it. It was perhaps in case the coyote returned with enough time to formulate a spicy comeback. This conversation, Duke felt, was not to be interrupted.

The vixen sat down on the counter, feet over the edge, calmly. "Duke, you're working very hard to leave the old you behind and make a real attempt at something different… but you aren't going to succeed if you slam shut every door that opens for you."

The weasel rubbed his face slowly. How could he explain this without coming across as insulting in the face of her unrealistically kind and generous offer? He sighed, "It ain't about whether I deserve to find an open door, Viv. It's that I don't want you feeling some kind of obligation just cause you know my story… like you gotta be the one openin' and holdin' doors like that! I ain't done nothin' for it! Yer still finding out crap about me," he grunted, gesturing after the departed former companions.

"What, you mean that you're homeless?" Vivienne asked flatly.

Duke winced. "For example," he agreed.

"I knew that already. You really think I wanted to sleep here?" she inquired.

"What?" murmured the weasel.

The expression on the lovely vixen's face was hard and calm as she spoke, gazing intently into the smaller mammal's eyes. The spoke softly, "You can hate yourself all you like, Duke, but you don't get to tell me what I'm looking at. I'm not a kit. I know what I see standing there. I know your past. I know what you are now… what you want to be… And I know what you're gonna be tomorrow." Vivienne jabbed a claw in the direction of the floor in the center of the shop. "You're gonna be the weasel pushing around a bucket of sealant with me and finishing this floor… And if you really want to, you can sell something that will earn you platitudes instead of jail time."

Duke's mind was reeling. How was he supposed to argue with her? He didn't want to argue. He wanted to just nod and be glad that he had a job. Hell, she knew he was actually living in that office, not just guarding the place at night. She was offering him a home too? No. Absolutely not. He could not just take these things from her. How could she offer all of that to him? Why? He spent a hard full lifetime learning that mammals demanded equal return or better for everything they gave. This didn't square at all with the rest of his miserable existence! Something was off. It was completely off the rails.

Duke sighed bitterly. "I just can't take this from you, Vivienne. I know you maybe don't understand, but for me to move forward… I can't just take what I didn't really earn. Takin' what I didn't earn is how I messed myself up in the first place. I ain't done nothin' so grand as t' earn anything like... like this!" He gave a flourish at the nicely painted, partly remodeled shop.

Viv lowered her head, ears pinned back tight. "You deserve a chance, Duke. And no one's giving you that chance unless they know you. I know you, and I say you get this chance!" Vivienne insisted loudly, her tone more exasperated. She hopped down off the counter. "You can't possibly think I don't feel like you earned it! You saved a life, Duke! That's worth something. You gave him a second chance, what did he ever do to earn that from you?" Her voice cracked. Duke backed up a little, having not realized that the vixen would get so emotionally worked up about this. He felt his strength in the argument fracture. He could not denigrate himself if it wounded her to see it. It was easy to hate himself. He'd been doing it for so long. But hurting this fox was something he immediately realized would be eternally unforgivable.

Duke uttered the only logic he could find left in his argument. "Viv, if it were Wilde askin… If it were Wilde invitin' me to work here… then I could see it. But I ain't given you no second chance like that. I don't understand why you think you'd owe me. You don't owe me nothin'." Duke felt tears well up in his own eyes. It hurt. Denying himself this chance while knowing it also made Vivienne unhappy actually hurt him. Why did everything have to suck for everyone?

Vivienne turned away rather suddenly, paws at her sides, closed into fists. There was a soft, heart-rending sniffle from her as her tail fell slowly to the floor like the setting sun. Duke stood there feeling sick in agonizing silence for what felt like two full minutes. She would hate him for this. He was going to lose the only thing he'd greedily wanted to keep at the end of all of this.

She finally spoke in a slow and careful monotone. "You… You think you never gave me a second chance, Duke. You gave me a second chance."

Duke put a paw over his chest, trying hard to hold himself together. He whispered, whiskers trembling, "What chance have I ever gave you, Viv?"

Vivienne turned around slowly, her wet eyes fixing on Dukes, face agonized before she blinked, tears falling down her cheeks. It paralyzed the weasel. She was suffering and he hadn't even taken the job yet. Before he could inwardly declare himself garbage, however, the vixen smiled genuinely.

She stated in a clear and gentle tone, "You gave me a second chance to have a family when you told that bunny where to find my son."

Duke furrowed his brow. "What? Lady, I don't know your-…" He then locked up, as he stared into those brilliant green eyes. He knew those eyes. This whole time they had felt so familiar, and in that half-second he finally connected exactly where he'd seen them.

No.

Absolutely not.

