Caring and Devoted Hearts

(ooc: July 5th. Only open to Tramp, Annette, and Collette.)

Looking back on what had happened, Collette had begun to question why she had even wanted to join the war in the first place. It all would have been so much easier if she had stayed home with Jim Dear, Darling, and Junior. So far, nothing but tragedy seemed to have waited around every corner for her family. First the trouble with Angel being her half sister, then the falling out between her parents and her mother going off with Cash... it had been enough to leave Collette confused and troubled for quite some time. There had been a brief ray of sunshine when it seemed as though Scamp might have been over Angel, but then he had died and things began to fall apart again. Their mother had been the next to die, and then Angel seemed to have disappeared. All Collette was left to grapple with was the idea that their family would never be the same again. What bothered her about that was the fact that their humans didn't even seem interested enough to come looking for them. What was left for them?

As Collette slowly walked toward the center of camp, her thoughts drifted to the family she had left. There was still Tramp and Annette. She'd promised herself that she would stay for Annette's sake, but what about her father? ...What about him? Where had he even been in recent days, anyway? "Does no one care about whether or not we stay together anymore?" Collette wondered out loud. It was a rare moment of weakness for the eldest cocker sister. She didn't like showing that side of herself, especially after she had resolved to stay strong for Annette's sake, but there it was out in the open. At length, Collette allowed herself to sit down and stare at her paws. What was even happening to their family anymore?

The former street hound walked through the camp. He had been taking a break from fighting in the war. It mostly consisted of staying in his tent for most of the day, then taking a quiet stroll at night...Maybe he was getting old...

The mess that his family was in had caused him to get depression, which was understandable, and the main reason he had decided to take a break in the first place. It was truly heartbreaking. He wished none of them had joined the war. His family was happy and peaceful, but thanks to the war, Lady left Tramp and fell in love with Cash, Scamp was dead, Angel was truly and utterly broken, and Danielle was fighting against them. The only "safe" members were his two daughters, Annette and Collette, but he hadn't seen them in a while, which was worrying him......If something had happened to them...

Suddenly, he spotted Collette, sitting in the center of the camp. Even though he wasn't showing it on the outside, he was overjoyed and felt more relaxed on the inside. He walked over to his daughter, and sat down next to her. "Hey Collete." He said with a warm, fatherly smile. "How are you doing?" The answer was probably obvious, after everything that had happened, but maybe something good had happened to her recentley....He hoped something good had happened anyway. It would have been a nice change.

(OOC:I don't think Tramp was present at Lady's death, so he doesn't know yet.)

(ooc: You're right, he wasn't there for Lady's death and Annette and Collette haven't mentioned it to him yet.)

Collette wasn't going to say that she wasn't happy Tramp was there. It had been far too long since she had even been in his presence. His question caused her to look up from her paws and offer a slight shrug in response. With everything that had happened, how were any of them doing right then? She wasn't miserable. She wasn't necessarily happy either, though. Collette was just kind of... empty. That seemed like the best way to put it. She couldn't put it into words, though. "I'm okay." Collette finally decided to say. She was as okay as she could have been with all that had happened, at any rate.

For a few moments, Collette remained silent. She couldn't really think of much to say in the terms of small talk, and she was at a bit of a loss of what to even talk about with Tramp. It wouldn't have been like that before. Back home, they would have been able to talk about anything. Now... it just felt odd. Collette felt even stranger because she had taken Lady's side in the whole affair involving her and Cash. What could she even hope to say to Tramp after that? He didn't seem to bear any ill will toward her, which was obviously a good thing, but she couldn't help but feel a little guilty about it.

"Dad?" Collette asked at length. She paused again, trying to think of how best to word her question, before finally opening her mouth again. "Why did... any of this have to happen? The war, what happened between you and mom, Scamp..." Collette forced herself to stop when she brought up Scamp. There was no need to bring up her brother's death again. "It just feels like everything's falling apart. I don't know what we're supposed to do anymore." Collette said.

Tramp's expression became quite sad. He wasn't sure how to answer his daughter's question. The truth was, he was wondering that himself. Why did it all happen? Why did their lives suddenly change for the worse? Why did their nice dream-like life suddenly turn into a horrible nightmare? The old dog sighed and looked at his daughter, wishing she didn't have to go through any of this. "Well...Sometimes a dog's life can change...For better, or for worse." Tramp finally replied, with a hint of sadness showing in the last part. He sighed again, but this time the sigh was a bit longer than the last. "What happened with me and your mother was my fault....But what happened to everyone else...Was this war's fault....." He could feel tears forming in his eyes, but he managed to hold them in. "But there's nothing we can do about that now...We should move on.." Despite telling his daughter this, he knew he couldn't move on. Scamp's death, and Lady's new love had hit him hard. Very hard...

"Move on, dad? I don't think you quite realise just how much we've lost." In a role-reversal of sorts, this time it was Annette, emerging from the tent she'd been napping in, who held the harsh words for her father. She didn't blame him, had never blamed him, for the aftermath of the incident involving Angel - it was mom who had acted immaturely, she still thought - but his inability to prevent the subsequent deaths and his absence when they had needed him most heaped more than enough blame of their own onto their surviving parent's shoulders.

"Scamp, Mom, and for all we know, Angel too, are dead, and all you can tell us weeks later is to move on? Where were you when we actually needed your comfort the most?" It made her feel guilty, snapping at dad this way, and it certainly wasn't proper or ladylike, but her anger at the former street-dog's absence had been festering within her far too long to even try and address their father calmly.

