DAMAGE CONTROL Written by & copyright of Foxonian Foxonian@aol.com Featuring Cassie and Foxonian (Cassie's fiance') Cassie, the Rock & Roll Vixen http://www.cassietherockvixen.furtopia.org Please read the prequil, "Golden Repast," Featuring Rachel (Cassie's keyboardist), Dominic (Rachel's fiance) and Wu (Old friend of Dominic) at http://www.cassietherockvixen.furtopia.org/at_first_glance.txt Please read the sequil, "Money Talks," Featuring Lucy (Cassie's nemesis) at http://www.cassietherockvixen.furtopia.org/money_talks.txt All characters created by & copyright of Earl Bacon except Laretta, who is created by and copyright of Andre' Cotton, Alex, who is created by and copyright of Donna Fritz, Vixina, who is created by and copyright of Cloudchaser Shaconage and Victor, who is copyright himself. Foxonian stared out at the tall red fox vixen furry-morph working steadily in her garden. She wore a light blue one-piece mini-sundress, a wide brimmed tan straw hat with two ear holes cut in the brim pearched on top of her foxlike head. The long black strands of human like head hair held back into a single stream with a light blue bow. Around her neck was a black neck choker, with a centered oval blue gem. On her human like hands, she sported light green cloth garden gloves. Though her human like black furred feet were bare, a pair of "flip-flop" type sandals waited at the garden’s edge for their owner to finish. As he watched Cassie weeding her marigolds and snapdragons, the human stared down at the letter from his publisher. "Another re-write" the human thought to himself. He didn’t lke having to shorten his work or change paragraphs, for an editor’s fancy. Still, he knew that an order be a successful author in the big time,you had to play the game. No matter how much he hated it. At least his first book had gotten some critical reviews in the literary trade, so that was something. However, he was concerned about another thing. His upcoming marrage. Cassie was home now at their Berkshire Ma. hilltop retreat. Her tour with Cassie’s Band ending early, so the wedding plans could be implmented. Foxonian had been fitted for his tux. He had heard the Cloudchaser, a wolf morph furry and Vixina’s boyfriend, was getting fitted for his next week." Good thing, since he’s my Best Man." the human thought. He appreciated the friendship he had with the red wolf. No matter how bad things got, he could usually count on Cloudchaser to have good advice. The rest of his side of the wedding party consisted of Andy, the wolf-morph manager of Cassie’s band, along with Dominic the Collie morph boyfriend of Rachel, Rafe, the bobcat cop and boyfriend of Alex the band’s drummer, Ben, the small mouse who was Laretta’s current boyfriend (who was getting a special tux due to his small size) and Slim the otter morph who served as the wizard of all things techical. Slim had wanted his entire road crew in the party, but as much as Cassie and Foxonian sympathised, they had to set limits due to the size of the church among other things. That brought up another point. Until recently, Foxonian and Cassie were going to get married in a civil cermony, due to the Catholic church not recognizing inter-species marrage. However, the current Pope apparently had a change of heart(mainly due to the growing number of furry-morph Catholics and Clergy) for in his recent Papal Bull, he declaired that interspecies marrage was now permissible. Cassie quickly arranged to have her family priest, Father Michael, a Jesuit and a lion-furry morph, one of the first so ordained, to perform the ceremony. "Hey, Hon! Think you could bring me another bag of bark mulch? These plants need a little more." Cassie called from the back yard. The human had to admire his betrothed. A world famous furry metal goddess, loved by a lot of people, still spent her free time at home tending her garden. "Here you go, Love. Anything else you need?" the human asked as he put the bag of bark mulch next to the kneeling vixen. "Yes. But I have to finish this garden first," the rock vixen said as she reached up to lick her lover on the cheek. As Foxonian turned to leave, Cassie stood up and walked over to him. "What's wrong, Hon? Is it our wedding that has you frustrated? C'mon. Talk to me. You always could before," the rock vixen asked. Foxonian turned and faced the vixen. He looked down and with his right hand, stroked the right side of her head. He then said "You are the most beautiful woman I have ever known. I really don't know what would happen if I ever lost you. I don't ever want to lose you, Cass. I just couldn't go on." "What are you talking about, Hon? Is it all those vague warnings that Dominic and Shiva keep telling us? Is it all the hate mail you and I have been getting since our engagement made the tabloid