Chapter 6: A Plan Comes to Fruition
Some seven weeks after that wild night with Aras, Feral found himself, cranky, nauseated every morning and getting tired more easily.
It was Wednesday and it hadn't started really well for Feral. Skipping breakfast and his favorite coffee because it just left him too nauseated, he worked on his desk load of paperwork before he was expected at a dedication at the Megakat Natural History Museum later in the day.
Grumbling unhappily, by eleven o'clock he was parking on the side of the museum. He walked around to the front entrance, through the groups of tourists and school kittens then on up to the fourth floor wing.
Mayor Manx and Ms. Briggs with the press and other interested parties were gathered before the doors to a new exhibit hall. Dr. Sinian stood to one side of Callie. Feral moved around the crowd and made his way to stand behind Ms. Briggs.
She handed the Mayor his speech and muttered, "Glad you could make it Commander."
He growled under his breath and put on a bland face. Mayor Manx approached the mike and began his speech about the new Medieval Wing dedicated to Queen Callista and the newest acquisition, the Nuada Stone.
The Mayor had finished his long winded speech and had opened the doors behind him to reveal the new exhibit. Unfortunately, there was an uninvited guest inside already. Holding aloft a gleaming purple stone, the Pastmaster whirled and hissed at them.
There were screams and the immediate stampede of katizens away from the scene. Callie shoved the Mayor behind the open door as Feral charged forward with his laser pistol drawn. He was immediately sent flying back out the door and against the hall way wall by a blast from the little gnome's watch.
Shaking himself, which set his stomach to lurch unpleasantly, Feral climbed to his feet and charged back in. Ms. Briggs hadn't been idle as she quickly signaled the SWAT Kats to come.
Feral ducked down as a beam came at him again. The Pastmaster was already climbing aboard a mini-dragon and preparing to leave. The Commander surged up from his hiding place behind a knight's armor and fired his laser, managing to knock the wizard off his mount and sending the stone he'd stolen flying across the floor where Dr. Sinian managed to retrieve it then hide herself behind a display.
Screaming in fury, the Pastmaster prepared to blast Feral to pieces, fortunately for the Commander, the SWAT Kats arrived through the transom windows high in the ceiling. The Pastmaster's shot veered off enough by the distraction of their arrival to cause Feral to merely spin around and hit the suit of armor which fell on him.
The SWAT Kats, meanwhile, were sliding down their grappling lines, firing at the ugly troll with their glovetrix, sending him scurrying for cover himself. He turned his watch toward his nemesis' trying to take them out.
Razor fired a new weapon at the Pastmaster and ended the conflict finally by using a variation of his tarpedo missile. The gooey green stuff allowed the wizard to move but in very slow motion until it dried and made him look like a statue. His single eye glowed with helpless fury. His watch had been knocked from his paw by a well placed shot from Feral still sprawled on the floor.
"Nice shooting, Commander." T-Bone drawled as he and Razor helped extricate him from the suit of armor. Then they approached their prisoner.
"Here you go, Feral." Razor said, tossing a bottle toward Feral who caught it effortlessly.
"What's this SWAT Kat?" He growled in annoyance, studying the bottle.
"The desolver to remove that gunk from the Pastmaster, otherwise he will remain a permanent part of this exhibit, which, actually, isn't a bad idea." Razor explained, smirking.
Feral snorted and mentally agreed with Razor, too bad he wouldn't be allowed to do it. Sighing in disgust, he called for reinforcements to remove the prisoner.
"Thanks for your help, guys." Ms. Briggs said as she came from behind a pillar where she had been taking shelter.
"Yes, thank you very much." Dr. Sinian said in relief, still holding the stone.
"You're welcome, Ms. Briggs, Dr. Sinian." T-Bone said gallantly.
Feral growled softly and was about to say something bitingly to the arrogant tom when a familiar voice interrupted.
"Looks like I missed all the fun!"
Everyone turned to see a handsome golden tom standing in the door and watching them. Mayor Manx came from behind the door and frowned at the tom in recognition.
"Why are you back in my citaa?" He demanded.
"Hello, Mayor Manx. I have personal business here. I intend to petition for Katizenship to your fair city." The tom said with a wide smile.
"No way. I'll not have an international spy setting up housekeeping in my town." Manx huffed angrily.
"I'm afraid you don't have an option, sir." Aras said firmly, reaching into his coat and handing a document to Ms. Briggs who had approached them.
Callie frowned in confusion but read the document quickly. Her mouth dropped open in shock and she turned to look at Feral in confusion.
Frowning, Feral returned her look with a puzzled one of his own. She handed the document to him. He scanned it, his own eyes widening in shock.
"What does it say?" Manx demanded.
"It says Commander Feral and Mr. Boniden were mated five year ago. That is a Declaration of Mating, legally signed and filed at city hall." Callie said, still stunned by the news.
Mayor Manx looked scandalized. "That doesn't mean he is automatically granted Katizenship!" He blurted sharply.
"You would keep a father from his kitten?" Aras asked archly, cocking an eyebrow at Manx.
"Kitten?" Mayor Manx shouted.
Feral just gaped at his mate.
"Sorry, love. I took the liberty of getting some of your blood while you slept last night and had it tested by your own Bio Tech Labs. I allowed only Dr. Konway to do the test, insuring your privacy. I received the test results just an hour ago." Aras said handing another paper to Ms. Briggs.
