Feral and the SWAT Kats fell into a regular routine over the next few weeks. The Commander got used to seeing one or the other vigilante when he went to bed and woke the next morning. His apartment remained clean and fresh as he slowly climbed back to normal. The fact it was taking so long to do that was chafing on him.
He said so to his physician during his first postpartum checkup. "I just can't seem to get any of my normal energy back despite getting enough sleep at night." He complained.
Dr. Burman eyed his patient critically. "I'm glad you're getting help at night so that you are receiving a full night's sleep but you must understand, your body has undergone a major crisis and it will take time to recover. There is no rushing it." He warned.
Feral huffed irritably. "I know that! But how long is long enough?"
Dr. Burman sighed and reached a commiserating paw out to the huge tom and gave his shoulder a small pat. "You have done the unimaginable...being male and giving birth. There just isn't any precedence for this since such births are extremely rare. I can only go by how your body is reacting as it heals and I'm telling you, it will be at least another month before you begin to feel almost normal."
"Another month?" Feral nearly shouted but remembered in time that Elora was sleeping in her carry seat nearby.
"Or longer. You are making strides and I can tell you're eating well and almost getting enough rest so there's a small chance it could be sooner but I rather doubt it." The doctor said.
Feral could only moan at that as he picked up Elora and left for home. Being away from his office this long was making him antsy. His second wasn't too incompetent...just green. Sgt. Fallon had been keeping up with what was going on and bringing him reports that required his attention so he really wasn't too far out of the loop so he shouldn't complain.
His most urgent concern was what would happen if an omega showed up but blissfully they had been lucky there. None had made an appearance, except for Dr. Viper, though no one knew why.
The only other thing that had made him squirm was his new notoriety once the rumor mill had spilled the beans about him giving birth. Actually, he was very lucky it had been kept a secret as long as it had. He could thank Ms. Briggs for that as well as his assistant. Even the Mayor was reluctant to let that particular piece of information get out, not wanting the notoriety of having an hermaphrodite Chief Enforcer bandied about. It wasn't all that great for his image.
But it couldn't be hidden forever and, of course, it was Ann Gora who had noted Feral's long absence from duty which sent her to ferret the information out of the hospital staff. So after he'd finished with his appointment and was preparing to load Elora into the car to go home, Gora swooped down on him with that damn camerakat of hers.
"Commander Feral. I see the rumors are true that you've done something remarkable and that's why you're on medical leave." She said brightly over his left shoulder.
Feral nearly jumped out of his fur when she spoke next to his ear and he wasn't the only one, Elora had been startled as well when he jerked her carrier and began to wail. Grumbling irritably, he set the carrier into its restraint system then removed Elora from it and began to cuddle her close to his chest to soothe her. She immediately calmed and sleepily closed her recently opened eyes.
"Oh, she's beautiful, Commander." Ann said honestly, politely lowering her voice as she stared at the tiny bundle completely dwarfed in the big tom's paws. "I'm sorry we startled her. She has such pretty gold eyes just like you. What's her name?"
Feral sighed and nuzzled his kitten before answering. "I named her Elora." He said quietly as his tiny daughter slept against his chest.
"What a sweet name." Ann said, truly taken with the tiny creature. She thought it absolutely incredible that this big hulking tom had actually given birth to this beautiful kitten. "When was she born? I heard you had some difficulty giving birth."
Feral knew he couldn't avoid this any longer so gave her a brief report of what had transpired without going into too many details.
"What a traumatic thing to go through. Which brings me to my next question...how did you end up in such a predicament in the first place and who is the sire of your kitten?" She asked.
"I failed to note I was in heat when I was with the sire. It's normally so light, I rarely notice it. Unfortunately, for me, he caught me at the right moment. As for who he is, a one night stand from another city whose name I never got. I don't hold him responsible and he's not involved in our lives." He said firmly, putting an end to that line of questioning.
"If that's true, Commander, then you've been incredibly lucky not to have this happen before now." Ann said, knowing there was something about this Feral wasn't saying.
"No comment. And before you try to ask anymore questions, I really need to get home. I tire very quickly and must get off my feet." Feral said, not prevaricating at all as he felt like lead and truly wanted to sit down...soon.
Ann frowned but as she stared at the Commander, she realized she could clearly see lines of exhaustion around the tom's eyes and, by the slump of his shoulders, that he was indeed very tired and barely able to stand right now.
"I'm sorry, I should have remembered you would be still recovering. Thank you for your time and do get your rest. I hope you have help though. Doing this on your own without assistance is a recipe for falling ill and ending up in the hospital again." Ann warned him gently as she and her camerakat got out of his way.
He nodded at her in thanks for her concern then turned and put Elora in her car seat. 'Ann would be falling all over herself if she ever learned who was helping me.' He thought in tired amusement as he closed the back door and made for the driver's seat.
