A/N

The main story continues. And the chapter title has two meanings. XD Enjoy!

A Twinsane Wedding

Chapter 17 Having "Good" Help

Coco was on pins and needles for the remaining duration of the day. Since she had been home, following her collaboration scheme with the N Team, the bandicoots stomach was in knots and lined with the feeling of guilt. At some points, Coco thought she was going to vomit.

Luckily for her however, she was good at steeling her nerves. Once Coco was focused on something, she was really focused, she wouldn't let anything slip. She was also relieved (and lucky) that neither one of her brothers or Aku Aku had bothered to question her further about where she had been.

After re-changing back into her loose, yellow mechanical work pants that had patches sewn onto them, Coco headed back into the garage. She figured that maybe a little tinkering on the blue Team Bandicoot kart would help her clear her head a little bit. Since Coco had retired to the garage earlier in the day to get her mind off of a certain evil scientist, she could only figure that she could get into a relaxation state again if she went back to finishing what had already been started. Both Coco and Crunch didn't like doing things half or even three quarters of the way. No matter how long it took, they wanted to get everything completely done. And done right.

The statement that Aku Aku had mentioned about distractions being good, couldn't be any more true in this case. It was nice to see that Coco was trying not to stress and that she was biding her time carefully and accomplishing things that needed to get done. It was better than making rants and threats and getting herself all worked up. She had been meaning to check on all the familys race karts and get everything back into tip top shape for quite a while now.

After popping the hood open and propping it up so it wouldn't fall, Coco then placed the key in the ignition and started the vehicle. After doing so, the young girl trained her emerald eyes on the engine while she also cupped a hand to her free ear that didn't house the small piece of N Team spy technology. Listening very carefully, her well trained ear didn't detect anything funny or out of the ordinary. Gears clicked and turned inside the engine block, oil was gently flowing. Everything sounded good so far. "Transmission sounds good, no oil leakage, no corroded pipes or cylinders. Alright, that's done, didn't take as long as I anticipated. Yay!" Feeling accomplished, she gently put the hood back down before hanging up her work clothes for the day. Closing the lid of her red toolbox, Coco picked it up and set it back on the shelf. 'Guess I didn't need that after all.'

Coco then waltzed back, turned the ignition off and slipped the key back into her pocket of her regular overalls. Her nose then wrinkled in disgust slightly at the smell of exhaust fumes creeping out from the tailpipes. Scurrying over to a window, Coco opened it up, letting the warm island breeze permeate the garage and draw the stench out. She covered her mouth to contain a cough, the brainiac bandicoot really wished she had worn a mask. Strolling outside, Coco took a deep breath of the refreshing, non polluted air. It was nice and welcoming. Gazing up at the bright sun that beamed brightly overhead, a smile spread across her face. 'What a lovely day.' Her right hand trailed down the side of her overalls and felt the flashdrive inside her right hand pocket. 'Our karts are all fixed, the family's all good for right now, so I guess I'll analyze the rest of that playlist, since I've got time to kill. See if the rest of the songs revolve around love, since I did tell the N Team I'd find time to do that.'

Heading back through the garage, Coco made her way down the hall to her room. When she entered, the brainy marsupial sat down on the edge of her bed and grasped her laptop, before reaching over to a drawer in her nightstand to retrieve her own set of headphones. She opened the compartment, pulled out what she was looking for and closed it back up. Fluffing the pillow behind her head, Coco got herself situated and placed her computer on her lap. She had quite a few ballad love songs left. "Ok, let's analyze the rest of this 'not so secret playlist' and see what Cortex has compiled..."

Inserting the drive and the headphones, Coco clicked on autoplay and sat back. She started with where she had left off, which was only about five songs in out of twenty one in total, so she decided to resume it from there. Not ten seconds in, the bandicoot found it hard to hear the lyrics, she soon discovered why: After listening to the kart engine mere centimeters from her ear, Coco's ears were ringing. Her left one was buzzing slightly more than her right. She removed the communicator from her right and placed it in her opposite ear so that she could get a good listen, practically straining herself as she made her way through. "N Gin and Tropy weren't lying when they said this was not what I would expect from Cortex. Can't believe I trusted them and am going to help them."

Coco never imagined that she would ever hear the words "Cortex" and "in love" in the same sentence, much less use them herself. And she was one of only three people who had recently uttered those words. The others being N Brio and Uka Uka.

A knock soon came on her bedroom door, which slightly startled her. It made her cover her mouth out of fear. She hoped that whoever was out there didn't hear that last remark, it would just cause so many questions to arise. "Just a minute." Coco called from the other side. Closing her laptop and shoving the headphones under her pillow so as not to raise any suspicion, Coco gave the ok. "You can come in now."

