Skyhawk

Since Rhapsody was young, she lived on fairytales her father told her. She had dreams of being the princess fox that met the warrior fox and got married to the sounds of fairies singing. Unfortunately for her, all she got was a pimp who couldn't remember her name. Since she had arrived in the Exiles, no thanks to Maxine, she'd mostly stayed as far away from Val as possible. However, in the most recent days, she just couldn't seem to leave him alone. She wasn't falling in love with the panther, ew, gross. She'd rather die than do that. She just felt like something was wrong. Val was, to an extent, the person she trusted the most in the Exiles. Was that trust highly misplaced? Absolutely. No one in their right mind should trust Valentino with anything. They'll probably get screwed over. Though Rhapsody was too innocent and trusting to realize that.
Rhapsody had been in a rare sleep when she was hit by an unexpected pain. Sighing through her nose and rolling over in her terribly uncomfortable nest, the pregnant fox didn't think much of it. It was in the afternoon, just turning into evening. It would be a weird time for babies to be born (or so her mother had always said).
Rhap hadn't even really thought about the fact that she would have to give birth to her foxlettes. She just assumed they would show up one day and boom, foxlettes. Oh, how wrong she was. Rhapsody sat up a bit at the second wave of pain. That strange feeling of something being horribly, terribly wrong came back to her in an instant. But what was wrong?
Pulling her body to her coal colored paws, Rhapsody started in search of Val. She assumed he would know what to do. Or at the very least snap at her for worrying so much. She didn't know why Val gave her so much comfort when Rhapsody hated him so much. Maybe under different circumstances, they could have been friends. Still, even though she hated Val, she'd always care for him. Only because he was the father of her baby foxes.
A soft gasp from Rhapsody bounced off the walls of the prison hallways when a third wave of terrible, horrible pain sent her to the floor. That'd never happened before. Panic rising in her chest, Rhapsody pulled herself to her paws and continued her search for Valentino through a fourth and fifth spark of pain. Her horrible sense of direction took her all around the prison in search of Val's room.
First she'd ended up in Abbi's room, no. And then she'd found her way to a storage closet, wrong. Third stop was a door leading to who knows where, absolutely not. Eventually, Rhapsody stumbled across Val's room. Taking a moment to take in a deep breath, she knocked on the doorframe. "Hi, Val, it's Rhapsody, the one with the baby foxes and I owe you one, that Rhapsody. I need you and I don't know why but something's wrong and I was wondering if you knew what if was or if I'm just crazy?" The little fox squeaked when her legs gave out from under her and she wracked her brain to figure out what was wrong. Was the first patient she was going to end up killing be herself?

By the time Val got around to opening the door (which was probably an annoyingly long time, knowing him), Rhapsody had already had her first tiny, unmoving baby fox. She presented the small scrap to Val and stared at him with utter confusion and concern. She didn't understand. Rhapsody would probably never understand. Death was still a foreign concept to Rhapsody. The fox spent every day thinking that Abbi would come back for her. At the moment, she was wondering why her first baby fox was so stiff and quiet. She swore they were supposed to make noises. "Did I break it?" She asked in a tiny voice, prodding her tiny fox with a gentle black paw.
Perhaps babies were like pancakes and that the first one always came out a little strange. Though the second and third tiny foxes were the same way. They curled up in little balls and just laid there, no matter how much Rhapsody poked at they. Her fourth and fifth made tiny squeaks that made her heart light up brighter than anything else, but those little noises ended as quickly as they came. Were they sleeping? Maybe they were tired. Rhapsody was tired. Her vision was growing more and more fuzzy and weird by the time the sixth and seventh baby foxes came, as still as the first. She wanted to go to sleep. Perhaps if she slept, when she woke up, her foxes would be awake as well. It was a good plan. The smell of blood was overwhelming her until she thought she might be sick as she let her head rest on the floor. Her breath blew gently against Val's paws, petering in and out. She felt like she was slipping. Perhaps if she slipped far enough, someone would catch her. It'd be nice if that someone was Abbi.
Her foxlettes were duds, but the eighth one was special. Rhapsody's head shot up at it's choking cries. She blinked her eyes to try to clear the fog, but nothing worked.
This baby fox had the most white covering her legs, chest and muzzle. There wasn't a speck of sooty black on her. Her tiny pink paws failed weakly in the air. Her tiny mouth opened in little silent cries. This baby fox didn't stop moving, unlike the others. Rhapsody stared at the baby, dumbfounded. Why wasn't this one tired too? Gathering her other babies close to her chest, she looked from them, to the squeaking fox and back again a few times. Her gaze then turned to Val. "I don't get it." She whispered, her big brown eyes filled with tears. "Why aren't these squeaking too? I broke them?" Her voice was weak and broke after every sentence. Rhapsody was barely there. She looked as small and frail as when Valentino had first stumbled across her. She curled up in a tiny ball as pain enveloped her. There was something wrong with these baby foxes, but Rhapsody didn't know how to fix them. She figured she'd at least name them, because maybe they'd come back to life if she did. Absinthe, Xena, Oliander, Valentino, Elowen, Freya. No Absinthes wanted her around. No Xena or Olianders wanted to deal with her. No Valentinos would ever remember her name. No Elowens or Freyas really wanted to put up with her. Her gaze trailed over to the only squeaking fox. Maybe it was a good thing that one was staying with Val. She'd kill it. She killed everything, apparently.

"I broke them, I'm sorry." Rhapsody squeaked, preparing herself for Val's anger. God, what was wrongwith her? She couldn't even have babies right.