Callie stared at it blindly for a moment before actually reading it. "Positive!" She breathed. The SWAT Kats and Dr. Sinian gasped in shock and turned to look at Feral with new eyes.
Feral felt the blood drain from his face. Aras moved quickly to his mate's side and touched the shocked face, tapping it lightly with his fingers.
"Breathe, my love, breathe...you do not want to faint and ruin that famous cold emotional facade do you?" He chided gently.
Feral took in a gasp of air and stared at his mate with a mixture of shock and fury.
"You...you were here two months ago...it was deliberate...you knew I was in heat even though I didn't..." Feral fairly stuttered in outrage.
"Guilty! I had monitored your cycles each time I was with you and judged it was time to procreate. I knew from research I'd done that having fairly frequent sex would cause you to have an intense cycle. I just monitored you until you did." He told him bluntly. "If I had let you decide when you wanted or not to be pregnant, it would have been too far past your fertility period in your life, which is short for an hermaphrodite, and the chance would have been missed." He concluded.
"Okay, that's not very kosher." T-Bone said drily.
"Yeah, I'm not so sure that was a very nice thing to do to someone you call mate." Razor murmured in agreement, shaking his head.
The golden tom ignored them and took Feral into a warm embrace, looking into his golden eyes with sincerity. "You were mine that very first time at the academy, long before I finally took your body." He said softly.
Feral pulled back and Aras released him. "We were very young...what did we know. Then two decades later you told me we were mates but I found it hard to believe. You're a spy after all. Taught to lie and deceive." He said, not willing to believe him.
"Have I ever lied to you, Ulysses?" Aras asked seriously.
"How would I know?" Feral retorted.
"Now who isn't being honest? You have the instincts of a good enforcer...you would know!" Aras said firmly, no doubt in his voice.
Feral swallowed and lowered his face. 'Yes, he would know.' He thought realizing for the first time that Aras had been truly serious when he'd told him he loved him. He raised his head and stared into Aras beautiful eyes.
"Are you retiring from the spy business?" He asked the next question that troubled him.
The golden tom looked at Feral in askance. "Spies can never retire, you know this. Let's just say I'm on a leave of absence with no expiration date. If they need me for a world wide, catastrophic disaster then I'll go, but nothing less than that. They didn't like it but agreed to my terms."
"And the danger? The enemies that always seek us out and could use each other as bait?"
"We both face danger in our work lives but it doesn't stop us from loving each other or being together. We simply accept what we can't change, watch each other's back, do our best to protect each other and just live and be happy." Aras said seriously.
Feral could only stand silent and try to absorb all this. He really should be angry at the high handedness of his new mate. He knew, Aras had tricked him into signing that Declaration but he couldn't find it in him to be that upset about it. Life with Aras was never dull and the sex was always hot.
What made their strange relationship work so well was they respected each others skills. Aras was correct, they understood very well the risks they took each day in their jobs and didn't allow it to interfere with their need for each other. It was indeed a part of their life.
So, really, he didn't have anything to complain about except for Aras making him pregnant without his say so. That was a bit much to take though he did understand his mate's reasoning. Still it was his body they were talking about which was suffering the miseries of pregnancy.
He grimaced at that last thought. "That explains why I've been feeling so crappy for weeks now." He finally grumbled aloud.
His mate gave him a commiserating look. "I'm sorry love, morning sickness?"
"Well breakfast has lost its appeal and coffee just doesn't agree." He complained with a sigh.
"The price of pregnancy. Not a real pleasant part of it either. Hope it gets better for you as it progresses, Commander." Ms. Briggs said sympathetically, though still taken aback that the Chief Enforcer was actually pregnant.
Mayor Manx was still upset at having a spy living in his city. "I still don't see why I should allow you to become a Katizen. Despite your...ah...relationship with Feral." He fumed.
"Unfortunately, Mayor Manx, our city charter says he is automatically a Katizen by being mated to one." Callie told him firmly before Aras had to defend himself.
"I still don't like it but there's nothing I can do about it." Manx snapped, turned on his heel and left in a huff.
"Guess I better soothe his ruffled fur." Callie sighed. She paused to pat the Commander on the shoulder warmly and congratulate the pair then hurried off after his honor.
Dr. Sinian gave her congratulations as well before leaving them to put the stone back in its exhibit.
The SWAT Kats had been standing listening the whole time. They looked at each other and shrugged.
"Well congratulations, Commander. Take care of yourself, though I have to admit, the thought of you being pregnant is just too weird." T-Bone said shaking his head.
"Yeah, I don't envy you. I heard hermaphrodites have a terrible time being pregnant. Hope that's not true of you. Anyway, we'd better get going T-Bone, I hear the enforcers arriving." Razor said turning back to the center of the room.
"Right! See you around Commander." T-Bone said waving at the enforcer before joining his partner.
The pair rappeled back up to the roof and moments later, the Turbokat was heard taking off.
Feral's enforcers arrived and he gave the bottle Razor had given him to his second, gave instructions and told him he was going home.
Without a word, the pair walked to the stairs and headed down to the lobby. Passing Kats returning to the museum now that the danger was over, they made it through the door and down the steps. Walking around the building, Feral unlocked his sedan and climbed in with Aras doing the same on the passenger side.
Neither spoke on the drive to Feral's apartment. Aras knew his mate was angry with him but he hadn't missed the look of relief as well that he wasn't leaving again. His plans had come full circle and he couldn't be happier.