This couldn't be happening. The real world didn't work this way. He was rooted in place with the level of disbelief that racked his tumbling mind as he stared into those eyes. His eyes.

Vivienne stood up straighter again, speaking carefully. "You said if Wilde invited you to work here you could see it. Well… I'm Vivienne Wilde, and I'm inviting you."

"Oh… my God." His ears rang with the rush of realization and the flood of emotions that thundered over him with it. Vivienne wrapped her arms around herself and closed her eyes, tears spilling down as she leaned back against the counter and slowly sank down. Her proud projection of herself crumbled and so did she.

"What did I ever do for you, Duke? What did I do to deserve that?" she asked, a pained squeak in her voice that squeezed the weasel's heart.

And just like that it all squared. The small mammal's relatively small yet profound gesture had changed more lives than his and Judy's. It saved more than a hopeless fox cop I in a dark, nasty place. He looked at the weeping older vixen on the floor of the shop he'd helped to rebuild. The struggle of these painful last few months had been a thing he understood as the consequence of his former life, and he had accepted so completely that his ugly consequence was earned. But he had ignored the simple truth that not every consequence was bad, and a good consequence was still just as undeniably earned. Sitting before him was a vixen who lost her son, and had him given back to her as a result of Duke's actions. He closed his eyes tight as he heard another heart-rending squeak from Vivienne.

What in the world was he supposed to do?

She knew. She knew who he was. He told her. And she hadn't said anything.

How long had she known?

Had she known who he was the whole time?

She made him tell her everything even though she knew it all. And she told him nothing. What was she trying to do? Was she trying to give him something back? He wasn't asking for that, but knowing who she was… could he even refuse it?

"I'm sorry…" she whispered, snapping the weasel out of his turbulent thoughts.

"Hey…" Duke approached with uneven steps, feeling his own cheeks wet with tears. This entire moment was completely overwhelming to him, just as the news report revealing Wilde was alive had been. He hugged the older fox, his little body shaking slightly as he struggled with coming to terms with exactly what all this was. He whispered, "I didn't actually save him, Viv. That was all the bunny. She nearly died getting' 'im… not me."

Vivienne embraced back, larger but gentle paws cupping over his back. It was a strong hug. She whimpered, "Duke, Judy's already got the most precious thing I could possibly give to her for what she did. Gladly I gave her that, so you can take the damned job!" Duke jerked at the louder exclamation.

"And I want to, Viv, I do! But… I…" he cried freely. He was helpless against this. He already wanted what she was offering so damned badly, and he accepted then and there that she knew he really wanted it, and she would keep viciously tearing up any reason he could give her to deny himself what he genuinely needed. He sighed, still shaking. "You coulda told me, Viv! Why didn't you tell me any of this?" He leaned back to look at his suddenly full time employer.

"Do you really need me to answer that?" the fox asked, composing herself just a little. Duke reflected on that and then shook his head. He'd have bolted and he knew it. It would have been too much. He'd have felt too tainted to even share a bus with the mother of the fox he had so unwittingly saved. He knew it. He wouldn't have even spoken to her out of self-revulsion.

The weasel then perked up, his mind really coming fully back online. "Wait, so… did you actually… already know who I was before… Before I told you that story?" He needed to be sure. Had she actually been leading him to this moment the entire time? After all the times Wilde had hustled him, had he just gotten the biggest hustle of his life from that fox's mother?!

"Duke, I looked for you for nearly two weeks before I found you in that diner."

"J-Judy…" he stammered, "She told you my name. She told you what happened." It began to all make sense. Vivienne Wilde had intended to help him the entire time. She planned it. He should be upset, right? Why wasn't he? As he suspected, there really was an angle. There really was a bigger plan, and he'd played into it perfectly. Why wasn't he able to be unhappy about that? He gazed up at the smiling vixen as she wiped her eyes.

"Yeah, it was Judy... And before you ask, she and Nick did not ask me to do this." Viv said bluntly. She glanced up and sighed, "In fact, I suspect Nicholas will have all kinds of advice to give as to why I shouldn't, but that doesn't matter. I watched you. I knew about the job with the insurance place failing. I know you lost your apartment. I know that even though you were homeless, you didn't go back to your old tricks. What you wanted was genuine. That's when I stopped watching, Duke. That's when I made my choice."

"I got hustled. You knew the whole damned time who I was… what I did…" He stated it, not to shame her, but because he was still dumbfounded as to why that didn't matter to him.

"Tell me the other way I could have made you understand that you deserve this, Duke," Vivienne demanded. Duke was quiet. He knew better. There wasn't another way. It was still confusing as to how this had worked so flawlessly.

