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“Mrr? Mrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!” Jeff stared up at you with big puppy dog eyes, mrr-ing and nudging your leg.
You glanced up from your laptop, where you were working on mission reports. “Hey bud, I’m a little busy right now, what’s up?”
“Mrrrr!” Jeff kept telling you, as he gently grabbed your pant leg in his teeth and tugged lightly. Of course he wanted you to follow him.
“Listen Jeff, I need to finish up these reports by next week. Can you go bother your mom? Or maybe one of your brothers?”
Jeff sighed and sat down defeatedly, continuing to stare at you sadly. You went back to work, doing your best to ignore his silent pleading. Which turned out to be almost impossible. You could feel Jeff’s big sad eyes watching you, leaving you completely unable to focus on your work. Eventually you sat back in your chair and rubbed your eyes, groaning softly. Jeff took this as his cue to jump into your lap. He nuzzled your face with his nose and looked at you hopefully.
“Alright Jeff. You win. I could use a break anyway. What do you want to show me?”
Jeff leapt off your lap with a happy, “mrrr!” and ran out of the room making a beeline for the kitchen. Despite his short legs, Jeff moved surprisingly fast and you had to hustle to catch up with him.
You caught up to Jeff in the kitchen, where you also found your wife making herself a cup of tea.
“What’s up with Jeff?” asked Natasha when she saw you come in. “He’s been at you all day. Does he need something?”
“No idea, but he’s supposed to be showing me now.”
You both turned to look at Jeff. He was sitting at the fridge, staring up at it intently.
“Are you hungry bud? Is that what this was all about?” You asked him.
“Mrrrr.” Jeff shook his head quickly and continued to stare intently up at the fridge.
“Its typically food he’s after.” Natasha remarked. “Interesting.”
You and Natasha stared at the fridge with him. It was cluttered with scraps of paper, artwork, take-out menus, receipts, grocery lists, and an assortment of magnets. Jeff huffed, obviously frustrated you didn't catch on to what he wanted.
You looked over the decorations on your fridge, most of which you were familiar with. And then something new caught your eye. You grabbed the flyler for the zoo and Jeff immediately mrrrrr-ed happily and danced around your feet.
You laughed. “Guess we found what he wanted. Where did this come from?”
“It came in the mail yesterday.” Natasha shrugged. “Figured it could be fun to go at some point, so I just put it up here”
Jeff was now gleefully running circles around the kitchen. You watched him for a moment as she turned back to you. “It seems like someone really wants to visit today. Think we could take a trip?”
You smiled. “Yeah, I don't see why not. Gather up the boys, and let's go.”
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At the zoo, you quickly learned many things. Jonathan, a wolverine, seemed to think he was better than any of the animals in the exhibits, especially the wolves. Poor Jroki almost passed out when you walked by the crocodile enclosure and you had to quickly usher him away. Jeff loved the penguins. Natasha swore he could have spent hours watching them through the glass.
After a few hours of walking around, and a quick snack at the cafe, your little family was checking out the last of the exhibits before going home. You came upon one of the last enclosures and Jroki and Jonathan both stopped to peer in. After realizing it was empty, Jonathan growled in disappointment.
“Sorry Johnny,” Natasha said, patting his head. “Looks like no one is home.”
You leaned in to read the sign on the fence. “It’s supposed to house a wombat. That’s too bad, I wonder what happened to her.”
“Maybe she hasn't been moved in yet.” Natasha turned to the boys, “Alright you three, shall we head home?”
Two pairs of eyes looked back at you.
“Um…Y/N?”
“Yes Nat?”
“Where’s Jeff?”
“You know, that's a great question.”
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Jeff, of course, was off finding his own adventure. Some point after the stop at the cafe, Jeff decided he wanted to go back to see the penguins again. So he did, assuming the rest of you would see him leave and follow along. After watching the penguins for a bit, he turned around and realized he didn't see you. Or Natasha. Or either of his brothers. The realization he was alone struck him and he started to run, desperately trying to find any of you.
After about 10 minutes of no luck, Jeff climbed on top of a park bench to rest and get a better view of his surroundings. As he sat, he heard a rustle from the bushes behind him. Jeff immediately whipped around to find the source of the noise. From the bush came a soft grunting and some more signs of movement. Being the ever curious landshark, Jeff decided to investigate and immediately dove right into the bushes.
Upon landing, Jeff came face to face with……well he wasn't sure what she was. She was around the same size as him. She was covered in soft brown fur and had small ears with a big nose. Whatever she was, she looked scared and lonely. Jeff knew just how he could help her.
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You and Natasha quickly realized Jeff must have decided to look at the penguins again, so you started off in that direction. You were quickly making your way towards the penguins when Jonathan and Jroki suddenly took off running. You and Natasha immediately took off after them, shouting their names. This of course, earned you many weird looks from the other zoo goers.
You caught up to the boys sitting on a bench outside of the cafe, along with Jeff and another small creature. Jeff let out a proud, “Mrrr!” when you walked up, excitedly looking between you and the animal sitting next to him.
You groaned softly. “Oh boy, here we go again. What is it this time? A capybara?”
Natasha frowned and shook her head. “No, not a capybara. I’m pretty sure she’s a wombat. She’s probably the one from that empty enclosure.”
“She must have escaped.” You said, “should we grab a zookeeper so they can put her back?”
Jeff mrrr-ed sadly and frowned at you, while leaning closer to the wombat. The wombat leaned into Jeff and closed her eyes, grunting happily.
“Y/N…we can’t make her go back.”
You turned to Natasha incredulously, “I’m sorry what?”
“I mean think about it. It’s got to be really lonely spending your whole life in a cage. We could give her a home. Like we did for the boys.”
“Natasha, I get it. But we can’t just steal her from the zoo.”
She raised an eyebrow at you. “Why not?”
You chuckled softly and shook your head. “Okay, okay, you’re right. Why not? We’ll take her home.”
“MMRRRRR!!!” Jeff jumped up and down and celebrated with his brothers and the wombat. Natasha hugged you tight and kissed your cheek. “Thank you Y/N. Let’s get her out of here.”
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Back at the compound, you and Natasha sat on the couch watching your boys and the wombat play together.
“Well, we got her home. Now what?” You said. “We already have the three boys. Are we able to keep the wombat too? We are both pretty busy people, and already have our hands full with the others.”
Natasha sighed. “I know what you mean. It would really be a lot. But we couldn't have left her there.”
“No, of course not.” You thought for a moment. “Even if it's not with us, we could still give her a nice home. Maybe give her to Wanda? I’m sure her twins would love a friend.”
Natasha nodded. “That's a really good idea. Wanda has talked about wanting to get the boys a pet. And that way Jeff and the rest could still visit her regularly.”
“Okay then, we’ll offer her to Wanda. But we also can't just keep referring to her as ‘the wombat’. She needs a name too.”
“You’re right. We’ll need to stick to the J theme.” agreed Natasha. “Any ideas?”
“Jessica?”
“Hmm no. Jennifer?”
“I’m not feeling it. How about Jill?”
Natasha smiled. “Jill. I like it.”
You leaned against Natasha’s shoulder. “You know, we're turning into quite the animal rescuers.”
She shook her head. “Not us, it's all Jeff. We might have found him, but he found Jonathan, Jroki, and now Jill.
You smiled. “We’re raising quite the landshark, huh?”
Natasha laughed. “Definitely. I wonder what adventure he’ll get himself into next.”