Neo was frozen in place like a statue, his eyes wide and unblinking as Natalie's hand got closer to him. He was too paralyzed with fear to manage an attempt to try and run from his mother. Then again as Cortex had once said; 'you can't run away from your mistakes.' What good would running do for him now? It would probably only make things worse in the long run and he didn't want to poke the bear anymore than he already had. The last time that Cortex was this afraid was back in his academy days and Madem Amberly's was where he had to go next.

Nina on the other hand wasn't afraid. The goth girls bionic hands detached from the sockets on her arms and rocketed forward on their spring loaded chains. Nina's thick steel fingers snatched her uncle by his lab coat and pulled him tword her and out of his mothers range of fire, dragging him along the dusty floor. Natalie snapped her finger in frustration before quickly whipping around. However, her anger slowly started to dissipate after seeing Nina do that, while at the same time, she was actually quite impressed.

She still glared at her son however, "You just got lucky." Natalie murmured. It was quite clear that she couldn't care any less about Neo than she already did. Her eyes slighty scanned the room, watching her remaining customers head on out for the day. Some of them, including the Nitro Squad couldn't seem to get out fast enough that they were trying to shove each other through the door before something else arose.

Cortex breathed in a huge sigh as relief flooded his body. "Thanks." He smiled, as he looked up at Nina.

"No problem Uncle Neo. As I was doing that, I got an idea that I think will benefit all of us." She smiled hopefully as she stepped in between Neo and Natalie. Reaching down, Nina helped her relative up and brushed him off.

"An idea?" Neo fell silent for a short moment, he gulped with fear during that pause. "Um, should I be worried?" There was an obvious quiver in his voice as he asked that question.

Nina positioned one of her hands flat and gave an "eh" gesture as she moved her wrist and hand side to side, which clicked slightly with every motion. "That kind of depends on what I'm about to tell you. Just try not to freak out after I suggest it. Think you can do that?" She needed Cortex calm.

The scientist very carefully thought it through. Cortex knew that he could trust his own niece, since Nina didn't judge him when she questioned him about being in love with Crash. "I'll try, I'll hear you out Nina. What do you have in mind?"

Nina clasped her hands together, she was sure that this idea would prove effortless. Just like Aku Aku, Nina didn't like tension and there was a lot of it that had accumulated in the air since they'd been here already. "Well, I think you and your mother should try to work out your issues as well. Since there seems to be some unresolved conflict and tension between you and her as well as you and Coco."

Right as he heard the phrase 'work out your issues', there was only one thought (and name) that popped into Cortex's head. Heaving a long sigh, he took a wild guess, which Cortex could only assume would be the right answer. "Dr. Jacobson?" His niece clicked her teeth. "Let me guess; you want me and my mother to go through a session?" Nodding, the goth girl gestured a thumbs up.

"Why not, Eric is helping you and Crash, so why not have him help you mend your relationship with your mother as well? Think you can give this a try?" Cortex fell silent but managed to nod his head yes. "Family therapy!" Nina said in an excited sing song voice.

As she was doing that, Neo pulled out the card for Dr. Jacobson that Coco had given him. Or rather, he took from Crash's sister because he didn't have a choice in the matter, of him and his worst enemy having to work out their own problems through therapy sessions. Which were actually doing their job. Cortex didn't complain about being back in his office immediately following his first visit.

'Dr. Eric Jacobson

Certified Licensed Family Therapist and Marriage/Couples Counselor

PhD in Psychotherapy

Helping out and healing bonds since 1996'

"Couples counselor?" Neo's eyes widened when he saw those words, along with Psychotherapy. He always assumed all therapists were the same. He never knew there was a difference between them. "Ok, if you really believe that a professional therapist can fix me and my mother, so be it. But can we do it tomorrow? Again I've had enough excitement and drama for one day." Cortex's niece happily shook her head yes, proud of her uncle for being flexible and just a day ago, he was completely stubborn and refused to go through with things.

"Sure, we can sort this all out tomorrow. I'm confident you and Great Aunt Natalie will both benefit from a group therapy session, as well as you and Crash." Nina clasped her hands together, she felt accomplished that her uncle was willing to put up with his mother, even if things were a bit tense between the Cortex family.

However, Natalie was a bit unsure as she looked at the girl, wondering to herself what she was getting into. "Really, you think you and some therapist can "fix" what was broken between and him? Ha, good luck with that." She said as she headed tword the back room to collect her suitcase, stopping briefly along the way. Coming to a halt in front of a time clock, Natalie grasped a time card and stuck it into a slot. A click was heard, signaling that she was clocked out for the day.

