Thomas took the key, then walked over to the elevator and hit the "up" button. He folded his arms across his chest and looked down at the floor. After a few moments of staring, Thomas began drumming his fingers against his arms impatiently. He thought on the manager's words, which caused him to revisit the reason he became a cop. Thomas remembered his childhood, which consisted of moving from foster home to foster home every few months. He must have been enrolled in at least twenty-six different schools growing up, all of them in different parts of the continent. The elevator chimed and Thomas stepped in, quickly hitting the button with the number six on it and watched as the doors slid shut. Thomas continued thinking about his childhood, but what he remembered in particular was two weeks after he had turned sixteen. Thomas remembered sitting at the park with his friends, smoking pot and trying to look more bad ass than he really was. He even remembered what he was wearing, a denim jacket with patches for popular bands sewn in it, baggy jeans with a hole in the back so his tail could come through, and converse all-stars with the toe section ripped off, revealing the dull claws on the ends of his toes. That day was important to Thomas, because that was the day he finally met his mother.<br/><br/>The bell on the elevator chimed as the doors slid open. Thomas exited and looked for a good room. He decided it'd be best to have a room by the fire escape, so he walked down the hall and began looking for it. After searching the floor for a good ten minutes, he finally found it. He knocked on one of the doors, and upon not receiving an answer he opened it and walked in. He quickly turned on the lights and locked the door behind him, then tossed the key on the bed. He removed his shield, gun, and extra clips and tossed those beside the key. He walked over to the edge of the bed and sat down on it.<br/><br/>Thomas began thinking about that day again. He remembered everything as though it were yesterday...<br/><br/>"'Ey! Don't fuckin' burn through the whole Goddamn thing, you greedy fuck!" Thomas shouted at one of his friends who was taking huge hits off the blunt they were smoking. The part of the park they were in was secluded, cops didn't go there. The guy with the blunt had baby blue eyes, blonde hair, and was quite attractive, his name was Leif. Two other guys were there, a small, thin black guy named Antoine and a red haired guy. This guy's name escaped Thomas because nobody really used his name, they simply called him Ginge. "Fuck yourself, Zyntur!" Leif retorted with a laugh, "After all, nobody else has standards that low!" Leif passed the blunt the Ginge who began hitting it like it was going out of style. Thomas looked to his left and saw a female anthro wolf with snowy white fur looking at him. She didn't seem afraid, nor did she seem angry, but there was definitely something on her face that Thomas read. Thomas stared back at her for a few seconds before shouting, "The fuck is your problem?! You gonna call the cops on us or something, you stupid bitch?" Everyone was looking at her now, everyone but Ginge, who was so paranoid about her he threw the blunt in the bushes. "You fuckin' retard!" Antoine said after smacking him, "Go get it, this cunt ain't doin' nothin'!"<br/><br/>The woman looked at Thomas, despite the rude comments everyone was making, and Thomas finally understood what was on her face. It was love, but it was mixed with pain. Thomas stood up and said to the others, "I'm gonna go see what she wants, maybe I can straighten this weirdo out." Thomas walked off the pavement and onto the grass, getting nearer and nearer where she was standing. He was about ten feet away when she suddenly began backing away from him. Thomas stopped, and said impatiently, "Are you fuckin' retarded, lady? I ain't gonna hurt you, I just want to know why you keep staring at me like that." The woman looked down, whimpering quietly. "You look so much like him..." she said quietly. Thomas cocked his head to the side, then said, "Who the unholy fuck is 'him'? I ain't lived your life for you, contrary to popular belief, I don't know who 'him' is!"<br/><br/>The woman looked back at him, then said with a sad smile, "Is your name... Thomas?" Thomas looked at her, not quiet knowing what to say. He quickly looked back at his friends, they weren't paying attention to him. He turned back and said quietly, "So what if it is? I bet there are a lot of Thomas's in this city. You work for the city or somethin'? You gonna send me to a new foster home because I'm smoking?" The woman shook her head, then said, "That's not it, I just wanted to know because... Thomas... I named my son Thomas." Thomas shook his head, then asked, "So where is he? Why ain't he here?"<br/><br/>The woman stared at him for a few seconds before answering with, "I'm looking right at him."<br/><br/>He didn't know what to say, this seemed like such an outlandish concept to him. Out of all the people in all the cities in all of UniCrix, what were the odds he'd meet his mother in a drab little park in downtown Liban city. "Yeah right lady." He said with a laugh, "I would tell you to get help, but you're probably beyond any help this planet has to offer!" The woman looked at Thomas, then said, "Your name is Thomas Zyntur. My name is Harriet Zyntur, you are my son." Thomas had no idea what to say. How could she know his last name? The only way she could know his last name was if she worked for the foster care system or she really was his mother. After all, Zyntur wasn't exactly the most common name there was, it would have been almost impossible for her to simply guess it. "I... I don't believe you..." Thomas said quietly, "If you are my mother, then tell me what day I was born. After all, a mother would know the date of her child's birth."<br/><br/>Harriet's smile turned a frown. She said, "December twelfth."<br/><br/>Thomas's jaw dropped. He had so many questions, and he said the first one that came to mind. "Why didn't you keep me?" He asked, confusion in his voice, "Didn't you love me? Why did just give me away to the foster care system, I'm your son aren't I?" Harriet's eyes watered, but she looked as though she had expected this day to occur. "I..." she choked, "I couldn't look at you... I loved you, but... I j-just couldn't look at you..." Thomas looked perplexed. "Why couldn't you look at your own son?!" He shouted.<br/><br/>Harriet began crying as she said, "Because every time I saw you I saw him!" That's when it all became clear to Thomas, why she didn't keep him. He knew why most of his fur was black, and why she said what she did when he first talked to her. This was his mother, and the reason she gave him away was because she was a rape victim...<br/><br/>Thomas came back to reality, and he found he was rubbing the back of his head. Thomas looked around the hotel room and noticed the basket full of sandwiches. He pulled out his wallet and saw he had about two hundred and twenty dollars, so he decided to take one. He checked the label on it and saw it was six dollars. "Six bucks for this tiny thing?" he complained aloud, "That's highway robbery, but what can I do when the world has gone to heck in a handbasket?" Thomas pulled six dollars out of his wallet and set it on the counter. He sat in an armchair by the window, unwrapped the sandwich, and began eating it.