I DON'T OWN ANYTHING EXCEPT FOR DANNI. THE COUNTRY BEARS BELONGS TO DISNEY, AS DO THE LYRICS TO 'STRAIGHT TO THE HEART OF LOVE'.

AN: this chapter is back in Danni's POV

Chapter 7

Danni's POV

I was in Beary's room, helping him take down his pictures of The Country Bears from his wall. We weren't making much progress, but that might've been because we didn't really want to. I was far too in love with Zeb to really want to, anyway. I left my pictures up, but Beary insisted on taking his down.

"Beary, Danni! Pie!" yelled Dex.

I looked at Beary and said, "You wanna go down?"

He shook his head and said, "Not really in the mood for pie."

I nodded in understanding and we continued taking down the pictures. Then Dex came in and said, "Uh, Beary, Danni? Hey, that Ted guy is here. You want me to kick him out?"

"Ted? Ted Bedderhead…is here?" Beary said. Just then Ted came into the room and said, "Yeah…"

He looked at Dex, who left the room, giving the three of us privacy by closing the door on his way out. Beary quickly hid one of the photos behind his back, not wanting Ted to see.

"You, uh, you left your stuff on the bus…" Ted said.

"You can keep it," Beary said sadly. "I don't want it."

"Um…look, I, uh…." Ted trailed off as he saw all the photos of the Bears on Beary's wall. "…I hope you know how lucky you are. It only took you guys three days to understand something that took me ten years to figure out."

Ted sat down in Beary's computer chair, and we sat in front of him, looking right at him.

"What's that?" I said.

"Mr. Chicken is a girl."

"Wha-?" Beary said. Ted started laughing and then we did too, realizing the joke.

"Really…" Ted said, "I wanted to tell you two, I'm sorry. I was mad. Not at you…and I'm sorry. And that thing you wrote in your journal about us being great when we're together, it's true."

Beary gasped and stood up. "You're gonna do the show?"

"No, we're not doing the show. Not without the both of you."

Beary cheered and I was so happy I actually hugged Ted. He laughed and hugged me back; apparently, he was glad he had gotten us to forgive him.

After we explained the situation to Mom, Dad, and Dexter, Ted led us to the door and he said, "Ya'll coming with me. We can all ride together on the…bus?"

Roadie, holding Ms. Chicken, came running up and said, "The bus was stolen! It was that Thimple fellow!"

"We have to find them! They have to do that show!" Beary said.

"Hey, Beary, that stuff was on the bus, right?" Dex asked.

"Yeah…"

"All your stuff?"

I figured out what Dex was getting at and the three of us ran upstairs and into Beary and Dex's room. Dex jumped over to the laundry basket and rooted through it until he found one of the parts of Beary's tracking device – the part that the rangers used.

"We can track em with this!"

"Yeah!" Beary assented.

"Come on, let's go!" I said.

We ran back outside and attempted to fit all of us into the minivan, but it was not going to happen, especially with Ted. We tried putting him in the passenger seat, the back seat, the trunk…we even tried tying him to the roof of the car.

Dad came running over and said, "Hey, hey, no, no…STOP!"

We stopped what we were doing and Dad said, "I have a better idea."

We finally got going with Mom, Dad, Roadie, Dex, and Beary in the minivan, and me and Ted in the speedboat that was hooked onto the back of the van. The boat tilted a little when Dad turned out of the driveway and Ted said, "Whoa, easy, Captain!"

We drove straight for awhile and then took a right. The boat tilted again and this time, Ted was hanging out of it and I was holding on for dear life. When the boat righted itself, Ted sat down again, saying, "Oh, my kidneys."

We then turned left and again Ted was just barely staying in the boat, only this time, Ted was getting whacked in the face by bushes and stuff. We turned right again and Ted went hanging again, only this time, he yelled, "Watch out!"

He came within an inch of death when a giant eighteen wheeler came around the corner and headed straight for Ted's head. I yanked him back in at the last moment because he was heavy and he let out a puff of breath and said, "Thanks."

"No problem."

We turned into a place and the fence had a sign on it that read: Danger! Open Trench!

"Danger!" Ted yelled.

I spotted the bus up ahead and Dad slammed on the brakes, going into the trench and the boat came unlatched and Ted and I went flying. The boat was literally flying through the air.

It soared right through the window and I covered my face when the glass shattered. We moved along and right ahead of us I could see the rest of the Bears trapped in a large cage. The boat started to slow down and stopped right as the tip of the boat came in contact with the door. But that little touch was enough. The door fell and I hopped out of the boat and said, "Never again! I am never going on a speedboat again! I don't care if it is in the water or not! Never again!"

Ted climbed out after me and said, "I'm with you, Danni."

I noticed that Zeb was up in the air, almost climbing the side of the fencing of the cage. He must have jumped out of the way of the boat.

"That was pretty nifty!" Zeb said, looking at Ted.

Ted looked at him and said, "Thanks."

Henry said, "Why don't we go show Thimple who's boss!"

"Yeah!"

And then Zeb pumped his fist in the air and yelled, "BEAAAAARRRR POWERRRRRR-RRRR…."

He trailed off when he realized he was the only one doing it. I grinned and when he managed to get out of the cage, I ran right over to him and threw my arms around his neck. He stumbled a little, but he wrapped his arms around my waist.

"Are you okay?" I asked him.

"I'm fine! Are you okay? Did the glass cut you?"

"No, I'm good. Oh, I'm so glad you're safe. God, I love you, Zeb. I'm so in love with you."

"I love you, too, Danni."

I leaned back from the embrace and even though I knew everyone was watching us, I didn't care; I kissed him right then and there. He froze for a moment and then relaxed and started kissing me back. It was getting really passionate and then – "Ahem!"

