Chapter 19: Time Passes - A Home is Built and a Kitten Grows
Chance was relieved Ulysses accepted the fact the pair would no longer work at the garage and planned on closing it.
"I have to admit, though, you two were darn good mechanics. Our vehicles hadn't run so well for years until you came along but I understand the need to earn more money. I really wish I could retract the punishment now. It was wrong of me to put that on your shoulders in the first place. Taking you from the enforcers was bad enough," Feral said, voice full of regret.
"I'm glad you feel that way but it hardly matters now. Don't let it bother you so much. Jake and I are happier as the SWAT Kats then we ever were as enforcers," Chance soothed him as he played with his son on the floor of their apartment.
"Even though you are a pain in my tail at times, you are much better there than under me. I think we would have hurt each other badly if we'd stayed the way we were," Feral admitted quietly.
"I'm sure you're right about that."
It took Jake less than four months to build up a sizable bank account. The first thing he did was purchase the house and the land beside it for Chance, then bought his own small place not far from his partner. It was only a tiny two bedroom rancher but it had an attached workshop/garage which would allow Jake to work on his inventions and was very cozy and private.
Chance, meanwhile, had connected with some long time friends that ran a garage not far from city hall and after talking with them over lunch one day, he got them to agree to take all their clients. The small group of four toms were pleased to have their business increased and surprised their old friend was getting out of the business.
"Wow! You guys were the best and did the towing no one else would. Why are you leaving it?" A tall, lean, tiger stripped tabby asked.
"Jake and I are barely making ends meet and we have that huge debt to pay so we've decided to find work that will help us do that more quickly. We still have to work at the salvage yard but that doesn't take much time a week," Chance explained, shrugging his shoulders.
"Well far be it from me to look a gift horse in the mouth as we could sure use the influx of new business, especially from the enforcers," Wilber, the owner, said, very pleased with the deal.
"You guys deserve it. Hope it helps to pay off your debts you incurred in setting up this place," Chance said warmly.
"Oh it will!" Wilber said, grinning from ear to ear.
Needless to say, a great many of Chance and Jake's customers were unhappy, especially the old Lady Kat and Ms. Briggs.
"Are they going to pick me up and take me home?" The old lady Kat asked querulously, upset by the change.
"Well they don't do towing, but we did get them to do it just for you. We didn't want you left stranded. Wilber's does great repair work for a fair price so you don't need to worry about that," Jake told her gently.
Though pleased the lean tom had taken the time to make arrangements specifically for her, she wasn't happy about losing them and was still grumbling complaints when she finally hung up.
Callie was even more unhappy, "but, you guys are the only ones I've ever had the best luck with keeping this old thing running," she protested the day they told her they were closing the garage.
"Don't worry, Callie. Our friends at Wilber's Car Repair are very good and said they were willing to take you on," Chance soothed her.
"But...why quit?"
Jake sighed. "You know about the debt we owe the enforcers, right?"
"Yes."
"Well, running the garage and towing business just isn't making us enough money to make that debt pay down any faster so we looked around for a better paying job and found it in construction. Although we still have to run the salvage yard as our punishment, its not a 24/7 job so we're able to work a full time one and still handle the salvage work when we get off," Jake explained.
"Ohh, I see...I never realized...I'm sorry...you guys were never happy here were you?" She said softly, studying each of them.
"No, we weren't," Chance said sourly, "...and construction isn't our end goal either but its much better than what we're doing now...besides this place is depressing."
"I guess I can certainly understand that and I agree it is a rather depressing place to be forced to live and work at. I can't blame you for wanting to do more with your lives so I'll wish you both all the luck in the world and I hope I'll see you around still," Callie said sadly, resigned that her favorite mechanics were leaving.
"Oh, I'm sure you will," Chance said with a small secret smile. 'More often than you realize,' he thought in amusement.
She gave them each a hug then left the yard for the last time.
Now that they didn't have to run the garage any longer, Chance and Jake spent every working day on repairing, remodeling, and landscaping Chance's new home. The tabby felt a little pressed to get the house completed as soon as possible, as Jeremy was getting more and more rambunctious and needed a much larger place to play in than Feral's small apartment...plus the fact, he truly missed private time with his mate. It didn't help one bit that his son was now walking at six months of age.