press? What is it that has you so troubled?" Cassie said in a caring tone of voice. "You don't know, do you? Well, I was going to try to handle this myself and spare you, but I suppose you should be aware." The human then went back into the converted ski lodge Cassie and Foxonian called home. As the Rock Vixen waited, the human returned with a long tan envelope. Silently, he opened it and handed Cassie the contents. Three large color pictures showing Cassie and her snowleopard bassist and best friend Cindy engaged in activities that would suggest the two were more than overly fond of one another. "OH MY GOD!!! I JUST CAN'T BELIEVE THIS!!!" Cassie cried, then throwing her arms around Foxonian she began to cry, "I-Im so sorry, Love! It's not what you think!! Cindy and I were just fooling around!! It was a joke, honest!! Please don't be mad!! I love you! Cindy and I-I ..." the rock vixen then began to sob into the chest of her lover. "Shhh, shh. I know you and Cindy well enough to know about your hijinks. Besides, even if you were that close and you still loved me, it wouldn't matter. Don't worry, I still love you and I'm going to marry you next month, regardless of the flap over all this, 'kay?" "*sniff* You do?? I really messed up big time. I thought you would be furious at me, since I should have known better," Cassie asked. Foxonian turned his head and gave his lover a kiss on her trembling muzzle. He then said, "Yes. You should have known better. You realise the powderkeg we are sitting on here? It will take a LOT of PR to get this under control. Listen to this," Foxonian then began to read the letter, "Hey Foxonian! Remember me? Used to play with Cassie in Furrosity. You know, her old drummer from Furrosity? Anyway, my name is Lucy and I just wanted to send my congraulations over your upcoming wedding. Guess I wasn't invited, since I only heard about it a month ago. Well, I thought I would show you just how "faithful" your future bride will be. Hope you don't mind "3-somes," since you will be getting a 2 for one deal this time. Lucky stud! Tell Cassie that payback is a bitch and that by the time she sees these wonderful pictures, they will be in every tabloid across the globe! Unless you fire that little white fox bitch, then I might withhold them. I'll wait a week or two until I hear from you. Have a nice day!! Lucy." "That dirty little .. what are we going to do?" Cassie said as she re-read the letter. "Well, for one thing. You have to call Cindy and tell her. I'll talk to Victor and fill him in. Then we have to contact Shiva and set up a meeting of the security team." Foxonian said with his arm lovingly around the rock vixen. "I do know one thing, we can't hire Lucy. I don't like working with people who think they can use blackmail on me whenever they feel like it" Cassie said in a firm tone of voice. "Agreed. Besides,for all we know she may have already sent them to the smear mongers and is just toying with us. I'll talk to Andy tonight to see if anything has broken out about all this. Until then, mum's the word on this." Foxonian then looked into Cassie's blue-cat like eyes and said, "When you talk to Cindy, lay it down with her firm. That's it for the practical jokes. Unless you guys want to end up working in a music store in a year or two." "Don't worry. I will let her know. Thanks for being the best future husband I could ever have. I love you!" Cassie then gave Foxonian a big hug and handed the photos back to him. "Don't worry, Love. We will ride this speed bump out. Besides.." Foxonian then looked at the pictures once more,"you guys really look great in these picks!" "Pervert!" Cassie replied with a giggle as she threw some bark mulch at ther lover. "Only with you, My Dear! Don't worry. If you want them destroyed, then I will make sure we get all the negitives," the human said as he wiped the bits of bark mulch off his shoulders. "Well, I'll talk to Cindy about it. If we get this whole thing settled and those picks aren't made public, then we might let you and Vic have some copies." Cassie replied. Foxonian then went over and kissed the rock vixen again and said "That's very sweet of you, Love. But I really think that,despite my own desires, all these picks should be destroyed. Not only is yours and Cindy's carrers at stake, but you have to think of Laretta, Alex, Rachel and Vixina. Ever hear of being tarred with the same brush?" Cassie closed her eyes and slowly nodded. Just then the sky began to darken and rain drops began to fall. "C'om on, Love. Let's get this show on the road. Okay?" Foxonian asked as he took the rock vixen's gloved hand and began to lead her back to the lodge. "Yeah. Looks like more than one storm has started." Cassie replied as she took the human's hand and started to walk tword the lodge. THE END