The Secret of Tayburn Zoo: 7

A/N: Fun fact, I didn't realise that copy/pasting takes away any italics in the original document, so there's probably been a bunch missing up to this point xD

Retcons: The sentimental moment between Chip and Patrick from two chapters ago didn't happen. I couldn't find a way to make that make sense, though I did figure out that the reason he agreed to watch the children was because he wants to be on better terms with his daughter. That means that this sentimental scene is nowhere near as repetitive as it probably feels.

Concerns: I am so sorry about how implausible the thing the animals have done for Patrick is. I am fairly sure it would have caused a cave-in. I was just, kind of in a writing frenzy at the time. Any suggestions for something smaller that could have been done for him would be greatly welcome.

Hope you enjoy finally meeting Aurora!

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The panda's name turned out to be Aurora, and she did not in fact do tricks. After a week of 'preparation', Patrick had had nothing left to say to the public, who would be expecting at least basic pet dog commands by this point. So, with streams of visitors passing by along the path behind him, he was sitting cross-legged in front of the panda, the short grass brushing his bare knees because it was far too hot not to wear shorts to work, no matter how unprofessional his Neuromax self would have considered it.

There was a rattling behind him. He turned round to look up the slop at the fence, which a tall, gangly child with short black hair was pressed right up against. The child watched him, eyes barely blinking.

"Hi there!" he called. "Can I interest you in some airball? The tropical bird enclosure is just off to the left there!"

But the child said nothing, and just kept watching him. Luckily, without much of a show to present as of yet, not much of a crowd had developed. But even one spectator was causing nerves to bubble around in his stomach.

He sighed and turned back to Aurora.

"Paw?" he begged.

But Aurora just kept pawing around the grass.

Patrick felt the sudden urge to reach for his phone, but who could he possibly talk to? Scott and Holly were both far too young to be burdened with their old grandpa's problems. He and Helen had been operating on a strict policy of avoiding the subject of the zoo, and recently it had been working well. And none of his other friends were bipedal. Well, some of them were, but they had wings.

And so he sat there, running through in his mind the memory of the day Aurora was brought in and settled down by her previous owners. They'd remarked that the space was nice and open, and seemed happily surprised that she wouldn't be the main attraction at the zoo. They'd given him file after file of information - well, e-mailed - as if he were about to babysit a newborn child.

This memory was becoming worn out, and he wasn't even sure he was remembering it properly. But he probed as far as he could into the depths of his visual recollection for something, anything that could be used as the basis for her act. By the time the zoo closed for the night, he still had nothing.

Patrick and the Neuromax interns ushered everyone out as normal, Patrick smiling as widely as he could manage. A couple of kids even asked about Aurora, but he had nothing to say other than a promise of big things to come, which of course was all lies. It burned his heart to lie to kids. With his eyes to the ground, he stumbled around the paths, navigating his way by memory through the zoo, back towards the panda enclosure.

He had no idea how long he sat there for. It wasn't long after the summer solstice so the sun stayed high in the sky for hours, though the temperature did cool rather dramatically. He was just starting to rub his legs to keep the blood moving nice and fast when his phone buzzed.

A text from Chip read, The others have asked me as the resident opposable thumbs expert to ask if you're thinking about actually coming down tonight. You okay?

He replied, I don't want to face everyone... not yet.

There was no message for a long while, during which time Patrick went back to staring at Aurora. He'd followed her up to near the hut he'd insisted on the construction crew building. The idea was that each enclosure had a hut for keeping performance equipment in, and that the panda's might as well have been installed from the start. Patrick chuckled at the memory, back when he'd dreamt of a panda who could dance, or even master basic sign language.

Another text buzz jolted him out of his sad contemplation.

Well, how about just me?

A knocking sound came from inside the hut. Patrick pushed himself to his feet and crept over, unsure why exactly he was trying to be quiet. There were goosebumps on his legs, and not just because the sun was actually starting to set now. He ducked in through the hut's arched entry, and knelt down in front of a trapdoor.

In a split second Patrick's stomach fell away. His mind started to race away with the thought that the workers must have checked out the other huts for specifications, found the trapdoor, duplicated it. They must have gone downstairs.

But it was in fact only a split second. With Patrick's next thudding heartbeat the trap door flew open and out popped the head of a scrawny little capuchin.

Chip grinned. "Guess what we've been working on all week."

It was spectacular. Patrick gaped like an idiot the whole way as Chip led him down the shiny steel ladder. The tunnel was narrow, and his broad shoulders only just fitted through, but as he patted the sides he discovered a thin layer of plastic coating the walls.

"We know it won't hold up forever," Chip said as they reached the bottom, "But we weren't sure how to work with metal."