While Jeremy was at daycare, the caregivers treated him as if he was a year old because he was already talking and learning to read and write. He even knew how to follow rules when he played games with the other two Sabren kittens.
Feral felt awkward dealing with his very intelligent kitten but then he felt awkward as a mother in the first place. His kittenhood hadn't been so great so he had nothing to go back on to learn from. But Chance did, so was able to pick up the slack in parenting though, he too, found his bright son a bit more than he was used to. However, that did stop him from being everything his son needed.
Jeremy adored his father and when the tired and sweaty tabby would get home each day after working hard at his secret project, he would run to greet him and leap into the powerful tabby's arms much to Chance's delight. He would whirl his son in a circle like a jet and the kitten would shriek with joy then he would turn and give his mate a hot kiss which always made his son giggle which taught Jeremy how much his parents cared for each other.
Jeremy never batted an eye at the sight of his father coming home as T-Bone then becoming Chance behind closed doors. To both parents relief, Jeremy apparently didn't have a problem keeping his father's secret identity from his friends at the daycare or other adults he came in contact with. He had caught on quickly that this was something serious and not to be talked about with anyone but his father and mother and his Uncle Jake/Razor.
The one thing he did do that was driving his mother and father crazy with frustration was his insatiable curiosity which had lead him into some dangerous and embarrassing situations.
The most embarrassing one, was his propensity to climb out of his bed in the living room and sneak into his parents bedroom when they were trying to have some much needed alone time. They had been forced to lock the door during those short periods and warn him that this was a time for themselves alone and they shouldn't be disturbed unless it was something serious. Jeremy had a little trouble grasping the reason for their privacy and what they were doing, but did stop bugging them, to their relief.
Those rare times he was being katsat by Jake in the secret hangar, Jeremy would get into some rather dangerous situations. Jake did his best to keep an eye on the kitten but Chance's son was just too smart and agile. One time, he actually managed to start the hoverkat...but since he was far too small to touch its pedals and didn't know how to steer, he managed to plow it into a nearby cement wall. He wasn't hurt, thankfully.
Jake was beside himself with annoyance for his carelessness, scared the kitten had hurt himself (he was only frightened) and at Jeremy for being so precociousness in the first place. From then on he was banned from the hangar all together, which hampered Jake since, those times he had to take care of Jeremy because Chance was otherwise engaged elsewhere, meant he had to take the kitten to his home and work on his projects there instead and he didn't always have what he was working on with him.
After the incident with the hoverkat, Feral was at his wits end on how to keep his wayward and curious son safe. Chance felt equally frustrated, both because he couldn't tell his mate he was making them a bigger and safer home and because he couldn't do anything about keeping his son safe while he tried to get the solution done as fast as he could. It left him pretty stressed out at times.
Jake hadn't failed to note his partner's occasionally frazzled behavior and on this particular day as they were finishing the roof and had stopped to drink something and rest, he tried to get his friend to vent a little.
"Jeremy getting out of paw again?" He asked, hiding his smile.
"Oh yes! This morning he decided he'd get his own breakfast so he pulled a chair up to the cabinet in the kitchen and climbed onto the counter. By the time Uly got up and found him, the little guy had filled a bowl, spilling a lot of it on the counters and floor, and managed to get the milk and pour it into the bowl, spilling only a little of that and leaving the bottle on the floor though he did close the fridge," Chance obligingly began to rant.
"When Uly got up and discovered him gone from the crib, he found Jeremy sitting on the floor, eating his breakfast. He gave Uly this big milky smile and continued eating. What could my mate do but sigh and clean up the mess. We're at our wit's end but I'm also just surprised as hell at how smart he is," the frustrated father sighed, shaking his head then downing his bottle of water.
Jake couldn't help but chuckle at the image Chance had painted and he could easily imagine Uly's look. "Ahh, Chance, he's just being a kitten. The fact he's doing it at six months of age is astounding but the behavior is still one of a toddler which he apparently is in his mind. Don't worry, we've made a lot of progress here. I calculate we should have this place habitable and ready to move in by another month. Just be patient and watchful until then," he said soothingly.
"Yeah, that's what I keep telling myself. I'm pleased by what we've done so far, though. This is going to be a really great place when we're done," Chance sighed as he picked up his hammer and began to go to work again.
Jake smiled and did the same on a different section.