Henry interrupted us.

"Yeah. Let's go!" he said. I grabbed Zeb's paw and we ran after Henry, Ted, Fred, Tennessee, and Trixie. We found Beary, Roadie, Mom, Dad, and Dex and introduced them to everyone. I leaned up to whisper in Zeb's ear, "I'm gonna tell my parents about us."

He nodded and I pulled my parents aside as we walked over to the tour bus.

"Mom, Dad, uh, Zeb and I are…uh, well, we're together."

"What do you mean, 'together'?" Dad asked.

"We're…uh…Daddy, we're in love. I love him and I am so hoping you approve."

"He's nearly as old as me!" Dad exclaimed. "But…if he really loves you, then, I'm okay with it."

"Yes! Thank you, Daddy!"

I ran over to Zeb and grabbed his paw and said, "They approve!"

"Oh, good," Zeb said.

We boarded the bus and Roadie started driving. After a while, Dex started taking pictures. He got one of me and Zeb kissing, even though I held up my paw to block the camera. It was a nice picture though. He got one of him and Beary, one of Mom, Beary, and Trixie, one of Zeb, me, Beary, and Fred, and one of Tennessee, Beary, and Ted. In that one, Ted had his arm around Beary. Then I took Beary's spot and Ted hugged me close and Tennessee put his hand on my shoulder. Dex snapped the picture and I went back over to Zeb, who was tuning his fiddle.

Dex called me over and snapped a picture of me and Beary with Henry. Dex asked Henry to take a picture of me, Beary, Dex, and Dad together. He did and it came out really nice.

It was night by the time we got to Country Bear Hall but we rushed in anyways. Unfortunately, no one was there except for Thimple and Rip Holland. They seemed to be exchanging money.

"Hey! What's going on here?" Henry cried.

Thimple turned to Henry and said, "I'm impressed. Wow, I'm telling you, I am so impressed! I cannot tell you how impressed I am. But, boys, it doesn't matter! The place is dead. Rip, eh, look at him. He never promoted the show!"

"What? Rip!"

"Wow. Uh, hey, guy, long time, looking good. Henry, you working out?"

"RIP!"

"It's not personal, Henry, its just business."

"Business? Business that'll ruin our lives! I can't believe you - !" Ted actually had to hold Henry back from ripping Rip to shreds.

"Hey," Big Al said, "ain't you guys doin' the show tonight?"

"Uh, there ain't gonna be one, Big Al. Nobody showed up," Fred said.

"What are you talking about, Fred?" he asked, flipping on the lights switches. "They's all out in the back field."

"They're what?" Henry asked.

"Didn't want anyone parking on my grass out front," Big Al replied. He opened the doors and….hundreds of people rushed in, all of them cheering and whooping.

Thimple and Rip were carried away by the force of the crowd, Thimple's threats overpowered by the noise of the crowd, which was pouring in from all directions.

Everybody took their seats and Mom and Dad and Dexter went down to the audience. The rest of us went backstage. Big Al came around with the money basket and Henry started counting it. It turned out that we raised the money and Country Bear Hall was saved!

Henry went on stage and said, "All right, folks! The numbers are in, and we saved Country Bear Hall!"

The Bears started tuning their instruments again and Beary and I stood up. "Good luck, you guys," I said. We were about to turn away when Tennessee said, "Hey, where are you going?"

"To sit in the audience," Beary said.

"Well that's a weird place for two Country Bears to sit during a Country Bears concert," Ted told us.

My eyes widened and Tennessee said, "Yeah, yeah, you guys are part of the band now, Danni."

Tennessee held out our guitars to us and Ted said, "Welcome aboard kids."

We went on stage and I went over to Zeb with a big grin on my face.

"I'm a Country Bear, now!" I whispered to him. He nodded and winked at me.

"It gives me great pleasure to introduce to you, after an absence of many years, the one, the only, the Country Bears!" Henry said to the audience. He left the stage and the lights dimmed. Fred started playing his harmonica, and Zeb his fiddle, and the spotlight brightened on him and Zeb.

Ted moved into the spotlight and to the front microphone and started singing one of their most famous songs - if not the most famous - "Straight to the Heart of Love."

The spotlight opened on all of us and Zeb sang the next verse with Ted. I was playing my guitar and so was Beary. I couldn't believe that we were actually Country Bears now!

Tennessee and Trixie sang the next part together as I interally marvelled over how the past few days - had it really only been a few days? - had progressed. My brother and I had gone from unknown fans to real live Country Bears! And all because we wanted to find our destiny...

The tempo of the song increased and Tennessee really started jamming out on his One-String Thang.

A few moments later, Tennessee switched instruments with me and said, "Go, Danni, go!" I went up to the front of the stage and just started rocking out on the thing!

I was pretty good, if I do say so myself! It wasn't until that moment that I knew I could play the One-String Thang.

We finished the song and everybody went wild. I was jumping up and down and after we went backstage, Zeb took me into his arms and said, "You were amazing, baby!"

I kissed him and said, "Thanks, Zeb."

Tennessee came over and I gave him his Thang back. "You shredded on this thing, Danni! You were awesome! You and Beary!"

"Thanks, Tennessee."

Tennessee went over to Trixie and kissed her. I looked at Zeb and said, "I love you, babe."

He grinned and said, "I will never get tired of hearing you saying that. I love you, too."

I kissed Zeb passionately and once again, we were interrupted. But this time it was due to the lack of oxygen, not Henry.

When we did separate, there were hugs all around and after about five more songs, we were able to relax and just sleep.

Being a Country Bear is tiring, but I wouldn't give it up for the world.