Clearly Cortex's mother was also being stubborn. Nina could sense that it ran in the family. Neo's expression changed from relief thanks to Nina saving him, into concern for a family therapy session. However, his concern was leaning more tword his mother rather than himself. It wasn't going to be easy getting her to agree. He watched his mother disappear into the back room, she returned moments later with a fully packed suitcase. "Mother please, just give Dr. Jacobson a chance. He really knows what he's doing. He gets me."

Cocking her head, Natalie pursed her lips together. "Really? He gets you? Well, I guess somebody's got to. The rest of the family didn't." Neo inhaled a shaky breath, he didn't even know if the therapist could get to the root of the problem with his mother. She headed outside tword Cortex's air ship, taking a short pause to set down her bag down briefly, so she could lock the door behind her. She then grasped the rope latter very carefully and climbed up, her disappointment of a son and great niece following behind.

When she was the last to reach the top, Nina aimed downward extending her grappling hands to retrieve Natalie's luggage. She hoisted it up into the dirigible with ease. "You said my hands had a little weight to them but I think your suitcase has a little more." The goth girl joked, lightly chuckling through her teeth as she pulled it in and sat it on the floor. "What's in here anyway?"

"What's in there is all my stuff. I've been living and working here for years. After what he did, I left Neo alone and went off on my own to make my own living. Got a job as a bartender here and after the original owner kicked the bucket, I took over and made this place my own. I think I did an excellent job in giving this place a little makeover, this establishment was a run down shack when I first got here."

Cortex gaped in horror, he was in disbelief that his own mother said that she had left him, when it was the other way around. "Oh, you left me? I headed off on my own because you kicked me out of our fractured family! This is literally the first time you've seen me, aside from hearing my voice earlier." The scientist reminded as he slipped the key into the ignition. The engines roared to life, the propellers began rotating and the airship started off. "And given what Nina persuaded me to do earlier before you proceeded to hit me, you can come live with us. I'll allow it but you're staying in her room however, I don't want you near me."

"Good, I didn't want to be anywhere near you either. I almost can't even look at you right now. And you're not the boss of me. I should've just had Pinstripe kick you out of Moulin Cortex but no. You're lucky I even let you stay." Natalie scoffed before flipping her hair back and taking a seat. The family drama and tension continued to thicken. Taking his eyes off the sky for a moment, Neo flashed Natalie a cold glare, strong enough to peirce through her. His mother didn't flinch however, she held her ground and gave the same expression right back. Two sets of eyes narrowed to little slits. If they were still inside the club and anyone besides them and Nina remained in the room, pretty much everyone would be on the edge of their seats in anticipation, waiting to see what was going to go down next. Either that or people would start complaining.

"You can't even say one nice thing to me!" Neo snapped, his grip tightening on the steering wheel. "I'm confident that Dr. Jacobson can help you and me. Nina's right you know, things do seem estranged between us."

His niece carefully grabbed his shoulders and turned him ninety degrees so Cortex could map out their route to the academy. "Eyes on the sky Uncle Neo, don't want to crash down or anything. We can try to sort some of this out later." It was so hard for Cortex to get a word in edgewise, since Natalie refused to listen to his opinions. There was one thought that ran through the three family members heads however:

Things were probably only going to get worse before tomorrow came. Or earlier than that.

Coco's bedroom door creaked open and there stood Crash with his familiar grin plastered on his face. "Hi big brother, something up?" Emerald eyes noticed one of her brothers hands was hidden behind his back. "Why's your hand behind your back?" Coco could only imagine, Crash did have a tendency of doing things without giving any second thoughts. Reveling his hand, the shorter bandicoot saw that there was a tan, ceramic jar attached to the end Crash's left hand. "What happened?"

Aku Aku appeared from behind Crash and explained their predicament, "You see, Crash was feeling peckish, blame that on his appetite and he kinda got his hand stuck in a jar while trying to retrieve the last cookie. Think you can lend us a hand?" The mask questioned.

Coco hopped off her bed and gazed at the taller marsupial. Crash gripped the neck of the container and started twisting it to try and remove it himself but Coco interjected, as she didn't want him to do anything that might injure him, "Here, come with me big brother,I don't think you'll get it off that way. I'm sure this is a simple fix."