Tramp looked at his angry daughter with a somewhat shocked expression. He had never heard her say anything so harsh. Her words were heartbreaking....But did he really blame her? Can he honestly blame her for thinking that way at all? As much as he hated to admitt it, Annette was right. He wasn't there when his family, or what remained of it, needed him the most. If he was a better father, if he was there to stop Scamp before he got captured, Scamp would still be alive, and Angel wouldn't have become a broken mess. If he was there to talk some sense into Danielle before she joined villians, the rest of the family wouldn't be seperated from her. The old dog could've prevented all of this, but he didn't. He missed his chance. His chance to take action, like a good father would have taken...

"I'm sorry." Tramp replied. It was all he could say. He wished he could say more. He wished he could explain to them why he wasn't there, but he couldn't, because there was no reason for him to not be there. It was all his fault, and he knew it, and now one of his daughters probably hated him for it. He was about to say something else, but then he suddenly realised....She said her mom was dead...Her mom was Lady....Lady.....The beautiful Spaniel that he loved so much...."No. Not Pidge. She can't be...." Tramp thought to himself. He couldn't believe it. He didn't want to believe it. Maybe that's why he didn't realise Annette had said that at first....His expression turned into a very shocked and worried one. His heart felt like it had been smashed into tiny, broken pieces as it started to sink in. Pidge, his pidge, was dead...Dead, meaning that he would never see her again. Tramp felt like bursting into tears, but he managed to stop himself. He didn't want his daughters to see him like that. "Annette, are you sure your mother's dead?..." Tramp asked. Part of him still couldn't believe it. This nightmare that the war caused felt like it couldn't get any worse, but now it just had. The love of his life was gone...

Annette sighed, all the fight draining out of her as the realisation dawned that this must be the first dad had heard of the older spaniel's death, and she suddenly felt awful. What kind of way was that to find out the the person you loved most in the world was dead, and you hadn't even been told? She'd been so caught up in her own problems that she hadn't even thought... she'd just assumed that dad would have known what had happened, even though she hadn't seen him around for ages.

The blue-collared cocker lowered her head into a submissive posture, large brown eyes full of apology. She was still angry that dad hadn't been around to support them through Scamp's death, of course, but sensing how miserable dad was now, even if he was trying to hide it from them, took most of the edge off her bitterness. "I saw her body myself," she slowly replied, in a small voice. Dad would probably want to know how it had happened, but... he wouldn't like it. Not at all. "She..." Annette took a breath, silently pleading with any deity that might be listening that dad would take this as well as possible, given the circumstances "...died giving birth to Mr Cash's pups."

Tramp smiled slightly after seeing Annette's apologetic eyes. "Hey, don't feel bad. You were right. I haven't been here when I should have been." He gently rubbed the top of her head with his front right paw. As he listened to Annette telling him how Lady died, he took his grey paw away, and his small smile turned into a grim frown. Cash stole Lady from him by taking her as his girl, and now he was partly to blame for her death....The fact that Cash and Tramp were never going to be friends was now set in stone. Lady didn't even die peacefully, because Cash had got her pregnant. Well, If she didn't get pregnant in the first place, she would still be alive. He felt like ripping Cash to shreds after everything he had caused, but the old dog knew that it wasn't the right thing to do. It wouldn't solve anything.

Tramp tried to forget about Cash for a moment. It was for the best. He looked at his two remaining pups. "I promise I'll never abandon you again. If you ever need me, I'll be here." Tramp said, in a soft, fatherly voice.

Annette didn't object as dad's paw caressed the crown of her head. At one time, she might have been none to pleased at the dirt that must have been rubbing into her fur - although she would never have reacted as outraged as she suspected Collette would have - but right now, she was just glad that this little corner of her family, at least, was still holding together, even though the rest had crumbled. Her, Collette and dad all had each other at least, even if half their family (or more, if she counted Angel) had dropped away, one way or another, since the war began.

Well... there was one more family member she had to account for. "Dad... you're not going to be mad at Reba for this, are you?" she asked, voice tight with concern. "Mom's daughter... Danielle blamed her, but it wasn't her fault... not really."

Tramp wasn't sure how to react. Even if this 'Reba' was the cause of Lady's death, he couldn't blame an innocent child, could he? The pup didn't mean to kill her...

Tramp sighed. "No, Annette. I won't be mad at her." Tramp replied, with a tiny, not-so-happy smile. He paused for a moment, then continued to speak. "...Is anyone taking care of her?" Tramp asked. Even if he wasn't a big fan of Reba's father, he was still a bit worried about the pup, since she didn't have a mother anymore. Poor girl...

"Well... Mr Cash is," Annette replied, still sounding tentative. If she'd been in dad's paws - despite that she didn't even have a boyfriend, let alone a mate - the young cocker was sure she'd have been in a force-ten rage by this point, and the fact that dad hadn't got to that point was making the girl nervous, as though she expected him to errupt uncontrollably at any moment. It wouldn't happen; she knew her father well enough to realise that, but having that knowledge didn't make Annette feel much better about the current situation. "I've been trying to help - well, visiting them on occasion - but it's mostly her dad taking care of her." The blue-collared cocker girl gave an awkward shrug, as though not really sure what else she could say, and glanced at Collette in the hopes that her sister would be able add something that would make the situation better.

In truth, Collette really didn't know what to say. She felt rather awkward about the situation at hand, especially knowing that her half-sister was out there somewhere and that she barely knew her, but didn't want her father to feel awkward about it. Cash was out of the picture, at least for Tramp, but at what cost? Their mother was gone. "I'm sorry, dad. We should have told you about this sooner. It was just... hard trying to even know what to say. You'd been so distant lately that I just didn't know how to tell you."