Hours later, T-Bone was watching the news and gave a low growl of annoyance when he saw Ann Gora stopping Feral in the parking lot of the medical building that morning. No wonder Feral looked more than unusually tired this evening after having to put up with that.
He couldn't fault Ann for the way she handled such a sensitive subject though. Unlike her usual tell all stance, this time she kept the story brief and to the point, quickly ending it when asked. He was glad she had realized the danger she put Elora in by this interview so wisely didn't show anymore than a brief image of the kitten in case those that had it in for the Commander would use her as a hostage. Feral, like most of the important persons of the city, had his address unlisted, so he wouldn't be that easily found when he was home, still, it made T-Bone uneasy about the tom's safety.
When he went home that morning and before he crashed for a nap, he found Jake had been just as upset about the broadcast as he was.
"I'm going to set up a security system around Feral's place. It will make me feel better that he's as protected as we can make him." His partner said grimly.
"Good idea, buddy. I'm going to catch a nap. How's our workload for today?" Chance asked around a huge yawn.
"Not too bad, just a few cars. Nothing I can't handle on my own. See you later." Jake said, waving his tired partner off.
As he worked in the garage, he went over in his mind what kind of security he wanted to set up. He was very glad the omegas had taken an apparent leave of absence. He didn't want to think about how hard it would be for either of them to be sharp enough to protect the city when they were tired from kitten duty.
For more than a week afterward, the news stations and papers were constantly talking about the amazing tom who had given birth to a kitten. Feral could have really done without the notoriety. It was fortunate that Sgt Fallon took over the responsibility of making sure Feral's bills were paid and did the shopping he needed so he didn't have to step foot out of his apartment except for his medical appointments plus the assistance he received from the SWAT Kats who took care of everything else. This made his life so much easier and by the time he did finally return to work, all the hoopla would be over...at least he hoped so.
Now, as he drove home from his most recent appointment, Feral fiddled with his radio until he found a soothing station and sort of vegged behind the wheel. He hated that he still felt tired even from such a short trip away from home. He would be very glad when all this was in the past.
He was within two blocks of his apartment when the unthinkable happened. A large tractor trailer had tried to negotiate a corner up ahead of him and failed. A loud screech of metal was heard even over all the traffic as the trailer keeled over and fell onto its side catching two vehicles beneath it and causing the rest of the traffic to plow into each other.
Feral's reflexes, slowed by his weakened condition, failed to react swiftly enough to prevent his hummer from smacking the car in front of him despite him stomping his brakes hard to try and stop. Behind him, an inattentive driver slammed Feral's hummer with such force he was shoved into the cars ahead pushing them into each other and buckling his own hood in the process. When everything finally stopped moving, Feral found himself pinned in his seat by the exploding air bag and his steering wheel which had buckled from the impact. From the rear seat, Elora was wailing in terror.
He felt shaky and out of breath as he took stock of himself. His dash was buckled but perhaps the built in enforcer radio still functioned. He reached around the collapsing air bag and searched for the mike. It had fallen to the floor and he had to use the cord to retrieve it.
"This is Feral! Can anyone hear me?" He called.
Static greeted him for a moment then a welcome voice came over the line. "Dispatch here, sir! What's the problem."
"A tractor trailer has keeled over at the intersection of Fourth and Mason Streets causing a major pileup. I, unfortunately, got caught in it and am trapped in my vehicle but otherwise alright. Send assistance immediately. There seems to be about fifteen cars involved." He reported.
"We've just received the call, Commander. Help is on its way. We'll get you out as soon as we can, sir." Dispatch said quickly.
"Thanks." Feral sighed and let the radio fall from his paw. "Elora...sweety...its okay...come on honey stop crying for momma..." Feral tried unsuccessfully to soothe his frightened daughter.
At the salvage yard, Jake had just finished his third vehicle of the day when he heard the radio call. He froze in the act of wiping his paws as he heard Feral's call for assistance and the wail of Elora in the background followed by more calls by dispatch for emergency crews to report. His heart jumped with fear. Even though he knew the fire department, medical and enforcers were on the way, he couldn't just stand by and not help.
He quickly closed the garage, put up a sign that said they were temporarily away then raced up the stairs to their bedrooms.
"Chance, wake up!" He shouted, shaking his sleeping partner. .
"Huh...whazzup!" His buddy grumbled, groggily.
"Come on. Feral's been in a major accident near his apartment. We gotta go help him." Jake said urgently.
Chance blinked his eyes open in shock. "What did you say?"
"You heard me! Get your butt in gear, hurry. We gotta help Feral." Jake repeated then disappeared from the room.
Chance could hear his partner running back downstairs. Throwing his bedding off, the tabby stumbled to his feet and pounded after his friend.
Down in the hangar, Razor was already dressed and warming up the jet as Chance rushed to dress and follow him. Soon he was in the pilot seat and taking the Turbokat through the hidden runway and into the air racing toward the plume of smoke he could see rising skyward.