"I told Crash he should've tipped the cookie jar since it was a narrow hole but he was confident he could grasp it and pull it out with ease. Right Crash?" The bandicoot in fingerless gloves sadly nodded his head as he followed his sister, Aku Aku floating behind. "He didn't listen and this was the end result. I didn't even try to stop him. Crunch is outside tending to the garden so we figured it'd be better to ask you. I sometimes find a few of his methods just a little bit unorthodox."

Entering the kitchen, Crash pulled out a chair at the kitchen table and sat down. He extended his arm out, flat and straight on the table top and Coco headed for the fridge to find some sort of liquid/ oily substance to make it easier to free his hand.

After retrieving a stick of butter, the younger bandicoot applied some all around the base of the container and let it sit for a moment. When she thought they were all good to go, Coco gently took hold of each side. "Alright big brother I'm gonna lightly twist this, what I need you to do is very simple; I need you to twist your hand in the opposite direction that the container is going, can you do that for me?" Crash pondered that question for a few seconds, letting it swirl around in his semi empty head. Soon he wordlessly gave a nod of approval, knowing he could trust her. As soon as Coco begun to twist the jar to the right, Crash started going in the opposite direction. After a few gentle twists and turns, a pop was heard as the cookie jar finally came off. "Ok, there we go. You're free now." The girl tilted the jar and the cookie fell out into her hand. "Success." Grabbing a napkin, she cleaned the butter off her and Crash, before giving him his treat. "Here Crash, don't spoil your appetite before dinner now. And next time, ask one of us to assist you." Giving a satisfied smile, Crash grasped the cookie and broke it in two, giving the larger half to his helpful sister. "Is this your way of saying 'thank you'?" He nodded.

"Looks like it." Aku Aku observed. "Nice going Coco."

"Oh you're welcome. Anything to help out the family. Speaking of helping out, Crash when do you and Cortex go back to therapy?" Crash dashed over to the fridge and snatched the calendar off of it. Dashing back, he pointed to the 5th which was yesterday and then counted out seven days from when he and Cortex started, stopping when he got to the 12th. "Ah, a week, ok. Just want to make sure so I don't stress and plot Cortex's revenge for the next five days. Keep me in the loop Aku Aku."

"I'm sure me and Crash can both do that. In that time, try not to work yourself up, you've been doing a good job. Just do things to keep yourself occupied, alright?" Coco gave a hearty thumbs up.

Setting the calendar down, Crash gave Coco a hug and headed off outside to see Crunch. The blonde haired bandicoot watched him stroll out of the kitchen, before scooping up the cookie jar and placing it back on the kitchen counter. 'You are sweet but I wonder what was on the con side of that little list? I'll consult N Gin for that bit. And why would Cortex stalk you for years and complie a secret song playlist? Is he just an obsessed stalker or is he really that in love with you? Or is this all just a trick to catch us when our guard is dropped? I wonder just what group therapy and Brio's serum will bring...?'

A/N

Hi people, things are crazy at work, I've been busy over in Archive of Our Own, that sites really fun by the way and I've been sewing felt plushies with the rest of my spare time. When I'm not at work, been watching Stephen King movies and those are about my only excuses. XD *turns to the person behind the counter* 2 Wumpa Whips please! I need a break!

I thought you dropped off the face of the internet and forgot about me and Crash.

*gets handed 2 cups* Thanks. Yeah right Cortex, me abandon this story? No way! I was just focused on my newest oneshot that was my longest Crash Bandicoot oneshot yet. It's over in the Filler Oneshot series now. And I needed a little rest alright?

Alright. Gotcha. So, regarding your last chapter you were right, a pause for the cause was a good call. *sticks a second straw into the cup*

Thanks, also it sets up some foreshadowing for later on in the story. :)

Reviewers:

Kaaaaaaaah (Formerly Karol2019): Hey! Thank you so much, I appreciate your comments and your support. Love ya too.

Anon? FlautRara? Stephdragoness? Where'd you guys go?!

Oh, they'll show up sooner or later. *slurps on his drink* So... you hyped for the new Crash game?

Uh duh! Of course I am, ever since I saw the trailer. It looks fantastic! I'm not spoiling anything else. This story will keep me busy until then. I already preordered. And I've already got a Crash 4 T Shirt.

Good, how's the rest of the oneshot series coming along?

Really good I've got lots of ideas that I'm slowly chipping away at. I'm surprised I didn't get roasted for the last one. XD I don't think I'll be doing a oneshot like that again for a while. ;) Next time, more Cortex family drama. And possibly the start of another therapy session that I've already got planned out.

Me and my mother in therapy? Ugh, great! Alright, lets head back my Wumpa Whips melting.

Until next time keep smiling!