"I should be kind of mad." Duke expressed. "But I'm not. Why ain't I mad?"

"Who would you be mad at, Duke?" asked the Viv. The smaller mammal looked back up at her, eyes wide. There. That was the problem.

"If I fell for a hustle, I'd be mad at myself. But…" He stared down.

"But you don't hate yourself enough anymore to be mad at yourself for this." Vivienne whispered.

"I don't… hate myself anymore…" Duke repeated. His eyes were shamefully wet. Why did it feel so hauntingly good to say something so utterly dopey like that to her? Because it was finally true, that's why. "How, Viv? How did you even know all this would work?" he croaked. She couldn't have known so completely that this would be how it ended. No plan the weasel had made in his entire life more complicated than flushing a toilet had ever gone this flawlessly for him.

"I didn't, sweetie…" Vivienne embraced him again. This time he pretty completely melted into it. He really needed it. "I wasn't so sure… not at first especially. I figured I would be able to help you a little and you'd move on, or you'd figure me out and get spooked by whatever the heck I was trying to do, and you'd bolt. Hell, Duke… I dropped cash on purpose just to see if you'd keep it. If you had taken it and run, that would have satisfied me, and your payment would have been that." Duke widened his eyes at this admission. A test. She tested him. He lowered his head. That was fair of course. If he wouldn't swipe a hundred bucks dropped by a stranger when he was homeless and hungry, he wasn't going to risk his job and home dipping into the till. Even if Viv had never been sure, her plan had been so meticulous.

"So… I should tell you…" the weasel said in a softer tone. "I ain't that great with customer service stuff. Talkin' with mammals and stuff. You really want a guy like me behind da counter there?" he asked.

Vivienne spoke back with a more determined voice. "There's gonna be challenges, Duke. This isn't a handout. You should know that. But I think we can do it together. If you still want to, now that you know who I am."

Duke hugged the fox one more time, figuring it would be weird once she was his boss. He finally released her and sighed. "Yeah, Viv. I want to. I'll give it everything I've got," he promised, reaching out a little paw. Vivienne scooped him in and hugged him again. He felt so small in comparison, but he didn't want to be anything but small right then. It was perfect.

After a moment of composing herself, she spoke again, "Well, it's getting late, and I think that if we hope to get finished with the floor outright tomorrow, we need to get to work right at nine, alright?" The older fox struggled some to get up from where she'd ended up sitting on the floor. Duke helped as much as he could. She dusted off her jeans. He walked with her over to the door, smiling. It was quiet in that moment but his mind was absolutely spinning.

It was going to be okay. Not just tomorrow, or a day or so from now. It was really starting to hit him, and he was having trouble getting his thoughts around it. Everything might just be okay for Duke Weaselton. Vivienne would feel better with what she was doing, and he had no reason to deny her the comfort that would give. All of it was right, not wrong. It might still be hard, but he was ready for the challenge. At least now he wouldn't be doing it all alone. He'd be right there with a source of strength he'd never felt before. A true and genuine friend.

Duke then had a thought and gritted his teeth. "So you know… I think I maybe been unfairly judgmental of your son this past week, Viv. All I knew is that here you was workin' your kind and generous tail off on this place and he ain't never called. He never came over to help. He didn't even check up on you, and I been loathing his sorry hide to bits for it... but this entire time he ain't been here because you knew I'd figure everything out. You been keepin' Nick away." Duke chuckled at that little detail. He had hated that fox so much, not realizing who it actually was. It was absolutely ridiculous. All of it was.

Vivienne laughed joyously at that. It was musical to Duke. "Yeah, that would have derailed things pretty badly." She chuckled as she picked up her phone and pocketbook and unlocked the door.

Duke then faltered. Oh yeah! "Wait, you said Nick's got a girl." He grinned at that unexpected revelation making the connection in his head. "Who's Nick's girl? I ain't ever seen…" His eyes went wide.

"Yeah, he's vowed up, can you imagine? That dumb romantic." Vivienne chuckled.

"Wait, your son is the most precious thing in the world to you." Duke stated in a slow and even tone. No. Not that. He was just being silly from all the shocks to his system.

"I promise he is." Vivienne practically purred.

"You gave Judy the most precious thing you had." Duke connected the dots, feeling like a complete nut for even suggesting it.

"Goodnight, Duke, be ready to work first thing in the morning!" Vivienne chimed brightly before closing the door.

Duke stood stark still, staring at the door.

Of course. Why not?

Why not in this crazy world where Duke Weaselton could actually win?

The small mammal slowly looked down at his little feet on the freshly done flooring. He gave a weak chuckle as he felt almost lovingly crushed under the sheer absurdity of his new life.

"G'night, boss."