The tunnel opened up into a broad, dark chamber with ragged wooden support beams criss-crossing the walls and ceilings. Patrick could barely see anything, but as he crouched down to Chip's eyes light from somewhere - a crack in the trap door hinge, maybe under the bottom of a door he hadn't spotted - glinted on the whites. They glistened with a thin layer of moisture.

"Thank you, Chip," Patrick said, "You've saved me a lot of work."

Chip shook his head. "It's not just that! We just, we want you to know that we're alright with Aurora. We don't need her to be kept away from us."

Patrick smiled, and swallowed a lump in his own throat. "I haven't been... keeping her from you. Not like that. I've been keeping her away from the visitors. It honestly hadn’t even occurred to me that you might want to meet her."

"Is that why haven't you brought her downstairs?" Chip asked.

Patrick shrugged. "I don't know. I guess she can't exactly spill the secret. But what would be the point? She can't exactly join in the video games. She can't even talk!"

Chip stretched a front paw up and placed it lightly on his shoulder. "You have to remember, we're not human, as much as it might seem like we are sometimes. For most of our lives, we didn't talk either. We had other ways of communicating. We couldn't write sonnets, but we had... bonds. We would like to meet Aurora."

Patrick's knees gave way and he toppled back into a sitting position, resting his back against the ladder.

"You're going to need a wider trapdoor, buddy," he said.

Chip grinned and wrapped his arms around Patrick, squeezing him tight.

"We have a place we're going to put the door," Chip explained as he pulled away. He pointed behind him into the darkness, towards a spot at the other side of the chamber. Then he chuckled. "We just haven't figured out where to get a door without you noticing. Oh also, Dexi needs a new trapdoor for her hut."

"Ah," Patrick said, "the real reason you're choosing now to tell me."

Chip's eyes widened in panic, but then he nodded and said, "Sorry, thought you were mad for a second. No, I choose now because we just finished. We've been waiting until we finished so you wouldn't tell us to stop."

Patrick ran his hand through his greying hair. "Oh, man, Chip. I probably would have, as well. You know, just so the ground doesn't cave in under you. How did you even do this?"

Chip gulped and pretended to tug at a collar. "Well, that's kind of a long story. Want to go back up and chat?"

Patrick nodded and the two of them clambered back up the ladder. Well, Patrick's ageing bones clambered - Chip went first and had scampered to the top before Patrick was even finished getting to his feet. He slumped against the hard wall of the hut and waited for his breath to stop coming out in gasps.

Chip was terrified, Patrick could tell from the eyes. He thought for a moment about the hell he’d gone through he'd had the night after Scott and Holly had visited. The image of that first monkey beginning to hold his gaze was still so vivid. That concern, that tenderness. Chip hadn't changed a bit. He would never have guessed then that the same monkey would one day be looking at him as if he was so old he was about to crumble to dust on the spot.

"So, Chip," he urged, "How in the world did you pull this off?"

Chip's eyes lost their worry, and a grin slowly spread across his face. "Well, you have mostly Gerry, the toucan, to thank. It was his idea to get all the birds to carry those spades into Aurora's place. Course, we all helped to sneak them out the toolshed during the day, but the plan was born with the birds. Anyway, obviously the birds couldn't dig with the spades- Oh, hi Aurora."

With soft, padding steps, Aurora seemed to have followed the sounds of their voices and curled up just outside the hut. Chip waved at Patrick to come round to his side and squeeze up, then gestured to Aurora to come in. To Patrick's amazement, she immediately knew what he meant and wriggled into the space, which had really not been designed to fit more than herself.

"Hey, Chip, now that your construction work's done, do you fancy seeing if you can convince Aurora to roll over on command?" Patrick grinned at Chip, who glanced at the ground.

"I'm not sure how I'd feel about- Oh, you were kidding again." Chip sighed. "Well, anyway, obviously Gerry couldn't dig with that massive beak and those tiny feet, and wings weren't going to be any help. So I got on his back and then he carried me here, and some of the other bigger birds brought the rest of the monkeys. We've been digging all week."

Patrick gasped and nearly accidentally kicked Aurora. "But I've been out here with Aurora every day? How have I not noticed?"

Chip shrugged. "We did it at night, after you went to bed."

Patrick's eyebrows shot up. "Wow. For what it's worth, your acts have not looked like you lacked sleep."

Chip grinned. "Well, that's 'cause we're professionals. Right, Aurora?"

They both looked over at Aurora for a moment, who raised her head to look at Chip. A rumbling sound came from somewhere in her chest. And then, in the quiet of a peaceful zoo, Patrick and Chip heard the single word: "Yes."